Posts Tagged ‘for-profit’
Sarah Palin, the corporation, knows how to “optimize” profits
It’s Xmas every day at Sarah Palin’s house
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
Sarah Palin’s appearance early next month at the first tea party movement’s convention in Nashville, Tenn., has stirred controversy in conservative circles over her reported decision to charge a substantial fee.
Palin’s aides and conference organizers won’t comment on financial arrangements, but documents obtained by POLITICO reveal the going rate for the former Alaska governor: $100,000 a speech, with a discount to $75,000 for West Coast appearances. Palin has reportedly waived the fee for some charitable events, but what’s billed as a meeting of the grass-roots conservative movement is not among those.
Palin’s speech will be closed to the press. Conference organizer Sherry Phillips confirmed to POLITICO that, unlike some of the events with other speakers, reporters will not be permitted to be in the room…
“I’m hearing through sources Sarah Palin is getting $75k to speak at this Tea Party convention,” blogger Dan Riehl, an admirer of Palin and of the tea partyers, wrote recently after learning that she was charging a substantial fee. That’s a lot of damned tea.”
Yes, indeedy – the spirit of greed rings through the halls of today’s Republican ideology.
Haven’t the skill or ability to screw the American taxpayer? Well, then, rip-off your followers!
Hawaii ships inmates off to Kentucky slammer. Dumb!
Welcome to Otter Creek
Hawaii prison officials said Tuesday that all of the state’s 168 female inmates at a privately run Kentucky prison will be removed by the end of September because of charges of sexual abuse by guards…
Otter Creek is run by the Corrections Corporation of America and is one of a spate of private, for-profit prisons, mainly in the South, that have been the focus of investigations over issues like abusive conditions and wrongful deaths. Because Eastern Kentucky is one of the poorest rural regions in the country, the prison was welcomed by local residents desperate for jobs.
Hawaii sent inmates to Kentucky to save money. Housing an inmate at the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua, Hawaii, costs $86 a day, compared with $58.46 a day at the Kentucky prison, not including air travel.
Hawaii investigators found that at least five corrections officials at the prison, including a chaplain, had been charged with having sex with inmates in the last three years, and four were convicted. Three rape cases involving guards and Hawaii inmates were recently turned over to law enforcement authorities. The Kentucky State Police said another sexual assault case would go to a grand jury soon.
How to go, folks! You saved the state of Hawaii how much money?
Of course, that was before the lawsuits that should be rolling down the surf.
Private hospitals recruited homeless to hustle Medicaid
Federal agents have raided three private for-profit hospitals — Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center, City of Angels Medical Center, and Tustin Hospital and Medical Center in Orange County — in connection with an alleged fraud scheme involving federal Medicaid and state Medi-Cal health insurance programs. Agents arrested Dr. Rudra Sabaratnam, owner and chief executive of City of Angels Medical Center, and Estill Mitts, who is accused of recruiting patients from his Skid Row storefront church, the 7th Street Christian Day Center. Mr. Mitts posted $25,000 bond and is confined to his home. Dr. Sabaratnam posted $700,000 bail Thursday night.
In a 21-count grand jury indictment, the men are charged with conspiring to take and receive kickbacks for referrals and to commit health care fraud. Mr. Mitts is also charged with money laundering and tax evasion.
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