| Yelling at Tech Support Does More Harm than Good
Quotidian computer complaints, frustration and feelings of helplessness are pretty standard for people who spend their workday sitting in front of a monitor. So too is the temptation to chew out the tech support professional at the other of the phone when you're staring at a blue screen or can't get your email to work. But before you bite off the head of the help desk analyst, consider that your actions might have real consequences. "One guy just wouldn't listen to the help we were trying to give him," said Adnan, a tech support pro at a large insurance firm in New York, who asked ABC News not to use his last name. .
State Sen. Kevin Coughlin follows ambition
COLUMBUS: This year has been like so many others in state Sen. Kevin Coughlin's political career, only more so. The Republican from Cuyahoga Falls has introduced legislation at a rate that ranks him among the most prolific in the legislature, he has engaged his political enemies and he has laid plans for his political future. Coughlin wants a lot. He wants to run for governor. Someday. He is working publicly to oust Summit County Republican Party chairman Alex Arshinkoff in a move he believes is needed to rebuild the local party to begin winning elections. At the same time, Coughlin has not eschewed his duties in the Ohio General Assembly. He chairs one of the busiest panels in the legislature, the Senate Health, Human Services and Aging Committee, and has introduced 11 bills on his own.
National groups announce health insurance proposals
Two national organizations announced proposals for covering the uninsured this week. The National Retail Federation offered the most unconventional approach, calling for a government mandate for everyone to have health insurance. People would have to buy into a plan offered by their employer, or obtain coverage through the private market or a government program. The federation said the mandate is needed to draw more young, healthy people into insurance plans, so costs can be spread over more people. A mandate is controversial, with critics arguing it would intrude on individual rights. Spreading health care costs over everyone is also an argument used by proponents of a single-payer health care system like the one in Canada. The federation offered additional proposals aimed at improving health care, including eliminating state-mandated benefits, promoting wellness and allowing small businesses to form buying groups that cross state lines.
ORU alumni support sought
Uncertainty remained Saturday about what effect Richard Roberts' resignation as president will have on Oral Roberts University, but some observers said it was a step toward improvement.
"I think people are going to be waiting and watching: OK, can it survive without a Roberts at the helm?" said Donald R. Vance, professor of biblical languages and literature.
Vance said he thinks alumni need to support ORU as it undergoes this transition, after being led for 42 years by a Roberts. ORU professors are committed to the school's evangelical Christian mission, but that might not be obvious without a TV minister as president, he said. Christian colleges across the country are led by non-ministers -- "it will just be different for us."
ORU leaders have not addressed what role, if any, Roberts will have at the university.
Symposium: The Day After
Released after the other participants here provided their first responses above, it manages an interesting feat - In 'assuring' us that Iran's nuclear program has been a closed book since 2003, those who have doubted (or wanted to doubt) Iran's nuclear ambitions have afforded themselves the ability to race right past the acknowledgment that they were completely wrong for years and that in fact there actually was one.
The primary purpose of the NIE has been and is to politically incapacitate any efforts by the administration to confront Iran. In so doing, Iran has declared "victory" in the nuclear crisis and both China and Russia have called for the termination of any talks of additional sanctions.
Meanwhile, we gloss over the fact that Iran is responsible for 10% of all US casualties in Iraq since 2003 just through the Iranian made and supplied EFP's (armor penetrating Explosively Formed Projectiles) alone.
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