Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said the drop in the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent may be partially reversed in coming months.
BRIDGETON • Officials at the new 60-bed SSM Rehabilitation Hospital hope that it will become a regional center for the treatment of brain and spinal cord injuries.
Doug Brewer, president and chief executive of SSM-Select Rehabilitation, says the hospital brings together several services that previously were provided at other SSM sites, and the hospital also has all new equipment to help improve the rehab services offered by SSM.
Brewer said the hospital would focus particularly on helping those with brain or spinal cord injuries, in addition to providing a variety of other rehab services.
The $23 million Rehabilitation Hospital on the campus of DePaul Health Center, 12380 DePaul Drive in Bridgeton, began accepting its first patients this week. The three-story, 66,914-square-foot hospital was built over the past 18 months and has opened on schedule.
“I think we can all agree that this building has exceeded our expectations,” Brewer said at a dedication ceremony last week.
“Yes,” he added, “it’s a beautiful building, but exceptional, compassionate care for patients cannot be faked, and that’s what we’ll strive to provide here.”
The new hospital features these amenities:
• Therapy gyms on the third and fourth floors with ceiling-to-floor windows that provide a panoramic view of nearby interstates 70 and 270 and St. Charles Rock Road. Brewer said viewing the hustle and bustle outside can help stimulate those with certain types of brain injuries and hasten their recovery.
• Private, windowless therapy and consultation rooms for those whose injuries respond best to very little outside stimulation.
• Brightly lit patient rooms and hallways designed to look more like a hotel than a hospital. Large photos of St. Louis-area attractions hang in each patient’s room. Brewer said most patients will be at the hospital for at least two weeks or much longer, so designers tried to make the rooms as inviting as possible without forgetting the facility’s medical mission.
• A large dining area with both indoor and outdoor seating.
• An outdoor ambulation course for patient therapies.
• A courtyard for use by patients and their families.
• Nurses’ stations facing large windows on the nearby therapy gyms and therapy rooms, giving workers a good view and allowing them to respond quickly to any emergencies credit reports free.
The new hospital also houses the SSM Day Institute, a specialized outpatient program for people who are recovering from a traumatic injury or illness but who no longer require 24-hour nursing or acute rehabilitation care.
The hospital opened with about 150 employees and will employ 250 when it reaches full occupancy. SSM Rehabilitation Hospital is operated by SSM-Select Rehab LLC, a joint venture of SSM Health Care-St. Louis and Select Medical, which is based in Mechanicsburg, Pa.
David Chernow, Select Medical’s president and chief development and strategy officer, said he was excited about the new hospital and all of its new equipment and technology.
“But it will be the patients’ experience itself that they and their family members will remember the most after they go home,” he said.
“Our mission is to help them regain their independence. Truly, we will improve their quality of life.”
Chris Gonzalez, the hospital’s director of rehabilitation, said, “One area that will differentiate us is our care of people who have dual diagnoses — a spinal cord injury and a brain injury. Many times when there are traumatic injuries, especially in car accidents, both of these injuries occur.”
The brain injury rehab program is being relocated from St. Mary’s Health Center in Richmond Heights to the new hospital. The SSM Rehabilitation network will continue to operate general inpatient rehab programs at both St. Mary’s and St. Joseph Health Center in St. Charles.
Dan Blaker, vice president of design and construction for Select Medical, said the new hospital looks in many ways like other medical facilities Select Medical has helped build in recent years.
“We basically incorporated rehab design features that we have incorporated over a number of years at other facilities,” he said.
He said the SSM Rehabilitation Hospital site was somewhat unusual in that it is long and narrow and on a hilltop. So the hospital was built with long hallways to fit the terrain.
Alberici Constructors Inc. was the general contractor on the project, and Stock and Associates were consulting engineers.
Google searches just got more personal.
The Internet search giant is now sorting through photos and posts from its social network Google+ in its quest to provide the best search results
President Obama gave a pep talk Friday to the staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — including the new director he controversially appointed this week.
"Every one of you here has a critical role to play in making sure that everybody’s playing by the same rules — to make sure the big banks on Wall Street play by the same rules as community banks on Main Street," Obama said.
The bureau is likely to face a bumpy road after the president’s recess appointment of Richard Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, as the bureau’s first official director.
Obama’s move angered Republicans in Congress who had tried for months to prevent the president from making exactly that appointment unless he agreed to structural changes in the consumer bureau. They say the bureau — which came into existence last year as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms — is unaccountable and they deny the legitimacy of the appointment, saying Congress isn’t in recess.
The administration counters that the pro-forma sessions aimed at blocking the recess appointments aren’t legitimate, and that the president has a Constitutional obligation to appoint people to keep government running.
A House Republican panel has called Cordray to testify later this month. And business groups are talking about a legal challenge to the bureau’s authority.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is an independent agency created as part of the Wall Street reforms of 2010 tasked with regulating financial products such as mortgages and credit cards bad credit payday loans.
As its new chief, Cordray has said he plans to move forward and not worry about potential lawsuits that may challenge his agency’s powers.
In his address on Friday, Obama praised the bureau for moving forward to target nonbank firms that issue financial products such as payday lenders, debt collectors and mortgage servicers — sectors that remained unregulated while the bureau lacked an official director.
"Now that Richard is your director, you can finally exercise the full powers that this agency has been given under the law," Obama said. "No longer are consumers left alone to face the risk of unfair or deceptive or abusive practices. Not any more."
Obama gave a "special shoutout" to Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard University professor who came up with the idea of the bureau. The White House bypassed Warren, a critic of the banking industry and lightning rod to Republicans, in favor of nominating Cordray to run the bureau. Warren is now running for the U.S. Senate.
The mention of Warren’s name drew big cheers from the crowd of 100 employees attending the speech at the main offices of the bureau, which now has a staff of around 800.
Brooke Gray could be either of two things: an insufficiently educated opportunist, trying to pass herself off as an equine dentist, or a young woman dedicated to horses, performing an age-old practice for an honest wage.
A circuit court judge recently said the former. Her attorney, a St. Louis-based litigator with a history of challenging the government’s licensing power, says the latter — and believes the judge’s ruling could limit everyone from cattle hands to dog groomers.
A Clinton County Circuit Court judge ruled in December that Gray had to stop a practice called “teeth floating” after the Missouri Veterinary Medical Board, which oversees veterinary licenses in the state, sued Gray because she does not have a veterinary license.
Her attorney plans to appeal the ruling, saying that Gray is merely practicing something that unlicensed lay people have done for hundreds of years.
“Up until 15 years ago no one in Missouri considered these animal husbandry practices veterinary medicine,” said Gray’s attorney, David Roland, who helms the libertarian Missouri Freedom Center. “That’s how animal agriculture has always been done.”
Roland calls Gray’s case “the tip of the iceberg” and says it could have ramifications for anyone who wants to perform “basic animal husbandry” without a license.
But state law, veterinarian groups and the board say veterinary practices are regulated for a reason: to protect animals and their owners from untrained, unskilled workers. They say the practice of teeth floating, which often requires sedation, should be done either by, or under the supervision, of a licensed veterinarian.
“The public seems to think the licensing board is there to protect veterinarians,” said Bruce Whittle, chair of the equine committee for the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association, the group that represents the state’s vets. “It’s to protect the public against veterinarians that are doing harm.”
Gray, who lives north of Kansas City, grew up on an Iowa farm and always wanted to work with horses. So, about eight years ago, she got two months of training at an equine dentistry school in Idaho, then moved to Missouri and opened B & B Equine Dentistry.
She built a steady clientele floating horses teeth, which involves filing down the sharp points that emerge on the enamel. Sharp edges can make it difficult for the horse to eat. Her customers, she says, liked her work.
“I’ve never had a complaint from a client,” Gray said.
She did, however, get a complaint filed against her from a local Clay County vet, David Leighr, whose clients told him that Gray was improperly sedating horses and, in some cases, extracting teeth. Under state law, sedation by anyone other than an owner or licensed vet is illegal, while extraction is a surgical practice, which makes it a veterinary practice, and therefore also illegal for someone to perform without a license.
“One of my clients told me that Brooke had sedated an animal and hit a vein,” Leighr said. “Brooke also had them sign a piece of paper that said she was not responsible for anything that happens. A vet doesn’t do that. That raised a red flag with me.”
When asked if she had extracted teeth, Gray said: “I’ve taken some things out of horses mouths that didn’t belong there.” When asked if she had sedated horses, she said: “I’ve been informed not to say anything about the sedation issue.”
Leighr called the board, and eventually, it began to pursue the matter.
After sending two cease-and-desist letters, the board sued Gray to make her stop. She didn’t. So in September, the matter went to trial.
Roland says he believes the board pursued the case on behalf of veterinarians who felt they were in danger of losing income to untrained teeth floaters, not because they were concerned about animal welfare.
“One of the quirks of the law is that it’s not illegal to do the work on the animals,” he explained. “But if they get paid for it, it’s a criminal offense. So this is not a health issue.”
Several states, he said, have recently changed laws to allow teeth floating by nonvets, and he’ll push for Missouri to do the same.
He also points to a number of cease-and-desist letters sent by the board aimed at stopping everything from branding to pet grooming practices. These, he says, are evidence the state is trying to regulate practices that should not require licensing.
“This is an issue that’s been gaining momentum for a couple of years,” he said.
Gray believes the board is merely requiring a costly education — vet school runs an average of $150,000 — for something she specifically trained to do.
But veterinarians, including Leighr — a fourth-generation vet who said news coverage of the issue in his practice area had cost him business — maintain this issue centers on animal welfare and training.
“Her attorney is trying to convince the public that lay professionals have been doing this for years and that it’s safe,” he said. “I don’t think it’s safe. … And the fact that’s she’s using sedation and there’s no oversight makes it even less safe.”
“I went to school for eight years,” Leighr added. “I’ll put my records out there all the way back to high school, and I challenge her to do the same.”
Gray said she would continue floating teeth, only under the supervision of vets, until the appeal is resolved. That, Leighr insisted, is all he’s wanted all along.
“I said to her: ‘You can do this all day long by having a vet present,’” he said. “Missouri is full of vets retiring every day. They’d be tickled to death to get in the truck with you and go on a farm call.”
European confidence in the economic outlook fell to the lowest in more than two years and German factory orders plunged as the euro area
Investors threw cold water on the New Year’s rally, with U.S. stocks set for a modest pullback at Wednesday’s open.
Dow Jones industrial average () and S&P 500 () futures were down 0.3%, while Nasdaq () futures were flat. Stock futures indicate the possible direction of the markets when they open at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Jitters surrounding Europe’s debt crisis have resurfaced, leaving investors on edge. Uncertainty about Greece, along with reports that Spain might seek rescue funding, weighed on sentiment.
A spokeswoman for the Spanish government told CNN the reports were "a complete lie" and "radically false," and separately Greek officials said Tuesday that progress had been made.
"We’re still watching Europe simmering now. We have another summit coming up and the problems are all still there," said Scott Brown, chief economist for Raymond James.
Europe: Still a huge pain for investors
European Union leaders hold their first summit of 2012 on Jan. 30. Political leaders hashed out a fiscal agreement in early December, but investors remain skeptical about how effective it will be.
Stocks rallied Tuesday following strong manufacturing reports from China, India and the United States.
Bank stocks — one of last year’s worst-performing sectors — led the Dow higher in the prior session. Bank of America (, Fortune 500), Citigroup (, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan (, Fortune 500) all posted strong gains.
World markets: European stocks fell in midday trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 () lost 0.1%, while the DAX () in Germany shed 0.8% and France’s CAC 40 () slid 0.7%.
Asian markets finished mixed. The Nikkei () gained 1.2%, while the Shanghai Composite () fell 1.4% and the Hang Seng () lost 0.8%.
Economy: The Census Bureau will release data on factory orders for the month of November before the opening bell business cards. Analysts surveyed by Briefing.com expect orders to have risen 2.1% in November, after dropping by 0.4% in October.
In the afternoon, the Commerce Department will release data on auto and truck sales for December. Auto sales stood at a 4.36 million annual rate in November, while truck sales were at a 5.98 million rate.
Companies: Before the opening bell, Yahoo (, Fortune 500) shares dropped 1.6% on reports that the search engine will name eBay’s (, Fortune 500) PayPal President Scott Thompson as its new CEO. Shares of eBay fell 1.1%.
Caterpillar (, Fortune 500) shares fell 1% in premarket trading, after the construction equipment manufacturer announced it will expand its research and development center in Wuxi, China.
Dunkin’ Brands () shares climbed 1.5% ahead of the bell, after the company announced it plans to double the number of its Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in the United States in the next 20 years. The chain currently operates about 7,000 restaurants nationwide.
Cabot Oil & Gas () announced a two-for-one stock split, after its stock rallied 105% over the last year. The company also plans to increase its quarterly dividend 33%. Shares rose 3.3% in early trading.
Currencies and commodities: The dollar rose against the euro and British pound, but fell versus the Japanese yen.
Oil for February delivery slipped 70 cents to $102.26 a barrel.
Gold futures for February delivery fell $2.60 to $1,597.90 an ounce.
Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up to 1.96%.
TORONTO
Samsung Electronics Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. (005380), South Korea
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