Good Fun Bored at Work

Texas County makes $40K offer to Tasered woman, 72
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A Texas county has offered a $40,000 settlement to a 72-year-old woman whose Tasering by a deputy constable was captured on video and shown nationwide.
Kathryn Winkfein, who was shocked with a stun gun after she dared the constable to do so during a May traffic stop, wants $135,000 for pain and suffering, medical expenses and humiliation.
But Travis County commissioners on Tuesday approved $40,000 as their "firm" counteroffer.
Precinct 3 Constable Richard McCain says the incident is being reviewed by the district attorney's office, and a resisting-arrest charge is pending.
McCain says an internal investigation found no violations by the deputy constable.
Video of the incident appeared on YouTube and newspaper Web sites.
Winkfein's lawyer, Tom Tourtellotte, says he will discuss the counteroffer with his client.

This is crap. This women shouldn't get a thing. If the investigation comes back and proves the officer did nothing wrong, the county should countersue her ass for being dumb. This is why I hate people.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Shona Holmes is the Harry and Louise of this year's health care debate, only unlike the fictional folks who memorably trashed the Clinton-era health plan in advocacy ads 15 years ago, Holmes is real.

CLAIMS:
_"If I had relied on my government for health care, I'd be dead." Holmes, in an ad for Patients United Now, showing an image labeled as a brain tumor.
_"Shona's life was eventually saved because she came to the United States for the care she needed. ... Once the government is in control, politicians and bureaucrats will be the ones telling people what kind of care they can have." McConnell.
THE FACTS:
The Mayo Clinic diagnosed Holmes with Rathke's cleft cyst, which the clinic describes as a rare fluid-filled sac that grows near the pituitary gland near the base of the brain and can cause hormone and vision problems over time. The condition is not known to be fatal and the clinic, in trumpeting her treatment, makes no claim that her life was in danger.
It does, though, say she would have eventually lost her sight without surgery.
Holmes has declined to release medical records to Canadian news organizations checking her claims, citing her lawsuit seeking payment of her expenses by the Ontario provincial government.
Without them, the severity of her condition cannot be verified and it is impossible to know the circumstances that placed her on long waits in 2005 after she was referred by her family doctor to a neurologist and an endocrinologist.
Canada's system is not being emulated in the U.S. At most, some Democrats are pushing for a government-run plan to compete in the marketplace with private insurers, although even that idea is faltering.
Republicans contend that over time, a public insurance option could drive private insurers out of business, effectively giving the U.S. government-run care.
There's no question many Canadians wait for care they're anxious to get. A trade-off of guaranteeing coverage for all and paying medical bills mostly through taxes is that people often wait to be treated for conditions that may be serious but - rightly or wrongly - are not judged urgent.
Even so, across a range of diseases monitored in Canada, the average waiting time before seeing a specialist is typically measured in days or a few weeks, not the four to six months reported in Holmes' case.
Holmes was at first diagnosed in Arizona, then went back for the surgery after she failed to persuade health officials at home to speed up her treatment. She says her vision has been restored.

Uh oh...