Stuart M. Butler of the Heritage Foundation recently scribed a piece called "Think Small," outlining what President Obama must do regarding health care strategy. He stresses the following key points, but I recommend reading the column in full:

1. Make a strong commitment to bipartisanship (don’t be like Bill Clinton).

2. Rather than finding new money to spend during these tough economic times, he should find ways to more efficiently spend the money we are already allocating toward this.

3. Allow the states flexibility to redesign existing health care programs and use the money more efficiently to reach the goal of maximizing affordable coverage.

4. Remember that Americans are very conservative about their health care. Those with coverage are extremely nervous about changing what they already have.

Time is running out for companies to apply for the annual competition naming the “Best Places to Work in Indiana.” Registrations will be accepted until Friday, December 5, for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce program honoring the top companies in the state as determined through employer reports and comprehensive employee surveys.

The 2009 winners will be selected from two categories: small to medium-sized companies of between 25 and 249 employees, and large-sized companies consisting of 250 or more employees. (Out-of-state parent companies are eligible to participate if at least 25 full-time employees are in Indiana.)

The Best Companies Group, which has overseen similar programs in other states, is responsible for the selection process. The basis for this initiative is Fortune magazine’s noted “100 Best Companies to Work for in America.”

All participating companies will receive an in-depth evaluation identifying strengths and weaknesses according to their employees.

Think you know the solution for our country’s serious health care system challenges? If so, you could win $10 million. Indianapolis-based WellPoint, the WellPoint Foundation and the X PRIZE Foundation teamed to develop a $10 million or more competition to generate new ways to address these challenges.

The competition was announced last month, and rules, guidelines and exact prize money will be announced in early 2009. WellPoint has agreed to test the viability of selected solutions in its markets.

WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP), the nation’s largest health insurance company in terms of medical membership; the WellPoint Foundation, one of the largest corporate foundations in the United States; and the X PRIZE Foundation, the nation’s pre-eminent philanthropic organization focused on innovation through competition, today announced a landmark collaboration to develop a $10 million or more competition designed to generate new ways to address the nation’s serious health care system challenges.

"WellPoint and its Foundation recognize the challenges facing our health care system are substantial, which is why it’s critical for health benefits companies, health care providers, government leaders, and consumers to work together to identify real-world solutions that will create the most benefit for all Americans," said Angela F. Braly, president and CEO of WellPoint and member of the WellPoint Foundation board of directors.

To learn more about the competition, see what key opinion leaders are saying about it, and to participate in the development of the prize, please visit www.xprize.org/wellpoint.

Shortly after the election, I wrote this post about how women now make up the majority of New Hampshire state senators.

Now, Brian Howey has this piece that explains how women are playing a major role in the Indiana legislature, as well:

Last week, Simpson appointed Sen. Earline Rogers of Gary (from lower left) as whip, Sen. Connie Sipes of New Albany as caucus chair, and Jean Breaux of Indianapolis as assistant caucus chair. They join Republican Majority Floor Leader Connie Lawson of Danville, Assistant President Pro Tempore Sue Landske of Cedar Lake and Assistant Majority Floor Leader Teresa Lubbers of Indianapolis who joined the leadership team of President Long in 2006. After President Robert Garton was defeated in the May 2006 Republican primary, it was a block of Republican women who threw their support behind Long and essentially clinched the top Senate job for the Fort Wayne Republican. He subsequently opened the gates to leadership for women. Simpson of Ellettsville was able to wrest the Senate Minority Leader post away from Sen. Richard Young last month. It came in a year when Hoosiers nominated Jill Long Thompson as its first major party gubernatorial nominee while U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton became the first woman to win the Indiana presidential primary. In 2003, Lt. Gov. Kathy Davis became the first female in state history to hold an executive branch office.

So you like the weather in California? That’s fair. And yes, the beaches and celebrity sightings are undoubtedly a benefit. (My friends saw Andy Dick at diners twice in one weekend!)

But if you like baked goods, you might want to stick to the Midwest, where we don’t snub our noses at a heavenly slice of good old-fashioned banana bread.

The New York Times has the story of school bake sales that had to be moved off campus before getting burned in the fiery ovens of oppression:

The old-fashioned school bake sale, once as American as apple pie, is fast becoming obsolete in California, a result of strict new state nutrition standards for public schools that regulate the types of food that can be sold to students. The guidelines were passed by lawmakers in 2005 and took effect in July 2007. They require that snacks sold during the school day contain no more than 35 percent sugar by weight and derive no more than 35 percent of their calories from fat and no more than 10 percent of their calories from saturated fat …

Melissa Luna, considered the über-mom of Crocker Highlands Elementary in Oakland, said that sometimes calories mattered less than the importance of a cause — like the bake sale organized to raise money for Christopher Rodriguez, a student who was shot and paralyzed last March by a stray bullet from a gas station robbery while he was taking piano lessons across the street. The sale, attended by members of the Oakland Raiders and Oakland Athletics, raised $30,000.

I’ve got to side with Mrs. Luna on this. And look, I’m all for putting healthier foods in school vending machines and not serving hormone-riddled meat in the cafeteria, but we also need to maintain some perspective here. Our kids need to learn a little about the benefits and responsibilities of free choice and commerce, too.

Hat tip to 13th Floor.

For those of us with a media/newspaper background, the following comments from Rupert Murdoch – whose company owns Fox News, Wall Street Journal and MySpace — are quite interesting. He basically claims the media’s condescension toward its readers paved the way for its sharp decline and the emergence of private blogs as news sources:

"It used to be that a handful of editors could decide what was news-and what was not. They acted as sort of demigods. If they ran a story, it became news. If they ignored an event, it never happened. Today editors are losing this power. The Internet, for example, provides access to thousands of new sources that cover things an editor might ignore. And if you aren’t satisfied with that, you can start up your own blog and cover and comment on the news yourself. Journalists like to think of themselves as watchdogs, but they haven’t always responded well when the public calls them to account."

To make his point, Murdoch criticized the media reaction after bloggers debunked a "60 Minutes" report by former CBS anchor, Dan Rather, that President Bush had evaded service during his days in the National Guard.

"Far from celebrating this citizen journalism, the establishment media reacted defensively. During an appearance on Fox News, a CBS executive attacked the bloggers in a statement that will go down in the annals of arrogance. ’60 Minutes,’ he said, was a professional organization with ‘multiple layers of checks and balances.’ By contrast, he dismissed the blogger as ‘a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.’ But eventually it was the guys sitting in their pajamas who forced Mr. Rather and his producer to resign …

Read the rest of this entry »

Economic hardships aside, small and mid-sized companies in a recent survey expressed cautious optimism about their business prospects over the next year. They weren’t as positive about technology spending, to the chagrin of the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), which conducted the survey.

Key results:

• Eighty-five percent of the 772 companies in the U.S., Canada and U.K. plan to hire new employees; 54% expect revenue growth of at least 10%; and 40% are looking to add new business locations.
• On the information technology side, 51% intend to spend more while 49% see flat or declining tech expenditures. This compares to 62% planning tech spending increases in the previous year’s survey.

It’s been reported for years that small businesses provide nearly all the net job growth. It doesn’t look like that is going to change based on these results.