As many as 1.76 million young people could benefit from the Obama administration's deferred action program, which gives illegal immigrants who were brought to the country as children relief from deportation and a temporary work permit. But what will the influx of new legal workers mean for the U.S. economy and government coffers?
Starting next Wednesday, the deferred action program lets people aged 30 years old or younger who were brought to the country when they were children apply for a two-year work permit and temporary legal status. (Applicants can't apply for permanent legal status or citizenship.) The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that about 620,000 adults ages 18 to 30 would meet the requirements--the rest of the 1.76 million illegal immigrants who qualify are under 18. Eighty thousand of the potential applicants have a bachelor's or associates degree already, and another 140,000 are currently enrolled in college.
While no formal estimates of the economic impact yet exist, Jeanne Batalova, who studies the program as part of her work at MPI, believes that the net effect will be positive. The program most likely will result in increased tax revenues because authorized workers are less apt to be paid under the table. These new, legal workers will thus be more prone to pay into Social Security and Medicare, programs they will probably never have access to unless Congress passes an immigration reform bill.
"When people work legally it creates better opportunities for everyone because it reduces the likelihood that employers will be turning to undocumented workers," Batalova said.
The lure of a work permit may also encourage more immigrants to stay in school and get their high school diploma, which would also mean higher future wages (and thus, higher tax revenues) than if they dropped out. And for the 220,000 young illegal immigrants who already have an associate's or bachelor's degree or are on their way to one, the work permit will probably help them get a better, higher-paying job that's more aligned with their skill level.
Overall, Batalova would expect that the new permits would have little effect on people who are already legally working, mostly because the number of permits is small compared to the total workforce, and because 60 percent of the eligible illegal immigrant adults are already working.
"While there might be some negative impact on individual people...we don't expect to see a drastic impact on a certain group or in a certain geographic location," she said.
But not everyone agrees with this assessment. Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies tells Yahoo News that because the majority of those eligible for the work permits do not have a college degree he expects their legal status will have little impact on tax revenue. The reason: Lesser-educated workers tend to have lower incomes on average. "By legalizing them you might get more money for Social Security, but [you] might pay more out in [low-income tax credits]," he said.
The work permits will make it harder for American citizens who don't have a college degree--a group that already faces a high unemployment rate--to compete for jobs, says Camarota. The Center on Immigration Studies advocates for reduced legal immigration levels and encouraging illegal immigrants to leave the country through more aggressive enforcement of existing laws.
The administrative costs of the program are less clear. The Department of Homeland Security could need to hire as many as 1,400 new staff to handle the volume of applications, according to the Associated Press; but administration officials told reporters last week that they expect the $465 application fee to cover the costs.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Trump to Have 'Major Role' at GOP Convention, Aide Claims
Donald Trump will have a "major role" at the Republican National Convention, an aide to the real estate mogul tells ABC News.
Trump heads to Tampa the day after receiving the Statesman of the Year award from the Sarasota GOP and will be in Tampa to kick off the start of the Republican National Convention on Aug. 27.
"While I am not at liberty to disclose the specifics of Mr. Trump's time at the RNC, I can say he will be playing a major role and was happy to honor Gov. Romney's request to participate in convention events in Tampa," Trump Executive Vice President and Special Counsel Michael Cohen told ABC News.
The RNC has been rolling out its list of speakers and VIP guests at the convention this week, but Trump's name and any official role have not been mentioned. Cohen said Trump's role at the convention will be detailed in a matter of days.
"This is something unique and interesting that will be memorable for the convention-goers as well as those across the nation watching from home," Cohen said.
GOP convention press secretary Kyle Downey declined to comment on Trump's claim.
"We have announced several headliners earlier this week and will continue to announce more, including the keynote, in the days and weeks ahead," Downey said.
Trump heads to Tampa the day after receiving the Statesman of the Year award from the Sarasota GOP and will be in Tampa to kick off the start of the Republican National Convention on Aug. 27.
"While I am not at liberty to disclose the specifics of Mr. Trump's time at the RNC, I can say he will be playing a major role and was happy to honor Gov. Romney's request to participate in convention events in Tampa," Trump Executive Vice President and Special Counsel Michael Cohen told ABC News.
The RNC has been rolling out its list of speakers and VIP guests at the convention this week, but Trump's name and any official role have not been mentioned. Cohen said Trump's role at the convention will be detailed in a matter of days.
"This is something unique and interesting that will be memorable for the convention-goers as well as those across the nation watching from home," Cohen said.
GOP convention press secretary Kyle Downey declined to comment on Trump's claim.
"We have announced several headliners earlier this week and will continue to announce more, including the keynote, in the days and weeks ahead," Downey said.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Southwest Airlines promo glitch charges customers for flights aplenty
Southwest Airlines has updated their Facebook page with information for customers affected by a computer glitch that has caused excessive credit card charges for countless people taking part in a 24-hour deal on Friday, and according to our readers writing in, during normal transactions as well .
"Information and update for Customers who recently experienced multiple bookings in error:
The overwhelming response from Customers who took advantage of our August 3 limited time offer launched to celebrate three million Fans on Facebook, created website performance issues at various times during the day. We realize that some Customers were charged more than once for the same reservation and we want to ensure you that we have all hands on deck, actively working to process refunds for any duplicate charges incurred.
Here is a status of those efforts:
First, we want you to know that we are working to identify duplicate bookings and charges and are proactively cancelling those additional reservations, actively processing refunds to the Customer. In order to process the refunds as quickly as possible, we have called in additional staff to support these efforts.
For those Customers who used debit cards and have received overdraft fees as a result of the additional charges, we will process a reimbursement for all overdraft fees that were caused by duplicate charges from Southwest for a single purchase. If you incurred overdraft fees, please fax documentation of those fees via a letter from your bank or a copy of your account showing the fees to 877-506-0154.
Southwest Airlines is committed to providing Customers with exceptional service both online and onboard. It is our goal to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and minimize any inconvenience to you, our valued Customers."
When Southwest Airlines offered a limited-time promotion on Friday to celebrate reaching three million fans on Facebook, it seems they accidentally racked up duplicate charges on the credit cards of their loyal customers.
The LUZ2LIKE promo code was meant to offer customers 50% off when booking a round-trip with their "Wanna Get Away" fares during seven specific travel dates in the fall. The promo, which arrived by e-mail to customers, only lasted until midnight on Friday.
On Saturday, their Facebook page was flooded with differing stories describing the trials, unresolved issues and even a few happy endings for customers trying to shake off the excess charges. Some lucky folks even posted that they sailed on through the process without a glitch.
When Southwest became aware of the problem, they offered a statement on Twitter, and a similar, expanded version on their Facebook page.
"Thank you for your excitement in taking advantage of the limited-time offer we shared today in celebration of reaching three million Fans on Facebook. Due to the overwhelming response, we experienced some site performance issues at various times throughout the day. We apologize to our Customers for any inconvenience and are proactively cancelling any duplicate itineraries that may have occurred."
Bobi Fox, a customer who wanted to take advantage of the promo code, shared her experience with CNN. She purchased directly off of Southwest's website.
"Customers who purchased tonight got no tickets, no confirmation, and many, like me, were charged on their credit cards repeatedly until credit card companies stopped the purchase process – some customers say they have been called by their credit card companies questioning fraud purchases," she said. " My credit card might be typical, my purchase was repeated 9 times (cost in excess of $2300 for a one pair of round trip tickets from STL to SLC). This is not unlike what everyone else is experiencing. Current wait time hold with Southwest customer service: More than two hours."
Southwest interacted with commenters to let them know that customer service representatives were working around the clock to help reverse the transactions and cancel the excess flights.
But that didn't soothe all of the complaints, and it seems that people are doing a lot of waiting - waiting for charges to be erased, flights to be cancelled and even ticket confirmations for the flights they want.
"I had $4000 limit on my card, I now have zero available because of 25 confirmations," John Seymour wrote on the airline's Facebook page. "I called when I was having errors, and the CS rep told me the website was slammed, and to keep hitting purchase and it would eventually go through. Looks like all of them went through.
"I waited almost three hours last night to speak to someone. Finally got someone on the phone, and I had to remember which specific flights I had picked so that she could look up the flights and cancel the duplicates. She had to send the confirmation for the one flight I did want twice before it ever made it to me. I woke up this morning to 25 or so confirmations, and 25 or so cancellation emails. The charges remain pending on my credit card, so I can't use that card to book my hotel room in Vegas for my trip. Thanks for ruining my Friday night. Wish I had never seen this deal. And I was so glad when you came to Atlanta...."
"36 confirmations," Bella Ventresca shared. "Over $7,000.00 in charges to my account, and 2 hours on the phone with SWA. I thought that this was just me, but apparently SOMEONE really dropped the ball here. PLUS it will take 7-10 days to process returns? Unacceptable."
One of the common threads of discord? Waiting on the phone for hours to speak with a customer service rep, and then being cut off the phone call when a human voice finally answered. The comments even spread to other activity on the page, like when Southwest changed their Facebook cover photo from the promotion to a banner showing the airline.
"The Flash Sale made a nightmare out of my day," June Wood wrote. "It just happened to be on a day that I needed to make arrangements but not one of the Flash dates. I was on hold the first time for 3 1/2 hours; then someone picked up the phone and click it was gone again. I tried numerous times throughout the day and evening I was put on hold again for 45 minutes. I was working on the booking from 6pm 8/3 until 2am 8/4. The reps seemed to be exhausted and not able to think clearly. Nice try but don't repeat."
Others were not amused when some Southwest fans began posting comments in support of the airline, such as "Best airline out there," and "I love Southwest."
"More disturbing than being charged $5000 dollars for a flight to Cleveland and waiting to see if I'm charged over limit fees as a result, is the number of people who are posting pointless "I love Southwest" comments or telling people not to be upset," Steve Kafkas wrote on the Facebook page."
"I'm a loyal Southwest customer, but at the moment I don't know that I would risk buying another ticket from Southwest. How about a statement with a few more specifics than "we're working on it" and that hours after the fact. For example, can people really cancel their flights online and get refunds? If so, why not post that here or on your website? If not, then tell people, because there are people suggesting it on this page."
Because of being charged multiple times, sometimes upwards of 30 separate occasions, customers complained that the strain on their credit cards for the unexpected charges had a domino effect on their finances.
"I was sympathic [sic] to the situation before I actually spoke with a rep from Southwest who said, there is nothing she can do...southwest will refund the charges when they get to it and it will take 8 -10 business days before I get my money back and now I have to call customer relations to get the overlimit fees back, and I was charged interest on the $1400 on the duplicate charges and I have to pay for the long distance fees to call customer relations as they do not have a 1-800 number...SERIOUSLY?!?!? Are you freaking kidding me?" Suzanne Worrell wrote in a blazing post.
"You guys screwed up, took MY money through no fault of my own and now you are telling me I have to work to get it back and I am gonna be out more money??? For a company that prides itself on customer service you guys are falling on your face!! I spent over 5 hours last night on hold just to be disconnected, I can't buy groceries or gas because you guys have taken all of my money and there is nothing you can do about it??? This is CRIMINAL!!! I get there was a glitch but compensate me, fix it, don't tell me I have to call someone else on Monday to get it fixed! I am so disappointed and angry at Southwest!"
People also complained in their comments about not receiving the LUZ2LIKE email promotion to even know about the sale, and that because of the glitch, Southwest should extend the promotion. Others immediately responded by saying they were lucky they didn't receive the promotion because of the charge errors that resulted for many of them.
Teri Landrum shared her experience on the Facebook page for how to try cancelling the flights online, but other users said that the site hasn't been working for them.
"Hopefully this will help someone – Go to southwest.com, log in to RR Account, click My Account link under "Hello Teri", click View All next to Upcoming Trips, click Cancel Reservation, Under Travel Funds, it should say "Refundable" and the $ amount." Landrum wrote. "Select "Request a Refund", then click Yes, Cancel. When you go to cancel the next one, make sure you select the next one in the list because the list doesn't remove your cancelled ones and when you have 17 to cancel, it can get confusing."
Perhaps the complaint that resonates the most is how Southwest's customers felt punished, rather than rewarded, for being fans of the airline.
"I appreciate your generous sale but this is the last time I will ever fly southwest," Christine Ylan Ho wrote. "Maybe you've made this mistake yesterday but the lesson here is how you've dealt with it, which is poorly. Good intentions but you should have been prepared to deal with the ramifications of charging thousands of dollars, especially to those who need access to that money to survive. Egregious really. IMPROVE YOUR RESPONSE TO THIS KIND OF CRISIS. I do not like your facebook page."
Readers have also written in, telling CNN that the problem is not solely aligned with the promotion.
"I bought a one-way ticket at the regular price, and got 14 confirmations and 14 charges on my credit card," Cathy Gallagher commented. "SWA hung up on me after a 3 hour wait. I am much more concerned about the national security implications of the problem than the overcharges. What kind of computer system can confirm me 14 times on the same flight? How do they know who is actually on those planes?"
Are you having issues with the Southwest promo? Let us know in the comments below. And if you are with Southwest and want to add to the conversation, our audience would like to hear what you have to say, too.
"Information and update for Customers who recently experienced multiple bookings in error:
The overwhelming response from Customers who took advantage of our August 3 limited time offer launched to celebrate three million Fans on Facebook, created website performance issues at various times during the day. We realize that some Customers were charged more than once for the same reservation and we want to ensure you that we have all hands on deck, actively working to process refunds for any duplicate charges incurred.
Here is a status of those efforts:
First, we want you to know that we are working to identify duplicate bookings and charges and are proactively cancelling those additional reservations, actively processing refunds to the Customer. In order to process the refunds as quickly as possible, we have called in additional staff to support these efforts.
For those Customers who used debit cards and have received overdraft fees as a result of the additional charges, we will process a reimbursement for all overdraft fees that were caused by duplicate charges from Southwest for a single purchase. If you incurred overdraft fees, please fax documentation of those fees via a letter from your bank or a copy of your account showing the fees to 877-506-0154.
Southwest Airlines is committed to providing Customers with exceptional service both online and onboard. It is our goal to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and minimize any inconvenience to you, our valued Customers."
When Southwest Airlines offered a limited-time promotion on Friday to celebrate reaching three million fans on Facebook, it seems they accidentally racked up duplicate charges on the credit cards of their loyal customers.
The LUZ2LIKE promo code was meant to offer customers 50% off when booking a round-trip with their "Wanna Get Away" fares during seven specific travel dates in the fall. The promo, which arrived by e-mail to customers, only lasted until midnight on Friday.
On Saturday, their Facebook page was flooded with differing stories describing the trials, unresolved issues and even a few happy endings for customers trying to shake off the excess charges. Some lucky folks even posted that they sailed on through the process without a glitch.
When Southwest became aware of the problem, they offered a statement on Twitter, and a similar, expanded version on their Facebook page.
"Thank you for your excitement in taking advantage of the limited-time offer we shared today in celebration of reaching three million Fans on Facebook. Due to the overwhelming response, we experienced some site performance issues at various times throughout the day. We apologize to our Customers for any inconvenience and are proactively cancelling any duplicate itineraries that may have occurred."
Bobi Fox, a customer who wanted to take advantage of the promo code, shared her experience with CNN. She purchased directly off of Southwest's website.
"Customers who purchased tonight got no tickets, no confirmation, and many, like me, were charged on their credit cards repeatedly until credit card companies stopped the purchase process – some customers say they have been called by their credit card companies questioning fraud purchases," she said. " My credit card might be typical, my purchase was repeated 9 times (cost in excess of $2300 for a one pair of round trip tickets from STL to SLC). This is not unlike what everyone else is experiencing. Current wait time hold with Southwest customer service: More than two hours."
Southwest interacted with commenters to let them know that customer service representatives were working around the clock to help reverse the transactions and cancel the excess flights.
But that didn't soothe all of the complaints, and it seems that people are doing a lot of waiting - waiting for charges to be erased, flights to be cancelled and even ticket confirmations for the flights they want.
"I had $4000 limit on my card, I now have zero available because of 25 confirmations," John Seymour wrote on the airline's Facebook page. "I called when I was having errors, and the CS rep told me the website was slammed, and to keep hitting purchase and it would eventually go through. Looks like all of them went through.
"I waited almost three hours last night to speak to someone. Finally got someone on the phone, and I had to remember which specific flights I had picked so that she could look up the flights and cancel the duplicates. She had to send the confirmation for the one flight I did want twice before it ever made it to me. I woke up this morning to 25 or so confirmations, and 25 or so cancellation emails. The charges remain pending on my credit card, so I can't use that card to book my hotel room in Vegas for my trip. Thanks for ruining my Friday night. Wish I had never seen this deal. And I was so glad when you came to Atlanta...."
"36 confirmations," Bella Ventresca shared. "Over $7,000.00 in charges to my account, and 2 hours on the phone with SWA. I thought that this was just me, but apparently SOMEONE really dropped the ball here. PLUS it will take 7-10 days to process returns? Unacceptable."
One of the common threads of discord? Waiting on the phone for hours to speak with a customer service rep, and then being cut off the phone call when a human voice finally answered. The comments even spread to other activity on the page, like when Southwest changed their Facebook cover photo from the promotion to a banner showing the airline.
"The Flash Sale made a nightmare out of my day," June Wood wrote. "It just happened to be on a day that I needed to make arrangements but not one of the Flash dates. I was on hold the first time for 3 1/2 hours; then someone picked up the phone and click it was gone again. I tried numerous times throughout the day and evening I was put on hold again for 45 minutes. I was working on the booking from 6pm 8/3 until 2am 8/4. The reps seemed to be exhausted and not able to think clearly. Nice try but don't repeat."
Others were not amused when some Southwest fans began posting comments in support of the airline, such as "Best airline out there," and "I love Southwest."
"More disturbing than being charged $5000 dollars for a flight to Cleveland and waiting to see if I'm charged over limit fees as a result, is the number of people who are posting pointless "I love Southwest" comments or telling people not to be upset," Steve Kafkas wrote on the Facebook page."
"I'm a loyal Southwest customer, but at the moment I don't know that I would risk buying another ticket from Southwest. How about a statement with a few more specifics than "we're working on it" and that hours after the fact. For example, can people really cancel their flights online and get refunds? If so, why not post that here or on your website? If not, then tell people, because there are people suggesting it on this page."
Because of being charged multiple times, sometimes upwards of 30 separate occasions, customers complained that the strain on their credit cards for the unexpected charges had a domino effect on their finances.
"I was sympathic [sic] to the situation before I actually spoke with a rep from Southwest who said, there is nothing she can do...southwest will refund the charges when they get to it and it will take 8 -10 business days before I get my money back and now I have to call customer relations to get the overlimit fees back, and I was charged interest on the $1400 on the duplicate charges and I have to pay for the long distance fees to call customer relations as they do not have a 1-800 number...SERIOUSLY?!?!? Are you freaking kidding me?" Suzanne Worrell wrote in a blazing post.
"You guys screwed up, took MY money through no fault of my own and now you are telling me I have to work to get it back and I am gonna be out more money??? For a company that prides itself on customer service you guys are falling on your face!! I spent over 5 hours last night on hold just to be disconnected, I can't buy groceries or gas because you guys have taken all of my money and there is nothing you can do about it??? This is CRIMINAL!!! I get there was a glitch but compensate me, fix it, don't tell me I have to call someone else on Monday to get it fixed! I am so disappointed and angry at Southwest!"
People also complained in their comments about not receiving the LUZ2LIKE email promotion to even know about the sale, and that because of the glitch, Southwest should extend the promotion. Others immediately responded by saying they were lucky they didn't receive the promotion because of the charge errors that resulted for many of them.
Teri Landrum shared her experience on the Facebook page for how to try cancelling the flights online, but other users said that the site hasn't been working for them.
"Hopefully this will help someone – Go to southwest.com, log in to RR Account, click My Account link under "Hello Teri", click View All next to Upcoming Trips, click Cancel Reservation, Under Travel Funds, it should say "Refundable" and the $ amount." Landrum wrote. "Select "Request a Refund", then click Yes, Cancel. When you go to cancel the next one, make sure you select the next one in the list because the list doesn't remove your cancelled ones and when you have 17 to cancel, it can get confusing."
Perhaps the complaint that resonates the most is how Southwest's customers felt punished, rather than rewarded, for being fans of the airline.
"I appreciate your generous sale but this is the last time I will ever fly southwest," Christine Ylan Ho wrote. "Maybe you've made this mistake yesterday but the lesson here is how you've dealt with it, which is poorly. Good intentions but you should have been prepared to deal with the ramifications of charging thousands of dollars, especially to those who need access to that money to survive. Egregious really. IMPROVE YOUR RESPONSE TO THIS KIND OF CRISIS. I do not like your facebook page."
Readers have also written in, telling CNN that the problem is not solely aligned with the promotion.
"I bought a one-way ticket at the regular price, and got 14 confirmations and 14 charges on my credit card," Cathy Gallagher commented. "SWA hung up on me after a 3 hour wait. I am much more concerned about the national security implications of the problem than the overcharges. What kind of computer system can confirm me 14 times on the same flight? How do they know who is actually on those planes?"
Are you having issues with the Southwest promo? Let us know in the comments below. And if you are with Southwest and want to add to the conversation, our audience would like to hear what you have to say, too.
10 budget friendly all-inclusive resorts
It's a fact that all-inclusive resorts can be expensive, with the average nightly rate at some of the bigger chains running $450 -- per person. And when you find one in your price range there's usually a caveat -- the beach is a 15-minute drive away, or the "all" only includes non-alcoholic beverages (those margaritas by the pool really add up).
Though it wasn't easy, Budget Travel found 10 affordable beachfront all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America (plus one Mediterranean resort so charming we couldn't resist including it) starting at $100 per person, per night.
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And they really are all-inclusive: a double room, three meals a day, drinks (from soda to cocktails), and lots of activities. And each one has an added bonus, too, from tennis lessons to scuba instructions. The only thing not included? Caveats.
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Majestic Colonial, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
This 658-room resort in Punta Cana gives you a lot of choice for how to spend your evening: there are eight restaurants, plus nine bars including a piano bar and a sports bar.
Not that there aren't choices during the day as well: The main pool is more than 1,300 feet long (there is also a children's pool and a whirlpool) and catamarans and windsurfers are available on the beach. The snorkeling right off the beach is top-notch, and all the equipment you need is also included.
Bonus: Every room at the resort is a suite with a terrace or balcony (and a Jacuzzi tub).
Playa Bavaro, Punta Cana, 809/221-9898, majestic-resorts.com. From $150 per person, per night.
Krystal Cancun, Mexico
This Riviera Maya resort makes the most of its location: the pool runs lengthwise along the sand, and there's even a beachfront infinity whirlpool.
The Krystal, which is in the heart of the Hotel Zone on Punta Cancun, has 453 rooms, and each one has a view of either the Caribbean Sea or Cancun Lagoon. The rooms were also renovated in December 2011 with updates like marble floors, flat-screen TVs, and rain showers -- perfect for washing off all that sand.
Bonus: One of the downsides of an all-inclusive resort is that you have to eat every meal on-site. Krystal includes a Discover Cancun pass that covers one dinner at a local restaurant.
Paseo Kukulcan Km 9.5, Cancun, 800/437-9605, krystal-hotels.com. From $100 per person, per night.
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Iberostar Costa Dorada, Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic
Iberostar operates six hotels in the Dominican Republic, but this resort 10 minutes from Puerto Plata gives you the most for your money. The 516 rooms (which all have either a terrace or balcony) are located in thatch-roof buildings painted cheerful shades of yellow and purple. The entire property underwent a full renovation in 2011 resulting in completely remodeled rooms, a new lobby and a renovated kids' club.
There are three a la carte restaurants (Brazilian, Mexican and seafood from the local waters) plus a buffet restaurant. If you aren't content to just sit on the beach or the massive pool, there are activities all around the resort, from archery to merengue lessons.
Bonus: While some all-inclusive resorts only serve house-brand liquor, bartenders at Costa Dorada pour from imported names as well (Tanqueray, Stoli, etc.).
Carretera de Luperon Km 4, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, 888/923-2722, iberostar.com. From $100 per person, per night (three-night minimum).
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ClubHotel Riu Negril, Jamaica
Head out to the far western tip of Jamaica and you'll find this lively beachfront resort in Negril. It is right on the beach, but the place to be is by one of the umbrella-shaded loungers around the two gigantic pools (both are well over 3,000 square feet).
There is a party atmosphere here, and the complimentary mini bars and liquor dispensers in the 420 guest rooms are regularly restocked. If you want to go all out, head to the Pacha nightclub, where reggae is sure to be spinning. If you are looking for quiet, try the solarium terrace.
Bonus: The resort often adds credits to the Renova Spa in the all-inclusive packages, such as $20 per person toward a 50-minute massage (massages start at $100).
Norman Manley Blvd., Negril, Jamaica, 888/748-4990, riu.com. From $101 per person, per night.
Royal Decameron Golf Beach Resort & Villas, Farallón, Panama
This 1,170-room mega resort does things big from its spot on a mile of secluded beach. There are eight pools, 10 restaurants and 11 bars (including one swim-up), which means you'll rarely do or see the same thing twice.
Play in the Pacific with free paddleboards, kayaks or windsurfers, or check out the local underwater residents with the provided snorkel gear. The nightlife is also big here and the party goes long after the sun sets (which probably has something to do with the open bar).
Bonus: Though the base-rate is for a garden-view room, each one has a terrace or balcony overlooking the tropical foliage.
Avenida Principal Farallón, Km 115, 011-507/993-2255, decameron.com. From $106 per person, per night.
Coral Beach Hotel & Resort, Paphos, Cyprus
While the other resorts listed here are close to the U.S., this all-inclusive trades the Caribbean for the Mediterranean -- and it's worth the trip. The 420-room resort is located on the edge of the UNESCO-protected Akamas Peninsula on Cyprus's western coast.
The beach is lined with blue loungers, as is the 164-foot pool (keep an eye out for members of the British Olympic swim team; they use the pool for training). Have dinner overlooking the boats bobbing in the harbor from the terrace where blue-and-white-checked tablecloths flap in the sea breeze. Then watch some local folk dancing. Who knows, after a glass or two of zivania, you might join in.
Bonus: If the scenic surrounding inspires your creative side, the resort offers free art classes in pottery and glass-painting.
Coral Bay, Paphos, 011-357/26-88-10-00, coral.com.cy. From $144 per person, per night.
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Sunscape Dorado Pacifico Ixtapa, Mexico
The Sunscape's budget friendly price makes it a deal, but most people travel here for the location on a sandy beach on quiet Playa del Palmar. The resort re-opened in November 2011 after a $10 million upgrade to all the rooms (including new furniture, flat-screen TVs and fully renovated bathrooms) and restaurants as well as the addition of a new spa (alas, massages aren't covered in the all-inclusive rate and start at $68).
There are only 285 rooms, but you'll find the choices typical of a much larger resort. There are four bars plus eight restaurants ranging from seafood to Italian to Mexican (and the small size means no reservations are required).
Bonus: Embrace your inner Serena Williams or Roger Federer and perfect your serve at the free tennis clinics.
Paseo de Ixtapa S/N Lote 3-A, Ixtapa, 800/087-4890, sunscaperesorts.com. From $151 per person, per night.
Jolly Beach Resort & Spa, Antigua
Set on 40 acres (including a mile of white sand), the Jolly Beach Resort & Spa is great for those who want to get out on the turquoise water. Kayaks, Hobie Cats and paddleboats are all at the ready and there are also two pools.
Would you rather just take in the view of the waves? The 464 rooms all have at least partial ocean views. The resort also has five restaurants, ranging from a casual beach take-out place to the Italian Bocciolo.
Bonus: A proper afternoon tea with scones and cucumber sandwiches is also offered every day in the courtyard -- a nod to the island's British roots.
Bolans Village, Antigua, 866/905-6559, jollybeachresort.com. From $171 per person, per night.
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Barceló Langosta Beach, Tamarindo, Costa Rica
Staying here affords travelers the best of both worlds: The resort is on a secluded beach surrounded by rainforests and a national park, but is less than a mile from the popular town of Tamarindo.
This is a low-key resort, with just one buffet restaurant and one a la carte restaurant serving Mediterranean cuisine (there is an additional $36-$42 fee for the a la carte restaurant) and one bar, plus a small casino and an amphitheater with daily entertainment. But the 134 rooms have views of the Pacific Ocean or the estuary of Las Baulas (part of the national park).
Bonus: Tipping for the staff is included in the rate, so no need to reach for your wallet every time you order another round.
El Robledal, Tamarindo, 800/227-2356, barcelo.com. From $180 per person, per night.
Paradise Island Harbour Resort, Bahamas
At just 246 rooms, this family friendly resort is a fraction of the size of the 4,000-room Atlantis next door. But it's also a fraction of the price for the all-inclusive option. Paradise Island is on a private beach and has a large pool and three places to dine (a pool-side grill, a buffet, and a steak and seafood a la carte restaurant).
Unwinding is the first order of business here, so you won't find the same 24/7 whirl of activity here as at the mega resorts. But that doesn't mean anyone in your family will be bored. The kids' camp keeps them busy with sand castle building and craft making, plus sports like pool volleyball and beach bowling.
Bonus: If you've ever wanted to learn how to dive, this is the place: the resort offers a complimentary scuba lesson in the pool.
Harbor Dr., Paradise Island, Nassau, 888/582-0192, paradiseislandbahama.com. From $200 per person, per night.
Though it wasn't easy, Budget Travel found 10 affordable beachfront all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America (plus one Mediterranean resort so charming we couldn't resist including it) starting at $100 per person, per night.
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And they really are all-inclusive: a double room, three meals a day, drinks (from soda to cocktails), and lots of activities. And each one has an added bonus, too, from tennis lessons to scuba instructions. The only thing not included? Caveats.
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Majestic Colonial, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
This 658-room resort in Punta Cana gives you a lot of choice for how to spend your evening: there are eight restaurants, plus nine bars including a piano bar and a sports bar.
Not that there aren't choices during the day as well: The main pool is more than 1,300 feet long (there is also a children's pool and a whirlpool) and catamarans and windsurfers are available on the beach. The snorkeling right off the beach is top-notch, and all the equipment you need is also included.
Bonus: Every room at the resort is a suite with a terrace or balcony (and a Jacuzzi tub).
Playa Bavaro, Punta Cana, 809/221-9898, majestic-resorts.com. From $150 per person, per night.
Krystal Cancun, Mexico
This Riviera Maya resort makes the most of its location: the pool runs lengthwise along the sand, and there's even a beachfront infinity whirlpool.
The Krystal, which is in the heart of the Hotel Zone on Punta Cancun, has 453 rooms, and each one has a view of either the Caribbean Sea or Cancun Lagoon. The rooms were also renovated in December 2011 with updates like marble floors, flat-screen TVs, and rain showers -- perfect for washing off all that sand.
Bonus: One of the downsides of an all-inclusive resort is that you have to eat every meal on-site. Krystal includes a Discover Cancun pass that covers one dinner at a local restaurant.
Paseo Kukulcan Km 9.5, Cancun, 800/437-9605, krystal-hotels.com. From $100 per person, per night.
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Iberostar Costa Dorada, Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic
Iberostar operates six hotels in the Dominican Republic, but this resort 10 minutes from Puerto Plata gives you the most for your money. The 516 rooms (which all have either a terrace or balcony) are located in thatch-roof buildings painted cheerful shades of yellow and purple. The entire property underwent a full renovation in 2011 resulting in completely remodeled rooms, a new lobby and a renovated kids' club.
There are three a la carte restaurants (Brazilian, Mexican and seafood from the local waters) plus a buffet restaurant. If you aren't content to just sit on the beach or the massive pool, there are activities all around the resort, from archery to merengue lessons.
Bonus: While some all-inclusive resorts only serve house-brand liquor, bartenders at Costa Dorada pour from imported names as well (Tanqueray, Stoli, etc.).
Carretera de Luperon Km 4, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, 888/923-2722, iberostar.com. From $100 per person, per night (three-night minimum).
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ClubHotel Riu Negril, Jamaica
Head out to the far western tip of Jamaica and you'll find this lively beachfront resort in Negril. It is right on the beach, but the place to be is by one of the umbrella-shaded loungers around the two gigantic pools (both are well over 3,000 square feet).
There is a party atmosphere here, and the complimentary mini bars and liquor dispensers in the 420 guest rooms are regularly restocked. If you want to go all out, head to the Pacha nightclub, where reggae is sure to be spinning. If you are looking for quiet, try the solarium terrace.
Bonus: The resort often adds credits to the Renova Spa in the all-inclusive packages, such as $20 per person toward a 50-minute massage (massages start at $100).
Norman Manley Blvd., Negril, Jamaica, 888/748-4990, riu.com. From $101 per person, per night.
Royal Decameron Golf Beach Resort & Villas, Farallón, Panama
This 1,170-room mega resort does things big from its spot on a mile of secluded beach. There are eight pools, 10 restaurants and 11 bars (including one swim-up), which means you'll rarely do or see the same thing twice.
Play in the Pacific with free paddleboards, kayaks or windsurfers, or check out the local underwater residents with the provided snorkel gear. The nightlife is also big here and the party goes long after the sun sets (which probably has something to do with the open bar).
Bonus: Though the base-rate is for a garden-view room, each one has a terrace or balcony overlooking the tropical foliage.
Avenida Principal Farallón, Km 115, 011-507/993-2255, decameron.com. From $106 per person, per night.
Coral Beach Hotel & Resort, Paphos, Cyprus
While the other resorts listed here are close to the U.S., this all-inclusive trades the Caribbean for the Mediterranean -- and it's worth the trip. The 420-room resort is located on the edge of the UNESCO-protected Akamas Peninsula on Cyprus's western coast.
The beach is lined with blue loungers, as is the 164-foot pool (keep an eye out for members of the British Olympic swim team; they use the pool for training). Have dinner overlooking the boats bobbing in the harbor from the terrace where blue-and-white-checked tablecloths flap in the sea breeze. Then watch some local folk dancing. Who knows, after a glass or two of zivania, you might join in.
Bonus: If the scenic surrounding inspires your creative side, the resort offers free art classes in pottery and glass-painting.
Coral Bay, Paphos, 011-357/26-88-10-00, coral.com.cy. From $144 per person, per night.
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Sunscape Dorado Pacifico Ixtapa, Mexico
The Sunscape's budget friendly price makes it a deal, but most people travel here for the location on a sandy beach on quiet Playa del Palmar. The resort re-opened in November 2011 after a $10 million upgrade to all the rooms (including new furniture, flat-screen TVs and fully renovated bathrooms) and restaurants as well as the addition of a new spa (alas, massages aren't covered in the all-inclusive rate and start at $68).
There are only 285 rooms, but you'll find the choices typical of a much larger resort. There are four bars plus eight restaurants ranging from seafood to Italian to Mexican (and the small size means no reservations are required).
Bonus: Embrace your inner Serena Williams or Roger Federer and perfect your serve at the free tennis clinics.
Paseo de Ixtapa S/N Lote 3-A, Ixtapa, 800/087-4890, sunscaperesorts.com. From $151 per person, per night.
Jolly Beach Resort & Spa, Antigua
Set on 40 acres (including a mile of white sand), the Jolly Beach Resort & Spa is great for those who want to get out on the turquoise water. Kayaks, Hobie Cats and paddleboats are all at the ready and there are also two pools.
Would you rather just take in the view of the waves? The 464 rooms all have at least partial ocean views. The resort also has five restaurants, ranging from a casual beach take-out place to the Italian Bocciolo.
Bonus: A proper afternoon tea with scones and cucumber sandwiches is also offered every day in the courtyard -- a nod to the island's British roots.
Bolans Village, Antigua, 866/905-6559, jollybeachresort.com. From $171 per person, per night.
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Barceló Langosta Beach, Tamarindo, Costa Rica
Staying here affords travelers the best of both worlds: The resort is on a secluded beach surrounded by rainforests and a national park, but is less than a mile from the popular town of Tamarindo.
This is a low-key resort, with just one buffet restaurant and one a la carte restaurant serving Mediterranean cuisine (there is an additional $36-$42 fee for the a la carte restaurant) and one bar, plus a small casino and an amphitheater with daily entertainment. But the 134 rooms have views of the Pacific Ocean or the estuary of Las Baulas (part of the national park).
Bonus: Tipping for the staff is included in the rate, so no need to reach for your wallet every time you order another round.
El Robledal, Tamarindo, 800/227-2356, barcelo.com. From $180 per person, per night.
Paradise Island Harbour Resort, Bahamas
At just 246 rooms, this family friendly resort is a fraction of the size of the 4,000-room Atlantis next door. But it's also a fraction of the price for the all-inclusive option. Paradise Island is on a private beach and has a large pool and three places to dine (a pool-side grill, a buffet, and a steak and seafood a la carte restaurant).
Unwinding is the first order of business here, so you won't find the same 24/7 whirl of activity here as at the mega resorts. But that doesn't mean anyone in your family will be bored. The kids' camp keeps them busy with sand castle building and craft making, plus sports like pool volleyball and beach bowling.
Bonus: If you've ever wanted to learn how to dive, this is the place: the resort offers a complimentary scuba lesson in the pool.
Harbor Dr., Paradise Island, Nassau, 888/582-0192, paradiseislandbahama.com. From $200 per person, per night.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Federer edges Del Potro in Olympic semifinals
Roger Federer leaned on the net, exhausted but exhilarated after winning the final set 19-17 to earn his first Olympic singles medal.
"It has been a long time coming," he said.
The wait included an Olympic marathon Friday, when Federer played for four hours, 26 minutes to beat Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 3-6, 7-6 (5), 19-17. It was the longest three-set men's match of the Open era.
"I definitely got a sense that it was something special," the top-seeded Federer said. "The deeper we went into the match, the more I thought, 'Wow, this is so cool to be part of a match like this.'"
Federer converted only two of 13 break-point chances, the second coming in the next-to-last game, and had several nervous moments. But he held serve 12 times in the final set to stay in the match.
With the comeback victory, the four-time Olympian is assured at least a silver. On Sunday he'll play in the final against No. 3 Andy Murray of Britain, who beat No. 2 Novak Djokovic of Serbia 7-5, 7-5.
Federer and Swiss teammate Stanislas Wawrinka won the gold in doubles in 2008. But Federer had been 0 for 3 in Olympic singles, the biggest blemish on a resume that includes a record 17 Grand Slam championships.
His latest title came at Wimbledon a month ago against Murray, who relishes the shot at a rematch on the same court.
"I hope it's a great match," Murray said, "because the way the matches went today, I think the tournament deserves a great final. I hope we can provide that."
Serena Williams also clinched her first Olympic singles medal, beating No. 1-seeded Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-2. On Saturday, the No. 4-seeded Williams will face first-time Olympian Maria Sharapova, who beat Russian teammate Maria Kirilenko 6-2, 6-3.
Williams teamed with sister Venus to win the gold in doubles in 2000 and 2008. They have a chance to clinch at least a silver in the semifinals Saturday.
Americans Bob and Mike Bryan are assured at least a silver after beating Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet of France 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of men's doubles. Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond advanced to the first Olympics mixed doubles final since 1924 by beating Del Potro and Gisela Dulko 6-2, 7-5.
For duration, Federer's latest victory didn't rival John Isner's 70-68 final-set win at Wimbledon in 2010, or even Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's 25-23 win in the third set at the Olympics this week. But the match offered epic drama magnified by the setting and the stakes for Federer.
He improved to 12-0 this summer at the All England Club, including a record-tying seventh Wimbledon title a month ago.
There were no match points until the final game. After a couple of wobbly moments by Federer, including a double fault, he sealed the victory when Del Potro dumped a backhand in the net.
Federer lifted his arms in jubilation, then leaned wearily on the net while awaiting congratulations from the big Argentine. They shared a warm embrace.
"I felt for him in a big way," Federer said, "because I've been there as well."
Said Del Potro: "It's not an easy situation. Someone always has to win these matches, and today it was his turn."
Del Potro will play Djokovic for the bronze Sunday.
The 6-foot-6-inch Argentine had the edge on Federer for most of the first two sets, reaching the net more often and winning most of the baseline rallies, starting with a 23-shot exchange in the opening game. Del Potro showed little effort as he snapped explosive forehands that had Federer scrambling and lunging.
"Not enough, Roger!" a British spectator shouted when Federer fell behind.
The near-capacity crowd on sunny Centre Court was clearly in Federer's corner. Fans clapped and chanted "Ro-ger!" during a changeover, and later "Let's go, Roger!" More than once a Swiss cowbell clanged.
Small clusters of Argentine fans broke into song, and the match — like the entire tournament — took on an atmosphere more festive than during Wimbledon.
Federer's comeback came slowly. He was on the verge of digging a deeper hole midway through the second set, when he faced a break point and needed 16 points to hold for a 3-2 lead. He played another patchy game at 4-all, when he misplayed an overhead, blew an easy volley, squandered a 40-love lead and faced another break point.
He managed to hold again, and never trailed in the tiebreaker. Then the match proceeded on even terms for the next couple of hours.
In the 15th game of the final set, Del Potro twice won rallies after clipping the net cord with shots, the second time to erase a break point. Federer's bad luck had him screaming in frustration.
But for the most part, he managed to keep any annoyance in check. In the 31st game of the final set, when he mishit back-to-back forehands — the second sailed long — he gave his wife a wry grin.
"I was very tense at certain times," Federer said. "I was seeing myself as a loser many times during the match. But at the same time also I did see myself with medals. So you go through many emotions."
Federer broke for the first time in the 19th game of the final set when Del Potro double-faulted twice. That gave Federer a chance to serve for the victory at 10-9, but he was broken at love.
He waited 16 games for another chance, while repeatedly holding easily. Del Potro made three unforced errors in the 35th game to lose serve for only the second time, and eight points later the marathon reached the finish line.
"It has been a long time coming," he said.
The wait included an Olympic marathon Friday, when Federer played for four hours, 26 minutes to beat Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 3-6, 7-6 (5), 19-17. It was the longest three-set men's match of the Open era.
"I definitely got a sense that it was something special," the top-seeded Federer said. "The deeper we went into the match, the more I thought, 'Wow, this is so cool to be part of a match like this.'"
Federer converted only two of 13 break-point chances, the second coming in the next-to-last game, and had several nervous moments. But he held serve 12 times in the final set to stay in the match.
With the comeback victory, the four-time Olympian is assured at least a silver. On Sunday he'll play in the final against No. 3 Andy Murray of Britain, who beat No. 2 Novak Djokovic of Serbia 7-5, 7-5.
Federer and Swiss teammate Stanislas Wawrinka won the gold in doubles in 2008. But Federer had been 0 for 3 in Olympic singles, the biggest blemish on a resume that includes a record 17 Grand Slam championships.
His latest title came at Wimbledon a month ago against Murray, who relishes the shot at a rematch on the same court.
"I hope it's a great match," Murray said, "because the way the matches went today, I think the tournament deserves a great final. I hope we can provide that."
Serena Williams also clinched her first Olympic singles medal, beating No. 1-seeded Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-2. On Saturday, the No. 4-seeded Williams will face first-time Olympian Maria Sharapova, who beat Russian teammate Maria Kirilenko 6-2, 6-3.
Williams teamed with sister Venus to win the gold in doubles in 2000 and 2008. They have a chance to clinch at least a silver in the semifinals Saturday.
Americans Bob and Mike Bryan are assured at least a silver after beating Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet of France 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of men's doubles. Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond advanced to the first Olympics mixed doubles final since 1924 by beating Del Potro and Gisela Dulko 6-2, 7-5.
For duration, Federer's latest victory didn't rival John Isner's 70-68 final-set win at Wimbledon in 2010, or even Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's 25-23 win in the third set at the Olympics this week. But the match offered epic drama magnified by the setting and the stakes for Federer.
He improved to 12-0 this summer at the All England Club, including a record-tying seventh Wimbledon title a month ago.
There were no match points until the final game. After a couple of wobbly moments by Federer, including a double fault, he sealed the victory when Del Potro dumped a backhand in the net.
Federer lifted his arms in jubilation, then leaned wearily on the net while awaiting congratulations from the big Argentine. They shared a warm embrace.
"I felt for him in a big way," Federer said, "because I've been there as well."
Said Del Potro: "It's not an easy situation. Someone always has to win these matches, and today it was his turn."
Del Potro will play Djokovic for the bronze Sunday.
The 6-foot-6-inch Argentine had the edge on Federer for most of the first two sets, reaching the net more often and winning most of the baseline rallies, starting with a 23-shot exchange in the opening game. Del Potro showed little effort as he snapped explosive forehands that had Federer scrambling and lunging.
"Not enough, Roger!" a British spectator shouted when Federer fell behind.
The near-capacity crowd on sunny Centre Court was clearly in Federer's corner. Fans clapped and chanted "Ro-ger!" during a changeover, and later "Let's go, Roger!" More than once a Swiss cowbell clanged.
Small clusters of Argentine fans broke into song, and the match — like the entire tournament — took on an atmosphere more festive than during Wimbledon.
Federer's comeback came slowly. He was on the verge of digging a deeper hole midway through the second set, when he faced a break point and needed 16 points to hold for a 3-2 lead. He played another patchy game at 4-all, when he misplayed an overhead, blew an easy volley, squandered a 40-love lead and faced another break point.
He managed to hold again, and never trailed in the tiebreaker. Then the match proceeded on even terms for the next couple of hours.
In the 15th game of the final set, Del Potro twice won rallies after clipping the net cord with shots, the second time to erase a break point. Federer's bad luck had him screaming in frustration.
But for the most part, he managed to keep any annoyance in check. In the 31st game of the final set, when he mishit back-to-back forehands — the second sailed long — he gave his wife a wry grin.
"I was very tense at certain times," Federer said. "I was seeing myself as a loser many times during the match. But at the same time also I did see myself with medals. So you go through many emotions."
Federer broke for the first time in the 19th game of the final set when Del Potro double-faulted twice. That gave Federer a chance to serve for the victory at 10-9, but he was broken at love.
He waited 16 games for another chance, while repeatedly holding easily. Del Potro made three unforced errors in the 35th game to lose serve for only the second time, and eight points later the marathon reached the finish line.
Ennis sets record for heptathlon hurdles
Talk about your crowd pleasers.
In an opening session of Olympic track unlike any in recent memory, heptathlete Jessica Ennis and a handful of her British teammates gave fans at jam-packed Olympic Stadium a show worth the early wake-up call.
With nearly all 80,000 seats filled for the first taste of Olympic track and field Friday, Ennis wowed the home crowd by finishing the 100-meter hurdles in 12.54 seconds, the fastest time ever in the heptathlon's first event.
How fast? It matched Dawn Harper's gold-winning time in the 100-meter hurdle final at the Beijing Games — and would've been good enough to take that title at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics.
"Amazing. So loud. When you step up to jump or get in your blocks, they really get behind you. It's a great feeling," Ennis said. "I felt strangely calm. I'm normally quite nervous before the hurdles. Just coming out in the stadium and seeing the crowd was such an amazing feeling. It kind of gives you goose bumps."
Imagine what a treat it was for the home fans, who have been wringing their hands over every aspect of these games: the megamillion-pound costs, the security, the quality of the subway and train service and, of course, the quality of the athletes who would be representing the host country.
On this particular morning, everything worked out better than they could have hoped.
Fans rolled out of bed, poured into the javelin trains heading to Olympic Park, jammed the turnstiles at the stadium and were in place before Ennis left the warm-up area shortly before 10 a.m. They waved their Union Jacks and cheered every British athlete with roars often reserved for gold medalists.
"The crowd — I have no words to describe," said British triple jumper Yamile Aldama. "I've been to five Olympic Games and in qualifying, you never experience this. Never. It's just always kind of empty because it's in the mornings. This is great. This is 'Great' Britain. British people are great. They like athletics. They like sport."
And to think, a short week ago, so much of the buzz at these Olympics was about fans not showing up to events.
"A fabulous, fabulous experience," said British shot putter Carl Myerscough, who finished 14th in qualifying and won't move onto the final. "It's what I expected. I knew it was going to be amazing. You can't really replicate it. It's a once-in-a-lifetime feeling. All the more reason I'm disappointed. I maybe was guilty of trying too hard."
Ennis, dealing nicely with the pressure of competing on home turf with gold-medal expectations, broke the 7-year-old world mark in the heptathlon hurdles (12.62) held by Frenchwoman Eunice Barber and the Olympic record (12.69) held since 1988 by six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
"I literally cannot believe that," Ennis said. "That's crazy, so crazy. I'm just so glad I did it here."
The deafening roars kept coming for Ennis each time she cleared a height in the second of heptathlon's seven events, the high jump. When she finally missed, the crowd gasped and groaned.
Not to worry. Ennis' mark of 6 feet, 1¼ inches left her in the lead with 2,249 points — 25 ahead of American Hyleas Fountain, the 2008 silver medalist, with the shot put and 200 meters set for Friday night.
Heptathlon is often one of the more overlooked, underappreciated events at a track meet. Not on this day, though.
"It's a great start to the athletic program now," Ennis said. "I want to perform the best I can. Hopefully, that will roll on to the next few days."
Ennis was one of five women to set personal bests in the fifth hurdles heat alone, doing nothing to tamp down thoughts that the track in London, advertised as one of the fastest in the world, may live up to its billing.
"I had to get a bit closer to the screen to doublecheck the time," said Britain's world-champion 400-meter runner, Dai Greene. "Those sort of things are amazing for team morale."
Greene responded by winning his opening heat in 48.98 seconds.
Britain's Christine Ohuruogu, the defending women's 400 Olympic champion, qualified in 50.80 seconds.
Aldama made it through in the triple jump with a second-place finish and another British heptathlete, 19-year-old Katarina Johnson-Thompson, finished second in the high jump, drawing huge applause when she cleared 6-2¼ (1.89). She finished the morning in third place overall, 103 points behind Ennis, and came off the track beaming.
"It's hard to frown out there," she said.
In one of the day's few down notes, three-time hammer world champion Ivan Tsikhan of Belarus was kicked out of the Olympics because a retest of a sample he gave at the 2004 Olympics came back positive. He won the silver medal that year.
The morning also featured preliminary heats in the women's 100 meters, with the Jamaican sprinters — Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Kerron Stewart — still waiting for Friday night's session.
Meanwhile, American Sanya Richards-Ross qualified in the 400 in 51.78 seconds, practically walking the last 20 meters in a downpour. Often a headliner at meets where she runs, Richards-Ross knew she got second billing this morning.
"You saw Jessica Ennis in the 100. Everybody in the back was kind of buzzing. There's going to be some phenomenal performances here," Richards-Ross said.
Though it's not unheard of for a big crowd to show for a morning session — such as when one of China's most famous athletes, hurdler Liu Xiang, was supposed to run in prelims at the Beijing Games — more often than not, these are sparsely attended, somewhat sleepy affairs, primarily because mornings almost always mean preliminaries. The big events, as well as the medals, are reserved for the evenings.
There was nothing sleepy about this morning, however, and even the head of track's governing body took notice.
"I do not remember the last time this happened, and it shows the great affection Britain has for our sport," IAAF President Lamine Diack said.
In an opening session of Olympic track unlike any in recent memory, heptathlete Jessica Ennis and a handful of her British teammates gave fans at jam-packed Olympic Stadium a show worth the early wake-up call.
With nearly all 80,000 seats filled for the first taste of Olympic track and field Friday, Ennis wowed the home crowd by finishing the 100-meter hurdles in 12.54 seconds, the fastest time ever in the heptathlon's first event.
How fast? It matched Dawn Harper's gold-winning time in the 100-meter hurdle final at the Beijing Games — and would've been good enough to take that title at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics.
"Amazing. So loud. When you step up to jump or get in your blocks, they really get behind you. It's a great feeling," Ennis said. "I felt strangely calm. I'm normally quite nervous before the hurdles. Just coming out in the stadium and seeing the crowd was such an amazing feeling. It kind of gives you goose bumps."
Imagine what a treat it was for the home fans, who have been wringing their hands over every aspect of these games: the megamillion-pound costs, the security, the quality of the subway and train service and, of course, the quality of the athletes who would be representing the host country.
On this particular morning, everything worked out better than they could have hoped.
Fans rolled out of bed, poured into the javelin trains heading to Olympic Park, jammed the turnstiles at the stadium and were in place before Ennis left the warm-up area shortly before 10 a.m. They waved their Union Jacks and cheered every British athlete with roars often reserved for gold medalists.
"The crowd — I have no words to describe," said British triple jumper Yamile Aldama. "I've been to five Olympic Games and in qualifying, you never experience this. Never. It's just always kind of empty because it's in the mornings. This is great. This is 'Great' Britain. British people are great. They like athletics. They like sport."
And to think, a short week ago, so much of the buzz at these Olympics was about fans not showing up to events.
"A fabulous, fabulous experience," said British shot putter Carl Myerscough, who finished 14th in qualifying and won't move onto the final. "It's what I expected. I knew it was going to be amazing. You can't really replicate it. It's a once-in-a-lifetime feeling. All the more reason I'm disappointed. I maybe was guilty of trying too hard."
Ennis, dealing nicely with the pressure of competing on home turf with gold-medal expectations, broke the 7-year-old world mark in the heptathlon hurdles (12.62) held by Frenchwoman Eunice Barber and the Olympic record (12.69) held since 1988 by six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
"I literally cannot believe that," Ennis said. "That's crazy, so crazy. I'm just so glad I did it here."
The deafening roars kept coming for Ennis each time she cleared a height in the second of heptathlon's seven events, the high jump. When she finally missed, the crowd gasped and groaned.
Not to worry. Ennis' mark of 6 feet, 1¼ inches left her in the lead with 2,249 points — 25 ahead of American Hyleas Fountain, the 2008 silver medalist, with the shot put and 200 meters set for Friday night.
Heptathlon is often one of the more overlooked, underappreciated events at a track meet. Not on this day, though.
"It's a great start to the athletic program now," Ennis said. "I want to perform the best I can. Hopefully, that will roll on to the next few days."
Ennis was one of five women to set personal bests in the fifth hurdles heat alone, doing nothing to tamp down thoughts that the track in London, advertised as one of the fastest in the world, may live up to its billing.
"I had to get a bit closer to the screen to doublecheck the time," said Britain's world-champion 400-meter runner, Dai Greene. "Those sort of things are amazing for team morale."
Greene responded by winning his opening heat in 48.98 seconds.
Britain's Christine Ohuruogu, the defending women's 400 Olympic champion, qualified in 50.80 seconds.
Aldama made it through in the triple jump with a second-place finish and another British heptathlete, 19-year-old Katarina Johnson-Thompson, finished second in the high jump, drawing huge applause when she cleared 6-2¼ (1.89). She finished the morning in third place overall, 103 points behind Ennis, and came off the track beaming.
"It's hard to frown out there," she said.
In one of the day's few down notes, three-time hammer world champion Ivan Tsikhan of Belarus was kicked out of the Olympics because a retest of a sample he gave at the 2004 Olympics came back positive. He won the silver medal that year.
The morning also featured preliminary heats in the women's 100 meters, with the Jamaican sprinters — Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Kerron Stewart — still waiting for Friday night's session.
Meanwhile, American Sanya Richards-Ross qualified in the 400 in 51.78 seconds, practically walking the last 20 meters in a downpour. Often a headliner at meets where she runs, Richards-Ross knew she got second billing this morning.
"You saw Jessica Ennis in the 100. Everybody in the back was kind of buzzing. There's going to be some phenomenal performances here," Richards-Ross said.
Though it's not unheard of for a big crowd to show for a morning session — such as when one of China's most famous athletes, hurdler Liu Xiang, was supposed to run in prelims at the Beijing Games — more often than not, these are sparsely attended, somewhat sleepy affairs, primarily because mornings almost always mean preliminaries. The big events, as well as the medals, are reserved for the evenings.
There was nothing sleepy about this morning, however, and even the head of track's governing body took notice.
"I do not remember the last time this happened, and it shows the great affection Britain has for our sport," IAAF President Lamine Diack said.
Exclusive: Fired Barclays trader draws scrutiny in Libor probe
A 30-year-old former Barclays Plc swaps trader in New York, who was fired from the bank in 2010, is among those drawing scrutiny from prosecutors in the deepening scandal over the manipulation of global benchmark interest rates.
U.S. prosecutors in Washington, D.C. are looking at Ryan Reich's activities while at Barclays between August 2006 and March 2010, said several people familiar with the situation, who declined to be identified because the bid-rigging investigation is ongoing.
Reich, now a portfolio manager with New York-based hedge fund WCG Management, was dismissed from Barclays for allegedly sending inappropriate emails seeking internal bank information, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
One of those sources, who used to work for the bank, said the information Reich sought concerned how the Libor benchmark rate was going to be priced, information that could have been useful for his trading positions.
Reached by telephone on Friday, Reich declined to comment. A spokeswoman at the U.S. Department of Justice did not return phone calls or emails seeking comment.
Libor, the London interbank offered rate, is used to set rates on trillions of dollars of contracts for everything from home mortgages to credit cards. The investigation has embroiled banks on both sides of the Atlantic and involves yen and euro rates as well as those for the dollar.
Lawyers familiar with the investigation say federal prosecutors continue to reach out to individuals to gauge interest in cooperating or taking pleas. They said prosecutors are expected to begin making decisions on charging individuals late this month or in early September.
Indeed, many of the traders under scrutiny do not believe they did anything wrong because their employers and regulators had some awareness of their activities, the lawyers said. Information released by the New York Fed shows that bank regulators in the United States and Europe knew some banks were submitting low Libor bids during the financial crisis to make institutions appear healthier than they were.
A person familiar with Reich's dismissal from Barclays said that the young trader, who joined Barclays just two years after graduating from Princeton University, was directed by his supervisors to send the emails and they were aware of everything he was doing.
The person, who did not want to be identified, said the practice of sending emails to gather information on future Libor pricing went back to the 1990s at Barclays, long before Reich joined the firm.
"This was systemic at Barclays," said the person.
Barclays declined to comment.
INCONSPICUOUS
Reich was a part of a low-profile New York trading desk at Barclays that is now increasingly in focus as prosecutors and regulators extend their investigation of the Libor scandal, which began to come to light in 2008. In June, Barclays paid a $453 million penalty to authorities in the United States and the UK to settle allegations some of its traders colluded with people at other banks to manipulate Libor.
In the United States, federal authorities and regulators are focusing on the activities of the Barclays desk on which Reich worked. It traded U.S. Treasury and U.S. dollar and Canadian dollar interest rate swaps.
Reuters previously reported that Jay Merchant, one of that desk's top traders, who in 2009 served as head of U.S. dollar swaps trading, is being scrutinized by federal authorities as well. Merchant moved to UBS in late 2009 to run that firm's swaps desk.
Ritankar "Ronti" Pal, who Merchant reported to and who had overseen all of the desk's trading since 2006, recently left Barclays, according to people familiar with the matter. A man who appeared at an address listed for Pal declined comment and called for building security to escort a reporter away. Pal didn't respond to a written request for comment.
The Libor investigation is focusing on allegations that traders at various banks colluded to try and rig the price of Libor to impact the interest rate on swaps, a type of derivative contract. On many swaps, the interest paid is a floating rate, so depending on which side a bank sat on a trade it would have an interest in getting either a lower or higher Libor rate.
One thing authorities are looking into is whether traders at banks were trying to get information ahead of time to know where Libor was going to be set for the next day, or work with other traders to influence the rate.
As reported last week by Reuters, people familiar with the investigation said authorities are looking at whether some individuals on the Barclay's trading desk tried to influence the rate on Libor by communicating with other traders in London to get a higher return on certain swaps the desk was trading.
Traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co also had dealings with some of the Barclays traders under scrutiny, according to a person familiar with the investigation. JPMorgan declined to comment.
Reich filed an employment arbitration case against Barclays following his dismissal. The case was eventually resolved, though terms were not disclosed.
POSSIBLE CHARGES
Another lawyer familiar with the investigation said prosecutors could charge traders with wire fraud, a charge that does not require them to actually have succeeded in manipulating Libor, but merely have sought to do it. Wire fraud is often used when individuals communicate through emails or cell phones as part of a conspiracy charge.
Reich's current employer, WCG Management, is a macro hedge fund that specializes in trading bonds, currencies and interest rate swaps. It oversees $3.4 billion in assets and is led by Barry Wittlin, a former top proprietary trader with Merrill Lynch.
Officials at WCG did not respond to a request for comment.
People familiar with the investigation said there is no indication authorities are looking at the hedge fund and authorities are not looking at any of Reich's activities at the fund.
U.S. prosecutors in Washington, D.C. are looking at Ryan Reich's activities while at Barclays between August 2006 and March 2010, said several people familiar with the situation, who declined to be identified because the bid-rigging investigation is ongoing.
Reich, now a portfolio manager with New York-based hedge fund WCG Management, was dismissed from Barclays for allegedly sending inappropriate emails seeking internal bank information, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
One of those sources, who used to work for the bank, said the information Reich sought concerned how the Libor benchmark rate was going to be priced, information that could have been useful for his trading positions.
Reached by telephone on Friday, Reich declined to comment. A spokeswoman at the U.S. Department of Justice did not return phone calls or emails seeking comment.
Libor, the London interbank offered rate, is used to set rates on trillions of dollars of contracts for everything from home mortgages to credit cards. The investigation has embroiled banks on both sides of the Atlantic and involves yen and euro rates as well as those for the dollar.
Lawyers familiar with the investigation say federal prosecutors continue to reach out to individuals to gauge interest in cooperating or taking pleas. They said prosecutors are expected to begin making decisions on charging individuals late this month or in early September.
Indeed, many of the traders under scrutiny do not believe they did anything wrong because their employers and regulators had some awareness of their activities, the lawyers said. Information released by the New York Fed shows that bank regulators in the United States and Europe knew some banks were submitting low Libor bids during the financial crisis to make institutions appear healthier than they were.
A person familiar with Reich's dismissal from Barclays said that the young trader, who joined Barclays just two years after graduating from Princeton University, was directed by his supervisors to send the emails and they were aware of everything he was doing.
The person, who did not want to be identified, said the practice of sending emails to gather information on future Libor pricing went back to the 1990s at Barclays, long before Reich joined the firm.
"This was systemic at Barclays," said the person.
Barclays declined to comment.
INCONSPICUOUS
Reich was a part of a low-profile New York trading desk at Barclays that is now increasingly in focus as prosecutors and regulators extend their investigation of the Libor scandal, which began to come to light in 2008. In June, Barclays paid a $453 million penalty to authorities in the United States and the UK to settle allegations some of its traders colluded with people at other banks to manipulate Libor.
In the United States, federal authorities and regulators are focusing on the activities of the Barclays desk on which Reich worked. It traded U.S. Treasury and U.S. dollar and Canadian dollar interest rate swaps.
Reuters previously reported that Jay Merchant, one of that desk's top traders, who in 2009 served as head of U.S. dollar swaps trading, is being scrutinized by federal authorities as well. Merchant moved to UBS in late 2009 to run that firm's swaps desk.
Ritankar "Ronti" Pal, who Merchant reported to and who had overseen all of the desk's trading since 2006, recently left Barclays, according to people familiar with the matter. A man who appeared at an address listed for Pal declined comment and called for building security to escort a reporter away. Pal didn't respond to a written request for comment.
The Libor investigation is focusing on allegations that traders at various banks colluded to try and rig the price of Libor to impact the interest rate on swaps, a type of derivative contract. On many swaps, the interest paid is a floating rate, so depending on which side a bank sat on a trade it would have an interest in getting either a lower or higher Libor rate.
One thing authorities are looking into is whether traders at banks were trying to get information ahead of time to know where Libor was going to be set for the next day, or work with other traders to influence the rate.
As reported last week by Reuters, people familiar with the investigation said authorities are looking at whether some individuals on the Barclay's trading desk tried to influence the rate on Libor by communicating with other traders in London to get a higher return on certain swaps the desk was trading.
Traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co also had dealings with some of the Barclays traders under scrutiny, according to a person familiar with the investigation. JPMorgan declined to comment.
Reich filed an employment arbitration case against Barclays following his dismissal. The case was eventually resolved, though terms were not disclosed.
POSSIBLE CHARGES
Another lawyer familiar with the investigation said prosecutors could charge traders with wire fraud, a charge that does not require them to actually have succeeded in manipulating Libor, but merely have sought to do it. Wire fraud is often used when individuals communicate through emails or cell phones as part of a conspiracy charge.
Reich's current employer, WCG Management, is a macro hedge fund that specializes in trading bonds, currencies and interest rate swaps. It oversees $3.4 billion in assets and is led by Barry Wittlin, a former top proprietary trader with Merrill Lynch.
Officials at WCG did not respond to a request for comment.
People familiar with the investigation said there is no indication authorities are looking at the hedge fund and authorities are not looking at any of Reich's activities at the fund.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Delays hit London Olympic transport system after train fault
Olympic spectators traveling to the Games in London faced delays Tuesday after a faulty train forced the closure of one of the busiest underground links to the Olympic Park.
There have been concerns over whether London's public transport system, the busiest in Europe, would be able to handle the rush of spectators attending the Games.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld
The system appeared to cope well with the crowds on Monday.
Operator Transport for London said the Central Line service, which stretches east to west across the city, was halted east of Liverpool Street station on Tuesday after a driver reported smelling smoke.
The driver's train was taken out of service at Leyton, one stop to the east of the Stratford station which is being used as the hub for people arriving at the Olympic Park.
London Olympic VIP lanes not needed as many turn to public transit
The authorities said there were severe delays on the rest of the Central Line, but that staff were advising Olympic fans how to travel to the park via a number of other rail routes.
More on London 2012: Hosting the Games
British Transport Police said the problem may have been due to smoke coming from the train's brakes.
London's entire transit network handles an average of 12 million trips a day.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this repor
There have been concerns over whether London's public transport system, the busiest in Europe, would be able to handle the rush of spectators attending the Games.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld
The system appeared to cope well with the crowds on Monday.
Operator Transport for London said the Central Line service, which stretches east to west across the city, was halted east of Liverpool Street station on Tuesday after a driver reported smelling smoke.
The driver's train was taken out of service at Leyton, one stop to the east of the Stratford station which is being used as the hub for people arriving at the Olympic Park.
London Olympic VIP lanes not needed as many turn to public transit
The authorities said there were severe delays on the rest of the Central Line, but that staff were advising Olympic fans how to travel to the park via a number of other rail routes.
More on London 2012: Hosting the Games
British Transport Police said the problem may have been due to smoke coming from the train's brakes.
London's entire transit network handles an average of 12 million trips a day.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this repor
Insurance rebates seen as selling point for health law
Lucia Harkenreader’s check landed in her mailbox last week: a rebate of $456.15 from her health insurance company, with a letter dryly explaining that the money came courtesy of the federal health care law.
“It almost looked like junk mail,” said Ms. Harkenreader, a tax accountant in Mountain Top, Pa., who said she did not love the overall law but was pleased at the unexpected windfall. “If this is part of Obamacare, I’m happy that somebody is finally coming down on the insurance companies and saying, ‘Look, let’s be fair here.’ ”
The law requires insurers to give out annual rebates by Aug. 1, starting this year, if less than 80 percent of the premium dollars they collect go toward medical care. For insurers covering large employers, the threshold is 85 percent.
As a result, insurers will pay out $1.1 billion this year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, although most of it will not go to individuals. The average rebate will be $151 per household, with the highest in Vermont ($807 per family), Alaska ($622) and Alabama ($518). No rebates will be issued in New Mexico or Rhode Island, because insurers there met the 80/20 requirement.
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Romney: US has duty to protect Israel
Story: Expanding Medicaid cuts death rates, study finds
Although the percentage of insurance companies that owe rebates this year is relatively small, about 14 percent, many giants of the industry are on the list. They include Aetna, Cigna, Humana and UnitedHealthcare.
President Obama is highlighting the rebates as a tangible early benefit of the legislation; on the day the Supreme Court upheld the law as constitutional last month, he said millions of Americans would see rebates because their insurance companies had “spent too much on things like administrative costs and C.E.O. bonuses, and not enough on your health care.”
So is your check in the mail? Don’t count on it.
Advertise | AdChoices
Self-insured employers, which cover more than half the nation’s workers, are exempt from the new rule, as are Medicare and Medicaid. And of the 75 million people in health plans subject to the rule, only about 17 percent, or 12.8 million, will get rebates this year, according to the Obama administration.
Many who buy coverage directly from insurers, like Ms. Harkenreader and other self-employed people, are receiving checks. But in most cases rebates are being sent to employers, who can chose to put them toward future premium costs instead of distributing them to workers.
“I’ve been trying to explain that to people — that very few people would be getting a check,” said Timothy S. Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University who is an expert on the health care law.
Still, he and others say the rebate provision could prove a potent selling point for a law that remains unpopular with many Americans, not to mention a well-timed tool for the Obama re-election campaign. Premiums — and anger toward insurance companies — keep rising: the cost of employer-sponsored family health plans jumped by 9 percent last year to more than $15,000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Video: Economist: Country should be reimbursing for health (on this page)
For Ms. Harkenreader, 53, who is putting a son through college, the rebate helps soothe the frustration she feels toward her insurer, Golden Rule, which is owned by UnitedHealthcare.
“It seems like the health insurance companies really just don’t have any consideration for the cost out here,” said Ms. Harkenreader, who pays about $480 a month for a high-deductible plan, up from $400 last year. “What costs have gone up to justify that rise in premium? I’d love to know. Did you give your people a raise? I guess your light bill went up?”
Professor Jost said he had heard “quite a bit of anecdotal evidence of insurers giving really low premium increases this year” — a sign that the rebate rule might already be having an effect. (This year’s rebates are based on the share of premiums that went to administrative costs in 2011.)
Amber Wagner of St. Peters, Mo., said that in addition to a rebate of $143, she had gotten word from her insurer, Anthem, that her premium rate would drop starting next month.
“It does make sense,” Ms. Wagner, 29, said of the rebate rule. “Why should they get to spend all this money on advertising and lining the pockets of people who own the company and make me pay more?”
Insurance companies say the rebate requirement does not address swiftly rising medical costs, which they say are the main reason premiums keep going up.
“Placing an arbitrary cap on administrative costs is going to do nothing to make health care more affordable,” said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there.”
Critics also say the rule could drive insurers with high administrative costs out of some markets if they are not given more time to meet the 80/20 standard, potentially leaving customers in the lurch. That concern factored into a decision by the Department of Health and Human Services to allow insurers in several states to spend a higher portion of premiums on overhead for now. Those states are Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire and North Carolina. Eight other states sought but were not granted a reprieve.
Advertise | AdChoices
Employers can put the rebates toward future premium costs, share them directly with workers or use them to enhance benefits. Insurers have the option of directly reducing future premiums instead of sending out rebates.
In Kentucky, the Floyd County commissioners voted last week to distribute the county’s rebate of $169,748.78 from Humana to county employees as a surprise. The 260 employees will soon receive checks, although Stephen Bush, the board president, said the amounts have yet to be determined. Those who paid higher premiums will probably get more, he said.
“It’s probably been five, seven years since they’ve gotten a raise,” Mr. Bush said. “If they want to use it for premiums, they can. But if they’re living paycheck to paycheck or it’s a difficult time, they have that opportunity to use it for whatever they want.”
Robert Blendon, a health policy professor at Harvard, said that while the rebates might win over some opponents of the law, they were too limited to have much impact. Polls have found that most people believe the law will drive premiums up.
“My view is the number is too small,” Professor Blendon said. “Most people have already come to some judgment about the law and they are moving on to other things.”
This story, "Insurance rebates seen as early benefit of health care law," originally appeared in The New York Times.
“It almost looked like junk mail,” said Ms. Harkenreader, a tax accountant in Mountain Top, Pa., who said she did not love the overall law but was pleased at the unexpected windfall. “If this is part of Obamacare, I’m happy that somebody is finally coming down on the insurance companies and saying, ‘Look, let’s be fair here.’ ”
The law requires insurers to give out annual rebates by Aug. 1, starting this year, if less than 80 percent of the premium dollars they collect go toward medical care. For insurers covering large employers, the threshold is 85 percent.
As a result, insurers will pay out $1.1 billion this year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, although most of it will not go to individuals. The average rebate will be $151 per household, with the highest in Vermont ($807 per family), Alaska ($622) and Alabama ($518). No rebates will be issued in New Mexico or Rhode Island, because insurers there met the 80/20 requirement.
Only on NBCNews.com
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Burned-out nurses spur more patient infections
Military to fill empty seats at London Olympics
Rome’s leaning Colosseum has experts worried
Ford looks to aluminum to slash weight of pickups
Romney: US has duty to protect Israel
Story: Expanding Medicaid cuts death rates, study finds
Although the percentage of insurance companies that owe rebates this year is relatively small, about 14 percent, many giants of the industry are on the list. They include Aetna, Cigna, Humana and UnitedHealthcare.
President Obama is highlighting the rebates as a tangible early benefit of the legislation; on the day the Supreme Court upheld the law as constitutional last month, he said millions of Americans would see rebates because their insurance companies had “spent too much on things like administrative costs and C.E.O. bonuses, and not enough on your health care.”
So is your check in the mail? Don’t count on it.
Advertise | AdChoices
Self-insured employers, which cover more than half the nation’s workers, are exempt from the new rule, as are Medicare and Medicaid. And of the 75 million people in health plans subject to the rule, only about 17 percent, or 12.8 million, will get rebates this year, according to the Obama administration.
Many who buy coverage directly from insurers, like Ms. Harkenreader and other self-employed people, are receiving checks. But in most cases rebates are being sent to employers, who can chose to put them toward future premium costs instead of distributing them to workers.
“I’ve been trying to explain that to people — that very few people would be getting a check,” said Timothy S. Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University who is an expert on the health care law.
Still, he and others say the rebate provision could prove a potent selling point for a law that remains unpopular with many Americans, not to mention a well-timed tool for the Obama re-election campaign. Premiums — and anger toward insurance companies — keep rising: the cost of employer-sponsored family health plans jumped by 9 percent last year to more than $15,000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Video: Economist: Country should be reimbursing for health (on this page)
For Ms. Harkenreader, 53, who is putting a son through college, the rebate helps soothe the frustration she feels toward her insurer, Golden Rule, which is owned by UnitedHealthcare.
“It seems like the health insurance companies really just don’t have any consideration for the cost out here,” said Ms. Harkenreader, who pays about $480 a month for a high-deductible plan, up from $400 last year. “What costs have gone up to justify that rise in premium? I’d love to know. Did you give your people a raise? I guess your light bill went up?”
Professor Jost said he had heard “quite a bit of anecdotal evidence of insurers giving really low premium increases this year” — a sign that the rebate rule might already be having an effect. (This year’s rebates are based on the share of premiums that went to administrative costs in 2011.)
Amber Wagner of St. Peters, Mo., said that in addition to a rebate of $143, she had gotten word from her insurer, Anthem, that her premium rate would drop starting next month.
“It does make sense,” Ms. Wagner, 29, said of the rebate rule. “Why should they get to spend all this money on advertising and lining the pockets of people who own the company and make me pay more?”
Insurance companies say the rebate requirement does not address swiftly rising medical costs, which they say are the main reason premiums keep going up.
“Placing an arbitrary cap on administrative costs is going to do nothing to make health care more affordable,” said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there.”
Critics also say the rule could drive insurers with high administrative costs out of some markets if they are not given more time to meet the 80/20 standard, potentially leaving customers in the lurch. That concern factored into a decision by the Department of Health and Human Services to allow insurers in several states to spend a higher portion of premiums on overhead for now. Those states are Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire and North Carolina. Eight other states sought but were not granted a reprieve.
Advertise | AdChoices
Employers can put the rebates toward future premium costs, share them directly with workers or use them to enhance benefits. Insurers have the option of directly reducing future premiums instead of sending out rebates.
In Kentucky, the Floyd County commissioners voted last week to distribute the county’s rebate of $169,748.78 from Humana to county employees as a surprise. The 260 employees will soon receive checks, although Stephen Bush, the board president, said the amounts have yet to be determined. Those who paid higher premiums will probably get more, he said.
“It’s probably been five, seven years since they’ve gotten a raise,” Mr. Bush said. “If they want to use it for premiums, they can. But if they’re living paycheck to paycheck or it’s a difficult time, they have that opportunity to use it for whatever they want.”
Robert Blendon, a health policy professor at Harvard, said that while the rebates might win over some opponents of the law, they were too limited to have much impact. Polls have found that most people believe the law will drive premiums up.
“My view is the number is too small,” Professor Blendon said. “Most people have already come to some judgment about the law and they are moving on to other things.”
This story, "Insurance rebates seen as early benefit of health care law," originally appeared in The New York Times.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
O'Brien says main goal is to keep team together
Of the long list of problems now facing Penn State coach Bill O'Brien, the top priority sounds simple: keeping the Nittany Lions intact.
So he's stressing education and the opportunity to play in front of 108,000 fans every fall Saturday as part of his pitch to persuade players to stay in Happy Valley.
It seems to be working — so far.
O'Brien said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday that no current member of the team has indicated they will transfer following the NCAA sanctions imposed this week on Penn State. The penalties allow current players to transfer immediately without restrictions.
"Life is full of adversity. The way you travel through life is how you handle adversity," O'Brien said in relaying what he told players during team meetings the last two days. "I told the guys to think about the guys they're sitting next to in that room.
"We've got a bunch of good kids here who are good tough football payers who care about education," he added.
The NCAA imposed unprecedented penalties in response to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The university's investigation found that coach Joe Paterno and three other school officials concealed allegations against Sandusky, the retired defensive coordinator — conclusions vehemently denied by Paterno's family and the officials.
A reduction in scholarships and a four-year postseason ban are among the sanctions, so potentially crippling that some observers have suggested they are worse than the so-called "death penalty" of shutting down football entirely for at least a season.
Not so, said O'Brien, who added it was important for the fans and the program that games would remain on television.
"We are playing football. We are opening our season on Sept. 1 before 108,000 strong against Ohio University," O'Brien said emphatically. "We get to get better as football players, and we get to do that for Penn State."
It has been a trying year for the Nittany Lions even before the NCAA announced its sanctions. Players who had nothing to do with the scandal have been caught in the resulting media firestorm since Sandusky was arrested in November and Paterno was fired days later.
O'Brien was hired in January after serving as offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots.
While he didn't offer specific details, O'Brien said he has a plan to get the program through its latest crisis. His experience coaching in the NFL, where teams are limited to 53-man rosters, might help in leading and shaping Penn State's scholarship-restricted roster.
"You're talking about having experience in how to put that roster together, learning from the best in (Patriots head coach) Bill Belichick. How to practice," he said. "So there's no question that my NFL experience ... will certainly help."
As for concerns about not playing in the postseason for the next four years, O'Brien counters that Penn State plays what equates to six or seven bowl games each year with home contests at massive Beaver Stadium, the second-largest stadium in the country.
Recruiting could also become an even bigger challenge, but O'Brien said he felt "very good" about recruiting. One high-profile high school prospect, cornerback Ross Douglas, has taken back his verbal pledge to commit to Penn State in 2013. Another 2013 recruit, tight end Adam Breneman, has said he's sticking with Penn State.
The recruiting strategy might change given the scholarship decline, but the "philosophy I've brought here does not change ... meaning that we're looking for high-character guys that are good students. We're going to find ways to do that."
O'Brien is also optimistic about keeping his coaching staff together, which includes defensive coordinator Ted Roof, who coached at Auburn when the Tigers won the national championship two seasons ago; and former NFL assistants Stan Hixon and Charles London. Also on the staff are two holdovers from the Paterno era: defensive line coach Larry Johnson and linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden.
As for O'Brien himself, the head coach left no doubt about his loyalties.
"I made a commitment to Penn State. I believe in Penn State," he said. "I feel very close to these kids ... they've been dealt with honestly, openly and again we've got a bunch of guys here that want to succeed and do well on and off the field, and I feel close to them."
So he's stressing education and the opportunity to play in front of 108,000 fans every fall Saturday as part of his pitch to persuade players to stay in Happy Valley.
It seems to be working — so far.
O'Brien said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday that no current member of the team has indicated they will transfer following the NCAA sanctions imposed this week on Penn State. The penalties allow current players to transfer immediately without restrictions.
"Life is full of adversity. The way you travel through life is how you handle adversity," O'Brien said in relaying what he told players during team meetings the last two days. "I told the guys to think about the guys they're sitting next to in that room.
"We've got a bunch of good kids here who are good tough football payers who care about education," he added.
The NCAA imposed unprecedented penalties in response to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The university's investigation found that coach Joe Paterno and three other school officials concealed allegations against Sandusky, the retired defensive coordinator — conclusions vehemently denied by Paterno's family and the officials.
A reduction in scholarships and a four-year postseason ban are among the sanctions, so potentially crippling that some observers have suggested they are worse than the so-called "death penalty" of shutting down football entirely for at least a season.
Not so, said O'Brien, who added it was important for the fans and the program that games would remain on television.
"We are playing football. We are opening our season on Sept. 1 before 108,000 strong against Ohio University," O'Brien said emphatically. "We get to get better as football players, and we get to do that for Penn State."
It has been a trying year for the Nittany Lions even before the NCAA announced its sanctions. Players who had nothing to do with the scandal have been caught in the resulting media firestorm since Sandusky was arrested in November and Paterno was fired days later.
O'Brien was hired in January after serving as offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots.
While he didn't offer specific details, O'Brien said he has a plan to get the program through its latest crisis. His experience coaching in the NFL, where teams are limited to 53-man rosters, might help in leading and shaping Penn State's scholarship-restricted roster.
"You're talking about having experience in how to put that roster together, learning from the best in (Patriots head coach) Bill Belichick. How to practice," he said. "So there's no question that my NFL experience ... will certainly help."
As for concerns about not playing in the postseason for the next four years, O'Brien counters that Penn State plays what equates to six or seven bowl games each year with home contests at massive Beaver Stadium, the second-largest stadium in the country.
Recruiting could also become an even bigger challenge, but O'Brien said he felt "very good" about recruiting. One high-profile high school prospect, cornerback Ross Douglas, has taken back his verbal pledge to commit to Penn State in 2013. Another 2013 recruit, tight end Adam Breneman, has said he's sticking with Penn State.
The recruiting strategy might change given the scholarship decline, but the "philosophy I've brought here does not change ... meaning that we're looking for high-character guys that are good students. We're going to find ways to do that."
O'Brien is also optimistic about keeping his coaching staff together, which includes defensive coordinator Ted Roof, who coached at Auburn when the Tigers won the national championship two seasons ago; and former NFL assistants Stan Hixon and Charles London. Also on the staff are two holdovers from the Paterno era: defensive line coach Larry Johnson and linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden.
As for O'Brien himself, the head coach left no doubt about his loyalties.
"I made a commitment to Penn State. I believe in Penn State," he said. "I feel very close to these kids ... they've been dealt with honestly, openly and again we've got a bunch of guys here that want to succeed and do well on and off the field, and I feel close to them."
NASCAR suspends Allmendinger indefinitely
NASCAR indefinitely suspended driver A.J. Allmendinger on Tuesday after confirming he violated its substance-abuse policy, putting his career and future with Penske Racing in jeopardy.
The suspension came after a test of his backup urine sample confirmed the original positive result.
Allmendinger originally was suspended July 7 after failing a random drug test taken in late June. His backup "B'' urine sample was tested Tuesday by Aegis Analytical Laboratories in Nashville, Tenn.
NASCAR officials announced the result and subsequent suspension Tuesday night.
"While not a pleasant experience by any stretch of the imagination, we feel like we have one of the best drug testing programs in sports," NASCAR spokesman David Higdon said.
Officials did not announce what substance Allmendinger tested positive for. Allmendinger previously said he tested positive for a stimulant, but did not give specifics. He has denied knowingly taking a banned substance.
"This was not the news we wanted to hear and we will work to get to the source of what may have caused this," said Tara Ragan, Allmendinger's business manager, in a statement. "To that end, we have secured the services of an independent lab to conduct thorough testing on every product within AJ's home and motor coach to find what might collaborate with his test, which created results that were within nanograms of accepted standards. We are working closely with NASCAR and Penske Racing to identify the next action steps in this process."
NASCAR officials did not say how far Allmendinger's positive test went beyond a predetermined range of acceptable levels — and as is the case in other sports drug testing programs, officials wouldn't consider it a valid defense if a competitor just barely exceeded acceptable levels of a banned substance.
"We choose not to disclose the level," Higdon said. "To us, a violation is a violation, and that's what happened here."
Given the indefinite nature of his suspension, Allmendinger's only avenue to return to NASCAR is to complete a "road to recovery" program. He will be issued a letter outlining a process for reinstatement, and must agree to the letter to participate in the program.
In a statement, Allmendinger's Penske Racing team acknowledged it had been notified of the test results.
"Penske Racing is very disappointed with the result of the B sample test and will evaluate its course of action as it pertains to AJ over the coming week," the team said.
The team said Sam Hornish Jr. will drive the No. 22 car this weekend at Indianapolis and next weekend at Pocono. Hornish has filled in for Allmendinger in the past two Sprint Cup Series races.
Allmendinger's primary sponsors, Shell and Pennzoil, called NASCAR's process and procedures "appropriate" in a statement.
"We share Penske Racing's disappointment with the result of AJ's B sample test and will work closely with them to determine plans moving forward," the sponsors said. "We hope for the best for AJ during this difficult time."
Speaking to The Associated Press earlier Tuesday, before Allmendinger's B sample results were announced, NASCAR CEO Brian France he is confident in the series' drug testing program that once again came under scrutiny after Allmendinger's original failed test.
"We believe it's a strong testing system that works," France told The Associated Press in London, where the NASCAR executive will speak Wednesday at the Beyond Sports Summit. "We've got the best guy (David Black, Aegis' CEO) running the program, and it's a solid system that we believe does the job intended."
Because Allmendinger has said he tested positive for a stimulant, there has been speculation that it came from a supplement or energy drink consumed by the first-year Penske Racing driver. Allmendinger works out regularly and is known to be health conscious.
He is the second Sprint Cup Series driver suspended under the tightened policy implemented in 2009. Jeremy Mayfield was the first driver, and he unsuccessfully sued to have the results overturned.
NASCAR does not reveal the substance found in a positive test, but court documents showed it was methamphetamine that Mayfield had in his system.
France indicated Tuesday that NASCAR is unlikely to reconsider its policy of not revealing the substance.
Ragan thanked fans for supporting Allmendinger.
"We continue to be extremely grateful by the breadth and scope of support for AJ from his fans and partners," Ragan said. "We would like to again thank NASCAR, Penske Racing and all our sponsor partners for the open communication, and for helping us at every step in this process. We expect to have further updates in the upcoming days."
The suspension came after a test of his backup urine sample confirmed the original positive result.
Allmendinger originally was suspended July 7 after failing a random drug test taken in late June. His backup "B'' urine sample was tested Tuesday by Aegis Analytical Laboratories in Nashville, Tenn.
NASCAR officials announced the result and subsequent suspension Tuesday night.
"While not a pleasant experience by any stretch of the imagination, we feel like we have one of the best drug testing programs in sports," NASCAR spokesman David Higdon said.
Officials did not announce what substance Allmendinger tested positive for. Allmendinger previously said he tested positive for a stimulant, but did not give specifics. He has denied knowingly taking a banned substance.
"This was not the news we wanted to hear and we will work to get to the source of what may have caused this," said Tara Ragan, Allmendinger's business manager, in a statement. "To that end, we have secured the services of an independent lab to conduct thorough testing on every product within AJ's home and motor coach to find what might collaborate with his test, which created results that were within nanograms of accepted standards. We are working closely with NASCAR and Penske Racing to identify the next action steps in this process."
NASCAR officials did not say how far Allmendinger's positive test went beyond a predetermined range of acceptable levels — and as is the case in other sports drug testing programs, officials wouldn't consider it a valid defense if a competitor just barely exceeded acceptable levels of a banned substance.
"We choose not to disclose the level," Higdon said. "To us, a violation is a violation, and that's what happened here."
Given the indefinite nature of his suspension, Allmendinger's only avenue to return to NASCAR is to complete a "road to recovery" program. He will be issued a letter outlining a process for reinstatement, and must agree to the letter to participate in the program.
In a statement, Allmendinger's Penske Racing team acknowledged it had been notified of the test results.
"Penske Racing is very disappointed with the result of the B sample test and will evaluate its course of action as it pertains to AJ over the coming week," the team said.
The team said Sam Hornish Jr. will drive the No. 22 car this weekend at Indianapolis and next weekend at Pocono. Hornish has filled in for Allmendinger in the past two Sprint Cup Series races.
Allmendinger's primary sponsors, Shell and Pennzoil, called NASCAR's process and procedures "appropriate" in a statement.
"We share Penske Racing's disappointment with the result of AJ's B sample test and will work closely with them to determine plans moving forward," the sponsors said. "We hope for the best for AJ during this difficult time."
Speaking to The Associated Press earlier Tuesday, before Allmendinger's B sample results were announced, NASCAR CEO Brian France he is confident in the series' drug testing program that once again came under scrutiny after Allmendinger's original failed test.
"We believe it's a strong testing system that works," France told The Associated Press in London, where the NASCAR executive will speak Wednesday at the Beyond Sports Summit. "We've got the best guy (David Black, Aegis' CEO) running the program, and it's a solid system that we believe does the job intended."
Because Allmendinger has said he tested positive for a stimulant, there has been speculation that it came from a supplement or energy drink consumed by the first-year Penske Racing driver. Allmendinger works out regularly and is known to be health conscious.
He is the second Sprint Cup Series driver suspended under the tightened policy implemented in 2009. Jeremy Mayfield was the first driver, and he unsuccessfully sued to have the results overturned.
NASCAR does not reveal the substance found in a positive test, but court documents showed it was methamphetamine that Mayfield had in his system.
France indicated Tuesday that NASCAR is unlikely to reconsider its policy of not revealing the substance.
Ragan thanked fans for supporting Allmendinger.
"We continue to be extremely grateful by the breadth and scope of support for AJ from his fans and partners," Ragan said. "We would like to again thank NASCAR, Penske Racing and all our sponsor partners for the open communication, and for helping us at every step in this process. We expect to have further updates in the upcoming days."
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Connoisseurs say 'non' to Champagne as English wines sparkle
"I imagine hell like this: Italian punctuality, German humor and English wine." Attributed to actor and writer Peter Ustinov, that gibe has long been the conventional wisdom in Britain -- the world's biggest wine importer.
But these days, a small but growing number of English winemakers are having the last laugh.
The Bolney Estate in West Sussex took home a Gold Outstanding award for its 2007 Blanc de Blancs sparkling wine at this year's International Wine and Spirit Competition. The event attracted nearly 3,000 entrants and the English vineyard scored a coup by winning one of only 12 such distinctions conferred in the wine category.
The judges' tasting notes almost seemed to be a metaphor for the industry itself, praising the wine as "youthfully exuberant and with immense charm" and "perfectly dry, harmonious and polished even at this youthful stage."
Sam Linter, winemaker at The Bolney Estate, recalled how her parents started a small-scale planting in the southern England vineyard in 1972.
Her mother Janet Pratt, a horticulturalist, helped realize the dream of husband Rodney Pratt, who discovered a passion for winemaking while studying in Germany and living with a host family which tended its vineyard on weekends.
Experimental varieties
But the Pratts soon discovered they needed more than love of the land.
"They planted the wrong varieties, did the wrong things, scrapped the vineyard, started again, and then started planting experimental varieties, they could really start learning what would really work well here," Linter told NBCNews.com. "And they worked really hard at that for a few years until they gradually got the knowledge base that we have now in order to plant more."
Linter said that English winemakers' inital toils produced very little wine. "The quality -- it wasn't there in the early days, I think we'd all admit that," she added.
Slowly, they figured it out -- the experimentation produced an award-winning wine in the 1980s, and won over their daughter, who would take over in the next decade. "They actually showed that they could do it, too, and so I suddenly realized there's actually a hidden potential here that needs developing."
NBC News
A 2007 Blanc de Blancs sparking wine grown at The Bolney Estate in southern England, seen here, took home a Gold Outstanding award at this year's International Wine and Spirit Competition.
Linter and her team have been hard at work building on her parents' legacy.
But despite the awards bestowed on Bolney and a handful of other winemakers across England, to many it's still far from mainstream. Marketing English sparkling wines is seen as difficult enough to have featured as one of the challenges designed to stymie contestants Britain's version of "The Apprentice" this season.
For the past year, Londoner Julia Stafford has been working to change that, preaching the gospel of English wine. Her pulpit: a tiny stall in London's bustling foodie haven, Borough Market. Her mission: to show customers that tasting is believing.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld
"If you think about it, we import 1.77 billion bottles of still and sparkling wine every year," she said. "And we're only a tiny little island -- so we appreciate our wines."
English customers, Stafford said, "want to find something to be proud of.”
"What we find over here is, they come in, they taste, they find something they like and they become repeat customers, and we have a really strong, loyal following," she said.
Stafford herself is a convert. She left a career in oil and gas to pursue "more sustainable, energy-efficient businesses." The original plan was to open a completely English-sourced pub in London's Marylebone neighborhood. As part of her research, she turned her attention to the country's wines.
"I didn't actually know anything about English wine at the time. So I basically went on a two-year exploration of the countryside, going around to vineyards. Some of them are so small that they don't even have anybody to man the telephones, they don't have email, and it's almost an inside joke that you sometimes have to send pigeons to get messages to some of the very, very small ones."
NBC News
London's Wine Pantry is believed to be the only outlet to exclusively retail English wines.
It was from her travels and meetings that she "got the English wine bug." When back in London, Stafford said she was able to read about the wineries racking up awards -- but there was one problem.
"There was nowhere actually where you could buy or taste them," she said.
So Stafford changed course, opening up the Wine Pantry -- believed to be the only outlet to exclusively retail English wines.
Her shop is tiny, like the industry itself.
In England, there are only 419 vineyards and about 2,985 acres in production for all types of wine: red, white, still, sparkling. That's three-and-a-half times the size of New York City's Central Park.
In France, in contrast, more than 4,700 winegrowers operate in the Champagne region alone, planting almost 83,000 acres -- the equivalent of planting Manhattan five-and-a-half times over with vines.
About 385 million bottles of bubbly leave Champagne vineyards each year. England produces a fraction of that, with 2.4 million bottles of white and 611,200 bottles of red.
'A very, very good product'
But despite the disparity in the production numbers, many of the vineyards across England have learned from the trial and error. And the grapes of Champagne don't just grow well in their home soil, they've flourished in the cooler climes across the English Channel.
"It's not just Champagne, Champagne, Champagne," according to manager and sommelier team member Mark Cesareo of London’s The Gilbert Scott, the latest offering from Michelin-starred chef Marcus Wareing. "People are starting to realize that ultimately, English sparkling wine is a very, very good product."
The restaurant -- housed within St. Pancras International Station, from where high-speed Eurostar trains zip between London and Paris -- also specializes in British food. Cesareo said that offers an opportunity to showcase England's finest wine along with the cuisine. Sometimes he orders more cases of English sparkling wines than Champagne -- not quite a regular occurrence, but he said he does see an emerging pattern.
"English sparkling wine -- it's about time, especially this year with the [Queen's Diamond] Jubilee, the Olympics, the [royal] wedding that just passed last year. It's the perfect time for it. Now is the time, now is the time," Cesareo declared.
Standing amid her vines, Linter gives credit to the French and the "massive amount of experience" in a country that supplies vines throughout Europe in addition to growing its own lauded stock. "But of course once the vines come over and we've planted them in our soil, they grow in our climate, in our soil; they're trained and looked after by us -- they become English. They've almost got their passport, by being planted in the soil."
But these days, a small but growing number of English winemakers are having the last laugh.
The Bolney Estate in West Sussex took home a Gold Outstanding award for its 2007 Blanc de Blancs sparkling wine at this year's International Wine and Spirit Competition. The event attracted nearly 3,000 entrants and the English vineyard scored a coup by winning one of only 12 such distinctions conferred in the wine category.
The judges' tasting notes almost seemed to be a metaphor for the industry itself, praising the wine as "youthfully exuberant and with immense charm" and "perfectly dry, harmonious and polished even at this youthful stage."
Sam Linter, winemaker at The Bolney Estate, recalled how her parents started a small-scale planting in the southern England vineyard in 1972.
Her mother Janet Pratt, a horticulturalist, helped realize the dream of husband Rodney Pratt, who discovered a passion for winemaking while studying in Germany and living with a host family which tended its vineyard on weekends.
Experimental varieties
But the Pratts soon discovered they needed more than love of the land.
"They planted the wrong varieties, did the wrong things, scrapped the vineyard, started again, and then started planting experimental varieties, they could really start learning what would really work well here," Linter told NBCNews.com. "And they worked really hard at that for a few years until they gradually got the knowledge base that we have now in order to plant more."
Linter said that English winemakers' inital toils produced very little wine. "The quality -- it wasn't there in the early days, I think we'd all admit that," she added.
Slowly, they figured it out -- the experimentation produced an award-winning wine in the 1980s, and won over their daughter, who would take over in the next decade. "They actually showed that they could do it, too, and so I suddenly realized there's actually a hidden potential here that needs developing."
NBC News
A 2007 Blanc de Blancs sparking wine grown at The Bolney Estate in southern England, seen here, took home a Gold Outstanding award at this year's International Wine and Spirit Competition.
Linter and her team have been hard at work building on her parents' legacy.
But despite the awards bestowed on Bolney and a handful of other winemakers across England, to many it's still far from mainstream. Marketing English sparkling wines is seen as difficult enough to have featured as one of the challenges designed to stymie contestants Britain's version of "The Apprentice" this season.
For the past year, Londoner Julia Stafford has been working to change that, preaching the gospel of English wine. Her pulpit: a tiny stall in London's bustling foodie haven, Borough Market. Her mission: to show customers that tasting is believing.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld
"If you think about it, we import 1.77 billion bottles of still and sparkling wine every year," she said. "And we're only a tiny little island -- so we appreciate our wines."
English customers, Stafford said, "want to find something to be proud of.”
"What we find over here is, they come in, they taste, they find something they like and they become repeat customers, and we have a really strong, loyal following," she said.
Stafford herself is a convert. She left a career in oil and gas to pursue "more sustainable, energy-efficient businesses." The original plan was to open a completely English-sourced pub in London's Marylebone neighborhood. As part of her research, she turned her attention to the country's wines.
"I didn't actually know anything about English wine at the time. So I basically went on a two-year exploration of the countryside, going around to vineyards. Some of them are so small that they don't even have anybody to man the telephones, they don't have email, and it's almost an inside joke that you sometimes have to send pigeons to get messages to some of the very, very small ones."
NBC News
London's Wine Pantry is believed to be the only outlet to exclusively retail English wines.
It was from her travels and meetings that she "got the English wine bug." When back in London, Stafford said she was able to read about the wineries racking up awards -- but there was one problem.
"There was nowhere actually where you could buy or taste them," she said.
So Stafford changed course, opening up the Wine Pantry -- believed to be the only outlet to exclusively retail English wines.
Her shop is tiny, like the industry itself.
In England, there are only 419 vineyards and about 2,985 acres in production for all types of wine: red, white, still, sparkling. That's three-and-a-half times the size of New York City's Central Park.
In France, in contrast, more than 4,700 winegrowers operate in the Champagne region alone, planting almost 83,000 acres -- the equivalent of planting Manhattan five-and-a-half times over with vines.
About 385 million bottles of bubbly leave Champagne vineyards each year. England produces a fraction of that, with 2.4 million bottles of white and 611,200 bottles of red.
'A very, very good product'
But despite the disparity in the production numbers, many of the vineyards across England have learned from the trial and error. And the grapes of Champagne don't just grow well in their home soil, they've flourished in the cooler climes across the English Channel.
"It's not just Champagne, Champagne, Champagne," according to manager and sommelier team member Mark Cesareo of London’s The Gilbert Scott, the latest offering from Michelin-starred chef Marcus Wareing. "People are starting to realize that ultimately, English sparkling wine is a very, very good product."
The restaurant -- housed within St. Pancras International Station, from where high-speed Eurostar trains zip between London and Paris -- also specializes in British food. Cesareo said that offers an opportunity to showcase England's finest wine along with the cuisine. Sometimes he orders more cases of English sparkling wines than Champagne -- not quite a regular occurrence, but he said he does see an emerging pattern.
"English sparkling wine -- it's about time, especially this year with the [Queen's Diamond] Jubilee, the Olympics, the [royal] wedding that just passed last year. It's the perfect time for it. Now is the time, now is the time," Cesareo declared.
Standing amid her vines, Linter gives credit to the French and the "massive amount of experience" in a country that supplies vines throughout Europe in addition to growing its own lauded stock. "But of course once the vines come over and we've planted them in our soil, they grow in our climate, in our soil; they're trained and looked after by us -- they become English. They've almost got their passport, by being planted in the soil."
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
NKorea promotes Kim Jong Un to marshal
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been granted the title of marshal, state media reported Wednesday, cementing his status as the authoritarian nation's top military official as he makes key changes to the million-man force.
The decision to award Kim, who already serves as supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, was made Tuesday by the nation's top military, government and political officials, state media said in a special bulletin.
The formal move to bestow the title of marshal to Kim comes seven months into his rule and follows several days of reshuffling at the highest levels of the military.
On Monday, North Korea announced that the chief of the army, Ri Yong Ho, a high-ranking figure in both political and military circles, was dismissed from all posts due to illness. The following day, a little-known general, Hyon Yong Chol, was promoted to vice marshal, one of four named to that position since Kim Jong Un took power.
The dismissal of Ri, who had been promoted to vice marshal in 2010 and had been seen as a mentor to Kim Jong Un, was a surprise to many outside observers.
Kim Jong Un took over as North Korea's leader following the death of his father, longtime leader Kim Jong Il, in December, and has continued to maintain his father's policy of "songun," or military first.
The position of marshal had been left vacant following the death of Kim Jong Il, who posthumously was made grand marshal — the nation's top military title — in February on what would have been his 70th birthday. He had been named marshal 20 years ago when North Korea founder Kim Il Sung was promoted to grand marshal.
Aside from Ri and Hyon, eight other generals hold the post of vice marshal in North Korea.
It remains unclear how the military reshuffle will affect North Korea's tense relationship with its neighbors and the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in ally South Korea.
The decision to award Kim, who already serves as supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, was made Tuesday by the nation's top military, government and political officials, state media said in a special bulletin.
The formal move to bestow the title of marshal to Kim comes seven months into his rule and follows several days of reshuffling at the highest levels of the military.
On Monday, North Korea announced that the chief of the army, Ri Yong Ho, a high-ranking figure in both political and military circles, was dismissed from all posts due to illness. The following day, a little-known general, Hyon Yong Chol, was promoted to vice marshal, one of four named to that position since Kim Jong Un took power.
The dismissal of Ri, who had been promoted to vice marshal in 2010 and had been seen as a mentor to Kim Jong Un, was a surprise to many outside observers.
Kim Jong Un took over as North Korea's leader following the death of his father, longtime leader Kim Jong Il, in December, and has continued to maintain his father's policy of "songun," or military first.
The position of marshal had been left vacant following the death of Kim Jong Il, who posthumously was made grand marshal — the nation's top military title — in February on what would have been his 70th birthday. He had been named marshal 20 years ago when North Korea founder Kim Il Sung was promoted to grand marshal.
Aside from Ri and Hyon, eight other generals hold the post of vice marshal in North Korea.
It remains unclear how the military reshuffle will affect North Korea's tense relationship with its neighbors and the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in ally South Korea.
Religious Israeli lawmaker tears up New Testament
An Israeli lawmaker has torn up a copy of the New Testament in front of cameras in his parliament office.
An aide says Christian missionaries mailed the Christian scripture to Michael Ben-Ari of the ultranationalist National Union Party.
Itamar Ben-Gvir said Ben-Ari, an Orthodox Jew, was enraged to receive the book, in whose name he says millions of Jews were slaughtered. Ben-Ari tore it up, he said, then posed for photographs with the destroyed Bible.
Many Christians over the centuries persecuted Jews, holding them responsible for Jesus' crucifixion.
Government spokesman Mark Regev said, "We totally deplore this behavior and condemn it outright. This action stands in complete contrast to our values and our traditions. Israel is a tolerant society, but we have zero tolerance for this despicable and hateful act."
An aide says Christian missionaries mailed the Christian scripture to Michael Ben-Ari of the ultranationalist National Union Party.
Itamar Ben-Gvir said Ben-Ari, an Orthodox Jew, was enraged to receive the book, in whose name he says millions of Jews were slaughtered. Ben-Ari tore it up, he said, then posed for photographs with the destroyed Bible.
Many Christians over the centuries persecuted Jews, holding them responsible for Jesus' crucifixion.
Government spokesman Mark Regev said, "We totally deplore this behavior and condemn it outright. This action stands in complete contrast to our values and our traditions. Israel is a tolerant society, but we have zero tolerance for this despicable and hateful act."
Obama bracing to be outspent by Romney
Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate to raise more than $100 million in a month and in 2008 was the first to forgo public money for his campaign. Now, he faces the very real threat of being the first president to be outspent by a challenger.
Obama, who four years ago broke just about every fundraising record for a presidential hopeful, has now been forced to look his supporters in the eye and confess he might not keep pace with Republican Mitt Romney. It's a sobering realization for his campaign, which had imagined an unlimited budget for ads, offices and mail.
"I will be the first president in modern history to be outspent in his re-election campaign," Obama wrote to supporters recently.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. Conservatives just two years ago feared Obama would raise and spend a billion dollars in the 2012 campaign. Now, there is a real possibility that Romney and his official partners at the Republican National Committee could overtake Obama in total spending.
How did Obama go from fundraising juggernaut to money chaser in just four years?
In the early days of the 2007 primaries, he used fundraising success to puncture Hillary Rodham Clinton's aura of inevitability. Obama surpassed Clinton's primary fundraising in the first two quarters of that year — $25 million to Clinton's $20 million from January to April, and $31 million to Clinton's $21 million in the three months that followed.
The numbers shocked observers and inspired supporters to give even more to the fresh-faced, first-term senator from Illinois. But now that magic seems elusive.
"They bought into hope and change and they're not getting it. There's some buyers' remorse," said Greg Mueller, a Republican strategist who is a veteran of Pat Buchanan's presidential campaigns.
Then, the potential was so great that Obama became the first modern candidate to bypass the public financing available to presidential candidates, and the spending limits that come with it, since the system was created in 1976 in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
At the same time, Obama shunned independent groups that sought to help his campaign and told supporters not to give to them. In his mind, he simply didn't need them and urged allies to shut down independent efforts to attack rival John McCain. He preferred to level criticism of his choosing, on his own terms.
But two years later, midterm elections yielded defeats for Democrats who lost their majority in the House. Early fundraising reports in 2011 showed the Republican independent groups were awash in cash, and Obama relented. With an economy that hasn't recovered quickly enough for voters, he opted to accept whatever help he can find, giving the go-ahead for outside groups to raise and spend cash on his behalf. His top advisers now are helping the groups he once abhorred, but he sounds unhappy about it.
"In the next four months ... there's going to be more money spent than we've ever seen before. Folks writing $10 million checks to try to beat me, running ads with scary voices," Obama lamented at a fundraiser Tuesday in Texas.
Part of the about-face was fueled by the Republican primaries. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson donated $20 million to an independent group that, for a time, kept former House Speaker Newt Gingrich afloat. Adelson now is backing a pro-Romney group with at least another $10 million.
Like Obama's official campaign and its partners at the Democratic National Committee, outside groups on the Democratic side are at an admitted disadvantage.
"There's no doubt that Romney's campaign and the super PACs supporting him will outspend the president's campaign and the super PACs on our side," said Bill Burton, a former Obama aide who is now running an independent pro-Obama group. "There's more money on the Republican side."
Obama demonized Wall Street bankers and they responded by closing their wallets. He also has called on wealthier Americans to pay more in taxes — hardly an inspiration to donate, his advisers concede. For some of his most liberal supporters, he has not done enough to promote stronger unions or tougher environmental laws.
And, unlike four years ago, Obama is not campaigning as an optimistic vessel of hope and change.
Obama and his allied DNC committees raised $71 million in June, short of Romney's and Republicans' $106 million. Romney's June haul was just the second time in history that an American campaign and its partner committees passed the $100 million mark, and signals the 2012 GOP presidential fundraising could break Obama's 2008 record of $745 million. The reports also mark a second consecutive month Obama trailed his rival.
"We had our best fundraising month yet, and we still fell about $35 million short," campaign chief operating officer Ann Marie Habershaw told supporters in an email that asked for as little as $3 to help.
That's not to say Obama is broke or even certain to be outspent. And if he is, it's unlikely to become a determining factor in the election. While campaigns need money to pay staff, finance travel and buy television ads, money alone does not win elections when both candidates are financially competitive.
From the days when Obama and Romney formally announced their campaigns, Obama and his affiliated party groups have raised $552.5 million, compared with Romney's $394.9 million. The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation broke down the numbers and noted that Romney would need to bring in $39.5 million more than Obama each month to exceed his total.
That leaves a steep climb for Romney, but not an impossible one. Conservatives who were skeptical of Romney now are rallying behind the GOP nominee after a topsy-turvy primary season that saw their favored candidates come up short. Polling shows Republicans eager to vote Obama out of office.
Romney's vice presidential selection in the coming weeks will create additional buzz and likely unleash a fundraising wave for the final months of the campaign.
Never before has an incumbent president failed to outraise a challenger, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog. In Obama's record-setting 2008 campaign, he made history in September by raising $150 million.
Obama, who four years ago broke just about every fundraising record for a presidential hopeful, has now been forced to look his supporters in the eye and confess he might not keep pace with Republican Mitt Romney. It's a sobering realization for his campaign, which had imagined an unlimited budget for ads, offices and mail.
"I will be the first president in modern history to be outspent in his re-election campaign," Obama wrote to supporters recently.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. Conservatives just two years ago feared Obama would raise and spend a billion dollars in the 2012 campaign. Now, there is a real possibility that Romney and his official partners at the Republican National Committee could overtake Obama in total spending.
How did Obama go from fundraising juggernaut to money chaser in just four years?
In the early days of the 2007 primaries, he used fundraising success to puncture Hillary Rodham Clinton's aura of inevitability. Obama surpassed Clinton's primary fundraising in the first two quarters of that year — $25 million to Clinton's $20 million from January to April, and $31 million to Clinton's $21 million in the three months that followed.
The numbers shocked observers and inspired supporters to give even more to the fresh-faced, first-term senator from Illinois. But now that magic seems elusive.
"They bought into hope and change and they're not getting it. There's some buyers' remorse," said Greg Mueller, a Republican strategist who is a veteran of Pat Buchanan's presidential campaigns.
Then, the potential was so great that Obama became the first modern candidate to bypass the public financing available to presidential candidates, and the spending limits that come with it, since the system was created in 1976 in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
At the same time, Obama shunned independent groups that sought to help his campaign and told supporters not to give to them. In his mind, he simply didn't need them and urged allies to shut down independent efforts to attack rival John McCain. He preferred to level criticism of his choosing, on his own terms.
But two years later, midterm elections yielded defeats for Democrats who lost their majority in the House. Early fundraising reports in 2011 showed the Republican independent groups were awash in cash, and Obama relented. With an economy that hasn't recovered quickly enough for voters, he opted to accept whatever help he can find, giving the go-ahead for outside groups to raise and spend cash on his behalf. His top advisers now are helping the groups he once abhorred, but he sounds unhappy about it.
"In the next four months ... there's going to be more money spent than we've ever seen before. Folks writing $10 million checks to try to beat me, running ads with scary voices," Obama lamented at a fundraiser Tuesday in Texas.
Part of the about-face was fueled by the Republican primaries. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson donated $20 million to an independent group that, for a time, kept former House Speaker Newt Gingrich afloat. Adelson now is backing a pro-Romney group with at least another $10 million.
Like Obama's official campaign and its partners at the Democratic National Committee, outside groups on the Democratic side are at an admitted disadvantage.
"There's no doubt that Romney's campaign and the super PACs supporting him will outspend the president's campaign and the super PACs on our side," said Bill Burton, a former Obama aide who is now running an independent pro-Obama group. "There's more money on the Republican side."
Obama demonized Wall Street bankers and they responded by closing their wallets. He also has called on wealthier Americans to pay more in taxes — hardly an inspiration to donate, his advisers concede. For some of his most liberal supporters, he has not done enough to promote stronger unions or tougher environmental laws.
And, unlike four years ago, Obama is not campaigning as an optimistic vessel of hope and change.
Obama and his allied DNC committees raised $71 million in June, short of Romney's and Republicans' $106 million. Romney's June haul was just the second time in history that an American campaign and its partner committees passed the $100 million mark, and signals the 2012 GOP presidential fundraising could break Obama's 2008 record of $745 million. The reports also mark a second consecutive month Obama trailed his rival.
"We had our best fundraising month yet, and we still fell about $35 million short," campaign chief operating officer Ann Marie Habershaw told supporters in an email that asked for as little as $3 to help.
That's not to say Obama is broke or even certain to be outspent. And if he is, it's unlikely to become a determining factor in the election. While campaigns need money to pay staff, finance travel and buy television ads, money alone does not win elections when both candidates are financially competitive.
From the days when Obama and Romney formally announced their campaigns, Obama and his affiliated party groups have raised $552.5 million, compared with Romney's $394.9 million. The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation broke down the numbers and noted that Romney would need to bring in $39.5 million more than Obama each month to exceed his total.
That leaves a steep climb for Romney, but not an impossible one. Conservatives who were skeptical of Romney now are rallying behind the GOP nominee after a topsy-turvy primary season that saw their favored candidates come up short. Polling shows Republicans eager to vote Obama out of office.
Romney's vice presidential selection in the coming weeks will create additional buzz and likely unleash a fundraising wave for the final months of the campaign.
Never before has an incumbent president failed to outraise a challenger, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog. In Obama's record-setting 2008 campaign, he made history in September by raising $150 million.
Minor head injury leads to life-saving discovery
The 9-year-old Fairland, Ind. boy was struck in the head on July 4 while playing the children's game.
When he began to vomit and have severe headaches days later, his parents took him to a hospital where doctors made an alarming discovery, reports WRTV-TV in Indianapolis.
While there was no trauma from being hit, tests revealed a golf ball-sized mass in Jacob's brain.
Doctors were able to remove most of the mass but a small piece remains, wrapped around a nerve, the television station reports.
"(I had surgery) in my brain, so I can feel better," Jacob told the station.
Doctors suspect the mass is benign, but Jacob will likely undergo chemotherapy to prevent the remaining piece from causing problems.
"The doctor told us this is something he's probably had for a while. If he hadn't got hit in the head, who knows what would have happened," Stacy Hamilton, Jacob's mother said.
When he began to vomit and have severe headaches days later, his parents took him to a hospital where doctors made an alarming discovery, reports WRTV-TV in Indianapolis.
While there was no trauma from being hit, tests revealed a golf ball-sized mass in Jacob's brain.
Doctors were able to remove most of the mass but a small piece remains, wrapped around a nerve, the television station reports.
"(I had surgery) in my brain, so I can feel better," Jacob told the station.
Doctors suspect the mass is benign, but Jacob will likely undergo chemotherapy to prevent the remaining piece from causing problems.
"The doctor told us this is something he's probably had for a while. If he hadn't got hit in the head, who knows what would have happened," Stacy Hamilton, Jacob's mother said.
Monday, July 16, 2012
We're No. 1! We're No. 1! We're ... uh ... not?
In the opening scene of the new Aaron Sorkin show, "The Newsroom," a news anchor goes on a tirade when asked why "America is the greatest country in the world."
"It's not the greatest country in the world," he fumes. "We're seventh in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, No. 4 in labor force, and No. 4 in exports. ... So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don't know what the f*** you're talking about."
It's another slab of "Network"-esque bravado from Sorkin -- the creator of "The West Wing" -- but the point is well taken, even if his statistics could be a bit off. By a number of objective measures, America is not No. 1.
Good luck in saying that aloud, however. Forget Social Security. The third rail of American politics is acknowledging we may not be the greatest country in the world.
"If you can think of a politician who can say consistently 'We're not No. 1; we're not No. 1,' then I'd be very surprised," says Melvyn Levitsky, a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer and former ambassador to Brazil.
It's not like acknowledging flaws is the same as acknowledging failure. The business sector seldom rests on its laurels. Successful companies assume there's room for improvement, and they'll put themselves through ISO 9000, Six Sigma, benchmarking, best practices and any number of other assessment programs to get there. (Some sectors of government -- which is often unfavorably compared to business by critics -- do that, too, but it doesn't grab anyone's attention unless its Vice President Al Gore illustrating his '90s "Reinventing Government" initiative by smashing an ashtray on the David Letterman show.)
If businesses don't evolve, they end up like Atari, Pan Am and Woolworth's, onetime industry leaders that crashed against the rocks of strategy, innovation and competition. So the successful ones aren't shy about borrowing good ideas from others.
Then why is it so hard for the United States to admit its shortcomings and do the same?
Craig Wheeland, a political scientist at Villanova, believes it has something to do with America's innate wariness of government.
"We have a peculiar set of approaches to how government should act in our economy and in our society," he says. "That creates a barrier to looking at best practices and borrowing ideas. The business world doesn't think like that. They look at ideas that seem to solve problems and test them out, and if they don't work, they change. They're more pragmatic."
Former Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis is blunter. He describes the problem in one word: Hubris.
"Some interest in what's happening elsewhere and how other people are doing this would benefit us enormously," he says. "I think a little less hubris and a little more focus ... would do us a lot of good."
But Gerry Keim, a management professor at Arizona State University, isn't quite so harsh.
"We're not exceptional in all categories, [but] we're clearly exceptional in some categories, and I think we should be proud of that," he says, mentioning America's entrepreneurial spirit as an example.
However, he adds, "There are other areas [in which] one could learn a lot from other countries."
In that vein, here are a few lessons the U.S. may draw from leaders in the rest of the world.
Health care: What the doctor ordered
It took almost two years, hundreds if not thousands of meetings and reams of pages to produce the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. After all that, almost nobody was happy with it; it was criticized as going too far, not going far enough, too complex and too much. The Supreme Court upheld the law on Thursday, but it still faces headwinds from critics and a skeptical public.
Japan's health care system is known for its relatively low costs and commitment to primary care.
Nevertheless, virtually everybody agrees that the United States has a health care problem. Almost 50 million Americans are without insurance, creating a burden on hospital emergency rooms and forcing people who need services into deep debt. Too few take advantage of primary care.
And it's costing a fortune: In 2011, the United States spent 18% of its gross domestic product on health, much more than its allies.
Contrast those figures with Japan. The Asian country of 125 million spent just 8.5% of its GDP on healthcare in 2009, among the best figures in the developed world. Yet, despite lower costs, it's No. 3 on the list of life expectancies (behind tiny Monaco and Macau) and 220th (out of 221) in infant mortality, according to the CIA Factbook. The United States ranks 50th in life expectancy and 173rd in infant mortality.
What's so special about Japan?
Sabine Fruhstuck, a professor of modern Japan at the University of California-Santa Barbara, attributes some of the system's success to Japanese ideals.
"The social contract is very different," she says. "There's an expectation and a commitment by the state to the welfare of the people."
In the United States, she observes, there's an emphasis on personal choice; in Japan, there's a more sympathetic relationship between the individual and the state.
Like the U.S. system, the Japanese arrangement is a combination of public and private. Insurance is mandatory, and citizens who can't afford the premiums are assisted by the government. The majority of hospitals are private, as are medical practices. Patients can pick their doctors and hospitals. Patients are not shy about using the system; a 2009 Washington Post article reported that Japanese citizens visit a doctor 14 times a year.
Nor are doctors shy about seeing patients, since they receive a payment for each visit. That's one of the system's flaws, says political science professor T.J. Pempel, a former director of UC-Berkeley's Institute for Asian Studies.
"Doctors have every incentive to move people through quickly," he says. "So you can get the feeling you're part of an assembly line."
The Japanese system doesn't pay for childbirth, nor does it cover cosmetic surgery. The system also has suffered from issues with Japan's aging population. The elderly consume more medical care than the young, and Japan's society hasn't added enough young workers to support retirees. Like other industrialized countries, it's struggling to keep costs under control.
However, the government is particularly committed to care throughout life, whether it's prenatal care or employee health, Pempel says. Pregnant women are given a wealth of information; many corporations, because they have a stake in the system, have clinics on site.
"There's a lot of [primary care], and it's covered. There's strong encouragement to go into a clinic at the first sign of problems," he says.
What's important to you?
The OECD has an interactive chart, the Better Life Index, on its website that allows visitors to compare countries across a variety of topics. How do countries perform on areas you care about? Visit the site and find out.
Indeed, the U.S. individualist tradition in health care generally runs counter to the rest of the industrialized world. Free-marketers like to point to the Swiss system, in which individuals buy their own insurance. But it, too, has a mandate. Many countries have cost controls in place, some more extreme than others. And the culture of the citizenry -- whether it's regarding diet, abortion, gun control, child and elder care traditions or personal responsibility -- can't help but play a role.
In the case of health care, Fruhstuck says, there's something to be said for group accountability.
"In Japan, there's attention to harmony, and the sense that everybody is responsible for everybody," she says. "The way you are has an impact on everybody around you, so you think about your behavior."
Education: Teach to the best
Today, Finland is regularly ranked as having one of the best-performing education systems in the world. The country's literacy rate is tops, its math proficiency second, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an international trade group. Students from elementary through high school are among the world's best in test scores.
A generation ago, that wasn't the case. In the 1970s, Finland's schools were among the worst in the developed world.
What changed?
The problem was attacked on all sides, says Pasi Sahlberg, a former official in Finland's education ministry.
The country invested heavily in teacher education, requiring master's degree-based, five-year qualifications instead of three-year bachelor's degrees. Child poverty was addressed with meals, health care, dental care and counseling -- all free of charge for children. Finally, the system pursued what Sahlberg calls "intelligent accountability" that combines standardized testing with teacher assessment and school self-inspection -- with an emphasis on the teachers, not the tests.
Where did they get their ideas? Actually, they got a lot of them from the United States.
Teaching is highly respected in Finland, and requires several years of training and ongoing education.
"Within your 15,000 districts and 100,000 schools you have probably all the educational innovation that anybody needs to build good schools or well-performing districts," he says. "The Finnish education system owes a lot to these American ideas."
And yet Americans are forever lamenting the state of their schools. As Diane Ravitch, education historian and former assistant secretary of education to President George H.W. Bush, points out, we've been fretting about the American system and looking enviously over our shoulders for decades, whether it's to Germany, England, the former Soviet Union, Japan or China.
"We have this narrative that we're failing, failing, failing. The rest of the world would like to be like us, and we're saying, 'What's wrong with us? We're so terrible.' It must be some kind of American inferiority complex," she says.
Yes, of course there are schools with problems. Some districts have been damaged by cheating scandals, others suffer from poor facilities. The battle to improve test scores, led by federal programs such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, has provoked criticism (including Ravitch's). Some officials want to give more money to charter schools at the expense of the public system or offer "school choice" through vouchers.
Finland, which is small, homogenous and has less income inequality between rich and poor, managed to completely remake its structure. Is that possible in the polyglot, poverty-pocked United States?
It's already happening. West Virginia has instituted some of Finland's ideas -- some of which, of course, originated in the United States. Sahlberg believes they can work throughout the country, but they have to start with respect and training for the teacher.
"I think there is far too much loose rhetoric criticizing public school systems and blaming teachers in the U.S. that has no ground," he says. Finland has such respect for teachers that the job is now seen as being "on par with other academic positions, such as lawyers and doctors," he says. But it's because the country invested in the profession and continues to do so.
Ravitch adds that society has to join in. "There's a youth culture that's very disobedient, and the laws are such that it's very hard to maintain any kind of standard of discipline, and everybody blames the teachers," she says. "But it's kind of a vicious circle, because you have a lot of parents who are not particularly responsible either. The most common complaint at schools is if there's a parent night, there are many schools where nobody shows up."
Business: Making the sale
Perhaps surprisingly for a country that prides itself on its ability to do business, the United States does not lead the world in several indices of commerce. The International Finance Corporation and the World Bank ranked 183 countries in 11 areas; the United States didn't finish first in any of them, ending up fourth behind Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand in ease of doing business, 20th in trade across borders, and a dismal 72nd in paying taxes.
New Zealand, in fact, ranks highly in several areas. It's No. 1 in the world for starting a business, protecting investors and incorruptibility. The World Bank list placed it No. 3 overall. On last year's Forbes list of best countries for business, it was No. 2, behind Canada. The United States was 10th.
Richard Laverty with the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise office attributes the country's status to its aggressiveness in addressing business needs, though not at the expense of what makes the country special.
Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson made his "Lord of the Rings" movies in his native New Zealand.
"We're a small country. We need all the help we can get," he says. But, he adds more seriously, New Zealand has a "regulatory regime that's simple and transparent and applies across the country."
There's some need for investment. The country's economy is highly reliant on natural resources and not exactly an entrepreneurial center, especially compared to another small country like Israel, which is known for its trailblazing high-tech and pharmaceutical industries.
In recent years, New Zealand has become a filmmaking hotbed and has a growing high-tech sector, thanks to one of its leading citizens, "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson. Director James Cameron bought a place there and plans to get going on "Avatar's" sequels; investor Peter Thiel, a big supporter of entrepreneurship, established a venture capital fund.
If New Zealand's small scale makes it challenging for the United States to emulate -- the country has more sheep than humans and, says Laverty, operates by "two degrees of separation" instead of six -- there's another country that may be more comparable, despite stark differences: Germany.
Not only has it been the world's leading exporter for several years in the past decade, it does so with a heavily unionized, relatively expensive labor force that gets six weeks of vacation a year and works a slightly shorter week than U.S. workers.
The Germans succeed by investing in their people from an early age, says Arizona State's Gerry Keim. A student from a German business school will likely speak three languages and have spent two semesters at two different partner schools outside of Germany.
"When they graduate, they'll be your competitor," he tells his students. "In terms of doing business globally, who do you think will have the advantage?"
His students, many of whom have never traveled outside the United States, are shocked, he says.
"They've never heard anyone raise these questions before," he says.
Germany can compete, despite its more generous benefits, because it has leaders who are knowledgeable about global markets. "They go to these other places and they're sponges," he says.
Americans, on the other hand, focus on what's different about other countries and why they're not more like the United States, Keim says. That provincial attitude frustrates him to no end.
"When you live in a country where if you can speak a foreign language it costs you points in an election poll, I wonder about the whole idea of American exceptionalism," he says.
The individual and the community
Can these success stories work for the United States? Other countries are more homogenous and have traditions of top-down government and higher taxes. The American Experiment arose out of something messier.
Throughout its history, the United States has balanced uneasily between honoring the group and venerating the individual. Thanks to the ongoing economic crisis, the issue has once again come to the fore. Why should we fund mass transit, some people ask, when 95% of American households own a car? Why should we invest in public schools when 1 out of every 10 students goes to a private institution?
Back and forth the debate goes.
If we wanted to follow the path of other countries, it wouldn't just take effort and money. It might take something even harder to put a price on, a soul-searching sense of what America is, which is at the very heart of the debate over "American exceptionalism."
Given the country's polarization, it's not an issue that will be settled easily, says Villanova's Wheeland.
"I see ideology as a driving force in national politics now," he says. "It seems the way to mobilize your core constituency in order to get them out in primaries and ultimately turn out in a general election. In American politics now, you have legislative institutions that are really drawn or created in a way to filter out people of more pragmatic, more centrist, more moderate, more problem-solving approaches, and you get the most ideologically oriented people elected today."
However, he observes, America is still creative, still willing to take risks. Levitsky, the former ambassador, notes that the reach of American culture is unparalleled.
Germany was the world's leading exporter for several years in the 2000s -- ahead of both the U.S. and China.
Dukakis says "we have a degree of freedom other countries envy." They're strengths that foreign observers -- even if their countries are ahead of the United States in one area or another -- still look at with respect.
"One of the things Kiwis really admire is Americans' entrepreneurial attitude," says New Zealand's Laverty. "I think that there's a greater appetite for risk and a greater acceptance of failure in the U.S. There's a cultural, go-at-it, you-can-do-it nature that we admire."
Wheeland agrees -- but hopes we're able to do more.
"Our political culture is one that almost celebrates the individual's ability to start over, and we take great pride in that," he says. "I think we just lose sight sometimes of the common good -- what helps us all as a community do better."
"It's not the greatest country in the world," he fumes. "We're seventh in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, No. 4 in labor force, and No. 4 in exports. ... So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don't know what the f*** you're talking about."
It's another slab of "Network"-esque bravado from Sorkin -- the creator of "The West Wing" -- but the point is well taken, even if his statistics could be a bit off. By a number of objective measures, America is not No. 1.
Good luck in saying that aloud, however. Forget Social Security. The third rail of American politics is acknowledging we may not be the greatest country in the world.
"If you can think of a politician who can say consistently 'We're not No. 1; we're not No. 1,' then I'd be very surprised," says Melvyn Levitsky, a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer and former ambassador to Brazil.
It's not like acknowledging flaws is the same as acknowledging failure. The business sector seldom rests on its laurels. Successful companies assume there's room for improvement, and they'll put themselves through ISO 9000, Six Sigma, benchmarking, best practices and any number of other assessment programs to get there. (Some sectors of government -- which is often unfavorably compared to business by critics -- do that, too, but it doesn't grab anyone's attention unless its Vice President Al Gore illustrating his '90s "Reinventing Government" initiative by smashing an ashtray on the David Letterman show.)
If businesses don't evolve, they end up like Atari, Pan Am and Woolworth's, onetime industry leaders that crashed against the rocks of strategy, innovation and competition. So the successful ones aren't shy about borrowing good ideas from others.
Then why is it so hard for the United States to admit its shortcomings and do the same?
Craig Wheeland, a political scientist at Villanova, believes it has something to do with America's innate wariness of government.
"We have a peculiar set of approaches to how government should act in our economy and in our society," he says. "That creates a barrier to looking at best practices and borrowing ideas. The business world doesn't think like that. They look at ideas that seem to solve problems and test them out, and if they don't work, they change. They're more pragmatic."
Former Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis is blunter. He describes the problem in one word: Hubris.
"Some interest in what's happening elsewhere and how other people are doing this would benefit us enormously," he says. "I think a little less hubris and a little more focus ... would do us a lot of good."
But Gerry Keim, a management professor at Arizona State University, isn't quite so harsh.
"We're not exceptional in all categories, [but] we're clearly exceptional in some categories, and I think we should be proud of that," he says, mentioning America's entrepreneurial spirit as an example.
However, he adds, "There are other areas [in which] one could learn a lot from other countries."
In that vein, here are a few lessons the U.S. may draw from leaders in the rest of the world.
Health care: What the doctor ordered
It took almost two years, hundreds if not thousands of meetings and reams of pages to produce the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. After all that, almost nobody was happy with it; it was criticized as going too far, not going far enough, too complex and too much. The Supreme Court upheld the law on Thursday, but it still faces headwinds from critics and a skeptical public.
Japan's health care system is known for its relatively low costs and commitment to primary care.
Nevertheless, virtually everybody agrees that the United States has a health care problem. Almost 50 million Americans are without insurance, creating a burden on hospital emergency rooms and forcing people who need services into deep debt. Too few take advantage of primary care.
And it's costing a fortune: In 2011, the United States spent 18% of its gross domestic product on health, much more than its allies.
Contrast those figures with Japan. The Asian country of 125 million spent just 8.5% of its GDP on healthcare in 2009, among the best figures in the developed world. Yet, despite lower costs, it's No. 3 on the list of life expectancies (behind tiny Monaco and Macau) and 220th (out of 221) in infant mortality, according to the CIA Factbook. The United States ranks 50th in life expectancy and 173rd in infant mortality.
What's so special about Japan?
Sabine Fruhstuck, a professor of modern Japan at the University of California-Santa Barbara, attributes some of the system's success to Japanese ideals.
"The social contract is very different," she says. "There's an expectation and a commitment by the state to the welfare of the people."
In the United States, she observes, there's an emphasis on personal choice; in Japan, there's a more sympathetic relationship between the individual and the state.
Like the U.S. system, the Japanese arrangement is a combination of public and private. Insurance is mandatory, and citizens who can't afford the premiums are assisted by the government. The majority of hospitals are private, as are medical practices. Patients can pick their doctors and hospitals. Patients are not shy about using the system; a 2009 Washington Post article reported that Japanese citizens visit a doctor 14 times a year.
Nor are doctors shy about seeing patients, since they receive a payment for each visit. That's one of the system's flaws, says political science professor T.J. Pempel, a former director of UC-Berkeley's Institute for Asian Studies.
"Doctors have every incentive to move people through quickly," he says. "So you can get the feeling you're part of an assembly line."
The Japanese system doesn't pay for childbirth, nor does it cover cosmetic surgery. The system also has suffered from issues with Japan's aging population. The elderly consume more medical care than the young, and Japan's society hasn't added enough young workers to support retirees. Like other industrialized countries, it's struggling to keep costs under control.
However, the government is particularly committed to care throughout life, whether it's prenatal care or employee health, Pempel says. Pregnant women are given a wealth of information; many corporations, because they have a stake in the system, have clinics on site.
"There's a lot of [primary care], and it's covered. There's strong encouragement to go into a clinic at the first sign of problems," he says.
What's important to you?
The OECD has an interactive chart, the Better Life Index, on its website that allows visitors to compare countries across a variety of topics. How do countries perform on areas you care about? Visit the site and find out.
Indeed, the U.S. individualist tradition in health care generally runs counter to the rest of the industrialized world. Free-marketers like to point to the Swiss system, in which individuals buy their own insurance. But it, too, has a mandate. Many countries have cost controls in place, some more extreme than others. And the culture of the citizenry -- whether it's regarding diet, abortion, gun control, child and elder care traditions or personal responsibility -- can't help but play a role.
In the case of health care, Fruhstuck says, there's something to be said for group accountability.
"In Japan, there's attention to harmony, and the sense that everybody is responsible for everybody," she says. "The way you are has an impact on everybody around you, so you think about your behavior."
Education: Teach to the best
Today, Finland is regularly ranked as having one of the best-performing education systems in the world. The country's literacy rate is tops, its math proficiency second, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an international trade group. Students from elementary through high school are among the world's best in test scores.
A generation ago, that wasn't the case. In the 1970s, Finland's schools were among the worst in the developed world.
What changed?
The problem was attacked on all sides, says Pasi Sahlberg, a former official in Finland's education ministry.
The country invested heavily in teacher education, requiring master's degree-based, five-year qualifications instead of three-year bachelor's degrees. Child poverty was addressed with meals, health care, dental care and counseling -- all free of charge for children. Finally, the system pursued what Sahlberg calls "intelligent accountability" that combines standardized testing with teacher assessment and school self-inspection -- with an emphasis on the teachers, not the tests.
Where did they get their ideas? Actually, they got a lot of them from the United States.
Teaching is highly respected in Finland, and requires several years of training and ongoing education.
"Within your 15,000 districts and 100,000 schools you have probably all the educational innovation that anybody needs to build good schools or well-performing districts," he says. "The Finnish education system owes a lot to these American ideas."
And yet Americans are forever lamenting the state of their schools. As Diane Ravitch, education historian and former assistant secretary of education to President George H.W. Bush, points out, we've been fretting about the American system and looking enviously over our shoulders for decades, whether it's to Germany, England, the former Soviet Union, Japan or China.
"We have this narrative that we're failing, failing, failing. The rest of the world would like to be like us, and we're saying, 'What's wrong with us? We're so terrible.' It must be some kind of American inferiority complex," she says.
Yes, of course there are schools with problems. Some districts have been damaged by cheating scandals, others suffer from poor facilities. The battle to improve test scores, led by federal programs such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, has provoked criticism (including Ravitch's). Some officials want to give more money to charter schools at the expense of the public system or offer "school choice" through vouchers.
Finland, which is small, homogenous and has less income inequality between rich and poor, managed to completely remake its structure. Is that possible in the polyglot, poverty-pocked United States?
It's already happening. West Virginia has instituted some of Finland's ideas -- some of which, of course, originated in the United States. Sahlberg believes they can work throughout the country, but they have to start with respect and training for the teacher.
"I think there is far too much loose rhetoric criticizing public school systems and blaming teachers in the U.S. that has no ground," he says. Finland has such respect for teachers that the job is now seen as being "on par with other academic positions, such as lawyers and doctors," he says. But it's because the country invested in the profession and continues to do so.
Ravitch adds that society has to join in. "There's a youth culture that's very disobedient, and the laws are such that it's very hard to maintain any kind of standard of discipline, and everybody blames the teachers," she says. "But it's kind of a vicious circle, because you have a lot of parents who are not particularly responsible either. The most common complaint at schools is if there's a parent night, there are many schools where nobody shows up."
Business: Making the sale
Perhaps surprisingly for a country that prides itself on its ability to do business, the United States does not lead the world in several indices of commerce. The International Finance Corporation and the World Bank ranked 183 countries in 11 areas; the United States didn't finish first in any of them, ending up fourth behind Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand in ease of doing business, 20th in trade across borders, and a dismal 72nd in paying taxes.
New Zealand, in fact, ranks highly in several areas. It's No. 1 in the world for starting a business, protecting investors and incorruptibility. The World Bank list placed it No. 3 overall. On last year's Forbes list of best countries for business, it was No. 2, behind Canada. The United States was 10th.
Richard Laverty with the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise office attributes the country's status to its aggressiveness in addressing business needs, though not at the expense of what makes the country special.
Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson made his "Lord of the Rings" movies in his native New Zealand.
"We're a small country. We need all the help we can get," he says. But, he adds more seriously, New Zealand has a "regulatory regime that's simple and transparent and applies across the country."
There's some need for investment. The country's economy is highly reliant on natural resources and not exactly an entrepreneurial center, especially compared to another small country like Israel, which is known for its trailblazing high-tech and pharmaceutical industries.
In recent years, New Zealand has become a filmmaking hotbed and has a growing high-tech sector, thanks to one of its leading citizens, "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson. Director James Cameron bought a place there and plans to get going on "Avatar's" sequels; investor Peter Thiel, a big supporter of entrepreneurship, established a venture capital fund.
If New Zealand's small scale makes it challenging for the United States to emulate -- the country has more sheep than humans and, says Laverty, operates by "two degrees of separation" instead of six -- there's another country that may be more comparable, despite stark differences: Germany.
Not only has it been the world's leading exporter for several years in the past decade, it does so with a heavily unionized, relatively expensive labor force that gets six weeks of vacation a year and works a slightly shorter week than U.S. workers.
The Germans succeed by investing in their people from an early age, says Arizona State's Gerry Keim. A student from a German business school will likely speak three languages and have spent two semesters at two different partner schools outside of Germany.
"When they graduate, they'll be your competitor," he tells his students. "In terms of doing business globally, who do you think will have the advantage?"
His students, many of whom have never traveled outside the United States, are shocked, he says.
"They've never heard anyone raise these questions before," he says.
Germany can compete, despite its more generous benefits, because it has leaders who are knowledgeable about global markets. "They go to these other places and they're sponges," he says.
Americans, on the other hand, focus on what's different about other countries and why they're not more like the United States, Keim says. That provincial attitude frustrates him to no end.
"When you live in a country where if you can speak a foreign language it costs you points in an election poll, I wonder about the whole idea of American exceptionalism," he says.
The individual and the community
Can these success stories work for the United States? Other countries are more homogenous and have traditions of top-down government and higher taxes. The American Experiment arose out of something messier.
Throughout its history, the United States has balanced uneasily between honoring the group and venerating the individual. Thanks to the ongoing economic crisis, the issue has once again come to the fore. Why should we fund mass transit, some people ask, when 95% of American households own a car? Why should we invest in public schools when 1 out of every 10 students goes to a private institution?
Back and forth the debate goes.
If we wanted to follow the path of other countries, it wouldn't just take effort and money. It might take something even harder to put a price on, a soul-searching sense of what America is, which is at the very heart of the debate over "American exceptionalism."
Given the country's polarization, it's not an issue that will be settled easily, says Villanova's Wheeland.
"I see ideology as a driving force in national politics now," he says. "It seems the way to mobilize your core constituency in order to get them out in primaries and ultimately turn out in a general election. In American politics now, you have legislative institutions that are really drawn or created in a way to filter out people of more pragmatic, more centrist, more moderate, more problem-solving approaches, and you get the most ideologically oriented people elected today."
However, he observes, America is still creative, still willing to take risks. Levitsky, the former ambassador, notes that the reach of American culture is unparalleled.
Germany was the world's leading exporter for several years in the 2000s -- ahead of both the U.S. and China.
Dukakis says "we have a degree of freedom other countries envy." They're strengths that foreign observers -- even if their countries are ahead of the United States in one area or another -- still look at with respect.
"One of the things Kiwis really admire is Americans' entrepreneurial attitude," says New Zealand's Laverty. "I think that there's a greater appetite for risk and a greater acceptance of failure in the U.S. There's a cultural, go-at-it, you-can-do-it nature that we admire."
Wheeland agrees -- but hopes we're able to do more.
"Our political culture is one that almost celebrates the individual's ability to start over, and we take great pride in that," he says. "I think we just lose sight sometimes of the common good -- what helps us all as a community do better."
The woman who stood up to Joe Paterno
Vicky Triponey knows all too well the power Penn State's late football coach, Joe Paterno, held for more than half a century over the insular slice of central Pennsylvania that calls itself Happy Valley.
She experienced firsthand the clubby, jock-snapping culture, the sense of entitlement, the cloistered existence. It's what drove her five years ago from her job as the vice president who oversaw student discipline.
She was told she was too aggressive, too confrontational, that she wasn't fitting in with "the Penn State way."
She clashed often with Paterno over who should discipline football players when they got into trouble. The conflict with such an iconic figure made her very unpopular around campus. For a while, it cost Triponey her peace of mind and her good name. It almost ended her 30-year academic career.
Another person might have felt vindicated, smug or self-righteous when former FBI Director Louis Freeh delivered the scathing report on his eight-month investigation of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal. But Triponey sensed only a deep sadness.
Photos: Paterno as Penn State coach
Penn State students take to the streets
The inquiry, commissioned by the board of trustees, exposed how the personal failings of Paterno and three other Penn State leaders -- along with the university's football-first culture -- empowered an assistant football coach who molested fatherless boys for more than a decade.
"There's no joy," Triponey told CNN as she sat down for an interview Friday, the day after the Freeh report was released. She said she found solace in the public recognition of Penn State's "culture of reverence for the football program," as the report phrased it, and that it is "ingrained at all levels of the campus community." Freeh found that the culture contributed to the Sandusky scandal.
Penn State community still admires Paterno, wants to move forward
She agrees with Freeh's suggestion that the university's trustees lead an effort to "vigorously examine and understand" Penn State's culture, why it's so resistant to outside perspectives and why it places such an "excessive focus on athletics."
"It's comforting to know that others can now understand," Triponey said. "It didn't have to happen this way."
Her former boss at Wichita State University described Triponey as "a dedicated, ethical professional" who was devastated by her experience at Penn State.
"Vicky knew that she had attempted to do the right thing in disciplining the football players, but she was unable to do so in the Penn State environment," said Gene Hughes, a president emeritus at Wichita State and Northern Arizona University.
At Penn State, Triponey was among the few who stood up to Paterno, the legendary "JoePa" who for 61 years was synonymous with a football program that pumped millions of dollars into Penn State. And she paid dearly for it. At the end, nobody at the top backed her. And it didn't seem to matter to anyone whether she was right, or even if she had a point.
Bowden: Paterno statue should go PSU victims' attorney: Report devastating Jay Paterno: Freeh report is not the end Buzz Bissinger on Joe Paterno
At the heart of the problem, the Freeh report stated, were university leaders eager to please Paterno above all else, a rubber-stamp board of trustees, a president who discouraged dissent and an administration that was preoccupied with appearances and spin.
Triponey has been saying that since 2005.
Sandusky, as the mastermind of college football's legendary "Linebacker U," enjoyed insider status and used Penn State's sporting events and athletic facilities to lure victims even after he retired in 1999. When he was indicted and arrested in November, the report said, Sandusky still had his keys to the Penn State locker room.
Triponey, a slim blonde who dresses preppie and carries herself with the reserve of an academic lifer, was always an outsider at Penn State, even though she grew up in central Pennsylvania. She was not involved in the Sandusky matter; she says she never met him. But she is keenly aware of the campus culture that allowed him to prey on boys for years, virtually unchecked.
"The culture is deep," she said. "The culture is making decisions based on how others will react, not based on what's right and wrong." It focused on the interests of those at "the top of the chain," she added. "Others at the bottom didn't matter."
Triponey was just one of the 430 witnesses who spoke with Freeh's investigators; her story, which she laid out for them over several hours in March, was supported by e-mails uncovered among the 3.5 million electronic documents the investigators examined.
"When I visited with them, that's when I started to be more hopeful," she said. "They got it, and they were determined to expose it. They found evidence of the culture that allowed Jerry Sandusky to exist.
More storms loom for Penn State in wake of Freeh report
"Now I can articulate it," she said. "That is what I was railing against."
Triponey is not named in the 267-page report; her experience is laid out in a footnote at the bottom of pages 65 and 66. The section deals with the janitors who were afraid they'd lose their jobs if they reported they'd seen Sandusky molesting a boy in the showers in 2000.
"I know Paterno has so much power that if he had wanted to get rid of someone, I would have been gone," one janitor told investigators. "Football runs this university."
"If that's the culture at the bottom," Freeh told reporters, "God help the culture at the top."
The Triponey footnote sheds some light on the top. "Some individuals interviewed identified the handling of a student disciplinary matter in 2007 as an example of Paterno's excessive influence at the university," the footnote stated. It described "perceived pressure" to "treat players in ways that would maintain their ability to play sports," including reducing disciplinary sanctions.
"I wasn't part of the evidence. I was confirmation of the evidence," Triponey told CNN. "This is not about me. This is about what Jerry Sandusky was allowed to do."
Penn State can learn from its mistakes, she believes, but needs new leadership, fresh blood -- someone from outside Happy Valley.
"It's a cocoon. It's a bubble. That's why those inside the bubble are really struggling. They're afraid; they're embarrassed; they're struggling with what to do," she said.
"Now the question is, 'do you face reality?'"
Opinion: The end of 'Joe Paterno University'
'The Penn State way'
Vicky Triponey grew up in a working-class household and was the first person in her family to attend college. Her father was a rabid Penn State football fan, but she chose to go to the University of Pittsburgh, commonly known as Pitt. She got her bachelor's degree in psychology and continued with post-graduate studies, pursuing a career in higher education. She earned her doctorate at the University of Virginia.
She worked at several colleges and universities before encountering her mentor, James Rhatigan, who developed the division of student affairs at Wichita State University. Rhatigan introduced her to Mike Meacham, a young man who had been student body president and worked for the alumni association. They married 21 years ago.
She left Wichita in 1998 for the University of Connecticut, where she helped coach Randy Edsall build up the football program. Edsall, who is now head coach at the University of Maryland, told CNN that they worked hard to ensure that football players lived by the same rules as other students.
"We always taught our guys they weren't better than somebody else," Edsall said. "My whole thing was, we told our guys up front that there was a student code of conduct they had to adhere to. If they violated it, there would be consequences."
Penn State recruited Triponey in 2003. She quickly figured out she was the leading candidate when the university brought on its A game for her interview. Her campus visit coincided with the weekend of "The Thon," a popular dance marathon that students hold to raise money for charity.
"I liked what I heard during the interview," she recalled. "It was a truly impressive place, and I considered it a fabulous next step in my career."
She also heard the expression "the Penn State way" for the first time that weekend. Had she understood its significance, she said, she would have "quickly run in the other direction."
Still, she enjoyed a long honeymoon. She felt she had the support of Penn State's president, Graham Spanier, who unabashedly sang her praises when she was hired and later at professional conferences they both attended.
"I arrived there and was supported, encouraged, and really for the first two years I thought we were doing good things," she said. "We were moving in some good directions. But that second year, in the fall, I started going home and telling Mike, 'They're not getting it. They're not embracing conversations about change.'"
There were controversies about her decisions to cut off funding to a student radio program and revamp the student government.
Spanier assured her that she was right to stick to her guns, but she was "hitting the brick wall in student discipline." Looking back, she says, "I was putting my neck out and taking a stand, but there weren't many people with me."
And then one day in late 2004, as disciplinary sanctions were being considered against a member of the football team, she received a visit from Paterno's wife, who had tutored the player.
He's a good kid, Sue Paterno said. Could they give him a break?
Triponey realized then that she wasn't in Kansas anymore. Or even Connecticut.
By the next year, 2005, she was battling Paterno himself over who controlled how football players were disciplined. Paterno also chafed over enforcing Penn State's code of conduct off campus.
Spanier called a meeting at which Paterno angrily dominated the conversation, Triponey recalled. She summarized the meeting in an e-mail to Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley and others, complaining that Paterno "is insistent that he knows best how to discipline his players" and that her department should back off.
Opinion: Penn State report is a warning to all of of us
She noted that Paterno preferred to keep the public in the dark about player infractions involving violence, and he pushed for not enforcing the student code of conduct off campus. She added that having "a major problem with Coach Paterno should not be our concern" in making disciplinary decisions.
"I must insist that the efforts to put pressure on us and try to influence our decisions related to specific cases ... simply MUST STOP," she wrote. "The calls and pleas from coaches, board members and others when we are considering a case are indeed putting us in a position that does treat football players differently and with greater privilege ... and it appears on our end to be a deliberate effort to use the power of the football program to sway our decisions in a way that is beneficial to the football program."
Curley, who once played for Paterno and according to the Freeh report was widely considered his "errand boy," responded to Triponey by explaining "Joe's frustrations with the system" and the "larger issues that bother him."
Triponey wrote back, complaining about Paterno's "disregard for our role and disrespect for the process." She added, "I don't see how we can continue to trust those inside the football program with confidential information if we are indeed adversaries."
She followed up with another e-mail to Spanier on September 1, 2005, stating her objection to Paterno's attitude and behavior, which she called "atrocious." She said others, including students and their parents, were mimicking him.
"I am very troubled by the manipulative, disrespectful, uncivil and abusive behavior of our football coach," she wrote. "It is quite shocking what this man -- who is idolized by people everywhere -- is teaching our students."
Paterno clearly seemed to resent "meddling" from outsiders, even if Triponey was simply doing her job. She saw the dangers of special treatment that placed football players under a softer standard than other students lived by. She said it wasn't right. But it was a battle she couldn't win.
Paterno ridiculed her on a radio show as "that lady in Old Main" who couldn't possibly know how to handle students because "she didn't have kids."
Tensions reached the breaking point in 2007 over how to discipline half a dozen players who'd been arrested at a brawl at an off-campus apartment complex. Several students were injured; one beaten unconscious.
Triponey met with Paterno and other university officials half a dozen times, although she preferred to remain neutral as the appeals hearing officer.
At the final meeting, Triponey urged the coach to advise his players to tell the truth. Paterno said angrily that he couldn't force his players to "rat" on each other since they had to practice and play together. Curley and Spanier backed him up on that point, she said.
Triponey recommended suspensions; Paterno pushed for community service that included having the team clean up the stadium for two hours after each home game.
In the end, four players were briefly suspended during the off-season. They didn't miss a game.
By then it was clear she no longer enjoyed Spanier's support. He began making noises about whether she really embraced "the Penn State way." He told her during an annual review that she was too confrontational, too aggressive. Triponey knew her days at Penn State were numbered when he advised her to think hard about whether she had a future there.
Paterno defended football, Penn State in letter before his death
Back from the ashes
When it all fell apart, Triponey felt completely alone.
She received threatening phone calls at home when her husband was traveling and was savaged on student message boards. Her house was vandalized and "For Sale" signs were staked in her front yard. By the time police installed surveillance cameras, she was already on her way out.
Spanier came to her home and sat in her living room after Paterno lost his temper at the meeting about the players involved in the brawl. She said he told her, "Well, Vicky, you are one of a handful of people, four or five people, who have seen the dark side of Joe Paterno. We're going to have to do something about it."
She shakes her head, recalling that conversation now. "'Doing something about it,'" she says, "ended with me being gone."
Citing "philosophical differences," Triponey resigned under pressure as the 2007 football season got under way. Unlike Sandusky, convicted last month of 45 counts of molesting young boys, she did not receive a $168,000 golden handshake, prime football seats for life or keys to the locker room.
She was no longer invited to events. She was shunned.
She sold her big house in State College and moved into a condo in Bellfonte, the quaint county seat where Sandusky was tried, while her husband, a Penn State professor, looked for a job at another university. It took two years, but he finally found a spot at the University of South Carolina's medical school in Charleston.
Opinion: After Penn State report, it's time to look at Second Mile
She stopped going to Wegman's, a favorite upscale supermarket outside State College, because "the Penn State people went there." They recognized her and without fail turned their backs and walked away, she recalled.
Former colleagues who did want to reach out held back. Later, they explained that they were afraid of losing their jobs, too.
That, she says, was "the Penn State way" as she knew it.
It had been corrupted by success.
"Winning became more important," she said, along with a strong desire "to avoid bad publicity." So many people were invested in the football program, they felt they had "to protect something that they had created, a grand experiment that was so perfect that they didn't dare let anybody know there were blemishes."
There was no accountability. Board meetings were scripted to avoid controversy. It was a point of pride that nobody ever argued. The leadership was "grounded in the spin, the image, the 'too big to fail.' It became a business dependent on the money and contributions," she said.
As for Paterno, who died of lung cancer in January, Triponey does not judge him harshly.
"Joe Paterno was an incredibly principled person," she said, recalling how, at the beginning, he made sure his athletes were successful students, as well. "That was at his core," she said, "but the pedestal became so high, he lost that somewhere."
She thought she had left academia forever, following her husband to Charleston and getting involved in charities and community work.
"At the time, it destroyed my career. I couldn't go back into higher education after what happened at Penn State. I had to leave the work I had done for 30 years. What enabled people to take a chance on me was when the Sandusky story broke."
Sandusky was indicted in November and accused of molesting 10 boys over 15 years. Spanier and Paterno were dismissed and Curley and another Penn State vice president, Gary Schultz, were charged with lying to a grand jury about what they knew about the Sandusky affair.
"The world of higher education started seeing me as a more credible person," Triponey said. "I did get messages and kudos."
Reporters started calling, and then so did people at other schools. Among them was R. Barbara Gitenstein, president of the College of New Jersey near Trenton. The Division III school focuses on liberal arts and had an opening in student affairs.
Triponey started in February and plans to stay at least until December as the interim director.
"Actually, she's not doing just fine," Gitenstein said. "She's doing great." She is well liked by the students, staff, trustees and other department heads, she added.
Penn State leaders 'empowered Sandusky'
"I think she's open, she accessible," Gitenstein said. "She's thoughtful, and she has knowledge about student affairs. She's also very responsible in terms of budget. She knows how to bring others along, to make them feel part of the enterprise."
Triponey says she's now working in a place where it's not just acceptable to speak truth to power, it's encouraged.
"I never though I'd be back doing work in higher education," she said. "I also never thought I'd see the day where public opinion is at the place where folks are saying Penn State's culture has got to change."
Edsall, her former colleague at UConn, says Triponey stands in contrast to the other officials at Penn State and the choices they made. "She lost her job, but she never lost her principles, her values or her morals," he said. "When you see a friend, a colleague, go through what she went through, it's good to see that things have come to light.
"I tell my players there are two things in life," he added. "You've got your name and you've got your reputation. And you know what? Vicky still has her name and she still has her reputation."
She took a stand for what she believed in, Edsall said, but the leadership at Penn State didn't want to change.
"They wanted to continue with the status quo, and look where it got them."
Triponey views the Freeh report as "my trigger that it's OK to start speaking out," she said.
"Maybe it's an opportunity for me to take the experience, take the pain, take the pain of other victims, and help change the culture," she said. "Maybe not at Penn State, but other coaches, other presidents around the country are in a position now to see the danger in a culture like this."
It has all left her "saddened, disgusted and horrified, but also hopeful," she said.
It has brought new life to the teacher in her.
She experienced firsthand the clubby, jock-snapping culture, the sense of entitlement, the cloistered existence. It's what drove her five years ago from her job as the vice president who oversaw student discipline.
She was told she was too aggressive, too confrontational, that she wasn't fitting in with "the Penn State way."
She clashed often with Paterno over who should discipline football players when they got into trouble. The conflict with such an iconic figure made her very unpopular around campus. For a while, it cost Triponey her peace of mind and her good name. It almost ended her 30-year academic career.
Another person might have felt vindicated, smug or self-righteous when former FBI Director Louis Freeh delivered the scathing report on his eight-month investigation of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal. But Triponey sensed only a deep sadness.
Photos: Paterno as Penn State coach
Penn State students take to the streets
The inquiry, commissioned by the board of trustees, exposed how the personal failings of Paterno and three other Penn State leaders -- along with the university's football-first culture -- empowered an assistant football coach who molested fatherless boys for more than a decade.
"There's no joy," Triponey told CNN as she sat down for an interview Friday, the day after the Freeh report was released. She said she found solace in the public recognition of Penn State's "culture of reverence for the football program," as the report phrased it, and that it is "ingrained at all levels of the campus community." Freeh found that the culture contributed to the Sandusky scandal.
Penn State community still admires Paterno, wants to move forward
She agrees with Freeh's suggestion that the university's trustees lead an effort to "vigorously examine and understand" Penn State's culture, why it's so resistant to outside perspectives and why it places such an "excessive focus on athletics."
"It's comforting to know that others can now understand," Triponey said. "It didn't have to happen this way."
Her former boss at Wichita State University described Triponey as "a dedicated, ethical professional" who was devastated by her experience at Penn State.
"Vicky knew that she had attempted to do the right thing in disciplining the football players, but she was unable to do so in the Penn State environment," said Gene Hughes, a president emeritus at Wichita State and Northern Arizona University.
At Penn State, Triponey was among the few who stood up to Paterno, the legendary "JoePa" who for 61 years was synonymous with a football program that pumped millions of dollars into Penn State. And she paid dearly for it. At the end, nobody at the top backed her. And it didn't seem to matter to anyone whether she was right, or even if she had a point.
Bowden: Paterno statue should go PSU victims' attorney: Report devastating Jay Paterno: Freeh report is not the end Buzz Bissinger on Joe Paterno
At the heart of the problem, the Freeh report stated, were university leaders eager to please Paterno above all else, a rubber-stamp board of trustees, a president who discouraged dissent and an administration that was preoccupied with appearances and spin.
Triponey has been saying that since 2005.
Sandusky, as the mastermind of college football's legendary "Linebacker U," enjoyed insider status and used Penn State's sporting events and athletic facilities to lure victims even after he retired in 1999. When he was indicted and arrested in November, the report said, Sandusky still had his keys to the Penn State locker room.
Triponey, a slim blonde who dresses preppie and carries herself with the reserve of an academic lifer, was always an outsider at Penn State, even though she grew up in central Pennsylvania. She was not involved in the Sandusky matter; she says she never met him. But she is keenly aware of the campus culture that allowed him to prey on boys for years, virtually unchecked.
"The culture is deep," she said. "The culture is making decisions based on how others will react, not based on what's right and wrong." It focused on the interests of those at "the top of the chain," she added. "Others at the bottom didn't matter."
Triponey was just one of the 430 witnesses who spoke with Freeh's investigators; her story, which she laid out for them over several hours in March, was supported by e-mails uncovered among the 3.5 million electronic documents the investigators examined.
"When I visited with them, that's when I started to be more hopeful," she said. "They got it, and they were determined to expose it. They found evidence of the culture that allowed Jerry Sandusky to exist.
More storms loom for Penn State in wake of Freeh report
"Now I can articulate it," she said. "That is what I was railing against."
Triponey is not named in the 267-page report; her experience is laid out in a footnote at the bottom of pages 65 and 66. The section deals with the janitors who were afraid they'd lose their jobs if they reported they'd seen Sandusky molesting a boy in the showers in 2000.
"I know Paterno has so much power that if he had wanted to get rid of someone, I would have been gone," one janitor told investigators. "Football runs this university."
"If that's the culture at the bottom," Freeh told reporters, "God help the culture at the top."
The Triponey footnote sheds some light on the top. "Some individuals interviewed identified the handling of a student disciplinary matter in 2007 as an example of Paterno's excessive influence at the university," the footnote stated. It described "perceived pressure" to "treat players in ways that would maintain their ability to play sports," including reducing disciplinary sanctions.
"I wasn't part of the evidence. I was confirmation of the evidence," Triponey told CNN. "This is not about me. This is about what Jerry Sandusky was allowed to do."
Penn State can learn from its mistakes, she believes, but needs new leadership, fresh blood -- someone from outside Happy Valley.
"It's a cocoon. It's a bubble. That's why those inside the bubble are really struggling. They're afraid; they're embarrassed; they're struggling with what to do," she said.
"Now the question is, 'do you face reality?'"
Opinion: The end of 'Joe Paterno University'
'The Penn State way'
Vicky Triponey grew up in a working-class household and was the first person in her family to attend college. Her father was a rabid Penn State football fan, but she chose to go to the University of Pittsburgh, commonly known as Pitt. She got her bachelor's degree in psychology and continued with post-graduate studies, pursuing a career in higher education. She earned her doctorate at the University of Virginia.
She worked at several colleges and universities before encountering her mentor, James Rhatigan, who developed the division of student affairs at Wichita State University. Rhatigan introduced her to Mike Meacham, a young man who had been student body president and worked for the alumni association. They married 21 years ago.
She left Wichita in 1998 for the University of Connecticut, where she helped coach Randy Edsall build up the football program. Edsall, who is now head coach at the University of Maryland, told CNN that they worked hard to ensure that football players lived by the same rules as other students.
"We always taught our guys they weren't better than somebody else," Edsall said. "My whole thing was, we told our guys up front that there was a student code of conduct they had to adhere to. If they violated it, there would be consequences."
Penn State recruited Triponey in 2003. She quickly figured out she was the leading candidate when the university brought on its A game for her interview. Her campus visit coincided with the weekend of "The Thon," a popular dance marathon that students hold to raise money for charity.
"I liked what I heard during the interview," she recalled. "It was a truly impressive place, and I considered it a fabulous next step in my career."
She also heard the expression "the Penn State way" for the first time that weekend. Had she understood its significance, she said, she would have "quickly run in the other direction."
Still, she enjoyed a long honeymoon. She felt she had the support of Penn State's president, Graham Spanier, who unabashedly sang her praises when she was hired and later at professional conferences they both attended.
"I arrived there and was supported, encouraged, and really for the first two years I thought we were doing good things," she said. "We were moving in some good directions. But that second year, in the fall, I started going home and telling Mike, 'They're not getting it. They're not embracing conversations about change.'"
There were controversies about her decisions to cut off funding to a student radio program and revamp the student government.
Spanier assured her that she was right to stick to her guns, but she was "hitting the brick wall in student discipline." Looking back, she says, "I was putting my neck out and taking a stand, but there weren't many people with me."
And then one day in late 2004, as disciplinary sanctions were being considered against a member of the football team, she received a visit from Paterno's wife, who had tutored the player.
He's a good kid, Sue Paterno said. Could they give him a break?
Triponey realized then that she wasn't in Kansas anymore. Or even Connecticut.
By the next year, 2005, she was battling Paterno himself over who controlled how football players were disciplined. Paterno also chafed over enforcing Penn State's code of conduct off campus.
Spanier called a meeting at which Paterno angrily dominated the conversation, Triponey recalled. She summarized the meeting in an e-mail to Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley and others, complaining that Paterno "is insistent that he knows best how to discipline his players" and that her department should back off.
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She noted that Paterno preferred to keep the public in the dark about player infractions involving violence, and he pushed for not enforcing the student code of conduct off campus. She added that having "a major problem with Coach Paterno should not be our concern" in making disciplinary decisions.
"I must insist that the efforts to put pressure on us and try to influence our decisions related to specific cases ... simply MUST STOP," she wrote. "The calls and pleas from coaches, board members and others when we are considering a case are indeed putting us in a position that does treat football players differently and with greater privilege ... and it appears on our end to be a deliberate effort to use the power of the football program to sway our decisions in a way that is beneficial to the football program."
Curley, who once played for Paterno and according to the Freeh report was widely considered his "errand boy," responded to Triponey by explaining "Joe's frustrations with the system" and the "larger issues that bother him."
Triponey wrote back, complaining about Paterno's "disregard for our role and disrespect for the process." She added, "I don't see how we can continue to trust those inside the football program with confidential information if we are indeed adversaries."
She followed up with another e-mail to Spanier on September 1, 2005, stating her objection to Paterno's attitude and behavior, which she called "atrocious." She said others, including students and their parents, were mimicking him.
"I am very troubled by the manipulative, disrespectful, uncivil and abusive behavior of our football coach," she wrote. "It is quite shocking what this man -- who is idolized by people everywhere -- is teaching our students."
Paterno clearly seemed to resent "meddling" from outsiders, even if Triponey was simply doing her job. She saw the dangers of special treatment that placed football players under a softer standard than other students lived by. She said it wasn't right. But it was a battle she couldn't win.
Paterno ridiculed her on a radio show as "that lady in Old Main" who couldn't possibly know how to handle students because "she didn't have kids."
Tensions reached the breaking point in 2007 over how to discipline half a dozen players who'd been arrested at a brawl at an off-campus apartment complex. Several students were injured; one beaten unconscious.
Triponey met with Paterno and other university officials half a dozen times, although she preferred to remain neutral as the appeals hearing officer.
At the final meeting, Triponey urged the coach to advise his players to tell the truth. Paterno said angrily that he couldn't force his players to "rat" on each other since they had to practice and play together. Curley and Spanier backed him up on that point, she said.
Triponey recommended suspensions; Paterno pushed for community service that included having the team clean up the stadium for two hours after each home game.
In the end, four players were briefly suspended during the off-season. They didn't miss a game.
By then it was clear she no longer enjoyed Spanier's support. He began making noises about whether she really embraced "the Penn State way." He told her during an annual review that she was too confrontational, too aggressive. Triponey knew her days at Penn State were numbered when he advised her to think hard about whether she had a future there.
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Back from the ashes
When it all fell apart, Triponey felt completely alone.
She received threatening phone calls at home when her husband was traveling and was savaged on student message boards. Her house was vandalized and "For Sale" signs were staked in her front yard. By the time police installed surveillance cameras, she was already on her way out.
Spanier came to her home and sat in her living room after Paterno lost his temper at the meeting about the players involved in the brawl. She said he told her, "Well, Vicky, you are one of a handful of people, four or five people, who have seen the dark side of Joe Paterno. We're going to have to do something about it."
She shakes her head, recalling that conversation now. "'Doing something about it,'" she says, "ended with me being gone."
Citing "philosophical differences," Triponey resigned under pressure as the 2007 football season got under way. Unlike Sandusky, convicted last month of 45 counts of molesting young boys, she did not receive a $168,000 golden handshake, prime football seats for life or keys to the locker room.
She was no longer invited to events. She was shunned.
She sold her big house in State College and moved into a condo in Bellfonte, the quaint county seat where Sandusky was tried, while her husband, a Penn State professor, looked for a job at another university. It took two years, but he finally found a spot at the University of South Carolina's medical school in Charleston.
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She stopped going to Wegman's, a favorite upscale supermarket outside State College, because "the Penn State people went there." They recognized her and without fail turned their backs and walked away, she recalled.
Former colleagues who did want to reach out held back. Later, they explained that they were afraid of losing their jobs, too.
That, she says, was "the Penn State way" as she knew it.
It had been corrupted by success.
"Winning became more important," she said, along with a strong desire "to avoid bad publicity." So many people were invested in the football program, they felt they had "to protect something that they had created, a grand experiment that was so perfect that they didn't dare let anybody know there were blemishes."
There was no accountability. Board meetings were scripted to avoid controversy. It was a point of pride that nobody ever argued. The leadership was "grounded in the spin, the image, the 'too big to fail.' It became a business dependent on the money and contributions," she said.
As for Paterno, who died of lung cancer in January, Triponey does not judge him harshly.
"Joe Paterno was an incredibly principled person," she said, recalling how, at the beginning, he made sure his athletes were successful students, as well. "That was at his core," she said, "but the pedestal became so high, he lost that somewhere."
She thought she had left academia forever, following her husband to Charleston and getting involved in charities and community work.
"At the time, it destroyed my career. I couldn't go back into higher education after what happened at Penn State. I had to leave the work I had done for 30 years. What enabled people to take a chance on me was when the Sandusky story broke."
Sandusky was indicted in November and accused of molesting 10 boys over 15 years. Spanier and Paterno were dismissed and Curley and another Penn State vice president, Gary Schultz, were charged with lying to a grand jury about what they knew about the Sandusky affair.
"The world of higher education started seeing me as a more credible person," Triponey said. "I did get messages and kudos."
Reporters started calling, and then so did people at other schools. Among them was R. Barbara Gitenstein, president of the College of New Jersey near Trenton. The Division III school focuses on liberal arts and had an opening in student affairs.
Triponey started in February and plans to stay at least until December as the interim director.
"Actually, she's not doing just fine," Gitenstein said. "She's doing great." She is well liked by the students, staff, trustees and other department heads, she added.
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"I think she's open, she accessible," Gitenstein said. "She's thoughtful, and she has knowledge about student affairs. She's also very responsible in terms of budget. She knows how to bring others along, to make them feel part of the enterprise."
Triponey says she's now working in a place where it's not just acceptable to speak truth to power, it's encouraged.
"I never though I'd be back doing work in higher education," she said. "I also never thought I'd see the day where public opinion is at the place where folks are saying Penn State's culture has got to change."
Edsall, her former colleague at UConn, says Triponey stands in contrast to the other officials at Penn State and the choices they made. "She lost her job, but she never lost her principles, her values or her morals," he said. "When you see a friend, a colleague, go through what she went through, it's good to see that things have come to light.
"I tell my players there are two things in life," he added. "You've got your name and you've got your reputation. And you know what? Vicky still has her name and she still has her reputation."
She took a stand for what she believed in, Edsall said, but the leadership at Penn State didn't want to change.
"They wanted to continue with the status quo, and look where it got them."
Triponey views the Freeh report as "my trigger that it's OK to start speaking out," she said.
"Maybe it's an opportunity for me to take the experience, take the pain, take the pain of other victims, and help change the culture," she said. "Maybe not at Penn State, but other coaches, other presidents around the country are in a position now to see the danger in a culture like this."
It has all left her "saddened, disgusted and horrified, but also hopeful," she said.
It has brought new life to the teacher in her.
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