How to Watch Top 25 College Basketball Games – Sunday, November 24
The first sign that something was amiss at UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s investor day was when Brian Thompson didn’t show up to his early morning hair and makeup appointment. At around 6:40 a.m. on Wednesday of last week, Thompson, 50, was shot outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in a killing that gripped the world. On Monday, police arrested a man in connection with the shooting who local officials found in Altoona, Pennsylvania, carrying a gun and a handwritten three-page manifesto decrying the health-care industry’s profit motives. While the police investigation unfolds, the $500 billion health-care company is simultaneously trying to cope with the personal tragedy of losing a top executive and a spiraling PR crisis that risks long-term reputational harm in a country where so many have turned against it. Interviews with people familiar with the events show a company under siege. UnitedHealth locked down its Minnesota, New York City and Washington, DC, offices to external visitors and urged workers with safety fears to stay home, according to messages seen by Bloomberg News. A new management structure was put in place to navigate the situation, one message said, without detailing who was running UnitedHealth’s largest division in the wake of Thompson’s death. A private funeral for friends and family was set for Monday, while the company is still working on logistics to safely hold a memorial service, according to people familiar with the matter. Instead of eliciting sympathy from the public, the death of the insurance division’s chief executive officer has spawned a hate machine against the insurance industry that’s only getting louder as the days drag on with little insight into the killer’s motives. The man in custody, Luigi Mangione, 26, was noticed by a McDonald’s employee while he was eating at the restaurant, police said. The manifesto he was carrying speaks to both his “motivation and mindset,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday. It’s a crucial break in a case that dragged on for days in what police say was a targeted and premeditated killing. Bullet casings recovered at the scene bore the words “denied,” “depose,” and “delay,” loosely echoing the book title Delay, Deny, Defend, which describes tactics allegedly used by insurers to deny claims. “Our hope is that today’s apprehension brings some relief to Brian’s family, friends, colleagues, and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy. We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation,” a UnitedHealth spokesperson said in a statement. Inside the company, meetings and presentations were canceled after the shooting. A crisis communications firm was tapped to help. And tributes to Thompson poured in. “The news of Brian's passing has been overwhelming for all of us and we feel his loss profoundly,” said UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty said in an email to staff on Wednesday that was seen by Bloomberg News. But outside the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based insurer, a groundswell of anger against the for-profit insurance industry continues to intensify across the U.S. A singer posted a folk song about the shooting on social media. Saturday Night Live even joked about the reaction to the killing over the weekend. Thompson’s death has become a symbol of revenge over denied medical bills and lack of access to necessary care, an issue that some UnitedHealth employees say they’re growing increasingly anxious about. While the company has sent a series of messages extolling Thompson and decrying his killing, some employees say they want to see a more direct response to the vitriol against the company. A company under siege On the morning of the shooting, some executives noticed a frenzy of police cars on one of the hotel’s side streets as they arrived for the investor meeting. They were redirected by the New York Police Department into a different hotel entrance, according to people familiar with the events who asked to speak anonymously as law enforcement continues its investigation. The executives headed into the building and upstairs to the conference area where they sipped coffee, chatted and proceeded to get their hair and makeup done. Executives began to speculate about what happened outside the hotel. A person had collapsed — maybe a heart attack, some suggested. Others thought there had been a shooting. They did not immediately think it was related to the absence of their colleague, known affectionately as “BT,” according to the people. As the minutes ticked closer to the start of the investor meeting, unease grew. It was unusual for Thompson, a 20-year veteran of UnitedHealth who’d climbed the ranks to run its key insurance division, to not show up for an important day like this. Colleagues suspected he’d overslept or was sick in bed, and planned to send someone to his room at a nearby hotel to check on him. They prepped a backup speaker to give Thompson’s presentation if he didn’t arrive on time, the people said. It took a few minutes for the 8 a.m. event to begin, after some 275 people showed up. It’s unclear why they didn’t start on time. But as Witty, the company’s CEO, began his opening remarks, a handful of executives were alerted of a security emergency. They stepped away from the event. They were told Thompson had been killed outside of the hotel that morning. As the investor day presentations continued, the small group of company executives in the know were questioned by police. The executives immediately started trying to reach Thompson’s family. They wanted to tell his wife and kids before the media got a hold of the story. Meanwhile, Witty was told of Thompson’s death on the sidelines of the conference. He was distraught, people familiar with the event said, but had to make quick decisions about the safety of his employees and what to do about the ongoing investor meeting. As all of that was happening, the news got out. Mobile alerts about Thompson’s death started pinging attendees’ phones. There were gasps. People in the audience started looking around to see if others knew. Around 9 a.m., Witty cut the investor day short. “Some of you may know we’re dealing with a very serious medical situation with one of our team members,” he said. “And as a result, I’m afraid we’re going to have to bring to a close the event today, which I apologize for.” Thompson had been dead for two hours. While conference-goers dispersed in a haze of confusion and grief, UnitedHealth executives and some employees were pulled into a room together at the hotel, the people said. With no information about the shooter’s motive, some feared for their own personal safety. Later that day, the company pulled down bio pages of its top executives and board members, while other employees deleted their profile pages on Linkedin. Tidal wave The vitriol following the shooting sparked a reckoning among some UnitedHealth employees. Much of the public animosity was aimed at the way insurance companies prevent Americans from getting the care their doctors prescribe. Some employees grappled with the idea that their paychecks were padded in part by the practice of denying care. Witty, in a video to staff last week, attempted to address the rage but failed to change the narrative for some workers. “As you've seen, people are writing things we simply don't recognize, are aggressive, inappropriate and disrespectful,” he said, urging employees to ignore the media. “There’s no value in engaging. ”One employee said they wanted to see accountability from Witty. The episode made them question whether they could keep working for UnitedHealth both mentally and morally, this person said. It wasn’t enough to extol Thompson as a leader, colleague, friend and family man, according to some workers who declined to speak publicly for fear of retribution. The noise had become too loud to ignore and they wanted to see management address it head on. This growing disconnect between Americans and their insurers is an increasing threat to the industry, said Wendell Potter, a former Cigna communications executive who has written books critical of health insurance. “They have to demonstrate quarter-to-quarter that they’re managing medical expenses because that’s what Wall Street expects,” Potter said. “They’re certainly not managing the expectations of the people that they serve.” In the company’s limited external communications, UnitedHealth said in a statement Thursday: “Our priorities are, first and foremost, supporting Brian’s family; ensuring the safety of our employees; and working with law enforcement to bring the perpetrators to justice.” The constrained response may be intentional. “If they were my client, I would say go radio silent unless they have new news,” said crisis communications specialist Bruce Hennes, who is not working with UnitedHealth. “This is not the time to get into extended arguments and discussions with people on social media. There’s nothing to be gained.” Investors are also reacting to the impact of the outrage on the company, which sent shares down 10% in the days following the shooting. The killing “has cast a dark shadow” over the health-care insurance industry, Jared Holz, a health-care equity strategist at Mizuho Securities, wrote in a note to clients about UnitedHealth’s stock drop. “We believe the majority of the pressure, if not all, is related to the idea that the crime was based on some level of dissatisfaction with the insurance industry, its tendency to deny coverage for patients (in some circumstances) and the emotional toil this can take on patients and families,” Holz said. In some ways, UnitedHealth is in an impossible situation. “I don’t know what they can do other than hope that it does go away,” Potter said. Insurance behemoth UnitedHealth, the country’s largest insurer, is known among those in the industry as a place with sharp elbows: It’s unafraid of high-profile legal battles or tough negotiations with medical providers. On Wall Street, the company gained a reputation for reliably hitting — and usually exceeding — financial targets, even if it meant slashing jobs to do so. The culture at the top was shaped for years by veterans of the defunct accounting firm Arthur Andersen, where Chairman and former CEO Stephen Hemsley once worked. A previous CEO, William McGuire, unceremoniously left the company and settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over backdating stock options that regulators alleged enriched him and other executives. In recent years, a series of acquisitions have consolidated UnitedHealth’s position so much that when a cyberattack took out its Change Healthcare subsidiary, doctors offices and hospitals across the country were paralyzed. That market dominance has come under review by the Department of Justice, Bloomberg News has reported. Members of Congress have called for a breakup of the conglomerate. Thompson was one of a handful of executives who sold UnitedHealth shares after the company learned it was under investigation by the DOJ, but before that information was shared with the public, Bloomberg reported. The company’s stock fell when the DOJ investigation was reported. Thompson sold $15.1 million worth of shares, according to Bloomberg calculations. Growing through so many acquisitions rapidly turned UnitedHealth into a company with around 400,000 employees. Some former employees call it too big to manage effectively, with layers of management slowing down decision making and pressure on divisions to buy services from other parts of the company because UnitedHealth is in so many lines of business that feed off one another. Before the investor day last week was cut short, Witty used some of his time on stage to acknowledge the widespread dissatisfaction with his industry. “You only have to walk into a room with five people to hear four stories of frustration. ‘I couldn't find a doctor, I didn't know where to go. It's too difficult to understand,’” he said in a room full of financial analysts and investors. For now, Witty’s trying to reassure his employees that the narrative hasn’t spiraled out of the company’s control. “We will work through this together. But it's going to be difficult,” he told workers in a video address last week. “Life won't be the same again.” (With assistance from Antonia Mufarech, Gerry Smith, Madison Muller, John Lauerman and Myles Miller.) ©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Just two days after revealing Ballistic, an upcoming 5v5 round-based tactical FPS "experience" that sure as hell looks a lot like Counter-Strike , Fortnite is continuing its brazen campaign to become every other videogame all at once. Today, Epic announced Lego Fortnite Brick Life, a "social roleplay experience in the Lego Fortnite world." Set in "an ever-evolving city," Epic says Brick Life will let players "build your own stories by interacting with both the environment and your fellow residents." In other words, it's like a GTA roleplay server, but with Lego. In Fortnite. While we can probably assume that Brick Life won't feature quite as much vehicular manslaughter as GTA RP allows, I challenge you to watch the gameplay trailer above and not see Grand Theft Auto when the little Lego minifig hops onto a bike to tear down a city boulevard. And then it immediately cuts to other Lego folks doing a bank heist! The influences aren't subtle. Brick Life's metropolis setting, Brick Bay, will feature a variety of "vibrant locales" like beaches, a seemingly-haunted magic academy, restaurants, rooftop clubs, and gyms where minifigs can lift weights for disappointingly few visible gains. As part of the roleplay experience, Brick Life players can assume different in-game professions, like Academy Professor, Security Officer, Sushi Chef, and "Scoundrel." Not sure what kind of resume you need for that last one. Elsewhere in Brick Bay, players will be able to purchase empty lots to build Lego RP homes, where they can place items and decorations from the in-game furniture catalogue. They'll also be able to buy "more unique" furniture from Brick Bay's furniture shop. Additionally, "most Decor Bundles and Builds" that you might've already acquired for the existing Lego Fortnite survival mode will be cross-compatible with Brick Life. Brick Life will join in the rollout of Fortnite's in-game text chat , which Fortnite Creators will be able to add to their own islands later this week. Surely this can only go well. For more details, visit Epic's rundown in the official Brick Life reveal news post . Lego Fortnite Brick Life launches on December 12. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.Stock market today: Wall Street ends mixed after a bumpy week
According to the Indiana Department of Revenue, residents of Floyd, Gibson, Jay, Monroe, Rush and Switzerland counties will see more money taken out of their paychecks to cover the cost of county government services in the new year. The new local income tax rates in those counties are Floyd 1.89%, up from 1.39%; Gibson 1.3%, up from 0.9%; Jay 2.5%, up from 2.45%; Monroe 2.14%, up from 2.035%; Rush 2.15%, up from 2.1%; and Switzerland 1.45%, up from 1.25%. Records show three additional Indiana counties already hiked their income tax rate on Oct. 1: Fayette 2.82%, up from 2.57%; Fulton 2.88%, up from 2.68%; and Henry 2.02%, up from 1.8%. No changes are slated for the local income tax rates in Northwest Indiana that currently stand at 1.5% in Lake County, 0.5% in Porter County, 1.45% in LaPorte County, 1% in Newton County, and 2.864% in Jasper County. But those rates, and local income tax rates across Indiana, might be headed dramatically higher if Republican Gov.-elect Mike Braun succeeds next year in enacting his property tax reduction plan at the Republican-controlled General Assembly. Braun has proposed reverting residential property tax bills to their 2021 amount, regardless of any subsequent increase in the assessed value of the home, as well as increasing the value of residential property tax deductions and capping future property tax revenue growth. Those changes likely will result in a shift of the property tax burden onto rental, business, industrial and agricultural property owners, or higher local income tax rates if counties look to other ways of replacing the lost property tax revenue from owner-occupied homes. Though any local income tax increases will be partially offset by continuing reductions in the state's 3.05% income tax rate that's set to fall to 3% on Jan. 1, 2025, to 2.95% on Jan. 1, 2026, and to 2.9% on Jan. 1, 2027, according to House Enrolled Act 1001 (2023) . The rate cut means a Hoosier worker earning $50,000 a year will pay $1,500 in state income tax next year, instead of $1,525 — a savings of $25, or about $1 per biweekly paycheck. Hiking that same worker's county income rate by 1% would take an extra $500 a year out of the worker's wages, or about $20 from each check. Illinois has a 4.95% state income tax rate and no local income taxes. The combination of the two in Indiana means most Hoosiers are paying more of their earnings in state and local income tax than Illinois residents do.
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Are you tracking your health with a device? Here’s what could happen with the dataBy Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times (TNS) Every day millions of people share more intimate information with their accessories than they do with their spouse. Wearable technology — smartwatches, smart rings, fitness trackers and the like — monitors body-centric data such as your heart rate, steps taken and calories burned, and may record where you go along the way. Like Santa Claus, it knows when you are sleeping (and how well), it knows when you’re awake, it knows when you’ve been idle or exercising, and it keeps track of all of it. People are also sharing sensitive health information on health and wellness apps , including online mental health and counseling programs. Some women use period tracker apps to map out their monthly cycle. These devices and services have excited consumers hoping for better insight into their health and lifestyle choices. But the lack of oversight into how body-centric data are used and shared with third parties has prompted concerns from privacy experts, who warn that the data could be sold or lost through data breaches, then used to raise insurance premiums, discriminate surreptitiously against applicants for jobs or housing, and even perform surveillance. The use of wearable technology and medical apps surged in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, but research released by Mozilla on Wednesday indicates that current laws offer little protection for consumers who are often unaware just how much of their health data are being collected and shared by companies. “I’ve been studying the intersections of emerging technologies, data-driven technologies, AI and human rights and social justice for the past 15 years, and since the pandemic I’ve noticed the industry has become hyper-focused on our bodies,” said Mozilla Foundation technology fellow Júlia Keserű, who conducted the research. “That permeates into all kinds of areas of our lives and all kinds of domains within the tech industry.” The report “From Skin to Screen: Bodily Integrity in the Digital Age” recommends that existing data protection laws be clarified to encompass all forms of bodily data. It also calls for expanding national health privacy laws to cover health-related information collected from health apps and fitness trackers and making it easier for users to opt out of body-centric data collections. Researchers have been raising alarms about health data privacy for years. Data collected by companies are often sold to data brokers or groups that buy, sell and trade data from the internet to create detailed consumer profiles. Body-centric data can include information such as the fingerprints used to unlock phones, face scans from facial recognition technology, and data from fitness and fertility trackers, mental health apps and digital medical records. One of the key reasons health information has value to companies — even when the person’s name is not associated with it — is that advertisers can use the data to send targeted ads to groups of people based on certain details they share. The information contained in these consumer profiles is becoming so detailed, however, that when paired with other data sets that include location information, it could be possible to target specific individuals, Keserű said. Location data can “expose sophisticated insights about people’s health status, through their visits to places like hospitals or abortions clinics,” Mozilla’s report said, adding that “companies like Google have been reported to keep such data even after promising to delete it.” A 2023 report by Duke University revealed that data brokers were selling sensitive data on individuals’ mental health conditions on the open market. While many brokers deleted personal identifiers, some provided names and addresses of individuals seeking mental health assistance, according to the report. In two public surveys conducted as part of the research, Keserű said, participants were outraged and felt exploited in scenarios where their health data were sold for a profit without their knowledge. “We need a new approach to our digital interactions that recognizes the fundamental rights of individuals to safeguard their bodily data, an issue that speaks directly to human autonomy and dignity,” Keserű said. “As technology continues to advance, it is critical that our laws and practices evolve to meet the unique challenges of this era.” Consumers often take part in these technologies without fully understanding the implications. Last month, Elon Musk suggested on X that users submit X-rays, PET scans, MRIs and other medical images to Grok, the platform’s artificial intelligence chatbot, to seek diagnoses. The issue alarmed privacy experts, but many X users heeded Musk’s call and submitted health information to the chatbot. While X’s privacy policy says that the company will not sell user data to third parties, it does share some information with certain business partners. Gaps in existing laws have allowed the widespread sharing of biometric and other body-related data. Health information provided to hospitals, doctor’s offices and medical insurance companies is protected from disclosure under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act , known as HIPAA, which established federal standards protecting such information from release without the patient’s consent. But health data collected by many wearable devices and health and wellness apps don’t fall under HIPAA’s umbrella, said Suzanne Bernstein, counsel at Electronic Privacy Information Center. “In the U.S. because we don’t have a comprehensive federal privacy law ... it falls to the state level,” she said. But not every state has weighed in on the issue. Washington, Nevada and Connecticut all recently passed laws to provide safeguards for consumer health data. Washington, D.C., in July introduced legislation that aimed to require tech companies to adhere to strengthened privacy provisions regarding the collection, sharing, use or sale of consumer health data. In California, the California Privacy Rights Act regulates how businesses can use certain types of sensitive information, including biometric information, and requires them to offer consumers the ability to opt out of disclosure of sensitive personal information. “This information being sold or shared with data brokers and other entities hypercharge the online profiling that we’re so used to at this point, and the more sensitive the data, the more sophisticated the profiling can be,” Bernstein said. “A lot of the sharing or selling with third parties is outside the scope of what a consumer would reasonably expect.” Health information has become a prime target for hackers seeking to extort healthcare agencies and individuals after accessing sensitive patient data. Health-related cybersecurity breaches and ransom attacks increased more than 4,000% between 2009 and 2023, targeting the booming market of body-centric data, which is expected to exceed $500 billion by 2030, according to the report. “Nonconsensual data sharing is a big issue,” Keserű said. “Even if it’s biometric data or health data, a lot of the companies are just sharing that data without you knowing, and that is causing a lot of anxiety and questions.” ©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Snoring linked to behavioral problems in adolescents without declines in cognition
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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — TCU leading scorer Frankie Collins will miss the rest of the season because of a broken bone in his left foot, the school said Friday. The 6-foot-2 senior guard, in his first season at TCU after spending the past two at Arizona State, is scheduled to have surgery Tuesday in Dallas. Collins leads the Horned Frogs (5-4) with 11.2 points and 4.4 assists per game. He also averages 4.4 rebounds per game. TCU said Collins broke his foot in the first half of its 83-74 loss to Vanderbilt last Sunday. He still played 35 minutes, finishing with six points and seven assists. Collins played 31 games as a freshman for Michigan's NCAA Sweet 16 team in 2021-22 before transferring to Arizona State. He started all 32 games last season for the Sun Devils, averaging 13.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. Story continues below video He could potentially get another college season through a medical redshirt. Arizona State is in its first Big 12 season. It will host TCU on Feb. 15. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll