Another Reason for Hope? - Concern about Excessive Executive Pay in Health Care Goes Mainstream

Another recent case suggested that the problem of excess, disproportionate <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/executive%20compensation">compensation of health care executives</a> is becoming more of a mainstream concern. <br /><br /><b>The Case of Eastern Connecticut Health Network </b><br /><br />The case appeared in the Manchester (CT) Journal-Inquirer (<a href="http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2013/02/22/politics_and_government/doc51263d0334cdf093796210.txt">link</a> requires subscription).  Here are the basics:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">ECHN Inc., which owns Mancester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals, reported to the IRS last year that the company <i>paid its president and CEO, Peter J Karl, a total of <b>$1,042,200</b> in salary and fringe benefits.</i>  <i>That's a 30.7 percent increase</i> over Karl's compensation reported in the previous year,....<br /><br />ECHN also reported that six other top executives were<i> paid between $254,640 and $591,090, representing increases of as much as 20.6 percent.</i> </blockquote><br />ECHN is yet another relatively small non-profit hospital system with a million dollar plus CEO.<br /><br />For comment on this, I turn back to the Journal-Inquirer article.  One person the reporter interviewed<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">says the big salaries and bonuses paid to top officials at Eastern Connecticut Health Network are <i>part of a national scandal over executive compensation</i> propelled by the '<i>pursuit of talent for short-term gains.</i>'<br /><br />'The hospital industry is emblematic of what's happened in executive compensation in the United States, where the multiple of the lowest- paid employee to get to the salary of the highest-paid employee has just exploded over the last 30 years,'....</blockquote><br />Furthermore, the person interviewed noted that hospital executives were bemoaning decreases in payments to their institutions by state government "while making 10 to 20 times as much money as" the state governor makes.  In this case, the CEO, Mr Karl's "compensation package was 6.9 times [Governor Daniel P] Malloy's salary of $150,000."<br /><br />A second person interviewed said<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Salaries have gotten to the point where they have skyrocketed and are<i> out of control.</i></blockquote><br />He also raised an issue about conflicts of interest affecting the ECHN board<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">he agreed with state health care advocate, Victoria Veltri, who told the Journal Inquirer last week that nearly <i>$1 million in business deals between ECHN and five members of its board of trustees</i> require further scrutiny</blockquote><b>Criticism from the Mainstream</b><br /><br />I have been coy about who the commentators were, but bear with me. <br /><br />So we see in this one somewhat obscure newspaper article about one small regional hospital system points that we have been raising for years about the perverse incentives generated by excess executive compensation in health care.  We have frequently discussed how such compensation is often completely untethered to the organizations' financial results, much less its positive effects on patients' and the public's health.  Compensation often rises faster than inflation, faster than revenue (and sometimes when revenue declines and deficits loom), and even when the organization is facing financial, clinical, or ethical challenges.  Thus it often seems that the primary goal of the organization has become enriching top executives (look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/02/non-profit-hospital-executive-salaries.html">here</a> for a recent example).  As the first commentator noted above, this seems to arise out of the business school dogma that puts short-term revenue ahead of all other goals (which we discussed <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/04/health-care-dysfunction-explained-by.html">here,</a> and can be termed <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/financialization">financialization</a>.)<br /><br />But our concerns do seem to be getting more mainstream.  The first commentator above was actually the <i>Governor of Connecticut, Dannel P Malloy,</i> himself.  The second commenter was <i>Connecticut state Senator Steve Cassano.</i>  So prominent politicians are beginning to see the perversity of excess executive compensation in health care at a time of still burgeoning health care costs and still threatened health care access and quality. <br /><br />So maybe some more people will listen this time when we repeat....  Health care organizations need leaders that uphold the core values of health care, and focus on and are accountable for the mission, not on secondary responsibilities that conflict with these values and their mission, and not on self-enrichment. Leaders ought to be rewarded reasonably, but not lavishly, for doing what ultimately improves patient care, or when applicable, good education and good research. On the other hand, those who authorize, direct and implement bad behavior ought to suffer negative consequences sufficient to deter future bad behavior.<br /><br />If we do not fix the severe problems affecting the leadership and governance of health care, and do not increase accountability, integrity and transparency of health care leadership and governance, we will be as much to blame as the leaders when the system collapses. <br /><br />

Another Reason for Hope? - Concern about Excessive Executive Pay in Health Care Goes Mainstream

Another recent case suggested that the problem of excess, disproportionate compensation of health care executives is becoming more of a mainstream concern. The Case of Eastern Connecticut Health Netwo…

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For Whom Does the Center for the Protection of Patient Rights Advocate?

We have occasionally discussed the cases of  some patient advocacy organizations which seem to be influenced by substantial financial support from the health care industry.  For example, look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/patient%20advocacy%20groups">here</a> and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/NAMI">here</a>.  Related are "astroturf" organizations, which promote policies that may be favored by their industrial sponsors (e.g., <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/11/cultivating-astroturf.html">here</a>.) <br /><br /><strong>Background on the Center for Protection of Patient Rights</strong><br /><br />The topic of this post is the Center for Protection of Patient Rights, which may have started out as something like an astroturf organization, but seems to have become something even more interesting.  The Center, which, by the way, seems not to have a web-site, was the subject of an <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-secret-money-20120528,0,7342535,full.story">investigative report</a> in the Los Angeles Times in May, 2012.  Here is the article's description of how the Center began,<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">The Center to Protect Patient Rights was created in April 2009, just as the debate over the healthcare bill was heating up. The group's mission was to 'protect the rights of patients to choose and use medical care providers,' according to its corporate paperwork, filed in Maryland.<br /><br />While never surfacing publicly, the center sent more than $10 million in its first year to groups such as Americans for Prosperity, which took a lead in protesting the measure.<br /><br />'I think they saw what we were doing and liked it,' said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, which got $4.1 million. He said he did not know the source of the center's funding and declined to comment on whether it still supports his group.</blockquote><br />So this group supported an advocacy position about health care reform, so perhaps it could be considered an astroturf organization, were we to know it was funded by the health care industry.  Many astroturf organizations do reveal support from particular corporations.  However, at the time the Los Angeles Times published the report, the source of the Center's funding was unknown.  <br /><br /><strong>Secretive Leadership</strong><br /><br />Furthermore, while astroturf organizations may be eager to get more public notice, presumably so they can further their advocacy, the Center seemed oddly secretive.  Its executive director and president is one Sean Nobel.  However, as the LA Times article noted, <br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><em>Noble did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails. Courtney Koshar, a Phoenix anesthesiologist and the organization's only other director, did not respond to requests for comment. And a Phoenix doctor who once sat on its board said he couldn't remember who asked him to join.</em><br /><br />'I honestly played very little role,' said Dr. Eric Novack, who headed an organization called the US Health Freedom Coalition that received nearly its entire budget — $1.7 million — from the center to help pass a state ballot measure that aimed to block President Obama's healthcare overhaul.</blockquote><br /><strong>Support for Political Organizations, not Health Care Advocacy</strong><br /><br />Even more curiously, despite its name, the most of the Center's spending was not for advocacy about health care reform, but went to organizations that  seemed to have little or nothing directly to do with health.  As the Times reported, <br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">During the 2010 midterm election, the center sent more than $55 million to 26 GOP [Grand Old Party, that is, Republican Party] -allied groups, tax filings show, funding opaque outfits such as American Future Fund, 60 Plus and Americans for Job Security that were <em>behind a coordinated campaign against Democratic congressional candidates.</em></blockquote>It seemed that these grants were used for nothing that directly related to health.  For example,<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">The <em>largest share of the center's money went to American Future Fund</em>, a Des Moines-based group started by onetime GOP congressional aide Nick Ryan. The fund, which <em>ran campaigns against two dozen Democrats in the 2010 election cycle, spent $23 million that period, tax filings show, with nearly $13 million coming from the center.</em><br /><br /><em>Its biggest target was an up-and-coming Iowa Democrat</em>, Rep. Bruce Braley. In August 2010, American Future Fund launched an ad falsely claiming that Braley supported building a mosque at the former World Trade Center site in New York — the beginning of a $2-million fusillade that included radio ads, robo-calls and nine mailers. </blockquote><br />A list of the recipients of the Center's 2010 grants was also publised in the LA Times <a href="http://spreadsheets.latimes.com/cppr-funding/">here</a>.<br /><br /><strong>Where Did the Center Get its Support?</strong><br /><br />Just before this week's US election, the plot thickened.  The LA Times <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/05/local/la-me-secret-donors-20121106">reported </a>that because of the Center's obviously political activities in California, an effort was made to determine its source of funding, but that came up short.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">After a frantic court battle, state election officials succeeded Monday in <em>forcing an Arizona group to disclose the identities of contributors that provided $11 million to a California campaign fund.</em><br /><br />But the revelations added little clarity for voters. <em>The mystery donors turned out to be other nonprofits, whose individual contributors remained secret.</em><br /><br /><em>The money started with the Virginia-based Americans for Job Security and was transferred to a group called the Center to Protect Patient Rights. Over the course of a few days in October it was sent to the Arizona group, Americans for Responsible Leadership, and then transferred again to California.</em><br /><br />Finding the source of the money 'becomes daunting,' said Derek Cressman of Common Cause, an activist organization that filed the original complaint about the donation. 'How many layers can you drill through?'</blockquote><br />Note that in 2010, the Center for Protection of Patient Rights gave money to the Americans for Job Security, but in 2012, the latter organization gave money to the former - curiouser and curiouser.  <br /><br /><strong>Allegations of Illegalities, Including Money Laundering</strong><br /><br />It turns out the Americans for Job Security has been in trouble before for activities that seemed contrary to state election law:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Americans for Job Security, one of the nonprofits involved in the $11-million donation, was investigated by Alaskan officials for its role in a 2008 mining referendum.<br /><br />Authorities concluded that the organization's <em>'sole purpose is to allow individuals and corporations to financially support various causes without having to disclose that financial support.</em>'<br /><br />That investigation showed how a wealthy landowner sent $2 million to the group, which then funneled most of it back to Alaska to try to fend off construction of a mine near the landowner's property.<br /><br /><em>Americans for Job Security agreed to a settlement, paying a $20,000 fine and pledging 'not to engage in similar activity'</em> again in Alaska.</blockquote><br />In addition, the Mercury News<a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/elections/ci_21932215/fppc-releases-names-donors-who-made-secret-11"> reported</a> allegations that the fund transfers by the Committee for the Protection of Patient Rights were illegal.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">two conservative groups, <em>Americans for Job Security and the Center to Protect Patient Rights, are part of a tangled web of so-called dark donors who operate largely out of public view, shielded by their status as nonprofit advocacy groups that are supposedly not involved primarily in politics.</em><br /><br />While the groups have been identified, however, individual donors who have bankrolled them remain a mystery.<br /><br />But 'this isn't going to stop here,' said Ann Ravel, chairwoman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state's political watchdog. <em><strong>'They admitted to money laundering</strong></em>. We agreed to do this without an audit because we wanted to get information to the public before the election. But we in no way agreed this would preclude further action.'<br /><br />The FPPC determined that the Arizona group, Americans for Responsible Leadership, had violated California campaign law.<br /><br /><em>Money laundering -- sending money through multiple sources to conceal the original donor -- is a misdemeanor. But a conspiracy to commit money laundering is a felony</em>. It was not clear Monday whether the FPPC or the state Attorney General's Office will pursue criminal charges.</blockquote><br /><strong>Summary</strong><br /><br />So the answer to the question posed in the title of this post is unknown.  At this point, there is nothing public that indicates for whom the Center for Protection of Patient Rights advocates.  However, it is hard to conceive that its advocacy is for patients.  <br /><br />So rather than merely being an astroturf organization (a health care policy advocacy group funded by industry money), the benignly named Center for the Protection of Patient Rights appears to be a dark money group whose goals may have allegedly included money laundering to facilitate vast monetary influence on political campaigns by people and organizations whose identities remain secret.<br /><br />We have often discussed the role of deception in health care, including <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/stealth%20marketing">stealth marketing</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/stealth%20health%20policy%20advocacy">stealth public policy advocacy</a>, and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/stealth%20lobbying">stealth lobbying</a>.  Now we see health care being used as a vehicle for political deception, stealth political campaigns being disguised as stealth public relations campaigns.  The convolutions of the deceptions induce dizziness.  <br /><br />Of course, this is the opposite of the sorts of transparency health care professionals and academics ought to support, and patients and the public ought to demand.  How will we ever improve health care when health care organizations are used to hide layer upon layer of deception?<br /><br />Real improvements in health care require health care leadership dedicated to transparency, honesty, and accountability. 

For Whom Does the Center for the Protection of Patient Rights Advocate?

We have occasionally discussed the cases of  some patient advocacy organizations which seem to be influenced by substantial financial support from the health care industry.  For example, look here and…

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Majority of the Public Wants Politicians Who Will Root Out Corporate Corruption

Here is a story that makes me unusually optimistic, at least about the wisdom of the people at large. Reuters <a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/19/us-usa-campaign-corporatewrongdoing-poll-idINBRE88I11E20120919">reported </a>on a new poll,   <br /><blockquote>With less than two months to go before the U.S. presidential election, a new survey found <em>61 percent of Americans say a candidate's commitment to rooting out corporate wrongdoing will be key in deciding who gets their vote.</em><br /><br />Along with keen interest in knowing each candidate's plans to fix the struggling economy, voters want government to do more to fight corporate misconduct - which they say helped cause the financial crisis.<br /><br />'In these difficult economic times, Americans are mad as hell about corporate wrongdoing and are going to do something about it in the November elections and beyond,' said Jordan Thomas, a partner at law firm Labaton Sucharow, which commissioned the survey and which represents corporate whistleblowers.<br /><br />A telephone poll of 1,015 people conducted from August 16-19 found that <em>64 percent of Americans said corporate misconduct helped bring about the current economic crisis</em>.<br /><br />And <em>81 percent of respondents said the government has not done enough to stop corporate wrongdoing</em>.</blockquote><br />Furthermore,<br /><blockquote><em>77 percent of respondents saying they believe politicians favor corporate interests over constituent interests</em>.<br /><br />Some <em>63 percent of Americans believe government should make more money available to regulators and law enforcement to eliminate corporate wrongdoing</em>.</blockquote><br />This is really amazing in its contrast to the usual received wisdom in all its cynicism. <br /><br />We on <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/">Health Care Renewal</a> have been railing about misbehavior and outright criminal behavior by major health care organizations and their leaders for a long time.  In 2008, the global financial collapse shocked us into awareness that the problems in health care actually parallel perhaps worse problems in <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/finance">finance</a>.  Yet while numerous <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/legal%20settlements">legal settlements</a> documented the continuing epidemic of bad behavior in health care, the relatively small penalties they entailed, generally limited to corporate fines that could be viewed as costs of doing business, and to toothless <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/corporate%20integrity%20agreement">corporate integrity agreements</a> seemed to do little to deter future bad behavior.  Again, since 2008 there were parallels in the world of finance.   As Oscar winning producer of Inside Job Charles Ferguson complained, no one went to jail for financial misbehavior either.<br /><br />In health care, the <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/anechoic%20effect">anechoic effect</a> dampened public discussion of bad leadership, including <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/crime">criminally</a> bad leadership as a major cause of health care dysfunction.  While we have been calling for more serious efforts to deter bad behavior at least since 2008 (look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/07/amerigroup-settles.html">here</a>), our position seemed very lonely.  It took until last week for arguably the most prestigious US medical journal to run an article suggesting that leaders of health care corporations that commit fraud ought to go to jail (look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/09/twilight-of-anechoic-effect-new-england.html">here</a>).<br /><br />Yet it may be that the general public has been paying attention to this issue even if policy makers and political leaders have not.  The brief Rueters article did not make it clear whether these poll results only apply to wrongdoing by financial corporations and their leaders, or to all corporations and their leaders. Even if it were the former, the results were certainly striking, suggesting a majority of Americans now identify corporate corruption, and its influence on politics as a major, maybe the major problem for this country. That might lead to some interesting election outcomes, especially since very few US politicians seem to have taken any sort of stand against corporate corruption, at least to my knowledge.<br /><br />If there is so much public awareness of the problem of bad corporate leadership, corporate misdeeds, and corporate corruption of politics, I can only hope that it will translate into awareness of these problems as they affect health care. As I <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/09/biovail-settles-and-judge-explains-why.html">wrote</a> in 2009, not long after Pfizer's mere $2.3 billion settlement,...   "Until the people responsible for the bad behavior experience negative consequences from that behavior, they will continue to perform, direct, and condone bad behavior. We will not achieve real health care reform in the US until we effectively deter unethical, self-serving behavior by leaders of health care organizations."  We can start realistically anticipating real health care reform once we get some politicians in office who are committed to "rooting out corporate wrongdoing." 

Majority of the Public Wants Politicians Who Will Root Out Corporate Corruption

Here is a story that makes me unusually optimistic, at least about the wisdom of the people at large. Reuters reported on a new poll,   With less than two months to go before the U.S. presidential ele…

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US Presidential Candidates' Financial Relationships with Health Care Organizations

As the leadership of the large field of Republican candidates for the US Presidency shifts, different candidates come in for increased media scrutiny.  Recently, reporting about former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum focused on his financial relationships with a health care organization. Senator Santorum, however, is only the candidate with ties to health care organizations to come into the spotlight most recently.  We will review the report on Santorum, and then summarize the publicly known relationships of the other candidates.<br /><br /><b>Republican Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Universal Health Services<br /></b><br />The relationship was first revealed by <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-09/santorum-becomes-millionaire-in-six-years-after-u-s-senate-loss.html">Bloomberg</a>,<br /><blockquote>Santorum’s greatest financial gain came from $395,414 in director fees and stock options he listed in a recent financial disclosure.<br /><br />The fees and options came from King of Prussia-based Universal Health Services Inc., a publicly traded health-care management company....<br /></blockquote><br />Senator Santorum started on his board service in 2006. He resigned in June, 2011, when he started his campaign for the presidency. <br /><br />Note that while Santorum served on the board, the company was accused of ethical missteps:<br /><blockquote>The Justice Department accused the company in a 2010 lawsuit of submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims under the Medicaid health-care program for the poor. The government said the company falsely claimed to have provided inpatient psychiatric services to children at a detention facility in Marion, Virginia. Pantaleoni said the case has been settled.<br /><br />The company has also risked losing certification to receive Medicare reimbursement for medical centers that it owns.<br /><br />According to a release on the UHS website, the Rancho Springs Medical Center and Inland Valley Regional Medical Center in Riverside County regained their certification in November after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services threatened to terminate their provider agreement in June 2010. The state of California had also threatened to revoke the group’s hospital license.<br /><br />It wasn’t the first time UHS risked losing certification for one of its facilities. In late September 2008, CMS terminated participation in Medicare for the Two Rivers Psychiatric Hospital in Kansas City. It’s a decision that led to a court appeal and settlement requiring Two Rivers to retain an outside monitor for six months.<br /></blockquote><br />Thus, Senator Santorum was on the board of a for-profit hospital corporation until just before he became a presidential candidate. While he was on the board, the company allegedly committed unethical actions.<br /><br /><b>Republican Former Georgia Congressman Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich and the Center for Health Transformation and its Numerous Corporate Sponsors<br /></b><br />A few weeks ago, we <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/12/health-care-policy-of-insiders-by.html">posted</a> about Congressman Gingrich's operation of a health care consulting firm, the Center for Health Transformation. It had relationships with a long list of major health care organizations, including Allscripts, the American Hospital Association, AstraZeneca, Blue Cross Blue Shield, GE Healthcare, Gundersen Lutheran Health System, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/Johnson%20and%20Johnson">Johnson and Johnson</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/Pfizer">Pfizer</a>, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers' of America, Siemens, and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/WellPoint">WellPoint</a>. At a minimum, the Center helped some of these organizations try to influence health care policy to favor their vested interests in the guise of promoting health policy solutions. <br /><br />The juxtaposition of the stories about Senator Santorum's and Congressman Gingrich's financial ties to health care organizations suggested we review whether other current candidates also had such ties. Some quick searching revealed that some others did. We will review the other current major candidates below, starting with the other Republicans, in alphabetical order.<br /><br /><b>Republican Former Utah Governor Jonathan Huntsman Jr<br /></b><br />I could not find any publicly reported relevant relationships.<br /><br /><b>Republican Texas Congressman Dr Ronald E Paul<br /></b><br />Dr Paul is a physician, an obstetrics-gynecology specialist. According to Wikipedia, he apparently practiced until his current stint in the Congress began in 1996. I could not find any publicly reported relevant relationships. <br /><br /><b>Republican Texas Governor James Richard "Rick" Perry and Merck<br /></b><br />In September, 2011, Governor Perry's prominence in the campaign caused a reconsideration of his relationship to Merck. As MSNBC <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44442051/ns/politics/t/perrys-merck-link-spotlight-following-vaccine-order/#.TwtMfoHfWSo">reported</a>, <br /><blockquote>On the campaign trail, Perry had recently apologized for the executive order-which would have made Texas the first state in the country to mandate that all teenage girls, starting with 12-year-old sixth graders, be vaccinated with Gardasil. <br /></blockquote><br />Gardisil is made by Merck. Then candidate Representative Michele Bachmann noted that Governor Perry had received campaign contributions from Merck. As the Los Angeles Times <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/13/news/la-pn-perry-merck-campaign-cash-20110913">reported</a>, <br /><blockquote>In fact, Merck PAC — the company’s Washington, D.C.-based political action committee — has given Perry $28,500 since 2001, according to Texas Ethics Commission filings.<br /><br />The bulk of that money came before 2007, when the governor signed an executive order mandating all sixth-grade girls in the state to receive the Gardasil vaccine against HPV. <br /></blockquote><br />However, Governor Perry had another tie to Merck, as noted by MSNBC,<br /><blockquote>Perry's order came after the drug company that manufactured the vaccine hired Mike Toomey, his former chief of staff, as one of the firm's top lobbyists in Austin.<br /><br />Toomey, who is now running the main 'super pac' backing Perry's candidacy, was retained by pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., maker of the Gardasil vaccine, which is designed to prevent the human papillomavirus, or HPV, an infection linked to cervical cancer in women. <br /><br />His hiring was part of an aggressive lobbying push in Texas by the drug company, which also donated $16,000 to Perry's gubernatorial campaigns in the two and a half years prior to the executive order. Merck paid Toomey between $260,000 and $535,000 in lobbying fees between 2005 and 2010, according to state lobbying records.<br /><br />Although Perry's GOP foes never brought up the connection during the debate, Democratic political operatives and a public watchdog group said Thursday his association with Merck is likely to be emerge as a prime example of Perry's 'crony capitalism,' should he win the GOP nomination.<br /></blockquote><br />Although there were no reports that Governor Perry personally financially benefited from a relationship with Merck, the company paid substantial amounts to his campaign and to an organization he ran, and to his former chief of staff. There seems to be at least a reason to think that these relationships had something to do with a decision he made that lead to increased sales of a Merck product, and which he now regrets.<br /><br /><b>Republican Former Massachusetts Governor Willard Mitt Romney and Bain Capital and Numerous Health Care Corporations<br /></b><br />Today's Wall Street Journal <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204331304577140850713493694.html">summarized</a> the investments made by Bain Capital, a venture capital and private equity firm lead by Governor Romney,<br /><blockquote>The Wall Street Journal, aiming for a comprehensive assessment, examined 77 businesses Bain invested in while Mr. Romney led the firm from its 1984 start until early 1999, to see how they fared during Bain's involvement and shortly afterward.<br /><br />Among the findings: 22% either filed for bankruptcy reorganization or closed their doors by the end of the eighth year after Bain first invested, sometimes with substantial job losses. An additional 8% ran into so much trouble that all of the money Bain invested was lost. <br /></blockquote><br />Of the 10 firms that produced the biggest returns for Bain, four were involved in health care, PhysioControl, Waters, Dade, and Wesley Jessen VisionCare. Dade, a medical diagnostics company, went bankrupt in 2002.<br /><br />Furthermore, in 2007, the Boston Globe (<a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/680195957/Plenty-of-pitting-preceded-Romneys-profits.html">via the Deseret News</a>) reported on Governor Romney's private equity career, including his involvement with a company that had its ethical challenge,<br /><blockquote>Bain Capital's 1989 purchase of Damon Corp., a Needham medical testing firm that later pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government of $25 million and paid a record $119 million fine.<br /><br />Romney sat on Damon's board. During Romney's tenure, Damon executives submitted bills to the government for millions of unnecessary blood tests. Romney and other board members were never implicated.<br /><br />More than a decade later, when Romney was in pursuit of the Massachusetts governorship, his Democratic opponent Shannon O'Brien accused him of lax oversight at Damon and failing to report the fraud.<br /><br />Romney replied that he had helped uncover the illegal activity at Damon, asking the board's lawyers to investigate. As a result, he said, the board took 'corrective action' before selling the company in 1993 to Corning Inc.<br /><br />But court records suggest that the Damon executives' scheme continued throughout Bain's ownership, and prosecutors credited Corning, not Romney, with cleaning up the situation. Bain, meanwhile, tripled its investment.<br /><br />Romney personally reaped $473,000.<br /></blockquote><br />Thus, Governor Romney was on the board of a device company, albeit many years prior to when he became a presidential candidate. While he was on the board, the company allegedly committed unethical actions.<br /><br /><b>Democratic President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and the University of Chicago Medical Center<br /></b><br />The issue of then Democratic Senator Barack Obama's wife's role at the Medical Center was first discussed in 2008, with some follow up in 2009. As the Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/21/AR2008082103646.html">reported</a> in 2008,<br /><blockquote>Shortly after Barack Obama joined the U.S. Senate in 2005, the medical center promoted Michelle Obama to vice president of community and external relations, and more than doubled her salary. She is now on leave from the $317,000-a-year post, in which she sought to bridge the gap between the wealthy institution and its poorer neighbors. The hospital declined to discuss the budget for her program or her input into budgetary decisions.<br /></blockquote><br />She was particularly involved in one program that became controversial,<br /><blockquote>A few years ago, executives at the prestigious University of Chicago Medical Center were concerned that an increasing number of patients were arriving at their emergency room with what the executives considered to be non-urgent complaints. The visits were costly to the hospital, and many of the patients, coming from the surrounding South Side neighborhood, were poor and uninsured. <br /><br />Michelle Obama, an executive at the medical center, launched an innovative program to steer the patients to existing neighborhood clinics to deal with their health needs.<br /><br />That effort, in time, inspired a broader program the hospital now calls its Urban Health Initiative.<br /></blockquote><br />The Post noted,<br /><blockquote>The medical center markets its initiative as an effort to improve patient health for the poor and at the same time free its resources for emergencies and complicated procedures. The Urban Health Initiative also could save the hospital substantial amounts of money, by removing the nonpaying poor patients from its emergency room. <br /></blockquote><br />However, after Senator Obama became President, his wife became the First Lady and quit her job at the medical center, the program became even more controversial. In March, 2009, the Chicago Weekly <a href="http://chicagoweekly.net/2009/03/12/medical-emergency-the-university-of-chicago-hospitals-face-a-crisis-of-conscience/">reported</a> on the extensions of the Urban Health Initiative<br /><blockquote>or UHI, which has garnered a lot of criticism recently, such as accusations that it comes 'dangerously close' to the illegal practice of 'patient dumping.' Additionally, the emergency room structure that it will leave in its wake will likely result in a decline in the quality of care provided to Medicaid, Medicare, and uninsured patients.<br /></blockquote><br />Ultimately, the Wall Street Journal <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123681502175301913.html">reported</a> that:<br /><blockquote>More than 190 doctors at the University of Chicago Medical Center signed a letter to trustees protesting plans to reduce the number of beds available to emergency patients as 'unnecessarily risky' and a threat to patient safety.<br /></blockquote><br />At that time, this admission appeared,<br /><blockquote>Dr. Madara, the hospital's chief executive, said in an interview last week that the hospital is seeking to admit more patients to its 'programs of distinction' such as oncology and advanced surgery, and treat fewer in the ER, and that these moves will mean more privately insured patients at the hospital.<br /></blockquote><br />Note that "programs of distinction" may also mean programs that provide the most revenue. Ultimately, the Chicago Tribune <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-03-14/news/0903130356_1_emergency-room-medical-school-hospital">reported</a> that the plan was halted by the university president, and a few months later, Dr Madara, the CEO resigned (again <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-08-15/news/0908140312_1_hospital-medical-center-board-medical-education-programs">per the Tribune</a>).<br /><br />Thus, while he was a Senator, current President Obama's wife earned a substantial salary from a non-profit academic medical center and hospital system. A program she ran was then and later alleged to have compromised patient safety and perhaps acted unethically. <br /><br /><b>Summary<br /></b><br />We have frequently discussed how large health care organizations seek to influence discussions of health policy to further their vested interests. At times, they have organized <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/stealth%20health%20policy%20advocacy">stealth health policy advocacy </a>initiatives to comprehensively push their aims. For example, we <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/02/wendell-potters-deadly-spin.html">discussed</a> how commercial health insurance companies have tried, often succesfully, to influence health policy as recounted by former CIGNA public relations leader Wendell Potter in his book <i>Deadly Spin</i>.<br /><br />It appears that the more one looks, the more one finds evidence of the web of influence of large health care organizations. Pulling together a variety of journalistic efforts over more than three years, it now appears that the majority of the current credible contenders for the presidency of the US have or had financial relationships with health care organizations. <br /><br />Often these relationships appear significant enough to be called conflicts of interest were the people who had them communicating about health policy in a venue that requires conflict of interest disclosure, like a major medical journal. One candidate until very recently was on the board of directors of a for-profit hospital corporation, and hence had a fiduciary duty to that company and its stock-holders. One candidate until very recently ran a health care consulting company whose clients included major drug, device, and insurance companies. One candidate previously was on the board of a medical device company. One candidate's spouse previously was a top executive of a academic medical center and hospital system. <br /><br />While the current candidates may now now be writing articles for medical or health care policy journals, by virtue of their candidacies they now receive enormous attention. Anything they say about health care policy is likely to be influential. Yet there is reason to be concerned that many of their views on health policy were influenced by their financial relationships. In particular, would a candidate who at one time got a major part of his or his family's livelihood from a big health care organization be likely to strongly challenge the status quo that allowed that organization to prosper?<br /><br />In my humble opinion, there needs to be complete reconsideration of how health care policy is made. In particular, we must define how much of the discussion is driven by vested economic interests, and make sure such interests and their relationship to those in the discussion becomes clear. It is just as important for health policy analysts, pundits, and decision-makers to disclose in detail their conflicts of interest as it is for clinical researchers and educators. Maybe the Institute of Medicine would be willing to take up this issue as they <a href="http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2009/Conflict-of-Interest-in-Medical-Research-Education-and-Practice.aspx">took up </a>conflicts of interest affecting research and education.

US Presidential Candidates' Financial Relationships with Health Care Organizations

As the leadership of the large field of Republican candidates for the US Presidency shifts, different candidates come in for increased media scrutiny.  Recently, reporting about former Pennsylvania Se…

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Now a Mainstream Notion: "Profit-seeking Players in Finance and Health Care Have Captured Congress"

We have been writing - some might say wailing Cassandra-like - about health care dysfunction since I published about it in the European Journal of Internal Medicine in 2003.(1) However, while our dismal warnings were inspired by fears of  health care professionals who saw bad things happening in their local health care environments, the notion that things were really bad in health care really did not get a lot of traction. After all, we were in the second decade of a prolonged economic "great moderation," the good times were rolling, so who was really worried by a few whiners and complainers in health care?<br /><br />However, after the fall of Lehman Brothers ushered in the global financial collapse, or great recession, this complacency was disturbed, and it began to appear that our problems in health care were not unique, but were linked to much bigger problems in the general political economy. However, the stock market rebounded, the bankers went back to making money, and economists declared the great recession over, reassuring those on the right, although the middle class continued to whine and complain about unemployment, stagnant wages, and mortgage foreclosures. Furthermore, a Democratic administration legislated both financial and health care reform, reassuring those on the left. <br /><br />We on <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/">Health Care Renewal</a> went on and on that things were not better, and health care reform no more than barely scratched the surface. <br /><br />Now with stock markets falling around the world, it appears that the great recession/ global financial collapse may not really be over.  In this increasingly dismal era, the notion that health care dysfunction has not really improved, and may in fact be an important component of the larger political economic problems may be getting more mainstream. <br /><br />To wit, last week, David Wessel <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903885604576486001046286690.html">wrote</a> in the Wall Street Journal:<br /><blockquote>Two big sectors of the U.S. economy have been on steroids: finance and health care. If anything is crowding out more productive activities, it's them, as ... [New York University economist Paul] Romer argued in a recent National Academy of Sciences lecture.<br /><br /><em>The bloated financial sector—all those brains lured by big bucks who might otherwise have been employed in science, software, engineering or other fields—has harmed the U.S. economy more than any of our post-World War II communist adversaries did</em>. <br /><br /><em>The American health system costs more per person than any other, but isn't delivering the world's healthiest people</em>. The U.S. isn't getting its money's worth from either sector. </blockquote><br />Furthermore, his diagnosis of the problem sounds like something we might have written on Health Care Renewal, if we wrote as well as he does:<br /><blockquote><em><strong>Profit-seeking players in finance and health care have captured Congress, resisted regulation that would curb their excesses and exploited antiquated rules and policy for private gain</strong></em>. <br /><br />[Paul Romer said,] 'The legislative process may just be too vulnerable to manipulation by very well-financed entities with an enormous amount of wealth and income at stake,' he said. 'Congress is for sale at bargain-basement prices.'</blockquote>My only quibble is that while those who have personally profited from health care and finance have exploited antiquated rules, they also cannily managed to dispose of many time-proven rules that stood in their way.<br /><br />In any case, we have written repeatedly about the linkages between finance and health care,(2) and how the current corrupt culture of finance has affected health care; that true health care reform will be very difficult because it will be resisted by those who have been made wealthy by the current system;(3) that they were made wealthy by the increasing commercialization of health care accompanied by the abandonment of previous regulations and safeguards;(4) and about their use of <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/regulatory%20capture">regulatory capture</a> and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/embedded%20networks%20of%20influence">embedded networks of influence</a>(5) to further their aims.<br /><br />You heard it here first.<br /><br />Wessel's solution is:<br /><blockquote>Congress should tie its own hands more often, retaining power to investigate and vote proposals up or down but avoiding the detailed crafting of legislative provisions that influence the flow of money. <br /><br />In other words, he wants more bodies such as the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (to decide which military bases to close), <em>the Independent Payment Advisory Board</em> (to identify ways Medicare can save money) and, perhaps, the new Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (to find $1.5 trillion in deficit-reduction cuts). <br />Maybe that's an answer. But it's clear that future prosperity depends on the U.S.—its government, business, people and universities—coalescing behind a strategy for growth and creating incentives so talent and capital flow to promising sectors where the U.S. still has an edge in an increasingly competitive global economy.</blockquote><br />My general suggestions maybe are complementary. <br /><br />True health care reform would help physicians and other health care professionals uphold their traditional values, including, as the AMA once stated, "the practice of medicine should not be commercialized, nor treated as a commodity in trade." True health care reform would put health care "delivery" back in the hands of mission-focused, not-for-profit organizations, which put patients' health, safety and welfare first.<br /><br />Health care organizations need leaders that uphold the core values of health care, and focus on and are accountable for the mission, not on secondary responsibilities that conflict with these values and their mission, and not on self-enrichment. Leaders ought to be rewarded reasonably, but not lavishly, for doing what ultimately improves patient care, or when applicable, good education and good research.<br /><br />If we do not fix the severe problems affecting the leadership and governance of health care, and do not increase accountability, integrity and transparency of health care leadership and governance, we will be as much to blame as the leaders when the system collapses. <br /><br />Notes:<br /><br />1. Poses RM. A cautionary tale: the dysfunction of American health care.  Eur J Int Med 2003; 14: 123-130.  Link <a href="http://www.ejinme.com/article/S0953-6205%2803%2900029-3/abstract">here</a>.<br /><br />2.  Medical school leaders become stewards (as members of boards of directors) of for-profit health care corporations - An example is <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/12/duke-divinity-students-protest-pay-of.html">here</a>, and a summary of how we discovered this phenomenon in 2006 is <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/03/new-species-of-conflict-of-interest-in.html">here</a>. The conflict of interest is severe because directors of for-profit corporations are supposed to have unyielding loyalty to the interests of the corporation and its stockholders, although they are frequently accused of acting mainly as cronies of the top hired executives (see <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-york-times-reports-university.html">here</a> and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/one-small-step-towards-reducing.html">here</a>).<br /><br />Leaders of failed finance firms become stewards of academic medicine - We have found numerous examples, e.g., <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/04/failed-leaders-of-citigroup-as-leaders.html">here</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/04/wamu-worry-more-overlaps-between.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/03/members-of-board-of-now-bankrupt-lehman.html">here</a>, of top executives and/or board members of the finance firms who helped bring on the global financial collapse also being trustees of medical schools, academic medical centers, or their parent universities. Such "stewards" may bring to the academic environment the "greed is good" culture now pervasive in finance. <br /><br />3.  For example, see <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/07/health-care-for-very-rich-is-different.html">this post</a> and its links <br />  <br />4. In the US, a Supreme Court decision was interpreted to mean that medical societies could no longer regulate the ethics of their members.  Until 1980, the US American Medical Association had  ruled that the practice of medicine should not be "commercialized, nor treated as a commodity in trade."  After then, it ceased trying to maintain this prohibition.  The result was increasing, now rampant commercialization.  See posts <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/12/relman-in-jama-on-threats-to-physicians.html">here</a> and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-did-us-physicians-give-up-their.html">here</a>.   Furthermore, the notion that information asymmetry, uncertainty and ambiguity, and inability of patients to make coldly rational decisions about disease and its management made it impossible for health care to be an ideal free market, necessitating mechanisms to compensate for market failure became passe.  Such mechanisms were then abandoned, with disastrous results.  For further discussion, see <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-fallacy-of-perfect-health-care.html">this post</a> <br />  <br />5.  For example, see <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/06/embedded-networks-of-influence-in.html">this post</a>

Now a Mainstream Notion: "Profit-seeking Players in Finance and Health Care Have Captured Congress"

We have been writing - some might say wailing Cassandra-like - about health care dysfunction since I published about it in the European Journal of Internal Medicine in 2003.(1) However, while our dism…

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BLOGSCAN: Florida Doctors Endorse Ex- Columbia/ HCA CEO for Governor

<span style="color: #38761d;">Rick Scott was the CEO of for-profit hospital chain Columbia/ HCA.  The company ended up settling civil and criminal charges for $1.7 billion.  Like many other examples in the march of legal settlements about which we have often posted, no individual who authorized, directed, or implemented the relevant bad behavior suffered any sort of negative consequence or paid any penalty.  Rick Scott left the company, but with a golden parachute.  Now he his running for Governor of Florida, using a substantial amount of his own money (but money that probably mostly came from Columbia / HCA). (See post </span><a href="http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2010/10/rick-scott-and-the-florida-gubernatorial-race-nurses-are-for-sink-doctors-are-for-scott-voters-still.html"><span style="color: #38761d;">here</span></a><span style="color: #38761d;">.)  He may be in the lead.  And the Florida Medical Association has just endorsed him.  </span><a href="http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2010/10/rick-scott-and-the-florida-gubernatorial-race-nurses-are-for-sink-doctors-are-for-scott-voters-still.html"><span style="color: #38761d;">In the Health Beat blog</span></a><span style="color: #38761d;">, Maggie Mahar is all over this story.  Read it and weep.  Remember another good reason for the people who lead health care organizations to be truly accountable for their actions. </span>

BLOGSCAN: Florida Doctors Endorse Ex- Columbia/ HCA CEO for Governor

Rick Scott was the CEO of for-profit hospital chain Columbia/ HCA.  The company ended up settling civil and criminal charges for $1.7 billion.  Like many other examples in the march of legal settlemen…

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Introducing Google for the Public Sector

<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(Cross-posted with the <a href="http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/09/introducing-google-for-public-sector.html">Google Public Policy Blog</a>)</span></span></div><div><br /></div>The 2008 elections demonstrated how technology can increase political participation, and now we're beginning to see the power of Web 2.0 come to government.<br /><br />On the heels of last week's <a href="http://googlepublicsector.blogspot.com/2009/09/transparency-technology-you-message.html">Gov 2.0 Summit</a> in Washington, D.C., we're excited to launch <a href="http://www.google.com/publicsector/">Google for the Public Sector</a>, a one-stop shop of tools and tips that local, state and federal government officials can use to help promote transparency and increase citizen participation.<br /><br />The site helps government agencies:<br /><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Make your website, and the information it offers, easier to find.</span> For example, in less than 50 technical staff hours, Arizona's Government Information Technology Agency <a href="http://www.google.com/publicsector/content/arizona.html">made hundreds of thousands of public records</a> and other webpages "crawlable" to search engines and visible in Google search results.</li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Visualize your information and tell your story in Google Earth & Maps</span> to the hundreds of millions of people who use them. The State Department runs an <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/trvl/map/?trip_id=13">interactive Google Map</a> of Secretary Clinton's travels, which shows where she has been and includes photos and videos.</li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Use the power of online video</span> to engage millions of potential viewers and give constituents a voice. In the U.S. alone, the Senate, House of Representatives, White House, and federal government, among others, all have YouTube channels.<br /></li></ul>According to the <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/">Pew Internet and American Life Project</a>, nearly four out of five American Internet users go online to find government information. Technology will help play a key role in making this information accessible, useful and transparent.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Ginny Hunt, Public Sector Project Manager</span>

Introducing Google for the Public Sector

(Cross-posted with the Google Public Policy Blog)The 2008 elections demonstrated how technology can increase political participation, and now we're beginning to see the power of Web 2.0 come to govern…

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Live stream on YouTube: the President's First 100 Days News Conference

<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >(Cross-posted from the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=KnCjVcOtSsM">YouTube Blog</a>)</span><br /><br />The first three months of the Obama Administration have brought the new American President unprecedented challenges. Back in November, when he was elected, everyone knew the economy and the Middle East would be critical issues for Obama to attack early on. But like every president before him, he's had to deal with the unexpected as well: who could have predicted pirates off the Somali Coast or swine flu?<br /><br />As citizens and pundits from all political perspectives analyze the President's first 100 days in office today, Obama himself will address the nation tonight on the 100-day anniversary of his inauguration -- and we're going to carry a live stream of the conference from the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/whitehouse">White House YouTube channel</a>. Be sure to tune in at 8pm EDT to watch it live.<br /><br />We're also featuring commentary and analysis from top news organizations on our homepage today. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZKlUIjQ4kM">Hear Karl Rove</a> grade the President on Fox News. Get <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCv3JFdAcTc">a re-cap</a> from Al-Jazeera on what Obama has accomplished in his opening act. Watch the Washington Post <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhqOFGWRUXY">talk with Americans</a> in DC about their early impressions of the new President.<br /><br />You can join in the conversation by making a video: How is the Obama Administration doing, and what advice would you give the President moving forward? Upload your thoughts to YouTube and add them as a video response to this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geljx1wXdnY">Citizentube video</a>, and we'll feature some of them on our News page tomorrow.<br /><br />Finally, don't forget to come to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/whitehouse">youtube.com/whitehouse</a> at 8pm EDT to watch President Obama address the nation.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News & Politics</span>

Live stream on YouTube: the President's First 100 Days News Conference

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)The first three months of the Obama Administration have brought the new American President unprecedented challenges. Back in November, when he was elected, everyone…

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India's 15th general election: tools for citizen empowerment

<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(Cross-posted from the </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://googleindia.blogspot.com/2009/04/indias-15th-general-election-tools-for.html">Google India Blog</a><span style="font-style: italic;">)</span></span><br /><br />At Google, we believe information is fundamentally empowering. While all of our technologies demonstrate a commitment to this guiding principle, information is especially important when a society comes together to participate in democratic elections. Beginning ten days from today, more than 700 million eligible voters in India will over the course of four weeks have the opportunity to participate in the <a href="http://eci.nic.in/press/current/pn020309.pdf">largest democratic event</a> in human history — India's 15th general election.<br /><br />Today, along with a <a href="http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/landing/loksabha2009/partners.html">wide range of partners</a>, we are happy to announce the launch of the <a href="http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/landing/loksabha2009/">Google India Elections Centre</a> — available in <a href="http://www.google.co.in/loksabha2009">English</a> and in <a href="http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/landing/loksabha2009/index-hindi.html">Hindi</a>.<br /><br />People from across India can use the centre to do the following:<br /><ul><li> Confirm their voter registration status</li><li> Discover their polling location</li><li> View their constituency on a map</li><li> Consume relevant election-related news, blogs, videos, and quotations</li><li> Evaluate the status of development in their constituency across a range of indicators</li><li> Learn about the background of their Member of Parliament and this year's candidates</li></ul>With still more features to be added during the election, we hope the site will be an ongoing resource for analysis, governance, and democracy in India after the election.<br /><br />This project would not have been possible without the shared vision of a broad coalition of partners: the <a href="http://www.adrindia.org/home/index.asp">Association for Democratic Reforms</a>, <a href="http://www.htmedia.in/">HT Media Limited</a>,<a href="http://www.indicus.net/"> Indicus Analytics</a>, the <a href="http://www.janaagraha.org/">Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy</a>, the <a href="http://www.empoweringindia.org/new/home.aspx">Liberty Institute</a>, and <a href="http://www.prsindia.org/">PRS Legislative Services</a>. These groups are the true champions of promoting a more transparent democracy, and we're privileged to be able to shine a light on their work on the occasion of India's 15th Lok Sabha polls.<br /><br />We're hopeful not only that the elections centre will further a culture that seeks access to information, but that it will also yield positive changes in voting patterns during the upcoming polls.<br /><br />Please visit the <a href="http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/landing/loksabha2009/">site</a>, select your constituency, and get started! Spread the word about what you learn and, of course, don't forget to visit the polls.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Rishi Jaitly, Senior Policy Analyst, and Sanjay Jain, Product Manager</span>

India's 15th general election: tools for citizen empowerment

(Cross-posted from the Google India Blog)At Google, we believe information is fundamentally empowering. While all of our technologies demonstrate a commitment to this guiding principle, information is…

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Back to the energy future

In 1979 President Jimmy Carter installed 32 solar hot water panels on the roof of the White House. Recently a Googler from our Washington D.C. office asked the question, "What ever happened to the Carter panels?" After a little digging, we were able to track down the original panels to <a href="http://www.unity.edu/">Unity College</a>, an environmental college in Maine, and bring one of them back to Washington D.C.<br /><br />So what ever happened to the panels? It turns out that during President Reagan's administration the solar hot water panels were removed from the White House in 1986 and placed in storage. In 1992, Unity College located the panels and transferred them from a General Services Administration warehouse to their campus in Maine. After restoration,16 panels provided their cafeteria with hot water for the next 12 years. In cooperation with Unity College, Google was able to bring one of these panels down to our Washington DC office for display throughout the next year.<br /><br />At the panels' dedication in 1979, Jimmy Carter stated:<br /><br />"This dependence on foreign sources of oil is of great concern to all of us. In the year 2000, this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy. A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people." (To watch video of the dedication, check out this <a href="http://www.roadnottaken.info/">trailer</a> for a movie about the panels).<br /><br />As we welcome our new U.S. president to office this week, we wanted to share this piece of this history with you. Google is committed to a <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/green/">clean energy future</a> and we hope that you will join us in supporting the creation and adoption of renewable energy technology — what could still be one of the greatest and most exciting adventures for all of us. <br /><br />Check out these photos of the panels at Unity College and at Google's Washington DC office.<br /><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fgblogphotos%2Falbumid%2F5293873593398257329%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Alice Ryan, Green Energy Project Manager</span>

Back to the energy future

In 1979 President Jimmy Carter installed 32 solar hot water panels on the roof of the White House. Recently a Googler from our Washington D.C. office asked the question, "What ever happened to the Ca…

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Search findings from the U.S. presidential inauguration

Today, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America. As we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/search-findings-from-third-presidential.html" id="z-ih" title="observed">observed</a> throughout the presidential campaign, many people in the U.S. turned to <a href="http://www.google.com/" id="rybr" title="Google Web Search">Google Search</a> to find information. During the inauguration, top queries included <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=live+inauguration+coverage" id="lgqa" title="live inauguration coverage">live inauguration coverage</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=inauguration+day+2009+streaming" id="lgqa" title="inauguration day 2009 streaming">inauguration day 2009 streaming</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=listen+to+inauguration+live" id="aq3o" title="listen to inauguration live">listen to inauguration live</a>, and many others.<br /><br />However, interest in the inauguration was not only confined to the United States. Twelve percent of inauguration-related queries came from outside the United States as thousands worldwide used Google to find ways to watch the event. From Latin America, we received queries like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=es&q=toma+de+posesion+de+Barack+Obama+en+vivo" id="h9x5" title="toma de posesion de Barack Obama en vivo">toma de posesion de Barack Obama en vivo</a> (inauguration of Barack Obama live -- Spanish) and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=pt-BR&q=posse+de+Obama" id="e438" title="posse de Obama">posse de Obama</a> (inauguration of Obama -- Portuguese). Similarly in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, people interested in the inauguration searched for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=de&q=amtseinf%C3%BChrung" id="uupx" title="amtseinführung">amtseinführung</a> (inauguration -- German), <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=nl&q=inauguratie" id="sau2" title="inauguratie">inauguratie</a> (inauguration -- Dutch), <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=es&q=investidura" id="w7-k" title="investidura">investidura</a> (inauguration -- Spanish), <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=iw&q=%09%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%A7+%D7%90%D7%95%D7%91%D7%9E%D7%94" title="ברק אובמה">ברק אובמה</a> (Barack introduction -- Hebrew), <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=ar&q=%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A7" id="po1o" title="اوباما">اوباما</a> (Obama -- Arabic), and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=fr&q=investiture" id="ye2y" title="investiture">investiture</a> (inauguration -- French). And even though it was very early in their day, users in Asia and Australia were still interested in watching the festivities, with queries like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=zh-CN&q=%E5%A5%A5%E5%B7%B4%E9%A9%AC%E5%B0%B1%E8%81%8C%E5%85%B8%E7%A4%BC%E7%9B%B4%E6%92%AD">奥巴马就职典礼直播</a> (Obama inauguration broadcast -- Chinese) and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=inauguration+timetable" id="asak" title="inauguration timetable">inauguration timetable</a>.<br /><br />While President Obama was certainly the central player in today's events, searchers were also interested in the other people who took part in the ceremony. In particular, people wanted more information on the religious leaders who spoke: <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=rick+warren" id="n46y" title="Dr. Rick Warren">Dr. Rick Warren</a>, who gave the invocation, and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=joseph+lowery" id="q1kk" title="Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery">Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery</a>, who gave the benediction. Additionally, there was a lot of interest in some of the artists who performed: <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=aretha+franklin" id="i.7y" title="Aretha Franklin">Aretha Franklin</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=elizabeth+alexander" id="x2r-" title="Elizabeth Alexander">Elizabeth Alexander</a>, and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=yo+yo+ma" id="i5g2" title="Yo Yo Ma">Yo-Yo Ma</a>. They also sought to know more about <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=dianne+feinstein" id="qo1y" title="Senator Dianne Feinstein">Senator Dianne Feinstein</a>, who presided over the ceremony as chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=john+roberts" id="evhe" title="Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.">Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.</a>, who swore in President Obama. (Click on the images to see a larger version.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTVqPVW4tFuRQ2elIzy9Mi35vX7atzaCr5aIp7n8zhSFgK7UrEbYgk14zlUIIfKT_vOE_NGwVGVdi7xwhdmkVlrgWyhC5YZVBosRMlptiCGd5kaCEgqEJzBuNCi9Y-CO_C06Nqd0dJn3j7/s1600-h/people.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293639733738277122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTVqPVW4tFuRQ2elIzy9Mi35vX7atzaCr5aIp7n8zhSFgK7UrEbYgk14zlUIIfKT_vOE_NGwVGVdi7xwhdmkVlrgWyhC5YZVBosRMlptiCGd5kaCEgqEJzBuNCi9Y-CO_C06Nqd0dJn3j7/s320/people.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 241px;" /></a><br />During the last nine years, the growth of the Internet has changed the way the world seeks information. From President Bush's first inaugural address in 2001 to his second in 2005, the number of inauguration-related searches increased by more than a factor of ten. From 2005 to today's address, the number grew even more. Few of the 2001 queries requested "video," and none requested streaming. By 2005, a few queries such as <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=inauguration+audio" id="m.7v" title="inauguration audio">inauguration audio</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=streaming+video+of+inauguration" id="x80a" title="streaming video of inauguration">streaming video of inauguration</a> appeared. Today, technology has become so prevalant that queries such as <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=YouTube+live+inauguration" id="y88k" title="YouTube live inauguration">YouTube live inauguration</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=live+blogging+inauguration" id="ga.1" title="live blogging inauguration">live blogging inauguration</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=inaugural+podcast" id="sp8k" title="inaugural podcast">inaugural podcast</a>, and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Obama+inaugural+speech+mp3" id="oa_." title="Obama inaugural speech mp3">Obama inaugural speech mp3</a> formed one-third of all inauguration-related queries.<br /><br />Finally, this graph demonstrates one other interesting search pattern that we saw: the overall query volume of Google searches dropped in the U.S. from the time President Obama took the oath of office until the end of his inaugural speech, demonstrating that all eyes were on today's festivities.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmFmx_puzbMvjQdtYaAvGhMOUci_Gveeya9hIhJhbXJwFDlWm1D6bl_IbrHLKIlzLEiTLFvTdn1oRe_Z8Wu2XoCgfxkP1WIu6_Ct7CtIakbxN7Y98JW3pD-LIbLQsgOGt4jA1G_24b-KOY/s1600-h/query_vol.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293640082138421330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmFmx_puzbMvjQdtYaAvGhMOUci_Gveeya9hIhJhbXJwFDlWm1D6bl_IbrHLKIlzLEiTLFvTdn1oRe_Z8Wu2XoCgfxkP1WIu6_Ct7CtIakbxN7Y98JW3pD-LIbLQsgOGt4jA1G_24b-KOY/s320/query_vol.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 191px;" /></a><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Jeffrey Oldham, Software Engineer, and Fred Leach, Quantitative Marketing Manager</span>

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Search findings from the U.S. presidential inauguration

Today, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America. As we observed throughout the presidential campaign, many people in the U.S. turned to Google Search to find inf…

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Top searches on Election Day (part 3)

<i><br /></i><i>The long, long election campaign season culminated today as people made their choices on hundreds of statewide and local contests as well as the race for the next U.S. president. We've kept an eye on <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends" id="e0yy" title="Google Hot Trends">Google Hot Trends</a> to decipher what may be meaningful, as well as searches that are "business as usual" on Google. This is the third and final update for today. - Ed.</i><br /><i><br /></i>As of 12 am EST: <strike><br /><br /></strike>If we count the search queries relating to the commercial breaks on election night TV coverage, the entire list of the 100 <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X" id="yofo" title="top 100 fastest-rising terms">fastest-rising terms</a> on Google Hot Trends reflect a passion about today's events. As polls closed and the presidential race was called after 11 pm EST for [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=president+obama&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">president obama</a>], people searched for outcomes on state races of interest, such as [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=al+franken+senate+race&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">al franken senate race</a>], [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=massachusetts+question+2&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">massachusetts question 2</a>], and [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=proposition+8&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">proposition 8</a>] in California. Obsessive viewers noted that cameras captured a sign in Times Square that seemed to say "[<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=cassoulet+forever&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">cassoulet forever</a>]" (which is odd; it's a classic French country dish), and they were intrigued by CNN's use of [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=hologram+technology&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">hologram technology</a>] to show non-local notables like musician [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=will+i+am&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">will i am</a>] appear on the set with Anderson Cooper.<br /><br />Even when looking ahead to entertainment after a marathon post-election season, Americans can't stop pondering politics just yet. Two of the top 100 at this hour are for upcoming films [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=valkyrie&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">valkyrie</a>] (the true story of an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler), and [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=frost+nixon&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">frost nixon</a>], a dramatic re-telling of Richard Nixon's 1977 TV interview with David Frost. Both films were promoted during commercial breaks in wall-to-wall coverage tonight.<br /><br />Finally, eager voters (presumably of all persuasions) seem to be looking forward to a new era of [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=obama+jokes&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">obama jokes</a>].<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Elections team</span>

Top searches on Election Day (part 3)

The long, long election campaign season culminated today as people made their choices on hundreds of statewide and local contests as well as the race for the next U.S. president. We've kept an eye on …

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Top searches on Election Day (part 2)

<i><br />The long, long election campaign season culminates today as people make their choices on hundreds of statewide and local contests as well as the race for the next U.S. president. Throughout the day, we're keeping an eye on <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends" id="e0yy" title="Google Hot Trends">Google Hot Trends</a> to decipher what may be meaningful, as well as what's "business as usual" in Google searches. We'll post updates as interesting trends turn up. - Ed.<br /></i><br />As of 6 pm EST:<br /><br />The election is still top of mind (by a long shot) for most Google searchers at this hour: 87 out of 100 of the <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X" id="yofo" title="top 100 fastest-rising terms">fastest-rising terms</a> on Google Hot Trends are still election-related. Since polls are now winding down in the Eastern time zone, people are seeking more info on [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=voter+turnout&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">voter turnout</a>], [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=who+is+ahead+in+the+polls&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">who is ahead in the polls</a>], and other outcomes. And that includes news outlets: fully 25% of the top 100 are seeking the latest <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=election+news&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">[election news</a>]. Searches for news sources run the gamut from [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=hannity.com&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">hannity.com</a>] or [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=slate&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">slate</a>]; and people are seeking broader coverage, too, on everything from [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=foxnews.com&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">foxnews.com</a>] to [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=cnn+newsroom&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">cnn newsroom</a>] and [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=msnbc+politics&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">msnbc politics</a>]). Of course, a big player in election commentary this season, (Comedy Central's [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=indecision+2008&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">indecision 2008</a>]) now seems to be a staple. In the far west, California voters are seeking out [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=prop+8+results&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">prop 8 results</a>], the heavily-funded (on both sides) initiative regarding gay marriage.<br /><br />And in the Midwest, Chicago-area searchers are keen to get [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=metra+schedule&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">metra schedule</a>] information, which should help them get to polls -- or maybe to Grant Park for this evening's massive event planned for Senator Obama. <br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Elections Team</span>

Top searches on Election Day (part 2)

The long, long election campaign season culminates today as people make their choices on hundreds of statewide and local contests as well as the race for the next U.S. president. Throughout the day, w…

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Top searches on Election Day (part 1)

<i><br />The long, long election campaign season culminates today as people make their choices on hundreds of statewide and local contests as well as the race for the next U.S. president. Throughout the day, we're keeping an eye on <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends" id="e0yy" title="Google Hot Trends">Google Hot Trends</a> to decipher what may be meaningful, as well as what's "business as usual" in Google searches. We'll post updates as interesting trends turn up. - Ed.<br /><br /></i>As of 12 noon EST:<br /><br />No fewer than 87 of the <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X" id="yofo" title="top 100 fastest-rising terms">top 100 fastest-rising terms</a> relate to the election right now. Of these, 10 relate to searches for state information, including [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=florida+sample+ballot&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">florida sample ballot</a>], <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=ohio+ballot+issues+2008&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">[ohio ballot issues 2008</a>] and [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=where+to+vote+in+texas&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">where to vote in texas</a>].<br /><br />We practical Americans are keen to be rewarded for our participation, too: [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=free+stuff+for+voting&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">free stuff for voting</a>] refers to the giveaways some retailers are offering citizens who stop in. One ubiquitous coffee purveyor is called out in particular: [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=starbucks+free+coffee&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">starbucks free coffee</a>], [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=starbucks+election&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">starbucks election</a>] and [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=starbucks+vote&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">starbucks vote</a>] are clear indicators of the caffeine boost people anticipate needing today.<br /><br />Keen-eyed citizens are also on the lookout for information on [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=voting+lines&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">voting lines</a>] and [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=voting+problems&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">voting problems</a>] as well as a better understanding of [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=how+does+the+electoral+college+work&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">how does the electoral college work</a>]. And lest you think it's all about the major parties, at this hour Independent Party candidate [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=ralph+nader&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">ralph nader</a>] is #59, and Libertarian [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=bob+barr&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">bob barr</a>] is #98.<br /><br />And the excitement of the day boils over: #92 on the current Hot Trends is [<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=when+will+we+know+who+is+president&date=2008-11-4&sa=X">when will we know who is president</a>]. Google can't say for sure; we'll keep watching along with you.<br /><i><br /></i>In addition to today's searches, we also took a look at the top campaign-related queries during the general election season: Sept. 1-Nov. 4. Here they are:<br /><br /><b>Top Political Personas</b><br />Obama<br />Palin<br />McCain<br />Tina Fey<br />Joe Biden<br />Chuck Norris<br />Cindy McCain<br />Bristol Palin<br />SNL Palin<br />Colin Powell<br /><br /><b>Top Political Topics</b><br />debate<br />Social Security<br />presidential debate<br />polls<br />voter registration<br />gas prices<br />oil prices<br />FDIC<br />electoral college<br />Socialism<br /><br /><b>Top Political News Sources</b><br />Drudge<br />Huffington Post<br />Gallup<br />Real Clear Politics<br />Rasmussen<br />Rush Limbaugh<br />Politico<br />538<br />CNN Politics<br />Daily Kos<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Elections Team</span>

Top searches on Election Day (part 1)

The long, long election campaign season culminates today as people make their choices on hundreds of statewide and local contests as well as the race for the next U.S. president. Throughout the day, w…

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Wrapup: Google election info

Tomorrow, Americans across the country will vote (or finish voting), and we want you to find as much information as you'd like concerning this historic 2008 election. Here are three steps for getting the full scoop:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">1) Get informed</span><br />To use Google tools that will help inform you before you cast your vote, visit our <a href="http://www.google.com/2008election" id="cxa:" title="2008 Election site">2008 Election site</a>. Watch campaign videos on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/youchoose" id="la9h" title="YouTube">YouTube</a>, catch a glimpse of the best political map mashups -- including <a href="http://maps.google.com/help/maps/elections/#historical_results" id="xsia" title="historical voting results">historical voting results</a> -- on <a href="http://maps.google.com/elections" id="hosh" title="Google Maps">Google Maps</a>, see what the candidates had to say via these <a href="http://labs.google.com/inquotes/index.html" id="hc-q" title="In Quotes">In Quotes</a> and <a href="http://labs.google.com/gaudi" id="gzh8" title="Audio Indexing">Audio Indexing</a> tools, and add the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?synd=open&moduleurl=www.google.com/uds/gadgets/inthenews/inthenews.xml" id="y1qh" title="Presidential Candidates gadget">Presidential Candidates gadget</a> to your iGoogle page.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2) Vote</span><br />Find out where to vote on our <a href="http://maps.google.com/vote" id="pws0" title="U.S. Voter Info site">U.S. Voter Info site</a> (on your mobile phone, head to <a href="http://m.google.com/elections" id="sm:d" title="m.google.com/elections">m.google.com/elections</a>). We hope your boss has given you at least <a href="http://www.votehour.org/" id="tpd-" title="an hour off to vote">an hour off to vote</a>, and if you're so inclined, bring a video camera with you to the polls to capture your voting experience on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/videoyourvote" id="drdi" title="YouTube's Video Your Vote">YouTube's Video Your Vote</a> channel. We're using Google Maps to track these videos across the country -- and to see where polling problems might be occurring during the day. In addition, we're featuring all political videos on the homepage - including videos made especially for Election Day by both the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5G-PSWftRs">McCain</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfjQujYrfEk" id="tz3u" title="Obama">Obama</a> campaigns.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3) Watch results</span><br />On the front page of <a href="http://news.google.com/" id="jth4" title="Google News">Google News,</a> you'll find a Google Map showing real-time popular and electoral vote counts. And we'll be providing results from the presidential, Senate, House, and gubernatorial races as they are reported by the Associated Press.<br /><br />On the <a href="http://news.google.com/?ned=us&topic=el" id="a.p5" title="Elections section">Elections section</a> page, you can see more detailed results. At the top of the righthand column there are summaries of the presidential race and the races for majority control in the Senate and House (beneath the summaries you can select a state in the pull-down menu). For each state we display the breakdown in votes for the presidency, governor (where there is a race), and for each Senate and House seat that's up.<br /><br />You can also access news and results as they occur on the <a href="http://maps.google.com/help/maps/elections/#2008_election" title="Google Maps Elections Gallery" target="_blank">Google Maps Elections Gallery</a> (you can even embed the results onto your own site), or via the <a href="http://news.google.com/?ned=us&topic=el" title="election section" target="_blank">Elections section</a> of Google News. Finally, you can follow the presidential election and see a summary<span style="background-color: rgb(252, 229, 205);"></span> of the popular and electoral votes by visiting <a href="http://news.google.com">news.google.com</a> on your iPhone or Android mobile phone.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Update: </span>Added new features available on Google News.<br /></blockquote><span class="byline-author">Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Google Elections Team</span>

Wrapup: Google election info

Tomorrow, Americans across the country will vote (or finish voting), and we want you to find as much information as you'd like concerning this historic 2008 election. Here are three steps for getting …

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Update: Letters to the Next President project

When I <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-do-students-want-to-tell-next.html">introduced</a> the <span style="font-style: italic;">Letters to the Next President</span> writing project last month, 962 middle and high school students had published their letters. Since then, thousands of new letters have been written and published (there are now more than 5,200 total).<br /><br />High school juniors and seniors from <a href="http://www.letters2president.org/classes/2283-deborah-hagedorn">rural Alaska</a> have voiced their concerns about gas prices and paying for college. Ninth and tenth graders from <a href="http://www.letters2president.org/classes/2173-eric-gordon">Brooklyn, NY</a> have written persuasive pieces on war and global warming.<br /><br />Although most of these students are too young to vote in tomorrow's presidential election, they've proven that they can participate in the democratic process by expressing their concerns and hopes for our country. You can read their letters at <a href="http://www.letters2president.org/">Letters2President.org</a> and hear some of their thoughts in this video.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/X-3HQ6Alkbs&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/X-3HQ6Alkbs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Andrew Chang, Google Docs Marketing Manager</span>

Update: Letters to the Next President project

When I introduced the Letters to the Next President writing project last month, 962 middle and high school students had published their letters. Since then, thousands of new letters have been written …

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Voting tools for volunteers on the go

<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >(Cross-posted from the <a href="http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2008/10/voting-tools-for-volunteers-on-go.html">Google Mobile Blog</a>)</span><br /><br />With the U.S. elections less than a week away, voting drives are ramping up. Political parties and non-partisan groups alike are sending out volunteers to encourage citizens to vote on November 4. To make sure these volunteers have the same <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/greater-access-to-voting-information.html">voter info tools</a> available to them on their phone as on their computer, we've now launched a mobile voting locator tool on <a href="http://www.google.com/m/html/elections08.html"><span>m.google.com/elections</span>.</a> (Click <a href="http://www.google.com/mobile/2008election/">here</a> to send this to your phone.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkA7-f11xJutAXH8FC1JQCEGZQDAtinrV6b-4J5Mk6UW_IitGSbogebzpWIwpAK_g9eS8WxjNduy819GYHUQwKo9eiERZOtSNZlaqLX2UOzijDbedPzxAynE-9kyVoQC6DvqV2mgTxsLca/s1600-h/Picture+2.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262729597364755826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkA7-f11xJutAXH8FC1JQCEGZQDAtinrV6b-4J5Mk6UW_IitGSbogebzpWIwpAK_g9eS8WxjNduy819GYHUQwKo9eiERZOtSNZlaqLX2UOzijDbedPzxAynE-9kyVoQC6DvqV2mgTxsLca/s400/Picture+2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 296px;" /></a><br />Now, volunteers can type in the home address of any registered voter and find his or her voting location, whether they're in an office making phone calls, working from a booth set up outdoors, or going door to door. While on the go, they can use <a href="http://www.google.com/mobile/default/maps/">Google Maps for mobile</a> to find their next address or display directions to voting locations.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3RuPMIvPGWF2aJt5KnUalOCXZd0BQDhNX-tMzcLuq1rg9Wb7DMkudad9M-QwbW8ErmbUnkhW5zPBXbMA_cVXsbkVQVHXc4NFEeay9Rm1c5GQZL4mhCOPCdjLI9s1zjGt92xBEQ5G3rDr7/s1600-h/Picture+3.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262730111928859186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3RuPMIvPGWF2aJt5KnUalOCXZd0BQDhNX-tMzcLuq1rg9Wb7DMkudad9M-QwbW8ErmbUnkhW5zPBXbMA_cVXsbkVQVHXc4NFEeay9Rm1c5GQZL4mhCOPCdjLI9s1zjGt92xBEQ5G3rDr7/s400/Picture+3.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 238px; height: 311px;" /></a><br />Of course, between talking to potential voters, volunteers can check out the Elections section in Google News for mobile for the latest updates (go <a href="http://www.google.com/m/news?topic=el">here</a> on your phone), or just search for a nearby coffee shop to stay warm.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Steve Kanefsky and Jerry Morrison, Google Mobile engineers</span>

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Voting tools for volunteers on the go

(Cross-posted from the Google Mobile Blog)With the U.S. elections less than a week away, voting drives are ramping up. Political parties and non-partisan groups alike are sending out volunteers to enc…

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Video your vote on Election Day

If you've been paying even passing attention to the 2008 election, you know that without a doubt this is the most documented election in history. On YouTube, average citizens have posted millions of videos chronicling their experiences and opinions about the 2008 election. Never before has the campaign trail been sliced, diced, clipped, mashed-up, and exposed in so many ways — and never before have voters been the ones in control of the content.<br /><br />The YouTube team is shining a spotlight on election documentation with the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/videoyourvote">Video Your Vote</a> program. In partnership with PBS, we're asking you to submit videos of your voting experiences to the Video Your Vote channel. The idea is simple: we want this to be the most transparent election day in history, so that the world can see — through the eyes of voters — just how the election transpired.<br /><br />This is important because not only will there be more people voting in this election than ever before, but there undoubtedly will be bumps along the way: long lines, broken machines, confusion over the registration process, and even voter intimidation and fraud are all unfortunate election realities. Video can help document where problems occur in a more compelling and concrete way than other media. By documenting your voting experience, you can help make this a more transparent election.<br /><br />On the Video Your Vote channel, PBS's program <span style="font-style: italic;">The News Hour with Jim Lehrer</span> is providing educational information about voting in America, with a particular nod to election reform issues. You can also learn what the laws of your state say (or don't say) about <a href="http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/documenting-your-vote">bringing a video camera</a> to the polls (in most states, it's okay to document your own experience respectfully). Learn more in this call-out video that correspondent Judy Woodruff made (it's on the YouTube homepage):<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aiWfpwR-6Lc&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aiWfpwR-6Lc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />With hundreds of thousands of voters casting their ballots before Election Day, we're already seeing videos coming in. From excitement <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsMkML9MS3w">from first-time voters</a> to videos of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb3V3pPjcbg">long lines</a> at the polling places or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q9NSVUu8nk">touch-screen problems</a> in the field, voters are already documenting their experiences. Join them to video your vote!<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News & Politics Team<br /></span>

Video your vote on Election Day

If you've been paying even passing attention to the 2008 election, you know that without a doubt this is the most documented election in history. On YouTube, average citizens have posted millions of v…

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Take a Vote Hour

In less than two weeks, every vote will count as Americans decide who will become the next U.S. president. During the last national election in 2004, 20 percent of registered voters who didn't make it to the polls said that they were "too busy" or had conflicting work schedules (<a href="http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting.html">2004 U.S. Census</a>).<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.votehour.org/">Vote Hour</a> is an independent, bipartisan effort among CEOs across America to publicly announce their support for employees to step away from their desks and take an hour to cast a ballot. Just a few of those leaders appear in the video below, encouraging their employees to take a Vote Hour on November 4th.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dI0ml90rIlM&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dI0ml90rIlM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />We hope more business leaders across the country will <a href="https://services.google.com/inquiry/votehour_add/">join the movement</a>, add their names and their encouragement to the effort. Employees can send <a href="https://services.google.com/inquiry/votehour_suggest/">emails</a> to their bosses to encourage them to participate as well.<br /><br />So spread the word to your friends, families and colleagues to take a Vote Hour. And most importantly, don't forget to vote yourself. It's the most important job you have on Election Day.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Andy Berndt, Managing Director, Google Creative Lab, and Katie Jacobs Stanton, Elections Team</span>

Take a Vote Hour

In less than two weeks, every vote will count as Americans decide who will become the next U.S. president. During the last national election in 2004, 20 percent of registered voters who didn't make it…

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Five years of quotes in Google News

We <a href="http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/words-matter.html">first launched</a> quote extraction in Google News in April, offering you a way to browse quotations extracted from the past 30 days of news. While a great tool to see what people are saying on important topics and how they compare, it was missing something.<br /><br />Today we are pleased to announce the launch of a 5-year quotes index. This expanded coverage lets you explore what Governor Palin said <a href="http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&qsid=mNmcOzGxnZWoxM&scoring=o">before she was a VP nominee</a>, or Senator Obama <a href="http://news.google.com/news?q=economy&qsid=tPjE5CDNzMicGM&scoring=o">before he was a presidential candidate</a>. The <a href="http://labs.google.com/inquotes/">InQuotes</a> lab page is also much improved and now provides comparisons over time on issues like the <a href="http://labs.google.com/inquotes/topic.html#topics=economy&edition=4&left=an4ad4P71nIlAM&right=U-gwfX0JMHcuaM">economy</a> or the <a href="http://labs.google.com/inquotes/topic.html#topics=Iraq&edition=0&left=5&right=5&lyear=2005&ryear=2008">war in Iraq</a>.<br /><br />Not interested in politics? Try the <a href="http://labs.google.com/inquotes/#edition=4">'Custom' edition</a> to select the people and topics of your choice. Baseball fans, for example, might enjoy <a href="http://labs.google.com/inquotes/#edition=4&left=ToeCrn1j2nJruM&right=VJHoyouexKXz4M&lyear=0&ryear=0&topics=win,Rays,Phillies,world%20series">Joe Maddon vs Charlie Manuel</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Jack Hebert and Natasha Mohanty, Software Engineers</span>

Five years of quotes in Google News

We first launched quote extraction in Google News in April, offering you a way to browse quotations extracted from the past 30 days of news. While a great tool to see what people are saying on importa…

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