Image Editing Is a Snap With Pinta

Pinta, a raster image editor, is the app equivalent of a diamond in the rough. Years of testing and reviewing open source and commercial software taught me never to assume that a relatively new application is not worthy of attention. That lesson proved true with this youngster of an app.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/20f65b8b/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C755310Bhtml/story01.htm

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The states that are dying for healthcare coverage

By Alexander E.M. Hess and Samuel Weigley, 24/7 Wall St.

The lack of medical coverage in America is a serious problem as approximately 50 million people were uninsured all through 2010. But the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was passed in 2010, was constitutional. The legislation, once implemented in its entirety, is expected to cover 30 million Americans currently lacking coverage.

The lack of medical insurance has had grave consequences for individuals and the nation. In 2010 alone, 26,100 people died because they had no health insurance ? that amounts to 502 preventable deaths a week. However, some states fared better than others. Based on the latest report by Families USA, a health care consumer advocacy group, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 states with the highest number of deaths per 100,000 people due to a lack of insurance.

24/7 Wall St.: Eight states slashing local funding

Not surprisingly, nearly all of the states with the most residents dying due to a lack of insurance also had high numbers of uninsured residents. Seven of the states on the list were among the 10 states with the highest percentage of people without health coverage. Seven of the states were also in the bottom 10 for the lowest rates of private insurance coverage.

People without health insurance often forgo medical treatment for different reasons. According to Families USA, a supporter of President Obama?s health care reform law, uninsured adults are nearly four times more likely than insured adults to delay or avoid preventive care screening due to cost. Uninsured adults are also nearly seven times more likely to go without needed care due to cost than privately insured adults.

?You still see a very, very strong correlation between uninsurance and poor health-care outcomes ? including mortality ? and [that is] because people aren?t getting the type of care that they need,? Kim Bailey, the research director for Families USA, told 24/7 Wall St.

Many of the states with high death rates due to a lack of insurance also were among the poorest states in the country. The top seven states on this list also are among the 10 states with the highest poverty rates. Every state on this list is in the top half.

Poor health also appears to play an important role. States with high death rates due to lack of insurance had a high percentage of people with lifestyle-related risk factors for poor health. Of the states on our list, five of them have among the 10 highest percentages of smokers and among the 10 lowest percentages of people who eat vegetables at least three times a day. Four have among the 10 highest proportions of overweight or obese adults. Seven states on the list were in the bottom 10 in terms of life expectancy.

24/7 Wall St.: Countries that spend the most on health care

Based on Families USA?s report, ?Dying for Coverage: The Deadly Consequences of Being Uninsured,? 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 states with the highest number of deaths from being uninsured per 100,000 residents. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the methodology used by Families USA, first developed in 2002 by the Institute of Medicine, to determine?excess mortality from being uninsured. This method considers the proportion of?people who are insured and uninsured, the mortality risks for the uninsured and the number of expected deaths from a hypothetical fully insured population. 24/7 Wall St. also identified poverty rates and median income by state, provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. The Kaiser Family Foundation?s website ? Statehealthfacts.org ? provided health-related data, including life expectancy, obesity and diabetes rate.

These are the 10 states dying for health coverage.

1. Mississippi
? Excess deaths from a lack of insurance (per 100,000):?15.82
? Percent of population uninsured:?18.2 percent (ninth highest)
? Percent living below the poverty line:?22.4 percent (tied for the highest)
? Life expectancy at birth:?74.81 years (The lowest)

Many residents of Mississippi cannot afford insurance. The state has the lowest median income in the nation and the highest percentage of residents living below the poverty line. As a result, Mississippi has the second-lowest percentage of residents with private health insurance coverage, at 56.49 percent. Exacerbating the problem, residents are especially unhealthy. Among all states, Mississippi has the second-highest obesity rate, the second-highest percentage of adults with diabetes and the fifth-highest percentage of adult smokers in the nation. Probably on account of both high uninsurance rates and poor personal health, Mississippi is the only state where life expectancy was below 75 years at birth in 2010. Mississippi?s excess death rate was the highest among all states and twice that of 28 states in 2010.

2. Louisiana
? Excess deaths from a lack of insurance (per 100,000):?14.94
? Percent of population uninsured:?17.8 percent (10th highest)
? Percent living below the poverty line:?18.7 percent (sixth highest)
? Life expectancy at birth:?75.39 years (fourth lowest)

Louisiana has one of the lowest life expectancies at birth in the U.S. at 75.4 years. Though much of this certainly can be attributed to poor health choices ? the state has a higher number of smokers and its residents eat comparatively little fruit or vegetables ? the inability of?many residents to receive proper care due to lack of insurance is also a contributing factor. In Louisiana, 17.8 percent of the population goes without health insurance, despite the fact that 21.9 percent of the population qualifies for Medicaid ? the fifth-highest proportion among all 50 states. The high uninsurance rate is partly due to the relative economic disadvantage of the state?s residents. With 18.7 percent of residents living below the poverty line ? the sixth-highest rate in the nation ? and a median income that is more than $5,000 lower than the U.S. average, just 58.39 percent of state residents have private insurance. That is the fourth-lowest such rate in the nation.

3. Arkansas
? Excess deaths from a lack of insurance (per 100,000):?13.49
? Percent of population uninsured:?17.5 percent (tied for 12th highest)
? Percent living below the poverty line:?18.8 percent (fifth highest)
? Life expectancy at birth:?76.09 years (sixth lowest)

According to the Council for Community and Economic Research?s ACCRA Cost of Living Index, Arkansas had the second-lowest cost of health care in the United States. However, with 18.8 percent of the population living below the poverty line and a median annual household income of just $38,307 ? both among the lowest figures for any state ? many Arkansans cannot afford private health coverage. As a result, just 58.78 percent of the population has private insurance, the sixth-lowest figure in the country.

24/7 Wall St.: 10 brands that will disappear in 2013

4. South Carolina
? Excess deaths from a lack of insurance (per 100,000):?13.48
? Percent of population uninsured:?17.5 percent (tied for 12th highest)
? Percent living below the poverty line:?18.2 percent (seventh highest)
? Life expectancy at birth:?76.57 years (ninth lowest)

South Carolina is not a particularly healthy state: 67.4 percent of the state?s residents are either overweight or obese, just 23.3 percent eat proper amounts of fruit, only 22.9 percent eat proper amounts of vegetables and 10.7 percent are diabetic. All of these are among the highest rates in the country. Meanwhile, much of the cost of health care falls to private individuals. The state spent about $6,300 per person on health care in 2009, among the lowest levels, and just 51.9 percent of residents have employer-based health coverage. Unfortunately, South Carolinians have trouble affording insurance on their own: Median income was just $42,000 in 2010, significantly lower than the $50,000 national average, 18.2 percent of residents live below the poverty line and the cost of health care is higher than is the case in many states.

5. New Mexico
? Excess deaths from a lack of insurance (per 100,000):?12.15
? Percent of population uninsured:?19.6 percent (sixth highest)
? Percent living below the poverty line:?20.4 percent (tied for the highest)
? Life expectancy at birth:?78.21 years (20th lowest)

New Mexico has a fairly healthy population, with relatively low heart disease and obesity rates. However, just 55.8 percent of residents have private health insurance ? the lowest rate of any state in the country. One possible reason is that few employers provide insurance ? just 45.6 percent of the population has employer-based health coverage. The relative poverty of the state also means many residents cannot afford medical coverage. The median income in the state was just above $42,000 in 2010, far below the national median of about $50,000, while 20.4 percent of people live below the poverty line ? the highest rate in the country.

Click here to read the rest of 24/7 Wall St.'s analysis of states' death rates

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/01/12419471-the-states-that-are-dying-for-healthcare-coverage?lite

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Google+ trends: Tiger Woods's PGA win, LinkedIn & Twitter 'break up'

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-trends-tiger-woodss-pga-win-linkedin-twitter-091355201.html

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How 'Spider-Man' Star Emma Stone Filled Gwen Stacy's Busty Bra

Stone talks to MTV News about how she brought Gwen's 'classic' look from the comic book page to the big screen.
By Meg Malone, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Emma Stone
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1688946/emma-stone-amazing-spider-man-gwen-stacy-bra.jhtml

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Families brace for mental health cuts

By Lauren Hasler
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Donovan Richards first attempted to take his own life at age 4. The Wisconsin boy, who has bipolar disorder and autism, already had been kicked out of three day care programs, and his doctors were sure he would be in an institution before he turned 10.

To get the intensive treatment her son needed, but she could not afford, Paula Buege, Donovan?s mom, had to win approval from a review board made up of Dane County officials.

?I had 10 minutes to present his case. And my argument was, ?If we don?t help him now, you?re going to read about him in the paper one day,? ? said Buege, of Middleton, who now helps the parents of mentally ill children with a Madison-based nonprofit, Wisconsin Family Ties.

After years of treatment, Donovan is now a 17-year-old who plays in a band and wants to be a music teacher. While he continues to struggle, he has not been hospitalized for mental health problems in 10 years.

What saved Donovan from suicide or another tragic fate was a mother?s perseverance and taxpayer-funded mental health services.

But those public mental health systems in Wisconsin and across the nation increasingly face cuts as they compete for scarce resources, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, prepared in collaboration with the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and other nonprofit newsrooms.

States, desperate to close cavernous budget gaps, have cut $2.1 billion from their mental health budgets over the past three fiscal years, according to a study from the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors? Research Institute, an independent nonprofit that collects and analyzes mental health services data.

The problems go beyond money. In interviews with mental health advocates and county and state officials, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism found that Wisconsin?s public mental health system ? once viewed as a national model ? has become fragmented and underfunded.

And many experts fear that as Gov. Scott Walker moves to close the state?s budget deficit, the mental health system will be weakened even further. One county official predicted Walker?s changes could ?devastate? taxpayer-financed mental health care in Wisconsin.

Among the problems facing the state?s public mental health system:

• The Wisconsin Council on Mental Health, the governor?s mental health planning council, estimates 232,932 adults and 106,149 children in Wisconsin have serious mental health conditions.
• Overall, 100,238 people received taxpayer-subsidized mental health services through their local county in 2009, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
• Walker warned in his March 1 budget address that a ?serious and long-term solution? is needed for Medicaid. Demand for existing Medicaid-funded services is expected to create shortfalls of $150 million by June 30 and $1.8 billion in Wisconsin over the next two years as federal stimulus funding ends.
• The state Department of Health Services (DHS) plans to replace $1.3 billion of that gap with state funds and make up the difference with $500 million in cuts to the Medicaid program ?possibly by cutting eligibility, benefits or reimbursement rates.

?Services have been underfunded with the current budget, and now we?re going to see a $500 million cut to providing essential services to vulnerable populations,? said state Rep. Sandy Pasch, D-Whitefish Bay, a member of the Assembly?s committee on public health.

Pasch estimates Medicaid cuts could leave 65,000 Wisconsin residents without subsidized health insurance to pay for mental health treatment.

Untreated mental illness isn?t just a personal hardship; it?s a major driver of Wisconsin homeless and prison populations. Nearly one-third of all inmates in the state prison system are classified as mentally ill, the state Department of Corrections estimates.

Wisconsin DHS secretary to make big changes
As part of Walker?s controversial budget-repair measure, Dennis Smith, the Republican governor?s DHS secretary, has been given a mandate to reshape Medicaid-funded services to close the budget gap.

Smith hinted that big changes may be coming. In a statement, Smith said the state will focus its mental health care dollars on models that are centered on people?s needs, are community-based and are statistically proven to work. Mental health experts say such programs are in short supply in Wisconsin.

Smith said state officials will ?examine the entire continuum of care at every age? and coordinate mental health care with other medical needs ?a move long sought by mental health advocates.

Integration of mental health care with physical health care would help identify and prevent mental illnesses and reduce social stigma, said William Greer, president and CEO of the Mental Health Center of Dane County, a nonprofit agency that provides mental health and substance abuse services.

?The human mind and body are one and the same,? Greer said at a February symposium, adding that treatment should be available ?under one roof.?

The new health secretary vowed to work with legislators, consumers, advocates and taxpayers in an ?an open and deliberative process,? to identify ideas that will improve health while controlling spending, DHS spokeswoman Beth Kaplan said.

But some advocates are still leery about how Smith will manage a $500 million cut to the state?s health services for the poor. In a previous position as a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., Smith encouraged states to opt out of Medicaid to save money and shed federal control over health care spending.

In one of his first moves, Smith announced on March 18 that enrollment for the BadgerCare Basic program, which covers adults without dependent children who were unable to enroll in BadgerCare Core, is now frozen.

Buege is worried about how her family may be affected by changes to Medicaid. Losing the benefit would leave her son without his medications and access to psychiatrists ? the tools, she said, that have kept him mentally well instead of mentally ill.

?We?re going to still go to the hospital, we?re still going to go to the doctor,? Buege said. ?People can?t afford to pay the bill. So who?s it going to impact? It?s going to impact everybody.?

Jane Pedersen of Menomonie in northwest Wisconsin has watched someone suffer needlessly because of a lack of affordable health insurance.

Pedersen has traveled to Madison seven times to protest Walker?s budget repair bill. She said she knows a person with a mental health disability and no insurance who stopped taking medication when he could no longer afford it. When he began to hallucinate, he spent several days in a hospital?s intensive care unit, she said.

?These people without health insurance tend to wait until they?re very sick to get help. ER care is the most expensive,? Pedersen said.

Counties run mental health programs
In Wisconsin, unlike in most other states, county governments run the publicly funded mental health care system, which is supported primarily by three funding streams: Federal Medicaid dollars matched by the county, state funding and local property taxes.

Walker has proposed cuts to Medicaid and funding to local governments. He also is seeking to freeze local property taxes to prevent officials from making up for the loss of state funding by raising taxes.

Some local officials are alarmed by Walker?s plan.

?This could significantly devastate mental health and substance abuse (services),? said William Orth, director of the Sauk County Department of Human Services.

While many states have cut funding in recent years, Wisconsin has maintained support for mental health services ? although advocates say the system still falls far short of meeting the state?s needs.

Mental health expenditures in Wisconsin at the county level actually increased by about 16 percent between 2005 and 2009, to more than $428 million, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

But those increases may not mean more services, considering that ?the cost of doing business has gone up? in health care, according to Ted Lutterman, director of research analysis for the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Research Institute in Alexandria, Va.

It?s not clear what?s in store for mental health care in the current budget. The few broad categories in the governor?s budget that mention mental health care, including operation of the state?s two mental health institutes, show small increases from current funding levels, but little detail is available.

?Funding is being cut everywhere and mental health is getting increases. I think that shows where Walker?s priorities are. It clearly displays he has compassion for the mental health community,? said state Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, a member of the Senate public health committee.

But Pasch said she is ?very concerned? how well services for the mentally ill will fare when local governments start cutting their budgets.

?When resources start becoming more and more scarce, my experience being a psychiatric nurse for 30 years is that mental health services are one of the first things to get cut,? Pasch said.

If fewer poor people are insured under Walker?s proposed budget, counties still will be on the hook to pay for core mental health services, including hospitalization, according to Kathy Roetter, director of Wood County Unified Services, which provides mental health care to residents in central Wisconsin. But counties would lose federal Medicaid matching funds for those newly ineligible people, she said.

DHS statement on mental health care
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism asked Smith to comment on the future of the state?s public mental health care system.

On the state's overall mental health funding: We are concerned that some individuals with mental illness are under-served in the current system or must navigate through a complex delivery system on their own. We will examine the entire continuum of care at every age. Our approach will be to identify models of care that work, support them, and replicate them. These models should be person-centered, community-based, and use evidence-based practices. Individuals will benefit from the coordination of their mental health services with other acute care medical services they need. We have already met with a variety of partners in the mental health community and have heard directly from consumers themselves. We look forward to working with everyone who is involved with improving the care to individuals in need of mental health services.

On how the governor?s plan for $500 million in cuts is reflected in the budget: The Medicaid program faces a $1.8 billion shortfall, largely because of the expiration of more than $1 billion of federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds on July 1. We are replacing those funds for DHS with $1.3 billion in new state General Purpose Revenue (GPR). To make up the rest of this federal shortfall, we will be looking for $500 million in savings in our Medicaid program. To bend this cost curve, and reduce expenditures by the projected amount, the Department will commence an open and deliberative process with legislators, stakeholders, advocates and taxpayers to identify and implement ideas aimed at improving health outcomes and controlling spending growth.

Care for mentally ill shifts, leaving gaps
Over the past 50 years, public mental health care in the United States has moved away from locked hospitals to community-based programs. Shifting federal budget priorities, a movement that advocated for the least-restrictive environment for the mentally ill, and a new generation of drugs for psychiatric disorders allowed more people to remain in the community.

In 1955, psychiatric hospitals in the U.S. housed more than 550,000 people, according to research by Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, a research psychiatrist and founder of the nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center, which is based in Arlington, Va. By 1994, that number had dropped by 87 percent to 71,619 people.

But as hospitals emptied out, the funding didn?t necessarily flow to those community programs. Much of it simply disappeared.

A recent study from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that when adjusted for population and increased medical costs, the United States spent $261.7 billion in 1955 and only $30.9 billion in 2006 in funding for mental health care.

Wisconsin lacks services for young
Hugh Davis, executive director of the nonprofit Wisconsin Family Ties, says funding isn?t the only problem afflicting Wisconsin?s public mental health system. One of the greatest problems he and other advocates see is the lack of adequate mental health care for children and teenagers.

?There is ample evidence that that system has been neglected by our state for a long time,? said Davis, whose organization helps families with children who have emotional, behavioral and mental disorders.

He points to data that show Wisconsin is last among all Midwestern states in the percentage of children with serious emotional disturbance who are served by the public mental health system.

In an investigation of rural health care last year, the Wisconsin State Journal found the state has just 90 child psychiatrists, forcing some children in northern Wisconsin to wait up to two years to get counseling or medication.

System ?just too complicated?
Lori Krinke of Madison, who has three children with disabilities, said it took her a long time to get help for her youngest son. Krinke is associate director of Wisconsin Family Ties.

Krinke said last year, it was nearly two months before she could find a bed at a state-run mental health facility for her teenager, who was no longer safe at home because he was chronically suicidal.

?Honestly, if he hadn?t gone to Winnebago (Mental Health Institute), he would not have made it to his 14th birthday,? she said.

Krinke says people with serious mental illnesses in Wisconsin have to jump through too many hoops to get the help they need.

?When it came to looking for resources for mental health for children, I didn?t even know where to turn. Frequently, the people who work within the system don?t know how to navigate the system. It?s too complicated,? Krinke said. ?And the funding isn?t there.?

Smith, the new health secretary, acknowledged the complexity and gaps in the system.

?We are concerned that some individuals with mental illness are underserved in the current system or must navigate through a complex delivery system on their own,? he said.

Community-based programs underfunded
The outpatient programs that partly replaced hospitalization ? including drugs, counseling, case management and day programs ? are cheaper and more effective for maintaining mental health for all but the most serious cases. But in some parts of Wisconsin, they?re hard to come by.

About 30 years ago, Wisconsin was seen as having one of the top mental health systems in the country because of its strong county system, according to Shel Gross, director of public policy for Mental Health America of Wisconsin, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit advocacy group. But in recent years that system has actually become a liability, he said.

There is significant variation from county to county in the quality of mental health care because county boards decide what to offer and how many people they can afford to help.

As one measure, Shawano County spent the least on each person receiving services in 2009 at $1,534, while Jackson County spent $9,571 on each client ? six times as much, according to figures provided by DHS and analyzed by the Center.

?It?s not fair that residents get different services depending on where they live,? said Roetter from Wood County.

Demand, cost up; community aid down
State funding for human services, including mental health care, comes to counties primarily in what are called community aids. While medical costs have risen and demand has increased, the state?s community aids funding has remained nearly flat for more than 20 years, according to a report by the Wisconsin Council on Mental Health.

Community aids funding for the current year is $257.6 million. If adjusted for inflation, the amount of community aids has actually fallen by more than $185 million in 20 years, according to the council.

Another stream of funding from the state to counties is shared revenue, which usually goes to pay for highways and other county services. The governor?s budget cuts shared revenues to counties by $36.5 million in calendar year 2012, from an estimated $183 million in 2011.

If the cuts in shared revenue and freeze in property taxes proposed by Walker are approved by the Legislature, counties will need to cut somewhere.

?How do you choose?? said Sarah Diedrick-Kasdorf, a senior legislative associate with the Wisconsin Counties Association. ?How do you pick? Children or the elderly? Someone with a mental illness or a mother who needs help??

Buege is glad that when her son needed it the most, the help was there.

?My kid is living proof; he would be costing us all a lot of money right now if we didn?t get those services,? she said. ?And instead he?s going to be a taxpaying member of society.?

Reporter Kate Golden of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Reporting contributed to this report. The nonprofit center (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin Public Radio and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication and other news media. Lauren Hasler is at lhasler@wisconsinwatch.org.

Source: http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/29/12487332-families-brace-for-mental-health-cuts-will-other-states-follow-wisconsin

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Spain promises to attack Italy in Euro 2012 final

By PAUL LOGOTHETIS

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 4:29 p.m. ET June 30, 2012

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -Spain will play attacking football against Italy in the European Championship final. The defending champions just hope Italy returns the favor.

Both teams go into Sunday's final at the Olympic Stadium promising to maintain the tactics that have brought them here. Spain coach Vicente del Bosque promised an attacking lineup comprised of three forwards, which did little to clear up whether Spain will use its midfield-heavy attack or field a single striker.

He also brushed off criticism that Spain's attack lacks the cutting edge it had during the team's Euro 2008 and 2010 World Cup triumphs.

"We have more of an obligation to attack than to defend because we have players with capabilities to do so," Del Bosque said on Saturday. "Football moves forward and there has been a change of players in the team, but the nucleus remains the same. We're playing the same way we always have."

Cesc Fabregas and Fernando Torres have shared the most of the responsibility for Spain's attack. David Silva has looked fatigue and there is speculation he could make way for Pedro Rodriguez, who has been impressive in his two appearances off the bench.

Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has meanwhile promised to maintain Italy's current style, which has not only helped it to the final but has come as a surprise compared to its normally defensive ways.

"A team that has (Andrea) Pirlo, (Claudio) Marchisio and (Riccardo) Montolivo is a team that wants to play football, there's no doubt," Del Bosque said. "It's an open final because we've both followed parallel styles to get here. Our styles of play have been very similar, I don't see much of a difference."

Italy has played with a certain flair normally attributed to Spain, which is vying to win a third straight major title. Spain and Italy played to a 1-1 draw in their Group C opener, when Italy was one of the few teams not to sit back and to strike on the counterattack.

"We have to wait until tomorrow to see what the Italy coach does," Spain playmaker Xavi Hernandez said. "Italian football isn't what it was two years ago, now they want the ball. They've got a great team and they know how to compete."

All the ingredients are there for a memorable final.

"Italy has changed, they've got better as the tournament went on and they deserve to be in the final," Del Bosque said. "We can't think we'll face a defensive Italy because they have never showed that here. They come (into the final) playing a certain way and I imagine they will maintain it for this last game against us."

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Paul Logothetis can be reached at: www.twitter.com/PaulLogoAP

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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More newsGabriel Bouys / AFP - Getty Images

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/47816582/ns/sports-soccer/

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