Second Mistrial In Social Security Guard Stabbing Case

     From the Chatham, VA Star-Tribune:

A Gretna man accused of stabbing a Social Security office guard remains in custody after a second jury trial ended in a mistrial Thursday.

Byron Clements, 50, was charged with one count of aggravated malicious wounding for allegedly stabbing Jason Alsbaugh several times at the Social Security Administration office in Danville in February 2011. ... 

Twelve jurors remained deadlocked after nearly six hours of deliberation following a two-day trial in Pittsylvania County Circuit Court. ...

Defense attorney Glenn Berger said psychiatric specialists say Clements, who has a history of schizophrenia, should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Why Did Social Security Want Missouri Conceal-Carry Records?

     From KBLA in Missouri:

The Missouri Department of Revenue is looking for a new Director.

Brian Long resigned Monday after weeks of controversy surrounding the scanning of documents for driver’s license and conceal-carry weapons applicants. The pressure increased last week when it was discovered that the agency compiled the entire list of the state’s 163-thousand CCW holders for the Missouri Highway Patrol.

The Patrol then provided it to the Social Security Administration for an investigation it was conducting. ..

Long had only been on the job for about three months. He earlier defended the DOR’s policy, saying the scanning of documents was necessary to combat fraud, and that no one’s information was being given to the federal government.

     Update: KY3 (what does this TV station have against giving its actual call letters?) reports that Social Security's Inspector General, Patrick O'Carroll, has apologized to a Missouri Congressman for "errors [his office] made in reporting aspects of what happened regarding the handling of Missourians' private information." I still don't have any idea why Social Security wanted the Missouri conceal-carry records. I don't think you have to be an NRA member to find this request a head-scatcher.

I Agree With Andrew Biggs

     Andrew Biggs, former Deputy Commissioner of Social Security and long time warrior in the (losing) battle to privatize Social Security, has a surprising blog post. He opposes chained CPI, describing it as "bad policy that both liberals and conservatives may come to regret." His post is brief and directs readers to a longer piece he wrote for the National Review but the link he gives is bad. Probably, it's just a technical glitch but an argument against chained CPI probably isn't the sort of thing that the editors at National Review would enjoy publishing.
     Biggs views may be evolving. About a year ago, he wrote an article suggesting that privatizing Social Security might be unconstitutional.

The Overwhelming Majority Of Disability Claims Get Denied At The Initial And Reconsideration Levels

     From the newsletter (not available online) of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) -- click twice on image to view full size:

A Satellite Office Closes

     From West Hawaii Today:

For the last time in the foreseeable future, the Social Security Administration offered satellite office hours in Kona Tuesday morning.

Social Security employees began calling West Hawaii residents in to the West Hawaii Civic Center’s community room at about 9:30 a.m. By just after 10 a.m., more than 120 people were signed up to use the services. ...

Last year, then-Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-2nd, told West Hawaii Today she would look into the administration’s reasoning for keeping such limited hours in West Hawaii. Not long after that, the administration ended the visits to West Hawaii entirely. They resumed the monthly visits in February, with the intention of coming here only through this month.

     It's a two hour drive from Kona to Hilo, the nearest Social Security field office.
     This same sort of thing is happening all over the country.  This is what inadequate budget resources do to service at Social Security. Read the whole article to see what those waiting in line thought about the idea of doing all their business with Social Security online.

Big Employee Fraud Case In Alabama

     The Associated Press reports that Manuel Chaney III, who had worked at Social Security's Bessemer, AL field office, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for an identity theft scheme. Chaney had used information obtained from his employment to identify people who had recently died. It's not clear from the article exactly what he did thereafter. He may have filed survivor claims on those accounts or he may have kept the decedents in payment status while diverting the payments to accounts he controlled. In any case, the fraud amounted to $325,000.

Can Pain Be Measured?

     From the New England Journal of Medicine:

Persistent pain is measured by means of self-report, the sole reliance on which hampers diagnosis and treatment. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) holds promise for identifying objective measures of pain, but brain measures that are sensitive and specific to physical pain have not yet been identified. ...

In study 1, the neurologic signature showed sensitivity and specificity of 94% or more (95% confidence interval [CI], 89 to 98) in discriminating painful heat from nonpainful warmth, pain anticipation, and pain recall. In study 2, the signature discriminated between painful heat and nonpainful warmth with 93% sensitivity and specificity (95% CI, 84 to 100). In study 3, it discriminated between physical pain and social pain with 85% sensitivity (95% CI, 76 to 94) and 73% specificity (95% CI, 61 to 84) and with 95% sensitivity and specificity in a forced-choice test of which of two conditions was more painful. In study 4, the strength of the signature response was substantially reduced when remifentanil was administered.

     Before anyone gets excited at the thought that Social Security can finally measure pain, a few caveats are in order:

• There were only 114 participants in the study. 
• The test subjects were described as healthy with a median age of just under 25 years. The study's authors caution that the results might be different in non-healthy individuals.
• The pain that was "measured" was administered by the researchers -- "thermal stimuli" to the left forearm of varying degrees of severity.
• The study's authors indicate that if the validity of the study could be shown to extent to "clinical populations", the test might be used to confirm pain in patients who cannot communicate. Also, the study could be used as a basis for other studies. The study's authors are not even suggesting that the fMRI could have forensic uses.
• The study's authors caution that the study's results would have to be validated across persons, scanning protocols and research sites.
• The study's authors caution that the results might be different depending upon the site in the body where the pain is generated, the clinical cause of the pain and the type of the pain. For instance, would visceral pain register differently than the cutaneous pain that the researchers generated in their study? How would neuropathic pain compare with the pain from arthritis?
• fMRIs are expensive. They are an uncommon test with limited uses at the moment. Probably, there would be no clinical reason to use the fMRI to evaluate pain in a person who can communicate, meaning that if used for disability determination purposes, Social Security would probably have to foot that expensive bill.

Yeah, I Kinda Thought So

     From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

[National Republican Campaign Committee] Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) touched a nerve when he savaged the entitlement changes in President Obama's budget as a "shocking attack on seniors," Roll Call reports.

But "it's the lack of fallout" that may be more revealing.

The debate Walden's remarks "has set off inside the GOP shows many Republicans harbor deep-seated fears about publicly supporting the entitlement cuts they supposedly back and have demanded Obama and other Democrats embrace since taking control of the House in 2011."