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Alyssa

I Will Try Not to Be Insufferable About This…

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Apr 4, 2010 at 10:35 am

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

But you guys, baseball is back.  I went to the last exhibition game of spring training yesterday afternoon, the Red Sox playing against the hapless Nationals in their home stadium, which, it must be said, is cheaply built but has lovely sightlines.  But no matter.  It was lovely.  Youk and J.D. Drew hit home runs, and Josh Reddick, who has a bit of Ian Somerhalder about him (the first thing Google autofills next to his name is “girlfriend,” so the thought isn’t original to me) made a terrific running and diving catch–he’ll be fun to watch in Pawtucket.

Truth is, I am one of those obnoxious romantics who believes that life is a little better between the beginning of April and October, who believes, like Roger Angell, that more things than the imagination flower with the arrival of box scores.  I will try very hard to be ecumenical, not to brag on my boys because that’s just obnoxious.  But I do hope to do a little writing about  how wonderful baseball is this summer.

Yglesias

Who Wins Reading

By Matthew Yglesias on Apr 4, 2010 at 9:58 am

Austin Bramwall has a smart, funny post looking at the recent “Ten Influential Books” meme as a contest. Tyler Cowen and I are proclaimed the winners.

Politics

WellPoint CEO receives a 51 percent increase in compensation.

By Amanda Terkel on Apr 4, 2010 at 9:15 am

Angela Braly, CEO of health insurance giant WellPoint, saw her compensation jump 51 percent to $13.1 million in 2009. The LA Times adds, “At least three other WellPoint executives got compensation increases of as much as 75%.” Braly’s boost comes as “WellPoint’s California subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross in Woodland Hills, seeks double-digit rate increases for many of its 800,000 members who buy individual policies.” During the health care debate, WellPoint became the poster child for the abuses of the health insurance industry, pressuring lawmakers to support drastic reform and pushing Obama to add stronger cost control provisions into his health care blueprint. A Center for American Progress analysis from February found that “double-digit hikes have been implemented or are pending in at least 11 other states among the 14 where WellPoint’s Blue Cross Blue Shield companies are active.” WellPoint spokesman Jon Mills justified Braly’s compensation by saying that the company “wants to attract and retain top talent.”

Update

Leighton Woodhouse of Brave New Films has more on Braly’s raise.

Related Posts

Yglesias

The Coming WMATA Catastrophe

By Matthew Yglesias on Apr 4, 2010 at 8:31 am

File-Adrian_Fenty,_Mayor_of_DC,_November_5,_2007

If Vincent Gray wants to get my vote in his bid to unseat DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, here’s an example of an important issue the mayor is totally wrong about:

Mayor Fenty’s proposed FY2011 budget, released yesterday, made no change to the contribution levels for transit, setting the stage for massive service cuts on top of large fare increases.

Even the General Manager’s proposed budget, with cuts including no Yellow Line to Fort Totten, no 8-car trains, 30-minute evening headways and far fewer buses, plus fare hikes of 15-20%, require a $40 million increased contribution. DC’s share is about $16 million.
Through the FareShareForMetro.com petition, residents have been asking for a larger contribution of $74 million (about $30M from DC) to also remove these service cuts.

I don’t know anyone who’s thrilled with the current level of service from Metro. And if area governments don’t pony up some extra cash, there’s going to be no way to avoid draconian service cuts that will have a terrible impact on the region. The network of Metro lines and stations is at the heart of the prosperity of this region, not just in DC but in Arlington County and around Bethesda and Silver Spring in Maryland. Reasonably frequent bus service is critical to the viability of many of the city’s existing neighborhoods and cuts in service levels will be especially problematic for the poor.

Climate Progress

Best. Headline. Ever.

By Joe Romm on Apr 4, 2010 at 8:13 am

Headline1

Okay, freelance business reporter Chris Morrison writing on the popular website Bnet doesn’t have the reach of the NY Times.  But you have to like his headline compared to the NYT’s, “Among Weathercasters, Doubt on Warming” (see In yet another journalistic lapse, the NYT once again equates non-scientists “” Bastardi, Coleman, and Watts (!) “” with climate scientists).

And his content and framing is vastly superior also:

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Climate Progress

Visiting China, seeing green

By Climate Guest Blogger on Apr 4, 2010 at 8:01 am

CAP goes to China to investigate its clean energy investment strategy

Much has been written over the past year about how other countries, particularly China, are investing heavily to increase their economic competitiveness by building domestic clean energy industries (see Lindsey Graham: “Every day that we delay trying to find a price for carbon is a day that China uses to dominate the green economy”).

Senior staff from the Center for American Progress will therefore be traveling to China to meet with policymakers and companies that are driving its aggressive pursuit of clean energy technology development.  They’ll share their findings with you on the CAP energy policy page.  Guest Blogger Julian L. Wong has the background on China and the trip.

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