In Reversal, Florida to Take Health Law’s Medicaid Expansion

MIAMI — Gov. Rick Scott of Florida reversed himself on Wednesday and announced that he would expand his state’s Medicaid program to cover the poor, becoming the latest — and, perhaps, most prominent — Republican critic of President Obama’s health care law to decide to put it into effect.

It was an about-face for Mr. Scott, a former businessman who entered politics as a critic of Mr. Obama’s health care proposals. Florida was one of the states that sued to try to block the law. After the Supreme Court ruled last year that though the law was constitutional, states could choose not to expand their Medicaid programs to cover the poor, Mr. Scott said that Florida would not expand its programs.

Mr. Scott said Wednesday that he now supported a three-year expansion of Medicaid, through the period that the federal government has agreed to pay the full cost of the expansion, and before some of the costs are shifted to the states.

“While the federal government is committed to paying 100 percent of the cost, I cannot in good conscience deny Floridians that needed access to health care,” Mr. Scott said at a news conference. “We will support a three-year expansion of the Medicaid program under the new health care law as long as the federal government meets their commitment to pay 100 percent of the cost during that time.”

He said there were “no perfect options” when it came to the Medicaid expansion. “To be clear: our options are either having Floridians pay to fund this program in other states while denying health care to our citizens,” he said, “or using federal funding to help some of the poorest in our state with the Medicaid program as we explore other health care reforms.”

Mr. Scott said the state would not create its own insurance exchange to comply with another provision of the law.

His reversal sent ripples through the nation, especially given the change in tone and substance since the summer, when he said he would not create an exchange or expand Medicaid.

“Floridians are interested in jobs and economic growth, a quality education for their children, and keeping the cost of living low,” Mr. Scott said in a statement at the time. “Neither of these major provisions in Obamacare will achieve those goals, and since Florida is legally allowed to opt out, that’s the right decision for our citizens.”

Mr. Scott now joins the Republican governors of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota and Ohio, who have decided to join the Medicaid expansion. Some, like Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, were also staunch opponents of Mr. Obama’s overall health care law.

Shortly before his announcement, the governor received word from the federal government that it planned to grant Florida the final waiver needed to privatize Medicaid, a process the state initially undertook as a pilot project. Mr. Scott, who is running for re-election next year, has heavily lobbied for the waiver, arguing that Florida could not expand Medicaid without it.

Mr. Scott’s support of Medicaid expansion is significant, but is far from the last word. The program requires approval from Florida’s Republican-dominated Legislature, which has been averse to expanding Medicaid under the health care law. The Legislature’s two top Republican leaders said that before making a decision they would consider recommendations from a select committee, which has been asked to review the state’s options.

“The Florida Legislature will make the ultimate decision,” Will Weatherford, the state House speaker, said. “I am personally skeptical that this inflexible law will improve the quality of health care in our state and ensure our long-term financial stability.”

Medicaid, which covers three million people in Florida, costs the state $21 billion a year. The expansion would extend coverage to one million more people.

Mr. Scott’s reversal is sure to anger his original conservative supporters.

The governor “was elected because of his principled conservative leadership against Obamacare’s overreach,” said Slade O’Brien, state director for Americans for Prosperity, an influential conservative advocacy organization. “Hopefully our legislative leaders will not follow in Governor Scott’s footsteps, and will reject expansion.”

During his announcement on Wednesday, Mr. Scott said his mother’s recent death and her lifetime struggle to raise five children “with very little money” played a role in his decision.

“Losing someone so close to you puts everything in a new perspective, especially the big decisions,” he said.

Michael Cooper contributed reporting from New York.

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Nearly 645K Chicago mortgages underwater

Almost 645,000 homeowners in a 14-county Chicago area owed more on their mortgages than their homes were worth at the end of December, a slight increase from the third quarter, Zillow reported Thursday.

Still, the company's fourth quarter report on negative equity showed a year-over-year decrease in the percentage of homeowners with a mortgage who were underwater on their loans. Last year, 41,208 area homes moved into positive equity, Zillow found.

Compared with the nation as a whole, the Chicago area remains hard hit by the housing crisis. Zillow found that nationally, 27.5 percent of homeowners with a mortgage, or about 13.8 million homeowners, had negative equity in December, but that percentage should fall to 25.5 percent by the end of this year.

That positive trend is not the case in the Chicago area, where the percentage of underwater homeowners is expected to increase to 37.3 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage by the fourth quarter. The uptick is due to Zillow's prediction that home values in the Chicago area are expected to fall 0.6 percent this year.

Zillow's definition of the Chicago area includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Jasper, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, Newton, Porter and Will counties in Illinois, Wisconsin's Kenosha County and Indiana's Lake County.

mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik

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Police shoot robbery suspect in Bucktown intersection

Chicago police chased a robbery suspect from River North into Bucktown and shot him after he tried to run over an officer, according to authorities.

Police said the man wanted in more than a dozen robberies of North Side convenience stores and restaurants. He was wounded after robbing a Subway shop on State Street just north of Chicago Avenue, police said.

Officers working a robbery mission team pursued an SUV that matched the description of one fleeing the scene to the intersection of North, Milwaukee and Damen avenues. The man tried to run over an officer after backing into a squad car, police said in a statement.

The man did not respond to commands and made suspicious movements inside the vehicle before he was shot, and police said they recovered a weapon at the scene.

The man, whose age was not available, was taken to Stroger Hospital.

Police from a number of nearby districts responded to the scene after officers called a "10-1," a term used to signal an officer, firefighter or paramedic in distress. Detectives from two of the three city detective areas also responded.

Detectives approached people at the bars that line the intersection, asking if anyone saw anything.  Police blocked access to the area and the CTA rerouted its bus traffic around the intersection.

Hours after the shooting, as the bars wrapped up for the night, people stood outside smoking and exchanging stories of the cop cars they saw speeding toward the scene.

The other robberies linked to the suspect usually occurred between 11:30 p.m. and 2:15 a.m. They included hold-ups within two hours of each other at 2200 N. Lincoln Avenue and 300 W. Chicago Avenue early in the morning of Feb. 6.

pnickeas@tribune.com
Twitter: @peternickeas

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A Minute With: Billy Crystal, former host of the Academy Awards

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Few people have more experience hosting the Academy Awards than actor Billy Crystal, who was the master of ceremonies for the movie industry’s highest honors for the ninth time last year.

As “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane prepares to host the Oscars for the first time on Sunday, Crystal, 64, spoke to Reuters about his own experiences and offered some tips.

Q: What is the secret to being a good Oscar host?

A: “Anytime I’ve been asked by new hosts – Chris Rock called me, Jon Stewart called me – I always say the same thing: ‘Whatever your approach, the world is a rough room. And it’s a big room. Not everybody is going to like what you have to say. But when you’re up there, look like you want to be there. You’re the captain of show business that night. That’s your job.’”

Q: Is there a particular way to handle the audience?

A: “You’ve got the first five rows of people who are all nominated actors. They are really nervous. The women are in uncomfortable dresses. The men aren’t used to wearing tuxedos. For most of them, it’s the end of a really long awards season. The lights are bright, it’s usually really cold in there and there are cameras running everything to get reaction shots. So make them feel relaxed. And you have to be funny.”

Q: In those conditions, that sounds like a pretty tall order.

A: “It’s a really difficult job because it goes against everything you want to do as a performer and I always found that hard. As a performer who loves his job on stage, I don’t really like to see the audience, I like to feel them. So I try to encourage (new hosts) to understand that it’s not going to be what they’re used to.”

Q: Do you have a favorite year of all the ones you hosted?

A: “Definitely my first one (in 1990) because it was the first and it went really, really well. Then the one I almost didn’t do (in 1992) because I had pneumonia. I had a 104 temperature and was so sick. I came out as Hannibal Lecter in a mask and was wheeled out on a gurney and went out into the audience and talked to Anthony Hopkins. It was the year Jack Palance won for ‘City Slickers‘ and did the one-arm push-ups. That set me up for an evening of just running jokes about him.”

Q: Any mishaps that you recall needing to step in and save?

A: “At the (1992 ceremony) I introduced Hal Roach from the stage. It was his 100th birthday. He wasn’t supposed to speak, only wave. But he started speaking, holding himself up by the seat in front of him. You could barely hear him. It went on and on. You could feel people getting restless. Lines were racing through my head and I thought, ‘How do you get out of this?’”

Q: And how did you?

A: “I hit on a line and just looked at the audience and said: ‘It’s only fitting, he got his start in silent films!’ It got a big cheer. For me, I could look at that one little moment and say, ‘I was okay then. I was a good comedian that night.’”

Q: Did hosting the Oscars ever get old for you?

A: “If it ever gets old hat, you shouldn’t do it. The nervous part for me was when we had a good show, trying to top it the next year. It was putting that self-imposed pressure on myself. We were fortunate enough to have some good shows and some not as good as others.”

Q: Do you have one particular moment that will always stay with you?

A: “I came up with this idea of putting me in the nominated films. The last piece was ‘The English Patient‘ where I’m walking in the desert. David Letterman had a rough time (when he hosted the Oscars in 1995), so I said, ‘What if Letterman is in the plane and he’s coming after me because I’m hosting?’ So we did that and I thought, ‘What if I come through the screen?’ So they built a screen and I ran on film and then popped right through the screen and suddenly I was live (at the theater).”

Q: So was that your favorite moment?

A: “Here’s my singular favorite moment: My mother was in the audience that night. It was the only time she saw me host the Oscars in person. When I popped through the screen, she and I made eye contact. We just looked at each other … so that was the greatest moment.”

Q: Would you host again if asked?

A: “Today with social media, everybody who can press ‘send’ is a critic. There’s a lot of good ones, but the mean ones are really mean. If you have a thin skin for that it makes it hard … For me if the show is good, it’s expected. If it’s a bit off, you get creamed. And I don’t feel like getting creamed anymore.”

(Editing by Jill Serjeant, Patricia Reaney and Stacey Joyce)

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The New Old Age Blog: The Reluctant Caregiver

Now and then, I refer to the people that caregivers tend to as “loved ones.” And whenever I do, a woman in Southern California tells me, I set her teeth on edge.

She visits her mother-in-law, runs errands, helps with the paperwork — all tasks she has shouldered with a grim sense of duty.  She doesn’t have much affection for this increasingly frail 90something or enjoy her company; her efforts bring no emotional reward. Her husband, an only child, feels nearly as detached. His mother wasn’t abusive, a completely different scenario, but they were never very close.

Ms. A., as I’ll call her because her mother-in-law reads The Times on her computer, feels miserable about this. “She says she appreciates us, she’s counting on us. She thanks us,” Ms. A. said of her non-loved one. “It makes me feel worse, because I feel guilty.”

She has performed many services for her mother-in-law, who lives in a retirement community, “but I really didn’t want to. I know how grudging it was.”

Call her the Reluctant Caregiver. She and her husband didn’t invite his parents to follow them to the small city where they settled to take jobs. The elders did anyway, and as long as they stayed healthy and active, both couples maintained their own lives. Now that her mother-in-law is widowed and needy, Ms. A feels trapped.

Ashamed, too. She knows lots of adult children work much harder at caregiving yet see it as a privilege. For her, it is mere drudgery. “I don’t feel there’s anybody I can say that to,” she told me — except a friend in Phoenix and, anonymously, to us.

The friend, therapist Randy Weiss, has served as both a reluctant caregiver to her mother, who died very recently at 86, and a willing caregiver to her childless aunt, living in an assisted living dementia unit at 82. Spending time with each of them made Ms. Weiss conscious of the distinction.

Her visits involved many of the same activities, “but it feels very different,” she said. “I feel the appreciation from my aunt, even if she’s much less able to verbalize it.” A cherished confidante since adolescence, her aunt breaks into smiles when Ms. Weiss arrives and exclaims over every small gift, even a doughnut. She worked in the music industry for decades and, despite her memory loss, happily sings along with the jazz CDs Ms. Weiss brings.

Because she had no such connection with her mother, whom Ms. Weiss described as distant and critical, “it’s harder to do what I have to do,” she said. (We spoke before her mother’s death.) “One is an obligation I fulfill out of duty. One is done with love.”

Unlike her friend Ms. A, “I don’t feel guilty that I don’t feel warmly towards my mother,” Ms. Weiss said. “I’ve made my peace.”

Let’s acknowledge that at times almost every caregiver knows exhaustion, anger and resentment.  But to me, reluctant caregivers probably deserve more credit than most. They are not getting any of the good stuff back, no warmth or laughter, little tenderness, sometimes not even gratitude.

Yet they are doing this tough work anyway, usually because no one else can or will. Maybe an early death or a divorce means that the person who would ordinarily have provided care can’t. Or maybe the reluctant caregiver is simply the one who can’t walk away.

“It’s important to acknowledge that every relationship doesn’t come from ‘The Cosby Show,’” said Barbara Moscowitz when I called to ask her about reluctance. Ms. Moscowitz, a senior geriatric social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital, has heard many such tales from caregivers in her clinical practice and support groups.

“We need to allow people to be reluctant,” she said. “It means they’re dutiful; they’re responsible. Those are admirable qualities.”

Yet, she recognizes, “they feel oppressed by the platitudes. ‘Your mother is so lucky to have you!’” Such praise just makes people like Ms. A. squirm.

Ms. Moscowitz also worries about reluctant caregivers, and urges them to find support groups where they can say the supposedly unsay-able, and to sign up early for community services — hotlines, senior centers, day programs, meals on wheels — that can help lighten the load.

“Caregiving only goes one way – it gets harder, more complex,” she said. “Support groups and community resources are like having a first aid kit. It’s going to feel like even more of a burden, and you need to be armed.”

I wonder, too, if reluctant caregivers have a romanticized view of what the task is like for everyone else. Elder care can be a wonderful experience, satisfying and meaningful, but guilt and resentment are also standard parts of the job description, at least occasionally.

For a reluctant caregiver, “the satisfaction is, you haven’t turned your back,” Ms. Moscowitz said. “You can take pride in that.”

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Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

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Office Depot to buy OfficeMax

Office Depot Inc. said on Wednesday that it would buy smaller rival OfficeMax Inc. for $1.17 billion in stock to get more clout with suppliers and better compete against Staples Inc and Amazon.com Inc .

After days of speculation that a deal was close, the news was buried on the fourth page of Office Depot's earnings press release. Nearly an hour after it came out, there was still no mention on OfficeMax's website.

Office Depot will issue 2.69 new shares of common stock for each outstanding common share of OfficeMax. At Tuesday's closing prices, the deal is valued at $13.50 per share, or $1.17 billion, based on 86.7 million shares outstanding as of Oct. 26.

After the merger is completed, Office Depot's board will consist of an equal number of directors chosen by that company and OfficeMax.

The news comes as both companies face pressure from investors to boost profitability and lift their sagging shares.

Analysts say they expect far less pushback from antitrust authorities for this deal than what Office Depot faced in the 1990s, when it tried to merge with Staples, given the changes in the office supply market since then.

Underscoring how tough that business has become, Office Depot reported a fourth-quarter net loss, hurt by a 6 percent decrease in comparable sales at its North American stores and a revenue drop at its unit that serves North American businesses.

Office supply retailers, which are often seen as reflecting overall economic health, have suffered as demand for their products fell in the years after the last U.S. recession led companies to cut spending.

They also face strong competition from the likes of Amazon and Wal-Mart Stores Inc in selling everything from pens and notebooks to furniture and break room supplies to government, businesses and individuals.

SMALL PREMIUM

The offer represented a premium of just under 4 percent to OfficeMax's $13 close. It was not immediately clear if that was enough to satisfy one of the company's largest shareholders, Neuberger Berman, which said earlier this week it would support a deal depending on the terms.

OfficeMax shares rose 9.2 percent to $14.20 in premarket trading. Office Depot was up 10 percent at $5.52, meaning that OfficeMax was still trading below the value of the bid.

The deal, considered long overdue by many on Wall Street, will also give Office Depot and OfficeMax a chance to save hundreds of millions of dollars by closing stores, cutting advertising costs and streamlining their supply chain.

Industry experts have long hoped Office Depot would join hands with OfficeMax to take on Staples, which boosted its international business and clout with suppliers by buying Dutch rival Corporate Express in 2008.

BB&T Capital Markets analyst Anthony Chukumba said the Office Depot-OfficeMax combination would help Staples, however.

"Clearly, you can't make this deal work unless you close a bunch of stores," he said. "Store rationalization is long overdue, and Staples will clearly benefit from just having fewer stores to compete with."

Staples has 39.9 percent of the U.S. office supply market, Office Depot 19.2 percent and OfficeMax holds 15.7 percent, according to Euromonitor International.

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OMX Revenue Quarterly data by YCharts

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Prosecution details 'horrific' murder case against Pistorius

PRETORIA -- "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius put on his artificial legs and walked across his bedroom before firing four handgun rounds into the locked bathroom door, killing his cowering girlfriend in cold blood, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Reeva Steenkamp, a law graduate and model, died after being hit by three rounds, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said.

Pistorius wept uncontrollably in court as Nel outlined details of a shooting that has gripped South Africa and the millions around the world who saw the double amputee's track glory as the ultimate tale of triumph over adversity.

Scores of mourners gathered in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth for Steenkamp's funeral, where the mood was one of grief tinged with anger at the loss of "an angel".

In Pretoria central magistrate's court, defense lawyer Barry Roux disputed the murder charge, saying the facts surrounding the shooting in the early hours of Thursday were unclear.

"All we really know is she locked herself behind the toilet door and she was shot," he told the packed courtroom.

However, the prosecution painted a picture of premeditated killing - a crime that carries a life sentence in South Africa.

"If I arm myself, walk a distance and murder a person, that is premeditated," he said. "The door is closed. There is no doubt. I walk seven meters and I kill."

"The motive is 'I want to kill'. That's it," he added. "This deceased was in a 1.4 by 1.14 meter little room. She could go nowhere. It must have been horrific."

The arrest of Pistorius, 26, stunned the millions who had watched in awe last year as the Olympic and Paralympic sprinter reached the semi-final of the 400 meters in the London Olympics, running on high-technology carbon fiber 'blades'.

Initial reports suggested he might have mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder - a possibility in crime-ridden South Africa and a version Pistorius told his sister immediately after the shooting, Nel said.

The prosecution countered this theory by saying Steenkamp's overnight bag had been found in the bedroom of the plush two-storey home in a gated compound north of Pretoria.

Later, in an affidavit read out by defense lawyer Barry Roux, Pistorius said he had been "deeply in love" with Steenkamp and had no intention of killing her.

'ROT IN JAIL'

Dressed in a dark suit, Pistorius arrived at the court in a police car shortly before 7 a.m. (0500 GMT). Proceedings were delayed as more than 100 journalists from around the world jostled to get into the dimly lit, brick-face courtroom.

The case has drawn further attention to endemic violence against women in South Africa after the gang-rape, mutilation and murder of a 17-year-old near Cape Town this month.

Members of the Women's League of the ruling African National Congress protested outside the building, waving placards saying: "No Bail for Pistorius" and "Rot in jail".

At Steenkamp's cremation in the windswept Victoria Park Crematorium in Port Elizabeth, sorrow mingled with outrage.

"She was an angel. She was so soft, so innocent. Such a lovely person. It's just sad that this could happen to somebody so good," said Gavin Venter, an ex-jockey who worked for Steenkamp's father.

"I'm disgusted with what he did. He must be dealt with harshly," he added. "Without a doubt he's a danger to the public. He'll be a danger to witnesses. He must stay in jail."

After the hour-long private ceremony in the cream-colored hill-top church, Steenkamp's brother Adam and uncle Mike, fighting back tears, spoke briefly to reporters.

"There's a space missing inside all the people that she knew that can't be filled again," Adam Steenkamp said. "We are going to keep all the positive things that we remember and know about my sister. We will miss her."

The case has gripped sports-mad South Africa, where Pistorius was seen as a rare hero who had transcended the racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.

Pistorius' endorsements and sponsorships, which include sportswear giant Nike, British telecoms firm BT, sunglasses maker Oakley and French designer Thierry Mugler, are thought to be worth as much as $2 million a year.

Nike said on Monday it had dropped Pistorius from any future advertising campaigns. Other sponsors have said they will make no decisions until the legal process has run its course.

Pistorius has cancelled scheduled track appearances in Australia, Brazil and Britain in the coming months to focus on his attempt to clear his name.

Born without a fibula in either leg, Pistorius had his lower legs amputated as an 11-month-old baby but became the highest-profile athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games.

In last year's Paralympics he suffered his first loss over 200 meters in nine years. After the race he questioned the legitimacy of Brazilian winner Alan Oliveira's prosthetic blades, but was quick to express regret for the comments.

Reuters

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National Briefing | South: Abortion Curbs Clear Senate in Arkansas

The State Senate voted 25 to 7 on Monday to ban most abortions 20 weeks into a pregnancy. The measure goes back to the House to consider an amendment that added exceptions for rape and incest. The legislation is based on the belief that fetuses can feel pain 20 weeks into a pregnancy, and is similar to bans in several other states. Opponents say it would require mothers to deliver babies with fatal conditions. Gov. Mike Beebe has said he has constitutional concerns about the proposal but has not said whether he will veto it.

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Second major hotel planned for McCormick area

The agency that owns McCormick Place announced Tuesday it will build a second hotel near the convention center complex, with plans calling for a 1,200-room facility that can serve as a headquarters for trade shows and conventions.

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, also known as McPier, said it is acquiring land for the $400 million project, which will be located between Indiana and Michigan, along the south side of Cermak.

The announcement was made jointly with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn. McPier has made it known for some time that it was drawing up plans to add to hotel and entertainment offerings in the area to better compete with rival cities such as Orlando and Las Vegas.

The hotel will operate in cooperation with McPier's existing hotel on the convention campus, the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, which is undergoing a major expansion.

kbergen@tribune.com | Twitter@kathy_bergen

 

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2 questioned in fatal shooting of Chicago teen

Janay McFarlane, 18, was shot on the way to a store, the same day Obama spoke on gun violence.

Two people are being questioned in connection with the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Chicago woman who was killed Friday, the same day her sister attended President Barack Obama's speech on gun violence, officials said Sunday.

An 18-year-old man and a 20-year-old man are considered persons of interest in the homicide investigation and are being questioned by North Chicago police and officials from the Lake County State's Attorney's Office in connection with the death of Janay McFarlane, according to a statement released Sunday afternoon by North Chicago police.

The men were arrested after McFarlane was shot at about 11:30 p.m. Friday on the  1300 block of Jackson Avenue in the northern suburb.

Angela Blakely, McFarlane’s mother, said she knew few details about the investigation but was encouraged by the news of the arrests.

“I’m just hoping that they do find out who did this to my baby, so they can pay for the crime they committed,” she said.

Blakely urged anyone with information about the killing to talk with police.

McFarlane, 18, of the 8900 block of South Lowe Avenue, was in North Chicago visiting family and friends and was walking with friends when she was shot, according Blakely. McFarlane was walking with friends, one of whom may have been the intended target, Blakely said.

When police responded to a call of shots being fired in the area they found McFarlane fatally shot, police said. They canvassed the area and were tipped off to the men who were taken in for questioning, according to police.

McFarlane was killed just hours after her sister, Destini Warren, 14, had attended President Barack Obama's speech against gun violence Friday.

Blakely, the mother of both girls, said that the family had been anticipating the President's visit to the school where Destini is a freshman.

Leading up to the visit, McFarlane frequently mentioned the recent death of Hadiya Pendleton, 15, whose own shooting death a mile from the Obama's home spurred the President's visit.

"It's terrible, it's terrible the only thing I can remember is my daughter telling me, 'Mommy, it's so sad about Hadiya. That makes no sense,' " Blakely said. "She always asked me a lot of questions about death."

The speech resonated even more when her family got the call from McFarlane's father in North Chicago, who told Destini that her sister was dead, she said.

"It was like real painful," said Destini, her voice choking back tears.

North Chicago officials said McFarlane's killing is the first in the northern suburb since October. The October slaying was the only homicide for the town last year.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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