River Valley
Town office abuzz about snake sightings
Of course, if it exists, it could be anywhere in the area by now.
On Wednesday morning, two people contacted Rumford police dispatcher Sue Milligan saying they'd seen a large snake entering the canal off Canal Street behind Bartash's store.
Based on their descriptions, the snake is purported to be a 17-foot boa constrictor.
Local snake expert Robbie White of Mexico said Wednesday that it could possibly be a red-tail boa constrictor or a Burmese python that was someone's pet and escaped.
The snake-sighting was also reported to the Maine Warden Service, which will be investigating the claim. Anyone with detailed information about a specific location of the reptile for an extended period of time is asked to contact the Warden Service.
Some people driving down Canal Street could be seen sitting up straighter in the driver's seat and scanning the canal. Others, like Roxbury resident and Selectman Deborah DeRoche simply rolled down her window and said she wasn't getting out of her truck anywhere on Canal Street with a snake that big at large.
Rumford Town Manager Carlo Puiia said he hadn't heard any more news about the snake.
"It's been the Joke of the Day here," he said. "Whoever walked in the door, whether they were the code enforcement officer or selectmen, was told it was their responsibility to go get it."
Seriously, though, Puiia and White both said, that if a loose snake is actually in the canal area, the best chance to see it would be on a sunny day when it ventures out of hiding for some warmth.
tkarkos@sunjournal.com
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verified on "P. Nachman: Confidence probably misplaced"
I agree with your $60 billion
That is the size of the problem. $60 billion out of about $551 billion in expenditures about 11%.
Let's understand what Medicare Fraud and Asbuse is. Medicare Fraud and Abuse is any billinging to Medicare that covers services not delivered or a service that was delivered but was unnecessary or inappropriate (given to someone not qualified for the service.
The mismatch of qualified people to services is low, technical, and almost always caught after the fact by computers. Its the error rate of medicare and will never be zero but also may reach the point where its not worth pursuing if the costs to pursue are high.
The major medicare fraud is provider mis-billing that is separated between deliberate fraud and provider billing errors. Our Speaker of the House can speak to this since he misbilled Medicare by $1.6 million. He claims it was an error (billing for one class of product when really a different class was provided). Most of the provider errors are caught in the billing process. What remains is deliberate fraud.
For the first time and about time, the Obama administration has elevated Medicare Fraud and Abuse to a cabinet position. The HEAT team of cabinet officers was established in 2009 to specifically address and presecute deliberate fraud. Its done some good but not enough.
But Medicare Fraud and Abuse is about errors in the billing process. The $60 billion does not refer to expenditures. It refers to billing errors. In 2010 "improper payments" were about $48 billion of which an unknown amount were later found to be correct and proper.
Columbia Healthcare paid about a billion dollars in fines and penalties a few years back for deliberate fraud.
ut medicare was set up for fast and easy payments to providers not for verification. As time has gone on the system is being changed to put more and more emphasis on proper payments. So its not like little is being done. Just that much more needs to be done.
The fundamental point tho' is that patients are almost never involved in fraud.
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verified on "P. Nachman: Confidence probably misplaced"
Correction - that is $60
Correction - that is $60 Billion per year!!!
verified on "Local schools stand to get more state money for education"
I agree these teachers exist.
I agree these teachers exist. I have had them and I have worked with them. I am the first person to support drastic changes to tenure policies so it is easier to replace these teachers. But you are wrong that they are the norm. They are still very much the exception, especially in Lewiston. And Carl- it is so much more complicated than simply holding students back. I would suggest you do more reading on the challenges of ESL students and a large immigrant population because it isn't a simple situation by any means.
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