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________________________________________________________________
The Oregonian 12/29/99
Judge orders Shakespeare festival to open its records

by Beth Quinn
<SNIP>
GRANTS PASS=97A psychotherapist won a court ruling to open the Oregon=20
Shakespeare Festival=92s books and now wants a =93blue-ribbon committee=94 t=
o=20
analyze the financial records to see whether the theater troupe lives up to=20
the values dramatized onstage.=20
=93I really do want an honest, straightforward analysis that tells us about=20=
how=20
they=92re spending their money, their goals and priorities,=94 said Philip L=
ang,=20
a longtime festival member from Ashland.=20
Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Allan Coon agreed with Lang=92s content=
ion=20
that Oregon laws governing nonprofit, tax-exempt, membership corporations=20
require the festival to turn over three years of operating budgets and=20
minutes from board of directors=92 meetings.=20
Festival officials will meet with lawyers next week to decide whether to=20
appeal Coon=92s ruling, said festival Executive Director Paul Nicholson.=20
And he endorsed the festival=92s operations by citing hefty grants from the=20
National Endowment for the Arts and Oregon Arts Commission, plus an Oregon=20
Business Magazine listing it among the state=92s top 100 places to work.=20
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
But Lang, who in a doctoral dissertation on organizational culture compared=20
the festival to a medieval kingdom, contends a hard-edged corporate mentalit=
y=20
has replaced the community collaboration upon which the festival was founded=
=20
in 1935. He launched his quest for financial records after a failed attempt=20
to unionize the crew and company last spring.=20
=93How do we treat each other in society? That=92s what Shakespeare=92s all=20=
about,=94=20
Lang said. =93To me, an organization that wants to teach us about these thin=
gs=20
must be run in a humanistic way.=94=20
He said community members with expertise in the festival, nonprofit=20
organizations and finance will be asked to join the committee analyzing the=20
financial records.=20
<SNIP>

________________________________________________________________
Boston Globe 12/30/99
Old records found in construction site

Associated Press
<SNIP>
ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. (AP) Historians say old records found during the=20
construction of a new county courthouse date from the year 1800, before the=20
county seat moved to St. Johnsbury.=20
=91=92The majority of them were written well before the courthouse was built=
. My=20
guess is that they came from when the courthouse was in Danville. How they=20
got inside the walls of the courthouse I don=92t know,=92=92 said Jay Swainb=
ank,=20
engineering consultant for the Vermont Department of Buildings and General=20
Services.=20
Workers found the documents in the bowels of a previously undiscovered vault=
=20
in the Caledonia County Courthouse while they were working on the courthouse=
=20
expansion in October.=20
=91=92They were all tied with an old-fashioned ribbon,=92=92 said Larry Rugg=
les, who=20
was working on the site. =91=92Some of them dated back to the 1800s and ther=
e was=20
one dated 1799.=92=92=20
The documents including attachments of property, court vouchers and divorce=20
papers are records from the time when the county court was located in=20
Danville, said retired Assistant Judge Don Mullally, who did some research o=
n=20
the papers.=20
According to attorney Joseph Benning of Lyndonville, the towns of St.=20
Johnsbury, Danville, Lyndon and Passumpsic all vied in the 1800s to be the=20
county seat. St. Johnsbury won because it was a terminal for the railroad.=20
The documents are being stored at the temporary quarters of the Caledonia=20
Courthouse at Fairbanks Scales. The oldest one is dated 1799 and the town=20
name Peacham is still legible on it.=20
<SNIP>

________________________________________________________________
San Francisco Chronicle 12/30/99
Stolen records at heart of new Medi-Cal scam

by Amy Pyle
Los Angeles Times
<SNIP>
Another multimillion-dollar Medi-Cal scam based in Southern California has=20
been uncovered, this one involving stolen doctor and patient records, state=20
Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced yesterday.=20
The newest revelations to shake the troubled California medical program for=20
the poor are apparently unrelated to the federal-state probe of false=20
billings for medical supplies, which FBI officials estimate may eventually=20
cost taxpayers more than $1 billion when it is finally unraveled. That giant=
=20
rip-off of the California Medi-Cal system, centered in Armenian immigrant=20
neighborhoods of Los Angeles, is one of the largest frauds against a state i=
n=20
American history, federal investigators said.=20
This time, in a sophisticated scheme that Lockyer=92s state investigators fi=
rst=20
suspected in July but are only now beginning to fully grasp, information fro=
m=20
medical records is believed to have been stolen from hospital and clinic=20
files. In some cases, hospital and even government employees are suspected o=
f=20
taking bribes to provide patient lists to the fraud ring, investigators said=
.=20
The information was used to set up phony medical operations of ghost doctors=
=20
and phantom patients. In one case, the criminals even used a cardboard=20
computer to make an office look real, Lockyer said.=20
Those fake doctors=92 offices then billed Medi-Cal for services never render=
ed=20
that Lockyer would only estimate in the ``millions of dollars.=92=92=20
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
So far, at least 20 doctors=92 names have been confirmed stolen by what is=20
thought to be a tight-knit crime ring, and ``we=92ve only scratched the=20
surface,=92=92 said Collin Wong, the new director of Lockyer=92s Bureau of M=
edi-Cal=20
Fraud and Elder Abuse. Wong declined to otherwise characterize the ring=92s=20
members, saying he did not want to harm the investigation.=20
Typically, the attorney general waits to disclose details of investigations=20
until after it has issued indictments=97an action that in this case may stil=
l=20
be weeks or even months away.=20
But Wong said the office decided to warn hospitals and doctors yesterday=20
because it has so far been unable to halt the operation completely and did=20
not want to risk losing ``millions of dollars more.=92=92=20
<SNIP>







PETER A. KURILECZ CRM, CA
PAKURILECZ@AOL.COM

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