As Prepared for Delivery –

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought — and several thousand gave their lives.

We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of al Qaeda’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.

These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.

Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example. Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs. A future where we’re in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren’t so tied to unstable parts of the world. An economy built to last, where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded.

We can do this. I know we can, because we’ve done it before. At the end of World War II, when another generation of heroes returned home (more…)

By Matt Canham

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: February 18, 2011 07:13PM (Part of series on MLM)

Washington • For federal regulators, the idea seemed like a no-brainer.

People thinking of selling Avon, Utah-based Nu Skin or some other multilevel marketing (MLM) products should know how likely they are to make a profit. They should know about any lawsuits against the company and the number of independent sellers who ended up demanding a refund.

After years of study, the Federal Trade Commission in 2006 formally proposed a “business opportunity rule” to protect people from fraud by requiring such disclosures of MLMs, also known as direct sellers, along with companies pitching vending machine routes and letter-stuffing campaigns.

Then regulators asked the public to comment. And they did. First by the hundreds, then by the thousands, almost all of which were sent by direct selling companies or their distributors clamoring that the rule would hurt their home-to-home business, if not kill it all together.

Two years later the FTC dropped any reference to MLMs and forged ahead with its proposal. The commission expects to finalize the business opportunity rule sometime later this year.

So what happened? That depends on your vantage point.

The direct selling industry says it demonstrated that the proposal was unnecessarily onerous and persuaded federal regulators to back off.

The FTC’s staff say they decided the rule wouldn’t help consumers determine if a MLM was a good bet.

And then there’s a small group of critics who believes the FTC caved to political pressure from a questionable industry.

“It defies reason and the experience (more…)

Supplement makers seek scientific proof of claims
By Kirsten Stewart

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: February 21, 2011 10:02AM

Companies such as Tahitian Noni International, headliners of Utah’s booming nutritional supplement industry, built fortunes extolling the healing powers of juices made from exotic, tropical “super fruits.” Tahitian Noni champions the noni, XanGo touts the mangosteen, and MonaVie boasts the once-obscure, now wildly popular açai (AH-sigh-EE).

But after nutritionists questioned some of their health claims, manufacturers rejected the “super fruit” label.

They’re now rebranding their products as medicinal and pumping millions into research — not just test tube analyses of key ingredients, but randomized, placebo-controlled human trials on whole formulas.

“We don’t rely on third-party research. We study our own finished product. We want to know that it has benefits as consumed,” said Brett West, research director at Tahitian Noni in Orem.

In one company-funded study, the juice reduced biomarkers that indicate cancer risk in 120 heavy smokers. Another study suggested the juice can reduce high blood pressure in adults. Both were published in professional, peer-reviewed journals.

In 2009, XanGo in Lehi tested its juice on 122 overweight and obese adults. At a dose of 18 ounces per day — far higher than its label recommends — the juice reduced indicators of inflammation, which may contribute to heart disease and diabetes, the study’s authors found.

But experts say they’re a long way from scientific proof. And without more independent research, there’s a void for thirsty shoppers.

“Just claiming a fruit has antioxidants or bioindicators of inflammation doesn’t mean it has lasting effects,” said Wayne Askew, chairman (more…)

State of supplements: Elusive wealth, strong lure

By Steven Oberbeck

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: February 21, 2011 08:16PM (3rd in series)

Lured by the promise of wealth, thousands of Utahns every year become “distributors” of the pills, potions and lotions multilevel marketing companies in the state make.

Nearly all will fail, with their money flowing into the pockets of an elite few top-level distributors — men and women who typically get into the game early and make a fortune off those who try but fail to duplicate their successes.

“You hear of people making a fortune in multilevel marketing. You also hear of people who made a fortune playing the lottery. Neither one is a good way to try to make a living,” said Jon Taylor of Kaysville, an industry critic and author of The Network Marketing Game.

Multilevel marketing companies, also known as network marketing companies, operate pyramid-like sales structures made up of multiple levels of independent distributors who earn commissions by selling products. The problem is, the products usually are expensive — $30 or more wholesale for less than a quart of fruit juice, for example. Marking them up even more for sale to the public doesn’t produce a lot of retail sales.

Instead, the distributors are the customers. They rely on getting a piece of the sales from new distributors they recruit — and on down the line. For the thousands at the bottom, though, it is nearly impossible (more…)

Column by Walter Williams published in Deseret News

A killer agency: The invisible victims of the FDA’s slow processes

Published: Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 12:00 a.m. MST

Sam Kazman’s “Drug Approvals and Deadly Delays” article in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (Winter 2010), tells a story about how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s policies have led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. Let’s look at how it happens.

During the FDA’s drug approval process, it confronts the possibility of two errors. If the FDA approves a drug that turns out to have unanticipated, dangerous side effects, people will suffer. Similarly, if the FDA denies or delays the marketing of a perfectly safe and beneficial drug, people will also suffer. Both errors cause medical harm.

This column by very conservative columnist Walter Williams provides a good example of the continual tug-of-war between the values of regulation and deregulation. It is always a constant battle between the rigid regulationists and the extremist deregulationists. The ultimate goal should be to arrive at the perfect center, where there is not too much regulation that destroys initiative and yet there is enough regulation to protect the public.

It is a challenge not only within the Food and Drug Administration, but that tug-and-pull exists in every regulatory agency.

There are extremes on both sides of the regulation philosophy and generally speaking we have arrived at the sensible middle in most cases. The agencies go through swings when extremely conservative presidents like George W. Bush stacked all the agencies with ultra-deregulationists and opened the floodgates of laissez faire philosophy in all aspects of government.

Forming an opinion of this column by Williams will give you a hint about where you stand (more…)

By Brian Moench

Opinion Piece in Salt Lake Tribune

Published: January 8, 2011 01:01AM

In December 1952, an episode of London smog killed more than 12,000 people in less than a month, most within the first four days. It changed forever how the world regarded air pollution. As thick winter smog once again smothers the Wasatch Front, a review of research published in 2010 should be the next milestone in how Utahns regard air pollution.

In May, the American Heart Association published the AHA’s Updated Scientific Statement on Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease. Based on hundreds of research papers, it suggested a formula for calculating the number of premature deaths in a community based on the concentrations of PM2.5 (particles smaller than 2.5 microns).

This formula produces the same conclusions that the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment have been stating since 2007. Between 1,000 and 2,000 people in Utah die prematurely every year because of our air pollution.

In 2010, numerous studies added Alzheimer’s, autism, diabetes and breast cancer to an already long list of health consequences that showed significant increases with air pollution. The exclamation point to all this research came with a remarkable study published (more…)

By Kirsten Stewart

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: February 2, 2011 08:24AM

Few, if any, of the hundreds of patients who check into the Huntsman Cancer Institute for surgery or chemotherapy will give a moment’s thought to whether the hospital’s medicine cabinet is stocked.

The Tribune is always coming up with interesting stories and bringing attention to problems that exist. This problem shows the complexity of commerce. As a society we take too many things for granted and a constant and steady flow of products is one of them. We don’t appreciate the work of all the hands involved in the manufacturing, selling, and transportation of all the products we are desperately in need of—-until there is a breakdown somewhere along the chain of commerce. Thanks Kirsten, for a reminder of the marvelous coordinated effort it takes to keep us all alive and living in harmony with one another.

That’s as it should be, says Huntsman pharmacy Director Scott Silverstein, who does the worrying for them, freeing patients to focus on healing.

But a worsening national drug shortage has Silverstein anticipating the day he has to interrupt a patient’s therapy to say: “We can’t deliver on a drug. We can’t treat you.”

He’s in a privileged position. Providers across the United States (more…)

Published on Friday, January 7, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

‘Don’t Repeal Health Law – Go Beyond it to Single-Payer Medicare for All’: Doctor’s Group

Statement by Physicians for National Health Program

WASHINGTON – A nationwide organization of doctors who favor a single-payer health care system today rejected calls by Republican leaders to repeal the new health law, noting that the law contains modest benefits for patients that should not be spurned.

“We reject the call by Republican leaders to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), even as we recognize the new law is incapable of resolving our health care morass,” said Dr. Garrett Adams, president of the 18,000-member Physicians for a National Health Program.At the same time, the doctors said that the enactment of a single-payer, Medicare-for-all program is the only way to assure high quality, comprehensive care to all Americans and the only way to rein in skyrocketing health care costs.

This doctor’s group has got it right, and 18,000 members is no small group. If its membership was 100,000 it would make a big difference.

“We reject the call by Republican leaders to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), even as we recognize the new law is incapable of resolving our health care morass,” said Dr. Garrett Adams, president of the 18,000-member Physicians for a National Health Program.

“The health law is flawed because it continues our nation’s reliance on an inefficient and wasteful private-insurance-based model of financing care – a rickety structure that denies health care access to millions, bankrupts patients, ratchets up costs and frustrates efforts to improve quality,” he said.

“That’s why we need to move to a single-payer system,” he said. “In doing so, we’ll save about $400 billion annually (more…)

By JUDY FAHYS

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: January 3, 2011 03:45PM

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that Gasco Energy, Inc., will pay a $350,000 penalty and institute new air-pollution controls at its Uinta Basin facilities for multiple violations of the Clean Air Act.

Gasco, the former operator of the Riverbend Compressor Station on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation near Vernal, will cut air pollution at its Uinta Basin operations by more than 550 tons per year, the EPA said.

The Denver-based company did not respond to calls seeking comment.

Meanwhile, EPA applauded the consent decree lodged by the U.S. Justice Department in Salt Lake City last week.

“Under this agreement, Gasco and its successors will make significant investments to reduce emissions from facilities throughout the Uinta Basin,” said Jim Martin, EPA’s regional administrator in Denver. “EPA will continue to work with partners, including oil and gas operators, to protect air quality resources for the benefit of those who live in the basin.”

Hooray! It looks like the EPA is back in business. It would be interesting to know how many fines and the amounts were imposed during the eight years of the anti-regulation Bush Administration as compared to the Obama Administration.

Another point of interest that is seldom followed up on in the news—-how many companies actually pay the fines and how many fines are significantly reduced and what was the relationship between fines and political (more…)

Medicaid review stirs up backlash

By Kirsten Stewart

The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: January 1, 2011 12:18AM

A legislative probe that found evidence of waste and abuse in Medicaid may sharpen the resolve of lawmakers who have vowed to take a scalpel to the low-income health program’s budget.

But the chief problem uncovered by auditors — clinics overcharging for their services — isn’t limited to Utah. “Upcoding” is one of the most common types of health care fraud, but the amount of money that can be recovered from any single provider is small, says an attorney who helps states pursue fraud claims in court.

And it’s difficult to prove, which is why states tend to focus more on investigating fraud with potential for bigger payback, said Tim McCormack, a lawyer at Phillips & Cohen in San Francisco.

There needs to be full time government auditors watching this program like a hawk all year long. An occasional audit will not (more…)

Published on Tuesday, December 28, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

Pharmaceutical Industry Fraud

by Ralph Nader

The corporate defrauding of taxpayers (eg. Medicaid and Medicare) and prescription drugs with skyrocketing prices was the subject of a report by Public Citizen’s Dr. Sidney Wolfe and his associates (see citizen.org [1]).

Dr. Wolfe’s team compiled a total of 165 federal and state settlements since 1991 totaling $19.8 billion in penalties. A key finding is that the drug industry’s penalties under the Federal False Claims Act exceed even those assessed against the overcharging defense industry for fraud. [2]

It may well be true that the pharmaceutical industry leads the defense industry in fraud, but that figure is only regarding the amount that has actually been discovered. The defense industry just may be much better at fraud management than the drug industry. That’s the bet from this corner. In the defense industry it is really difficult to separate fraud from the normal course of business.

Before we become overly impressed with the cumulative amount of the penalties, specialists in corporate crime law enforcement believe that adding more federal cops on the corporate crime beat, backed by a determined law and order Justice Department with White House backing, would have greatly increased the number of cases (more…)

More research is needed, but the report suggests air pollution could be a factor.

December 16, 2010|By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times

Children born to mothers who live close to freeways have twice the risk of autism, researchers reported Thursday. The study, its authors say, adds to evidence suggesting that certain environmental exposures could play a role in causing the disorder in some children.

“This study isn’t saying exposure to air pollution or exposure to traffic causes autism,” said Heather Volk, lead author of the paper and a researcher at the Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “But it could be one of the factors that are contributing to its increase.”

Reported cases of autism cases increased by 57% between 2002 and 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although professionals still debate whether rates have actually risen or a greater proportion of autistic children is being diagnosed. An estimated 1 in 110 children is diagnosed with autism today. There is no cure, although research has shown that various therapies can mitigate some symptoms, especially if begun early in life.

In the current study, published online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers looked at 304 children with autism (more…)

By Doug Robinson

Deseret News

Published: Friday, Dec. 24, 2010 5:45 p.m. MST

The NFL should consider contraction.

Not fewer teams; fewer pounds.

Let’s face it, the NFL needs to go on a diet. Send the players to Jenny Craig, sign them up for fat camp or Jillian Michaels, eliminate seconds at the training table, get serious about drug penalties — do whatever it takes.

Look, this sounds like a wacko idea, and it will never be seriously considered by the league because it makes way too much sense, but the NFL should adopt weight limits for players. Put them on a scale before each game, like boxers and wrestlers. With the much-publicized health problems of overweight NFL players, combined with the recent outbreak of explosive collisions and injuries, why not?

Doug Robinson has a great idea here. Now that it is openly on the table it could well happen. Support for this idea could pick up steam very fast. Limiting offensive and defensive linemen to 275 pounds would open the game up. Instead of 10 players standing and hugging one another in a mass at the center of the field (more…)

Hatch skips DREAM Act vote he calls “cynical exercise”

Published: Monday, Dec. 20, 2010 6:40 p.m. MST

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Orrin Hatch said he skipped a vote on the failed DREAM Act over the weekend because it was a “cynical exercise in political charades” by the Senate’s Democratic leadership.

The act, intended to help undocumented youths earn citizenship by attending college or serving in the military, failed 55-41 on Saturday with the support of just three Republicans, including Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah.

In today’s Senate where Republicans are filibustering everything, the 55 vote majority is not enough for the bill to pass the 60 vote requirement.

Bennett was one of three Republicans (more…)

Published on Monday, December 20, 2010 by Lexington Herald Leader (Kentucky)

In Vermont, Single-payer Health Care in a Single State

by Josh Goodman

WASHINGTON – Congress never really considered a single-payer health plan run by the government. Vermont is planning for one. This isn’t some liberal fantasy. Vermont lawmakers are serious. To understand how serious, you only have to look at the resumes of William Hsiao and Jonathan Gruber.

Hsiao, a Harvard economist, is credited with designing Taiwan’s single-payer system. Gruber, an M.I.T. economist, helped design Massachusetts’ near-universal health care system and the federal health care reform law itself. They’re on the team that the Vermont legislature contracted with this year to explain how single-payer would work there. In other words, the nation’s 49th most populous state is deploying some of the world’s leading experts to redesign its health care system. Their report is due early next year, after which Vermont will decide whether to become America’s first single-payer state.

Vermont is home of our favorite senators, Leahy and Sanders. Go Vermont!! Set the standard for America. Single payer is clearly the best solution to America’s health care problems and your leadership may eventually get the nation there. Cheers to Vermont!

Vermont’s project could serve as a test of something that even the state’s conservative counterparts elsewhere are interested in finding out: just how much power states have over their own health care systems.(Credit: Jobs with Justice)

If Vermont decides on that course of action, the experiment will serve as a test of whether more aggressive (more…)

Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Published: December 19, 2010 11:40PM

Rule No. 1: Don’t start a land war in Asia. Rule No. 2: Don’t ever dare auditors to find something wrong.

Utah Department of Health brass violated Rule No. 2 when legislative auditors in 2009 found holes in the department’s ability to detect and stop fraud, waste and abuse in Medicaid. Medicaid is a program funded by both the federal and state governments to provide health care to the poor.

Dr. David Sundwall, head of the Utah Health Department, told auditors in 2009 that doctors in Utah had higher ethical standards than those elsewhere and that he did not believe that Medicaid fraud was nearly the problem here that legislative auditors suspected it was.

Lo and behold, the auditors are back with another report. Guess what they found? (more…)

By Ed Firmage Jr.

Published: December 18, 2010 01:01AM
(Ed Firmage Jr. is a fine-art photographer in Salt Lake City.)

From the beginning, America has been a land of opportunity. And because of this, Americans dreamed big.

Our optimism comes from the unique experience of starting our national adventure with a continent of pristine land at our feet. America before Europeans was of course not uninhabited or untouched by people. But the native inhabitants practiced a mode of living that left the land intact. They, therefore, as much as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, are our founding fathers and mothers.

And so, unlike any people since the Stone Age, settlers in America enjoyed the benefit of a continent of unspoiled resources. For as long as the frontier remained, Americans could look West and see a future that was theirs to make and enjoy. As historian Frederick Jackson Turner observed, our character stems from our relationship with a frontier that seemed to be never-ending.

In the years following the “closing” of the frontier in 1890, Americans found themselves enmeshed in global problems (more…)

By Heather May

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: November 30, 2010 11:54AM
Updated: December 9, 2010 12:06AM

To keep his heart healthy, cardiologist Brent Muhlestein takes 5,000 units of vitamin D a day — a habit he will continue despite a new report claiming there is no evidence that the vitamin provides much benefit beyond strengthening bones.

Calling the Institutes of Medicine report released Tuesday “overly conservative,” Muhlestein points to his own studies at Intermountain Healthcare that suggest higher levels of vitamin D translate to better heart health.

Heads up folks. Dr. Muhlestein is an independent advocate for the higher dosage level because of his own very significant studies. Vitamin D appears to be a cheap source of good health.

“I tend to trust my own studies,” said the director of cardiovascular research at the Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center. “Our observational studies still demonstrate a significant association between cardiovascular risk and vitamin D insufficiency.”

With media reports touting the vitamin for reducing the risks of diseases including autoimmune diseases, cancer and diabetes, an Institutes of Medicine committee assessed 1,000 studies and reports to clarify the benefits and offer advice on how much to take.

“This thorough review found that information about the health benefits beyond bone health — benefits often reported in the media — were from studies that provided often mixed and inconclusive results and could not be considered reliable,” says the report.

It also found that most Americans receive adequate amounts.

Muhlestein disagrees. Tapping medical records for more than 41,000 Intermountain patients, he (more…)

By patty henetz

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: December 7, 2010 09:56PM

Medicare beneficiaries have until New Year’s Eve to figure out whether to change or keep their prescription drug plan.

Parts A and B of Medicare cover hospitalization and doctor visits. With traditional Medicare, drug plans — generically known as Part D — are separate, while with Medicare Advantage plans offered by private insurers, the drug benefits are folded into the overall policy.

Health care reform means at least one big change: The so-called doughnut-hole gap, when seniors are on their own to pay drug costs, will shrink slightly in 2011 because the cost of brand-name drugs will drop by 50 percent.

Seniors should be alert to the need to evaluate the various insurance programs and make a decision before the end of the year on which supplemental program best suits their needs.

In 2011, once a Medicare beneficiary spends $2,840 on prescriptions, she has to pay for all other medicine until the total cost for the year reaches $6,448. In addition to the name-brand drug discount, seniors will get a small break on generics, paying 93 percent of the costs rather than 100 percent.

As with the Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans, subscribers can choose the drug plan that best (more…)

To help Utah’s uninsured, churches, hospitals and schools team up

By Lois M. Collins

Deseret News

Published: Monday, Nov. 29, 2010 11:02 p.m. MST

This is the final part of a Deseret News series that examines how Utahns are empowering our poor in three areas: homelessness, education and health care.

SALT LAKE — It’s 8 a.m. on a freezing-cold Sunday beneath the 500 South viaduct. Under the shelter of the overpass, a line of volunteers, their breaths clearly visible in the cold air, are serving breakfast on cardboard plates to the homeless.

But not everyone’s focused on the tempting aroma of the hot buttermilk pancakes and meaty gravy that’s being scooped over mashed potatoes. Bob, a tall, skinny man in a tattered gray coat, is searching for the nurse who sometimes shows up. He’s got a bad rash, he says, pushing up his sleeve to show a volunteer the angry red bumps from his wrist to his elbow. Sometimes the nurse gives him ointment that helps.

A few minutes later, a harried mom pushing an overstuffed stroller with a toddler sitting beside what looks like a trash bag full of clothes makes the same request. Did the nurse come?

Not today.

When you’re poor and uninsured or underinsured, health care can be a vexing problem.

Last year in Utah there were 387,100 people without insurance, including 100,500 (more…)