Marie: a little girl’s death by bureaucratic callousness, medical neglect




















Even after Marie Freyre died alone in a nursing home 250 miles from the family that loved her, Marie’s mother had to fight to bring her home.

In March 2011, state child protection investigators took 14-year-old Marie from her mother, Doris Freyre, claiming Freyre’s own disabilities made it almost impossible for her to care for Marie, who suffered from seizures and severe cerebral palsy. A Tampa judge signed an order that Marie be returned to her mother, with in-home nursing care around the clock.

Florida healthcare administrators refused to pay for it, although in-home care can be demonstrably cheaper than care in an institution .





Child welfare workers ignored the order completely.

Two months later, Marie was strapped into an ambulance for a five hour trip to a Miami Gardens nursing home, as her mother begged futilely to go with her. Marie died 12 hours after she arrived.

“Since the state of Florida took custody of my daughter, I would like the state of Florida to bring me back my daughter,” Freyre said at a May 9 court hearing, 12 days after her daughter died.

“They kidnapped my daughter. She was murdered,” said Freyre, 59. “And I want my daughter back.”

The last days of Marie Freyre, chronicled in hundreds of pages of records reviewed by The Miami Herald, are a story of death by bureaucratic callousness and medical neglect. The episode sheds significant light on an ongoing dispute between Florida healthcare regulators and the U.S. Department of Justice. Though the state claims that the parents of severely disabled and medically fragile children have “choice” over where their children live and receive care, federal civil rights lawyers say Florida, by dint of a rigged funding system, has “systematically” force-fed sick children into nursing homes meant to care for adults — in violation of federal laws that prohibit discrimination against disabled people.

Doris Freyre had no choice.

Civil rights lawyers are asking the state to allow a federal judge to oversee Florida’s Medicaid program, which insures needy and disabled people. The program will pay as much as $506 a day — twice the rate for frail elders — to put a child like Marie in a nursing home, but refuses to cover lesser or similar amounts for in-home care.

Late Friday, state health regulators wrote their final letter to the Justice Department in response to a deadline. The state, they wrote, “is not in violation of any federal law” governing the medical care delivered to needy Floridians, and cannot “agree to the demand …that a federal court take over the management of Florida’s Medicaid service-delivery system.”

The nursing home industry has insisted that some children are so disabled or medically complex that their needs can best be met in a nursing home.

However, court records filed last week suggest children fare worse in nursing homes than in community settings.

Among children aged 3 or older, the death rate for medically fragile children in nursing homes is 50 percent higher than for children who receive care at home, according to a detailed analysis of state records filed in federal court by a Miami civil rights lawyer, Matthew Dietz, who first sued the state in an effort to free children from institutions. Kids three or older living at nursing homes are three times more likely to die than children who receive nursing care at a medical day care center during the day, but return at night to their parents.





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Bachelorette Ashley Hebert and JP Rosenbaum are Married

Ashley Hebert is a bachelorette no more!

The 28-year-old dentist and her construction manager fiancé J.P. Rosenbaum, 35, walked down the aisle on Saturday in Pasadena, California, reports People Magazine.

The ceremony, officiated by Bachelor and Bachelorette host Chris Harrison, was attended by familiar faces from the series including Ali Fedotowsky, Emily Maynard, and Jason and Molly Mesnick.

Video: 'Bachelorette' Ashley Hebert and Fiance J.P.'s Passionate PDA

Ashley and J.P.'s exchanging of vows will be televised December 16 on a two-hour special on ABC.

The season seven sweeties will be the second Bachelorette couple ever to televise their walk down the aisle, following in the footsteps of Trista and Ryan Sutter, who married in December 2003.

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In My Library: Robert Battle








Clive Barnes, The Post’s late, great dance and theater critic, was always looking for the new and wonderful, and he loved pointing out young performers with potential. In a June 2000 review, he wrote about a dancer/choreographer he called “the promising Robert Battle.” And that, says Battle, “meant everything to me.” Judith Jamison saw that potential, too. Last year, the legendary dancer asked Battle to helm the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, whose “Revelations” he saw as a child in Miami. “It’s been going even better than I expected,” Battle says of his second year at Ailey, whose City Center season runs through Dec. 30. “The dancers have embraced my vision and Judith Jamison is happy, which makes us all happy!” Here’s what’s in his library.





Robert Battle

Eilon Paz



Robert Battle





Dancing Spirit

by Judith Jamison

I read this before I met her. When she spoke to me about taking the position at Ailey, I read it again. It’s about her journey and life, and it captures her voice, her height — she writes tall! — and her sense of groundedness, reflected in her dancing. You feel the artist and visionary.

Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance

by Jennifer Dunning

I love this book because it really shows Mr. Ailey’s tenacity and vulnerability. We see him as larger than life, a legend and a genius, but he was a human being who did extraordinary things. He cared so much, and that’s reflected beautifully in this book. The notion of someone being strong isn’t terribly interesting, but the idea that they’re strong in spite of their fears is really powerful.

Black Judgment

by Nikki Giovanni

My mother had a group called the Afro-Americans that did poetry and song relating to the black experience in this country, and that’s how I was exposed to great poets like Nikki Giovanni. The way she captures the anger and conflict of the Civil Rights Movement is reflective of modern dance in a way.

LaBelle Cuisine

by Patti LaBelle

I’ve always been a huge fan. She saw the company when we were in Atlanta and came backstage and said, “You guys dance the way I sing!” This cookbook is delectable. I enjoy the simplicity of the recipes and the stories attached to them. Some of it is the soul food I grew up with — red rice and sausage, greens —with her own twist. Cooking’s therapeutic!









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Palmetto reopens to traffic after crane crash shuts down roadway




















A crane on top of a semi struck an overpass on the busy Palmetto Expressway Friday evening, creating a messy parking lot on one of South Florida’s busiest thoroughfares.

Traffic had to be diverted away in both directions on State Road 826 and Northwest 27th Avenue, causing major delays and detours during rush hour traffic.

The bobcat crane was sitting atop the tractor trailer traveling north on 27th Avenue when the accident occurred around 4:15 p.m. causing significant damage. Engineers from the state Department of Transportation were called out to inspect the overpass and determine the extent of the damage while crews worked to clean up the debris.





Later in the evening, after getting clearance from the structural engineers, the Florida Highway Patrol reopened the street, allowing traffic to flow again in both directions.

Around 8 p.m., FHP trooper Joe Sanchez, a spokesman for the patrol, gave the good news: “The Palmetto is open, thank God almighty.”

However, two lanes of Northwest 27th Avenue remained closed while crews worked into the night to repair the damage and finish the cleanup.

There were no injuries or reports of damage to any other vehicles.

“Our precaution is to get this open as quickly as possible,’’ Sanchez said. “But we have to be able to make sure it safe so cars don’t fall down onto 27th Avenue.”





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Zynga shares slide after privileged status with Facebook ends












(Reuters) – Shares of gaming company Zynga Inc fell as much as 10 percent, a day after the “Farmville” creator reached an agreement with Facebook Inc that reduces its dependence on the social networking giant.


The companies reported in regulatory filings on Thursday that they have reached an agreement to amend a 2010 deal that was widely seen as giving Zynga privileged status on the world’s No.1 social network.












Zynga gets a freer hand to operate a standalone gaming website, but gives up its ability to promote its site on Facebook and to draw from the thriving social network of about 1 billion users.


“Although Zynga investors have reacted negatively to Thursday’s announcements so far, we view them as a long-term positive for both companies,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said in a note to clients.


“Zynga now has an advantage to offer more payment options which could result in additional subscribers who are not Facebook users,” he said, maintaining his “outperform” rating and price target of $ 4 on the stock.


Both internet companies have been trying to reduce their interdependence, with Zynga starting up its own Zynga.com platform, and Facebook wooing other games developers.


In recent quarters, fees from Zynga contributed 15 percent of Facebook’s revenue, while Zynga relies on Facebook for roughly 80 percent of its revenue.


Francisco-based Zynga’s shares were down 7 percent at $ 2.44 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.


Facebook shares were down more than 1 percent at $ 26.98.


(Reporting By Aurindom Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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'Macho' Camacho gets big sendoff in East Harlem








Bolivar Arellano


Christian Camacho, 20, with his 14 year old brother Stanley Camacho both sons of deceased boxing Champion Hector 'Macho' Camacho. Here they were riding through the streets of East Harlem where their father was born and raised.



It was a goodbye fit for a king of the ring.

Boxing legend Hector “Macho” Camacho was given a royal sendoff today as his casket was paraded through the streets of East Harlem in a horse-drawn carriage as thousands of mourners wished him farewell.

The procession began at St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church on East 106th Street, went up First Avenue, cut across East 116th Street, traveled down Fifth Avenue and returned along East 106th Street, winding back to the church.




Revelers joined in along the way, marching behind the carriage and procession of vehicles carrying grieving family members and friends.

People were spotted hanging out car windows and sunroofs while wildly waving Puerto Rican flags and clutching pictures of Camacho in his fighting prime.

When the casket, draped in a Puerto Rican flag, arrived at St. Cecilia’s, a mob of people standing behind police barricades chanted, “Macho. Macho.”

“I love you guys,” Camacho’s mother, Maria Matias, shouted back while pumping her fist in the air. The line of people waiting to get inside and pay thier respects was several blocks long.

“I fought hard to bring my son here, where he belongs,” she told The Post.

“He fought here, he was raised here and now he is being buried here. Look at all these supporters here, it is amazing.

“They are telling me that Camacho is alive today. His spirit is not dead. He is a champion. I will always carry him in my heart.”

She recalled how Camacho started learning to box at the age of 7 and bought her a home with his career winnings.

“My son had a good heart... and took care of me.”

Camacho was shot Nov. 20 while sitting in a parked car in his hometown, Bavamon. He was 50.

Matias lashed out at her son’s killers.

“He did not deserve to die. They killed an innocent man for no reason. One bullet took my son’s life.”

She said that police have three men in custody and are tring to peice together a motive behind the slaying.

“They don’t have all the evidence yet, but soon they will.”

A farewell for Camacho in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday was marred by violence after Cynthia Castillo, 28, who claims to have been the pugilist’s girlfriend, angered his sisters by kissing him inside the open casket and walking to a VIP area designated for family and close friends.

She then fought with his former girlfriend Gloria Fernandez outside the chapel, according to the newspaper El Nuevo Dia.

Police were called in to pull the ladies apart.










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California Pizza Kitchen brings prototype to Sawgrass Mills




















The restaurant chain that took barbecued chicken pizza mainstream is ready to push the culinary envelope again. How about a pizza topped with roasted Brussels sprouts and applewood smoked bacon or a Korean barbecue pizza with pork loin and spicy kimchee salad?

Innovative menu items are just one piece of what’s unique about California Pizza Kitchen’s new flagship restaurant unveiled Thursday at Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise. The first of its kind, the Sawgrass location aims to reinvigorate the brand that started in 1985 in Beverly Hills.

“The whole idea is about taking the best of what put us on the map and making it relevant for 2012 and beyond,” said G.J. Hart, who took over as chief executive officer of the chain just over a year ago. “Over the years the brand morphed from being a leader and it became a follower of food trends. We want to bring back the hip, cool feel.”





The changes are obvious from the moment you walk into the restaurant, which opens to the public Monday. The new look is all about focusing on the chain’s California roots. Very little of the bright yellow and chrome remains. The design is California-casual with earth tones and reclaimed wood everywhere from the walls to the floor and tables. An outdoor terrace with couches and fire pits is designed to encourage lingering. Large windows and glass doors let in lots of natural light and fold open to enjoy the weather.

Pizza is center stage with the kitchen designed so diners can watch the pizza makers at work. At the Sawgrass location — and by mid-2013 at all restaurants — pizzas will once again by hand-tossed. Currently the chain uses a pizza press to make the dough more uniform.

The new focus is on upping the culinary quotient across the board with dishes like a roasted beets and whipped goat cheese salad, plus a sweet pea carbonara featuring pea-filled pasta purses tossed with Italian pancetta and a Romano cream sauce. These are some of the unique items only on the Sawgrass menu, which also features a specialty menu of hand-crafted cocktails.

Chain-wide the company has actually slimmed the menu from more than 100 items to 74 in order to improve execution. But there are also more healthy choices like quinoa and arugula salad or a fire-roasted chile relleno stuffed with chicken, cheese, mushrooms, spinach and eggplant that dishes up at only 380 calories.

“As we grew, we didn’t keep up with the creativity on the menu and we tried to be all things to all people,” said Brian Sullivan, senior vice president of culinary innovation, who has been with the company for 24 years. “We’re always going to be pizza-centric. But we’ll continue to push the envelope with these specialty items that resonate with who we are. We don’t want items that you are going to see in other restaurants.”

The chain chose Sawgrass to unveil its new flagship location because of a combination of the area’s diverse demographic base and the influx of international visitors. South Florida has already been a strong market for the brand, which has seven locations in the tri-county area stretching from Coral Gables to Palm Beach Gardens.

The opening is the culmination of a new vision that began to take shape when Golden Gate Capital purchased California Pizza Kitchen in July 2011 for $470 million, taking the company private and bringing in Hart as the new chief executive.

“They saw a brand that was undervalued,” said Hart, who has an ownership stake in the chain. “This is an iconic brand with so much brand equity. If we can bring the excitement and enthusiasm back we’re only going to see it go up.”

Industry experts say the changes make sense because the brand still has a loyal following, although it has not kept pace with the competition.

“It’s a good time for them to go back to what were the fundamental things that made the brand so intriguing,” said Dennis Lombardi of WD Partners, a restaurant industry consultant. “The difficulty is going to be getting the word out to consumers that this is different. The devil is always in the details in these kind of evolutions.”

Based on consumer reaction, the plan is to take pieces of the Sunrise concept and introduce it into the chain’s other 268 existing restaurants. Some restaurants could be completely remodeled, but most will only get elements of the new prototype, which cost $2 million in Sunrise, Hart said. The company’s Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton locations could be strong candidates for remodeling next year or early 2014, he said.

Community and business leaders, who got a first look at the restaurant on Thursday, were impressed.

“This is phenomenal,” said Luanne Lenberg, general manager of Sawgrass Mills. “We’re so excited to have this caliber of restaurant and to be their test for the rest of the world.”





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Argument in NW Miami-Dade ends with two men stabbed




















A fight between three men, including a pair of brothers, turned violent Thursday, ending with two people in the hospital, according to Miami-Dade police.

It began with a dispute shortly before 11:15 a.m. in the 1600 block of Northwest 118th Street, police said. A 60-year-old man got in a fight with his brother and another man. The dispute escalated until the 60-year-old stabbed the other two men, age 63 and 74. police said.

Both men were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, police said, where they were in critical condition.





The 60-year-old was apprehended.

None of the names of the men were released Tuesday. Police also did not mention what or if any charges would be filed against the 60-year-old.





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Taking a page from Louis C.K., Chill launches online store for films, comedy specials












NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Chill, a social video platform with close to 20 million users, has launched Chill Direct, a new store for creatives like Maria Bamford and Michael Urie to sell their movies, specials and documentaries directly to fans.


Comedian Louis C.K. sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry this summer by selling a comedy special directly online rather than making a distribution deal with a television network or online service. He made millions, and various others have followed suit, including Jim Gaffigan and Aziz Ansari.












Chill sees an opportunity to enter this emerging market, empowering artists and offering them an opportunity to control the distribution and monetization of their ongoing projects.


“The community gives filmmakers and comedians the ability to distribute premium video directly to fans,” CEO Brian Norgard told TheWrap. “The common analogy is to Louis C.K. and his ‘Live at Beacon Theater.‘ That was a seminal moment in the entertainment business and a lot of things now allow direct-to-fan to become a viable model.”


Artists who choose to sell through Chill also can sell their videos elsewhere, but Chill Direct launches with eight videos exclusive to the site. That slate includes “Maria Bamford: the Special Special Special!,” an hour-long comedy special starring Bamford, “Thank You For Judging,” a documentary from “Ugly Betty” actor Urie about high school speech and debate and “Unknown Sender,” a suspense series from “48 Hrs” and “Die Hard” scribe Stephen E. de Souza.


Starting Thursday, any artist can create a page for a project and has complete creative control over the page, from information about the project to trailers to pricing. Meanwhile, Chill handles distribution across devices as well as payments.


Artists retain rights to their own intellectual property while Chill takes a 30 percent cut of any transaction.


“What Chill does is let anyone build out socially integrated marketing pages – we call them story pages – beautiful, high-resolution tantalizing receptacles of premium videos,” Norgard said.


Chill, funded by WME and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and others, has previously enabled frictionless uploading, consumption and sharing of the web’s most popular videos. This maintains a social layer, allowing for commenting and offering bundles that combine the video with other perks like merchandise or meeting the creator.


“The land of premium video is still a very closed marketplace,” Norgard said. “If you have tremendous business development skills or connections to sell a film to Netflix or Hulu, you’re lucky. The ad-supported model doesn’t fit every type of content. There is plenty of stuff out there like documentary films and comedy specials where creators are between a rock and a hard place and wan to get it out there, distribute it, own the right but not put it on a free streaming site like YouTube.”


Selling direct to fans also offers a new revenue stream to a company that until now was mostly luring people a few times a day for videos.


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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The gov’s wish list









headshot

Nicole Gelinas





On Monday, Gov. Cuomo huddled with Mayor Bloomberg and New York’s congressional delegation to show solidarity on wringing billions out of the feds for Superstorm Sandy. “We need help today,” the governor said. Sure — but Congress could help best by putting good sense above speed.

Cuomo’s “extensive list and itemization of what it’s going to take to rebuild New York” totals $41.9 billion. The figure includes $32.8 billion he says the state (including the city) needs just to fix what got flooded or blown down.

The other $9.1 billion is for “prevention and mitigation” — that is, protecting against future Sandys.





He’ll have support once he knows what New York really needs: Gov. Cuomo with President Obama on Staten Island this month.

Reuters



He’ll have support once he knows what New York really needs: Gov. Cuomo with President Obama on Staten Island this month.





Cuomo’s argument for the big payday, above and beyond what FEMA would normally give us for disaster aid? That everyone else got theirs.

The governor ticked off a list of storms over the past 20 years that won special aid, “all of which were less devastating and less impactful than Hurricane Sandy.”

(One sign of how twisted the cash-grab game is: Cuomo calls Sandy a hurricane for getting-money-from-Congress purposes — but he won’t let insurers call it a hurricane, because that would let them pay out less to homeowners.)

In a distasteful comparison he hasn’t repeated, he even compared Sandy to Hurricane Katrina, which emptied out nearly all of New Orleans for months in 2005.

There is really no comparison; that’s why the Gulf Coast got $130 billion in aid (in today’s dollars) post-Katrina, far more than what Cuomo is even asking for.

Anyway, the fact that Congress has fallen into a habit of writing big disaster checks isn’t the solution. It’s the problem.

Yes, New York merits special aid after storms (as do other places). But the way we’re going about it is all wrong.

Politics as usual pushes states to worry more about putting out a big number right away than about what to do with the money. Just look at Cuomo’s numbers: They’re not really serious estimates, just placeholders.

Consider one discrepancy: On Monday morning, Bloomberg put out his own detailed estimate, saying that the city would need $9.8 billion from the feds. That afternoon, Cuomo put the figure for the city at $15 billion.

Hours later, they agreed on the higher number (naturally). But how can anyone possibly believe that they know?

Then there’s Cuomo’s separate $9.1 billion for “prevention and mitigation.”

This number makes no sense at all. Consider: Also on Monday, the MTA put out its own list of prevention-and-mitigation measures to be “investigated” and “prioritized.” The list included everything from “bladders” to stop up tunnel entrances to buying more pump trains.

How can the state possibly know how much of this stuff to include in its $9.1 billion, when the MTA hasn’t even figured it out itself?

Then there’s the issue of floodwalls and levees: To build them or not? There are strong arguments for and against. But Dutch flood-mitigation expert Jeroen Aerts figures that a robust system for the city would cost $15 billion to $17 billion (and potentially increase risks for Long Island and New Jersey).

We haven’t remotely decided whether, or where, we’ll spring for such protection. One of Cuomo’s all-star commissions will probably make a recommendation — but until it does, how can Cuomo know whether to include at least some of this big number in his “prevention and mitigation” list? If the state does go for it, this cost would dwarf the rest of the list.

There’s also a real question of priorities within his $41.9 billion. The governor is asking for $9.7 billion to repair or replace housing — the biggest single item on his list, far above making the subway system safer and above hypothetical floodwalls.

Is it smart for Albany to help people rebuild coastal homes that will remain vulnerable to flooding — especially when the money could instead go to infrastructure to protect everyone
?

The risk of flooding should be accounted for in a cheaper home price, not paid for by the government.

On Thursday, Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie promised not to compete against each other for disaster aid, with Christie saying, “We’re going to work together.”

They should, of course. But they should also say neither state will officially ask for funds until they’re good and ready — and until they’ve thought a bit more on how they’ll spend the cash. And Congress should reward such deliberation.

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.

Twitter: @nicolegelinas



Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!










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