NY, Conn. up heat help in food stamp cut end-run

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut and New York have found a way around federal budget cuts that played a central role in the massive farm bill passed this month: bump up home heating assistance a few million bucks in return for preserving more than a half-billion dollars in food stamp benefits.

The moves by Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — with the possibility that more governors could follow — cheer social service advocates who say the deep recession and weak economic recovery have pounded low-income workers and the unemployed who rely on heating assistance and food stamps.

The $100 billion per year farm bill cut $800 million annually in the food stamp program by ending some state practices that give recipients minimal heating assistance — as low as $1 per person — to trigger higher food stamp benefits. Compromise legislation requires states to give recipients at least $20 in heating assistance before a higher food stamp benefit could kick in.

Connecticut and New York have both moved to bump up heating assistance in order to preserve the food stamp benefits, a decision backed by advocates and panned by critics who say it's just a way to circumvent the point of the bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on Feb. 7.

"The extra money being spent is an artificial boost of an amount that a household is receiving, but they're doing so though a scheme, basically," said Rachel Sheffield, a policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington.

As much as 95 percent of food stamp funding is from Washington and "states don't have a concern about increased food stamp costs," she said.

"We need to be sure that money spent goes to those most in need rather than states using a loophole to boost money they're receiving," Sheffield said.

Anne Foley, an undersecretary of the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management, said increasing heating assistance is "absolutely not a loophole."

"It's a way in which we identify households that have extraordinary needs and legitimately ought to have additional federal funding for nutrition assistance," she said.

An order by Malloy will spend about $1.4 million in federal energy aid, increasing benefits for 50,000 low-income Connecticut residents from $1 to $20 so they do not lose $112 in monthly food stamp benefits. It will preserve about $67 million in food stamp benefits. New York will spend about $6 million more in federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding to maintain food stamp benefits totaling $457 million.

"The state has intervened on behalf of these low-income New Yorkers to make sure they can get food for themselves and their families," Cuomo said in announcing his decision.

Fourteen other states and Washington, D.C., participate in the so-called "heat and eat" program that leverages nominal payments into higher food stamp benefits: California, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

Low-income residents will not likely feel an immediate impact on heating assistance, which is funded well in advance. Connecticut Rep. Joe Courtney called it a "next-winter issue."

But failure by the states to act on the program could cost a low-income family $90 a month in food benefits, according to some estimates.

"For a family of four, that's a week or more of groceries," said Marissa Parisi, executive director of Hunger Free Vermont.

Vermont, for example, would increase spending on heating assistance to $400,000 from $75,000, "which we think is a very worthwhile thing to do," she said. Parisi said she expects the state to budget the additional heating assistance funding to maintain $6 million in food stamp money.

But Robert Greenstein, founder and president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which focuses on fiscal policy and programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals, criticized some state food stamp policies.

Greenstein wrote in an analysis that some states are stretching the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formula to not only simplify paperwork for recipients, but also to boost benefits "by assuming those households pay several hundred dollars a month in utility costs that they do not actually incur."

"Congress did not intend for states to stretch the benefit rules this way and longstanding SNAP supporters like myself find it difficult to defend," he said.

Review: Mass. health lobby spent $100M since 2007

BOSTON -- Last fall, the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans hosted its annual conference at Boston's Seaport Hotel, bringing together hundreds of industry officials and a handful of lawmakers, administration officials and legislative aides. Attorney General Martha Coakley addressed the crowd.

The tab for the Nov. 15 event, $104,544, turns out to be just a tiny slice of the tens of millions of dollars the health care industry has spent in recent years making sure its voice is heard on Beacon Hill.

In 2013 alone, hospitals, insurers, doctors, unions and pharmaceutical companies doled out more than $18.8 million lobbying state officials, according to an Associated Press review of state records.

That's a 74 percent jump compared with the nearly $10.8 million the industry — already an economic powerhouse in Massachusetts — spent in 2007, the year Massachusetts' landmark health care law took effect.

That, in turn, is just a portion of the $103 million the industry has poured into lobbying in the seven years since the law took effect, according to the AP review.

"When people look at the amount of money spent, they're always shocked," said Pam Wilmot, executive director of Massachusetts Common Cause. "Interests spend a tremendous amount of money lobbying our elected officials in order to get either a seat at the table or to get their policies accepted."

Despite the eye-popping totals, the number of companies responsible for the spending is relatively small. Just 217 firms, for example, were responsible for the $18.8 million spent last year.

Some of the region's biggest health industry names were responsible for the heaviest spending, including Partner's Health Care, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Nurses Association and Children's Hospital.

Hospitals, health care providers, medical professional groups accounted for the bulk of the spending — $60.6 million since 2007 — compared with medical, dental and mental health insurance providers ($18.8 million), and pharmaceutical companies ($23.7 million).

The industry defended the spending.

Lora Pellegrini is president and CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, which spent more than $4.2 million since 2007. She said the group's legislative agenda has focused on ways to make health care more affordable, including partnering "with the business community to hold the line on costly new mandates and other legislative proposals."

The surge in lobbying comes during a time when there have been major health care changes in Massachusetts — from the implementation of the state's 2006 law, to passage of President Barack Obama's 2010 federal health care law, to the state's push to rein in health care spending.

But the lobbying often has to do with more specific concerns, such as monitoring a certain bill or the annual state budget debate.

And while the lobbying doesn't include direct donations from companies to lawmakers, which is prohibited, many of the lobbyists whose salaries makes up the bulk of the lobbying spending are free to make contributions.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo, for example, collected nearly $48,000 in donations from hundreds of lobbyists representing all types of industries and organizations in 2013 while Senate President Therese Murray collected about $23,000.

Other lobbying costs include catering, rent, phones, staff salaries and events. Children's Hospital, for instance, reported spending $1,694 to cover the cost of a breakfast last April with elected officials and staff members.

And not everyone in the health care sector has the same agenda. Pelligrini's group, for example, is often at odds with doctors and hospitals, blaming what they charge for medical services as "the major factor for rising health care costs."

At the top of the health care lobbying pyramid is the Massachusetts Hospital Association, which doled out more than $4.7 million from 2007 to 2013.

The group defended the spending, pointing in part to changes in health care payment and delivery systems.

"It has been essential for the hospital community to take part in those public policy debates," the association said in statement, adding that it "works continually with state leaders, policymakers and other health care stakeholders" to ensure access to quality patient-centered care.

Doctors and nurses have also tried to catch the ear of lawmakers.

The Massachusetts Medical Society, which represents 24,000 physicians and medical students, pointed to the need to monitor hundreds of bills and regulations on everything from electronic medical records to medical marijuana. The group spent $2.3 million in the past seven years.

"It is critical that lawmakers and regulators hear the perspectives of those" on the front lines of patient care, the group said.

Donna Kelly-Williams, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which spent more than $2.7 million between 2007 and 2013, said the group has been "trying to educate lawmakers to the fact that the hospital industry is putting profits before patients."

Carroll Co. school tries flipped classrooms

ELDERSBURG, Md. -- Taylor Jones is enjoying the new way she's learning math.

Jones, a freshman, is part of a conceptual algebra class at Liberty High School that's functioning under a flipped classroom model. Students watch a lecture for homework and then work on practice problems and ask questions of their teacher the next day in class.

"I think it's a lot easier," she said.

Liberty High School has piloted the flipped classroom and OpenCourseWare independent study courses this school year as part of a larger transition to digital learning. Students in certain social studies, science and math classes throughout all grades and academic levels are currently taking part in the flipped classroom pilot.

Jared Wastler, assistant principal at Liberty High School, said the goal is to move the school away from a static educational environment by getting students and staff members more connected to technology.

"Last spring, we asked if we could pilot the flipped classroom model," he said. "We wanted to make sure we did it in a way that we utilized county technology and resources to best benefit our students and our staff."

Teachers who volunteered to be part of the pilot received training in the flipped classroom model last summer and started using the teaching method in at least one of their classes in the fall.

"All of them have continued," he said. "Some have added additional classes."

Callie Gillen, math teacher at Liberty, said her algebra class is made up of freshmen who have grown up in the technology age.

"So, we thought they might be receptive to this type of learning," she said. "A lot of the kids like the fact that they can get an app on their phone and watch (the video)."

The site they visit, Edmodo, looks like a social networking site.

Math is a good subject to use a flipped classroom model for because students can memorize formulas and other knowledge at home, then come into class to practice problems and ask questions, Gillen said. Her conceptual algebra students will take the High School Assessment test this year.

"We're able to spend a lot of time looking at HSA problems that focus on the concepts from the videos," she said.

Gillen, a teacher in her fourth year, said she had some minor issues transitioning to a flipped classroom at first, but she will continue to use the model in at least some of her courses.

"The hardest part was really recording the videos," she said. "I've gotten more comfortable with it."

Wastler thinks it has been a challenge for teachers to shorten their lectures from about 45 minutes long to 5- or 10-minute videos.

"They're cutting out superfluous content," he said. "So, it's watching teachers grow and learn how to deliver content efficiently for their students in a limited amount of time."

While watching the videos at home, students fill out what is called a "Watch Summarize Question" form, to which they can refer the next day for their practice problems. On the sheet, they write down where and when they watched the video, a summary of what they learned and any questions they have.

Freshman Kyle Dale, who used the sheet to help him solve problems in class Feb. 21, said he thinks the flipped classroom is better than spending his time taking notes while listening to a lecture during class.

"We have more time in class to do work," he said.

Tylerann Jahraus, another freshman, finds homework now takes less time to complete. Students can also study for a test by going back and re-watching old videos.

Gillen said while it works well in her algebra class, she's more hesitant to use the flipped classroom with her Advanced Placement calculus students.

"It would be a tough adjustment at first because the content is so much trickier," she said.

Wastler said Edmodo has an alerts feature, which helped get information out to students during the many snow days used this year. Students with the phone application will get the alerts sent right to their phone.

There is also a place on the site where students can ask questions and teachers can reply — something the entire class can see.

"It catalogs all the questions so the teachers can go back and use the questions from a previous semester to predetermine where they need to change in the instructional process," he said.

Wastler believes the best feedback he's gotten about the flipped classroom model is from parents and students.

"Initially the feedback was negative when they started," he said. "They don't realize it's only 5 or 10 minutes (of video), watched at their own pace."

Students quickly become attached to the digital learning because they have more control over their education, Wastler said. Parents now also look at it favorably.

"They can see exactly what their student learned with that video so they can support their student at home," he said.

Liberty has just designed an online learning module that went live Feb. 21, Wastler said. Any staff members who would like to implement flipped classrooms next school year can be trained and have access to resources through the module.

The flipped classrooms have gone so well, Liberty administration decided to redesign its entire professional development program around the concept and no longer has faculty meetings.

Staff members are provided with online resources, such as learning modules, and information via the Internet, Wastler said.

"(We're) using our time that's limited with them to actually collaborate rather than provide information," he said.

During the current spring semester, the school is using the OpenCourseWare program for the first time. With it, students are using free, online classes for independent study, Wastler said.

Four students are taking free classes put online by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one student is taking a course through the University of California, Berkeley. Course subjects include microeconomics, introduction to disease and cancer research and nutrition.

Participating students must complete the online course in nine weeks, or a quarter of the school year, then complete a research project with an industry mentor, Wastler said.

The culminating experience, during which the mentor visits the school, is a presentation of their research and a reflection on their learning, Wastler said.

"That initial flipped classroom pilot ... has allowed us now to find a new avenue for a very similar program for a different group of students with different needs," he said.

Implementing the flipped classroom model, OpenCourseWare and any training or resources given to educators has been implemented without a cost by using free websites and Google Hangouts, Wastler said.

"Zero expenditure to our school system, or us, yet we've been able to institute a program of connectedness," he said.

Information from: Carroll County Times of Westminster, Md., http://bit.ly/1dQdq6d

Michigan Lottery extends deal with GTECH to 2017

LANSING, Mich. -- The Michigan Lottery has extended its contract with a company that helps run games such as Powerball, Mega Millions and Club Keno.

The lottery announced Friday that the contract with GTECH Corp. now will run through mid-January of 2017. The initial six-year deal was scheduled to expire in January 2015.

Under terms of the contract, the bulk of the company's compensation is based on a percentage of sales. The contract extension has an estimated value of about $53 million.

GTECH is based in Providence, Rhode Island and has worked with the state since 1988.

The lottery contributed about $734 million to Michigan's K-12 schools fund in the last fiscal year.

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Online:

http://1.usa.gov/1eH43tC

Tourism board loses member in Columbus

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- For the second time in two months, Lowndes County supervisors must act on a vacancy on the board that oversees the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The Commercial Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/1jDGHpj ) Bart Wise resigned this week after serving on the board since 2011. He was the board's treasurer.

County supervisors will meet Monday to formally accept his resignation.

Wise, president of Trustmark National Bank in Columbus, was the county's appointee from the business community.

Supervisor Harry Sanders says officials in the past have worked with the board of the Golden Triangle Development LINK economic development group to develop recommendations for the seat held by Wise.

The board is expected to fill the seat by March 14.

Probe sought after teen allegedly denied treatment

BEIRUT: Health Minister Wael Abu Faour Sunday urged relevant authorities to investigate the case of a young teenager who was allegedly denied entry to several hospitals because of a shortage of beds.

“Health Minister Wael Abu Faour asked relevant authorities to conduct a swift investigation to determine those responsible after what happened with Rita Akoum,” a Health Ministry statement carried by the National News Agency said.

On Friday, Hanan Rahimi, Akoum’s mother, said several hospitals had declined to admit her special needs daughter who was suffering tachycardia due to a respiratory disorder.

In a Facebook post, Rahimi said more than three hospitals had cited a shortage of vacant beds for refusing to treat her ailing daughter.

At Saint Therese Hospital in Hadath, Rahimi said a doctor had described her daughter’s case as an emergency but that medical staff only provided minimal care before asking them to leave.

Rahimi said the other hospitals she tried to admit her daughter into behaved in a similar manner.

According to the Health Ministry statement, Abu Faour warned all hospitals against “taking lightly the dignity and health of citizens” and that “parties failing to fulfill their duties will be punished.”

Abu Faour said Akoum was now receiving treatment after the Health Ministry secured a bed at the Rafik Hariri state hospital in Beirut.

Ukraine Warns Russia That Two Sides On 'Brink Of Disaster'

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hide captionUkrainian military personnel stand guard in the Crimean port city of Feodosiya on Sunday. Ukraine mobilized on Sunday for war and called up its reserves.

Thomas Peter/Reuters/Landov

Ukrainian military personnel stand guard in the Crimean port city of Feodosiya on Sunday. Ukraine mobilized on Sunday for war and called up its reserves.

Thomas Peter/Reuters/Landov

Ukraine's new government warned Russia that the two countries "are on the brink of disaster" after an incursion by Moscow's forces into the Crimea peninsula that has sparked a rapidly escalating international crisis.

Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull back his troops.

"There was no reason for the Russian Federation to invade Ukraine," Yatsenyuk said after a closed session of his new parliament in Kiev.

Yatsenyuk's remarks came as the U.S. and European leaders stepped up their denunciations of Moscow's move to seize Crimea – an autonomous region that remains home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet despite Ukrainian independence in 1991. There are also reports that partisans, possibly aided by Moscow, are fomenting unrest in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east.

The stunning military incursion that began on Thursday follows last week's ouster of Ukraine's pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych after months of anti-government demonstrations opposing his vision for the country's economic and political future. Yanukovych, who subsequently fled to Russia, had sought to keep close ties with the Kremlin, while many Ukrainians believe they need to look west toward Europe.

On Saturday, Russian lawmakers approved an appeal from Putin to authorize the use of force in Ukraine until such time that "the political situation is normalized" in what amounted to a justification for the troops already sent and a blank check for any future deployments.

Ukraine's new and untested government, still finding its feet after barely a week in power, has responded with a nationwide mobilization of troops. NPR's Emily Harris, reporting from Kiev, says:

"No Ukrainian troops are marching, but reservists are being called to register at military offices. ... Meanwhile, Ukraine's parliament approved a 10-point decree in an emergency session on Sunday that calls for troops from Russia's Black Sea Fleet to go back to where they are permitted by treaty to be in Crimea - and appeals directly to Putin to not allow Russian forces into Ukraine."

The BBC adds that the decree authorizes "full combat readiness," the setting up of emergency headquarters and increased security at key sites, including nuclear plants.

On the ground in Ukraine, the military situation is confusing, but the BBC reports seeing what appear to be Russian troops digging trenches along the Crimean border – a possible signal that Moscow does not intend a quick withdrawal.

There were reports that about 100 Ukrainian marines were surrounded on Sunday in the Crimean port city of Feodosia by unidentified armed men who have demanded that the garrison pledge loyalty to pro-Russian authorities.

Armed men surrounded the base demanding that the garrison pledge loyalty to the region's new pro-Russian authorities.

The BBC also reports that:

"[Two] Russian anti-submarine warships have appeared off the coast of Crimea in violation of an agreement governing the presence of Russia's Fleet in the peninsula."

"Russian soldiers are widely reported to be guarding a number of administrative buildings and military bases in Crimea. Parliament, airports, the state television building and telecommunications hubs have also been surrounded."

Meanwhile, NATO's North Atlantic Council, the alliance's political decision-making body and the NATO-Ukraine Commission, were meeting on Sunday to discuss the crisis.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the allies will "coordinate closely" on the situation in Ukraine, which he termed "grave."

"What Russia is doing now in Ukraine violates the principles of the United Nations charter. It threatens peace and security in Europe," Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels ahead of a meeting of NATO ambassadors, according to The Associated Press.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday echoed President Obama's reported comments in a 90-minute phone call to Putin. Kerry called Russia's intervention in Crimea a violation of Ukrainian sovereignty "in full contravention of Russia's obligations."