Published July 7, 2010

Donald Berwick, the Newton doctor and health care reformer, will get to skip the Senate grilling and go straight to the helm of Medicare and Medicaid. The White House Blog announced President Obama will make a controversial recess appointment Wednesday:

Dr. Donald Berwick (Courtesy)

In April, President Obama nominated Dr. Donald Berwick to serve as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Many Republicans in Congress have made it clear in recent weeks that they were going to stall the nomination as long as they could, solely to score political points. … CMS has been without a permanent administrator since 2006, and even many Republicans have called on the Administration to move to quickly to name a permanent head.

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., told Politico: “Once again, the Obama administration is going behind closed doors out of fear the American people will learn that Dr. Berwick plans to use rationing as a cost cutting tool to achieve the billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare called for in the health care reform bill.”

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein today says Berwick is decidedly nonpartisan:

He’s known as a zealot and an entrepreneur when it comes to quality improvement. As an issue, quality — as compared to cost and access — is quite young, and Berwick is frequently credited with securing its place in the discussion, and saving many lives in the process.

Some good reading:

• Ezra Klein: The most important health-care reformer you’ve never heard of
• WBUR’s Martha Bebinger profiled Berwick after he was knighted in 2005.
• The Boston Globe called him “revolutionary” in a 2004 profile.

Published July 6, 2010

Token heat wave photo (AP)

It’s hot. Ninety degrees as I write. And the heat won’t let up for days. It’s the first heat wave of the year, which always brings the predictable heat-wave stories.

They’ve all been done. The socioeconomic implications? Yup. Crime? Done. How to identify heat stroke? Funding for municipal pools? Old people without air conditioning? The demand on public utilities? Water sales? Sunscreen advice?  Lost productivity? Global warming? DONE.

In the morning news meeting today, we puzzled over how to cover a serious public health emergency without resorting to clichés. We decided to ask you.

How should we cover this story today? How is the heat affecting you right now? Are you laying asphalt today? Are you at the beach? (Why are you reading my blog on a day like this?)

While I have you, here are a few helpful resources for the weeklong swelter:

• City of Boston: List of free cooling centers
• WebMD: How to identify, treat heat stroke
• Boston.com: Tips to beat the heat

Published July 5, 2010

Shot on the roof of my apartment building in Brookline. For reference, that’s the Citgo sign in the center and the Pru at the far right.

Published July 3, 2010

A boat with 174 people on board ran aground in Boston Harbor, off Deer Island, and began rapidly taking on water. The Coast Guard said all of the passengers were safely removed from the vessel. Two minor injuries were reported.

At first I heard reports it was the schooner Spirit of Massachusetts, one of Boston’s famed tall ships. In fact, it was the Massachusetts, a tour boat.

Web producer Jess Bidgood and I updated this post with details as they became available throughout the day. I boarded a police patrol boat and was one of three journalists who got up close to the sinking vessel.

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Published July 2, 2010

Yep, it's officially fireworks season. (Craig Stevens/Flickr)

Fourth of July: the big kahuna of summer weekends. Wondering where to watch the fireworks, get the best chowdah or celebrate America’s favorite pastime? We have you covered, whether you want a classic or a contemporary Fourth. (And don’t forget about your Monday off.)

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Published July 2, 2010

Team captain Paul Pierce has re-signed with the Celtics, the Herald reports:

Paul Pierce in June (AP)

The numbers were not available, but Pierce will in the 2010-11 season make significantly less that the $21,513,521 he was scheduled to receive. That will aid the Celtics’ position versus the luxury tax.

You would think he’s getting a raw deal, making less than $21.5 million per year, but Pierce says the move is better for the team and his own future.

On Wednesday, coach Doc Rivers revealed via text message that he’s staying on: “I want another crack at it with this group.”

Update: It’s a four-year, $61 million deal that will net Pierce an average of $15.25 per season, if divided evenly.

Update: A source tells The Boston Globe that the ink is not dry.

Published July 2, 2010

First, let’s set the record straight. These errors have been repeated, including today on NPR:

Correction No. 1: Boston University researchers have not discovered a way to determine whether you’ll live to 100. The researchers have identified a pattern of genes common to most centenarians.

Old people jeans (Fairywren/Flickr)

Correction No. 2: There is no test. The research is not patented, though, so anyone could develop a test. A test to see if you share some of the same genes with 77 percent of centenarians. Correlation is not causation.

As @ianbouchard notes on Twitter: “I bet they also proved that the beginning of the NFL season causes leaves to change color. 100% correlation.”

That said, would you even want to take a test? I admit, when we heard about this study in the newsroom, my colleagues and I had this gut reaction: I wonder if I have the genes! We all wonder how long we might live.

But I doubt a test would be satisfying or at all conclusive. Are you going to discover you have the genes and stop exercising?

DNA Determinism?

[pullquote author=”George Bernard Shaw”]”Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.”[/pullquote]

“Just based upon genetic data alone, we have a pretty good chance of predicting whether a person is a centenarian,” said the lead researcher, Dr. Tom Perls, on Radio Boston yesterday.

“But that doesn’t say anything about the importance of these other factors. For example, I can count on one hand the number of centenarians who smoke or have a history of smoking. They tend to not be obese.”

Dr. Michael Grodin, a medical ethicist at the BU Medical Center, invoked George Bernard Shaw: “Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.”

“Somebody who has these genetic factors could walk out and get hit by a car,” Grodin said. “I think one has to live one’s life and not worry so much about genetic disposition.

And life is not really about longevity, he said. It’s about the quality of your years.

So would you want to take the test?

Coverage around the Hub:

• WBUR’s Curt Nickisch
• WBUR’s Radio Boston interviews the lead researcher, ethicist
• The Boston Globe
• NPR