Skid Road, Hospitals, Homeless people, and insurance fraud

Joan! This was the stuff I was telling you about earlier.

Apparently, there was this insane fraud involving major hospitals that "recruited" homeless people from Skid Row and brought them in to the hospital to receive treatment or just to "occupy beds." Its a crazy scam that hospitals used to milk money from government insurance programs.

The homeless people were compensated too: money, food, cigarettes.

One homeless person admitted to being constantly recruited and receiving unneeded treatment in return for cash to buy coke.

Check it for yourself in the New York Times article.

The LA Times has a page with news, editorials, and pictures on Skid Row.

Song on Repeat Assault

I'm so guilty for having this song on repeat for the past 48 hours on my iPod and on my iTunes.

Its Coldplay, "See You Soon."

Why?

Its a good song. Chris Martin's voice gets me every single time he opens his mouth. And yeah, I'm a tad smitten/sad at the moment.

McCain Family Photoshoot or Photoshop?

Doesn't this photo look TOTALLY photoshopped? I don't know if it means anything, but its from ABC News.

Check out more pictures of McCain and the rest of the bunch from the ABC News site here.

Saddleback Church

Saddleback Church is this ginormous church in Orange County. This popular mega-church invited Barack Obama and John McCain for a civil forum.

Both candidates were asked the same questions and both candidates had an hour. I haven't seen the McCain interview yet, but I just started watching the Obama one:




Is it just me, but does his stuttering remind you of a grandpa? Its generally pretty tolerable, but sometimes, you just want to shake the words out of him.

Who's your money on?

Mine? Joe Biden.

If you haven't already, you can be the 'first to know' who the chosen one will be by going to BarackObama.com

Sign up to get an e-mail or even a text (from Barack Obama himself!) to see who'll be the lucky(?) guy.

Barack Obama will announce VP this week!

For all you Obama girls and boys and for everyone else who hasn't gotten enough of Obama-mania, the presumptive Democratic nominee will announce his running mate as early as this Wednesday, according to the New York Times.

The possible candidates include:

• Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana
• Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia
  
• Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware

Start placing your bets on Intrade.com!

Meghan McCain

For all you campaign junkies out there, check out Meghan McCain's blog!
She's the daughter of Cindy and John McCain. She recently graduated from college and is currently blogging from the "Straight Talk Express" campaign trail.