Shellece Earles joins Red Cross board

Earles is selected for Red Cross board

Shellece-Jeannette Earles of Plainfield has been elected to the board of the Tri-County Chapter of the American Red Cross [headquartered in Plainfield].

Earles grew up in New Jersey and Los Angeles and, after living in the Washington, D.C., area, returned to Plainfield four years ago. She became active in the community, spending three years as president of the Stilford Avenue Block Association and currently serving her second year on Plainfield's National Night Out Committee.

To volunteer, receive training or contribute to the Tri-County Chapter of the American Red Cross, call (908) 756-6414. More information is available at www.tricountyredcross.org .

This item transcribed from today's Courier News, which did not post it online -- DD.

-- Dan Damon

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Red faces over Plainfield's Operation Ceasefire?

Jerry's budget resolution.

It all started innocently enough on the Legislature's website, with the posting of Plainfield's Assemblyman Jerry Green's resolution (No. 1427) requesting, as a 'Christmas Tree' item, $450,000 funding for Plainfield's Operation CeaseFire program be added to the Corzine FY2008 budget.

Mainstream media and blogger alike -- the Ledger, Courier and Plainfield Today -- got sucker punched on this one, though.

Turns out the moolah -- which would help cover the overtime costs associated with implementing the program -- is to be split between 15 communities. Meaning $30,000 for Plainfield.

Nice, but no cigar.

IF IT'S EVEN IN THE BUDGET, that is. Checking the Legislature's website, one finds the note: 'Resolution is not included in the budget bill'.

Buried in the resolution is the truth of the matter.

Duly signed off on by our Assemblypersons.

The clarification came at the briefing on the program given for neighborhood groups and block associations at St. Mary's School on Tuesday evening. (More on that elsewhere.)

Are there any red faces over the slip up -- and the implication that Plainfield will have to cough up more than previously expected to participate?

This is Plainfield. Probably not.

---

More on Plainfield's Operation CeaseFire --

• Legislature: "Budget Resolutions" -- Search for '1427'. Shows the money as being for Plainfield.
  
• Green and Stender Resolution: "Budget Resolution No. 1427" (PDF) -- Shows 15-way split.
• Plainfield Today - 6/29/2007: "Jerry Green bats .666"
  

-- Dan Damon

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Is Plainfield's website finally near rebirth?

City's website has been in limbo for 10 months.

Plainfield's official website, which went into digital limbo last October, may now -- 10 months after going dark and nearly a month after the revamp was promised -- be being resurrected to a new life.

Rumors have it the Administration has been highly embarrassed over the failure to deliver on the promised June 30 re-launch date and has been pushing a developer (don't ask who's paying for this!) to get a functional site up ASAP.

(I am really looking forward to seeing if the highly annoying and now utterly passé mandatory Flash introduction has been abandoned for a more straightforward, businesslike approach.)

Each day since June 30, I have diligently logged on to plainfield.com, and each day have received the front page you see at the top of this post.

Going out to check the site last evening, I found instead the following screen --

Plainfield.com cannot be found.

This error message means that the domain name identifier had been removed from the DNS servers, the lookup table that lets your web browser connect with the hundreds of millions of web pages in cyberspace.

It also suggests that the site's developer had taken it off the stream in order to switch service to a new Internet provider and then republish the information, allowing users to -- finally -- connect to the new website.

I may, however, be too optimistic.

Visiting the site as I write this, I find that the OLD WEBSITE IS STILL UP, but that the annoying error message regarding the expired weather service that prevented the pages from loading without your intervention has been removed. Progress.

Slouching toward Bethlehem, I remain, yours truly...

---

Plainfield's Official website is here --

• "City of Plainfield"
  

-- Dan Damon

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After helping hundreds of Plainfield home buyers and sellers, she needs a hand

Michele Marron, who as real estate paralegal for the firm of King, King & Goldsack -- many readers know former partners Victor E.D. King and John Wood Goldsack -- helped hundreds (if not thousands) of Plainfielders and others find their way through sometimes thorny and fretful home purchases and sales, is now in need of a helping hand.

I am in hopes that former clients and real estate professionals reading this will pitch in and help.

Michele (now Marron-Meyerhoff) suffers from the rare, chronic -- and now, life threatening -- autoimmune disease scleroderma.

Michele desperately needs a stem cell transplant. Her friendly health insurance provider will not cover the $160,000 cost of the procedure. The hospital will perform it only if the money is in the bank.

Hospitalized last year for seven months and spending several weeks on a ventilator to assist her breathing, her lungs have been seriously damaged and the transplant offers the only possibility of halting the progress of the disease.

You may help by making a contribution in Michele's name to the National Foundation for Transplants, with whom her family, friends and old classmates (Westfield HS, 1959) are working to raise the funds. [Read more here...]

Contributions should be sent to:

NFT New Jersey Stem Cell Fund
2560 Route 22 / POBox 208
Scotch Plains, NJ 07076

Make check payable to 'NFT' and make a notation for 'Michele Marron-Meyerhoff'.
For more info, contact Barbara O'Desky at (732) 748-1485 or visit the NFT website.

---

More on Michele's story and scleroderma --

• Ledger - 7/26/2007: "Effort under way to help woman with rare disease"
• NIAMS: "Handout on Health: Scleroderma"
  

-- Dan Damon

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Thank Christie Whitman for $58B headache

Whitman balanced budget by dropping contributions to plan.

Local, county and state retirees in New Jersey's retired employees' health plan will draw small comfort from a report that sets the underfunding of the plan at $58B, versus an earlier estimate of $78B.

The New York Times scooped the Ledger on the issue yesterday. Today's Ledger story, though, points out that we have Christy Whitman to thank for the mess. She stopped funding the plan in 1994 to balance the state budget.

But your anger should be directed at the Legislature as well, since they went along for the ride.

Now, WE must pay the piper.

---

More info --

• New York Times - 7/25/2007: "$58 Billion Shortfall for New Jersey Retiree Care"
  
• Ledger - 7/26/2007: "State's tab for retirees' health care is $58B"
  

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield pension problems get national notice

PensionWatch and PensionTsunami monitor public and
corporate pension issues on a national and international level.

Plainfield's public employee pension contribution woes got national attention yesterday -- being posted on the PensionWatch website and mailed to their email subscriber list. PensionWatch monitors public employee and corporate pension systems and funding issues on a national and international basis, as well as keeping an eye on the Social Security system. Bookmark this site or subscribe to their email newsletter to keep abreast of the aptly named 'tsunami' of pension issues coming our way.

Meanwhile, there is more news on New Jersey's retired employees' health plan issues today [read more here...].

---

More info --

• PensionWatch and PensionTsunami is here.
• Washington Post: "Public Pension Systems Betting on Hedge Funds"

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield snags eight HEARTS grants

Plainfield poet Hubert Reeder, recipient of a 2007 HEART grant,
relaxes at a recent Outdoor Festival of Art.

Eight Plainfield arts and culture organizations and individuals were among 35 to receive the Union County Freeholders' 2007 HEART (History, Education, Art Reaching Thousands) grants.

The program, begun in 1998, supports programs related to history, the arts and humanities, demonstrating a commitment to the artists and cultural organizations of the county. This year's awards total $75,000, with Plainfield grants amounting to $15,500.

Plainfield recipients of 2007 Union County HEARTS grants --
Hubert Reeder	$500
duCret School of Art	$2,500
Literacy Volunteers of America	$2,500
Plainfield Division of Parks & Recreation	$2,500
Plainfield Public Library	$2,500
Plainfield Tower West	$1,000
SSYC Foundation	$1,500
Women in Conversation	$2,500

For information about next year's HEART Grant Program, artists, educators and organizations can contact the Union County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs. Phone: (908) 558-2550. NJ Relay users dial 711, or E-mail: culturalinfo@ucnj.org.

---

More --

• Union County Freeholders: "Union County Awards 35 “HEART” Grants"

-- Dan Damon

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Union County Dem chair DeFilippo will have to face accuser in court

UCIA Executive Director Charlotte DeFilippo
is also Chair of the Union County Democrats.

Union County Improvement Authority executive director Charlotte DeFilippo, who is also Union County Dem chair will have to facer her accuser in court, according to CountyWatchers.

A county employee, forced to retire in lieu of termination, has won the right to have the case heard.

CountyWatchers previously reported on the case--

On May 3, 2007 another case was filed in the Superior Court Union County (docket # UNN-L-1592-07) against the Freeholder Board, George Devanney the County Manager, Elizabeth Genevich the Deputy County Mngr. and Dir of Admin Services, Alfred Faella the Dir. Of Economic Development and Charlotte DeFilippo the Dir. Of the UC Improvement Authority and Chairman of the UC Democratic Committee; in both their official and individual capacities.

It appears that an employee of 18 yrs, R.T., is claiming that he was forced to retire in lieu of termination. It must be noted that R. T. is age 61 and disabled so he is considered a member of a number of protected classes under NJ law against discrimination.

Particulars of the DeFilippo portion of the complaint allege --

[R.T.] claims to have not been given work assignments and harassed in other discriminatory ways [including] being referred to as the “man with the crooked face” by DeFilippo. RT suffers facial paralysis as the result of brain surgery.

RT also asserts that Devanney and DeFilippo leaned on one of his immediate supervisors, with DeFilippo summoning that individual to her home in Hillside on what she called “County Business”. The business, it turned out, was a discussion of his, the supervisor's, loyalty to R.T.

The suit also makes mention that the meeting [at DeFilippo's home] was not unusual and it had been at previous meetings that she often directed county hiring and firings and what consultants to use within the county.

Stay tuned.

CountyWatchers is here.

-- Dan Damon

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Abbott Manor case to be decided Thursday

Plainfield's Abbott Manor nursing home expansion zoning case, which has dragged on for years, may be winding up this week.

Union County Superior Court Judge Walter R. Barisonek will give his decision orally from the bench Thursday at 2:00 PM, according to the Van Wyck Brooks Historic District's attorney.

The ruling comes two years after Plainfield's zoning board approved the expansion of the facility by its owner, CPR Holdings. The company has been pursuing the expansion for nearly seven years.

CPR Holdings was turned down by Scotch Plains when it attempted to locate the nursing home there, and that denial invigorated the Van Wyck Brooks Historic District activists, who contend the expansion will irreparably alter the character of the historic neighborhood.

Emotions ran so high when the Zoning Board approved the expansion that three councilors -- then-president Ray Blanco, Rashid Burney, and Don Davis -- wanted to hail zoning board members before the Council to explain themselves and, by implication from Blanco's remarks at the time, face possible expulsion from the board for their actions.

"Shame on you, shame on you," resident Dottie Gutenkauf was quoted as saying in the Courier News at the time.

And in the Ledger, she said --

Our position all along has been that the proposed expansion of Abbott Manor is just too large to be consistent with the historic district. ...The district will become less attractive to people who want to live in a historic district.

Judge Barisonek's courtroom is in the Union County Courthouse, 2 Broad Street, Elizabeth.

The hearing is set for 2:00 PM.

If planning to attend, leave plenty of time. Parking is usually available in the jury pool parking deck about two blocks from the Courthouse. Remember that you will have to stand in line to go through the metal detectors.

For more information, contact Arne Aakre of the Van Wyck Brooks HD via email.

-- Dan Damon

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Firing employees without fear

Well, maybe not exactly without fear, but at least with your eyes wide open.

The Union County Employer Council of the NJ Department of Labor is sponsoring a free seminar -- "Firing Without Fear: How To Discharge Employees and Avoid Lawsuits" -- this Thursday in Plainfield.

In the complicated and litigious world in which we live, many employees are aware of their rights. Many employers suffer from a lack of understanding of those rights when terminating employees.

Serious problems can arise when an employee is terminated, and the consequences can be serious for the employer. This seminar will give employers advice about the practicalities and legalities of firing an employee "when it just isn't working out."

Employers are invited to come and bring a colleague.

---

Firing Without Fear
How To Discharge Employees and Avoid Lawsuits

Sponsored: Union County Employer Council of the NJ Department of Labor

Thursday, July 26
Union County One Stop Career Center
200 West Second Street, 2nd Floor
(County Office Building)

FREE, but RSVP to Jim Liggins, (908) 412-3717

8:30 AM - Continental Breakfast & Networking
9:00 AM - Program: Mark Tabakman, presenter
10:45 AM - Wrapup

-- Dan Damon

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Does Google own us?

I am addicted to Google.

I turn to it first for everything to be searched for. I may have to go elsewhere eventually, but most often Google gets what I need within the first page or two.

But sometimes I have noticed a fleeting message in my browser bar when the 'Net is busy -- "Waiting for analytics.google.com" -- which disappears as the page loads up.

That is Google gathering and storing information about what its users are up to.

Innocent? Maybe.

But now that Google is looking to buy the largest online advertising business -- Doubleclick -- in a $3.1B deal, questions are being asked.

Turns out Google keeps the information longer, and in more detail, than may make you comfortable.

The New York Times reports both in its blogs and via an AP story that Microsoft and Yahoo! are tweaking their data retention policies -- partly as a result of the scrutiny the Google deal has brought and partly as a competitive countertactic.

But technology industry magazine eWEEK set things up recently by questioning in detail just what it is that Google is so interested in keeping.

And why.

And why you should worry.

---

Resources --

• eWEEK: "Is it OK for Google to Own Us?"
  
• NY Times - "Microsoft Offers Privacy Options"| "Microsoft, Yahoo Tweak Privacy Policies"

-- Dan Damon

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Why state pension plans must squeeze or gamble

New Jersey taxpayers are not alone in facing challenges to their public employee pension plans, though whether or not the reasons are the same may not be clear.

Saturday's Ledger carried a report on how the coming year's state pension obligations impact various local communities. (For my post on Plainfield taxpayers' pickle with this year's pension costs, see here.)

The scene was set thusly --

Across the state, local officials blanched as they learned the pension bill facing local property taxpayers statewide has soared past $1 billion.

That's $406 million more than local officials needed to include in this year's budgets, and nearly 20 times what they paid four years ago.

The Ledger cites two reasons for this year's steep increase --

The steep rise in pension costs has two causes. One is the overall jump in benefit costs, which rose by 27 percent between last year's accounting and this year's.

The second is the continued phase-in of the portion of the bills towns are being required to pay. Under a five-year plan designed to ease the transition from the pension funding holiday, towns have been paying only a fraction of the actual bills they owe since 2004.

However, there are long-term drivers that really determine the pain local taxpayers face each year --

Generous increases in benefits, years of skipped pension payments and the collapse of the stock market six years ago all contributed to leaving the various pension accounts for state and local government workers about $25 billion short of the amount needed to cover benefits promised to retirees.

There is always a problem in listing items in a series and that is that the reader silently assumes the writer has listed them in order of priority. The Ledger may think it has done so, but I beg to differ.

The first problem with our pension system is that both the Legislature and the Governor have skipped pension payments -- for years. Increases in benefits pale when compared with the failure of fiscal nerve by these players over the years.

Secondly -- and not stated directly in the Ledger article -- is the impact of Gov. Whitman's disastrous foray into the bond market with the pension funds. At the time, observers protested that Christie was whisking up some Kool-Aid, but the Legislature -- Democrats as well as Republicans -- went along with it. We are paying for that irrational exuberance now.

Today's WashPost carries a story on how some states (New Jersey is not mentioned, but that doesn't mean no one in Trenton is thinking of this) are going into hedge funds to bulk up their pension fund balances.

Given the way the markets are being impacted by the securitized subprime mortgage mess, this is questionable at best.

Maybe they should just take it all to Atlantic City and try the quarter slots.

---

More Info --

• Washington Post - 7/24/2007: "Public Pension Systems Betting on Hedge Funds"
• Star-Ledger - 7/21/2007: "Numbers show communities face huge bills for pensions" -- The Ledger story details several communities' contributions.
• Plainfield Today: "Plainfield's public employee pension cost rises 121%"

-- Dan Damon

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Muhlenberg looking for volunteers

Muhlenberg is looking for a few good men -- and women, and young people.

Volunteers are being sought for both Plainfield's Muhlenberg RMC and the JFK operation in Edison, according to Solaris Health System COO Scott Gebhard.

Volunteers perform a valuable function at Muhlenberg, from running the Gift Shop off the main lobby to visiting patients, helping with patient transportation and assisting in health care operations.

Volunteers also gain networking opportunities and new skills that can be helpful outside the hospital setting.

Generally, volunteers donate a time slot of about four hours, wih additional hours always welcome.

High school students can become Junior Volunteers and can give three hours per week during the school year.

To become a volunteer, or for more information, call Muhlenberg's Volunteer Program at (908) 668-2008.

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield's public employee pension cost rises 121%

Public employee pension contributions for FY2008.




Police and Fire pension contributions for FY2008.
(Click on images to enlarge.)

Plainfield's contributions to the state pension plan for the coming fiscal year (FY2008) will give taxpayers that sinking feeling in the pit of their stomachs. PERS (Public Employee) contributions will be up 121% over the previous year.

Everyone expected some increase, but chances are not anything like those the state has laid out (links to the reports -- in PDF -- are here).

Contributions to the PERS (Public Employee Retirement System -- all non-police, non-fire employees) will increase by $290,320 to a total in the upcoming budget of $684,858 to fund 80% of the total bill. That is 121% over the straight-line projection from last year's contribution of $394,538, which represented 60% of the total bill.

The state has been requiring municipalities to increase their share of the total cost on a five year schedule until they carry the full freight of the pension costs. Plainfield will face one more year of increase to its PERS share, which will then be fully funded by local taxpayers.

Police and fire personnel are in a separate pension plan -- PFRS (Police and Fire Retirement System). The total contribution by Plainfield to the system for FY2008 is set at $4,350,630. At an increase of $897,599, that is 30% over the straight-line projection ($690,606) from last year's share. As of this year's increment, Plainfield taxpayers will be funding 100% of the annual pension cost for police and fire personnel.

The total increase for Plainfield to both pension funds for FY2008 of $1,187,919 is $366,134 -- or 44% -- over the straight-line expectation of $821,785 based on last year's contribution.

All of this represents just the first step in factors influencing Plainfield taxpayers' final tax bills for the upcoming fiscal year.

Health benefits, another significant chunk of the taxpayer burden, are calculated on a calendar year basis, and projections for CY2008 will not be available to municipalities until late in the year -- typically by mid-November.

The health care costs are usually the last piece of the cost side of each year's new budget. Coming as they do late in the year helps explain why it is unlikely the City Council can ever adopt a budget before five months into a given fiscal year at the earliest.

Meanwhile, with only one business session scheduled for August, the Council is not likely to get anything firm budget-wise from the Administration until well after Labor Day.

---

More Info --

• Also see the related post: "Why state pension plans must squeeze or gamble"
  
  
• Star-Ledger - 7/21/2007: "Numbers show communities face huge bills for pensions" -- The Ledger story details several communities' contributions.
  
• Division of Pensions: "Projected Local Employer Pension Contributions - FY2008" -- Links to reports, which are in PDF format.
  

-- Dan Damon

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Pssst. Operation CeaseFire meeting tonight

Image of flyer received Monday.

There will be a public meeting tonight to introduce the Operation CeaseFire program slated to start in Plainfield.

Residents are invited to gather for a presentation and outline of how they can participate in the program, which has previously been described as aimed at reducing gun-related incidents and crime in the community.

Plainfield's program benefits from $450,000 in funding secured by Assemblyman Jerry Green in the FY2008 state budget.

All will be relieved that the program -- twice previously announce and twice previously delayed -- has finally arrived.

---

Assemblyman Green snags the funding: "Jerry Green bats .666"

-- Dan Damon

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Pie police spoiling NJ Farmers' Markets

Homemade cherry pie, as you might enjoy
at Kathy's in Morgantown, Indiana.

The pie police are coming.

Today's Ledger reports that Hunterdon County officials are making life difficult for local farmers' market vendors -- and customers.

Seems homemade pies, cheeses and meat products are no-no items unless federal and/or state requirements are met.

I know I'm probably off base, but this sounds extreme.

Having grown up with considerable glasses of unpasteurized whole milk, eaten at countless church suppers whose hygeneity was unquestioned, and having a fondness for homemade pies -- no matter in whose home they are made, or where and howsoever they are served -- I just find it a bit much.

Perhaps the inspectors need some homemade pie.

Maybe a cream pie.

Applied you know where.

---

Star-Ledger - 7/23/2007: "Farmer's market crackdown"

-- Dan Damon

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East Orange skips ahead of Plainfield with gun sensors

One system, ShotSpotter, is able to determine a vehicle's
location, direction, speed and number of shots fired.

East Orange has gotten a jump on Plainfield.

This time it's about gunfire in the neighborhoods. A story in this morning's Courier notes the reduction in gunfire and drug activity in the neighborhoods after police put up 93 sensors and 18 cameras covering about half the city (in area, East Orange is about two-thirds the size of Plainfield).

According to an article in WIRED magazine, getting gunshots reported has been a continuing problem police departments face--

Many shots fired in urban areas go unreported. When sheriff's officers in the Willowbrook neighborhood of Los Angeles County tested the system, they fired boxfuls of blanks and live rounds in nine separate areas. Hardly anyone noticed. The patrolmen shake their heads when they tell the story, repeating the key details: nine locations — more than 100 rounds discharged — and only a single phone call. They reckon that citizens are either distrustful of the police, fearful of retaliation, or simply inured to the frank pop pop pop of gunfire.

Even if someone does report hearing gunfire, the chance of identifying the location and catching the perpetrator is remote. Echoing off walls and masked by other noises, the sound's origin can be difficult to place.

That's where ShotSpotter comes in. "In the past, the best information the police could hope for was a neighbor calling to say, ‘Sorry to bother you, but there may have been a shooting somewhere in my neighborhood,'" says ShotSpotter CEO James Beldock. "Our system can immediately tell them that, say, 11 rounds were fired from a car going 9 miles an hour, northbound, in front of a specific address on Main Street. In some situations, ShotSpotter could get someone on the scene within a minute. That's a level of situational knowledge police have never had."

Having the sensors seems to be much better than relying on human reports of gun activity.

A sample ShotSpotter map.

Plainfield's efforts to get cameras have sputtered for years, not to mention thoughts of installing gunshot sensors. Though talk in Plainfield has veered off over guesstimated costs, East Orange seems to have found it reasonable enough -- $150,000, including discounts for making itself available as a 'demonstration community'.

Though things have quieted down somewhat in Plainfield since the 'Clinton Avenue Posse' was corraled last April, we are hardly out of the woods. Plainfield block associations and neighborhood watches might urge officials to take a look-see at the East Orange operation -- and accompany them on a visit.

Sample ShotSpotter compter details screen.

East Orange's program also involves a Virtual Community Patrol, giving residents in some rough neighborhoods access to a special website showing webcam views of the neighborhood and giving them an opportunity to report crime in real time via their computers.

All that would be well and good with a working website.

There I go again.

---

Courier - 7/23/2007: "High-tech sensors, cameras help East Orange go silent"
WIRED Magazine: "Shot Spotter"
Company website: "ShotSpotter.com" and a short video.

-- Dan Damon

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BREAKING: 'Mad Hatter' bank robber arrest

The Ledger's breaking news blog posted a brief a few minutes ago that an arrest has been made in the case. The most recent holdup was Sunday in Union Township, as reported in this morning's Ledger print edition.

---

Ledger Blog: "FBI arrests suspect in Hat Bandit bank jobs"
Today's Ledger story: "Elusive Hat Bandit hits again, FBI says"

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield's Muhlenberg dodges angioplasty bullet -- for now

Plainfield's Muhlenberg RMC got a breather on Thursday when the Health Care Administration Board voted 6-1 to accept the Department of Health's rewritten regulations concerning participation in a Johns Hopkins study of angioplasty in hospitals where cardiac surgery is not performed. Nine states are participating in the study.

New Jersey's Supreme Court ruled in May that New Jersey hospitals participating in the study would have to shut down their programs after November if the state's selection criteria weren't amended.

Thursday's decision is to allow a maximum of twelve hospitals to participate -- up from the current nine. All of the current participants, including Muhlenberg, must reapply. A mandatory public comment period will be open until October 19, after which the Board will reassess the proposed regulations, make a final adoption and designate twelve participants.

Friday's Ledger reported that Health Commissioner Fred Jacobs said the Supreme Court may be asked to extend the deadline if the new list of twelve participants is not finalized by the November 30 deadline.

The elephant in the room is that cardiac care -- bypass surgery and angioplasty -- is big business to New Jersey's struggling hospitals. The Bergen Record cited a figure of $300-$400 million annually.

Having been personally involved in the community input side of Muhlenberg's original application for a cardiac surgery license, I know about how political the process has been -- despite all the high-minded talk by both hospitals and state regulators -- and how sharp the elbows of the likes of Deborah, Cooper, and RWJ hospitals are.

Back in those days, surgery dominated the strategic thinking of nearly everyone involved. But times have changed and medicine has moved along. As the Bergen Record puts it --

Proponents of allowing more hospitals to offer elective angioplasty say it will increase availability for a much-needed procedure. Advances in angioplasty -- improvements in catheter design, the advent of stents, metal meshes to prop open arteries, and better monitoring -- have made it safer. Emergency bypass surgery is performed in 2 percent to less than 0.4 percent of cases, state health officials said.

Bypass surgery -- the bread and butter of the cardiac dinosaurs like Deborah and Cooper -- has plummeted in the last decade, to a high of 2%.

Meanwhile, Muhlenberg has argued all along that it can safely handle the procedure and that its market area includes a large underserved population of minority and low-income candidates for the angioplasty procedure.

Deborah and Cooper have been adept at generating concern -- I won't say hysteria -- over the safety of angioplasty without a cardiac surgery backup, but I hope that their machinations will have more light cast on them.

For instance, much of the discussion of safety in the recent hubbub is centered on a figure of seven deaths cited by NJBIZ ("New rules in a medical market fight"), a statewide business publication, as pointed out by the Record. The magazine cited no source for the figure.

Am I too cynical in thinking that the hand of the publicists representing the entrenched cardiac surgery hospitals is at work here? As well as in last Thursday's Ledger editorial, which seems to have drunk the Deborah/Cooper Kool-Aid and which I found highly suspect as well as annoying?

Muhlenberg and the others have won a reprieve, which is heartening.

Now they must reapply and submit to the winnowing process once again.

Let's hope they sharpen their elbows a bit, too, and not just rely on the kindness of strangers.

---

Media coverage --

• Ledger - 7/20/2007: "New rules keep N.J. in heart study"
• Ledger, Editorial - 7/18/2007: "Angioplasty Research: Don't experiment with lives"
• Bergen Record - 7/19/2007: "Deaths stir debate on angioplasty"
• Bergen Record - 7/19/2007: " Study's director defends angioplasty programs"
• NJBIZ: "New rules in a medical market fight"

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/

Trash talk torpedoes Cranford's online bulletin board

Screenshot of Cranford Talk's front page.

As I prepared to post about the changes to the 'Comments' function on Plainfield Today, I learned from CountyWatchers that Mark Dingelstedt's nearly 10-year-old Cranford Talk bulletin board is being shut down.

The reason?

Anonymous rudeness has hijacked what was once sort of a community water-cooler.

One of the sad downsides of allowing anonymous posting (which is what I allow on PT), is that you get a certain amount of people who use the anonymity to make personal attacks, spread false information and rant in ways they wouldn't if their identity were known. Naughty words turn out to be the least of it.

This is progress?

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/