The New York Times
focuses on how spring break season can be an especially pressure-filled
timefor people who have eating disorders. The story says:
[T]hose
who treat eating disorders say spring break is one of the most
dangerous times of the year for young women struggling with their
weight and eating.
"This is a trigger time for youth to start to obsess about weight and body image," said Margo Maine, a clinical psychologist in West Hartford, Conn.,
who specializes in eating disorders. She said she observes a spike in
weight anxiety every year among her younger patients before spring
break. "By the beginning of February people are starting to talk about
their bodies and getting ready for spring break. Even girls who are
simply around that talk can't get away from it."
The
fantasy of achieving a "bikini-ready" body on a deadline is an
intoxicating incentive, according to those who have experienced and
observed the behavior. And in a school setting, in which tightly knit
groups of young women are all vacationing together, diets easily become
competitive or, as Dr. Maine put it, contagious.
The story says that for some, the spring food denial ritual is a group activity.
The
group dieting that is relatively ad hoc among friends and sorority
sisters takes a more organized form on the Internet, where spring break
has become a popular topic on Web sites and message boards maintained
by devotees of a controversial underground movement known as "pro-ana,"
or pro-anorexia, who sometimes identify themselves in public by wearing
red bracelets. There are hundreds of pro-ana Web sites promoting and
supporting the "anorexic lifestyle," despite aggressive efforts to shut
them down by eating-disorder activists. In addition the pro-anas are
also present on social network sites like MySpace.com, Xanga and Livejournal.com, where blog rings topics range as widely as emo music and parasailing.
Some other resources you might find helpful:
Expensive Summer Flying Season
The St. Petersburg Times
says if you have plans to fly for summer vacation this year, you should probably buy your
tickets early for the best price. The story says that summer fare wars are unlikely and space
may be more limited than usual.
"You
can get cheap seats up to June 15," said Tom Parsons of BestFares.com,
a travel Web site. "On some routes they'll be 10 to 20 percent higher
on the (cheapest fares) after that."
The beleaguered airline business clearly needs help.
U.S.
carriers lost about $40-billion combined since 2000, hit by a decline
in travel caused by the recession and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Then jet fuel prices climbed, jumping on average from 88 cents a gallon
in 2003 to $1.72 last year. The average this month is $1.88, according
to the Air Transport Association [of America Inc.], an industry trade group.
Traditional
carriers couldn't raise ticket prices because discounters with lower
operating costs, like Southwest and JetBlue, could make money at fare
levels that they couldn't.
That
began to change last year. Four carriers -- US Airways, United, Delta
and Northwest -- scaled back domestic flying while in bankruptcy, either
returning planes to leasing companies, shifting aircraft to
international routes without discount competition, or both.
And
low-fare carriers came under increasing pressure from fuel prices, with
JetBlue posting a small annual loss last year. With fewer available
seats and continued strong consumer demand, the airlines have steadily
nudged up air fares.
In the first two months of the year, fares were 10.6 percent higher than in January and February 2005 for major U.S. airlines, according to the Air Transport Association [of America Inc.], an airline industry trade group.
But
those levels are still 16 percent below the peak fare levels in 2000,
said John Heimlich, chief economist of the Washington, D.C.-based
group. "People say fares are up from a year ago, yet they're a bargain
compared to the pre-9/11 environment," he said.
The Newest Wrinkle in Medicare Part D
Al's Morning Meeting reader Dean Olsen, a reporter at The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill., dropped me a note about his story.
The story says:
Hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled Americans who are eligible for Part D
are being cut off from the 475 patient-assistance programs currently
operated by pharmaceutical manufacturers, foundations and governmental
agencies. It's an unintended side effect of the Medicare expansion.
Many drug companies
are worried they will violate federal anti-kickback laws and be sued if
they continue to offer patient assistance.
The piece continued:
"It's a very big concern," said Kim Calder, an insurance expert with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society,
which supports the 400,000 Americans and 20,000 Illinoisans with MS.
About a quarter of MS patients are disabled or old enough to be covered
by Medicare.
Maria Hardin, vice president of patient services for the National Organization for Rare Disorders, said: "Some people have called and told us they will go off their drugs. That is a crime."
The new Part D
benefit will save money for most senior citizens and others under
Medicare, according to Ken Johnson, a senior vice president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a Washington, D.C.-based group representing drug companies.
But there's a
relatively small group of patients whose drugs are so expensive that
Part D's benefits aren't sufficient, he said.
"We're trying to
resolve this," he said. "Our companies want to provide the help, and
we're trying to find a legal way to do it."
It's unknown how
many of the people being dropped by patient-assistance programs --
Hardin estimated that number could reach into the millions.
Unruly Airline Passengers
A couple of weeks ago,
as I was about to fly home from Phoenix, I witnessed something I have
not seen in years. Flight attendants told a passenger to get off the
plane for being unruly. USA Today says lots of passengers are getting sassy these days.
There were 349 cases
of unruly passengers reported to federal aviation agencies last year,
the second-highest total in the past decade. The highest yearly total
during that period was a large spike of 482 cases in 2004; it's unclear
why such an increase occurred that year.
The Federal Aviation Administration says:
The repercussions for
passengers who engage in unruly behavior can be substantial. They can
be fined by the FAA or prosecuted on criminal charges.
As part of the FAA's Reauthorization Bill [PDF] (April 16, 2000)
the FAA can propose up to $25,000 per violation for unruly passenger
cases. Previously, the maximum civil penalty per violation was $1,100.
One incident can result in multiple violations.
The FBI has a briefing bulletin about air rage that includes some history and context. Here is a whole page of resources about "air rage."
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium
of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of
Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the
information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed
and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is
fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the
original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
