Scoop’s Views

Earlier today, around 2:10 p.m., miscommunication between a Congressional staffer, as well as workers at Cleveland’s City Hall, led to news reports from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Associated Press, and CNN, among other news outlets, to prematurely report the death of U.S. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, 57, who was serving her fifth term in Congress.

This evening, at 6:12 p.m., however, the Congresswoman was pronounced dead about 24 hours after being taken to the hospital by ambulance. She would have celebrated her 59th birthday in 21 days, on September 10.

Tags: aneurysm, aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, Barack Obama, Bethany Baptist Church, brain aneurysm, Carib News Multi-National Business Conference, Case Western Reserve University, Central State University, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Heights Ohio, Cleveland Heights Police Department, Cleveland Ohio, Cleveland Public Schools, Cleveland State University, Delta Sigma Theta, Democratic National Convention, Dr. Gus Kious, East Cleveland Ohio, Flora Stone Mather College, forum on electoral reform, hematoma, Hillary Clinton, Human Rights Campaign of Cleveland Equality Award, Huron Hospital, Huron Road Hospital, Marcus Garvey Award, Mervyn Jones, National Bible Association Capitol Hill Distinguished L, Notre Dame College, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, subarachnoid hemorrhage, superdelegate, U.S. Congress, U.S. House of Representatives

Ohio Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress, remains alive – despite several news reports around 2 p.m. today to the contrary, as well as information in Congress around 1 p.m., saying she had passed away.

Jones has been hospitalized for about a day now, as a result of a brain aneurysm in what doctors describe as an “inaccessible” part of the brain. Many news outlets had reported she had died from a brain aneurysm she suffered Tuesday evening while driving, according to the Cleveland Plains Dealer and CNN. She will celebrate her 59th birthday in 21 days, on September 10.

Tags: Barack Obama, brain aneurysm, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Heights, Cleveland State University, critcal condition, Democratic National Convention, Democrats, East Cleveland, forum on electoral reform, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Huron Hospital, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, super delegate, superdelegate, very limited brain function

Senate is rewarding telecommunications providers for breaking the law
York Times is reporting that the United States Senate, by a vote of 69-28, approved a bill overhauling the rules covering secret government eavesdropping and granting immunity to telecommunications companies that aided in the wiretapping of Americans without warrants. Doing Chicago-style two-stepping, Barack Obama, who originally spoke harsh words against the illegal wiretaps, voted today in favor of granting immunity to the telecommunications companies. His former presidential contender, Hillary Clinton, stayed true to her original position and voted against the immunity.

Tags: Barack Obama, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, David Stout, domestic spying, due process rights, eavesdropping, Eric Lichtblau, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigations, federal courts, FISA, foreign, Hillary Clinton, Homeland Security, illegal wiretapping, immunity, intrusions, mismanagement, National Security Agency, No Such Agency, NSA, phone subscibers, re-election, Senate, senators, telecommunications companies, telecoms, terrorist attacks, terrorists

Poor Amy Winehouse. Her daddy says she has emphysema, but her publicist, you know, the well-paid folks who are responsible for creating and maintaining the public image — a performer’s persona — says that the 24-year-old British singer does not have emphysema, but does have only 70 percent lung capacity, as well as nodules and other issues with her lungs. In essence, 30 percent of Amy Winehouse’s lungs are little more than trash.

Tags: Amy Winehouse, British singers, Brits, crack, crack cocaine, drugs, emphysema, entertainers, Entertainment, illegal drug use, illicit drugs, lung capacity, motivation, self-destruction, self-respect, self-responsibility, singers

Health insurers have been rating physicians and physician practices over the years. In some of those ratings, you find some really bland things, as well as some scores that always incite heated and passionate reaction.

It took physicians — through the American Medical Association (AMA) — quite a few years to get hip to the idea of rating the insurance industry, but the tables have now been turned. The outcome: the expected over-inflated image of health insurers saying the ratings aren’t fair, as well as brutal honesty, it seems, about the timeliness of payments made by the health insurers.

Tags: AMA, American Medical Association, claims, denials, health insurance, insurers, not medically necessary, ratings, Reviews, U&C, usual and customary

“This is our first full week of using the pasties during mammograms,” the X-ray tech explained. “I wake up with nightmares that I’ll forget to take one off of a 90-year-old nun one day and she’ll end up in the E.R. and they’ll find her with pasties and wonder what’s going on in the convent!”

Tags: annual checkups, breast cancer, breast exam, breast self-exam, breasts, BSE, female exams, flattened, lump, mammogram, mammography, nipples, nuns, pancakes, pasties, radiologists, radiology, self-exam, squished, technicians, women's health, X-ray

Dengue fever, a sometimes deadly mosquito-borne virus, has hit the lives of those 55,000 people around Rio de Janeiro in the last four months along, Brazilian authorities told CNN. At least 67 of the victims have died, with more than half of dead younger than 13.

Tags: Brazil, buxom, CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deaths, dengue hemorrhagic fever, DHF, fatal, island, mosquito-borne virus, off-season, piña colada, Rio de Janeiro, treatment, vaccination, vaccine

Big mouth Ruben Navarrette, Jr., is once again in full-swing with his anti-American banter, this time by saying, (Americans are) so reluctant to accept any responsibility for illegal immigration — a self-inflicted wound that they bring upon themselves by aggressively hiring illegal immigrants — they can’t wait to pin the blame on Mexico and its leaders.

Tags: America, Americans, anti-alien, anti-American, anti-immigrant, anti-immigration, border fence, border patrol, border patrol agents, burglars, Calderón, columnist, crimes, driver's licenses, drug dealers, drugs, farm workers, Felipe Calderón, forged documents, golden faucet, human rights, human traffickers, illegal acts, illegal alien workers, illegal aliens, illegal immigrants, illegal Mexican immigrants, Immigration, lawful citizens, Mexican President Felipe Calderón, Mexicans, Mexico, migrant workers, prostitution, reporters, Ruben Navarrette Jr., Social Security cards, Social Security numbers, talk show hosts, terrorists, U.S. border, U.S. immigration policy, U.S. Mexico border, U.S.-Mexican border, United States immigration policy

The jury hearing the case of the late actor John Ritter’s wrongful death lawsuit, which demanded $67 million, evidently saw the actor himself played a role.

Tags: children, courts, enlarged aorta, entertainers, health care, heart attacks, husbands, John Ritter, juries, jury, lawsuit, lawyers, Medical, medical malpractice, sob stories, trials, widows, wives, wrongful death

Yes, real medicine is about — sometimes — very odd, very rare disorders, but most of the time, things are boring, run-of-the-mill stuff. The staff in an emergency room, often well-versed in handling all sorts of medical issues, such as anything from a pencil eraser in a six-year-old’s ear canal to someone who fell from atop an eight-story building and is impaled with what was a 14-foot steel rod that’s sliced its way through the person’s body on an angle, and is not just over six feet long because the fire department had to cut the pole to a size that could be handled in an ambulance. Yep, typical run-of-the-mill stuff.

Tags: acting, actor, ambulances, Amy Yasbeck, aortic disease, aortic dissection disease, appearances, broken bones, calcification, cardiologists, cholesterol, congestive heart failure, coronary arteries, cuts, diabetic complications, emergency care, emergency rooms, enlarged aorta, heart attacks, John Ritter, lawyers, medical care, medical treatment, millions of dollars, physicians, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, radiologists, seizures, sores, splinters, strokes, Tex Ritter, TV appearance, TV show, twisted ankles, ulcers, widow

Dr. Alex Karev, of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy TV show, is seeking help from real doctors in real life, according to his publicist.

It seems Justin Chambers, the actor who plays Dr. Alex Karev, has checked himself into the UCLA Medical Center “to get help with a pre-existed sleeping disorder,” according to his publicist, Danica Smith.

Tags: Danica Smith, Dr. Alex Karev, Grey's Anatomy, health issues, hospitalization, Justin Chambers, pre-existing conditions, pre-existing disorders, privacy, real life, sleep disorders, sleepiness, sleeping, UCLA, UCLA Medical Center

It seems some five million of our oldest, as well as disabled, citizens, have not yet signed up for their Medicare Part D drug plan. To help them, what does Congress do? Decide to not grant them an extension.

Tags: border patrol, borders, children, Congress, disabled, Education, English as a Second Language, ESL, expenses, fence, illegal aliens, illegal immigrants, illegals, immigration and customs enforcement, income tax, Medicare, Medicare drug plan, Medicare Part D, prescription coverage, procreate, protests, public schools, schooling, schools, senior citizens, tacos, taxes, welfare