This blog is not affiliated or endorsed, by Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, subject to the New York Freedom
of Information Law, NY Pub Off Law Sec 84 et seq.
The campaign committee of Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano spent ... The chart shows the dozen restaurants where the most money was spent, and ...
Piccolo
is a family owned and operated Italian restaurant with authentic
Italian cuisine and pizza conveniently Located on Sunrise Highway in Bellmore.
How much money would Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, have made for Nassau County and how much money would Nassau OTB employees have had the opportunity to make, if Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation was open every day of the year that tracks were /are running that bettors want to bet and some workers may want to work on those days. Workers who do not wish to work have a sacrosanct right to take vacation.
Nassau Comptroller George Maragos
urged all fellow elected county officials to cap pay raises to their
appointees at a maximum 8 percent, as the county attorney warned that
retroactive pay hikes for nonunion employees are unconstitutional.
Photo Credit: Howard Schnapp
Joye Brown
Joye Brown has been a columnist for Newsday since 2006. She joined the newspaper in 1983 and has ...
And it notes a New York State comptroller's office finding
that retroactive pay increases to nonunion public officials violate the
state constitution's ban on gifts of public money.
That ought to be enough for County Executive Edward
Mangano to block raises for Republican and Democratic elections board
commissioners, rather than letting them go into effect without his
signature.
But that's not likely to happen.
Those increases weigh in at a whopping 31 percent, with
salary hikes from $128,000 to $168,000. In addition, county lawmakers,
who approved the increases on Nov. 17, made them retroactive to July --
which is before a state control board lifted a wage freeze on Nassau's
nonunion employees.
As it is, residents are bristling at revenue-grabbing
school-zone speed cameras and an upcoming 3.4 percent increase in the
county portion of the property tax.
These generous raises will generate even more heat -- and
to think, there probably are other raises for Nassau's political
employees to come.
On Nov. 21, George Maragos, the county comptroller, sent
out his own memo to fellow elected officials, saying that nonunion
increases ought to be held to 8 percent.
Some officials, according to a Newsday report, suggested
that the Maragos memo went out as a reaction to a request by outgoing
District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who is going to Congress, to give large
retroactive raises to attorneys in her office -- which her spokesman
denied.
It's yet to be determined whether other elected officials,
including Democrats and Republicans in the legislature or the county
clerk's office, also will give big raises to their political appointees.
But just as one point of comparison -- and an apt one in a
region with a rapidly aging population -- monthly Social Security and
Supplemental Security Income benefits are slated for a 1.7 percent cost
of living increase next year.
Not 8.
And certainly not 31 percent.
One more:
Overall, salaries for Nassau employees are slated to
increase by $39.7 million next year -- which is more than the $31
million the county will receive from the property tax increase.
That means Nassau residents will be paying higher taxes,
for the county's smallest workforce in decades -- even as the level of
some services declines.
And that they will be paying for increases for election commissioners going forward -- as well as backward to July.
What does the state control board overseeing Nassau
finances make of this? Jon Kaiman, chairman of the Nassau Interim
Finance Authority, said NIFA would leave those decisions to county
officials rather than weighing in itself.
But wait.
Let's go back to the memo from the outside counsel to
County Attorney Carnell Foskey -- which concluded that "retroactive wage
increases to elected officials, public officers, department heads and
commissioners are not permissible."
That seems clear.
Doesn't it?
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New
York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking
revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close
on holidays. New York State Racing Law
bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the
state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even
though they could easily broadcast races from out of state. “You should be able to bet whenever
you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who
makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic:
“How is the business going to make money if you’re not open
to take people’s bets?” Elias Tsekerides, president of the
Federation of
Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is
open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday. “I don’t want discrimination,”
Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for
the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.” OTB officials have said they lose
millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such
as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne
running. One option: OTBs could just stay
open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just
that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and
OTB was fined $5,000. Easy money.
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New
York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking
revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close
on holidays. New York State Racing Law
bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the
state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even
though they could easily broadcast races from out of state. “You should be able to bet whenever
you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who
makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic:
“How is the business going to make money if you’re not open
to take people’s bets?” Elias Tsekerides, president of the
Federation of
Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is
open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday. “I don’t want discrimination,”
Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for
the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.” OTB officials have said they lose
millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such
as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne
running. One option: OTBs could just stay
open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just
that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and
OTB was fined $5,000. Easy money.
Franklin Square’s Nassau County OTB
Corporation branch, at 1063 Hempstead Turnpike in Franklin Square, would
be able to bring in more revenue, and keep more of that revenue, if
three bills recently introduced by Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Elmont) become
law.
From 1997 to 2003, OTB corporations made dark-day payments to
regional harness tracks, but in 2004 the New York City OTB stopped
making those payments on the grounds that the law required the tracks,
not OTBs, to make such payments to one another. A0602 would ensure that
OTB corporations are able to keep all the revenue they receive from
broadcasting out-of-state races.
Jackson Leeds, a Baldwin resident who has been a cashier at the
Nassau OTB Corporation in Franklin Square for six years, said the
Franklin Square OTB is one of the most profitable branch locations in
the county. Leeds, who has supported Ra’s legislation ever since Barra
introduced it, said it is a “no-brainer,” especially given the county’s
current economic difficulties.
“This is the simplest of simple questions, in my mind,” Leeds said.
“You’re able to purchase a Powerball ticket 365 days a year, and
therefore you should be able to bet on horses 365 days a year.”
Leeds said that Ra’s legislation would help bolster Franklin Square’s
OTB Corporation as well as others, including Belmont Park in Elmont.
The New York Racing Association, which operates Belmont Park,
declined to comment on the legislation. Ra said he would be speaking
with NYRA about the legislation. “I would be [open] to any tweaks that
they think would benefit them,” he said. “Any additional dollars we can
get for Belmont is an important thing because those are dollars that
will hopefully help jobs that are there, and hopefully help jobs grow.”
On March 2, Sen. Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn) introduced independent
legislation to allow off-track betting to take place on Palm Sunday. Ra
said he is currently working on obtaining co-sponsorship in the Assembly
for his legislation, and would be willing to work with any legislators
on getting the bills passed. Although Barra’s legislation was heavily
co-sponsored in the 2009-10 session, it was held for consideration in
the Assembly Racing and Wagering Committee, and didn’t pass out of the
Assembly before the session ended.
Ra’s bills have been referred to the Racing and Wagering Committee,
and are currently under consideration by the committee’s chairman,
Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, of Mt. Vernon.
March 29, 2011
|
201 views
Legislation would strengthen state OTB corporations
Assemblyman Ed Ra introduced three bills to revitalize horse racing
Franklin Square’s Nassau County OTB
Corporation branch, at 1063 Hempstead Turnpike in Franklin Square, would
be able to bring in more revenue, and keep more of that revenue, if
three bills recently introduced by Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Elmont) become
law.
Assemblyman Ed Ra recently introduced three bills that would help
state off-track betting corporations, including racetracks, keep more of
the money that is spent on their premises and create more business for
them. Ra’s legislation reintroduces three bills offered by Assemblyman
Bob Barra (R-Lynbrook) in the 2009-10 legislative session.
“All of New York state’s regional off-track betting corporations are
currently in financial distress, despite the fact that they all have
acted to reduce inefficiencies and streamline operations,” Ra said.
“This result is due in large part to the increased burden of statutory
distribution payouts that have been imposed upon them. These increased
payments have resulted in not only endangering the economic viability of
the regional corporations, but also in decreased payments to their
stakeholders — municipal governments.”
Ra added that due to the new revenue stream created by the
installation of video lottery terminals at racetracks around the state,
there is now an opportunity to revitalize and restructure racing in New
York — which his legislation aims to do.
One of Ra’s bills, A06020, would allow parimutuel, or off-track,
betting to take place on Palm Sunday. Currently, state law does not
permit off-track betting — which allows bets of the same type to be
placed together in a pool — on Palm Sunday, Easter or Christmas. Ra said
that the bill would not mandate that tracks or OTB corporations allow
betting on Palm Sunday, but would give them the option of operating that
day.
The bill would not, however, extend to Christmas or Easter, he said,
because he believes those days are major holidays, and require the
prohibition of betting. More people go out of state on Palm Sunday than
on Christmas or Easter to place bets, he added. “There are so many
places where people can bet now, online and elsewhere,” Ra said.
religious leaders for his savage discrimination and religious preference in closing Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, on Roman Catholic Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday, in preference to Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday. Religious leaders agree that there is no one in New York who Andrew Cuomo won't persecute with ISIS like abandon as he drives down I 95 toward the White House?
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I,
second left, touches Pope Francis' crucifix at the Patriarchal Church of
St. George in Istanbul, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014. The two major branches
of Christianity represented by Bartholomew and Francis split in 1054
over differences on the power of the papacy. The two spiritual heads
will participate in an ecumenical liturgy and sign a joint declaration
in the ongoing attempt to reunite the churches. (AP Photo/Gregorio
Borgia) Photo Credit: AP
ISTANBUL - (AP) -- Pope Francis and the spiritual leader of the
world's Orthodox Christians demanded an end to the persecution of
religious minorities in Syria and Iraq on Sunday and called for a
"constructive dialogue" with Muslims, capping the pontiff's three-day
visit to Turkey with a strong show of Christian unity in the face of
suffering and violence.
Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I issued a
joint declaration urging leaders in the region to intensify assistance
to victims of the Islamic State group, and especially to allow
Christians who have had a presence in the region for 2,000 years to
remain on their native lands.
"The terrible situation of Christians and all those who
are suffering in the Middle East calls not only for our constant prayer
but also for an appropriate response on the part of the international
community," they wrote.
Specifically, Francis told reporters on the way home from
Istanbul that all Islamic leaders -- political, religious, academic --
should clearly condemn terrorism so that their people hear it directly
from their mouths.
"We need a global condemnation -- including from Muslims -- who say 'This isn't who we are. This isn't the Quran,'" he said.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, second left,
touches Pope Francis' crucifix at the Patriarchal Church of St. George
in Istanbul, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014. The two major branches of
Christianity represented by Bartholomew and Francis split in 1054 over
differences on the power of the papacy. The two spiritual heads will
participate in an ecumenical liturgy and sign a joint declaration in the
ongoing attempt to reunite the churches. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Photo Credit: AP
Francis, who represents the 1.2 billion-strong Catholic
Church, and Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million
Orthodox Christians, called for "constructive dialogue" with Islam
"based on mutual respect and friendship."
"Inspired by common values and strengthened by genuine
fraternal sentiments, Muslims and Christians are called to work together
for the sake of justice, peace and respect for the dignity and rights
of every person, especially in those regions where they once lived for
centuries in peaceful coexistence and now tragically suffer together the
horrors of war," they said.
Francis' outreach to Muslims in the Muslim nation, and his
comments about the Islamic assault on Christians next door, took center
stage during his brief visit: His prayer in Istanbul's Sultan Ahmet
mosque was replayed again and again on Turkish television in a sign that
his gesture was greatly appreciated. And it seemed that the message was
reciprocated: The grand mufti of Istanbul, Rahmi Yaran, who received
him at the mosque, said he hoped that Francis' visit would "contribute
to the world getting along well and living in peace."
Francis told reporters on the way home from Istanbul that
he was greatly touched by the care that Yaran took in showing him around
the mosque and explaining verses of the Quran to him, such that he felt
inspired to pray together with him when they reached the eastern most
part of the room.
"I prayed for Turkey, for peace, for the mufti, for
everyone, for myself because I need it," Francis said. "I really prayed,
and I prayed for peace above all, saying to the Lord 'let's end this
wary.' It was a moment of sincere prayer."
In this photo provided by Vatican newspaper
L'Osservatore Romano, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, right, kisses
Pope Francis' head during an ecumenical prayer at the Patriarchal Church
of St. George in Istanbul, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014. The two major
branches of Christianity represented by Bartholomew and Francis split in
1054 over differences on the power of the papacy. The two spiritual
heads will participate in an ecumenical liturgy and sign a joint
declaration in the ongoing attempt to reunite the churches. (AP
Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho) Photo Credit: AP
Another poignant moment during the trip came when he met
with about 100 Iraqi and Syrian refugee children, telling them that he
wanted to share in their suffering, offer his consolation and give them
hope.
"I ask political leaders to always remember that the great
majority of their people long for peace, even if at times they lack the
strength and voice to demand it," he said. During the encounter in the
Holy Spirit cathedral in Istanbul, a young Iraqi girl told the pope of
the suffering of Iraqi Christians forced to flee their homes and another
child gave him a drawing.
"I am so, so happy I have seen the pope today," said
Marsel Basam, a 17-year-old from Baghdad who has been in Istanbul for
four months. "This is my dream, yes."
Francis kicked off his final day in Turkey with a lengthy,
two-hour liturgy alongside Barthlomew in the Orthodox Church of St.
George, where incense mingled with hypnotic chants and prayers on an
important feast day for the Orthodox Church.
The Catholic and Orthodox churches split in 1054 over
differences on the primacy of the papacy, and there was a time when
patriarchs had to kiss popes' feet. The two churches have grown closer
together in recent decades, such that at the end of a joint prayer
service Saturday evening, Francis bowed to Bartholomew and asked for his
blessing "for me and the Church of Rome," a remarkable display of papal
deference to an Orthodox patriarch that underscored Francis' hope to
end the schism.
In his remarks Sunday, Francis assured the Orthodox
faithful gathered in St. George's that unity wouldn't mean sacrificing
their rich liturgical or cultural patrimony or "signify the submission
of one to the other, or assimilation."
"I want to assure each one of you gathered here that, to
reach the desired goal of full unity, the Catholic Church does not
intend to impose any conditions except that of the shared profession of
faith," he said.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi,
acknowledged the novelty in Francis' message. While experts from both
churches continue to debate theological divisions between them, Francis
and Bartholomew are "pushing with incredible strength toward union"
through their frequent and warm personal contacts, Lombardi said.
"The theological dialogue and other aspects can go forward
better or sooner if there is a strong attitude" on the part of the pope
and patriarch, he said. "I cannot say that this is the solution to the
problem, but this is surely a strong impulse."
Bartholomew, for his part, noted that Christians are being
persecuted across the Mideast regardless of their particular
confession.
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New
York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking
revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close
on holidays. New York State Racing Law
bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the
state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even
though they could easily broadcast races from out of state. “You should be able to bet whenever
you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who
makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic:
“How is the business going to make money if you’re not open
to take people’s bets?” Elias Tsekerides, president of the
Federation of
Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is
open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday. “I don’t want discrimination,”
Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for
the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.” OTB officials have said they lose
millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such
as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne
running. One option: OTBs could just stay
open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just
that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and
OTB was fined $5,000. Easy money.
"The modern persecutors of Christians do not ask which
church their victims belong to," he said. "The unity that concerns us is
regrettably already occurring in certain regions of the world through
the blood of martyrs."
when his follower Andrew Cuomo, as pious as the the President of Turkey, closes Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, according to the preference of the Pontiff and Andrew Cuomo and not the preference of Patriarch Bartholomew.
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New
York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking
revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close
on holidays. New York State Racing Law
bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the
state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even
though they could easily broadcast races from out of state. “You should be able to bet whenever
you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who
makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic:
“How is the business going to make money if you’re not open
to take people’s bets?” Elias Tsekerides, president of the
Federation of
Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is
open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday. “I don’t want discrimination,”
Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for
the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.” OTB officials have said they lose
millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such
as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne
running. One option: OTBs could just stay
open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just
that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and
OTB was fined $5,000. Easy money.
Pope Francis Urges Respect for Religious Freedom on Trip To Turkey
On First Day of Visit, Pontiff Also Affirms Belief in Dialogue Between Religions
At the start of a three-day visit
to Turkey, Pope Francis demanded respect for religious freedom during a
meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a call that will
resonate particularly with Christians. Photo: Getty Images
ANKARA, Turkey—
Pope Francis
demanded respect for religious freedom during a meeting with
Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
on Friday, a call that will resonate particularly with Christians
who say they suffer discrimination in a country where Islam has
reasserted itself in the public sphere.
At the start of a three-day visit
to Turkey, the pope also reaffirmed his belief in dialogue between
religions, saying it could be a key part of bringing peace to the
region. Relations between Christian and Muslims have come under strain
in recent months amid violence against Christians by Islamic extremists
in Syria and Iraq, with some critics saying Islamic leaders haven’t
denounced the atrocities strongly enough.
“It
is essential that all citizens—Muslim, Jewish and Christian—both in the
provision and practice of the law, enjoy the same rights and respect
the same duties,” the pope said. “Interreligious and intercultural
dialogue can make an important contribution to [peace], so that there
will be an end to all forms of fundamentalism and terrorism.”
Pope
Francis’ outreach to Islam during his 20-month papacy has earned him
praise by Muslim leaders. In making his comments, the pope walked a fine
line between extending a hand to Muslim leaders and prodding them to do
more to guarantee the rights of non-Muslim minorities, at home and
across borders.
Mr. Erdogan, a pious Muslim who has scaled back
the rigid secularism that long reigned in Turkey, held up the country’s
Islamic-infused democracy as a model
for reconciliation in a region torn by sectarian strife. But the
country’s small Christian population argues its rights are being
trampled.
Mr. Erdogan welcomed the pope’s call for religious
tolerance while pointing out that Islamophobia was on the rise. He
underlined the issue of “increasing prejudice and intolerance against
Muslims.”
The pontiff also praised Turkey for welcoming huge numbers of
Iraqi and Syrian refugees, but challenged Ankara to help find “viable
paths of peace” in the war-torn region. He reiterated his support of
multilateral military intervention to stop the violence by Islamic
State.
While the pope has repeatedly said that an accurate
reading of Islam doesn’t justify violence, the Vatican has increasingly
pushed Muslim leaders to do more to rein in fundamentalist groups.
Following
criticisms that Muslim leaders were slow to speak out against violence
by radical Islamists, top clerics in Saudi Arabia and Egypt have
condemned such acts as betraying Islam.
The pope was in the
Turkish capital for his sixth trip abroad since his March 2013 election.
Turkey is the fourth Muslim-majority country he has visited, and by far
the biggest.
Nearly 99% of Turkey’s 82 million citizens are
Muslim. In 2010, Christians in general numbered about 300,000 in Turkey,
according to figures from the Pew Research Center. Catholics, which
number just 53,000, are a tiny minority.
Christians complain that
they lack religious freedom and suffer discrimination. The U.S.
Commission on Religious Freedom had “significant concerns” with
religious freedoms enjoyed by non-Muslim minorities in Turkey.
Pope Francis’ visit is expected to be far smoother than the last papal trip in 2006, when
Pope Benedict XVI
arrived in the wake of protests in the Muslim world following a
speech he gave in Regensburg, Germany, that appeared to link Islam with
violence.
That trip was conducted under heavy security. Benedict
smoothed over tensions somewhat when the Vatican agreed he would visit
the famed Blue Mosque in Istanbul.
Pope Francis has said he hoped
to travel to the border to personally visit refugees from Syria. He
sent a personal envoy in August to deliver money from his charitable
fund for relief efforts, telling journalists at the time that Vatican
officials advised against him visiting for security reasons.
The formal reason for the pope’s visit is to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians. The trip coincides with the Nov. 30 feast day of St. Andrew, the patron saint of the Eastern Church.
ENLARGE
Pope Francis met with Turkish President Erdogan on Friday,
calling for religious tolerance in the heavily Muslim region.
European Pressphoto Agency
The pope is also to celebrate Mass in Istanbul’s Catholic
cathedral and will visit the city’s Hagia Sofia, a church-turned-mosque
that is now a museum.
The Vatican hasn't yet said whether Pope
Francis will pray there. When Pope Paul VI prayed inside the building
during a 1967 visit to Istanbul, some Muslims staged protests.
Mr.
Erdogan received the pope Friday in his huge new presidential compound,
which has nearly 1,000 rooms and is estimated to have cost at least
$650 million. The pope is the first head of state received in the new
building.
Critics have denounced the extravagance of the
presidential palace and asked the pope to refuse a visit there. But the
Vatican said arrangements for welcoming foreign dignitaries are the
prerogative of host countries.
Dec 9, 2013 - With another office closing, indications are Nassau County OTB is trimming labor ... Track locations Freeport Plaza shopping center gambling Green Acres Mall Nassau ... HIA-LI to Host Healthcare Update Executive Breakfast
Due to the fact that there is no racing product on December 24, 2014, all Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Location branches (NROTB) will be closed.
Even when tracks are running all across the US that Bettors want to bet, Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, is CLOSED.
MANY NASSAU OTB EMPLOYEES WOULD LIKE TO SEE NASSAU OTB CLOSED ON CHRISTMAS AND CHRISTMAS EVE, WHEN FEW IF ANY TRACKS ARE RUNNING, AND OPEN ON DAYS WHEN MANY TRACKS ARE RUNNING, EG ROMAN CATHOLIC PALM SUNDAY AND EASTER SUNDAY. THOSE EMPLOYEES THAT ARE RELIGIOUS MAY SIMPLY TAKE A DAY OFF AND DO AS THEY WISH. THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT SINCE THE US IS A CHRISTIAN NATION AND WISH TO FIGHT ALL OTHERS ARE FREE TO DO SO AS NY CONST. ART 1, SEC 3 TRUMPS AN ANDREW CUOMO, AND SEE ALSO BELOW, OPEN ON BOTH OR CLOSED OR BOTH.
FIGHT ON HARVARD IN MEMORY OF NEW YORK CITY OTB, DEAD DEAD DEAD
TEAMSTERS LOCAL 707 AND KEVIN MCCAFFREY HAS SLOT MACHINE FEVER AND DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE RIGHT TO WORK OR NOT AS ONE WISHES BEFORE THE NYC OTB DEAD HITS NASSAU.
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New
York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking
revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close
on holidays. New York State Racing Law
bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the
state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even
though they could easily broadcast races from out of state. “You should be able to bet whenever
you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who
makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic:
“How is the business going to make money if you’re not open
to take people’s bets?” Elias Tsekerides, president of the
Federation of
Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is
open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday. “I don’t want discrimination,”
Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for
the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.” OTB officials have said they lose
millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such
as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne
running. One option: OTBs could just stay
open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just
that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and
OTB was fined $5,000. Easy money.
see pubmed.org and you will learn that you are only worth being alive so others may suck money from you.
science and art calls for people to try metformin and aspirin, cheap, safe and effective, everything that hospitals and those motivated primarily by money seek to kill
When Dr. Jeffery Ward, a cancer
specialist, and his partners sold their private practice to the Swedish
Medical Center in Seattle, the hospital built them a new office suite
50 yards from the old place. The practice was bigger, but Dr. Ward saw
the same patients and provided chemotherapy just like before. On the surface, nothing had changed but the setting.
But
there was one big difference. Treatments suddenly cost more, with
higher co-payments for patients and higher bills for insurers. Because
of quirks in the payment system, patients and their insurers pay
hospitals and their doctors about twice what they pay independent
oncologists for administering cancer treatments.
There
also was a hidden difference — the money made from the drugs
themselves. Cancer patients and their insurers buy chemotherapy drugs
from their medical providers. Swedish Medical Center, like many other
others, participates in a federal program that lets it purchase these
drugs for about half what private practice doctors pay, greatly
increasing profits.
Oncologists
like Dr. Ward say the reason they are being forced to sell or close
their practices is because insurers have severely reduced payments to
them and because the drugs they buy and sell to patients are now so
expensive. Payments had gotten so low, Dr. Ward said, that they only way
he and his partners could have stayed independent was to work for free.
When he sold his practice, Dr. Ward said, “The hospital was a refuge,
not the culprit.”
When
a doctor is affiliated with a hospital, though, patients end up paying,
out of pocket, an average $134 more per dose for the most commonly used
cancer drugs, according to a report by IMS Health, a health care
information company. And, the report notes, many cancer patients receive
multiple drugs.
“Say
there was a Costco that had very good things at reasonable prices,”
said Dr. Barry Brooks, a Dallas oncologist in private practice. “Then a
Neiman Marcus comes in and changes the sign on the door and starts
billing twice as much for the same things.” That, he said, is what is
happening in oncology.
Insurers pay hospitals and doctors affiliated with hospitals
more to adminster chemotherapy drugs than they pay independent doctors.
Insurance reimbursment
per dose in a hospital or
hospital-affiliated office
Reimbursment
per dose in a
private practice
Chemotherapy drug
(and some cancers it can treat)
$5,000
$7,500
5,000
2,500
$0
$0
2,500
Pertuzumab (breast cancer)
Rituximab (lymphoma, leukemia)
Bevacizumab (several cancers)
Cetuximab (head, neck, colorectal)
Trastuzumab (breast, stomach)
Fulvestrant (breast)
Leuprolide Acetate (prostate)
Epirubicin (breast)
Interferon alfa-2B (lymphoma, others)
Mitoxantrone (prostate, leukemia)
Doxorubicin (leukemia, others)
Goserelin (prostate, breast)
Daunorubicin (leukemia)
Idarubicin (leukemia)
Mitomycin C (stomach, pancreas)
The
situation is part of the unusual world of cancer medicine, where
payment systems are unique and drive not just the price of care but what
drugs patients may get and where they are treated. It raises questions
about whether independent doctors, squeezed by finances, might be swayed
to use drugs that give them greater profits or treat poorer patients
differently than those who are better insured.
But
one thing is clear: The private practice oncologist is becoming a
vanishing breed, driven away by the changing economics of cancer
medicine.
Practices
are making the move across the nation. Reporting on the nation’s 1,447
independent oncology practices, the Community Oncology Alliance, an
advocacy group for independent practices, said that since 2008, 544 were
purchased by or entered contractual relationships with hospitals,
another 313 closed and 395 reported they were in tough financial
straits. In western Washington, just one independent oncology group is
left.
Christian
Downs, executive director of the Association of Community Cancer
Centers, said that although there are no good data yet, he expected the
Affordable Care Act was accelerating the trend. Many people bought
inadequate insurance for the expensive cancer care they require.
Community doctors have to buy the drugs ahead of time, placing a burden
on them when patients cannot pay. The act also requires documentation of
efficiencies in medical care which can be expensive for doctors in
private practice to provide. And it encourages the consolidation of
medical practices.
The
American Hospital Association cites advantages for patients being
treated by hospital doctors. “The hassle factor is reduced,” said Erik
Rasmussen, the association’s vice president of legislative affairs.
Patients can have scans, like CT and M.R.I., use a pharmacy and get lab tests all in one place instead of going from facility to facility, he said.
And,
he added, there is a reason hospitals get higher fees for their
services — it compensates them for staying open 24 hours and caring for
uninsured and underinsured patients.
For doctors in private practice, providing chemotherapy to uninsured and Medicaid
patients is a money loser. As a result, many, including Dr. Ward before
he sold his practice, end up sending those patients to nearby hospitals
for chemotherapy while keeping them as patients for office visits.
“We
hate doing it, I can’t tell you how much we hate doing it,” said Dr.
Brooks, the Texas oncologist. “But I tell them, ‘It will cost me $200 to
give you this medication in my office, so I am going to ask you to go
to the hospital as an outpatient for infusions.’ ”
Dr.
Peter Eisenberg, in private practice in Marin County in Northern
California, said: “The disgrace is that we have to treat people
differently depending on how much money they’ve got. That we do
diminishes me.”
Hospitals
may be less personal and less efficient, said Dr. Richard Schilsky,
chief medical officer at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Many
private practice oncology offices, he said, “Run on time, they are
efficient, you get in, you get out, as opposed to academic medical
centers where they may be an hour and a half behind.”
Dr.
Ward and others in private practice said they tried for years to make a
go of it but were finally defeated by what he described as “a series of
cuts in oncology reimbursement under the guise of reform to which
private practice is most vulnerable.”
Lower
reimbursements have two effects. One is on overhead. Unlike other
doctors, oncologists stock their own drugs, maintaining a sort of
mini-pharmacy. If a patient gets too sick to receive a drug or dies, the
doctor takes the loss. That used to be acceptable because insurers paid
doctors at least twice the wholesale price of drugs. Now doctors are
reimbursed for the average cost of the drug plus 4.3 percent, there are
more and more drugs to stock, and drugs cost more.
“The overhead is enormous,” Dr. Schilsky said. “This is one of the reasons why many oncologists are becoming hospital-based.”
The
second — and bigger — effect is less profit from selling drugs to
patients. For years, chemotherapy drugs provided a comfortable income.
Those days are gone, doctors say.
The
finances are very different in hospitals, with their higher
reimbursement rates for administering drugs, discounts for buying large
quantities, and a special federal program that about 30 percent of
hospitals qualify for. The program, to compensate research hospitals and
hospitals serving poor people, lets hospitals buy chemotherapy drugs
for all outpatients at about a 50 percent discount.
In addition, Dr. Schilsky notes, cancer patients at hospitals use other services, like radiation therapy, imaging and surgery.
“A cancer patient is going to generate a lot of revenue for a hospital,” Dr. Schilsky said.
Health
care economists say they have little data on how the costs and profits
from selling chemotherapy drugs are affecting patient care. Doctors are
constantly reminded, though, of how much they can make if they buy more
of a company’s drug.
Celgene,
for example, in a recent email about its drug Abraxane, told one doctor
who had bought 50 vials that he could get a rebate of $647.51 by buying
68 vials. If he bought 175 vials he’d get $1,831.93
This
hidden profit possibility troubles Dr. Peter B. Bach, director of the
Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Center.
“When
you walk into a doctor’s office you don’t know that in most cancer
scenarios there are a range of therapeutic choices,” Dr. Bach said.
“Unless the doctor presents options, you assume there aren’t any.”
While
individual oncologists deny choosing treatments that provide them with
the greatest profit, Dr. Kanti Rai, a cancer specialist at North
Shore-Long Island Jewish Cancer Center, said it would be foolish to
believe financial considerations never influence doctors’ choices of
drugs.
“Sometimes
hidden in such choices — and many times not so hidden — are
considerations of what also might be financially more profitable,” he
said.
Nassau Comptroller George Maragos
urged all fellow elected county officials to cap pay raises to their
appointees at a maximum 8 percent, as the county attorney warned that
retroactive pay hikes for nonunion employees are unconstitutional.
Photo Credit: Howard Schnapp
Joye Brown has been a columnist for Newsday since 2006. She joined the newspaper in 1983 and has ...
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I,
second left, touches Pope Francis' crucifix at the Patriarchal Church of
St. George in Istanbul, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014. The two major branches
of Christianity represented by Bartholomew and Francis split in 1054
over differences on the power of the papacy. The two spiritual heads
will participate in an ecumenical liturgy and sign a joint declaration
in the ongoing attempt to reunite the churches. (AP Photo/Gregorio
Borgia) Photo Credit: AP
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, second left,
touches Pope Francis' crucifix at the Patriarchal Church of St. George
in Istanbul, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014. The two major branches of
Christianity represented by Bartholomew and Francis split in 1054 over
differences on the power of the papacy. The two spiritual heads will
participate in an ecumenical liturgy and sign a joint declaration in the
ongoing attempt to reunite the churches. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Photo Credit: AP
In this photo provided by Vatican newspaper
L'Osservatore Romano, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, right, kisses
Pope Francis' head during an ecumenical prayer at the Patriarchal Church
of St. George in Istanbul, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014. The two major
branches of Christianity represented by Bartholomew and Francis split in
1054 over differences on the power of the papacy. The two spiritual
heads will participate in an ecumenical liturgy and sign a joint
declaration in the ongoing attempt to reunite the churches. (AP
Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho) Photo Credit: AP
