| Orthodontic work at a fraction of the cost
Dental work isn't cheap these days. Healthline 3's Beth Fisher recently talked to a parent who said he spent $6,000 on his son's braces. The Healthline 3 Team found a unique program that gets you the quality orthodontic work you need and want at a fraction of the cost. Parker Simonsen is ready for another orthodontics appointment. His teeth are straightening out, but Parker's dad knows the appointment could cost a lot of money. So Parker is one of many patients helping UNLV resident dentists, like Dr. Doug Simister, become orthodontists. Dr. Simister has been a dentist in the valley for eight years. He is one of 16 residents enrolled in UNLV's 24 month orthodontics residency program that started for the first time in the fall of 2005. The program needs between 800 and 1,000 patients.
Film biz losing brand wagon
They pony up to $100 million on media buys in tie-ins that promote both their product and the tentpole films -- a big relief to studios who, according to the latest MPAA figures, have just started to rein in marketing costs. The loss means Hollywood studios are faced with the need to beef up their marketing budgets to compensate for the shortfall. Usually product tie-ins for summer pics are brokered six months to a year in advance. But Pixar and Disney are still talking to potential partners for "Wall-E," which unspools in June. In the film biz, Disney-Pixar is the closest thing to a sure bet, so if they're working hard to land the right marketer, what hope is there for other studios? During the most recent holiday frame, "I Am Legend," "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and "Enchanted" boasted no significant outside support, other than online sweepstakes.
IU9 appoints Colf as agency’s new executive director
SMETHPORT — The board of directors of Seneca Highlands Intermediate Unit Nine Educational Services on Monday approved the appointment of Mary K. Colf as the agency’s new executive director, effective Jan. 7.She succeeds Dan Wetzel, who is retiring Jan. 4 after 15 years in the post. According to the Pennsylvania School Code, an IU executive director must be appointed for a term of four years. The salary for the period of Jan. 7 through June 30, 2009, is to be based on an annual salary of $104,500.The intermediate units replace the former county offices of education. IU9 provides special education, curriculum, instructional media, vocational-technical and management services for the school districts in McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter counties and administers federal programs and Act 89 programs for non-public schools.Colf is a former elementary teacher in the Otto-Eldred School District.She has been with IU9 for 31 years and for the past seven years was the recent director of curriculum services.
New Legislation Affects TRICARE Supplements
FALLS CHURCH, Va. - Many TRICARE beneficiaries are getting letters from their employer stating they will no longer offer TRICARE supplements as an employer sponsored medical option effective January 1, 2008. TRICARE beneficiaries should look closely at their health care options. A provision of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2007 prohibits employers from offering their employees financial or other incentives to use TRICARE rather than the company's Group Health Plan (GHP). The legislation applies to any employer, including states and units of local government with 20 or more employees, and mirrors the same prohibition that currently applies to Medicare. Beneficiaries have earned their right to TRICARE benefits through their service and this remains unchanged. TRICARE beneficiaries should take measures to understand and look closely at all of their health care options offered by TRICARE and their current employer before deciding what is best for them and their families. Eligible beneficiaries can enroll in TRICARE on their own without taking employer incentives if desired.
Online Opinion Poll
Madville Times readers will not be surprised; you've read here about such policies at the state and local level. Among the points Free Lunch adds to the argument that the plutocrats are destroying the free market: George W. Bush amassed two-thirds of his wealth thanks to eminent domain and a tax increase that supported the building of a new stadium for the Texas Rangers that Bush and his buddies could have afforded to build with their own capital. Bush was able to sell the team for a profit (and dodge taxes by claiming $17 million in compensation as capital gains). But stadiums help the community as a whole with economic development, you say? Bonk. Stadiums simply concentrate relatively fixed recreation spending in one place. Cay Johnston cites stats from the last baseball strike, during which time cities with sidelined major league baseball teams saw their restaurants, movie theaters, nightclubs, and video arcades enjoy big boosts in business.
Staph-Killing Properties of Clay Investigated by UB Researchers
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- What makes some clays such powerful antimicrobial agents capable of killing MRSA and other virulent bacteria? It's a question that University at Buffalo researchers have been studying for several years. With funding from the National Institutes of Health-National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the UB geologists are studying the surface characteristics of naturally occurring antimicrobial clays, including some clays from France, to determine why they are such effective killers of bacteria. Researchers from Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration, to whom the UB researchers are under subcontract on that grant, have recently shown that French clays can destroy Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, also called MRSA.
Ex-BB housemate Lisa's libel appeal
The 39-year-old model, who featured in the 2003 series of the reality show, wants to sue over publications on the cover of Love it! magazine and in the News of the World in May 2006. She is complaining about the words: "BB's Lisa 'the geezer'. My fake boobs fell out on date with James Hewitt!" She says the innuendo - against rumours that there was to be a transsexual contestant - was that she was really a man posing as a woman, a transgender or transsexual. News Magazines Ltd and News Group Newspapers, who deny libel, argue that the words complained of taken in their proper context could not bear her "far-fetched" meaning. Last April, High Court judge Mr Justice Eady dismissed her claim, ruling that no reasonable reader could conclude that the words complained of bore the meaning she alleged.
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