tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-106193322024-03-07T21:30:39.817-08:00whatever already!IS THIS IS A REAL BLOG OR A PARODY OF A BLOG AND BLOGGING?
A blog, or parody of a blog, or anti-blog blog (you decide) about politics, media, and culture... and whatever else I feel like putting up here... for a few of my closest friends.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger252125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-90857062589323314512021-07-09T02:52:00.001-07:002022-10-30T21:34:22.238-07:00<p>M<b>urray Waas Biography reproduced from Wikipedia:</b> <br /></p><p> </p><p><b>Murray S. Waas</b> is an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States">American</a> Independent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_journalism" title="Investigative journalism">investigative journalist</a><span> whose reporting has focused on the erosion of the rule of law and threats to democracy in the US.</span></p><p>He is perhaps best known for his coverage of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House" title="White House">White House</a> planning for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq" title="2003 invasion of Iraq">2003 invasion of Iraq</a> and ensuing controversies and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_political_scandals_in_the_United_States" title="National Journal">American political scandals</a> such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair" title="Plame affair">Plame affair</a> (also known as the "<a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_leak_grand_jury_investigation" title="List of federal political scandals in the United States">CIA leak grand jury investigation</a>", the "<a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_leak_scandal" title="CIA leak scandal">CIA leak scandal</a>", and "<a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plamegate" title="Plamegate">Plamegate</a>").
For much of his career, Waas focused on national security reporting,
but has also written about social issues and corporate malfeasance. His
articles about the second Iraq war and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair" title="Plame affair">Plame affair</a> matters have appeared in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Journal" title="">National Journal</a></i>, where he has worked as a staff correspondent and contributing editor, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic" title="The Atlantic">The Atlantic</a></i>, and, earlier <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Prospect" title="The American Prospect">The American Prospect</a></i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Welch_1-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Welch-1">[1]</a></sup>
</p><p>Waas also comments on contemporary American political controversies in his personal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog" title="Blog">blogs</a> <i>Whatever Already!</i> and at <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Huffington_Post" title="The Huffington Post">The Huffington Post</a></i>. An "instant book", the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Libby" title="United States v. Libby">United States v. I. Lewis Libby</a> which he edited, with research assistance by Jeff Lomonaco, was published by Union Square Press (an imprint of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Publishing" title="">Sterling Publishing</a>) in June 2007.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Sterling_2-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Sterling-2">[2]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Waasbookblog_3-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Waasbookblog-3">[3]</a></sup>
</p>
<div aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" class="toc" id="toc" role="navigation"><input class="toctogglecheckbox" id="toctogglecheckbox" role="button" style="display: none;" type="checkbox" /><div class="toctitle" dir="ltr" lang="en"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading">Contents</h2><span class="toctogglespan"><label class="toctogglelabel"></label></span></div>
<ul><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#Personal_history"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Personal history</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#Professional_career"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Professional career</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#Book_publication"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Book publication</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#Notable_assessments_of_Waas's_journalism"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Notable assessments of Waas's journalism</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#Investigation_of_the_U.S._health_insurance_industry"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Investigation of the U.S. health insurance industry</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#See_also"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#References"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#Bibliography"><span class="tocnumber">8</span> <span class="toctext">Bibliography</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">9</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li></ul>
</div>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Personal_history">Personal history</span></h2><p>Waas was born in <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia,_Pennsylvania" title="Philadelphia, Pennsylvania">Philadelphia, Pennsylvania</a>,
and originally hoped to have a career in law and city politics ("To be
the district attorney and mayor of the City of Philadelphia"), but he
dropped out of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_University" title="George Washington University">George Washington University</a> before graduating.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Halloran_4-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Halloran-4">[4]</a></sup>
</p><p>In 1987, when Waas was only twenty-six years old, he learned that
he had a life-threatening "advanced form" of cancer. On June 26, 2006, <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post" title="Washington Post">Washington Post</a></i> media writer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Kurtz" title="Howard Kurtz">Howard Kurtz</a> disclosed that Waas had been told that he had an "incurable Stage C" cancer and faced a "terminal diagnosis."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kurtz_5-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Kurtz-5">[5]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Waascando_6-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Waascando-6">[6]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Waaswag_7-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Waaswag-7">[7]</a></sup>
</p><p>Subsequently, Waas successfully sued the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_University" title="George Washington University">George Washington University</a>
Medical Center, which had negligently "failed to diagnose his cancer,
winning a $650,000 judgment ... in a 1992 verdict ... upheld by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_District_of_Columbia_Circuit" title="United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit">D.C. Court of Appeals</a>."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kurtz_5-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Kurtz-5">[5]</a></sup>
Although, according to a pathologist hired by Waas to testify in the
case, "over 90% of [such] patients... are dead within two years," Waas
survived and was later declared "cancer-free."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kurtz_5-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Kurtz-5">[5]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Waascando_6-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Waascando-6">[6]</a></sup> His recovery and survival were later described as a "miracle" by the physicians treating him.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kurtz_5-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Kurtz-5">[5]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Waascando_6-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Waascando-6">[6]</a></sup>
In winning the appeal of the jury's verdict by the hospital, the
appeals court devised new case law expanding the rights of cancer
patients and ordinary patients to sue and seek justice because of
medical mistakes.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kurtz_5-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Kurtz-5">[5]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Waascando_6-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Waascando-6">[6]</a></sup>
</p><p>Although he initially shied away from writing about health care
because of his history as a cancer survivor, in 2009 and 2010, Waas
weighed in with a series of articles for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters" title="Reuters">Reuters</a>,
detailing how many of the nation's largest health insurance companies,
improperly, and even illegally, canceled the policies of tens of
thousands of customers shortly after they were diagnosed with HIV,
cancer, and other life-threatening but costly diseases.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Waas_8-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Waas-8">[8]</a></sup> One story disclosed that the health insurer, <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WellPoint" title="WellPoint">WellPoint</a>,
using a computer algorithm, identified women recently diagnosed with
breast cancer and then singled them out for cancellation of their
policies.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-CCWaas_9-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-CCWaas-9">[9]</a></sup> The story not only caused considerable public outrage, but led Secretary of Health and Human Services, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Sebelius" title="Kathleen Sebelius">Kathleen Sebelius</a>, and <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Barack_Obama" title="President Barack Obama">President Barack Obama</a>, to call on WellPoint to end the practice.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-10">[10]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Hershb_11-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Hershb-11">[11]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ave_12-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-ave-12">[12]</a></sup>
</p><p>Pressured by the Obama administration, WellPoint and the nation's
other largest health insurers agreed to immediately end the practice.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-editst_13-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-editst-13">[13]</a></sup>
Waas was credited with saving the lives of countless other cancer
patients like himself, and making sure that thousands of other people
did not have their insurance unfairly canceled.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-editst_13-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-editst-13">[13]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Noah_14-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Noah-14">[14]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Reystaff_15-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Reystaff-15">[15]</a></sup> He won the Barlett & Steele Award for Business Investigative Reporting from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkite_School_of_Journalism_and_Mass_Communication" title="Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication">Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_State_University" title="Arizona State University">Arizona State University</a> as well as other honors for the stories.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Reystaff_15-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Reystaff-15">[15]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-16">[16]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-17">[17]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-18">[18]</a></sup> <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Jimp_19-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Jimp-19">[19]</a></sup>
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Professional_career">Professional career</span></h2><p>While still attending college, Waas began working for American newspaper columnist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Anderson_(columnist)" title="Jack Anderson (columnist)">Jack Anderson</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Halloran_4-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Halloran-4">[4]</a></sup> His journalistic work has since been published in such publications and outlets as <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Yorker" title="The New Yorker">The New Yorker</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic" title="The Atlantic">The Atlantic</a></i>,<i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Los_Angeles_Times" title="The Los Angeles Times">The Los Angeles Times</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian" title="The Guardian">The Guardian</a></i>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boston_Globe" title="The Boston Globe">The Boston Globe</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a></i>, <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McClatchy_Newspapers" title="McClatchy Newspapers">McClatchy Newspapers</a></i>, Reuters, the Associated Press, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_News" title="ABC News">ABC News</a>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Review_of_Books" title="The New York Review of Books">The New York Review of Books</a></i>, <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Magazine" title="New York Magazine">New York Magazine</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Policy" title="Foreign Policy">Foreign Policy</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(website)" title="Vox (website)">Vox</a></i>, <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper%27s" title="Harper's">Harper's</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Republic" title="The New Republic">The New Republic</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Prospect" title="The American Prospect">The American Prospect</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nation" title="The Nation">The Nation</a></i>, and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Village_Voice" title="The Village Voice">The Village Voice</a></i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-20"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-20">[20]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-21">[21]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-22"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-22">[22]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-23">[23]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-24"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-24">[24]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-25"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-25">[25]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-26"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-26">[26]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-27"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-27">[27]</a></sup>
</p><p>In his twenties he was a staff writer and investigative correspondent for <i>The Village Voice</i>. The current masthead of the <i>Voice</i>
lists Waas as a "Contributors Emeritus" to the newspaper, along with
such other writers, critics, investigative reporters, and cartoonists
who worked for the paper during the same era, as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Barrett" title="Wayne Barrett">Wayne Barrett</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Newfield" title="Jack Newfield">Jack Newfield</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Carpenter" title="Teresa Carpenter">Teresa Carpenter</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Rosenbaum" title="Ron Rosenbaum">Ron Rosenbaum</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer" title="Norman Mailer">Norman Mailer</a>, Mim Udovitch, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Groening" title="Matt Groening">Matt Groening</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Alan_Stamaty" title="Mark Alan Stamaty">Mark Alan Stamaty</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-28"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-28">[28]</a></sup>
</p><p>Waas first worked for columnist Anderson at age 18, the summer of
his freshman year of college. In his appreciation of Anderson, which
Waas published in <i>The Village Voice</i>, after the columnist's death
at the age of 83, columns he wrote for Anderson advocating that economic
sanctions be imposed against the Ugandan regime of Idi Amin, likely led
to the overthrow of Amin's genocidal regime.
</p>
<blockquote><p>The series of columns we [Anderson and Waas] produced regarding the role of U.S. companies doing business with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idi_Amin" title="Idi Amin">Idi Amin</a>
were instrumental in leading to the imposition of U.S. economic
sanctions against the Amin regime, according to the congressman who
originally sponsored legislation seeking the sanctions, and other key
congressional staffers who worked on the issue. Some historians in turn
say the sanctions may have played an instrumental role in Amin's
subsequent overthrow.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-VV_29-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-VV-29">[29]</a></sup></p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Nurnberger" title="Ralph Nurnberger">Ralph Nurnberger</a>, a former staffer on the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Foreign_Relations_Committee" title="Senate Foreign Relations Committee">Senate Foreign Relations Committee</a>, and professor at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown_University" title="Georgetown University">Georgetown University</a>, later concluded in a study for the <i>African Studies Review</i>
that the economic sanctions imposed against Amin by the U.S. led to
Amin's downfall. Nurnberger wrote that the congressional initiative to
impose the sanctions had garnered little attention or support until
"Jack Anderson assigned one of his reporters, Murray Waas to follow the
issue" and write regularly about it. At the time, Anderson's columns
were published in more than 1,000 newspapers, which in turn had 40
million readers. Waas was eighteen and nineteen years old at the time he
wrote the columns.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-VV_29-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-VV-29">[29]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-30"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-30">[30]</a></sup>
</p><p>Prior to his overthrow from power, Amin had been alleged to have
engaged in genocide and killed between 150,000 and 300,000 of his own
citizens. The late Sen. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Church" title="Frank Church">Frank Church</a>
(D-Id.), a chairman of the Senate Foreign Committee, later said the
congressionally imposed boycott "contributed to the fall of Idi Amin."
Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Or.), said that the sanctions caused the
conditions that "would come to break Amin's seemingly invincible
survivability."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ralphy_31-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-ralphy-31">[31]</a></sup>
</p><p>During the Reagan administration, Waas was among a small group of reporters involved in breaking the story of the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_affair" title="Iran-Contra affair">Iran-Contra affair</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Welch_1-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Welch-1">[1]</a></sup> Later, he also reported on <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater_(controversy)" title="Whitewater (controversy)">Whitewater</a> and the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_impeachment" title="Clinton impeachment">Clinton impeachment</a> for <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon.com" title="Salon.com">Salon.com</a></i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Welch_1-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Welch-1">[1]</a></sup>
</p><p>Waas won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-32"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-32">[32]</a></sup>
in 1992 to research and write about the rights of the institutionalized
and incarcerated in the U.S. For his fellowship, he investigated
substandard conditions and questionable deaths at institutions for the
mentally retarded, mental hospitals, nursing homes, juvenile detention
centers, and jails and prisons.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Waaswag_7-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Waaswag-7">[7]</a></sup>
</p><p>As part of his work for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Patterson_Foundation" title="Alicia Patterson Foundation">Alicia Patterson Foundation</a>, Waas published a 7,912 word article in the <i>Los Angeles Times</i> on April 3, 1994, detailing how mentally retarded children institutionalized by the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia" title="District of Columbia">District of Columbia</a> government had died because of abuse and neglect.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WaasFH_33-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-WaasFH-33">[33]</a></sup>
The story led to renewed scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice of
the city's treatment of its mentally retarded wards and spurred on the
settlement of a civil suit brought against the city government by the
parents of children who had died due to abuse or neglect.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WaasFH_33-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-WaasFH-33">[33]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WaasFHH_34-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-WaasFHH-34">[34]</a></sup>
</p><p>Following the presidency of <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Herbert_Walker_Bush" title="George Herbert Walker Bush">George Herbert Walker Bush</a>, in 1993, while a reporter for the <i>Los Angeles Times</i>, Waas, along with his <i>Los Angeles Times</i> colleague <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Frantz" title="Douglas Frantz">Douglas Frantz</a>, was a finalist for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize" title="Pulitzer Prize">Pulitzer Prize</a>
in the category of national reporting for his stories detailing that
administration's prewar foreign policy towards the Iraqi regime of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein" title="Saddam Hussein">Saddam Hussein</a><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-35"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-35">[35]</a></sup> That same year, Waas was also a recipient of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsmith_Prize_for_Investigative_Reporting" title="Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting">Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting</a>, awarded by the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on The Press, of the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_School_of_Government" title="John F. Kennedy School of Government">John F. Kennedy School of Government</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University" title="Harvard University">Harvard University</a>, for "a series that detailed United States policy toward <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq" title="Iraq">Iraq</a> before the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War" title="Gulf War">Persian Gulf war</a>".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-36"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-36">[36]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-37"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-37">[37]</a></sup>
</p><p>As part of that reporting, on March 10, 1992, Waas and Frantz
disclosed that the Reagan and Bush administrations had engaged in secret
intelligence sharing with Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime, after falsely
telling Congress and the congressional intelligence committees that it
had long ago ended all such cooperation. The two reporters wrote: "The
Bush Administration shared intelligence information with the regime of
Saddam Hussein until at least May, 1990, three months before Iraq's
invasion of Kuwait, according to formerly classified documents ... even
though Congress had been told Congress that such cooperation ended in
1988 when the war between Iraq and Iran ended."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-38"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-38">[38]</a></sup>
</p><p>Also as part of that same series, the two reporters disclosed on
April 18, 1992, that "The Bush and Ronald Reagan administrations
secretly allowed Saudi Arabia to provide American-made weapons to the
Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and other nations over a period of almost
10 years in covert operations designed to sidestep legal restrictions
imposed by Congress, according to classified documents."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-39"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-39">[39]</a></sup>
</p><p>Regarding the significance of these various disclosures, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>, columnist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Lewis" title="Anthony Lewis">Anthony Lewis</a> wrote on June 18, 1992:
</p>
<dl><dd>With all that was and still is at stake in Iraq ... What [were
the Reagan and Bush administrations] doing while the Iraqi dictator was
growing into such a menace? ... [There] is a shocking answer: The United
States was feeding Saddam Hussein's war machine and his ambition.</dd></dl>
<dl><dd>That is the consistent theme of reports in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i> in a piece by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh" title="Seymour Hersh">Seymour Hersh</a>, and in a series by Murray Waas and Douglas Frantz in the <i>Los Angeles Times</i>
. ... In 1982 the Reagan Administration, wanting to prevent Saddam
Hussein's defeat in the war with Iran, decided to provide him with
secret intelligence. The intelligence helped Iraq learn the disposition
of Iranian forces.</dd></dl>
<dl><dd>The Administration also allowed Iraq's regional allies, which at
the time included Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan, to send Baghdad
American-made arms ...</dd></dl>
<dl><dd>The United States immediately began giving Iraq guarantees for
credit to buy American farm products. Farm and other credits for Iraq
eventually came to $3 billion -- no doubt freeing Saddam Hussein to
spend money on arms."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-40"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-40">[40]</a></sup></dd></dl>
<p>Also in 1992, Wass disclosed in an investigative story in <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Los_Angeles_Times" title="The Los Angeles Times">The Los Angeles Times</a></i>
that the George H. W. Bush administration had allowed Pakistan "to buy
American-made arms" from U.S. commercial firms, despite a federal law
that prohibited such sales unless the President were to certify to
Congress that “Pakistan does not possess a nuclear explosive device.”
(At the time, Pakistan maintained a nuclear arsenal.). The March, 1992
story led to several powerful members of Congress to assert that Bush
administration was violating federal law by allowing for the arms sales.
The late Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn" title="John Glenn">John Glenn</a>,
Democrat of Ohio, told Waas: "They knew what the intent of the law was.
The legislative history was clear." The arms ban "was signed by the
President and into law. And then his [own] Administration took steps not
to comply with it." Then-Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claiborne_Pell" title="Claiborne Pell">Claiborne Pell</a>,
Republican of Rhode Island, chairman of the Senate Foreign Services
Committee, said that the Bush State Department "has knowingly violated
federal law by permitting" the "sales of arms to Pakistan."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-41"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-41">[41]</a></sup>
<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-42"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-42">[42]</a></sup>
</p><p>More recently, Waas worked as a national correspondent and contributing editor of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Journal" title="National Journal">National Journal</a></i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Welch_1-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Welch-1">[1]</a></sup>
</p><p>Summarizing the stories that Waas wrote for <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Journal" title="National Journal">National Journal</a></i> during 2005 and 2006 about the second Bush administration's policies that led up to war with Iraq, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a></i> online White House columnist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Froomkin" title="Dan Froomkin">Dan Froomkin</a>, wrote on March 31, 2006:
</p>
<dl><dd>Slowly but surely, investigative reporter Murray Waas has been
putting together a compelling narrative about how President Bush and his
top aides contrived their bogus case for war in Iraq; how they
succeeded in keeping charges of deception from becoming a major issue in
the 2004 election; and how they continue to keep most of the press off
the trail to this day.</dd></dl>
<dl><dd>What emerges in Waas's stories is a consistent White House modus
operandi: That time and time again, Bush and his aides have selectively
leaked or declassified secret intelligence findings that served their
political agenda -- while aggressively asserting the need to keep secret
the information that would tend to discredit them.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bl_43-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-bl-43">[43]</a></sup></dd></dl>
<p>While writing about the second Bush administration's policies that
led up to war with Iraq, Waas simultaneously reported about the
investigation of CIA leak prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's
investigation as to who leaked covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's
identity to the press—illustrating in his reporting how the two stories
were inextricably linked in that the effort to damage Plame was part of a
broader Bush White House effort to discredit those who were alleging
that it had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to
go to war.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Halloran_4-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Halloran-4">[4]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NJ_44-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-NJ-44">[44]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NJtwo_45-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-NJtwo-45">[45]</a></sup>
</p><p>Plame's identity as a covert CIA agent was leaked to the media by
senior Bush White House officials to discredit and retaliate against
her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had alleged the
Bush administration misrepresented intelligence information to make the
case to go to war with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein" title="Saddam Hussein">Saddam Hussein</a>. I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney" title="Dick Cheney">Dick Cheney</a>,
was later convicted on federal charges of perjury and obstruction of
justice in an attempt to conceal his own role and that of others in the
Bush White House in outing Plame, although President Bush would later
commute Libby's thirty-month prison sentence. (President Bush's then
chief political adviser, Karl Rove, was investigated by the special
prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, as well, but not charged.) Waas not
only wrote the first story disclosing that it was Libby who had leaked
Plame's identity to <i>New York Times</i> reporter <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller_(journalist)" title="Judith Miller (journalist)">Judith Miller</a>,
but the same story also paved the way for Miller, then in jail for more
than a hundred days, to be released and testify against Libby.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Prp_46-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Prp-46">[46]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kurtztwo_47-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Kurtztwo-47">[47]</a></sup>
</p><p>On August 6, 2005, Waas disclosed for the first time that it was
Libby who had provided Plame's name to Miller, writing: "I. Lewis
"Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has
told federal investigators that he met with <i>New York Times</i>
reporter Judith Miller on July 8, 2003, and discussed CIA operative
Valerie Plame, according to legal sources familiar with Libby's account.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Prp_46-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Prp-46">[46]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kurtztwo_47-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Kurtztwo-47">[47]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Gerstein_48-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Gerstein-48">[48]</a></sup>
</p><p>That same story also disclosed that Libby was encouraging Miller
to stay in jail and not reveal that Libby was her source. A short time
later, citing the Waas story, prosecutor Fitzgerald wrote Libby's
attorney, alleging that "Libby had simply decided that encouraging Ms.
Miller to testify was not in his best interest" and that Libby
discouraging Miller to testify might be an illegal effort to obstruct
his investigation.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Gerstein_48-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Gerstein-48">[48]</a></sup>
As a result, Libby then wrote and called Miller saying that it was
alright for her to testify. After spending more than a hundred days in
jail, Miller was released, whereupon she provided testimony and evidence
to prosecutors against Libby, directly leading to Libby's indictment,
and subsequent conviction, on multiple federal criminal charges of
obstruction of justice and perjury. <i>Washington Post</i> media columnist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Kurtz" title="Howard Kurtz">Howard Kurtz</a> wrote on April 17, 2006, that Waas' account "set in motion the waiver springing Miller from jail on contempt charges."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kurtztwo_47-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Kurtztwo-47">[47]</a></sup>
</p><p>Regarding these same stories on the Plame case, as well as his
earlier stories on the misrepresentation of intelligence information by
the Bush administration to take the U.S. to war with Iraq, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_University" title="New York University">New York University</a> journalism professor and press critic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Rosen" title="Jay Rosen">Jay Rosen</a> wrote that Waas had the promise to be his generation's ""new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Woodward" title="Bob Woodward">Bob Woodward</a>":
"Today the biggest story in town is what really went down as the Bush
team drove deceptively to war, and later tried to conceal how bad the
deception—and decision-making—had been." Waas, Rosen wrote, had been
doing "what Woodward has a reputation for doing: finding, tracking,
breaking it into reportable parts.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-49"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-49">[49]</a></sup>
</p><p>Writing in the <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Prospect" title="American Prospect">American Prospect</a></i>,
political journalist Greg Sargent opined at the time that Waas'
reporting on both the misuse of intelligence by the Bush administration
to take the nation to war with Iraq, combined with his reporting on the
outing of Valeire Plame, provided a framework and context for the public
to finally understand the inextricable link between these two
"disparate subplots". Sargent explained:
</p>
<dl><dd>[The] true larger significance of Waas' reporting is still crying out to be explained.</dd></dl>
<dl><dd>To do this we need to step back and look at his revelations in
the context of the ongoing investigation into the outing of Valerie
Plame. If you do, you can see that what once were a bunch of disparate
subplots -- the pre-war duplicity, the 2004 election, the Libby
indictment, the continuing investigation into Karl Rove -- suddenly can
be woven together into one grand narrative that makes coherent sense in a
way that much of this story didn't before.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Grse_50-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Grse-50">[50]</a></sup></dd></dl>
<p>Several of Waas's later published accounts of that aspect of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair" title="Plame affair">Plame affair</a> informed his Union Square Press book on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Libby" title="United States v. Libby">Libby trial</a> published in June 2007, which he discusses in some detail in his interview with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Goodman" title="Amy Goodman">Amy Goodman</a> on <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Now!" title="Democracy Now!">Democracy Now!</a></i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Sterling_2-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Sterling-2">[2]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Goodman_51-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Goodman-51">[51]</a></sup>
</p><p>During the final days of the 2012 presidential campaign, Waas wrote a series of articles for the <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Globe" title="Boston Globe">Boston Globe</a></i> detailing how <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney" title="Mitt Romney">Mitt Romney</a>,
as governor of Massachusetts, had implemented policies to restrict the
rights of the state's LGBT community, as a way to curry favor with
conservative and evangelical voters who vote in large numbers in the
Republican presidential primaries.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-52"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-52">[52]</a></sup>
Among those policies, Waas wrote, Romney refused to grant birth
certificates to the children of same sex parents. Confidential state
records obtained by Waas showed that a senior Department of Public
Health lawyer warned the Romney administration that the failure to
provide birth certificates to these children would constitute
“'violations of existing statutes,' impair law enforcement and security
efforts in a post 9/11 world, and would cause the children to encounter
difficulties later in life as they tried to register for school, obtain a
driver's license or a passport, enlist in the military, or even vote."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-53"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-53">[53]</a></sup>
</p><p>The reaction to the Waas stories on Romney, especially the one
about denying birth certificates to the children of same sex parents was
swift. Outraged civil rights and LGBT groups condemning Romney—in the
days just prior to the election. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Griffin" title="Chad Griffin">Chad Griffin</a>, the president of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Campaign" title="Human Rights Campaign">Human Rights Campaign</a>,
the nation's largest gay-rights advocacy organization, said in a
statement: "Mitt Romney has stood before the American people multiple
times and said he does not support discrimination against LGBT people –
and that is an outright lie.’’ Griffin further commented that by
"denying birth certificates to children [of same sex parents]... Romney
has undertaken to disenfranchise LGBT people.’’<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-54"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-54">[54]</a></sup>
</p><p>During the Trump administration, Waas was one of the first reporters to write about efforts by the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Enquirer" title="National Enquirer">National Enquirer</a></i>,
its parent company, American Media, Inc., and President Trump's
then-personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, to pay hush money to
women with whom Trump had extramarital affairs.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-55"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-55">[55]</a></sup>
</p><p>Also during the Trump administration, Waas broke more than two
dozen significant stories regarding special counsel Robert Mueller's
investigation, focusing primarily on whether President Trump obstructed
justice. Those stories appeared in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Review_of_Books" title="The New York Review of Books">The New York Review of Books</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_Media" title="Vox Media">Vox</a></i>, and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Policy" title="Foreign Policy">Foreign Policy</a></i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-56"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-56">[56]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-57"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-57">[57]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-58"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-58">[58]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-59"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-59">[59]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-60"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-60">[60]</a></sup>
</p><p>Waas broke the first story disclosing that former FBI Director <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Comey" title="James Comey">James Comey</a>
had corroboratory witnesses when it came to Comey's allegations that
President Trump ordered him to shut down an FBI investigation into
whether his then National Security Advisor Micheal Flynn had lied to the
FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat, while the two men
were completely alone in the Oval Office on February 14, 2017. Special
Counsel Mueller investigated Comey's allegations as a potential
obstruction of justice.
</p><p>Trump and his political supporters had prior to Waas' story
argued that Trump would not face any serious legal jeopardy, as a result
of Comey's allegations, because whatever was said or transpired between
Trump and Comey, was based solely on the word of the President of the
United States against the FBI Director he had only recently fired: “We
have to keep in mind that is one person's record of what happened,”
Republican National Committee Chair <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronna_Romney_McDaniel" title="Ronna Romney McDaniel">Ronna Romney McDaniel</a>
said on Fox News in one typical comment repeated by Trump White House
surrogates. “The only two people who know what happened in these
meetings are the president and James Comey.”"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-61"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-61">[61]</a></sup>
</p><p>But in a June 7, 2017 report in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(website)" title="Vox (website)">Vox</a></i>,
Waas disclosed that Comey contemporaneously spoke at length with three
of his top aides about the president ordering him to shut down the FBI
investigation of Flynn. Waas wrote: "Those three officials, according to
two people with detailed, firsthand knowledge of the matter, were Jim
Rybicki, Comey's chief of staff and senior counselor; James Baker, the
FBI's general counsel; and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_McCabe" title="Andrew McCabe">Andrew McCabe</a>, then the bureau's deputy director, and now the acting director."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-62"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-62">[62]</a></sup>
Comey himself confirmed that this was case when he testified to the
Senate Intelligence Committee the following day, in response to
questions prompted by the Waas story.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-63"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-63">[63]</a></sup>
</p><p>Waas also was one of the first reporters to disclose how
President Trump attempted to exploit the U.S. Department of Justice to
improperly investigate his perceived political enemies. On November 9,
2018, Waas reported in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(website)" title="Vox (website)">Vox</a></i> that then-Acting Attorney General <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Whitaker" title="Matthew Whitaker">Matthew Whitaker</a>
"privately provided advice to the president last year on how the White
House might be able to pressure the Justice Department to investigate
the president's political adversaries"—more specifically, also
disclosing for the first time, that Whitaker had "counseled the
president in private on how the White House might be able to pressure
the Justice Department to name a special counsel to investigate...
Hillary Clinton.""<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-64"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-64">[64]</a></sup>
</p><p>On November 20, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>,
citing Vox's original story, reported that the newspaper's own sources
had independently confirmed that President Trump had "repeatedly pressed
Justice Department officials about the status of Clinton-related
investigations, including Mr. Whitaker." The <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">Times</a></i>
story went even further, disclosing that Trump ordered his then-White
House Counsel, Don McGahn, to prosecute two of his political
adversaries", Hillary Clinton and James Comey, even if there was no real
evidence that either did anything wrong. McGahn was so distressed by
Trump's demands, The <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">Times</a></i>
reported, that the White House Counsel warned the president in a memo
that Trump might face "possible impeachment" if he persisted with such
efforts.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-65"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-65">[65]</a></sup>
</p><p>Based on the disclosures in the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(website)" title="Vox (website)">Vox</a></i> and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>
reports, Senate Majority Leader, Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York,
requested that the Justice Department's Inspector General investigate
Whitaker's conduct. Schumer wanted the Inspector General to investigate
allegations "by veteran journalist Murray Waas [in Vox, which] revealed
that Whitaker, while he was serving as chief of staff to [then-Attorney
General Jeff] Sessions, was counseling the White House on how the
president might pressure Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein to direct the Justice Department to investigate Trump's
enemies." Schumer also asked the Justice Department to investigate
whether, Whitaker, while Acting Attorney General "may have shared with
the White House... confidential grand jury or investigative information
from the Special Counsel investigation."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-66"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-66">[66]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-67"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-67">[67]</a></sup>
</p><p>In 2019, Waas broke numerous exclusive stories for <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(website)" title="Vox (website)">Vox</a></i> and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Review_of_Books" title="The New York Review of Books">The New York Review of Books</a></i> about the impeachment investigation of President Trump. As explained by Waas in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(website)" title="Vox (website)">Vox</a></i>,
"At the core of the impeachment inquiry is a substantial body of
evidence that President Trump, both personally and through subordinates,
pushed Ukraine to investigate former Vice President's Joe Biden's son,
Hunter, and his business dealings in Ukraine. This pressure campaign
stood to materially benefit Trump's 2020 presidential reelection effort
by manufacturing dirt against a key rival. It is alleged that Trump
withheld $390 million in congressionally-approved military assistance to
Ukraine for months pending Zelensky's public agreement to open an
investigation."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-68"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-68">[68]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-69"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-69">[69]</a></sup>
</p><p>In 2019 and 2020, Waas broke a number of exclusive stories in the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Review_of_Books" title="The New York Review of Books">The New York Review of Books</a></i> and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian" title="The Guardian">The Guardian</a></i> regarding the politicization and corruption of the Department of Justice during the Trump administration.
<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-70"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-70">[70]</a></sup>
</p><p>
In a rare interview about his work, on May 15, 2006, with Elizabeth Halloran, of <i>U.S. News & World Report</i>, when she asked whether he was "working on stories other than those involving the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Fitzgerald" title="Patrick Fitzgerald">Fitzgerald</a> <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_leak_grand_jury_investigation" title="CIA leak grand jury investigation">investigation</a>,"
Waas indicated that he has "been working on a long, explanatory piece
about healthcare issues, the cervical cancer vaccine." Among the
questions that he raised with Halloran are: "Why isn't that vaccine
going to get to the people it should get to? Is it going to be locked
away?"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Halloran_4-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Halloran-4">[4]</a></sup></p><div class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" role="note">Main article: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervarix" title="Cervarix">Cervarix</a></div>
<p>Asked during the same interview by Halloran why Waas had chosen not
only not to appear on cable television shows, but had also been known to
decline to go on such shows as <i>Nightline</i> and <i>Meet the Press</i>,
he responded: "There's not much of it that really enlightens us. There
are journalists who don't do journalism anymore. They go on television;
they're blogging; they're giving speeches; they're going to parties. And
then at the end of the week they've had four or five hours devoted to
journalism."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Halloran_4-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Halloran-4">[4]</a></sup>
</p><p>Waas also told Halloran:
</p>
<dl><dd>An acquaintance of mine, [Doonesbury cartoonist] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Trudeau" title="Garry Trudeau">Garry Trudeau</a>,
went a long time without going on TV, and we talked about having a
12-step program for people who appear on television too much. It would
be a boom business in Washington. But Garry has lapses – he's been on
Nightline, Charlie Rose. I also believe he did a morning show one time.
But I've been steadfast. I have not been broken. I thought it was me and
Garry against the world, the two amigos. He's left me hanging out
there.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Halloran_4-5"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Halloran-4">[4]</a></sup></dd></dl>
<p>Waas similarly told <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post" title="Washington Post">Washington Post</a></i> media writer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Kurtz" title="Howard Kurtz">Howard Kurtz</a>,
who had nicknamed Waas "The Lone Ranger": "If my journalism has had
impact, it has been because I have spent more time in county courthouses
than greenrooms,"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kurtztwo_47-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Kurtztwo-47">[47]</a></sup> Claude Lewis, a member of the editorial board of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Philadelphia_Inquirer" title="The Philadelphia Inquirer">The Philadelphia Inquirer</a></i>
wrote in a profile of the journalist that his low-key approach had
proved to be effective: "His quiet and sometimes unorthodox manner is
disarming. He often lulls his subjects into thinking he isn't very
sharp. But he is an intelligent and intense digger, who checks and
double-checks his facts."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Claude_71-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Claude-71">[71]</a></sup>
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Book_publication">Book publication</span></h2><p><i><a class="new" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_United_States_v._I._Lewis_Libby_(book)&action=edit&redlink=1" title="The United States v. I. Lewis Libby (book) (page does not exist)">The United States v. I. Lewis Libby</a></i>, edited and with reporting by Waas, was published by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Publishing" title="Sterling Publishing">Sterling Publishing</a>'s Union Square Press imprint on June 5, 2007.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-APstaff_72-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-APstaff-72">[72]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-73"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-73">[73]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-CJRB_74-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-CJRB-74">[74]</a></sup>
</p><p>The bulk of the book was an edited version of the trial
transcript of the federal criminal trial of I. Lewis Libby, carefully
culled from its original size of nearly a million words. The book also
included an original essay written by Waas, entitled "The Last
Compartment", which contained new information and reporting.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-APstaff_72-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-APstaff-72">[72]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-CJRB_74-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-CJRB-74">[74]</a></sup>
</p><p>The book's editor and publisher told <i>USA Today</i> that the
book was an attempt to be "like the published reports from the 9/11
Commission and the Iraq Study Group" in both thoroughness and accuracy,
providing additional context to the original documentary record, and
adding new reporting and information.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-APstaff_72-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-APstaff-72">[72]</a></sup>
</p><p>Reviewing the book in the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Journalism_Review" title="Columbia Journalism Review">Columbia Journalism Review</a></i>, James Boylan, a contributing editor of the magazine, wrote for its November/December 2007 issue:
</p>
<dl><dd>Murray Waas, a disciple of Jack Anderson, the ultimate outsider,
has assembled a plump volume of the trial and grand-jury records in the
case of I. Lewis Libby ... convicted in March of obstruction of justice
and lying in the case involving disclosure of the identity of CIA
operative Valerie Plame. The transcripts make clear that Waas may have
had less interest in Libby's missteps than in the foibles of a cohort of
Washington's current insider journalists, among whom <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Russert" title="Tim Russert">Tim Russert</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Woodward" title="Bob Woodward">Bob Woodward</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller" title="Judith Miller">Judith Miller</a> (jailed for a time for refusing to testify), and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Novak" title="Robert Novak">Robert Novak</a>
... were the most celebrated. Their accounts of dealing with Libby and
other members of the administration constitute an encyclopedia of
insiderdom—the anonymous-source-concealment dance, the sometimes
transparent charade of selective source protection, the willingness to
be spun in exchange for access to power.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-CJRB_74-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-CJRB-74">[74]</a></sup></dd></dl>
<h2><span id="Notable_assessments_of_Waas.27s_journalism"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Notable_assessments_of_Waas's_journalism">Notable assessments of Waas's journalism</span></h2><p>Murray Waas's reporting on the administration of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush" title="George W. Bush">George W. Bush</a>—especially with regard to the Bush administration's misrepresentation of intelligence to take the nation to war, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair" title="Plame affair">Plame affair</a>—has been called "groundbreaking" by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_University" title="New York University">New York University</a> journalism Professor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Rosen" title="Jay Rosen">Jay Rosen</a>, who considers Waas the "new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Woodward" title="Bob Woodward">Bob Woodward</a>":
"By Woodward Now," Rosen writes of Waas: "I mean the reporter who is
actually doing what Woodward has a reputation for doing: finding,
tracking, breaking into reportable parts—and then publishing—the biggest
story in town. The Biggest Story in Town (almost a term of art in
political Washington) is the one that would cause the biggest earthquake
if the facts sealed inside it started coming out now. Today the biggest
story in town is what really went down as the Bush team drove
deceptively to war, and later tried to conceal how bad the deception—and
decision-making—had been."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Rosen_75-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Rosen-75">[75]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GarG_76-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-GarG-76">[76]</a></sup>
</p><p>On October 27, 1992, the late <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Shaw_(writer)" title="David Shaw (writer)">David Shaw</a>, then a staff writer for the <i>Los Angeles Times</i> who won a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize_for_Criticism" title="Pulitzer Prize for Criticism">Pulitzer Prize for Criticism</a>
the previous year, assessed the reporting by his colleagues Murray Waas
and Douglas Frantz on the first Bush administration's prewar policy
towards Iraq leading up to the first <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War" title="Gulf War">Gulf War</a>,
which included "more than 100 stories, totaling more than 90,000
words": "The Times's stories—many based on previously secret papers
prepared by the Bush administration—alleged that the Bush administration
tried to cover up what it had done by altering documents it supplied to
Congress and by attempting to obstruct official investigations of aid
to Iraq," quoting the observation of <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Downie" title="Leonard Downie">Leonard Downie</a>, executive editor of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a></i>,
that his own newspaper was "slow in getting up to speed on that story,
in part because it's the kind of story involving careful work with
documents ... Once you're behind, it takes a while to catch up." Downie
credits the <i>Los Angeles Times</i> with "pav[ing] the way," saying that that is "why we began pursuing it after really not noticing it from the outset."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-77"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-77">[77]</a></sup>
</p><p>During the presidential administration of <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jefferson_Clinton" title="William Jefferson Clinton">William Jefferson Clinton</a>, Waas wrote some of the very first investigative stories critical of Whitewater Independent Counsel <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Starr" title="Kenneth Starr">Kenneth Starr</a>. Some conservative media outlets, among them, the now defunct <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weekly_Standard" title="Weekly Standard">Weekly Standard</a></i> and the editorial pages of the <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Journal" title="Wall Street Journal">Wall Street Journal</a></i> harshly criticized his reporting of both Starr's investigation and the resulting impeachment saga. The <i>Journal's</i> editorial page disparaged his stories for primarily appearing in "an Internet magazine called <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_(website)" title="Salon (website)">Salon</a></i> (paid circulation zip)." <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post" title="Washington Post">Washington Post</a></i>
media critic Howard Kurtz wrote, however, that "what has infuriated the
president's detractors is that Waas (who will reveal only that he's in
his thirties) and his colleagues are starting to draw blood. The Justice
Department has asked Starr to investigate the allegation of [illicit]
payments to [one of Starr's own key witnesses, and the story has moved
up the media food chain to <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i> and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a></i>."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-78"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-78">[78]</a></sup> And in sharp contrast, media critics writing for the <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Journalism_Review" title="Online Journalism Review">Online Journalism Review</a></i>, the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Journalism_Review" title="American Journalism Review">American Journalism Review</a></i>, and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a></i>, praised the very same reporting.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-79"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-79">[79]</a></sup> In <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a></i>,
columnist John Schwartz wrote that reporting by Waas and his colleagues
in Salon was "one crucial element that keeps guys like me coming back:
investigative reporting." Schwartz explained: "This [past] year... <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_(website)" title="Salon (website)">Salon</a></i>
dove into investigative reporting, the hard digging that can yield
amazing things. They chose one of the biggest stories around: the
continuing scandals surrounding the Clinton administration."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-80"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-80">[80]</a></sup>
</p><p>In June 1998, <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.D._Lasica" title="J.D. Lasica">J.D. Lasica</a>
published "The Web: A New Channel for Investigative Journalism", a
"sidebar" to his article entitled "Salon: The Best Pure-Play Web
Publication?", published in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Journalism_Review" title="American Journalism Review">American Journalism Review</a></i>, assessing reporting on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton" title="Impeachment of Bill Clinton">Impeachment of Bill Clinton</a> in <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_(magazine)" title="Salon (magazine)">Salon.com</a></i> by Waas and his colleagues, observing that "<i>Salon's</i> coverage of the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewinsky_scandal" title="Lewinsky scandal">Clinton-Lewinsky matter</a>—its first sustained foray into classic investigative journalism—has served as a counterweight to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_media" title="Mass media">mainstream media</a>'s wolfpack mindset" and citing the view of Andrew Ross (then-managing editor of <i>Salon</i>);
according to Lasica, "Salon's investigative journalism ... has raised
old media's hackles because, Ross says, it was done the old-fashioned
way: shoe leather, cultivating sources, working the phones—no new-media
tricks here." Indeed, Lasica continues the 1998 account, by pointing out
that Waas, who has written a dozen stories for <i>Salon</i>, is [at that time] a bit of a technophobe; he never signs onto the Web and has never seen his stories online. He writes for <i>Salon</i>,
he says, because 'I like the daily rhythm and the immediacy.'" David
Weir, a cofounder of the Center for Investigative Reporting and
journalism professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told
the journalism review that the reporting of Waas and his colleagues
represented a “breakthrough” for a news site on the Web. “This is the
first time we’ve seen an Internet news organization dig out an important
national story that the rest of the media missed.”<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-81"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-81">[81]</a></sup> Waas was the winner in 1998 of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Professional_Journalists" title="Society of Professional Journalists">Society of Professional Journalists</a> Award for Depth Reporting for his coverage of Whitewater and the impeachment crisis.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-82"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-82">[82]</a></sup>
</p><p>In the summer of 2006, writing in <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nieman_Reports" title="Nieman Reports">Nieman Reports</a></i>, Jim Boyd, former deputy editorial page editor of the <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis_Star-Tribune" title="Minneapolis Star-Tribune">Minneapolis Star-Tribune</a></i>
for twenty-four years, prepared an "exclusive list" of newspaper
reporters whom he considered "courageous," including among them Murray
Waas: "People I consider courageous are Murray Waas at the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Journal" title="National Journal">National Journal</a></i>; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Froomkin" title="Dan Froomkin">Dan Froomkin</a> at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">washingtonpost.com</a> and niemanwatchdog.org; Warren Strobel and several of his colleagues at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Ridder" title="Knight Ridder">Knight Ridder</a> Washington bureau (soon to be the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_McClatchy_Company" title="The McClatchy Company">McClatchy</a> Washington bureau); <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Pincus" title="Walter Pincus">Walter Pincus</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Priest" title="Dana Priest">Dana Priest</a> of the [Washington] Post. And, of course, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Thomas" title="Helen Thomas">Helen Thomas</a>."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Boyd_83-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Boyd-83">[83]</a></sup>
</p><p>In July 2007, <i>GQ</i> Magazine named Waas as one of four of
"The Best Reporters You Don't Know About," writing about him: "Years of
groundbreaking watchdog journalism have resulted in this nickname: the
new Bob Woodward. His pieces on the Plame leaks and U.S. attorney
firings inadvertently provided candidates with more ammunition against
the current administration than any campaign strategist could hope for."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Boyd_83-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Boyd-83">[83]</a></sup>
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Investigation_of_the_U.S._health_insurance_industry">Investigation of the U.S. health insurance industry</span></h2><p>On the eve of the historic health reform vote in Congress, on March 17, 2010, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters" title="Reuters">Reuters</a>
published a story, based on a months long investigation by Waas,
detailing how one of the nation's largest insurance companies, Assurant,
had a "company policy of targeting policyholders with HIV" for
cancelation of their policies once they were diagnosed. The story
asserted: "A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder
recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the
company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy ... [T]heir
insurance policies often were canceled on erroneous information, the
flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Waas_8-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Waas-8">[8]</a></sup>
</p><p>The Obama administration and members of Congress cited the report
as a reason health care reform was needed.
In a column appearing only a few nights before the vote, following up on
his own blog post on the same subject from two days earlier, <i>New York Times</i> columnist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Krugman" title="Paul Krugman">Paul Krugman</a>
wrote that the actions of Assurant were representative of the "vileness
of our current system" and illustrated why reform was necessary."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-84"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-84">[84]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Krugman_85-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Krugman-85">[85]</a></sup>
</p><p>After passage of the health reform bill, Reuters followed up, with another story by Waas on April 23, 2010, disclosing that <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WellPoint" title="WellPoint">WellPoint</a>,
the nation's largest health insurance company, had similarly targeted
policyholders with breast cancer, shortly after their diagnoses.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-CCWaas_9-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-CCWaas-9">[9]</a></sup>
The Reuters story asserted that WellPoint utilized "a computer
algorithm that automatically targeted ... every other policyholder
recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an
immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext
to drop their policies."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-CCWaas_9-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-CCWaas-9">[9]</a></sup>
</p><p>An earlier investigation by the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Energy_and_Commerce_Committee" title="House Energy and Commerce Committee">House Energy and Commerce Committee</a> had determined that WellPoint (now <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_(company)" title="Anthem (company)">Anthem</a>), Assurant, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnitedHealth_Group" title="UnitedHealth Group">UnitedHealth Group</a>, had made at least $300 million by improperly rescinding more than 19,000 policyholders over one five-year period.."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-CCWaas_9-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-CCWaas-9">[9]</a></sup>
</p><p>The Waas story garnered immediate attention. Published not only
on Reuters' website, one of the nation's most highly trafficked news
sites, it also appeared on seven of the ten most highly read news
sites-- those of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a></i>, Yahoo News, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_News" title="ABC News">ABC News</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSNBC" title="MSNBC">MSNBC</a>, and <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Huffington_Post" title="The Huffington Post">The Huffington Post</a></i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-editst_13-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-editst-13">[13]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Noah_14-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Noah-14">[14]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Ryan_86-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Ryan-86">[86]</a></sup>
</p><p>On April 23, 2010, Secretary of Health and Human Services <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Sebelius" title="Kathleen Sebelius">Kathleen Sebelius</a>
wrote Wellpoint's CEO, Angela Braly, to say that Wellpoint's actions
were "deplorable" and "unconscionable," and called on the company to
"immediately cease these practices."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Hershb_11-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Hershb-11">[11]</a></sup> Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Pelosi" title="Nancy Pelosi">Nancy Pelosi</a>
weighed in as well after reading the story, saying: "Americans who are
fighting for their lives should not have to fight for their health
insurance."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-87"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-87">[87]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-88"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-88">[88]</a></sup>
</p><p>President Obama, whose late mother had problems and disagreements
with her own insurance carrier before she died from ovarian cancer,
followed up on May 8, 2010, by severely criticizing WellPoint for the
practice in his weekly radio address.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ave_12-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-ave-12">[12]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Noah_14-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Noah-14">[14]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-89"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-89">[89]</a></sup>
</p><p>As a result of both the public reaction of the story as well as
intense pressure from the Obama administration, WellPoint agreed to
voluntarily end such practices.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-editst_13-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-editst-13">[13]</a></sup> The nation's other largest health insurance companies only days later followed suit.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-editst_13-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-editst-13">[13]</a></sup>
</p><p>Praising the reform, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i> editorial page said in a May 2, 2010 editorial:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Americans are already starting to see the benefits of health care
reform ... In recent days insurers and their trade association have
rushed to announce that they will end rescissions immediately ...
</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The insurers decided to act quickly after they were whacked by some
very bad publicity. An investigative report by Reuters said that one of
the nation's biggest insurers, WellPoint, was targeting women with
breast cancer for fraud investigations that could lead to rescissions.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-90"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-90">[90]</a></sup>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Waas later won the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barlett_%26_Steele" title="Barlett & Steele">Barlett & Steele</a> Award for Business Investigative Reporting from the Walter Cronkite School at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_State_University" title="Arizona State University">Arizona State University</a> for his stories on WellPoint and other health insurance companies. He also won a second award by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_American_Business_Editors_and_Writers" title="Society of American Business Editors and Writers">Society of American Business Editors and Writers</a> (SABEW) in the category of investigative reporting for reporting the same stories.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Reystaff_15-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Reystaff-15">[15]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Jimp_19-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Waas#cite_note-Jimp-19">[19]</a></sup></p><p><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Jimp_19-1"> </sup></p><h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">rences</span></h2><div class="reflist reflist-columns references-column-width" style="column-width: 30em;">
<ol class="references"><li id="cite_note-Welch-1"><br /></li></ol></div>
<div class="reflist reflist-columns references-column-width" style="column-width: 30em;"><ol class="references"><li id="cite_note-90" value="90"> <span class="reference-text">Editors, <i>The New York Times</i>, <a class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/opinion/03mon1.html" rel="nofollow">"End to Rescission and More Good News"</a>.<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>. (May 2, 2010). Retrieved May 10, 2010.</span>
</li></ol></div>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Bibliography">Bibliography</span></h2><div class="mw-parser-output"><li id="cite_note-Welch-1"> <span class="reference-text"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Welch" title="Matt Welch">Matt Welch</a>, <a class="external text" href="http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017968939.php" rel="nofollow">"Salon's Coverage Commands Respect for Net Journalists"</a>, <i>Online Journalism Review</i> (<a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Southern_California_Annenberg_School_for_Communication" title="">Annenberg School for Communication</a> at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Southern_California" title="University of Southern California">USC</a>), (April 30, 1998). Retrieved August 26, 2007.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Sterling-2"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Sterling-2"> <span class="reference-text">Press release, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Publishing" title="Sterling Publishing">Sterling Publishing</a>, March 6, 2007, <a class="external text" href="http://www.sterlingpublishing.com/sterling/press-room" rel="nofollow">"Press Room"</a> <a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070703044437/http://www.sterlingpublishing.com/sterling/press-room" rel="nofollow">Archived</a> July 3, 2007, at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Sterling Publishing">Wayback Machine</a>: <a class="external text" href="http://www.sterlingpublishing.com/file_download/24" rel="nofollow">US_v_ILewisLibby_Release.doc</a> <a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070928174333/http://www.sterlingpublishing.com/file_download/24" rel="nofollow">Archived</a> September 28, 2007, at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a> (Downloadable document file); cf. <a class="external text" href="http://www.wood-books.com/catalog?isbn=9781402752599" rel="nofollow">catalogue description</a> <a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070929002352/http://www.wood-books.com/catalog?isbn=9781402752599" rel="nofollow">Archived</a> September 29, 2007, at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>;
both retrieved June 21, 2007. [Note: The downloadable press release
file is misnamed; it is not a ".pdf" file; it is a ".doc" file.]</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Waasbookblog-3"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Waasbookblog-3"> <span class="reference-text">For related information, see Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="http://whateveralready.blogspot.com/2007/03/book.html" rel="nofollow">"A Book"</a>, <i>Whatever Already!</i> (blog), March 6, 2007 and <a class="external text" href="http://whateveralready.blogspot.com/2007/06/book-party.html" rel="nofollow">"Book Party"</a>, <i>Whatever Already!</i> (blog), June 20, 2007; both retrieved June 21, 2007.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Halloran-4"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Halloran-4"> <span class="reference-text">Liz Halloran, <a class="external text" href="https://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060515/15mediatakes.htm" rel="nofollow">"A Muckraker's Day in the Sun"</a> <a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130116133448/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060515/15mediatakes.htm" rel="nofollow">Archived</a> January 16, 2013, at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, interview with Murray Waas, <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._News_and_World_Report" title="U.S. News and World Report">U.S. News and World Report</a></i>. (May 15, 2006) Retrieved April 29, 2007.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Kurtz-5"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Kurtz-5"> <span class="reference-text"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Kurtz" title="Howard Kurtz">Howard Kurtz</a>, <a class="external text" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/25/AR2006062500953.html" rel="nofollow">"Writer Sat on His Own Life-and-Death Story."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a></i>. (June 25, 2006). C-01. Retrieved June 21, 2007.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Waascando-6"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Waascando-6"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/murray-waas/a-reporters-bias_b_23782.html" rel="nofollow">"A Reporter's Bias"</a> <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Huffington_Post" title="The Huffington Post">The Huffington Post</a></i>. (June 26, 2006). Retrieved May 11, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Waaswag-7"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Waaswag-7"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/murray-waas/the-wag-time-pet-spa-cons_b_36927.html" rel="nofollow">"The Wag Time Pet Spa Conspiracy ... And a Cancer Survivor's Right to Respect"</a>, <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Huffington_Post" title="The Huffington Post">The Huffington Post</a></i>
(personal blog). (December 21, 2006). Retrieved June 21, 2007; contains
hyperlink to Kurtz's article and his own related blog entries.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Waas-8"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Waas-8"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-insurers-idUSTRE62G2DO20100317" rel="nofollow">"Insurers Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage"</a> <a class="external text" href="https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20110329085154/http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/03/17/us-insurers-idUSTRE62G2DO20100317" rel="nofollow">Archived</a> March 29, 2011, at <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive-It" title="Archive-It">Archive-It</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters" title="Reuters">Reuters</a>. (March 17, 2010). Retrieved May 10, 2010.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-CCWaas-9"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-CCWaas-9"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/24-1" rel="nofollow">"WellPoint Routinely Targets Breast Cancer Patients"</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters" title="Reuters">Reuters</a>, via <i>Common Dreams</i>. (April 24, 2010). Retrieved May 10, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-10"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-10"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/04/20100423a.html" rel="nofollow">"U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius Urges
WellPoint to Immediately Stop Dropping Coverage for Women with Breast
Cancer"</a> <a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131018160825/http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/04/20100423a.html" rel="nofollow">Archived</a> October 18, 2013, at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a> U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release. (April 23, 2010). Retrieved May 21, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Hershb-11"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Hershb-11"> <span class="reference-text">Michele Gershberg, <a class="external text" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wellpoint-idUSTRE63M2YM20100423" rel="nofollow">"U.S. to WellPoint: Stop Dropping Breast Cancer Patients"</a> <a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150924145004/http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/04/23/us-wellpoint-idUSTRE63M2YM20100423" rel="nofollow">Archived</a> September 24, 2015, at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters" title="Reuters">Reuters</a>. (April 23, 2010. Retrieved May 10, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-ave-12"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-ave-12"> <span class="reference-text">Avery Johnson and Dinah Wisenberg Brin, <a class="external text" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704879704575236673459521654" rel="nofollow">"War of Words Heats Up Between Obama, WellPoint,"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall_Street_Journal" title="The Wall Street Journal">The Wall Street Journal</a></i>. (May 11, 2010). Retrieved May 11, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-editst-13"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-editst-13"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/opinion/03mon1.html" rel="nofollow">"End to Rescission and More Good News"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i> (editorial). (May 2, 2010). Retrieved May 10, 2010.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Noah-14"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Noah-14"> <span class="reference-text">Timothy Noah, <a class="external text" href="http://www.slate.com/id/2223680/" rel="nofollow">"Obama vs. WellPoint: How the Insurance Giant's Bad Behavior Advances Health Reform"</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_(magazine)" title="Slate (magazine)">Slate</a>. (May 20, 2010). Retrieved May 20, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Reystaff-15"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Reystaff-15"> <span class="reference-text">Reynolds staff,<a class="external text" href="http://businessjournalism.org/2010/10/04/reuters-and-milwaukee-journal-sentinel-receive-2010-barlett-steele-awards/" rel="nofollow">"<i>Reuters</i> and <i> Milwaukee Journal</i> Receive 2010 Barlett & Steele Awards,"</a>
Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, Walter
Cronkite School, Arizona State University. (October 4, 2010). Retrieved
May 11, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-16"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-16"> <span class="reference-text">Claudia Parsons, <a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120710235324/http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-investigates/2010/10/05/reuters-wins-major-investigative-prize" rel="nofollow">"Reuters Wins Major Investigative Prize"</a> <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters" title="Reuters">Reuters</a></i>. (Oct 5, 2010. Retrieved May 10, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-17"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-17"> <span class="reference-text">Claudia Parsons, <a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120710235324/http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-investigates/2010/10/05/reuters-wins-major-investigative-prize" rel="nofollow">"Congratulations to Murray Waas"</a> <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters" title="Reuters">Reuters</a></i>. (Oct 11, 2010. Retrieved July 22, 2020.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-18"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-18"> <span class="reference-text">Barry May, <a class="external text" href="https://www.thebaron.info/people/murray-waas-wins-top-prize-for-enterprise-reporting" rel="nofollow">"Murray Waas wins top prize for enterprise reporting"</a> <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baron" title="The Baron">The Baron</a></i>. (Jan. 5, 20110. Retrieved August 7, 2020.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Jimp-19"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Jimp-19"> <span class="reference-text">Jim Impoco,<a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110413174941/http://blog.thomsonreuters.com/index.php/thomson-reuters-wins-5-sabew-best-in-business-awards/" rel="nofollow">"Thomson Reuters Wins 5 SABEW Best in the Business Awards"</a> <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters" title="Reuters">Reuters</a></i>. March 23, 2010). Retrieved May 11, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-20"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-20"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/murray-waas/" rel="nofollow"><i>The Atlantic</i>: Article Archive for Murray Waas</a>.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-21"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-21"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/murray-s-waas" rel="nofollow"><i>The New Yorker</i>: Article Archive for Murray Waas</a>.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-22"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-22"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/murray-waas/" rel="nofollow"><i>The New York Review of Books</i>: Article Archive for Murray Waas</a>.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-23"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-23"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://nymag.com/author/murray-waas/" rel="nofollow"><i>New York Magazine</i>: Article Archive for Murray Waas</a>.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-24"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-24"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://www.vox.com/authors/murray-waas" rel="nofollow"><i>Vox</i>: Article Archive for Murray Waas</a>.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-25"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-25"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://foreignpolicy.com/author/murray-waas/" rel="nofollow"><i>Foreign Policy</i>: Article Archive for Murray Waas</a>.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-26"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-26"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/contributor/murray-waas" rel="nofollow"><i>Vice</i>: Article Archive for Murray Waas</a>.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-27"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-27"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://murraywaas.contently.com/" rel="nofollow"><i>Contently</i>: Article Archive for Murray Waas</a>.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-28"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-28"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://www.villagevoice.com/about/staff/" rel="nofollow"><i>Village Voice</i>: Village Voice Editorial Staff</a>.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-VV-29"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-VV-29"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0551,waas,71144,2.html" rel="nofollow">"Jack Anderson: An Appreciation: The Muckraking Outsider Never Gave a Damn about Entree"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Village_Voice" title="The Village Voice">The Village Voice</a></i>. (December 19, 2005). Retrieved August 16, 2007.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-30"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-30"> <span class="reference-text">Patrick Kealtey, <a class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/aug/18" rel="nofollow">"Obituary: Idi Amin"</a> <i>The Guardian</i>. August 18, 2003). Retrieved October 10, 2010.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-ralphy-31"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-ralphy-31"> <span class="reference-text">Ralph Nurnberger, <a class="external text" href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2633/is_4_17/ai_111013462/" rel="nofollow">"Why Sanctions Never Work: In The Case of Idi Amin, They Clearly Helped Drive Him From Power"</a>. <i>International Economy</i>. (Fall, 2003). Retrieved October 20, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-32"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-32"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="http://www.aliciapatterson.org" rel="nofollow">Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship</a>.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-WaasFH-33"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-WaasFH-33"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="http://articles.latimes.com/1994-04-03/magazine/tm-41569_1_forest-haven-bleak-house-institutional-abuse" rel="nofollow">"Bleak
House: As Patients Died One by One, a Washington D.C. Home for the
Mentally Retarded Became One of the Nation's Deadliest Institutions"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times" title="Los Angeles Times">Los Angeles Times</a></i>. (April 4, 1994). Retrieved May 10, 2010.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-WaasFHH-34"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-WaasFHH-34"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="http://articles.latimes.com/1994-04-03/news/mn-41806_1_settlement-agreement" rel="nofollow">"$1 Million Settlement Due in Death of Six Retarded Persons,"</a> <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times" title="Los Angeles Times">Los Angeles Times</a></i>. (April 4, 1994). Retrieved May 11, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-35"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-35"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/National-Reporting" rel="nofollow">Pulitzer Prizes, National Reporting</a>.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-36"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-36"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="http://www.hks.harvard.edu/presspol/prizes_lectures/goldsmith_awards/investigative_reporting.html" rel="nofollow">Goldsmith Prizes for Investigative Reporting, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University</a> <a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20111118010045/http://www.hks.harvard.edu/presspol/prizes_lectures/goldsmith_awards/investigative_reporting.html" rel="nofollow">Archived</a> November 18, 2011, at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a></span>
</li><li id="cite_note-37"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-37"> <span class="reference-text">Elissa Gootman, <a class="external text" href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1993/3/26/goldsmith-prizes-awarded-pinvestigative-reporters-who/" rel="nofollow">"Goldsmith Prizes Awarded"</a> <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Crimson" title="Harvard Crimson">Harvard Crimson</a></i>. (March 26, 19930. Retrieved May 10, 2010.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-38"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-38"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas and Douglas Frantz,<a class="external text" href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-10-mn-3540-story.html" rel="nofollow">"U.S. Gave Intelligence Data to Iraq 3 Months Before Invasion."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times" title="Los Angeles Times">Los Angeles Times</a></i>. March 10, 1992. Retrieved May 10, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-39"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-39"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas and Douglas Frantz,<a class="external text" href="http://articles.latimes.com/1992-04-18/news/mn-537_1_saudi-arabia-s-transfers" rel="nofollow">"Saudi
Arms Link to Iraq Allowed" : Mideast: Under Reagan and Bush, U.S.
weapons were secretly provided to Baghdad, classified documents show.
The White House kept Congress in the dark."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times" title="Los Angeles Times">Los Angeles Times</a></i>. April 18, 1992, Retrieved June 18, 2016.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-40"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-40"> <span class="reference-text">Anthony Lewis, <a class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/15/opinion/abroad-at-home-who-fed-this-caesar.html" rel="nofollow">"Who Fed This Teaser?"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>. March 15, 1992). Retrieved June 18, 2016.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-41"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-41"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-06-mn-3321-story.html" rel="nofollow">"Despite Ban, U.S. Arms Are Sold to Pakistan "</a>. <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Los_Angeles_Times" title="The Los Angeles Times">The Los Angeles Times</a></i>. March 6, 1992) June 18, 2016.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-42"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-42"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas and Douglas Frantz, <a class="external text" href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-07-mn-3554-story.html" rel="nofollow">"U.S.
Knew Arms Sales Broke Law, Pell Charges : Pakistan: The State
Department was aware that commercial military transfers are barred by
1985 law tied to nuclear weapons, senator says."</a>. <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Los_Angeles_Times" title="The Los Angeles Times">The Los Angeles Times</a></i>. March 7, 1992) June 18, 2016.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-bl-43"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-bl-43"> <span class="reference-text">Dan Froomkin, <a class="external text" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/03/31/BL2006033100695.html" rel="nofollow">"A Compelling Story"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a></i>. March 31, 2006). Retrieved May 10, 2010.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-NJ-44"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-NJ-44"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas,<a class="external text" href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/administration-what-bush-was-told-about-iraq-20060304" rel="nofollow">"What Bush Was Told About Iraq"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Journal" title="National Journal">National Journal</a></i>. (May 14, 2006). Retrieved June 26, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-NJtwo-45"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-NJtwo-45"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/prewar-intelligence-insulating-bush-20060401" rel="nofollow">"Insulating Bush"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Journal" title="National Journal">National Journal</a></i>.(April 1, 2006). Retrieved June 26, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Prp-46"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Prp-46"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://prospect.org/article/meeting-0" rel="nofollow">"The Meeting"</a>. <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Prospect" title="American Prospect">American Prospect</a></i>. (October 4, 2005)</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Kurtztwo-47"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Kurtztwo-47"> <span class="reference-text"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Kurtz" title="Howard Kurtz">Howard Kurtz</a> <a class="external text" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/16/AR2006041601027_pf.html" rel="nofollow">"The Lone Ranger"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a></i>. (April 17, 2006). Retrieved May 10, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Gerstein-48"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Gerstein-48"> <span class="reference-text">Josh Gerstein, <a class="external text" href="http://www.nysun.com/national/prosecutor-thought-libby-deliberately-failed/20936/" rel="nofollow">"Prosecutor Thought Libby Deliberately Failed to Intervene on Reporter's Behalf"</a>. <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Sun" title="New York Sun">New York Sun</a></i>. (October 4, 2005). Retrieved May 10, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-49"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-49"> <span class="reference-text">Jay Rosen, <a class="external text" href="http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/04/09/waas_now.html" rel="nofollow">"Murray Waas Is Our Woodward Now"</a>.<i>PressThink</i> (blog). (April 9, 2006).</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Grse-50"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Grse-50"> <span class="reference-text">Greg Sargent, <a class="external text" href="https://prospect.org/article/plame-game" rel="nofollow">"The Plame Game: What Murray Waas' Big Scoop May Really Tell us About Bush's Pre-war Deceptions"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Prospect" title="The American Prospect">The American Prospect</a></i>. (April 4, 2006). Retrieved August 20, 2007.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Goodman-51"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Goodman-51"> <span class="reference-text"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Goodman" title="Amy Goodman">Amy Goodman</a>, <a class="external text" href="http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/07/1436232" rel="nofollow">"Ex-Cheney Chief of Staff Lewis 'Scooter' Libby Convicted of Perjury, Obstruction in CIA Leak Trial"</a> <a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070411232129/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07%2F03%2F07%2F1436232" rel="nofollow">Archived</a> April 11, 2007, at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>. Interview with Murray Waas and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcy_Wheeler" title="Marcy Wheeler">Marcy Wheeler</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Now!" title="Democracy Now!">Democracy Now!</a></i>. (March 7, 2007). Retrieved June 20, 2007.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-52"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-52"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas and Christopher Rowland <a class="external text" href="http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/06/12/mitt_romneys_administration_stifled_antibullying_guide_over_language_on_bisexual_transgender_youth/" rel="nofollow">"No mention of 'bisexual', 'transgender' under Romeny."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boston_Globe" title="The Boston Globe">The Boston Globe</a></i>. June 12, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-53"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-53"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2012/10/24/mitt-romney-overruled-state-agency-and-rejected-new-birth-certificates-for-children-born-gay-parents/TqOHBb99V98H6nGQqUQrjO/story.html" rel="nofollow">"Mitt Romeny rejected birth certificates for gay parents."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boston_Globe" title="The Boston Globe">The Boston Globe</a></i>. October 25, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-54"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-54"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.boston.com/uncategorized/noprimarytagmatch/2012/10/25/mitt-romney-is-criticized-by-gay-rights-groups-for-blocking-routine-birth-certificate-approvals-for-same-sex-parents" rel="nofollow">"Mitt Romney is criticized by gay-rights groups for blocking routine birth certificate approvals for same-sex parents."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boston_Globe" title="The Boston Globe">The Boston Globe</a></i>. October 25, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-55"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-55"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/us/politics/michael-cohen-trump.html" rel="nofollow">"Tools of Trump's Fixer: Payouts, Intimidation and the Tabloids."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>. February 18, 2018, Retrieved April 10, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-56"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-56"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/07/31/what-trump-knew-and-when-he-knew-it/" rel="nofollow">"Flynn, Comey, and Mueller: What Trump Knew and When He Knew It."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Review_of_Books" title="The New York Review of Books">The New York Review of Books</a></i>. July 31, 2018. Retrieved April 15, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-57"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-57"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/09/25/mike-pence-star-witness/" rel="nofollow">"Mike Pence, Star Witness"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Review_of_Books" title="The New York Review of Books">The New York Review of Books</a></i>. Sept. 25, 2018. Retrieved April 15, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-58"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-58"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/18/trump-ordered-bannon-to-limit-testimony/" rel="nofollow">"Trump Ordered Bannon to Limit Testimony."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Policy" title="Foreign Policy">Foreign Policy</a></i>. January 18, 2018. Retrieved April 15, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-59"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-59"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas,<a class="external text" href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/3/17528648/trump-mueller-horowitz-spygate-investigation-fbi-doj" rel="nofollow">"Inside the DOJ's struggle with Trump's demand for a 'Spygate' investigation."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(website)" title="Vox (website)">Vox</a></i>. July 3, 2018. Retrieved April 15, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-60"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-60"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas,<a class="external text" href="https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/08/17/the-trump-obstruction-of-justice-mueller-missed/" rel="nofollow">"The Trump Obstruction of Justice Mueller Missed?"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Review_of_Books" title="The New York Review of Books">The New York Review of Books</a></i>. August 17, 2020. Retrieved Nov. 3, 2020.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-61"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-61"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/3/16084246/mueller-obstruction-case-stronger-trump-surrogates" rel="nofollow">"Exclusive: top FBI officials could testify against Trump."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(website)" title="Vox (website)">Vox</a></i>. August 3, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-62"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-62"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/7/15751336/fbi-trump-russia-comey-trump-flynn" rel="nofollow">"3 senior FBI officials can vouch for Comey's story about Trump."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(website)" title="Vox (website)">Vox</a></i>. June 7, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-63"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-63"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/us/politics/senate-hearing-transcript.html" rel="nofollow">"Full Transcript and Video: James Comey's Testimony on Capitol Hill."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>. June 8, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-64"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-64"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/9/18080656/matthew-whitaker-trump-hillary-clinton-sessions-attorney-general" rel="nofollow">"Whitaker was counseling the White House on investigating Clinton."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(website)" title="Vox (website)">Vox</a></i>. November 9, 2018. Retrieved July 31, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-65"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-65"> <span class="reference-text">Michael S. Schmidt and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Haberman" title="Maggie Haberman">Maggie Haberman</a>, <a class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/us/politics/president-trump-justice-department.html" rel="nofollow">"Trump Wanted to Order Justice Dept. to Prosecute Comey and Clinton."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>. November 20, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-66"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-66"> <span class="reference-text">Alexander Bolton, <a class="external text" href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/417606-schumer-calls-for-investigation-of-whitakers-contacts-with-white-house" rel="nofollow">"Schumer calls for investigation of Whitaker's contacts with White House."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hill_(newspaper)" title="The Hill (newspaper)">The Hill</a></i>. November 20, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-67"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-67"> <span class="reference-text">"Schumer calls on Justice Department inspector general to look into Matt Whitaker.". <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNN.com" title="CNN.com">CNN.com</a></i>. November 20, 2018. Retrieved August 3, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-68"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-68"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/18/20965442/impeachment-kurt-volker-trump-giuliani-ukraine-poroshenko-zelensky-investigation-corruption-bgr" rel="nofollow">"The wolves are coming for Kurt Volker."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(website)" title="Vox (website)">Vox</a></i>. November 18, 2019. Retrieved July 31, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-69"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-69"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/09/25/trump-giuliani-and-manafort-the-ukraine-scheme/" rel="nofollow">"Trump, Giuliani, and Manafort: The Ukraine Scheme."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Review_of_Books" title="The New York Review of Books">The New York Review of Books</a></i>. Sept. 25, 2019. Retrieved July 31, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-70"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-70"> <span class="reference-text">Murray Waas, <a class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/14/heidi-stirrup-doj-trump-e-jean-carroll" rel="nofollow">"Revealed: White House liaison sought derogatory info on E Jean Carroll from DoJ official."</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian" title="The Guardian">The Guardian</a></i>. Jan. 14, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2021.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Claude-71"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Claude-71"> <span class="reference-text">Claude Lewis <a class="external text" href="http://articles.philly.com/1988-10-10/news/26274202_1_cartel-cocaine-drug-trade" rel="nofollow">"See the Mighty Fall: Investigative Reporting Has Its Rewards"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Philadelphia_Inquirer" title="The Philadelphia Inquirer">The Philadelphia Inquirer</a></i>. (October 1, 1988). Retrieved June 26, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-APstaff-72"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-APstaff-72"> <span class="reference-text">AP Staff Writer, <a class="external text" href="https://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/2007-03-06-1706358372_x.htm" rel="nofollow">"Instant Book Coming on Libby Trial"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_Today" title="USA Today">USA Today</a></i>. (March 7, 2007). Retrieved May 10, 2010.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-73"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-73"> <span class="reference-text">Ron Hogan <a class="external text" href="http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/bn-imprint-rushes-libby-book-to-stores_b4020" rel="nofollow">"Barnes & Noble Imprint Rushes Libby Book to Stores"</a>. <i>GalleyCat</i> [blog]. (March 7, 2007). Retrieved May 10, 2010.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-CJRB-74"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-CJRB-74"> <span class="reference-text">James Boylan, <a class="external text" href="https://www.cjr.org/review/brief_encounters_2.php" rel="nofollow">"Brief Encounters: The United States v. I Lewis Libby"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Journalism_Review" title="Columbia Journalism Review">Columbia Journalism Review</a></i>. (November/December 2007). Retrieved May 10, 2010.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Rosen-75"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Rosen-75"> <span class="reference-text"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Rosen" title="Jay Rosen">Jay Rosen</a>, <a class="external text" href="http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/04/09/waas_now.html" rel="nofollow">"Murray Waas Is Our Woodward Now"</a>. <i>PressThink</i> (blog). (April 9, 2006). Retrieved June 21, 2007.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-GarG-76"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-GarG-76"> <span class="reference-text"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_Graff" title="Garrett Graff">Garrett Graff</a>, <a class="external text" href="http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/waas-is-the-new-woodward_b2229" rel="nofollow">"Waas is the New Woodward"</a>. <i>Mediabistro</i>. (April 10, 2006). Retrieved July 3, 2011.</span>
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Case Study of a Big Story With Little Impact: Despite Hundreds of News
Reports, No Public Outrage Has Erupted Over Secret U.S. Aid to Iraq"</a>. The <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times" title="Los Angeles Times">Los Angeles Times</a></i>. (October 27, 1992). Retrieved August 17, 2007.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-78"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-78"> <span class="reference-text"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Kurtz" title="Howard Kurtz">Howard Kurtz</a>,<a class="external text" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1998/04/24/whitewater-mud-hits-the-messengers/90ce9243-e952-48b6-93d5-354cf917e04e/" rel="nofollow">"Whitewater Mud Hits the Messengers"</a>. The <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post" title="Washington Post">Washington Post</a></i> (April 24, 1998). Retrieved May 28, 2018.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-79"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-79"> <span class="reference-text">Matt Welch, <a class="external text" href="http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017968939.php" rel="nofollow">"Salon's Coverage Commands Respect for Net Journalists"</a>. <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Journalism_Review" title="Online Journalism Review">Online Journalism Review</a>.</i> (June 3, 1998), Retrieved May 28, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-80"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-80"> <span class="reference-text">John Schwartz, <a class="external text" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1998/04/20/the-eye-opener-in-the-webs-reading-room/1be1a20f-4935-4961-84c2-5a8d278d6c2b/" rel="nofollow">"The Eye-Opener in the Web's Reading Room"</a>.<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a>.</i> (April 20, 1998), Retrieved May 28, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-81"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-81"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.D._Lasica" title="J.D. Lasica">J.D. Lasica</a>, <a class="external text" href="https://ajrarchive.org/article.asp?id=1383&id=1383" rel="nofollow">"The Web: A New Channel for Investigative Journalism:</a> Salon's Groundbreaking Stories on the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Starr" title="Kenneth Starr">Ken Starr</a> Investigation Challenge the Conventional Wisdom Laid Down by the Mainstream Media's Wolfpack Mindset". <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Journalism_Review" title="American Journalism Review">American Journalism Review</a></i>. (June 1998). Sidebar to <a class="external text" href="https://ajrarchive.org/article.asp?id=1383&id=1383" rel="nofollow">"Salon: The Best Pure-Play Web Publication?</a>
Salon's Savvy Blend of New and Old Media Has Made It a Pacesetter for
Online Journalism. It May Also Be a Harbinger of Journalism's Future on
the Internet". <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Journalism_Review" title="American Journalism Review">American Journalism Review</a></i>. (June 1998). Retrieved August 17, 2007.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-82"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-82"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="external text" href="http://www.salon.com/news/special/clinton/whitewater.html" rel="nofollow"><i>Salon.com</i>: The Clinton Impeachment Crisis: Whitewater, David Hale, and the Starr Investigation.</a></span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Boyd-83"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Boyd-83"> <span class="reference-text"><a class="new" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jim_Boyd_(journalist)&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Jim Boyd (journalist) (page does not exist)">Jim Boyd</a>, <a class="external text" href="https://niemanreports.org/articles/editorial-pages-why-courage-is-hard-to-find/" rel="nofollow">"Editorial Pages: Why Courage Is Hard to Find"</a>. <i>Niemann Reports</i>. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nieman_Foundation_for_Journalism" title="Nieman Foundation for Journalism">Nieman Foundation for Journalism</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University" title="Harvard University">Harvard University</a>). (Summer 2006). ("Reflections on Courage: United States"). Retrieved August 19, 2007.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-84"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-84"> <span class="reference-text"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Krugman" title="Paul Krugman">Paul Krugman</a>, <a class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/opinion/19krugman.html" rel="nofollow">"Why We Must Reform"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>. (March 19, 2010). Retrieved April 25, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Krugman-85"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Krugman-85"> <span class="reference-text"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Krugman" title="Paul Krugman">Paul Krugman</a>, <a class="external text" href="https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/demons-and-demonization/" rel="nofollow">"Demons and Demonization"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>. (March 17, 2010). Retrieved June 5, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-Ryan-86"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-Ryan-86"> <span class="reference-text">Ryan Chittum, <a class="external text" href="https://www.cjr.org/the_audit/reuters_is_excellent_in_diggin.php" rel="nofollow">"Reuters Is Excellent In Digging Up A Health Insurer's Tactics"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Journalism_Review" title="Columbia Journalism Review">Columbia Journalism Review</a></i>. (March 17, 2010). Retrieved May 11, 2011.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-87"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-87"> <span class="reference-text">Steve Benen, <a class="external text" href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2010/04/23/dems-have-a-few-words-for-wellpoint/" rel="nofollow">"Dems Have A few words for WellPoint"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monthly" title="Washington Monthly">Washington Monthly</a></i>. (April 23, 2010). Retrieved June 2, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-88"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-88"> <span class="reference-text">Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, <a class="external text" href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2010/04/23/dems-have-a-few-words-for-wellpoint/" rel="nofollow">"Statement On Reports that WellPoint is Targeting Breast Cancer Patients"</a>. (April 22, 2010). Retrieved June 2, 2019.</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-89"><br /></li><li id="cite_note-89"> <span class="reference-text">Duke Helfand, <a class="external text" href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/10/business/la-fi-wellpoint-20100510" rel="nofollow">"WellPoint, Obama Rift Escalates"</a>. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times" title="Los Angeles Times">Los Angeles Times</a></i>. (May 10, 2010). Retrieved May 11, 2011</span>
</li><li id="cite_note-90"><br /></li></div><p><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Jimp_19-1"> </sup></p><p><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Jimp_19-1"> </sup></p><p><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Jimp_19-1"> </sup>
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="See_also"><br /></span></h2>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-61161437578182857942019-02-08T08:41:00.018-08:002021-07-09T03:25:48.654-07:00<section class="article-hero__container default" data-test="article-hero"><div class="article-hero__bg-container"><header class="article-hero__header mh0-print layout-grid-container" data-test="article-hero__header"><aside class="article-hero__unibrow-grid layout-grid-item grid-col-2-xl"><div class="unibrow articleTitleSection article-hero__tax-term"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news"><span data-test="unibrow-text">Health news</span></a></div></aside><div class="article-hero-headline layout-grid-item grid-col-10-xl"><h1 class="article-hero__headline f8 f9-m fw3 mb3 mt0 f10-xl founders-cond lh-none" data-test="article-hero__headline"><a href="http://static.reuters.com/resources/media/editorial/20100701/BreastCancer.pdf" target="_blank">Insurer targeted breast cancer patients to cancel</a></h1><h1 class="article-hero__headline f8 f9-m fw3 mb3 mt0 f10-xl founders-cond lh-none" data-test="article-hero__headline"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna36711197" target="_blank">Murray Waas</a></h1><div class=""><div class="article-dek article-dek__with-image"> </div><div class="article-dek article-dek__with-image">One after another, shortly after a diagnosis of breast cancer, various
women insured through WellPoint learned their health insurance had been
canceled. They didn't know company software had flagged their diagnosis
and targeted them for investigation.</div></div></div></header></div><div class="article-hero__media-holder layout-grid-container"><div class="article-hero__media-container layout-grid-item grid-col-10-xl grid-col-push-2-xl"><figure class="article-hero__main"><picture class="article-hero__main-image"><source media="(min-width: 1240px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 1000px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 758px)"></source><img alt="Angela Braly, president and chief executive officer of WellPoint Inc., speaks at the Reuters Health Summit in New York" height="352" src="https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best/reuters/2010-04-22t133736z_01_btre63l11uw00_rtroptp_3_health-summit-36711120.jpg" width="450" /></picture></figure></div><figcaption class="caption article-hero__caption layout-grid-item grid-col-10-xl grid-col-push-2-xl"><span class="caption__container">Even
as WellPoint targeted women with breast cancer and who were pregnant
for investigation, it prided itself for having women at the helm such as
Angela Braly, president and chief executive officer. </span><span class="caption__source">Brendan Mcdermid / REUTERS</span></figcaption></div></section><article class="article-body" data-taboola-target="read-more"><div class="styles_gridContainer__1qNsS gridContainer article-body__grid--container"><div class="article-body__section article-body__last-section"><div class="styles_body__1uzzK article-body publico-txt f4 f5-m lh-copy gray-100" data-test="articleBody"><section class="mb7"><div class="mb1 founders-mono f2 lh-copy gray-80 ls-tight"><time class="relative z-1" content="2010-04-22T15:14:29.000Z" data-test="timestamp__datePublished" datetime="Thu Apr 22 2010 15:14:29 GMT+0000 (UTC)" itemprop="datePublished">April 22, 2010, 11:14 AM EDT</time><span class="article-body__source"> / Source: Reuters</span></div><div class="founders-cond f6 lh-none article-byline__name" data-test="byline">By Murray Waas</div></section><div class="videoCube trc_spotlight_item origin-default thumbnail_top syndicatedItem textItem videoCube_2_child trc_excludable " data-item-id="~~V1~~4020671324835125633~~UoUWDm-WUD6XfhjMxdn1qkSFZdPHF-Drtf68Hs0cwg0ndpXq_nTToVci-tV_1bYyPVPbFHdycXfyr1VxmozLcV7JbGFbjtizQN29Zpin8p1JlawpbYFtoRw_FVSAoDPy8yoVX_ZV1DUzrU9mgEqIxVpt34vkyVLCqQj-j_6Ik-WFwt9_72reDSrMsTKuuUo5Br09yr2mndTfllNvSs1CMzVIjdS2nHZfCfiQHMILqOTXSAGk21kEttVY0CzIUgfOSMFfZBuQXua0EvHy5SpnVjwBwbVzqx5qDQAj-sfT0DmervHFpCrAL_om51jB8qq5" data-item-syndicated="true" data-item-thumb="http://cdn.taboola.com/libtrc/static/thumbnails/3c3dc7f02795dee13aa1552dd26ad377.png" data-item-title="This Award-Winning Face Mask Will Keep You Protected in 2021"><p class="">One
after another, shortly after a diagnosis of breast cancer, each of the
women learned that her health insurance had been canceled. First there
was Yenny Hsu, who lived and worked in Los Angeles. Later, Robin Beaton,
a registered nurse from Texas. And then, most recently, there was
Patricia Relling, a successful art gallery owner and interior designer
from Louisville, Kentucky.</p><p class="">None of the women knew about
the others. But besides their similar narratives, they had something
else in common: Their health insurance carriers were subsidiaries of
WellPoint, which has 33.7 million policyholders — more than any other
health insurance company in the United States.</p><p class="">The
women all paid their premiums on time. Before they fell ill, none had
any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their
policies had been canceled by mistake.</p><p class="">They had no idea
that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically
targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with
breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation,
as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies,
according to government regulators and investigators.</p><p class="">Once
the women were singled out, they say, the insurer then canceled their
policies based on either erroneous or flimsy information. WellPoint
declined to comment on the women's specific cases without a signed
waiver from them, citing privacy laws.</p><p class=""><strong>Tens of thousands lost insurance after diagnosis</strong><br />That
tens of thousands of Americans lost their health insurance shortly
after being diagnosed with life-threatening, expensive medical
conditions has been well documented by law enforcement agencies, state
regulators and a congressional committee. Insurance companies have used
the practice, known as "rescission," for years. And a congressional
committee last year said WellPoint was one of the worst offenders.</p><p class="">But
WellPoint also has specifically targeted women with breast cancer for
aggressive investigation with the intent to cancel their policies,
federal investigators told Reuters. The revelation is especially
striking for a company whose CEO and president, Angela Braly, has earned
plaudits for how her company improved the medical care and treatment of
other policyholders with breast cancer.</p><p class="">The disclosures
come to light after a recent investigation by Reuters showed that
another health insurance company, Assurant Health, similarly targeted
HIV-positive policyholders for rescission. That company was ordered by
courts to pay millions of dollars in settlements.</p><p class="">In his
push for the health care bill, President Barack Obama said the
legislation would end such industry practices. Making the case for
reform in a September address to Congress, Obama specifically cited the
cancellation of Robin Beaton's health insurance. Aides to the president,
who requested they not be identified, told Reuters that no one in the
White House knew WellPoint was systematically singling out breast cancer
patients like Beaton.</p><p class="">Many critics worry the new law
will not lead to an end of these practices. Some state and federal
regulators —- as well as investigators, congressional staffers and
academic experts — say the health care legislation lacks teeth, at least
in terms of enforcement or regulatory powers to either stop or even
substantially reduce rescission.</p><p class="">"People have this idea
that someone is going to flip a switch and rescission and other bad
insurance practices are going to end," says Peter Harbage, a former
health care adviser to the Clinton administration. "Insurers will find
ways to undermine the protections in the new law, just as they did with
the old law. Enforcement is the key."</p><p class=""><strong>Certain medical claims triggered recission investigations</strong><br />In
a statement to Reuters, WellPoint said various specified criteria
trigger rescission investigations, including certain types of medical
claims. The company said it changed its rescission practices to ensure
they are handled appropriately after a 2006 review of its policies
prompted by public concern over rescission.</p><p class="">WellPoint
also said it created a committee that includes a physician for making
rescission decisions. The company also noted that it established a
single point of contact for members undergoing an investigation and
enacted an appeals process for applicants who disagree with the original
determination.</p><p class="">During the recent legislative process for
the reform law, however, lobbyists for WellPoint and other top
insurance companies successfully fought proposed provisions of the
legislation. In particular, they complained about rules that would have
made it more difficult for the companies to fairly — or unfairly —
cancel policyholders.</p><p class="">For example, an early version of
the health care bill passed by the House of Representatives would have
created a Federal Office of Health Insurance Oversight to monitor and
regulate insurance practices like rescission. WellPoint lobbyists
pressed for the proposed agency to not be included in the final bill
signed into law by the president.</p><p class="">They also helped quash
proposed provisions that would have required a third party review of its
or any other insurance company's decision to cancel a customer's
policy.</p><p class="">The new law does leave open the possibility of
reform in this area, these sources say. The reason, they say, is that
much of the new legislation is essentially a roadmap, with regulations
to be decided later.</p><p class="">"The lack of specificity doesn't
mean that nothing is going to be done," said a senior congressional
staffer who has played a key role in the health reform debate, "The law
grants HHS (the Department of Health and Human Services) the discretion
to promulgate regulations. This is very much a work in progress."</p><p class="">Among
other things, the staffer said, the White House could revisit proposing
tough new regulations requiring third party review of policy
cancellations.</p><p class="">Victoria Veltri, the general counsel of
Connecticut's Office of Healthcare Advocate, a state agency that
investigates complaints by policyholders, says she has seen the success
of such a process in her home state. One company, Aetna, has voluntarily
agreed to engage in the third party review, with what she described as
favorable results.</p><p class="">"I haven't seen an Aetna case in our
office since they went to the third party review process," she said.
"It's a powerful tool to have a third set of eyes required before
someone is rescinded."</p><p class="">For its part, WellPoint said it began offering third-party reviews in 2008.</p><p class="">A
senior Obama administration official said he remained confident that
mandatory third party reviews of rescissions is not entirely out of
reach.</p><p class="">"It might take some wrangling with the insurance
industry, some strong-arming, maybe even use of the presidential bully
pulpit," he said on condition of anonymity.</p><p class=""><strong>Insurers' anathema: Breast cancer and pregnancy</strong><br />The
cancellation of her health insurance in June 2008 forced Robin Beaton
to delay cancer surgery by five months. In that time, the tumor in her
breast grew from 2 centimeters to 7 centimeters.</p><p class="">Two
months before Beaton's policy was dropped, Patricia Relling also was
diagnosed with breast cancer. Anthem Blue Cross of Kentucky, a WellPoint
subsidiary, paid the bills for a double mastectomy and reconstructive
surgery.</p><p class="">But the following January, after Relling
suffered a life-threatening staph infection requiring two emergency
surgeries in three days, Anthem balked and refused to pay more. They
soon canceled her insurance entirely.</p><p class="">Unable to afford
additional necessary surgeries for nearly 16 months, Relling ended up
severely disabled and largely confined to her home. As a result of her
crushing medical bills, the once well-to-do businesswoman is now
dependent on food stamps.</p><p class="">"It's not like these companies
don't like women because they are women," says Jeff Isaacs, the chief
assistant Los Angeles City Attorney who runs the office's 300-lawyer
criminal division. "But there are two things that really scare them and
they are breast cancer and pregnancy. Breast cancer can really be a
costly thing for them. Pregnancy is right up there too. Their worst-case
scenario is that a child will be born with some disability and they
will have to pay for that child's treatment over the course of a
lifetime."</p><p class="">Isaacs is a former federal prosecutor who
spent much of his time with the U.S. Justice Department investigating
corporate wrongdoing. Among state and federal regulators, he is now
considered one of the toughest and most experienced foes of the health
insurance industry. He has hired retired FBI agents to investigate
full-time the practices of WellPoint and its Anthem Blue Cross
subsidiary in California.</p><p class="">Still, Isaacs feels outgunned:
"The industry just has these tremendous financial, legal and political
resources that others don't," he said. "In my own state, regulators are
often afraid or unwilling to go up against them. It is hard to figure
out what the future brings."</p><p class="">In July 2008, Isaacs' office
sued Anthem Blue Cross, alleging that more than 6,000 people in the
state of California had their insurance canceled due to its "illegal
rescission practices." The litigation is ongoing.</p><p class="">Last
February, the insurer agreed to pay a $1 million fine and an additional
$14 million in restitution to alleged victims to settle another lawsuit.
This one was brought against it by the California Department of
Insurance, which said the company violated state laws by improperly
rescinding the policies of 2,330 people.</p><p class="">A year earlier,
Anthem Blue Cross agreed to pay a $10 million fine to settle similar
charges brought by a second agency in the state, the California
Department of Managed Health Care, alleging that WellPoint had illegally
rescinded more than 1,100 policyholders.</p><p class="">Despite the
settlements, WellPoint denies wrongdoing. In a statement for this story,
the company said: "The settlements you referenced with the California
regulators expressly denied any admission of wrongdoing on the part of
the company; companies settle matters for a number of reasons."</p><p class="">As
part of his investigation, Isaacs has sought information from WellPoint
about its use of algorithms to single out women with breast cancer or
who are pregnant. The company has fought him vigorously and so far
largely kept information from him, Isaacs said.</p><p class="">But in
response to an inquiry last year from the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, which was investigating rescission, WellPoint said that it
initiates a claims review every time policyholders receive medical
treatment for certain conditions. The company listed diagnostic codes
that could trigger investigations. One was for breast tumors.</p><p class=""><strong>Pregnant women automatically had histories examined</strong><br />During
an audit of Anthem Blue Cross by the California Department of Managed
Health Care, company employees showed regulators internal records
revealing that pregnant women also automatically had their medical
histories examined.</p><p class="">WellPoint says that even though the
company routinely investigates policyholders with diseases such as
breast cancer shortly after a diagnosis, it only cancels policies if it
finds something wrong. It says the practice is necessary to keep down
costs for other policyholders.</p><p class="">In testimony before the
House committee last year, Brian Sassi, the president and CEO of
WellPoint's consumer division, asserted: "I want to emphasize that
rescission is about stopping fraud and material misrepresentation that
contributes to spiraling health care costs. Rescission is a tool
employed by WellPoint and other health insurers to protect the vast
majority of policyholders who provide accurate and complete information
from subsidizing the cost of those who do not."</p><p class="">But state
regulators, congressional investigators and consumer advocates say that
in only a tiny percentage of canceled health insurance cases was there a
legitimate reason.</p><p class="">A 2007 investigation by the
California Department of Managed Health Care bore this out. The agency
randomly selected 90 instances in which Anthem Blue Cross of California
dropped the insurance of policyholders after diagnoses with costly or
life-threatening illnesses to determine how many were legally justified.</p><p class="">None
were. "In all 90 files, there was no evidence (that Blue Cross), before
rescinding coverage, investigated or established that the applicant's
omission/misrepresentation was willful," the DMHC report said.</p><p class=""><strong>Company prides itself for having women at helm<br /></strong>Singling
out women with breast cancer for aggressive investigation with the
intent of canceling their insurance stands in stark contrast not only to
the public image WellPoint cultivates for itself but also to the good
work it does for many other policyholders with breast cancer.</p><p class="">WellPoint
CEO Braly has taken a strong personal interest in women's health
issues. Foremost among them is how to increase services to people with
breast cancer.</p><p class="">The company prides itself on being one of
the United States' largest corporations with women at the helm. Besides
Braly, two high-powered, politically connected women sit on WellPoint's
board: Susan Bayh, the wife of retiring Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of
Indiana, and Sheila Burke, who was chief of staff to former Senate
Republican leader Bob Dole.</p><p class="">On Braly's initiative,
WellPoint has funded groundbreaking studies about the disparities in
quality of health care to minority women — including women with breast
cancer.</p><p class="">WellPoint has worked to encourage mammography for
at-risk women. Personalized letters — followed up by phone calls — are
sent to more than 80,000 women between the ages of 52 and 69 if they
have not had a mammogram in the past year. The company conducts
automated calls for women ages 40 to 69 to make sure they are getting
mammograms.</p><p class="">Once diagnosed, WellPoint has set up an
"Breast Cancer Resource Center" for its policyholders to help them
"navigate the complex health care system."</p><p class=""><strong>'I can't pay for my medicine'</strong><br />And
in May 2009, WellPoint's charitable foundation, the WellPoint
Foundation LLC, provided a grant for the American Cancer Society for its
"Hope Lodges," which allow cancer patients and family members free
lodging and support while receiving care far from home. The grant funded
Hope Lodges in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, where Patricia
Relling resides.</p><p class="">To Relling, charitable giving does not
mitigate the harm done to her and other cancer patients who have had
their health insurance canceled after a breast cancer diagnosis. "I
can't pay for my medicine," she said. "I haven't been able pay for
surgery that I need for two years. It doesn't make any sense."</p><div class="recommended-intersection-ref"><section class="related dn-print" data-test="related"><h3 class="related__title">Recommended</h3><div class="related__items" id="recommended"><div class="related-item"><div class="related-item__thumbnail-wrapper"><a class="related-item__link related-item__picture-link" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fully-vaccinated-people-don-t-need-covid-boosters-u-s-n1273435?icid=recommended"><div class="lazyload-wrapper"><picture class="related-item__thumbnail__image"><source media="(min-width: 758px)"></source><source></source><img alt="" src="https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_focal-60x60,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2021_27/3489780/210708-covid-vaccine-jm-2111.jpg" /></picture></div></a><span class="related-item__eyebrow"></span></div><div class="related-item__info-wrapper"><h3 class="related-item__title"><a class="" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/coronavirus"><span class="related-item__eyebrow">Coronavirus</span></a><a class="related-item__link" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fully-vaccinated-people-don-t-need-covid-boosters-u-s-n1273435?icid=recommended">Fully vaccinated people don't need Covid boosters, U.S. health agencies say</a></h3></div></div><div class="related-item"><div class="related-item__thumbnail-wrapper"><a class="related-item__link related-item__picture-link" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/pfizer-seek-ok-3rd-covid-vaccine-dose-shots-still-protect-n1273426?icid=recommended"><div class="lazyload-wrapper"><picture class="related-item__thumbnail__image"><source media="(min-width: 758px)"></source><source></source><img alt="" src="https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_focal-60x60,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2021_27/3489739/210708-pfizer-vaccine-jm-1738.jpg" /></picture></div></a><span class="related-item__eyebrow"></span></div><div class="related-item__info-wrapper"><h3 class="related-item__title"><a class="" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/coronavirus"><span class="related-item__eyebrow">Coronavirus</span></a><a class="related-item__link" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/pfizer-seek-ok-3rd-covid-vaccine-dose-shots-still-protect-n1273426?icid=recommended">Pfizer to seek FDA authorization for 3rd Covid vaccine dose</a></h3></div></div></div></section></div><p class="">Relling
adds: "I laud people who give money to charity — but not at the expense
of cancer patients and people who have paid health insurance premiums
for 20 years and never missed a payment — and then get canceled when
they most need their coverage. What about the thousands of people who
have their policies canceled by their company for no good reason? When
are they going to make that right?"</p><p class=""><strong>Purging policy holders with expensive diseases</strong><br />Why
would WellPoint on the one hand work to improve health care for women
with breast cancer while automatically investigating every single woman
diagnosed with breast cancer for possible cancellation of their
policies?</p><p class="">Karen L. Pollitz, a research professor at the
Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University, offers one possible
explanation: "It is important for these companies' profit margins that
they get rid of policyholders with expensive diseases," she said. "If
one company were to stop, it would no longer be competitive with the
others. They argue they have to do this to stay in the game."</p><p class="">The
investigation last year by the House Energy and Commerce Committee
determined that WellPoint and two of the nation's other largest
insurance companies — UnitedHealth Group Inc and Assurant Health, part
of Assurant Inc — made at least $300 million by improperly rescinding
more than 19,000 policyholders over one five-year period.</p><p class="">WellPoint
itself profited by more than $128 million from the practice, and the
committee suggested that the figure might be largely understated because
the company refused to provide information about cancellations by
several subsidiaries.</p><p class="">During the yearlong debate over
health care reform, as the White House and Democrats in Congress savaged
insurance industry practices, WellPoint took as much heat as any
company. Among other things, it was slammed for trying to raise premiums
by as much as 39 percent for some customers. One in nine of all
Americans are policyholders with WellPoint or one of its subsidiaries.</p><p class="">Braly,
who was named CEO of the Indianapolis-based company in February 2007,
appeared before a U.S. congressional hearing two months ago and defended
the rate hikes as reflecting higher medical costs.</p><p class=""><strong>Dropped days before double mastectomy</strong><br />Losing
her policy had serious consequences for Beaton, the retired Texas
nurse. In June 2008, she learned that her insurance had been dropped
just as she was about to undergo surgery for breast cancer. She had been
recently diagnosed and told her cancer was a particularly aggressive
type that would require a double mastectomy.</p><p class="">On the
Friday before the Monday she was scheduled for surgery, Beaton's
insurance company said it would not pay for the operation. It also
informed her that it was launching an investigation of her medical
history to see if she had misled the company and would sue if it found
that to be the case.</p><p class="">Beaton's insurance problems stemmed
from a visit to the dermatologist's office just before her breast cancer
diagnosis. A word written on her chart was mistakenly determined to be
precancerous, she said in testimony last year before the congressional
committee. In fact, she was being treated for acne.</p><p class="">Even
after her dermatologist told the insurer he indeed had only treated her
for acne, her lack of insurance meant Beaton could not schedule her
surgery.</p><p class="">Her doctors had told her that even the slightest
delay might endanger her life, so Beaton was frantic. She contacted
anyone who might be able to help her. As a nurse, she knew which
charities and hospitals to plead her case. Still, she got nowhere until
her congressman, Republican Representative Joe Barton, successfully took
up her cause.</p><p class="">Five months elapsed between the time her
surgery was originally scheduled and the time WellPoint agreed to pay
for it. During that delay, the cancerous mass in her breast had more
than tripled. She had to undergo a radical double mastectomy and her
survival rate is a fraction of what it would have been had she been
allowed to have the surgery earlier.</p><p class=""><strong>Insurers will 'do anything to get out of paying for cancer'</strong><br />"Blue Cross and Blue Shield will do anything to get out of paying for cancer," Beaton said at the hearing.</p><p class="">After
her surgery, Beaton joined a cancer support group. Four of the women in
her group, she says, had their insurance canceled as a result of a
cancer diagnosis. Two of the four subsequently had to declare bankruptcy
because of staggering medical bills.</p><p class="">Earlier, in
November 2006, WellPoint dropped the policy of another Texas woman —
shortly after she too was diagnosed with a cancerous lump in her breast,
according to congressional investigators who have reviewed internal
company records.</p><p class="">WellPoint told the Energy and Commerce
Committee the cancellation of the woman's policy was justified because
she had not told them that she had osteoporosis and bone density loss —
even though neither has anything to do with breast cancer and an
insurance agent rather than the woman herself may have been responsible
for those minor omissions.</p><p class="">Investigators for the
committee stumbled upon the woman's case during their inquiry into
rescission. But in the records that WellPoint produced, the woman's name
and contact information was blacked out.</p><p class="">When the
committee asked WellPoint for more information about her, the company
refused to provide it, citing federal privacy laws for their
policyholders.</p><p class="">Committee investigators said they then
suggested WellPoint could itself inform the woman that a congressional
committee had interest in her case. If the woman wished to talk to the
committee, they suggested, she could contact it on her own.</p><p class="">WellPoint declined to do that as well, according to the committee records.</p><p class="">Stephen
J. Northrop, WellPoint's vice president for federal affairs, wrote to
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman, a California
Democrat, explaining why the company could not comply:</p><p class="">"You
asked that WellPoint send a letter to certain policyholders whose
de-identified files WellPoint produced to the Committee earlier this
year. The letter you would have proposed would explain that there is an
ongoing Committee inquiry and would invite the policyholders to call a
Congressional staff member who works for the committee.</p><p class="">"However,
as WellPoint's outside counsel advised your staff by telephone
yesterday, we are prohibited by the federal Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act (HIPAA) from using our policyholders' protected
health information for this purpose."</p><p class="">In a brief
telephone interview with Reuters and later via email, Northrop declined
to comment. In the email, Northrop said that a company spokesperson
would answer further questions about his correspondence with the
congressional committee, but the spokesperson did not address that
particular matter.</p><p class="">In California, Yenny Hsu has a similar
story to tell about WellPoint subsidiary Blue Cross Anthem. In a civil
suit filed against the insurer in 2006, Hsu alleged her health insurance
was rescinded shortly after a breast cancer diagnosis.</p><p class="">The
pretext for canceling her insurance, the lawsuit alleged, is that Hsu
failed to disclose having been exposed to Hepatitis B for a short time
as a child. Her lawsuit has since been settled on undisclosed terms, her
attorney, William Shernoff, said in an interview.</p><p class="">In
Kentucky, Relling underwent her double mastectomy in April 2008. Anthem
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kentucky footed the bill. Then in December
of that year, she underwent reconstructive surgery, and Anthem paid
once again.</p><p class="">The following month, however, her nightmare began.</p><p class=""><strong>Downward spiral</strong><br />Relling
suffered a horrific staph infection caused by her stay in the hospital.
She was rushed back there in the early morning of January 15 and was
admitted shortly after 5:30 a.m.</p><p class="">The incision from her
reconstructive breast surgery was reopened. Her abdomen was flushed with
six full liters of antibiotic fluid until the incision was closed. Two
days later, her condition worsened, requiring yet another emergency
surgery.</p><p class="">This second surgery necessitated multiple blood
transfusions simply to keep her alive. The infection was so severe her
entire umbilicus, the interior of her belly button, had to be removed,
as well as many abdominal muscles, because the infection had already
eaten away most of it.</p><p class="">While recovering, Relling started
having trouble with her insurance. Her medication after the surgery cost
$4,446 a month. But Anthem would only pay for 10 days and then no more,
she recalled in an interview.</p><p class="">Luckily, one doctor gave
her free samples and another found a dispensary where could obtain the
medication at a reduced price. But other days she would go without.</p><p class="">In
June 2009, she was informed that her insurance was being canceled —
just before she was about to undergo another reconstructive surgery,
which she was forced to postpone. She has now gone 16 months without the
necessary surgery.</p><p class="">As a result, she is severely
disabled. The pain and discomfort often only allows her to be able to
stand for 20 or 30 minutes a day, sometimes even less.</p><p class="">Reconstructive
surgery might help her to become mobile again and perhaps go back to
work full-time. She once enjoyed successful careers as an art gallery
owner, interior decorator, and as a writer. She had plenty of money,
drove a Mercedes and traveled the world on whim. Not anymore.</p><p class="">Today
she is on food stamps. She has taken her Social Security early, which
means that when she is older, she will be eligible for fewer benefits.
She buys clothes from consignment stores she once donated to. She
recently got some part-time work as a copywriter, which she can do from
home, but that barely pays for her drug prescriptions, let alone
surgery.</p><p class="">She spends her days calling pharmaceutical companies because many now have programs to assist indigent customers.</p><p class="">Relling
waits hours to be seen by a doctor at a clinic, if she can be seen at
all. "The thing I didn't understand about going poor is that your time
no longer has value to others," she says.</p><p class="">She seeks out
religious charities to pay the rent. "Some have rules that they will
only give to people who belong to that church or of their faith."</p><p class="">One
charity she contacted after being informed that it provides financial
assistance to breast cancer patients told her that it does so only for
women of color and of a certain age. "This is my full time job now. You
go around and around and around," she says, her voice trailing her off.</p><p class=""><strong>Insurer sent letters to wrong address, dropped her for not replying<br /></strong>Technically,
rescission was not the reason Relling lost her health insurance,
according to correspondences with the company she provided to Reuters.
Rather, it was canceled because she did not answer letters from her
insurance company requesting information about her employment history.</p><p class="">Relling
says the letter was sent to an address which she hadn't lived at it for
some time, and she never even saw it until recently. When she brought
this information to WellPoint's attention, she said, the company ignored
her.</p><p class="">"Rescission is just one method to get rid of
someone or no longer provide them coverage," says Isaacs, the deputy Los
Angeles City Attorney. "They can say forms are not filled out properly;
they will just find any pretext."</p><p class="">Congressional
investigators for the House Energy and Commerce Committee who have
investigated Relling's claim say they have concluded that WellPoint
improperly canceled her insurance. The company declined to comment at
all on her case, saying that client confidentiality precludes them from
doing so, although Relling says she welcomes the company to talk
publicly about the matter.</p><p class="">On her living room table still sits correspondence with her former insurance company.</p><p class="">Deb
Moessner, the company's president and general manager, wrote Relling
last July 13: "Ms. Relling, please know that is never pleasant to
deliver unfavorable news to our members. However, there are situations
that occur, such as yours, that leave us with no alternatives. Because
you or your agent did not provide this vital information, your ...
health coverage terminated effective July 1, 2009."</p><p class="endmark">In
the letter, Moessner added: "Please know that we wish you the best in
regaining the healthy lifestyle you described prior to your recent
illnesses."</p><p class="endmark"> <i><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna36711197">CLICK HER</a>E TO READ THE ORIGINAL. </i><br /></p><span class="video-label video-title trc_ellipsis " style="-webkit-line-clamp: 2;"></span><span class="video-label video-description" title=""Description: ""></span></div></div></div></div></article>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-81962420828952160632016-07-31T01:29:00.041-07:002021-08-08T21:34:00.972-07:00New York Observer Story
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<article class="post-17976 post type-post status-publish format-standard tag-david-brock tag-newt-gingrich nyo_column-opinion nyo_person-peter-smith nyo_person-cliff-jackson nyo_person-newt-gingrich style-opinion" data-author="Murray Waas" data-channels="" data-coauthors="Murray Waas" data-date-iso="1998-03-30T00:00:00-05:00" data-date="1998-03-30 00:00:00" data-page-url="/1998/03/gingrich-money-man-peter-smith-helped-david-brock-sock-clinton/" data-piped-channels="" data-post="17976" data-title="Gingrich Money Man Peter Smith Helped David Brock Sock Clinton" data-url="https://observer.com/1998/03/gingrich-money-man-peter-smith-helped-david-brock-sock-clinton/" id="post-17976">
<header class="entry-header">
<div class="entry-teaser"><a href="https://observer.com/column/opinion">Opinion</a></div>
<h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline">Gingrich Money Man Peter Smith Helped David Brock Sock Clinton <br /></h1>
<div class="entry-meta nyo-social-comments nyo-social-comments-above">
By <span class="author" itemprop="author"><a class="url fn n" href="https://observer.com/author/murray-waas/" rel="author" title="View All Posts by Murray Waas">Murray Waas</a></span> in the <i><a href="https://observer.com/author/murray-waas/" target="_blank">New York Observer</a>r</i> • <span class="entry-date"><time datetime="1998-03-30" itemprop="datePublished">03/30/98 12:00am</time></span> </div>
</header>
<div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody">
<p>Two close political associates of House Speaker Newt Gingrich were
involved in attempts to discredit Bill Clinton with allegations about
his personal life, both before and after the 1992 Presidential election.
They tried to find an alleged illegitimate child of Mr. Clinton’s and
helped to publicize sensational charges of misconduct made by his former
Arkansas bodyguards.
</p><p>The Observer has learned that Peter W. Smith, a wealthy Chicago
investment banker and a top Gingrich fund-raiser, was behind the
so-called “Troopergate” affair, in which four state troopers who served
on Mr. Clinton’s security detail when he was Governor of Arkansas
charged that he had used them to procure women for sex. It was Mr. Smith
who first brought the troopers to the attention of writer David Brock,
whose account of their allegations in The American Spectator magazine
led to the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, the Monica Lewinsky
matter and other accusations of sexual impropriety against the
President.</p>
<p> In an article in the April issue of Esquire , Mr. Brock expressed
doubts about the troopers’ allegations and his own role in publicizing
them. He confirmed to The Observer that Mr. Smith, a major contributor
to Mr. Gingrich’s controversial GOPAC political fund, had facilitated
his original connection with the troopers. Mr. Smith donated more than
$100,000 to GOPAC between 1989 and 1995, making him one of the top 20
contributors to the committee.
</p><p> The other Gingrich associate involved in these activities was
Eddie Mahe Jr., a political consultant who has worked intimately with
Mr. Gingrich and GOPAC for many years. It was during a meeting in Mr.
Mahe’s Capitol Hill office in October 1992 that Mr. Brock was introduced
to the Republican effort to investigate Mr. Clinton’s personal life.
According to Mr. Brock, Mr. Mahe and Mr. Smith discussed the search for a
black woman in Arkansas who allegedly had borne Mr. Clinton’s child.
Earlier in the year, a supermarket tabloid had reported the tale of a
black child born out of wedlock, and it has since achieved the status of
political legend.
</p><p> Mr. Mahe told The Observer that he recalled Mr. Smith
introducing him to Mr. Brock. Although he didn’t remember the specifics
of the meeting, he said he was well aware of the illegitimate-baby
story. “Yeah, I’ve been in discussions about that,” he said. “A lot of
people have talked about that, including myself. I’ve talked about it
with a lot of people, and I would not have been at all surprised [if I
talked about it] with Peter Smith also.”</p><div class="ad-wrapper ad-top-margin ad-incontent ad-video htlad-observer_video_1x1" id="observer_video_1x1">
</div>
<p> “Hell, if I were having the conversation today,” Mr. Mahe chuckled,
“what I would say is, just get me a half-assed decent private eye who
doesn’t have a patch over the other eye, and send him down to Little
Rock for two and a half hours, and he’d have it.”
</p><p> Describing Mr. Smith as a “great American” who keeps a “very low
profile,” Mr. Mahe said he had also “probably” spoken with the
fund-raiser about the troopers’ allegations. But he said he never
discussed these issues with Mr. Gingrich. Asked whether Mr. Smith or
anyone else had discussed the troopers’ allegations or the
illegitimate-baby story with Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Mahe said, “No, not to my
knowledge.”
</p><p> Said Mr. Brock, “I definitely recall in the meeting with Eddie
Mahe and Peter Smith that there was an effort in Arkansas to find a
lawyer who would file a paternity suit against Clinton, and that this
would create a news hook for a story about it by me.” Mr. Brock said he
considered the tale far-fetched and never pursued it.</p>
<p> In August 1993, Mr. Smith called Mr. Brock about the troopers. Mr.
Smith told him to contact Cliff Jackson, an Arkansas attorney and
longtime Clinton adversary who represented two of the troopers, Larry
Patterson and Roger Perry. After he went to Little Rock and met with
four state troopers and Mr. Jackson, Mr. Brock learned that Mr. Smith
had promised financial support and jobs to the troopers if they were
fired because of their allegations.
</p><p> In Blood Sport , James Stewart’s 1996 book on the Clintons, the
author refers to a “wealthy, conservative benefactor who had encouraged
Jackson … going so far as to offer financial assistance should the
troopers get into trouble. And he urged Jackson to contact David Brock
at The American Spectator magazine.” That “benefactor,” said Mr. Brock,
was Mr. Smith.
</p><p> “Peter Smith was in constant contact with me and with Cliff
Jackson about how to take care of the troopers,” Mr. Brock told The
Observer . “I was monitoring the conversations between him and Cliff to
make sure there wasn’t anything I thought was unethical going on. I
tried to stay in the loop because I was concerned that there was money
being paid. I was trying to talk Peter out of going along with whatever
scheme Cliff had in mind because I was afraid it would destroy the story
and destroy me. There was discussion of Peter promising to find them
jobs at a certain level of income, and there was definitely discussion
of a legal defense fund [for the troopers] … They were supposed to get
these arrangements with Peter done before anything came out, and that
was what was holding things up.”</p>
<p> To protect himself from any ethical improprieties, Mr. Brock
recalled, he asked Mr. Jackson for a letter stating that “none of these
arrangements were consummated before publication of the article.” That
letter, later quoted in Boy Clinton: The Political Biography , a
critical book about the President by Spectator editor in chief R. Emmett
Tyrrell Jr., stated: “No monies have been paid by you or anyone else
for this story.”
</p><p> “All through November, we had many discussions about why it
would be wrong to give money to a source,” said Mr. Brock, who added
that Mr. Smith “was not attuned to possible ethical breaches and bad
publicity that would be a result of this. I talked to the troopers and
to Cliff about that, too.” During interviews over the past year, Mr.
Perry and Mr. Patterson have confirmed that they split a payment of
$21,000 early in 1994 from a wealthy conservative whom they declined to
name, after the “Troopergate” articles appeared in The Spectator and the
Los Angeles Times . Both had lost part-time jobs as a result of their
newfound fame.
</p><p> Mr. Smith did not return calls from The Observer , and the
troopers did not return calls seeking comment about whether he was their
benefactor. For his part, Mr. Jackson declined to say anything about
Mr. Smith. “I don’t know who contacted Brock, to tell you the truth,” he
said. “I put out the word to multiple people that I needed a
conservative backup [writer] because I had gone to the Los Angeles Times
and because I’d had prior, shall we say, negative experience with the
editor in chief there … Was one of those people Peter Smith? You mean
whom I directly talked with? I’ll have to reflect on that.”</p>
<p> Asked whether he ever spoke with Mr. Smith about financial
arrangements to protect the troopers, Mr. Jackson replied, “You know, I
don’t think I can talk about anything that might or might not be
involved in an attorney-client relationship.” But, Mr. Jackson added, “I
can tell you this: That neither this Peter Smith you’re mentioning nor
anyone else paid money for this story, or promised anything for this
story, or guaranteed any jobs for this story … All I’m saying is, I
don’t want you to draw any conclusions from my refusal to confirm or
deny this.” </p><p> Murray Waas is a reporter who <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/author/murray-waas/">has written for Foreign Polciy</a>, t<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/murray-waas/">the Atlantic Monthly</a>, Vox, <a href="https://nymag.com/author/murray-waas/">New York Magazine's Intelligencer, </a>and Reuters.<br /></p><p> Later, Mr. Jackson added, “Brock says many<input class="field-email form-items-col__item" name="sw-email" type="email" /><a class="ob-dynamic-rec-link" href="https://observer.com/2021/06/fast-and-furious-9-john-cena-interview-dc-universe-transformers-f9/?obOrigUrl=true" rel="" target="_self"><span class="ob-unit ob-rec-image-container" data-type="Image"><span class="ob-unit ob-rec-logo-container logo-over-image_bottom_left" data-type="Image"><img class="ob-unit ob-rec-logo" data-type="Image" src="https://images.outbrainimg.com/transform/v3/eyJpdSI6IjI1YzEzZDJkYWY1OWJjY2FiNWY2ZWZkZDMyZDU2MGE3NzMyNTU1YjA3N2UxNjEzNGRiZWM1NDIyNDBjMTUwYzciLCJ3Ijo5OSwiaCI6MjQsImQiOjIuMCwiY3MiOjAsImYiOjB9.jpg" style="height: 24px; width: 99px;" title="John Cena Explores His Vulnerability and What He Brought to ‘F9’" />
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(in reverse chronological order)<br />
<br />
"<a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/survival-sickest-health-insurer-assurant-settles-discriminatory-pricing-complaint-2002549">Survival of the Sickest:</a> <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/survival-sickest-health-insurer-assurant-settles-discriminatory-pricing-complaint-2002549">"Health Insurer Assurant Settles Discrimatory Pricing Complaint," </a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosen/murray-waas-is-the-woodwa_b_18875.html">Murray Waas</a>, <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/international-business-times-hires-award-winning-investigative-journalist-murray-waas-300076273.html">International Business Times</a>, July 10, 2015. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When executives at Assurant Health announced last month that the
company would be going out of business, they blamed Obamacare. And they
had a point. The sweeping healthcare revision outlawed one of Assurant's
most profitable practices: charging its sickest customers higher prices
or pulling their coverage entirely<span style="font-size: 16px;">.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 16px;">A complaint the company settled with
Montana’s commissioner of securities and insurance, made public
Thursday, offers a glimpse into how Assurant Health does business even
as it winds down operations.</span> The complaint alleged that the
insurer discriminated against less-healthy customers and manipulated
prices. In settling the allegations made by the state’s insurance
commissioner, Assurant did not admit to any wrongdoing, but it agreed to
pay $1.7 million in refunds to Montana customers and a $25,000 fine to
the state. The settlement was signed July 1.<br />
<br />
Assurant
Health’s accusation that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) killed its
earnings turns out to be true. Assurant’s decline illustrates the law’s
effectiveness as a tool for preventing discriminatory practices in
health coverage. Assurant Health, which once provided more than 1
million Americans with health insurance, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/business/assurant-to-exit-health-insurance-business-b99516948z1-306779721.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">generated $1.9 billion in revenue in 2014</a> but
posted a loss of $64 million. In the first quarter of 2015 alone, it
lost $84 million. The company’s profits sank at least in part because it
could no longer engage in what federal and state regulators say were
unethical practices to rid its rolls of the sickest patients. The ACA
made many such practices illegal...<br />
<br />
But allegations in the Montana insurance commissioner’s complaint
illustrate that Assurant Health -- even as it’s shutting down -- has
continued to engage in practices that are no longer legal.<br />
<br />
Commissioner Monica J. Lindeen’s complaint alleged Assurant charged
two prices for the same health-insurance policies: a lower price for
healthier customers and a higher price for sicker Montanans. Lindeen
said Assurant Health offered what it called “discounts” to customers who
had very few health-insurance claims...<br />
<br />
More serious allegations in the past centered on claims that
<a href="http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/reuters_is_excellent_in_diggin.php">Assurant engaged in a practice</a> known as “rescission” or “post-claims
underwriting” in which the company conducted aggressive investigations
of customers diagnosed with life-threatening and expensive illnesses --
such as cancer, HIV or lymphoma -- to find some pretext to cancel their
policies. Investigations between 2005 and 2010 by state and federal
regulators, as well as a U.S. House of Representatives committee
concluded that very rarely was a customer’s health insurance canceled
for a legitimate reason. <br />
<br />
The practice of rescission largely ended as a result of a national
outcry following reports that WellPoint, then the nation’s largest
health insurer, had specifically <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2010/04/24/wellpoint-routinely-targets-breast-cancer-patients" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">targeted women with breast cancer</a> for <a href="http://static.reuters.com/resources/media/editorial/20100701/BreastCancer.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">investigation and cancellation</a>. President Obama and his administration <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704879704575236673459521654" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">condemned the conduct</a> and <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/prescriptions/2010/05/obama_vs_wellpoint.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pressed WellPoint to stop</a>. WellPoint announced it would end the practice and soon <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/opinion/03mon1.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the entire health insurance industry agreed to do the same</a>, ending <a href="http://www.thebaron.info/people/murray-waas-wins-top-prize-for-enterprise-reporting">decades-long practices by WellPoint</a>, Assurant and other companies...<br />
<br /></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
"<a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/justice-department-officials-slam-obama-administration-not-enforcing-law-barring-1890161">Justice Department Officials Slam Obama Administration</a> <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/justice-department-officials-slam-obama-administration-not-enforcing-law-barring-1890161">For Not Enforcing Law</a> Barring States From Jailing Too Many Youths With Adults," <a href="https://www.facebook.com/murraywaas">Murray Waas</a>, <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/reporters/murray-waas">International Business Times</a>. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div dir="ltr">
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is failing
to sanction states that house excessive numbers of teenagers and
children in adult jails and prisons, placing them at greater risk for
violent attacks, sexual assaults and suicide, two career Justice
Department employees plan to testify Tuesday in front of a Senate panel. </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div dir="ltr">
Under a 1974 law known as the Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention Act, the Justice Department is required to
sharply curtail some federal aid to state governments when those states
incarcerate too many juveniles and children in adult jails and prisons.
The law also demands that the federal government withhold such funds
from states that lock up large numbers of so-called status offenders --
children and teens who have engaged in minor offenses such as truancy,
curfew violations, drinking alcohol or running away from home. </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div dir="ltr">
The law was later amended to require the Justice
Department to also cut grant money to states that fail to make fixes
after the determination that their criminal justice systems hold
"disproportionate" numbers of minority youths. </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div dir="ltr">
The two career Justice Department officials are
expected to testify that the Obama administration is in violation of
federal law by continuing to provide these funds to eight jurisdictions
that do not meet one or more of those standards: Virginia, Illinois,
Tennessee, Rhode Island, Idaho and Alabama, plus the District of
Columbia and Puerto Rico...</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/business/headlines/20141004-allen-stanford-files-299-page-appeal-of-his-110-year-sentence.ece">"Allen Stanford Files 299-Page Appeal for 110-Year Sentence,"</a> <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/business/headlines/20141004-allen-stanford-files-299-page-appeal-of-his-110-year-sentence.ece">Michael Lindenberger and Murray Waas</a>, Dallas Morning News, October 5, 2014.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
WASHINGTON — Even tucked away inside a high-security federal prison
in Central Florida, former Houston billionaire banker Allen Stanford is
still thinking big — and flouting the rules.<br />
<br />
Stanford filed a
299-page brief last month with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
New Orleans, making no fewer than 15 lengthy arguments about why he
should be set free. He was convicted in 2012 on 13 felony charges
related to America’s second-largest Ponzi scheme ever and sentenced to
110 years in prison.<br />
<br />
Before being halted by a federal judge in
Dallas in 2009, Stanford’s fraud had drawn in more victims than any
other investment scheme in American history. There are more than 18,000
outstanding claims from defrauded investors and thousands more under
review. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Investors had deposited about $5.5 billion with Stanford, and so far just $72 million has been repaid to investors...</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.vice.com/read/inside-the-grand-jury-why-texas-governor-rick-perry-was-charged-with-two-alleged-felonies-665">"Inside the Grand Jury:</a> <a href="https://www.vice.com/read/inside-the-grand-jury-why-texas-governor-rick-perry-was-charged-with-two-alleged-felonies-665">"Why Texas Governor Rick Perry Was Charged With Two Felonies,"</a> <a href="http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017968939.php">Murray Waas</a>, <a href="https://www.vice.com/author/murray-waas">Vice</a>, August 16, 2014.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A grand jury indicted Texas governor Rick Perry late yesterday on two
felony charges alleging that he had abused his public office and engaged
in the coercion of another public official—a district attorney who was
investigating Perry’s administration and political backers.<br />
<br />
The criminal charges stem from Perry using the official powers of his
office as governor to attempt to remove Rosemary Lehmberg, a Travis
County district attorney, from office, while Lehmberg was investigating
allegations that Perry’s political allies and campaign contributors had
received preferential treatment while obtaining grants from a Texas
state cancer-fighting agency.<br />
<br />
After Lehmberg pleaded guilty to drunk driving charges last year, Perry
vetoed a $7.5 million appropriation by the state legislature to fund
the Travis County Public Integrity Unit of the district attorney’s
office. Perry said he vetoed the funding for the anti-corruption unit
because the drunk driving charges proved that Lehmberg was unfit for
office—while others viewed the governor’s actions as an attempt to
stymie and defund an investigation of many of Perry’s closest political
associates as Perry himself was preparing his second run for the
presidency...</blockquote>
<br />
<a href="https://www.vice.com/read/ex-sec-regulator-spencer-barasch-resigns-from-law-firm-amid-questions-about-his-work-for-ponzi-fraudster-r-allen-stanford">"Ex SEC Regulator Spencer Barasch Resigns From Lawfirm</a> <a href="https://www.vice.com/read/ex-sec-regulator-spencer-barasch-resigns-from-law-firm-amid-questions-about-his-work-for-ponzi-fraudster-r-allen-stanford">Amid Questions About His Work for Ponzi Fraudster Allen Stanford,"</a> <a href="https://www.vice.com/author/murray-waas">Murray Waas</a>, Vice, July 24, 2014.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A former senior Securities and Exchange Commission official, Spencer
Barasch, quietly resigned earlier this month as a partner at the Texas
law firm Andrews Kurth after facing intensifying scrutiny of his legal
work for Houston financier R. Allen Stanford, who is serving a 110-year
prison sentence for masterminding a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.<br />
<br />
Barasch stepped down as Andrews Kurth's head of corporate governance
and securities practice not long after a five-part series published by
VICE detailed previously undisclosed <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/the-derailment-of-the-sec-part-ii-part-2">potential violations of federal conflict-of-interest laws</a> by Barasch while representing Stanford and raised questions as to <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/the-derailment-of-the-sec--part-iv">whether Barasch had given false and misleading testimony</a> to federal investigators to conceal from them the nature of that legal work.<br />
<br />
Barasch’s resignation also came shortly after the settlement of a
bruising legal malpractice case against Andrews Kurth by a real estate
developer. The plaintiff had alleged that his company received
substandard legal advice from the law firm because of the firm’s dual
representation of the developer and Stanford for the very same real
estate transaction...</blockquote>
<br />
<a href="https://www.vice.com/read/spencer-barasch-sec-stanford-international-bank">"The Derailment of the SEC, Part V</a>: "Why a Respected Law Firm Allegedly Risked Breaking the Law Representing a Rogue Billionaire," <a href="http://niemanreports.org/articles/editorial-pages-why-courage-is-hard-to-find/">Murray Waas</a>, <a href="https://www.vice.com/author/murray-waas">Vice</a>, June 18, 2014.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A former Securities and Exchange Commission official and his law firm
sought millions of dollars in new legal business in 2006 from financier
R. Allen Stanford—during the same period of time the law firm had agreed
to defend Stanford before the SEC, despite warnings from the SEC’s
ethics counsel that any such representation would be illegal.<br />
<br />
Stanford lavished lucrative legal business on former SEC enforcement
officer Spencer C. Barasch and the Houston law firm of Andrews Kurth,
where Barasch is a partner, to persuade them to defend him before the
SEC. Initially, in 2005, Barasch and Andrews Kurth turned Stanford down
when he asked them to represent him before the SEC, telling him that to
do so would violate federal conflict-of-interest laws. In 2006, however,
Barasch ignored the legal prohibition and agreed to do so anyway.<br />
<br />
Confidential Andrews Kurth billing records show that in 2006, while
Stanford was pressing Barasch and Andrews Kurth to defend him before the
SEC, Stanford hired the law firm to represent him on seven other legal
matters, adding an eighth in 2007. In addition, according to a former
Andrews Kurth employee, Barasch told his fellow partners that they stood
to earn as much as $2 million a year for defending Stanford before the
SEC. Previously, Stanford had been only a relatively modest client for
the law firm. Barasch and Andrews Kurth declined to comment for this
story.</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2012/10/24/mitt-romney-overruled-state-agency-and-rejected-new-birth-certificates-for-children-born-gay-parents/TqOHBb99V98H6nGQqUQrjO/story.html">"Romney Rejected Birth Certificates for Gay Parents</a>," <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2012/10/24/mitt-romney-overruled-state-agency-and-rejected-new-birth-certificates-for-children-born-gay-parents/TqOHBb99V98H6nGQqUQrjO/story.html">Murray Waas</a>, Boston Globe, October 25, 2012.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It seemed like a minor adjustment. To comply with the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court ruling that legalized gay marriage in 2003, the
state Registry of Vital Records and Statistics said it needed to revise
its birth certificate forms for babies born to same-sex couples. The box
for “father” would be relabeled “father or second parent,’’ reflecting
the new law.
<br />
<br />
But to then-Governor Mitt Romney, who opposed child-rearing by
gay couples, the proposal symbolized unacceptable changes in traditional
family structures.<br />
<br />
He rejected the Registry of Vital Records plan and insisted that his
top legal staff individually review the circumstances of every birth to
same-sex parents. Only after winning approval from Romney’s lawyers
could hospital officials and town clerks across the state be permitted
to cross out by hand the word “father’’ on individual birth
certificates, and then write in “second parent,’’ in ink...</blockquote>
"<a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/06/12/mitt_romneys_administration_stifled_antibullying_guide_over_language_on_bisexual_transgender_youth/">No Menton of 'Transgender' 'Bisexual' Under Romney,"</a> <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/06/12/mitt_romneys_administration_stifled_antibullying_guide_over_language_on_bisexual_transgender_youth/">Christopher Rowland and Murray Waas</a>, Boston Globe, June 12, 2012.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<div class="firstGraph">
Former governor Mitt Romney’s administration
in 2006 blocked publication of a state antibullying guide for
Massachusetts public schools because officials objected to use of the
terms “bisexual’’ and “transgender’’ in passages about protecting
certain students from harassment, according to state records and
interviews with current and former state officials.</div>
<div class="articlePluckHidden">
<div id="articleEmbed" style="display: block;">
<div class="embed" id="relatedContent">
<div class="relatedBox" id="relatedBox">
<ul class="linklistNoBullets">
<li><h3 class="sectionHeader">
Related</h3>
</li>
</ul>
<ul class="linklist">
<li><a href="http://boston.com/community/blogs/less_is_more/2012/05/romneys_passive_response_to_ob.html">5/13: Romney responds to Obama's gay marriage reversal</a>
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.boston.com/Boston/2012/05/obama-criticizes-romney-backwards-equality/GMF33eyWx6tuE9gy0o2fCM/story.html">5/11: Obama: Romney 'backwards on equality'</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Romney aides said publicly at the time that
publication of the guide had been delayed because it was a lengthy
document that required further review. But an e-mail authored in May of
that year by a high-ranking Department of Public Health official - and
obtained last week by the Globe through a public records request -
reflected a different reason.</div>
<div class="articlePluckHidden">
<br />
“Because
this is using the terms ‘bisexual’ and ‘transgendered,’ DPH’s name may
not be used in this publication,’’ wrote the official, Alda
Rego-Weathers, then the deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts
Department of Public Health....</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-4483925824067857152013-05-16T22:41:00.002-07:002013-05-16T22:41:11.412-07:00A new <a href="http://www.murraywaas.com/">vanity website</a> to post on my vanity blog....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-324723939575369562013-04-05T18:10:00.002-07:002013-04-05T18:10:13.451-07:00Bob Woodward keeps diving into deep end without his helmet.<br />
<br />
Comments Woodward just made <a href="http://www.vindy.com/news/2013/apr/05/woodward-of-watergate-fame-regales-stamb/">during a speech Youngstown, Ohio</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He also told an unflattering, but amusing story about sitting next to
former Vice President Al Gore at a dinner, saying being with him was
“taxing,” and added, “To be really honest, it’s unpleasant.”<br />
Woodward
said Gore pressed him on why the journalist didn’t go after Bush, who
beat Gore in the 2000 presidential election, over the war in Iraq.<br />
Gore
was a former reporter before becoming a politician, and “he thinks he
invented [reporting] also,” Woodward joked in reference to an often
misquoted statement that the ex-vice president claimed he invented the
Internet.</blockquote>
<br />
Besides the propriety of just comments, and what it tells us about how thin-skinned Woodward is, the larger point is that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/murray-waas/did-the-white-house-autho_b_16263.html">Gore was simply right</a>. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-13609470047647755022013-04-05T17:55:00.002-07:002013-04-05T17:55:34.361-07:00Phillies Game 4: <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20130405_Royals_rock_Phillies__13-4__in_home_opener.htm">"It was the first time in 238 games Kansas City scored at least 13 runs."</a><br />
<br />
A new feature for this blog: The Phillies season, one game at a time, in one sentence or less. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-10290049942112153512012-05-07T02:36:00.002-07:002012-05-07T03:33:33.518-07:00Baseball notes:
<a href="http://nytimes.stats.com/mlb/playerstats.asp?id=6394">Barry Zito</a> somehow has apparently done a deal with the devil-- <strike>to pitch like</strike>-- trade places with-- <a href="http://nytimes.stats.com/mlb/playerstats.asp?id=7981">Tim Lincecum</a>. Since Zito and Lincecum play on the same team it's difficult how this deal with the devil helps the Giants exactly.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/joe_lemire/05/06/weekend.five.cuts/index.html?sct=mlb_t11_a0">Marlins finally get going</a>. Tough division now, since it is already quite possible that the Phillies, Atlanta, and Nats might win ninety games. The Marlins may win eighty. The only thing preventing this is that teams in the same division play too many games together for this to happen.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/Phillies_rout_Nationals_9-3_in_series_finale_in_Washington.html?cmpid=131298209">We take back Nats Park for an evening</a>-- as it rightfully Philadelphia's anyway. <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/Phillies_rout_Nationals_9-3_in_series_finale_in_Washington.html?cmpid=131298209"> Fifteen more games this season</a> between the two teams. Hopefully I'll get to see Cliff Lee and/or Cole Hamels pitch to Bryce Harper more than once this year.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-81806361411443738112011-09-25T00:36:00.000-07:002011-09-25T00:37:02.705-07:00<a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20110925_Inside_the_Phillies__Reason_for_worry_over_Phillies__postseason_chances.html?cmpid=124488704">Not time to worry</a>, but rather time to panic.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-77101711301588919992011-09-10T00:36:00.000-07:002011-09-10T00:42:38.111-07:00Doc Halladay <a href="http://nytimes.stats.com/mlb/recap.asp?g=310909108&final=true">wins his 17th against Milwaukee</a>, lowering his ERA to 2.44. Prior to Halladay and Hamels winning the last two straight games against Milwaukee in Milwaukee, the Brewers had been 50-19 at home.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-44675584502118300502011-09-09T01:22:00.000-07:002011-09-09T01:46:53.003-07:00Cole Hamels <a href="http://nytimes.stats.com/mlb/recap.asp?g=310908108&final=true">wins his 14th game</a> against the Milwaukee Brewers tonight and lowers his ERA to 2.60.<br /><br />They also won the game without Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Jimmy Rollins in the lineup-- all three out with minor injuries.<br /><br />Add to that: The Phillies played the Brewers at home. Prior to the game, Milwaukee was 50-19 at home.<br /><br />Lee, Halladay, and Hamels are now third, fourth, and fifth in ERA in the NL:<br /> <br />NL Earned Run Average<br />Rank Player ERA<br />1 J. Cueto, Cin 2.36<br />2 C. Kershaw, LAD 2.45<br />3 C. Lee, Phi 2.47<br />4 R. Halladay, Phi 2.49<br />5 C. Hamels, Phi 2.60<br /><br />And this from the Elias Sports Bureau: "It was the Phillies' 17th complete game of the season, the most by any team since the Orioles recorded 17 CGs in 1999."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-31267785017632872982011-09-06T22:49:00.000-07:002011-09-06T23:09:45.237-07:00The Best Starting Pitching Staff Ever?Tonight, the Phillies' <span style="font-style:italic;">fifth starter</span>, a <span style="font-style:italic;">rookie</span>, tonight won his eleventh game.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif<br /><br />Vance Worley's record is now 11-1.<br /><br />It was Worley's <a href="http://nytimes.stats.com/mlb/recap.asp?g=310906122&final=true">ninth straight win</a>. The Phillies have now won Worley's 14 last consecutive starts. That is the most consecutive wins by a Phillies pitcher dating back to when the Phillies won 15 consecutive starts in 1972 when Steve Carlton was pitching. One also has go back almost four decades when a team won consistently with a rookie pitcher throwing. (Wayne Simpson won 14 straight starts for the Cincinnati Reds in the 1970s.)<br /><br />The rookie <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20110907_Rain_and_Braves_cant_beat_Phillies.html?cmpid=124488704">showed some poise too</a>: "The 23-year-old Worley was teetering on a high wire in the sixth inning, when the Braves loaded the bases with no outs. But after a sacrifice fly by Alex Gonzalez tied the game, 2-2, Worley prevented further damage."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-41610652920330285062011-09-06T01:05:00.000-07:002011-09-06T01:08:40.318-07:00The Best Starting Pitching Staff Ever?From the Elias Sports Bureau:<br /><br />"Cliff Lee threw his sixth shutout of the season on Monday, tying the highest total by any pitcher over the last 22 seasons; Randy Johnson had six in 1998 (two for Seattle, four for Houston). Lee has allowed two runs in 48 2/3 innings over his last six starts, a 0.37 ERA. Only two other Phillies pitchers, both cream-of-the-crop Hall of Famers, have had an ERA under 0.40 in a six-start span in one season: Steve Carlton in 1972 and Grover Alexander in 1915."<br /><br /><br />Also from Elias after tonight's game: "Cliff Lee is now 16-7 with a 2.47 ERA; Roy Halladay is 16-5 with a 2.49 ERA. The only other pair of teammates over the past 40 seasons to have at least 16 wins and an ERA under 2.50 on-or-before Labor Day was Pedro Martinez (17-4, 2.22 ERA) and Derek Lowe (18-6, 2.33 ERA) for Boston in 2002."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-61599731352277264842011-04-23T01:04:00.000-07:002011-04-23T01:39:58.145-07:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Thoughts on the Phillies</span>: As things stand tonight, the Phillies are 13-6. They are tied with the Colorado Rockies and Cleveland Indians for <a href="http://nytimes.stats.com/mlb/standings.asp">the best record in baseball</a>.<br /><br />They have one of the best rotations in the history of the game. A rotation that includes Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt seems more like a child's dream or one of a fantasy team rather than reality.<br /><br />And so why do I have so much unease about my team? Let's start with the corner outfielders. <br /><br />The loss of Jason Werth is immeasurable. Two years ago, he hit .268, 39 HR, and 99 RBI. Last year, he hit .296, 27 HR, and 85 RBI-- while also leading the league with 47 2B. Besides his numbers, Werth ran the bases well, played superb defense, but most important of all, hit behind Ryan Howard the last few seasons-- making sure that Howard got some pitches to hit. This season, Howard has so such protection.<br /><br />Werth is now gone, leaving via free agency to the Washington Nationals. <br /><br />In the meantime, left fielder <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/i/ibanera01.shtml">Raul Ibanez</a> is a player in decline. In 2009, he hit .272, 34 HR, and 93 RBI. Last year he declined to .275 BA, 16 HR, and 83 RBI, although he also hit 37 doubles. Now at age 39, Ibanez is battling to hit .200, albeit although we are only 17 games into the season. His defense, never stellar, is suffering as well. But still, the team has made no contingency to replace him.<br /><br />If the team's management is not looking at who can be potentially fill at least one of the team's corner outfielder positions, some <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/tb/b94vg">fans and sportswriters are</a>. <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/tb/b94vg">This column</a> on Bleacher Reports discusses who is available. Unfortunately, there is not a lot there.<br /><br />There are a couple of interesting names bandied around there and elsewhere: Carlos Quentin and Ryan Ludwick. One of them could be a regular outfielder for the Phillies, and bat behind Howard-- giving Howard some protection although not as much as he had when Werth batting behind him. With Quentin or Ludwick filling one outfield position, Dominic Brown (when he comes back from injury), John Mayberry, or Ben Franciso-- we hope-- might fill the other. <br /><br />The problem is that the team right now is not concerned. Halladay, Lee, Hamels, and Oswalt might yet prove to be the best pitching rotation in the history of the game. But the four aces are making the team complacent.<br /><br />Ask the Phillies management why they are not more concerned that their two corner outfielder positions are not producing much offense, and their response is that it is less of an issue for them than for other teams because of the four aces. Similarly, ask the Phillies if they are concerned about the prospects of their relief pitching as the season progresses, and they say not to worry because of their aces. <br /><br />The complacency of having perhaps one of baseball history's best rotation might just turn out to be the team's downfall.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-41319517728582367632011-02-21T21:08:00.000-08:002011-02-21T21:09:46.601-08:00Even Kevin Millwood <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/tb/b8f3L">won't consider signing</a> with the Yankees.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-76407251845859786562011-01-10T00:16:00.002-08:002011-01-10T00:17:46.001-08:00The Life That Christina Taylor Green Would Have LivedChristina Taylor Green was nine years old when she was killed. The gunman who murdered her and stole her from her family and friends and everyone else who loved her has foreclosed us from knowing what her future would have been otherwise. To contemplate who she should would have become only makes the crime that much more unspeakable, but it seems necessary to do so.<br /><br />It is important now to consider what the life of Christina Taylor Green may have been, impossible as that may seem, because it is way to honor the life she already lived. It is important because her family has already begun to do so as part of their mourning process as has the community in which she was raised. But perhaps most importantly of all, to consider what her future might have been, and what she and we have lost, might provide some necessary motivation so that we do not let this happen to another child.<br /> <br />In defiance of her murderer, in defiance of those who tolerated the atmosphere that allowed her murder to occur, the murders of five others, and the attempted assassination of Gabby Giffords, we ask: What would Christina have become? Who would she have turned out to be? Would she have had children and grandchildren? Whose lives among us would she have impacted?<br /> <br />Christina was already serving and helping others. She already held elected office at age nine, serving on the student council of her elementary school. She worked for a charity that helped other children, Kids Helping Kids. <br /> <br />The last place her parents thought she would be harmed would be meeting her Congresswoman.<br /> <br />“I allowed her to go, thinking it would be an innocent thing,” Christina’s mother, Roxanna Green, told the New York Times.<br /> <br />At the age of 32, Gabby Giffords had once been the youngest woman elected to the Arizona State Senate, and now she was a Congresswoman. In a state that allowed for and even celebrated the fierce independence and strength of its women, it still was not too long ago that there were few women in elected politics. Gabby was to be a possible role model for Christina, one of the reasons that her parents were hoping that their daughter would be able to spend a few minutes with the Congresswoman.<br /> <br />Christina’s dad, John, told the Times, “I could have easily have seen her as a politician.”<br /> <br />Who is to say that if there has been no gunman in the strip mall, and had Christina had lived, that the events that day might have changed the direction of Christina’s life? Maybe it would have a seminal moment in the life of a child, laying the seeds for her to become involved in public service or public life. <br /> <br />Or perhaps it would have been just another and interesting and playful day in the life of a child that she would have enjoyed and meant little more. The answers are another thing stolen, irreplaceable, by the gunman.<br /> <br />I remember as young child listening to Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King on the radio and then watching them on television. I would listen on phonograph records to speeches made by John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. I was mesmerized. Words to a child (although hardly that much different to a grown up) were as commonplace and necessary as the air we breathe, but here these men were turning them into something else, the most powerful thing in the world. But it was as a child actually going to and watching Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey that changed a life’s course.<br /> <br />Perhaps Christina meeting Gabby Giffords would have changed her life—and who and what she would have become. Or perhaps that is my personal projection. <br /> <br />Her dad has said in various interviews that envisioned her in public life.<br /> <br />But Christina’s father is probably like most dads of young children that I know. On other days, or alternatively even on the same day, they imagine their children has been all grown up doing any number of things. <br /> <br />I have an acquaintance who adopted their three year old from Kazakhstan. His son has his own YouTube video doing a perfect rendition of a song from the Little Mermaid. His dad is convinced, in part because of that performance, that his son will be a politician. Or course the same YouTube performance leads his dad on other occasion to think that his son will be other days be a great actor. And that is only on days when he is not daydreaming his son will be a Olympic snowboard champion, representing, of course, his native Kazakhstan.<br /> <br />Christina was an athlete too. She was already an accomplished gymnast, a swimmer, and dancer. But most remarkably she played second base for the Canyon del Oro Pirates. She was the only girl on the little league team. This last fact makes more sense when learns that her grandfather is Dallas Green, who was the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980 when they won a World Series title, and later also managed the New York Yankees and New York Mets. Her father, John Green, is a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her other brother, eleven years old, is also named Dallas, and apparently named after their grandfather. <br /> <br />Would Christina have gone on to be a student athlete? Of course she would. But would sports have also become her career as it had for her dad and granddad? <br /> <br />Christina loved animals. At home, she had as pets her very own Geckos, and she also cared for the dogs and cats of her neighbors. She had ambitions, she told her parents, to be a veterinarian. At nine, she even had some of the specifics worked out. She would study at New York University. She had been born back east, in a small Pennsylvania town, so she wanted to go back East. She was born on Sept. 11th 2001, even featured in a book of children born on that day. Even at nine, this was part of her identity, something she took pride in, a reason why sometimes she dressed in red, white, and blue. Would she have studies veterinary medicine at NYU? Is that what would have in part become of her life? <br /> <br />We will know nothing of what would have become of Christina Green had she been able to live her life to a natural expectancy. It is a void not dissimilar to the one now in her family’s heart.<br /> <br />But we know a couple of things for sure: “From the very beginning, she was an amazing child,” her mother told the New York Times. “She was very bright, very mature, off the charts. She was the brightest thing that happened that day.” In short, whatever she would have done with her life would have been amazing.<br /> <br />And whatever that was, her life would have been in some way a life of service.<br /> <br />We can never know for sure but this was a little girl who was going to give and do for others, whether that was her own family or in his community, or even something larger.<br /> <br />While posting about her the last couple of days on my Facebook page, comments like these were not uncommon:<br /> <br />Dawn Frantangelo, the NBC News correspondent, wrote: “Oh my lord in heaven. This is beyond sad and her life and death so emblematic of what the madness has come to. My heart goes out to her family and friends and all the glorious potential she had and symbolized.”<br /> <br />Mary Lou Butler, an administrative assistant to a fire chief in South Kingstown, Rhode Ilsand, wrote:<br />“I can't help but think that maybe she would have been a future politician to help heal the world. Born on 9/11, just elected to student council...”<br /> <br />We should have done more to protect Christina Taylor Green than we should. Not just because we as a society to be a moral people should do everything we can to protect the lives of our children, but also because we don’t know what she would have contributed to us.<br /> <br />Some people reading this post will argue that nothing could be done, that her murder was a unpreventable act of senseless violence, a tragedy beyond our control. Without arguing that point, but not conceding that assertion, every day we leave at risk the lives of our country’s children. <br /> <br />Take for example Christina’s state of Arizona. <br /> <br />As just one example, in Arizona today, there are more children at this moment of time than ever before who are homeless, many of whom simply thrown out by parents who no longer want to care for them in hard economic times, or did not care in the first place anyway. According to a recent story in the Arizona Republic, more than 24,500 Arizona students were homeless during the past school year. That number is double what it was in 2003, and also some 18% higher than what it was last year.<br /> <br />We know virtually nothing of a single one of these children, who remain largely nameless and invisible to us. If anyone is really outraged about the murder of Christina Taylor Green, there is absolutely nothing to stop them from helping these children. If they want to honor her or her memory, they should. And one way to do it is simply go down to one of the shelters where these kids hang out, say some kind words, ask what they might do for do them, and become involved in their lives in some small way that may even save their lives. Those with means should even consider taking one of them into their own homes.<br /> <br />As a writer, I have seen first hand how this country has allowed too many of its children and young people to be forgotten, unknown, unsafe, and left to die. A couple of years ago I wrote a story about a young Iraqi war veteran who came safely home from war only to be killed violently for wearing a Red Sox jersey in a Texas bar. When I went to watch a stick ball tournament held in a park named in his honor, I learned that several of his friends who he had played with in that same park as a child had died as a result of violence. Those kids died in part because they were marginalized by our society.<br /> <br />One of the first stories I ever covered as a reporter was about the deaths of dozens of mentally retarded children because of abuse and neglect while they were wards of the District of Columbia government. Dozens and dozens of these children died over two decades as the local government, the local news media, law enforcement agencies, medical agencies which were supposed to oversee their care, failed in their responsibilities and did nothing.<br /> <br />Those particular children died because they were marginalized. They were African-African, they were mostly from impoverished and poor families, and they were mentally retarded. They died because we value some human life, including that of some children, over others. <br /> <br />Christina Taylor Green came from a loving, devoted, well to do family; she had a famous grandfather; and she had advantages most children do not have and may never have in their lifetimes.<br /> <br />What do I take away from her killing? Every American child is now at the margins.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-38937863221702054162010-10-22T22:59:00.000-07:002010-10-22T23:06:10.501-07:00James Neal, 1929 to 2010.<br /><br />From <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/23/us/23neal.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">his <span style="font-style: italic;">NYT</span> obit tonight</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>In May 1973, Mr. Neal was in private practice in Nashville when he was asked by the Watergate special prosecutor, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/archibald_cox/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Archibald Cox." class="meta-per">Archibald Cox</a>, to join his staff. He worked with Mr. Cox until October 1973, when John W. Dean III, President <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/richard_milhous_nixon/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Richard Milhous Nixon." class="meta-per">Richard M. Nixon</a>’s former legal counsel, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and agreed to be a prosecution witness in the cover-up trial of five <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/" title="Washington Post.">Watergate</a> figures. <p> Mr. Cox was subsequently ordered dismissed by Nixon, and his successor, Leon Jaworski, asked Mr. Neal to return for the cover-up case. </p><p> Mr. Neal led the prosecution, handling the questioning of the government’s key witness, Mr. Dean, and on Jan. 1, 1975, a jury convicted four men — John N. Mitchell, the former attorney general; H. R. Haldeman, Nixon’s former chief of staff; John D. Ehrlichman, Nixon’s former chief domestic adviser; and Robert C. Mardian, a former assistant attorney general — of covering up the illegal activities of the committee to re-elect Nixon, which had come to light when a White House team of burglars was caught breaking into Democratic offices at the Watergate complex. </p></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-22490400396188895252010-10-08T22:22:00.000-07:002010-10-08T22:23:56.852-07:00<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/10/why-is-this-gop-house-candidate-dressed-as-a-nazi/64319/">Oy Vey</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-60552902050266471592010-10-05T01:49:00.001-07:002010-10-05T01:49:49.952-07:00<a href="http://businessjournalism.org/2010/10/04/reuters-and-milwaukee-journal-sentinel-receive-2010-barlett-steele-awards/">Sweet</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-30260646392106310192010-10-05T01:21:00.000-07:002012-04-27T15:42:21.903-07:00<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-health-politics-money-20101005,0,4869233.story">From the <span style="font-style: italic;">L.A. Times </span>this morning</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>The insurance industry is pouring money into Republican campaign coffers in hopes of scaling back wide-ranging regulations in the new healthcare law but preserving the mandate that Americans buy coverage.<br /><br />Since January, the nation's five largest insurers and the industry's Washington-based lobbying arm have given three times more money to Republican lawmakers and political action committees than to Democratic politicians and organizations.<br /><br />That is a marked change from 2009, when the industry largely split its political donations between the parties, according to federal election filings.<div id="article-promo" class="left"></div> <br />The largest insurers are also paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobbyists with close ties to Republican lawmakers who could shape health policy in January, records show.<br /></blockquote><br />Read the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-health-politics-money-20101005,0,4869233.story">entire story here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-21477240814214239782010-09-26T22:52:00.000-07:002012-04-27T15:48:02.065-07:00I have a <a href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24200905.htm">new story up at Reuters this morning</a>, with Nick Carey, about veterans of the Iraqi and Afghan wars with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries: <br /><br /><blockquote>More than one in four U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars in the state of Virginia say they have suffered a service-related head injury and two thirds reported depression, according to a report by Virginia Tech to be released on Tuesday.<br /><br />The real numbers may be much higher, according to Mary Beth Dunkenberger, senior program director at the Institute for Policy and Governance at Virginia Tech and author of the report.<br /><br />In focus groups many veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan said they were afraid to admit to suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during demobilization because it would keep them from their families and hurt their careers, she told Reuters.<br /><br />"During demobilization troops are kind of on a high and just want to see their families," she said. "If they admit to having PTSD, they know it could be weeks until they see their families so there is a tendency to minimize their symptoms."<br /><br />"Also career soldiers are reluctant to speak up because they're afraid it could hurt their future prospects in the military," she added, "while those returning to civilian life are afraid that no one will employ them if they're known to suffer from PTSD."<br /><br />The report was compiled for the Virginia Wounded Warrior Program, which is operated by the Virginia Department of Veterans Services, and was provided in advance to Reuters. It found that 66 percent of veterans of these two wars reported suffering from some form of depression, second only to Vietnam veterans. Ten percent cited a high level of depression. Thirteen percent said they had suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and 26 percent said they had sustained a service-related head injury...<br /></blockquote><br />Read the whole story <a href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24200905.htm">here</a>.
Other <a href="http://businessjournalism.org/2010/10/04/reuters-and-milwaukee-journal-sentinel-receive-2010-barlett-steele-awards/">Reuters stories by Murray Waas</a>:
<a href="http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/04/09/waas_now.html">Murray Waas(Editor: Ed Tobin)</a>,<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/13/us-stanford-campaign-idUSTRE81C22H20120213"> "Obama, Politicians Decline to Return Obama Money,"</a><a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-investigates/2011/01/05/congratulations-to-murray-waas/"> Reuters</a>, Feb. 13, 2002.
<a href="http://www.hks.harvard.edu/presspol/prizes_lectures/goldsmith_awards/investigative_reporting.html">Murray Waas(Editor: Martin Howell)</a>, "<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/26/us-sec-stanford-idUSTRE80P22R20120126">How Allen Stanford Kept the SEC at Bay,"</a> Reuters, January 26, 2012.
<a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E6D91731F934A15752C1A9639C8B63&pagewanted=all">
Murray Waas</a>, "<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/26/us-sec-stanford-idUSTRE80P22R20120126">How Allen Stanford Kept the SEC at Bay,"</a> Reuters, January 26, 2012.
<a href="http://sabew.org/2010/10/reuters-milwaukee-j-s-win-11-barlett-steele-awards/">Murray Waas(Editor: Jim Impoco)</a>,<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/27/us-usa-elections-tricks-idUSTRE69Q4XS20101027">"Tea Party Candidates Only a Democrat Could Love,"</a><a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-investigates/2011/01/05/congratulations-to-murray-waas/"> Reuters</a>, Dec, 27, 2010.
<a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/white-house-watched.html">Nick Carey and Murray Waas</a>,<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/27/us-usa-elections-tricks-idUSTRE69Q4XS20101027"> "Virginia Veteran Report Shows High Depression Rate"</a>, <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-investigates/2011/01/05/congratulations-to-murray-waas/">Reuters</a>, September 27, 2010.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-15139351770612257342010-08-19T08:19:00.000-07:002010-08-19T08:24:50.424-07:00McClatchy's Washington bureau has <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/18/99359/detainee-torture-cases-proceed.html">this must-read</a> this morning:<br /><br /><p> </p><p></p><blockquote><p>WASHINGTON — In June, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a Canadian man who contends that U.S. authorities mistook him for an al Qaida operative in 2002 and shipped him to a secret prison in Syria, where he was beaten with electrical cables and held in a grave-like cell for 10 months. </p> <p> Four years earlier, however, the Canadian government had concluded an exhaustive inquiry and found that the former prisoner, Maher Arar, was telling the truth. Canada cleared Arar of all ties to terrorism and paid him $10 million in damages, and his lawyers say he's cooperating with an investigation into the role of U.S. and Syrian officials in his imprisonment and reported torture.</p><p>Arar's case illustrates what lawyers and human rights groups call a shameful trend: While U.S. courts and the Obama administration have been reluctant or unwilling to pursue the cases, countries that once backed former President George W. Bush's war on terrorism are carrying out their own investigations of the alleged U.S. torture program and the role that their governments played in it. </p> <p>Judges in Great Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland and Lithuania are preparing to hear allegations that their governments helped the CIA run secret prisons on their soil or cooperated in illegal U.S. treatment of terrorism suspects. Spanish prosecutors also have filed criminal charges against six senior Bush administration officials who approved the harsh interrogation methods that detainees say were employed at U.S. military prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and other sites.</p></blockquote><div style="border: medium none ; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><br />Read the <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/18/99359/detainee-torture-cases-proceed.html">entire story here</a>.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-2731279553490076952010-05-15T11:28:00.000-07:002010-05-15T11:36:42.600-07:00<p>The Center for Investigative Reporting and California Watch has<a href="http://californiawatch.org/nitrate-contamination-spreading-california-communities"> a nice story out this weekend</a>:<br /></p><p>The water supply of more than two million Californians has been exposed to harmful levels of nitrates over the past 15 years – a time marked by lax regulatory efforts to contain the colorless and odorless contaminant, a California Watch investigation has found.</p> <p>Nitrates are now the most common groundwater contaminant in California and across the country. A byproduct of nitrogen-based farm fertilizer, animal manure, wastewater treatment plants and leaky septic tanks, nitrates leach into the ground and can be expensive to extract.</p> <p>The problem affects both rural Californians and wealthier big-city water systems. State law requires public water systems to remove nitrates. Many rural communities, however, don’t have access to the type of treatment systems available in metropolitan areas.</p> <p>Nitrates have been linked to “blue baby syndrome,” which cuts off an infant’s oxygen supply. Some studies have found connections to certain cancers in lab animals.</p> <p>The State Water Resources Control Board acknowledges that nitrates are a problem affecting vast regions of California. And the situation is worsening, especially in the Central Valley, Central Coast, and the Los Angeles and Imperial Valley regions. High nitrate levels have already impacted public water system wells in many areas, and the contaminants continue to migrate toward groundwater supplies that could ultimately impact the water supply for millions of additional Californians.</p> <p>Statewide, the number of wells that exceeded the health limit for nitrates jumped from nine in 1980 to 648 in 2007. Scientists anticipate a growing wave of nitrate problems in some parts of the state if remedial steps aren’t taken.</p><p>Read more <a href="http://californiawatch.org/nitrate-contamination-spreading-california-communities">here</a>. Also, <a href="http://www.cjr.org/feature/the_new_investigators.php?page=1">interesting piece</a> on new investigative reporting non-profits at <span style="font-style: italic;">CJR</span>.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-7022547110318783372010-05-10T17:08:00.000-07:002010-05-10T17:13:12.670-07:00<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2253577/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tim Noah in Slate: </span></a><br /><br /><p>No corporation can claim a more vital role in passing and starting to implement the health care reform law than WellPoint, which has a larger customer base (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.wellpoint.com/PDF/WLPFactSheet.pdf">34 million</a>) than any other health insurer in the United States. This is not to say that WellPoint <em>supported</em> health reform; <a target="_blank" href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=130104&p=irol-newsArticle_general&t=Regular&id=1308357&">quite</a> the <a target="_blank" href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=130104&p=irol-newsArticle_general&t=Regular&id=1308361&">opposite</a>. But as President Obama's May 8 radio address demonstrated not for the first time (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/weekly-address-president-obama-praises-benefits-and-successes-health-reform-already">text</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/WeeklyAddress/2010/050810-JSDRVN/050810_WeeklyAddress.mp3">audio</a>), WellPoint is a uniquely maladroit corporate heavy. If it didn't exist, Obama might have had to invent it.</p><p>"[W]hen we found out that an insurance company was systematically dropping the coverage of women diagnosed with breast cancer," Obama said in the address, "my administration called on them to end this practice immediately." The company went unnamed, but it was WellPoint, and news of the practice was broken by Reuters in an April 22 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63M5D420100423">news story</a> by Murray Waas, an investigative reporter who also happens to be a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/25/AR2006062500953.html">cancer survivor</a>. Waas reported that WellPoint </p><blockquote><p>was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted … every … policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.</p></blockquote><p>This prompted Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/04/wellpoint04222010.pdf">write</a> WellPoint chief executive Angela Braly and pronounce herself "surprised and disappointed." This practice, Sebelius wrote, was "deplorable." Braly <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wellpoint.com/pdf/HHS_Letter.pdf">replied</a> that it was <em>she</em> who was "disappointed" that both Sebelius and Waas would "grossly misrepresent" the policies of a corporate citizen in whose Indianapolis headquarters hung "a three-story pink ribbon." Braly referred Sebelius to a <a target="_blank" href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=130104&p=irol-newsArticle_general&t=Regular&id=1416717&">fact sheet</a> stating that the computer software in question "is used to look at a series of diagnostic codes meant to capture conditions that applicants would likely have known about at the time they applied for coverage. <strong>We do not single out breast cancer or pregnancy." </strong></p><p>In other words, WellPoint had a computer program able to identify <em>multiple</em> diseases it found especially conducive to rescission (the routine and disgraceful practice by which health insurers comb through the paperwork of seriously ill policyholders in search of some chicken-shit reason to nullify the policy). Why Braly thought this assertion might <em>improve</em> her company's image is hard to guess. When the smoke cleared, WellPoint had been maneuvered into <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wellpoint.com/pdf/releaes_04262010.pdf">volunteering</a> to end such rescissions as of May 1, nearly five months ahead of the deadline imposed by the new health law (which <a target="_blank" href="http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h3590enr.txt.pdf">prohibits</a> rescissions except when the patient commits fraud or "makes an intentional misrepresentation of material fact"). United Healthcare quickly <a target="_blank" href="http://www.uhc.com/news_room/health_care_policy/policy_update/may_6.htm">followed suit</a>.</p><p>Read his entire column<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2253577/"> here</a>.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10619332.post-65845081091585526012010-02-11T20:53:00.000-08:002010-02-11T21:00:35.408-08:00Iceland to be haven for out-of-work investigative reporters and whistleblowers?<p>I'm not sure what to make of this. From Neiman Labs, Iceland's parliament is attempting to make their country for investigative reporting and publishing. Sounds great in theory, and hard to argue with their grandeur of their goal, but am skeptical-- and not sure what "libel-tourism prevention laws" are.</p><p>In any case, below is <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/iceland-aims-to-become-an-offshore-haven-for-journalists-and-leakers/">a good portion of the article</a>.<br /></p><p></p><blockquote><p>On Tuesday, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althing">Icelandic parliament</a> is expected to introduce a measure aimed at making the country an international center for investigative journalism publishing, by passing the strongest combination of source protection, freedom of speech, and libel-tourism prevention laws in the world. </p> <p>Supporters of the proposal say the move would make Iceland an “offshore publishing center” for free speech, analogous to the offshore financial havens that allow corporations to hide capital from authorities. Could global news organizations with a home office in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reykjav%C3%ADk">Reykjavík</a> soon be as common as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_General_Corporation_Law">Delaware corporations</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_financial_centre">Cayman Islands assets</a>?</p> <p>“This is a legislative package to create a haven for freedom of expression,” Icelandic member of parliament <a href="http://this.is/birgitta/">Birgitta Jónsdóttir</a> confirmed to me, saying that a proposal for comprehensive media law reform will be filed in parliament on Tuesday, and that whistle-blowing specialists <a href="http://wikileaks.org/">Wikileaks</a> has been involved in drafting it. There have been persistent hints of an Icelandic media move in recent weeks, including <a href="http://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/8614240243">tweets</a> from Wikileaks and a <a href="http://twitter.com/icelandmedia/status/8824393465">cryptic message</a> from the newly created @icelandmedia Twitter account.</p> <p>The text of the proposal, called the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, is not yet public, but the most detailed evidence comes from a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWNfIvG4z-g">video</a> of a talk by Julian Assange and Daniel Schmitt of Wikileaks, given at the <a href="https://events.ccc.de/congress/2009/wiki/Main_Page">Chaos Communications Congress</a> hacker conference in Berlin on Dec. 27: </p> <p><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VWNfIvG4z-g&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VWNfIvG4z-g&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object></p> <blockquote><p>We could just say we’re taking the <a href="http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Work/Swedish_model/An-open-society/">source protection laws from Sweden</a>, for example…we could take the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution">First Amendment</a> from the United States, we could take <a href="http://www.agjpb.be/ajp/communiques/secretsources170305.php">Belgian protection laws for journalists</a>, and we could all pack these together in one bundle, and make it fit for the first jurisdiction that offers the necessities of an information society.</p></blockquote> <p><span id="more-12724"></span>Schmitt termed the idea “a Switzerland of bits.” He also mentions that “lawyers in Iceland are working on a bill that will be introduced on the 26th of January,” although it appears the date of introduction has been pushed back to next week. And he cites Iceland as a path to eventually <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_of_Iceland_to_the_European_Union">spreading similar laws throughout the EU</a></p> <p><strong>A safe haven for leakers and investigators</strong></p> <p>Jónsdóttir explained that the proposal does not contain final legislation, but would instruct the government to create a package of laws that enhance journalistic freedoms in specific ways. According to an email from Assange (which was then <a href="http://facthai.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/creating-a-media-haven-in-iceland-wikileaks/">leaked</a>, ironically enough) the amendments would cover source protection, whistleblower protection, immunity for ISPs and other carriers, freedom of information requests, and strong limits on prior restraint. They would also provide protection against libel judgements from other jurisdictions, much as the United States may soon do with the <a href="http://www.medialaw.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Hot_Topics/Libel_Tourism/Libel_Tourism.htm">Free Speech Protection Act of 2009</a>. </p> <p>This package was designed by a working group including representatives from government, civil society, and Wikileaks, which has considerable experience in international media law and censorship issues. The site accepts anonymous submissions of material of public interest, and publishes them without question. Since its its inception in Jan. 2007, Wikileaks has released thousands of sensitive documents, including an investigation of <a href="http://blog.marsgroupkenya.org/?p=870">extra-judicial killings in Kenya</a> and more than 500,000 <a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/digital-tools-to-sift-through-wikileaks-911-messages/">intercepted pager messages</a> from New York on the morning of September 11, 2001. When The Guardian obtained documents alleging the dumping of 400 tons of toxic waste on behalf of global commodities trader Trafigura, they were <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/technology/internet/19link.html">slapped with a “super-injunction”</a> which prevented them from disclosing not only the contents of the documents, but the existence of the gag order. Wikileaks published the material three days later. Wikileaks is currently down for a fundraising drive but <a href="http://www.techeye.net/internet/wikileaks-gets-funding-and-announces-its-return">says it will resume operation</a> shortly.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Read the <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/iceland-aims-to-become-an-offshore-haven-for-journalists-and-leakers/">rest of the article</a> here.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0