CMYK Electric bills could fall as demand dips
U.K. court convicts airline bomb suspects FSU falls short in last-ditch rally vs. Miami
News, Page 3A
Business & Farm, Page 5A
Sports, Page 1B TUESDAY, September 8, 2009
Volume XCV, No. 210
(252) 436-2700
www.hendersondispatch.com
Presidential addresses
SAT score ups and downs
Controversial speech to kids comes today; Laura Bush gives O.K.
Vance, Granville scores better, Warren a bit worse By GLENN CRAVEN Daily Dispatch Editor
Tri-County schools last month received the results from the 2008-09 SAT tests, with scores declining in Warren County, rising in Granville, and improving in Vance albeit with a much smaller number of Vance County students taking the exam compared to the prior academic year. AP photo/CHARLES DHARAPAK The SAT is one of the premier aptitude tests President Barack Obama speaks at the AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic at Coney Island in Cincinnati Monday. taken by high school students as a measure of their readiness for college admission. Vance County students’ average SAT score working men and women. Care Can’t Wait.” that he won’t be satisfied By DARLENE SUPERVILLE improved by 54 points in For their part, some They had to be won,” he until jobs are much more Associated Press Writer 2008-09 vs. 2007-08, rising elements within the labor said. plentiful. to a 1,291 overall on a scale movement have indicated “They had to be fought Shortly after taking the CINCINNATI — of 2,400 points possible frustration with Obama, for, by men and women of oath of office in January, President Barack Obama (a minimum of 200 and a Obama confronted a rapid- who traveled to Cincinnati courage and conviction, declared Monday that maximum of 800 points to speak to a state AFLfrom the factory floors of ly deteriorating economy, modern benefits like paid awarded on each of three CIO gathering, because the Industrial Revolution sections). The improvement leave, minimum wage and a clogged credit system, to the shopping aisles of failing or ailing banks and some key items such as Social Security “all bear NATIONAL WEATHER was reflected across the Shown areboard, noon positions weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bandsas arehe highs for the day. legislation making it today’s superstores. They a a shaky stock market. the union label,” apwithofVance students stood up and spoke out He used his speech here to easier for people to join pealed to organized labor scoringSeattle an average of 424 69/52 unions has languished to demand a fair shake, on the critical reading por- to help him win the health tick off a host of steps the in Congress. To vigorous an honest day’s pay for administration has taken tion of the test last year vs. care fight in Congress. Billings cheers, Obama made a an honest day’s work,” he to steady the economy, and “It was labor that 75/51 407 the year prior, averagDetroit Minneapolis New York 77/62 80/64 pitch for the bill in his said. “Many risked their he made a special pitch for helped build the largest ing 448 in mathematics, 77/65 the health care overhaul speech. He also noted that lives. Some gave their middleChicago class in history. up from 423 points, and 78/56 San Francisco he has pushed. the first bill he signed into lives. Some made it a So, even if you’re notWashington a Denver averaging 419 on the test’s 75/57 Kansas City 86/54 76/64 cause of their lives — like “We have never been law was one guaranteeing union member, every 86/63 writing portion, improved Sen. Ted Kennedy, who we this close,” Obama said. equal pay for equal work. American owes something from 407 the year before. Los Angeles 81/64 remember today.” Obama spent a good “We have never had this to America’s laborAtlanta moveBroken down by high 88/67 At one point before deal of his time extolling ment,” said Obama, whose broad an agreement on school in this county, El Paso 91/68 Obama spoke, some in the the virtues of the union what needs to be done.” He run for the presidency was Southern Vance showed Fairbanks crowd broke into chants accused vested interests of movement. energized in no small part improvement in all three Houston 66/47 93/72 Miami of “Fired up” and “Ready trying to thwart it. Some “We remember that the by unions. 89/78 Please seeHonolulu SAT, page 4A rights and benefits we ento Go.” union-circulated posters 88/76 Obama asserted that Anchorage Hilo Juneau 60/49 84/71“our recovery plan is joy today were not simply held up by audience mem61/48 Please see LABOR DAY, page 3A handed out to America’s bers proclaimed, “Health working,” but repeated
Obama thanks workers on Labor Day
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Mostly cloudy A brief afternoon shower CHICAGO — Janie Johnson
has no health insurance, so when she cut her toe while giving THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY herself a pedicure, she limped to the emergency room at one of Cloudy 85° 87° 85° Chicago’s safety net hospitals and High: 80 Low: 61 waited her turn. 61° 65° 66° “I’m 44, but I probably look Mostly cloudy Partly sunny Partly sunny about 55 right now,” Johnson Wednesday joked in Stroger Hospital’s emergency department where more than 100AND patients sat waiting. Damp ALMANAC SUN MOON Urgent cases, from chest pains to High: 77 Sunrise today ........................... 6:51 a.m. Temperature gunshot wounds, are rushed Low: 63 Sunset today ............................ 7:31to p.m. Raleigh-Durham through 6 p.m. yest. Moonrise first. today Johnson ........................ doctors was 9:19 gladp.m. to High .................................................... 79° Moonset today ....................... 10:47 a.m. Low ..................................................... 63° have somewhere to go for health Details,84° 3A Sunrise tomorrow ..................... 6:51 a.m. Normal high ........................................ care. Sunset tomorrow ...................... 7:30 p.m. Normal low ......................................... 64° “I don’t know what I would do” Moonrise tomorrow .................. 9:58 p.m. Record high ............................ 99° in 1954 Moonset tomorrow ................. Record low .............................. 51° in 1984 without the hospital, she 11:53 said.a.m. Moon Phases “My health would probably get Precipitation
Today
Deaths
24 hoursButner through 6 p.m. yest. ......... 0.13” Month to date .................................. 0.13” William L. ‘Bill’ Tunstall, 75 Normal month to date ..................... 0.97” Henderson Year to date ................................... 23.11” Fields, 55 Normal year to date Lorraine ...................... 30.57”
Kittrell
Joseph K. Brown, 79 REGIONAL WEATHER
Last
New
First
worse.” To all the knotty issues involved in health care overhaul, add one more: The proposals in Congress may threaten the funding and future of the nation’s already-struggling safety net hospitals. It’s an irony hospital leaders are expressing quietly as Congress reconvenes this week to take up health care again. Hospital leaders support expanding insurance coverage to more Americans, but they worry financing the expansion will cause some teetering urban hospitals to deteriorate and close. They point to Massachusetts, the laboratory for health care overhaul, where one safety net hospital, Boston Medical Center, is suing the state claiming it’s cov-
320
295.76
+0.01
Sep 11
Sep 18
Sep 26
Neuse Falls
264
REGIONAL CITIES Today
Oct 4
Wed.
248.64
Today
-0.08
Wed.
City
Hi Lo W Hi Lo W
City
Hi Lo W Hi Lo W
Asheville Boone Burlington Chapel Hill
82 78 82 82
High Point Jacksonville Kinston Lumberton
82 82 82 85
56 pc 54 c 60 c 63 c
77 75 78 78
56 55 61 61
c c c c
Please see HOSPITALS, page 4A
Hospital payments
Ho
Patient care hospital revenue by source, fiscal year 2007
Pati by s
About 2,700 U.S. hospitals receive federal disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments to help pay for uninsured patients.
2% Medicare DSH
61 c 66 pc 64 pc 65 pc
79 80 81 84
63 64 65 62
c c c c
said she believes there will be garbage collection workers ending up in the unemployment lines should the city government privatize the sanitation services. Evans was stunned at a work session in late June when City Public Works Director Linda Leyen said a proposal specifies trash collection workers would to have to go to work for
Abo rece ate paym unin
3 Other
4 Uninsured or self pay 10 Medicaid DSH 14 State or local government 18 Non-DSH Medicare
23 Non-DSH Medicaid 26 Commercial insurance
NOTE: Based on 97 hospitals that are members of National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems SOURCE: National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems
NOTE mem Publi AP
SOUR Public
<AP> H 090409 graphic Editor’s note: It is mandatory to include all revenue sources that accompany this graphic when whatever private company collection, the present7/8 inch repurposing or editing it with for publication would end up being chosen contract having been in ef-BC-USto handle sanitation. fect since the start of July ETA 5 p
City Council to discuss privatized sanitation tonight
orders to city departments that included studying possible means for having free Salem Warrenton enterprise perform services. A City Council special Asheville Durham 81/63 Raleigh 82/56 Agnes Carroll, 83 work 82/62session And when City Manis set for 6 80/64 Obituaries, 4A p.m. today at City Hall, 134Capeager Ray Griffin made Charlotte his presentation of the Rose Ave., with the topic Hatteras Fayetteville 85/62 86/65 being privatization of Hen-78/70working budget in May, he derson’s sanitation services. said that, as for the future, Wilmington LAKE LEVELS a focus should include The council, at the 80/66 Elevation in feet above sea level. Data as privatizing sanitation. two-day annual municipal of 7 a.m. yesterday. 24-Hr. 24-Hr. City Councilwoman government retreat Lake Capacity Yest. Change Lake Capacityin Yest. Change Gaston 203 199.63 -0.02 JordanMarch, gave 240 marching 213.01 -0.05 Mary Emma Evans has early
Kerr
ering too much of the cost for expanding coverage. Another safety net standby, Cambridge Health Alliance, has closed health centers and cut services; its Somerville Hospital no longer keeps patients overnight. “It looks like a national plan will be modeled on Massachusetts and it’s a disaster for poor people,” said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, Harvard Medical School professor and a doctor at Cambridge Hospital. “The insurance offered doesn’t cover everyone,” she said. “It’s filled with gaps like copayments and deductibles. Patients can’t afford it, so they turn to the public sector and the public sector isn’t there anymore.”
Full
BHenderson y WILLIAM F. WEST 80/61 D riter Mt. Rocky Greensboro aily Dispatch W Frank Hill, 57 Winston80/63 82/63
Soul City Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows
Please see SPEECH, page 3A
Will ‘safety net’ hospitals survive reforms? Cold front
63°
Weather
WASHINGTON — In a speech that drew fire even before he delivered it, President Barack Obama is telling the nation’s schoolchildren he “expects great things from each of you.” “At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world,” Obama said. “And none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities.” The White House posted Obama’s remarks on its Web site at midday Monday. He’s scheduled to deliver the talk from Wakefield High School in suburban Arlington, Va., Tuesday. It will be broadcast live on C-SPAN and on the White House Web site. Obama’s planned talk has proven controversial, with several conservative organizations and individuals accusing him of trying to pitch his arguments too aggressively in a localeducation setting. White House officials, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have said the allegations are silly. Obama got a bit of a boost from former first lady Laura Bush on Monday when she said she supported Obama’s decision to address the nation’s school children.
110s
Price of federal health care could force some struggling hospitals out of business
Mainly cloudy
By ANN SANNER Associated Press Writer
Stationary front
Warm front Ice 2A Business & Farm. . . . 5A FIVE-DAY Opinion . .FORECAST . . . . . . . . . 6A FOR HENDERSON Light Side . . . . . . . . . 7A TODAY TONIGHT WEDNESDAY Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-8B Comics . . . . . . . . . . . 9B 77°K. JOHNSON By CARLA 80°Classifieds. . . . . 61° 10-12B AP Medical Writer ShowersOur RainHometown T-storms Snow . .Flurries . . .
50 cents
Councilman Garry Daeke at the work session said “Oxford has done this forever,” a reference to that city contracting out garbage collection to a private company. Oxford has long had an agreement with Waste Industries to handle garbage
2007 and to expire at the end of June 2011. Tuesday’s work session will be held in the City Council Chambers and is considered open to the public.
Contact the writer at bwest@ hendersondispatch.com.