Health plan stretches to cover rising costs

Court Chooses Security Over Civil Liberties
A recent court ruling granting the federal government more freedom to conduct domestic surveillance in cases of threats to national security sparked controversy in legal circles. While some saw ominous threats to civil liberties, law professor Robert F. Turner, associate director of U.Va.’s Center for National Security Law, said increased security is worth the trade-off. “I think the court got it right. The government is trying to protect our lives by inconveniencing us some,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
— Los Angeles Times, Nov. 19

Hospitals to Patients: Heal Thyself
“You had the managed care revolution, kicking people out of hospitals quicker and sicker, and at the same time you had people designing nifty gadgets to allow those people to get high-tech medical care at home,” John D. Arras, a University of Virginia professor of biomedical ethics, recently told the Chicago Tribune. “Treatments that would have been available previously only in intensive care units were finding their way into people’s living rooms,” including the operation of complicated equipment such as ventilators, infusion pumps, computerized feeding tubes and dialysis machines
— Chicago Tribune, Nov. 26

Child-friendly Divorce
Psychology professor Robert Emery’s study of mediation in divorce cases figured promin-ently in a lengthy Washington Post Magazine feature story about new, child-centered models of divorce. The story cited Emery’s findings, which show that even 12 years after divorce, 30 percent of non-residential parents who went through mediation saw their children at least once a week, compared to just 9 percent of those who divorced through traditional litigation, and 54 percent talked to their children on the phone at least weekly, compared to 14 percent of the litigation group. “That’s a huge payoff,” Emery said. “I mean, six hours of what [else] has [such]an effect 12 years later?”
— Washington Post Magazine, Nov. 24

Bloomfield cases wrap up
The “How Things Work” honor cases concluded with the final trial Nov. 23. Of the 158 students that physics professor Louis Bloomfield initially referred to the Honor Committee in May 2001, 59 were charged with honor offenses. In the end, 28 left U.Va. admitting guilt and 20 more were found guilty. “Our honor system isn’t perfect,” Honor Committee chairman Christopher Smith told the Washington Post. “But I think one thing this really did show is the system is working.”
— Washington Post, Nov. 26