Sunday, February 3, 2013

No Harmon This Post

"1 dead, 2 hurt in Ariz. office shooting" by Jacques Billeaud |  Associated Press, January 31, 2013

PHOENIX — A gunman opened fire at a Phoenix office complex on Wednesday, killing one person, wounding two others and setting off a manhunt. Police warned that he was ‘‘armed and dangerous.’’

Authorities identified the suspect as Arthur D. Harmon, who they said opened fire at the end of a mediation session. According to court documents, Harmon was scheduled to go to a law office in the same building where the shooting took place for a settlement conference in lawsuit he filed against Fusion Contact Centers LLC.

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"Phoenix gunman found dead of apparent suicide" by JACQUES BILLEAUD |  Associated Press, February 01, 2013

PHOENIX — A man who shot and killed a call-center chief executive and critically wounded a lawyer at a Phoenix office building where they were meeting to discuss a contract dispute was found dead early Thursday, ending a nearly 24-hour manhunt.

A landscaper found the body of Arthur Douglas Harmon among some bushes in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. Harmon, 70, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said....

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Also see: Lawyer wounded by gunman dies

(Frown)

Then I guess there is no need for medical attention:

"Arizona plans hospital taxes to expand its Medicaid; Governor bucks image, party on health law" by Bob Christie  |  Associated Press, January 21, 2013

PHOENIX — Governor Jan Brewer has built a political career in standing up to the federal government over everything from immigration to health care.

So the Arizona governor surprised almost everyone when she announced last week that she not only plans to push for an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under the federal health care law — she plans to fund it by raising taxes.

A conservative Republican, Brewer is believed to be the first governor to publicly come up with a way to fund the controversial Medicaid expansion. Not even Governor Jerry Brown of California, a Democrat in a state that largely supports the new federal health plan, has figured out how to pay for a boosted Medicaid plan.

Her proposal to add about 300,000 low-income Arizonans to her state’s Medicaid plan relies on funding from hospitals through a provider tax. The idea is already used to fund some Medicaid plans in 39 states, but none have tapped it to pay for the federal expansion and many have at least some room to expand such taxes....

President Obama’s health care overhaul expanded Medicaid to cover low-income people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $15,400 a year for a single person. That provision will mainly benefit low-income childless adults, who currently can’t get Medicaid in most states. Separately, the overhaul provides subsidized private insurance for middle-class households....

Brewer is bucking party and philosophical lines and blazing a unique path in the health care debate. Time will tell if others follow her lead.

Brewer is already facing opposition from budget hawks in her own party on the issue. Two bills have been introduced that would essentially block her efforts.

She has found supporters, however, among many Arizona hospital executives and business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, a leading opponent of raising taxes.

For hospitals stuck with millions of dollars in uncompensated care each year, agreeing to be taxed makes sense. They pay 6 percent of their revenues and get a much larger amount back from Medicaid from the newly insured....

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Also seeDozens of stranded Arizona hikers rescued

I presume they got them over to the hospital.