Oregon beat UCLA, which beat Washington, which beat Oregon.
What do you do when the data don’t fit your ideology? Increasingly, modern progressives — from the educrats of New York’s Board of Regents to the capitalists running energy giant BP — look to suppress them.
BP, reports Reuters, is considering killing its annual Statistical Review of World Energy — because the report undercuts its drive to rebrand itself as Beyond Petroleum. “Put simply,” a company source quips, the Statistical Review is “bad PR.”
Since 1952, the report has provided indispensable benchmark data on global energy trends. Yet, as energy expert Robert Bryce explains, the data expose just “how little” progress the world is making in transitioning to renewables: “In 2021 the global use of coal, oil and natural gas combined grew nearly five times as fast as wind and solar energy,” the report’s figures show.
Yet hiding info won’t change reality: Shifting to renewables is difficult and costly — and can’t happen nearly as fast as climate warriors pretend. Letting the public come to grips with that, and making wise, informed energy decisions based on it, will be far harder without the data. But BP would apparently rather keep catering to the anti-carbon (and anti-nuclear) prejudices of Western elites.
see alsoHere in New York, the Board of Regents and the State Education Department it controls is on a mission to water down, downplay or outright scrap exams that show how badly many public schools are failing. The Board has made many standardized tests optional, meaning poor results from some kids don’t show up. And it’s moving to ditch Regents exams that for more than a century have shown high achievement — but also expose how many kids don’t get even a minimal high-school education.
Meanwhile, some universities — including top law schools, like Harvard and Yale — are refusing to provide data for US News’ college rankings. They say the rankings are flawed and don’t serve lower-income students, among other complaints. Yet US college administrators increasingly don’t care about excellence, but only a narrow view of “social justice.”
Says US News’ Eric Gertler: “We provide one set of comparable metrics so that students can evaluate their options, make their decision based on a commonality of data.” That’s a message the lords of US higher education (who’ve already devalued the SAT and similar exams) don’t want anyone to hear.
None of it’s so different from then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s refusal to release full tallies of COVID deaths at nursing homes in the wake of his disastrous order that they admit COVID-positive patients: Hide the evidence.
Stats — on renewable energy, test scores, nursing-home deaths or anything else — are absolutely critical to decision-making. And only those with something to hide will look to kill the messenger by trying to make the data go away.
“Hey, you are the McKnight’s lady?”
“The one that writes about rehab.”
I am indeed.
Those lines, during the past few months of conference season I have heard often.
The questions also often come with a sense that my reality is somewhat different than others. That I somehow have special internal knowledge or a greater sense than others of what occurs in the industry.
Simply not true.
I started my career as an SLP. I have always enjoyed writing, and to that end much of what you see in Rehab Realities comes from rule making and publicly accessible information.
My real life comes with the same day-to-day annoyances we all face.
Take, for example, the day I returned home from Thanksgiving family visits to not one, not two, but three catastrophes.
A broken washer that refused to drain and essentially flooded the laundry room.
A broken dishwasher… it doesn’t get much worse for a family of seven.
And to top it all, a leak in the roof that proceeded to drain into two showers and down the living room wall.
Please get me out of here, I think to myself. Anywhere but here.
Do you sense that our patients may feel the same way on occasion?
They miss the warmth and comforts of their homes, they long to see and experience the sound of the ocean, return to special locations associated with childhood memories and so on …
Furthermore, there is growing research in virtual reality (VR) for treatment of pain, chronic conditions, mental health and others.
What if we, as rehab professionals, could use VR to support these experiences and report their benefit to payers?
In 2023, this exactly will become reality with a new VR Level III add-on CPT® code 0770T.
To begin, we need to understand the intent of Level III CPT® codes.
Category III codes are temporary CPT® codes representing new technology and have specific criteria.
The following criteria are used by the CPT/HCPAC Advisory Committee and the CPT® Editorial Panel for evaluating Category III code applications:
At least one of the following additional criteria has been met:
They are priced and covered at the discretion of individual payers. 0770T will be sunset in January 2028, unless it is converted to a permanent CPT® code or is renewed as a Category III code for another five years.
Next, let’s explore the intended use of 0770T.
Virtual reality technology may be integrated into multiple types of patient therapy as an adjunct to the base therapy. Code 0770T is an add-on code that represents the practice expense for the software used for the VR technology and may be reported for each session for which the VR technology is used.
VR technology is incorporated into the base therapy session and is used to enhance the training or teaching of a skill upon which the therapy is focused.
Code 0770T does not incur any additional reported therapist time beyond that already reported with the base therapy code: 0770T Virtual reality technology to assist therapy. (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure.)
The following CPT® codes can be used in conjunction with 0770T and should only be reported once per session.
Psychotherapy codes: Psychotherapy is the treatment of mental illness and behavioral disturbances in which the physician or other qualified health care professional, through definitive therapeutic communication, attempts to alleviate the emotional disturbances, reverse or change maladaptive patterns of behavior, and encourage personality growth and development-90832, 90833, 90834, 90836, 90837, 90838, 90847, 90849, 90853
Health Behavior Assessment and Intervention codes: Health behavior assessment and intervention services are used to identify and address the psychological, behavioral, emotional, cognitive and interpersonal factors important to the assessment, treatment or management of physical health problems.
The patient’s primary diagnosis is physical in nature and the focus of the assessment and intervention is on factors complicating medical conditions and treatments. These codes describe assessments and interventions to Strengthen the patient’s health and well-being utilizing psychological and/or psychosocial interventions designed to ameliorate specific disease-related problems — 96158, 96159, 96164, 96165, 96167, 96168, 96170, 96171.
Adaptive behavior treatment codes which describe services that address specific treatment targets and goals based on results of previous assessments (see 97151, 97152, 0362T), and include ongoing assessment and adjustment of treatment protocols, targets and goals: 97153, 97154, 97155, 97158.
Finally, in the series of codes are those traditionally used by rehab professionals including: 92507, 92508, 97110, 97112, 97129, 97150, 97530, 97533, 97535, 97537
Additionally, 0770T will be sunset January 2028, unless it is converted to a permanent CPT® code or is renewed as a Category III code for another five years. Providers should check with payers for use compliance. As with all new allowances, we must do our due diligence to promote coding accuracy to ensure further development and provision of care for those we serve.
VR may just be a new tool for us to facilitate patient success … how can you use it to take patients away and tap into new levels of reality?
Renee Kinder, MS, CCC-SLP, RAC-CT, is Executive Vice President of Clinical Services for Broad River Rehab and a 2019 APEX Award of Excellence winner in the Writing–Regular Departments & Columns category. Additionally, she serves as Gerontology Professional Development Manager for the American Speech Language Hearing Association’s (ASHA) gerontology special interest group, is a member of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine community faculty and is an advisor to the American Medical Association’s Current Procedural Terminology CPT® Editorial Panel. She can be reached at rkinder@broadriverrehab.com
The opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News guest submissions are the author’s and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News or its editors.
Oregon beat UCLA, which beat Washington, which beat Oregon.
UCLA beat Utah, which beat USC.
The Pac-12 is better than it has been in accurate years, but it also is eating its own and undercutting its best teams’ chances to earn a College Football Playoff berth.
The Pac-12’s consolation prize for its exciting games and parity, which included two top-10 teams losing at home Saturday night, is more teams ranked in the AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank this week than any other league with six.
The last time the Pac-12 was the conference with the most ranked teams (no ties) was Sept. 5, 1995, when the then-Pac-10 had five and the Southeastern Conference and Big Eight each had four.
Of less importance to the Pac-12 — but quite important to Reality Check — is how are the voters in The Associated Press college football poll supposed to rank these teams?
Conceding that any attempt to use head-to-head results will tie voters in knots, Reality Check would like to make some suggestions.
Next: at Kentucky, Saturday.
Reality check: When the Bulldogs use tight ends Brock Bowers (39 catches for 615 yards) and Darnell Washington (24 for 392) together, it seems unfair.
Next: at Maryland, Saturday.
Reality check: Buckeyes have had few games with both RBs Miyan Williams and TreVeyon Henderson healthy. At this point, getting one of them 100% by the Michigan game would be huge.
Next: vs. Illinois, Saturday.
Reality check: Probably not enough credit given to how well Michigan rebuilt its defense, with only four of last year’s top 12 tacklers back. The Wolverines are allowing 4.33 yards per play after 4.76 in 2021.
Next: at Baylor, Saturday.
Reality check: Horned Frogs won a grinder against Texas with undoubtedly their best defensive performance of the season. They allowed 2.42 yards per carry to Bijan Robinson. Where did that come from?
Next: at South Carolina, Saturday.
Reality check: If you thought Georgia put forth a blueprint to slowing down QB Hendon Hooker and the Vols’ explosive offense, forget it. Without Georgia’s players, there is no blueprint.
Reality check: Everybody now knows how good freshman OLB Harold Perkins is. Just as important for the Tigers has been how well two freshmen offensive tackles — Will Campbell and Emery Jones Jr. — have held up.
Ranked: Feels high, but fair.
No. 7 Southern California (9-1)
Next: at No. 16 UCLA, Saturday.
Reality check: The loss of RB Travis Dye to a leg injury was heartbreaking. The Trojans have other good backs, but his combination of toughness, versatility and leadership will be missed.
Next: vs. Austin Peay, Saturday.
Reality check: Maybe we should have seen this season coming for Alabama. The Tide have played four games decided by a touchdown or less so far. Last year, ‘Bama played in five such games in the regular season.
Ranked: A touch low. Look at the competition.
Next: vs. Miami, Saturday.
Reality check: The passing game seems to have regressed, failing to break 200 yards in any of the last three games with two touchdowns and four interceptions.
Next: at No. 12 Oregon, Saturday.
Reality check: Letting that opener in the Swamp get away is keeping the Utes out of the playoff conversation. Still has to sting.
Next: at Rutgers, Saturday.
Reality check: Nittany Lions have 13 sacks in their last two games, including three by Chop Robinson.
Next: vs. No. 10 Utah, Saturday.
Reality check: The offense finally couldn’t overcome a defense that despite some talented individual players — LB Noah Sewell, Edge DJ Johnson —- has no answers to get stops.
No. 13 North Carolina (9-1)
Next: vs. Georgia Tech, Saturday.
Reality check: WR Josh Downs over the last three games: 37 catches, 422 yards and six touchdowns. All-America stuff.
Next: at Arkansas, Saturday.
Reality check: QB Jaxson Dart and the passing game has been inconsistent all season and it cost the Rebels against the Tide.
Next: vs. Colorado, Saturday.
Reality check: If anything has been established in Kalen DeBoer’s first season as coach of the Huskies it is that quarterbacks should want to play in this offense. Only Mississippi’s State Will Rogers in the Air Raid has thrown more passes among Power Five players than Michael Penix Jr.
Next: vs. No. 7 USC, Saturday.
Reality check: The Bruins’ defense can’t get off the field on fourth down. They have allowed 17 fourth-down conversion (129th in FBS) at a rate of 73.91% (126th).
Ranked: Should be ahead of Washington.
Reality check: John Rhys Plumlee has been everything expected in Gus Malzahn’s offense, leading all quarterbacks in rushing with 708 yards.
Next: vs. Boston College, Saturday.
Reality check: Irish have blocked seven punts this season, including six in the last five games.
No. 19 Kansas State (7-3)
Next: at West Virginia, Saturday.
Reality check: In the three games he has had to play because of injuries to Adrian Martinez, QB Will Howard has been a godsend, with nine touchdown passes and one interception.
No. 20 Florida State (7-3)
Next: vs. Louisiana-Lafayette, Saturday.
Reality check: Remember all those questions about whether Jordan Travis could become a reliable passer? He is currently 12th in the nation and seventh among Power Five quarterback with a 161.54 efficiency rating.
Reality check: Green Wave got out of their element, falling behind against UCF and having to chase. Still, Tulane can earn a rematch by winning out.
Next: at Temple, Saturday.
Reality check: Bearcats replaced two cornerbacks drafted by the NFL, including All-American Ahmad Gardner, and still have the best pass defense in the American Athletic Conference.
No. 23 Coastal Carolina (9-1)
Next: at Virginia, Saturday.
Reality check: Chants reached the rankings the week they lost QB Grayson McCall for at least three weeks.
No. 24 Oklahoma State (7-3)
Next: at Oklahoma, Saturday.
Reality check: Cowboys have been all over the place at quarterback with Spencer Sanders nursing injuries. Probably need him to win Bedlam.
No. 25 Oregon State (7-3)
Next: at Arizona State, Saturday.
Reality check: Not much defense being played in the Pac-12 this season, but credit to the Beavers and their tough secondary for leading the conference in fewest TD passes allowed (nine) and lowest completion percentage (56.6) and yards per attempt (6.3).
As “The Sex Lives of College Girls” returns for season two, Pauline Chalamet reprises her role as Kimberly, whose devolving financial struggles stray from the typical private college experience understood by many.
“There’s this narrative that’s sold about the private liberal arts school and that education experience,” Chalamet told TheWrap. “The narrative that you get to kind of go off — many people leave their hometowns — and you go off to school, you live in the dorm, and all of a sudden, you’re kind of an adult.”
Though Kimberly was swept into the college whirlwind of parties, friendships and hookups while balancing classes and a part-time job, this season delves deeper into the socioeconomic divide that separates Kimberly from her roommates when she loses her scholarship and scrabbles to find a way to pay for tuition.
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While taking out a loan presents itself as an option to Kimberly, she ultimately decides to find another solution to avoid sharing her situation with her parents — even if that means transcribing the incomprehensible dialogue of an Australian dating show on the side.
“The pressure of kind of being an adult really gets to Kimberly, where she sees around her the ease with which so many of her fellow students attend Essex and she realizes that she’s not in that boat,” Chalamet said. “She can’t expect her parents what even Leighton can expect of her parents, or really any of her roommates, she has to figure this out on her own.”
While her persistence to solve this crisis on her own might stem from Kimberly’s stubbornness, the season also lifts the veil on serious financial woes that separate Kimberly even from her co-workers — a predicament Chalamet says “many people are only faced with later on in life.”
“Many students pick up loans, but having to come up with so much money because you lost a loan, I think many students would leave the institution that they’re at,” she said. “But not Kimberly. She wants to persevere.”
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Though her financial situation certainly occupies a great deal of Kimberly’s mind, she still embraces her roommates and Sips friends to soak in her college experience — including the long-standing tradition of a running through the snow in nothing but underwear.
“Kimberly’s really learning to live outside of the bubble in which she grew up in, which is so similar to what college is like for so many people,” she said. “As much as it’s comforting to her I think she’s learning to test those limits, and I think that’s new space for her.”
Nico, her season one love interest who is also Leighton’s brother, is also notably missing from the second season after being expelled due to a cheating scandal exposed by Kimberly. While Kimberly shares her empathy to Leighton’s family, Chalamet says Kimberly’s guilt is something she also has to deal with herself.
“Kimberly feels so bad and I think she feels responsible,” she said. “I don’t really think the girls are people she could talk to about it because they’re also friends with Leighton, so I think she’s forced to reckon with this by herself.”
Even if Nico had stayed, Chalamet says coming up with so much money would take over any thought that she had about Nico.
“We haven’t been messaging adequately on crime,” Rep. Jerry Nadler told Politico. “The Republican mantra is that crime is going up in Democratic cities. The fact is, crime is going up all over.”
And that’s the more moderate Democratic reflection on a rough election for the party, one that saw the loss of four House seats, several in the Legislature and a close call in the gov’s race. The lefties still want to deny crime’s a real issue at all, insisting that more Democratic Socialist class war is what the party needs.
Mayor Eric Adams is better, since he’s still talking up the need to fix the no-bail law and other problematic criminal-justice reforms. Indeed, Thursday on “Morning Joe” he chided fellow Dems to stop “being afraid to talk about” rising crime and citizens “feeling” unsafe.
Even that’s still a bit lame, though. Adams and the NYPD have brought murders down this year, but the overstretched cops haven’t been able to stop other crimes from rising: The city’s 105,287 felony total for 2022 so far is 32% above the level for the same period in 2019.
And subway crime is a horror all its own — with record levels of murders, not to mention non-fatal stabbings, track-pushings and so on, even though ridership is still down. (Not that it’ll rise much more if safety remains such a problem.)
Even “minor” crime is a huge issue. Shoplifting in the city is up a whopping 65% this year, through July 31, on top of a 36% spike last year over 2020. Is it any wonder every drugstore (that hasn’t closed) has everything locked up, while high-end stores have packed on the security?
And, no, none of this is a “media conspiracy” to fool the public into voting Republican. Everyone can see it for themselves.
Nor does it matter if there’s a national trend, or if it’s even worse in other cities: The core fact is that crime’s getting worse here — and not just in the five boroughs, but in all of urban New York.
New Yorkers, having seen three decades of dropping crime, know it doesn’t have to be that way — that accepting rising disorder is a choice our leaders have made.
So the Democrats who still control New York have a duty to 1) acknowledge that reality without hedging or excuses and 2) act decisively to reverse the trend.
And results won’t be measured by the numbers of guns off the street or the amount spent on “violence reduction” and so on, but only by actual declines in crime and disorder.
It’s not about the “messaging” but the reality. If Dems don’t face that, sooner or later the voters will slap them harder still.
Albany Times Union. November 25, 2022.
Editorial: Editorial: The cost of abuse
The state could find itself financially liable for hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse in prisons. Maybe that will motivate it to do more to prevent it.
It’s long been understood that if you go to prison, there is a strong likelihood that you will be physically or sexually assaulted. Maybe by fellow prisoners, maybe by guards.
Some hardline law-and-order folk might call it an acceptable disincentive to commit crimes in the first place. Others might see it as an inherent and inevitable reality of any system of incarceration.
No. It is unacceptable in a modern, enlightened corrections system. Beyond the inhumanity of it, it defeats the whole goal of rehabilitation. Abuse only hardens people, and when it’s done by staff, it sends a message that it doesn’t really matter which side of the law one is supposedly on; everyone is corrupt, and violence is just how things are done.
If such concepts of morality and rehabilitation are perhaps too abstract for those who run our system of incarceration, now there’s a reason that may better drive home the message that there needs to be more attention to the problem: money.
As the Times Union’s Raga Justin reports, hundreds of formerly incarcerated women are suing the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision for alleged sexual assault by DOCCS staff during their prison terms. The women are using the Adult Survivors Act, which suspended the statute of limitations on such civil actions for one year starting on Nov. 24. Two law firms are filing on behalf of more than 750 women who served time in correctional facilities around the state, including Albion in Orleans County, Bedford Hills in Westchester County and the former Bayview in Manhattan. The women allege not only that they were assaulted, but that the state did nothing to stop it.
Should the women prevail, how much the state could be on the hook for remains to be seen. But if a $750,000 settlement reached earlier this year between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and just one survivor of child sex abuse by a priest is any measure, the government’s liability could be well over $500 million.
And that’s just for 750 women. How many other prisoners, male or female, may find lawyers willing to take on similar cases, we don’t yet know. But there would seem to be at least a potential for substantially more. Victims of child sexual abuse, who had a similar opportunity to file civil actions under the Child Victims Act until August 2021, tended to find that attorneys were willing to take on cases only if the accused abuser worked for a deep-pocketed institution. The state of New York — with its millions of taxpayers — represents a virtually bottomless pocket.
There is nothing the state can do to change the past. The cases will run their course. But the suits should be a wake-up call to DOCCS and the Legislature that with custody of more than 31,000 convicted criminals comes a responsibility to house them as safely as reasonably possible. The societal cost of failing to do so — of turning out people more traumatized, disillusioned, cynical and angry than when they went in — is immeasurably higher than these lawsuits are likely to be.
___
Auburn Citizen. November 27, 2022.
Editorial: Make bipartisan Assembly lines happen
With the 2022 state Legislature elections just a few weeks in the rear view mirror, an important meeting takes place this week that will impact the next time voters make their choices for state Assembly.
The New York State Independent Redistricting Commission gathers Thursday to take up the court-ordered work of coming up with new district lines for the chamber’s 2024 election because the boundaries in place currently have been deemed illegal.
Litigation over the Assembly lines, which were established by the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul, came forward too late in the election calendar to allow for a remedy in the 2022 races. But the courts said the independent commission whose job it was to come up with bipartisan maps must try again before the next election.
We implore the members of this commission from both sides of the aisle to live up to the name of the body on which they sit and truly act with independence. The failure of the commission to put forward maps approved by representatives of both major parties started the mess that resulted with this year’s redistricting process and elections.
It’s important to remember that New York voters approved a law that established this commission. They were sick of the political games played by incumbent legislators in previous redistricting years. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what they got — a big dose of political gamesmanship.
The ultimate losers were the voters who saw a special master from Pennsylvania, overseen by a single upstate New York judge, decide where districts would be located for the U.S. House of Representatives and the state Senate, where there was still enough time to make changes for 2022, even though that meant holding a second primary for those seats in August.
The Assembly lines are a second chance to show that redistricting in New York can be done in a bipartisan and fair manner. It just takes some people on the commission willing to do the work to make it happen.
___
Dunkirk Evening Observer. November 26, 2022.
Editorial: EDUCATION Wrong premise with ‘customers’
It’s been obvious since 2019 that the handwriting was on the wall for New York’s Regents diploma.
The process to devise new graduation standards for the state’s high schools has been largely focused on finding a replacement for the Regents exams. Higher high school graduation rates the past two years with the Regents exams postponed hasn’t helped the case for those who want to keep the traditional batch of exit exams for the state’s high school students.
We have long argued in this space that not every child is geared for college. Some need to be directed into career and technical education programs — and there is no need for a Regents diploma for those students. However, a accurate state-backed study of graduation requirements in several other states and a smattering of foreign countries did show the Regents test has value in showing a student is ready for college, with a correlation between rigorous coursework in high school and higher grade-point averages, college completion rates and getting higher-paying jobs after graduation. So the Regents exams would seem to have a role for students on a college track.
But something Betty Rosa, state education commissioner and a former Board of Regents member, said during the Regents’ November meeting caught our ear. After Regent Catherine Collins made another plea for the usefulness of the Regents exams, Rosa responded that the Regents needs to keep in mind what students need for their future. We were on board until we heard this — “At the end of the day our job is to keep in mind what our students need for the future, hearing the voices of our constituents but most importantly hearing the voices of our students. Our students talked about financial literacy. Our students talked about what the Regents mean for them. … Keep in mind that this is about customer service. Our customers are the students.”
That may be one of the most myopic and frankly idiotic comments we’ve heard out of someone in a job with so much authority over the educational futures of our children.
Students are not the customer, particularly when it comes to education. Students are the product. It is the state’s job to come up with an educational system that helps as many of those students become a finished product ready to contribute to society.
Society, Ms. Rosa, is the customer here. Society needs citizens who can make informed decisions when they enter a voting booth or if they decide to run for public office. Families need educated people to raise the next generation. Businesses who count on state schools to deliver a capable workforce are a customer.
The longer this inexorable slog toward new graduation standards continues, the less certain we are that this Education Department or this Board of Regents can fix anything. Regents exams may not be the all-important indicator of a student’s college readiness, but let’s not lose focus on who the “customer” is in the first place.
___
New York Post. November 28, 2022.
Editorial: Two bills newly elected Gov. Hochul needs to act on ASAP— to show she’ll do right by New Yorkers
Gov. Kathy Hochul has begun to sign-or-veto hundreds of bills she left until after the election, yet two she’s yet to act on are no-brainers: vetoing a costly expansion of the state’s wrongful-death law and restoring the comptroller’s role in vetting contracts in advance.
Before Thanksgiving, Hochul vetoed dozens of bills (many of them efforts to micromanage her) and signed others, including one to freeze new permits for cryptocurrency mining at old fossil-fuel plants for two years. Given crypto’s general dubiousness right now, that’s hard to complain about, but the green reasoning behind it is beyond dubious: Will Albany now ban every industry it thinks uses too much fossil-fuel power?
By contrast, if the governor fails to veto the Grieving Families Act — a massive giveaway to ambulance-chasing lawyers — it would cost New Yorkers billions, in the form of higher prices for health care, insurance and more. It would also strain the budgets of local governments forced to make larger payouts.
The bill expands the state’s wrongful-death law, letting survivors sue not just for monetary expenses but also emotional pain, a blank check for some juries. It would also extend the time limit to sue and allow unmarried partners and others to collect damages.
Lawyers would get a big chunk of the awards, yet businesses that foot the bill will pass their new costs on to average New Yorkers via higher prices, or just stop doing business here.
Private doctors could see a 40% hike in (already huge) malpractice premiums; hospitals, 45%, per New York’s Medical Society. Auto insurance premiums could climb 6%, general liability coverage, 11%.
Another bill, to permanently restore the state comptroller’s role in reviewing contracts in advance, is a must-sign if Hochul hopes to turn the page on seemingly corrupt deals. Gov. Andrew Cuomo sidelined the Comptroller’s Office a decade ago, later only allowing a limited restoration of the review power.
With the election over, Hochul needs to start putting New Yorkers’ needs ahead of fears of alienating special interests. She can start doing that by nixing the wrongful-death expansion and making the comptroller’s pre-contract oversight permanent.
END
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The Mansfield University Public Safety Training Institute (MUPSTI) paid a accurate visit to Lycoming College to give the campus community a taste of scenarios faced by the police every day. Students, faculty, and staff were provided the opportunity try out state-of-the-art virtual reality technology to simulate life-like policing scenarios.
MUPSTI’s mobile virtual reality training, usually reserved for cadets and police officers, was made available to the Lycoming College community courtesy of the criminal justice-criminology department. The safe and immersive simulator covered communication and decision making, handling both routine and stressful calls for service, and de-escalation techniques.
Participants were also invited to engage MUPSTI representatives with questions, and encouraged to learn more about the Act 120 law enforcement certification requirements for Pennsylvania municipal and county police, employment opportunities, curriculum and timeline, how to apply, financial aid, and more.
“The police encounter challenging, stressful, and dangerous situations that require quick decision making. Training for these situations is difficult and requires officers to recognize that good policing requires communication and empathy. This virtual reality simulator is a great way for the police to practice those skills and for the public to understand the challenges of law enforcement. VR is a great tool for students intending to work in law enforcement or a criminal justice profession to put into practice the skills we emphasize in our courses,” said Justin Medina, Ph.D., assistant professor of criminal justice-criminology at Lycoming College. “I’m very appreciative of MUPSTI for taking the time to work with our department majors, as well as open up the experience to the entire campus.”
“The VR practice was a very good tool for students wanting to get into a criminal justice job. The instructor was very good about how we should or should not handle certain situations after we had been in a scenario,” said criminal justice major Gary Degroat ’24.
“As criminal justice students it is great to have experience in the field we want to go into. Having the Mansfield Public Safety Institute come to campus allowed us to see what it would look like if we wanted a career in law enforcement,” said criminal justice major Madison Wineburg ’23. “This was valuable experience that we can take into any job or career choice!”
Mansfield University’s Public Safety Training Institute is a regional training center providing initial and continuing professional education for criminal justice practitioners, first responders, public safety professionals, and the public. For more information, visit: https://www.mansfield.edu/mupsti.
The criminal justice-criminology department at Lycoming College focuses on understanding the causes and responses to crime and victimization, and advocates for a more efficient, equitable, and fair system. Extensive hands-on opportunities, intimate class sizes, and interaction with local and national experts provides students with a deep understanding of criminological theory, research, and practice. More information is available at https://www.lycoming.edu/criminal-justice/.
The college football season goes so fast.
Seems like it was just yesterday that Florida State won a wild game against LSU on the Sunday of Labor weekend. Who could forget it?
Well, 12 weeks later, it appears some AP Top 25 voters have.
The Associated Press college football poll presented by Regions Bank got a remake near the top thanks to four top-10 teams losing this past weekend, but there were some interesting results among teams that have played.
No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 TCU and No. 4 Southern California all moved up one spot behind top-ranked Georgia after Ohio State lost to the Wolverines.
The Buckeyes dropped from No. 2 to fifth.
LSU, Clemson and Oregon were the other top-10 teams to lose.
LSU (9-3) landed at No. 11, falling five spots. That was three places ahead of Florida State (9-3). The surging Seminoles closed the regular-season with five straight victories and LSU stumbled at the finish, losing Saturday night at Texas A&M.
To be fair, Florida State did lose to the toughest team (No. 10 Clemson) on its schedule and LSU beat No. 6 Alabama. And voters do respect the Tide.
Alabama (10-2) remained a spot ahead of a Tennessee team that it lost to in October. The Vols (10-2) have a couple of lopsided losses on their resume at this point, including to South Carolina last week.
Oregon (9-3) fell five spots to No. 15. One spot ahead of Oregon State (9-3), which roared back from 21 down to beat the Ducks on Saturday. So, that's weird.
Reality Check understand that not all head-to-head results need to be treated the same, but why not let the scoreboard make the call when it's close?
Next: vs. No. 11 LSU at Atlanta in Southeastern Conference championship, Saturday.
Reality check: Kenny McIntosh leads SEC running backs with 437 yards receiving and he is not just catching check downs. McIntosh averages 12.49 yards per catch.
Next: vs. Purdue at Indianapolis in Big Ten championship, Saturday.
Reality check: Michigan had three plays of at least 60 yards in its first 11 games, then had four touchdowns of 69 yards or more against Ohio State.
Next: vs. No. 13 Kansas State at Arlington, Texas, in Big 12 championship, Saturday.
Reality check: The Heisman Trophy appears to be USC's Caleb Williams' to lose. And if he does lose it, Frogs QB Max Duggan might be best positioned to take it.
Next: vs. No. 12 Utah at Las Vegas in Pac-12 championship, Friday.
Reality check: Can the Trojans figure out a way to slow Utes TE Dalton Kincaid in the rematch? He had 16 catches for 234 yards in Utah's one-point win in Salt Lake City.
Reality check: The defensive breakdowns against an offense missing its best player against Michigan were stunning. The Buckeyes failing to capitalize fully on good scoring chances was a second-half-of-the season trend.
Reality check: It was going to be near impossible for OLB Will Anderson Jr. to match last season's historic production, but 10 sacks among 17 tackles for loss is a seriously good year.
Reality check: Beating Vanderbilt hasn't been a given in accurate years for the Vols and making that more of a foregone conclusion than a rivalry game is an important part of Tennessee's resurgence.
Reality check: Nittany Lions took care of business in their non-Michigan/Ohio State games and showed signs to be excited for the next couple of seasons with freshmen such as LB Abdul Carter and RB Nick Singleton.
Reality check: Some down-ballot Heisman love show go to Michael Penix Jr., the Indiana transfer whose career was stalled by injury and now leads the country with 4,354 yards passing.
Next: vs. No. 24 North Carolina at Charlotte, N.C., in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship, Saturday.
Reality check: Dabo Swinney has tried hard to deflect blame from QB DJ Uiagalelei for the offensive struggles. Two things can be true. Receivers have not provided good enough support. The quarterback has not passed well enough.
Next: vs. No. 1 Georgia at Atlanta in SEC championship, Saturday.
Reality check: The offense has often been too reliant on QB Jayden Daniels, both running and passing.
Next: vs. No. 4 USC at Las Vegas in Pac-12 championship, Friday.
Reality check: Utes are a resilient and experienced bunch as the program makes its fourth conference title game appearance in five seasons.
No. 13 Kansas State (9-3)
Next: vs. No. 3 TCU at Arlington, Texas, in Big 12 championship, Saturday.
Reality check: One of the low-key best coaching jobs of the season comes from Chris Klieman and his staff as the Wildcats play their deliberate and efficient style to perfection.
No. 14 Florida State (9-3)
Reality check: Seminoles are as good at creating explosive running plays as any team in the country, with 34 carries of at least 20 yards.
Reality check: Special teams failures and unreliable defense led coach Dan Lanning to push the envelope on fourth down all season. The decisions backfiring at times wasn't the problem. The poor special teams and defense was the problem.
No. 16 Oregon State (9-3)
Reality check: A remarkable performance by coach Jonathan Smith's Beavers, who played around limitations at quarterback almost all season.
Reality check: Might have gotten a glimpse of the future at running back for UCLA against Cal with 210-pound freshman TJ Harden running for 89 yards on 12 carries.
Next: vs. No. 22 in American Athletic Conference championship, Saturday.
Reality check: A season-high 181 yards on 35 carries from a 195-pound tailback with a conference title game appearance on the line. Tyjae Spears had one of the best individual performances of the college football season against Cincinnati.
Reality check: There will be a what-could-have-been feeling around this team because of a couple of really bad losses, but the growth throughout the season was undeniable.
No. 20 South Carolina (8-4)
Reality check: QB Spencer Rattler threw half his touchdown passes (eight) and almost 30% of his season's total yards (798) in the last two games against Tennessee and Clemson.
Reality check: Longhorns QB situation going forward will be one of the most watched in the country. Quinn Ewers showed flashes in an inconsistent first season as starter. And soon Arch Manning arrives in Austin.
Next: at No. 18 Tulane in AAC championship, Saturday.
Reality check: Knights stumbled into the conference title game splitting games against Navy and South Florida, but they still might have the highest ceiling in the AAC.
Next: vs. North Texas in Conference USA championship, Friday.
Reality check: An overtime loss in the first game of the season to Houston is probably the only thing keeping the Roadrunners from getting more serious consideration to be the Group of Five's representative in the New Year's Six bowls.
No. 24 North Carolina (9-3)
Next: vs. No. 10 Clemson at Charlotte, N.C., in ACC championship, Saturday.
Reality check: Tar Heels crashed as soon as QB Drake Maye's Heisman campaign started to take hold. He still might be worthy of a trip to New York.
No. 25 Mississippi State (8-4)
Reality check: The Egg Bowl was a chance for the country to get a good look at LB Tyrus Wheat, one of the most disruptive players in the country.