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Having that second cup may actually be good for coffee drinkers, according to a discussion of coffee's preventive and therapeutic benefits to human health in a recent review. Research showed the mechanisms of action of coffee are complex and dependent on the effects of its constituents, including chlorogenic acids, polyphenolics, terpenoids, alkaloids and other phytochemicals. "We also found evidence that the antioxidant activity of coffee, which activates the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2, or Nrf2, may be an important mechanism of action," Davidson said. They found evidence protective effects of coffee in the gut decreased colon cancer risk, which...

Short Video Clip....Due to Fox News reporting, the ones injured at Ft. Hood will receive full health benefits as well as their purple hearts. Thank God.

Hundreds of people, many of them union members, turned out at the State House on Thursday to oppose a bill that would save the state and municipalities a significant amount of money by cutting retiree health benefits for public employees. Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed the bill as a way to address the approximately $46 billion unfunded liability for retiree health benefits faced by state and municipal governments. “Modifications to retiree health care coverage are essential to keep the system sustainable for future state and municipal career employees and to maintain core government services for future generations,” said Secretary...

Chris Christie gets it -- and he didn't need the Tea Party to inspire him. Christie has been shaking up New Jersey since Day One, and now he's done it again -- proposing an unprecedented tightening of pension and health-care benefits for public employees, in order to shore up a system that's teetering at the edge of bankruptcy. He wants to raise the normal retirement age for teachers and most state and municipal workers to 65, requiring 30 years service for early retirement instead of 25. Police would have to work 30 years for full retirement, but could retire early...

This is a big deal because taxing health benefits is the biggest possible piggy-bank the Dems can break to pay for ObamaCare. Without it, the whole thing may fall under its own weight. The Senators talked to constituents (or at least read some polls) over the Independence Day break and found, shockingly, that people don't like the idea of a huge tax increase.

Doug Forrester, the Republican businessman who lost the governor's race to Jon Corzine in 2005, has launched a new health benefits company for public-sector employees, unions and small businesses in New Jersey.   Called Integrity Health, it is designed to fix the problems Forrester and his wife encountered when their teenage daughter suffered a traumatic brain injury and soon after was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. "I had to hire somebody to figure out the bills," said Forrester, who, as state director of pensions, ran the state's employee benefit program for six years until 1990. "The bills are impenetrable. A lot...

Equality for All by: Melinda Zosh, June 20, 2008 Not all of the gay couples across America flocked to California to tie the knot on Tuesday. Some stayed in Washington, D.C. to lobby for health benefits. Openly gay U.S. Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) spoke at the Center for American Progress (CAP) on June 10. Baker supports the Lieberman-Smith Bill, which would give rights to gay partners of federal employees, including her own partner of 12 years. And she is not alone. “216,000 federal employees are denied benefits that others have such as health care and access…to medical leave,” said Winnie...

San Diegans will think this sounds awfully familiar: Eager to avoid making politically difficult decisions and happy to saddle future generations with debt, the state of California has been grossly and systematically underfunding promised benefits for retired employees for years. That's the core truth to emerge from an audit of promised health insurance coverage for state retirees released yesterday by Controller John Chiang. It put total unfunded liabilities at $47.88 billion. State leaders will pretend they had no idea the problem was this severe and will thank Chiang for enlightening them. But it has been an open secret for years...

California may have to come up with an extra $47.9 billion over the next 30 years to cover health and dental benefits for its retirees and current state employees, Controller John Chiang said Monday. But Chiang said the state could cut that bill to about $31.3 billion if it dropped its pay-as-you-go approach, invested about $1 billion a year to help cover future retiree health costs and used the earnings to ease the impact on the state budget. "Our actuarial report shows that, annually, if we continue on the pay-as-you-go basis, we will accrue a liability of $3.59 billion a...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday he will appoint a bipartisan commission to study the growing cost of funding state public pensions and retiree health benefits. The governor said the mounting costs, mostly due to health care, "remain one of the biggest problems facing governments everywhere" and threaten to take money away from education, public safety, environmental protection and health care for the poor. Over time, the state will have to come up with between $40 and $70 billion to pay for the health benefits promised to retired state workers, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. To do that, the...

AFA Lawyer Denounces University's New Pro-Homosexual Healthcare Policy By Jim Brown January 27, 2006 (AgapePress) - A constitutional attorney says the University of Florida (UF) is seeking to advance a radical pro-homosexual agenda with its new healthcare plan for employees. Under the UF plan, the so-called "domestic partners" of both homosexual and heterosexual employees are eligible for health insurance coverage as long as they are having sex. In order to qualify, employees must declare they are involved in a "non-platonic" relationship. Steve Crampton, chief counsel with the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, says, in this case, homosexuality...

When a deputy sheriff came to his door with a court summons, George Kneifel, a retiree in Union Mills, Ind., was mystified. His former employer was suing him. The employer, beverage-can maker Rexam Inc., had agreed in labor contracts to provide retirees with health-care coverage. But now the company was asking a federal judge to rule that it could reduce or eliminate the benefit. Many companies have already cut back company-paid health-care coverage for retirees from their salaried staffs. But until recently, employers generally were barred from touching unionized retirees' benefits because they are spelled out in labor contracts. Now,...

The Department of Defense announced today that it will implement the “2004 Temporary Reserve Health Benefit Program” for certain eligible Reserve Component sponsors and their family members. The Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2004 authorized new health benefits, some permanent and some temporary. The 2004 Temporary Reserve Health Benefit Program includes three temporary Tricare benefit provisions; some are effective as of Nov. 6, 2003, and all expire Dec. 31, 2004. Total expenditures for these new provisions may not exceed the $400 million limit established by Congress for fiscal 2004. Tricare Management Activity...

Conservative Talk Show host Joe Crummey is taking calls concerning the latest news about the grocery store lock-out and strike. Union officials were in Los Angeles yesterday to discuss current negotiations. Joe Crummey believes the grocery store strikers are being misled by their Union. He suggests that workers re-read their contract. Page 12 of their contract says that workers get $4.04 (company paid insurance benefit per hour) for every hour they work. Mentions also that civil disobedience has now been suggested by a sympathetic union supporter.

Republican lawmakers are doing their best to try to force Gov. Jim Doyle into a corner on same-sex relationships. But they didn't have to. Doyle's already done it for them. In contract negotiations with state employee unions, the Doyle administration is quietly pushing to provide, for the first time, health insurance for the live-in partners of state government workers, whether the couple is of the same or opposite sexes. Karen Timberlake, the chief negotiator for Doyle's team, said now is the time for the state to take what is sure to be a controversial step. "This is an issue the...

In April last year, TRICARE stopped a $12 co-payment for doctor visits by active duty family members using TRICARE Prime, the military’s managed health care plan. Six months later, service elderly gained access to TRICARE for Life, the ``golden supplement’’ to Medicare. Between these two populations of generally satisfied beneficiaries are three million military retirees, family members and survivors under age 65. According to a ``White Paper’’ drawing attention on Capitol Hill and at TRICARE headquarters, many of these younger retirees are bitter, frustrated and clamoring for their own health care reforms. Two thirds of them, about 1.9 million beneficiaries,...

Editor moves political signFriday, July 26, 2002THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAY CITY -- An editor at The Bay City Times returned to work Thursday after her husband agreed to remove a banner from their yard advertising his candidacy for county commissioner. Jalene Jameson, assistant metro editor for features at The Times, went on unpaid leave July 18 after the paper's editor told her she could not work there while a campaign sign was posted in her yard. The Times prohibits its journalists from political activity, including running for office, working on campaigns, making political donations or displaying campaign bumper stickers or...