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Volleyball team picked third in East by SEC coaches
The Daily Beacon reviews ‘Mad Men’ and Modest Mouse in Tuesday Takes
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Tuesday, August 25, 2009 Issue 05
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Vol. 112
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Majority of patients satisfied with TennCare Katie Freeman News Editor
A survey conducted by two researchers in UT’s Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER), shows that a high percentage of TennCare recipients are satisified with their health care and TennCare coverage. TennCare is a Medicaid waiver that provides health care service to low-income households in Tennessee that meet Medicaid regulations. Bill Fox, director of the CBER, and Christopher Carty, a research associate, used a random, digit-dial approach to poll 5,000 households. About 20 percent of these households have a member on TennCare. The 2009 survey is a continuation of an annual CBER study contracted
with the state Department of Finance and Administration since 1993. “We find that 76 percent of the head of households think their own health care is excellent or good, which is a high percentage for the history of this data. For their children, they think that 89 percent (of the child’s quality of health care) is excellent or good,” Fox said. The extremely high satisfaction with TennCare’s medical coverage for children is the same as satisfaction among the nonTennCare population, including
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those who pay for medical insurance, Fox said. “One way we base this is we
What we find is that 92 percent are satisfied with TennCare, the second highest percentage since 1993.” The report concluded that more children are insured, while there is an insignificant drop in insured a d u l t s . H o w e v e r, among insured adults there has been a decline in initial visits to the emergency room for care. More people on TennCare visit the doctor regularly. “The substantial decrease in the number of uninsured children can be partially attributed to the CoverKids program and an
We find that 76 percent of the head
of households think their own health care is
excellent or good, which is a high percentage for the history of this data. – Bill Fox, director of the CBER, speaking about the 2009 survey.
ask (heads of households) whether or not they are satisfied with the quality of their Medicare,” Fox said. “The other way is we ask about their satisifaction with TennCare itself.
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increase in the number of children covered by TennCare as a result of declining economic conditions,” a UT press release includes from the CBER report. Over the years, Fox and other CBER researchers have consulted with TennCare administrators as they use survey results to improve coverage. “We’ve done special cuts of this data for them at times to help them know [the impact of] changes they’ve made in programs involving coverage and to look at how well this government program is performing,” Fox said. “We’ve consulted about the results every year, and they’ve called us with these very specialized questions.” In addition to its research for TennCare, the CBER has researchers working on questions of the future of the economy, welfare and unemployment in Tennessee.
Writers in the Library program on hiatus due to budgetary concerns Ellen Larson Staff Writer
Katie Hogin • The Daily Beacon
Sophomore tailback Tauren Poole carries the ball on a run play during practice Monday afternoon.
Appeals court rules to block sports betting in Delaware Federal appeals court says Delaware betting plan would violate federal ban on sports wagering
The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA — A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Delaware’s plan to offer sports betting would violate a 1992 federal ban on sports wagering. The court in Philadelphia ruled after hearing almost two hours of arguments from attorneys for Delaware and for professional sports leagues and the NCAA, both of which opposed the plan. Delaware claimed it was exempt from the federal ban because it ran a sports lottery in 1976. The leagues claim the exemption does not allow Delaware to offer bets on single games or on sports other than professional football, but attorneys for the state argued otherwise. The leagues were challenging the denial of an injunction that would have prevented the betting from beginning next month. Attorneys for Delaware argued that the leagues had not met the requirements for an injunction. But the appeals court, instead of ruling on the injunction, turned directly to the league’s claim that the sports betting would violate federal law. During Monday’s arguments, Judge Theodore McKee questioned what would happen if the state was allowed to begin sports betting in September, then have it declared illegal several months later. Individual bettors would have lost hundreds or thousands of dollars on what essentially was an illegal state scheme, he noted. “What happens if you’re wrong?” McKee asked Andre Bouchard, an attorney representing the state. “Caveat emptor,” Bouchard replied, citing the Latin admonition of “buyer beware.”
UT’s Writers in the Library program is in limbo this year due to short funds. The program is a cosponsored effort by UT Libraries and the Creative Writing Program of the Department of English to bring new and established writers to campus to read from their works. “That program brings to campus writers — some very distinguished, some recently published for the first time — or others in the publishing business — publishers, illustrators, editors, agents — to speak or read in the Lindsay Young Auditorium in the library,” Jo Anne Deeken, head of Technical Services in Hodges Library, said. There are no new updates on the Writers in the Library Program Web site, causing confusion among students who have heard that the program has been dropped. “The Writers in the Library Program has not been cancelled,” Deeken said. “There is a persistent rumor going on about that
fact that I responded to last semester. The rumor seems to have reappeared this fall.” However, Michael Knight, director of UT’s creative writing program, acknowledges that the program has transformed due to cutbacks. “The Writers in the Library Program is now over,” Knight said. “There will still be readings this year, but it is not under the name ‘Writers in the Library,’ and there will be less of them. The program is in a hiatus due to budget concerns. There used to be set aside a certain amount for the program, but we no longer have those funds.” The biggest change this year is the absence of a Writer in Residence. “The Writer in Residence is a program where the library selects a local writer, pays them a small honorarium, gives them space, time, the use of a computer and supplies for a one year period,” Deeken said. “The only requirement we make of the Writer in Residence is to help plan the Writers in the Library readers.” See Writers on Page 3
Armored car robbers plea for mercy The Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. — Six young men who staged one of the largest armored car heists in U.S. history and then spent a week splurging on strippers, high-living and even Mother’s Day gifts are asking a South Carolina judge for mercy. On Monday, the men — four of whom were college students at the time of the holdup — will learn their punishment for the $9.8 million robbery and the beating of a guard left bloodied and bound on a secluded road beside a strawberry patch in Columbia in 2007. While prosecutors have asked a judge to sentence all but one of the men to at least 25 years, relatives and defense attorneys insist they are misguided youth, not scheming criminals. “He’s a person that — once he recognizes he’s made a mistake — he makes a change in his life,” Gail McPhail, the mother of one of the men, said during a hearing earlier this month. “I believe he has greatness in him.” The crime was sloppy and the coverup quickly discovered. The men didn’t even bring enough garbage bags to haul away all the $18 million in the armored car, defense attorneys said. More than half of the money they stole remains missing. “This type of crime doesn’t belong in any pantheon of crime,” defense
attorney Joe McCulloch said during the Aug. 10 hearing. “There wasn’t a whole lot of sophistication here.” Prosecutors have a different view. They said the Express Teller Services car was stopped at a gas station to refuel when two men wielding weapons overpowered a guard. The armored car was driven to a dirt road where two other men waited in a second vehicle to unload the money. “This isn’t two guys that knocked over granddad’s liquor store — there’s a lot more to it than that,” prosecutor Dan Goldberg said. “It was a wellthought out, calculated plan. Each person involved had their own role. They had their own job and they executed them... And there was a far reaching impact as a result of their actions.” Jeremy McPhail, 21, of Society Hill; Dominic Lyde, 24, of Darlington; Domonique Blakney, 21, of Darlington; Paul Whitaker, 23, of Sumter; Kelby Blakney, 22, of Darlington; and Darryl Frierson, 23, of Columbia, have all pleaded guilty in the case. Underestimating the amount of their score, the men only made off with a little more than half of the money. They left one guard badly beaten, duct taped with broken bones and knocked out teeth, while the other guard — whom authorities have called the mastermind of the heist — appeared unharmed. For a week, the men spent money on strippers, tennis shoes, tattoos, elec-
tronics, used cars and even Mother’s Day gifts. Investigators said they were immediately suspicious of the overly descriptive account of the robbery given by Frierson, who was initially considered a victim. He failed a polygraph test and deputies began to question his friend, Whitaker, and the other men. All but one of the six men were arrested about a week after the heist. Nine months later, Lyde was arrested in North Carolina. Five of the six have pleaded guilty to armed robbery, kidnapping, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and conspiracy. Whitaker, who also worked for the armored car company, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy. Brothers Domonique and Kelby Blakney have already been sentenced but are asking a judge to reduce their 25-year prison terms. Prosecutors have asked that their request be denied and that McPhail, Lyde and Frierson each be given at least 25 years in prison. Whitaker will likely get a lesser sentence, prosecutors said. Family members say many of the men once volunteered in their communities, helped raise their siblings and aspired to be college graduates despite growing up in rough neighborhoods. One was a college athlete, another a sensitive father who turned to cocaine and alcohol after ending his relationship with the mother of his young daughter.