US Government Goes Open Source with Health Data

Community Health Data Initiative Interim Work Page

The Community Health Data Initiative is a collaborative effort among government and non-government partners to establish a network of suppliers and demanders of community health data, indicators, and interventions. Its purpose is to help Americans understand health and health care system performance in their communities, thereby sparking and facilitating action to improve performance and value.
The HHS Health Indicators Warehouse that is currently under development will serve as the data hub for the initiative. We consider health indicators to be measurable characteristics that describe the health of a population (such as life expectancy, mortality, disease incidence or prevalence, or other health states); determinants of health (such as health behaviors, health risk factors, physical environments, and socioeconomic environments); and health care access, cost, quality, and use. Depending on the measure, a health indicator may be defined for a specific population, place, political jurisdiction, or geographic area. NCHS is working with data, content, and application experts to develop this interactive system that will represent a major infusion of free, easily accessible HHS data. While the warehouse is under development, we are making several resources available.
Below you will find links to downloadable data sets which form the basis for the content anticipated to be available through the Indicator Warehouse and which will further the success of the Community Health Data Initiative. A draft set of indicators [PDF - 122 KB] that may be included is available for review and comment.
Please send all questions and suggestions to IndicatorsWarehouse@cdc.gov.

Downloadable Data Sets

Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) - A web-based tool providing local public health agencies access to county health status profiles for improving community health by identifying resources and setting priorities. Visit the CHSI home page to read about the data sources, definitions, and notes, and then explore the CHSI dataset file [ZIP - 5 MB].
County Health Rankings - An interactive website providing access to 50 state reports with rankings of each county within each state according to its health outcomes and health determinants. The County Health Rankings are a key component of the Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) project. MATCH is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Read about the project and then examine the MATCH State Data file [XLS - 3 MB] [ZIP - 3.4 MB].
DATA2010 - An interactive database system containing the most recent monitoring data for the Healthy People 2010 objectives. Statistical tables [ZIP - 17 MB] from eighteen focus areas with state level data are now available.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services - Provides a wealth of downloadable data, such as Hospital Quality Compare and Nursing Home Compare, for health policy researchers, the media, and others interested in Medicare (Medicare's database download resource page).
USDA Economic Research Service - Provides the US Food Environment Atlas, a spatial overview of a community’s ability to access healthy food and its success in doing so. The Atlas assembles statistics on three broad categories of food environment factors: Food Choices; Health and Well-Being; and Community Characteristics.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality - Produces the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports measuring the trends in effectiveness of care, patient safety, timeliness of care, patient centeredness, and efficiency of care. Static tables are available in addition to an interactive tool for generating customized tables. A data table containing all measures by all states is also available.
The State of the USA - An organization assembling high-quality measures and data that will increase the understanding and progress of the US across many areas, including health. SUSA is currently developing a set of health indicators that will be available in the near future.

Select Indicator Reports and Initiatives

America’s Children: Key national indicators of well-being, 2009
A compendium of indicators illustrating both the promises and the difficulties confronting our Nation’s young people.

Chronic Disease Indicators
A set of 90 cross-cutting, important, uniform, and available indicators developed by consensus and drawn from many data sources.
Health, United States, 2009
A chartbook and 150 detailed tables providing an annual picture of the health of the entire United States.
Healthy People
Healthy People 2010 contains 467 objectives in 28 focus areas designed to serve as a framework for improving the health of all people in the United States. Healthy People 2020 is currently under development.

Older Americans 2008
A report of the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics, providing data on 38 key indicators that portray aspects of the lives of older Americans and their families.

British Petroleum June 1st Gulf Update (Press Release)

date on Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill - 01 June

Release date: 01 June 2010

BP today provided an update on developments in the response to the MC252 oil well incident in the Gulf of Mexico. This follows an announcement on May 29 to move to the next step in the subsea operations.

Subsea Source Control and Containment

Preparations are ongoing for deployment of the lower marine riser package (LMRP) cap containment system. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are engaged in preliminary operations, including preparing for operations to cut through and separate the damaged riser from the LMRP at the top of the Deepwater Horizon’s failed blow-out preventer (BOP).

Deployment of the system will involve connecting the containment cap to a riser from the Discoverer Enterprise drillship and then placing it over the LMRP, with the intention of capturing most of the oil and gas flowing from the well and transporting it to the drillship on the surface.

All of these operations, including the cutting of the riser, are complex, involve risks and uncertainties, and have to be carried out by ROVs at 5,000 feet under water. Systems such as the LMRP containment cap have never before been deployed at these depths and conditions, and their efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured. It is currently anticipated that attachment of the LMRP cap will be attempted later this week; however, operational delays could impact anticipated timeframes.

Preparations to use the Discoverer Enterprise to deploy the LMRP cap and the intended severing of the damaged riser mean that the riser insertion tube tool, previously deployed, will not be reinserted into the main leak at the end of the riser.

Work on the first relief well, which started on May 2, continues and it has currently reached a depth of 12,090 feet. Work on the second relief well, which started on May 16, had reached a depth of 8,576 feet before drilling was temporarily suspended on May 26. Drilling operations on the second relief well resumed on May 30. Both wells are still estimated to take around three months to complete from commencement of drilling.

Surface Spill Response and Containment

Work continues to collect and disperse oil that has reached the surface of the sea, to protect the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico, and to collect and clean up any oil that has reached shore.

Over 1,600 vessels are now involved in the response effort, including skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels. Operations to skim oil from the surface of the water have now recovered, in total, some 321,000 barrels (13.5 million gallons) of oily liquid.

The total length of containment boom deployed as part of efforts to prevent oil reaching the coast is now over 1.9 million feet, and an additional 1.8 million feet of sorbent boom has also been deployed.

So far approximately 30,000 claims have been submitted and more than 15,000 payments already have been made, totalling some $40 million. BP has received more than 110,000 calls into its help lines to date.

Additional information

The cost of the response to date amounts to about $990 million, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs. It is too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident.

BP Press Office London: +44 20 7496 4076
BP Press office, US: +1 281 366 0265
Unified Command Joint Information Center:+1 985-902-5231
www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com
www.bp.com/gulfofmexicoresponse 

Fully Armed Citizens to Protest Near US Capital

The Washington Post Reports "Militia Movement Will Be Packing Heat At Gun Rally on Potomoc"

Glenn Beck Opt-Ed Time to Sober Up, America

Time to Sober Up, America

April 19, 2010 - 1:30 ET

Watch Glenn Beck weekdays at 5p & 2a ET on Fox News Channel

Does anyone remember this pledge from Barack Obama?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THEN-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BARACK OBAMA: Absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Instead, he's doing nothing but adding to the budget — no subtracting whatsoever. He's added a trillion health bill, nearly a trillion dollar stimulus package and he's added massive tax increases.
So we decided to go through the budget line-by-line and make some necessary cuts. This week, we're working with the Cato Institute on the budget — I'm still putting my own plan together, but that won't be available until the fall. Without counting the cuts we've made in Social Security and Medicare, we've already found over $400 billion to trim from the budget.
All we need is commitment and common sense.
For instance, isn't it time to downsize the Department of Agriculture and limit or eliminate farm subsidies? We all love our farmers — they work incredibly hard and feed us and the world. But 70 percent of subsidies go to the largest 10 percent of corporate farms. These are gigantic farms receiving government subsidies. And, by the way, do you realize that even with all of these subsidies, America is no longer the world's breadbasket? How did that happen?
Take a look at HUD, the office of Housing and Urban Development — an agency rocked by scandal and corruption. We waste $65 billion a year on things like public housing and rental subsidies. We can no longer afford bloated, inefficient and ineffective governmental monoliths. We must stop relying on the government for food and housing; it's doing nothing but continuing to enslave more and more Americans with a dependency they may never break free of. Those without food and shelter need to be helped by their families, friends or local church groups.
Then there's the Department of Commerce — home to important institutions such as the Census Bureau (which, by the way, is now overseen by the White House) and the Patent and Trademark Office. It is also home to unneeded programs that subsidize businesses and fund local development projects. Further, the department administers misguided foreign trade policies that try to boost exports and restrict imports. The department will be spending $11.5 billion in 2011 or about $100 for every U.S. household. Do you even know what they do?
Is there anything not subsidized by the federal government anymore — other than Fox News and talk radio? Hmm, and look how successful both of those are. Coincidence?
We're always told by this group of radicals in the administration that the free market has — or is — failing. But the free market hasn't been attempted for decades!
Here are just a few examples of unbelievable waste being tolerated — just in from the group Citizens Against Government Waste. Remember, this is your money:
• $2.9 million for shrimp aquaculture research — it tastes good when dipped in cocktail sauce; what's the mystery?
• $2.5 million for potato research — is this to better understand our food, so that we can relate to it before swallowing it?
• $206,000 for wool research — let me help: it's hot and itchy
• $200,00 for lobster research — tastes good with hot butter: done!
• $7 million for the Robert C. Byrd Institute of Advanced Flexible Manufacturing Systems — what?
• $500,000 for exhibits at the Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids — what about the Serb, Croatian and Albanian exhibits? Don't we care about them?
• $250,000 for the I Won't Cheat Foundation in Salt Lake City for an anti-steroids education program and awareness campaign — because parents can't handle educating their kids about steroids?
But wait, there's more!
According to the Heritage Foundation, the government wasted $72 billion in improper payments; in 2008, $100 million was wasted by the Defense Department on unused flight tickets because it never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.
But fortunately, we were able to spend $2.6 million to train Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job. I mean, as you know, there's nothing more annoying than a Chinese prostitute who can't focus on the job at hand, because she's too liquored up. I think we all hate that.
This all has to stop! What are we insane?
Why would we take money from people in Minneapolis, send it to Washington, D.C., so that they can ship it to Alaska to build a bridge to nowhere? If Alaskans want a $250 million bridge to service 30 people, let them build it!
The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.
Our problem is that we have economic cancer. Now, had we addressed it when it was stage one — back when Reagan was in office — maybe we could have started out by changing our diet, had some localized treatment, phase in, over 10 years or so, some gradual changes.
Unfortunately, the tumor has grown large and spread to the lymph nodes — so now we need some radical treatment.
The White House says we're past the worst of it, yet they're proposing massive tax increases. I thought debt didn't matter? I thought we could grow our way out of this? But where would that growth come from? Auto manufacturing? Steel? Clothing? Apple products? Nope, those are made elsewhere too. Check your iPhone: Designed in California, assembled in China. Oh, how about green jobs? Solar panels! Do you really think we can make solar panels cheaper than say, India? I didn't think so.
Let's be honest with ourselves: We have a problem, America. We wanted to believe the lie. But now we have to sober up.
Yes, we'll all have to hurt with these changes I've shown you this week that have been proposed by Cato, but this cancer is deadly.
So now, what can we do? We need to cut spending and cut taxes.
I've shown you the economic reality that was put into place in the early 1960s of tying the world economies together to avoid world wars and nuclear holocaust: mutually assured economic destruction.
If Russia launched their missiles, we'd launch ours and we'd destroy each other. But there was also something else: All the other world governments would pressure us and the Russians not to go to war because our economies were tied together.
We must get out of the system — it's designed to collapse. How do we do it? We did it in 1920 — we cut spending and taxes. Yes, it will be painful. It will make us sick for a while, but in the end — like chemotherapy — it's the only way to save the patient.
Experts say there's a 10/80/10 model for people that are confronted with crisis: 10 percent respond by doing the wrong thing; 80 percent wait for someone to tell them what to do, while they do nothing; and 10 percent respond with purpose, plan and action.
You have to ask yourself which one are you? We must be the latter 10 percent.

President Obama Opening Remards at Nuclear Security Summit

Remarks by the President at the Opening Plenary Session of the Nuclear Security Summit


Washington Convention Center

Washington, D.C.
9:45 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. I’d like to get started. Let me begin by thanking all of you for your participation last night. I thought it was a very important discussion.

Before I begin, I want to take this moment once again to acknowledge the terrible tragedy that struck the Polish people this weekend. We are joined today by a distinguished delegation from Poland, led by Ambassador Kupiecki. Mr. Ambassador, all of us were shocked and deeply saddened by the devastating loss of President Kaczynski, the First Lady, and so many distinguished civilian and military leaders from your country. This was a loss, not just for Poland, but for the world.
As a close friend and ally, the United States stands with Poland and Poles everywhere in these very difficult days. As an international community, I know that we will all rally around the Polish people, who have shown extraordinary strength and resilience throughout their history. So our hearts go out to your people. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. We join them in this time of mourning. And so, if everybody is agreeable, I would like to ask for a moment of silence to show that solidarity and to honor those who were lost.
(Pause for moment of silence.)
Thank you. It is my privilege to welcome you to Washington and to formally convene this historic summit. We represent 47 nations from every region of the world, and I thank each of you for being here. This is an unprecedented gathering to address an unprecedented threat.
Two decades after the end of the Cold War, we face a cruel irony of history -- the risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of nuclear attack has gone up.

Nuclear materials that could be sold or stolen and fashioned into a nuclear weapon exist in dozens of nations. Just the smallest amount of plutonium -- about the size of an apple -- could kill and injure hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Terrorist networks such as al Qaeda have tried to acquire the material for a nuclear weapon, and if they ever succeeded, they would surely use it. Were they to do so, it would be a catastrophe for the world -- causing extraordinary loss of life, and striking a major blow to global peace and stability.
In short, it is increasingly clear that the danger of nuclear terrorism is one of the greatest threats to global security -- to our collective security.
And that’s why, one year ago today in -- one year ago in Prague, I called for a new international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years. This is one part of a broader, comprehensive agenda that the United States is pursuing -- including reducing our nuclear arsenal and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons -- an agenda that will bring us closer to our ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons.
Over the past year, we’ve made progress. At the United Nations Security Council last fall, we unanimously passed Resolution 1887 endorsing this comprehensive agenda, including the goal of securing all nuclear materials. Last night, in closed session, I believe we made further progress, pursuing a shared understanding of the grave threat to our people.
And today, we have the opportunity to take the next steps.
We have the opportunity, as individual nations, to take specific and concrete actions to secure the nuclear materials in our countries and to prevent illicit trafficking and smuggling. That will be our focus this morning.
We have the opportunity to strengthen the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, with the resources and authorities it needs to meet its responsibilities. That will be our focus at our working lunch.
We have the opportunity, as an international community, to deepen our cooperation and to strengthen the institutions and partnerships that help prevent nuclear materials from ever falling into the hands of terrorists. And that will be our focus this afternoon.
And we have the opportunity, as partners, to ensure that our progress is not a fleeting moment, but part of a serious and sustained effort. And that’s why I am so pleased to announce that President Lee has agreed to host the next Nuclear Security Summit in the Republic of Korea in two years. This reflects South Korea’s leadership, regionally and globally, and I thank President Lee and the South Korean people for their willingness to accept this responsibility.
I’d ask President Lee just to say a few words

PRESIDENT LEE: Thank you for calling us, for supporting Korea to host next summit in 2012.
I assure you I will do best to make this summit a success. So I hope to see all of you in Korea. Thank you. (Appause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.
So today is an opportunity -- not simply to talk, but to act. Not simply to make pledges, but to make real progress on the security of our people. All this, in turn, requires something else, which is something more fundamental. It will require a new mindset -- that we summon the will, as nations and as partners, to do what this moment in history demands.
I believe strongly that the problems of the 21st century cannot be solved by any one nation acting in isolation. They must be solved by all of us coming together.
At the dawn of the nuclear age that he helped to unleash, Albert Einstein said: “Now everything has changed…” And he warned: “We are drifting towards a catastrophe beyond comparison. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”
That truth endures today. For the sake of our common security, for the sake of our survival, we cannot drift. We need a new manner of thinking -- and action. That is the challenge before us. And I thank all of you for being here to confront that challenge together, in partnership.
And with that, I’m going to ask that we take a few moments to allow the press to exit before our first session.

Blueprint for Accountability - Working the Darkside (War and Torture)

Washington will spend $31,406 per household this year By Brian Riedl, Heritage Foundation

Printed: Monday, April 12, 2010

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Taxpayers filing their 1040s are likely wondering justwhere all their hard-earned tax dollars are going, anyway. • Washington will spend $31,406 per household in 2010 — the highest level in American history (adjusted for inflation). It will collect $18,276 per household in taxes. The remaining $13,130 represents this year's staggering budget deficit per household, which, along with all prior government debt, will be dumped in the laps of our children. • Government spending has increased by $5,000 per household since 2008, and nearly $10,000 per household over the past decade. Yet there is no free lunch: If spending is not reined in, then eventually taxes must also rise by $10,000 per household. • Washington will spend this $31,406 per household as follows:
Social Security/Medicare: $9,949. The 15.3 percent payroll tax, split evenly between the employer and employee, covers most of these costs. This system can remain sustainable only if there are enough workers to support all retirees, which is why it risks collapsing under the weight of 77 million retiring baby boomers. Unless these programs are reformed, paying all promised benefits would eventually require doubling all income tax rates.
Defense: $6,071. The defense budget covers everything from military paychecks to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to the research, development and acquisition of new technologies and equipment. Lawmakers drastically reduced military spending after the collapse of communism in the early 1990s. The 9/11 attacks reversed this trend, and the inflation-adjusted $2,472 per household increase since 2000 has returned military spending closer to its historical levels (but still lower than during previous wars).
Antipoverty programs: $5,466. Nearly half of this spending subsidizes state Medicaid programs that provide health services to poor families. Other low-income spending includes: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, food stamps, housing subsidies, child-care subsidies, Supplemental Security Income and low-income tax credits. President George W. Bush increased antipoverty spending to record levels, and it has grown an additional 32 percent since the end of 2008 under President Barack Obama.
Unemployment benefits: $1,640. Unemployment costs have surged by 411 percent during the recession.
Interest on the federal debt: $1,585. The federal government is $13 trillion in debt. It owes $9 trillion to public bond owners, and the rest to other federal agencies (mostly to repay the Social Security trust fund, which lawmakers raided annually before the program went into deficit in 2010). Record-low interest rates have recently held down these costs. However, the national debt is set to double by 2020, which will combine with higher interest rates to raise annual interest costs to nearly $6,000 per household.
Veterans' benefits: $1,052. The federal government provides income and health benefits to war veterans. Spending is up 83 percent since 2000.
Federal employee retirement benefits: $1,018. This spending funds the retirement and disability benefits of federal employees, including the military.
Education: $914. Education spending is primarily a state and local function; 9 percent of the total comes from Washington. The federal education budget has leaped 125 percent since 2000. Most federal dollars are spent on low-income school districts, special education and college student financial aid.
Highways/mass transit: $613. Most highway and mass-transit spending is financed by the 18.4 cent per-gallon federal gas tax. Washington subtracts an administrative cost and sends this money back to the states with numerous strings attached.
Health research/regulation: $550. This spending is up 50 percent since 2001, and much of this growth is concentrated in the National Institutes of Health. The category also includes the Food and Drug Administration and dozens of grant programs for health providers.
Mortgage Credit: $470. While most of the bank bailouts occurred last year, the bailouts of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the rest of the housing market continue.
The programs listed above cover $29,328 per household. The remaining $2,078 is allocated to all other federal programs, including justice, international affairs, natural resources, the environment, regional development, farm subsidies, social services, space exploration, air transportation and energy.
Taxpayers — and the next generation that will be paying nearly half of the bill — must decide for themselves if they're getting their money's worth.
Brian Riedl is the Grover M. Hermann fellow in federal budgetary affairs at the Heritage Foundation.
© 2010 The Heritage Foundation. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services