The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 290

BUSINESS corBjsfssJTHE MIAMI HERALD 2C i THLRSCAYCECEV5ESr2X9 Al BUSINESS PROFILE PAUL KANGAS Business show co-anchor signing off PREPARED: Stock market analyst Paul Kangas first becamed interested in stocks while serving in the Coast Guard He took an advice 'Be a broker and go to Florida' graphics new music and new segments Susie Gharib co-anchor since 1998 will continue to broadcast from New York as will correspondents in Washington DC Chicago and elsewhere But Gharib will be joined at the South Florida anchor desk Jan 4 by Tom Hudson who has been the co-anchor of a Chicago-based nationally syndicated program called First Business calm demeanor particularly during chaotic times in the newsroom will be missed said Wendie Feinberg managing editor grace under she said For Kangas a typical day starts in his home office where he reads wire dispatches from Dow Jones Associated Press and Reuters and checks The Wall Street Journal and business periodicals He typically arrives at the WPBT studios in North Miami in the early afternoon to prepare the stock market analysis and write his script He generally focuses on stocks with big moves and said he strives to explain the reasons A typical program features Kangas and Gharib reviewing the business headlines with feeds from correspondents around the globe Near the close Kangas delivers his signature segment in the He frequently closes nightly broadcasts with a joke typically a play on words Then he signs off with his signature double entendre wishing viewers best of good US history The day President John Kennedy was shot Friday Nov 22 1963 Kangas found out before most including the media As a Coast Guard officer Kangas received an alert from the cryptographic service After decoding the message the young lieutenant immediately called the admiral to break the news The admiral's initial response Kangas said was what a Kangas said he then asked the admiral there anything you want me to do?" To surprise the admiral replied my stock broker immediately" The admiral invested $150000 in the market before the New York Stock Exchange shut down at 2:07 pun The Dow had lost 2L16 points or 289 percent of its value according to historical data But on the next trading day Tuesday Nov 26 following President funeral that Monday the Dow gained 3203 points up 45 percent for the day The admiral had bought low and sold high think he made Kangas said CAREER ADVICE The admiral whom Kangas declined to name taught his aide a few other things about the stock market and later advised him on a career told me a broker and go to Florida A lot of rich retired people need a good Kangas said he was KANGAS FROM has been the consummate said former NBR co-anchor Linda who shared the anchor desk with Kangas for about 12 years "He is straightforward He's credible He's knowledgeable and I think viewers really relate to that" After three decades of dealing with daily deadlines Kangas said time for a break: 72 and time to have a more relaxing He plans to play golf and unwind for a few months Then he will assume a dialed-down schedule of speaking engagements guest commentaries and consulting in the business world Kangas said to be a corporate spokesman for a financial The Michigan native and former stock broker has collected enough accolades over his broadcasting career to make him a credible pitchman The latest is an Emmy Award for lifetime achievement in business reporting which Kangas shared with who led the creation of NBR in 1979 while news director for WPBT-PBS 2 where the program is still produced The honor caps a journey that began when Kangas decided he cut out to be a dentist as his father had been and signed up for the Coast Officer Candidate School Kangas earned his commission in one year and later received more of an education than he expected on one of the most memorable days in HEALTHCARE COSTS of directors had wanted to launch a daily TV business show Kangas said and they invited him to audition The managers liked what they saw and NBR premiered on Jan 22 1979 with Kangas as the stock market analyst Jack Kahn the first producer said he struggled to fill the program at first said can you do a business show for television? no action be said Kahn now director of program development was a big question Today the show is carried by more than 250 local PBS stations CHANGES COMING NBR willunveil a new look in 2010 including a new set new ECONOMY Fed holds the line on lending rates Psychiatrist blamed for Medicaid overspending Kangas moved to Miami in 1966 and set up shop as a stock broker His break in broadcast journalism came through a client Rex Rand who owned radio station WINZ Kangas said Rand told him that if Kangas wanted to keep Rand as a client then Kangas would have to produce a regular stock market report for WINZ The young stock broker agreed thought a great way' to get my name He started by producing three-minute spots about the stock market a year or Kangas said picked up probably 100 different accounts good Radio led to TV when George Dooley former general manager of WPBT heard Kangas on the radio Dooley and members of the board MARK WILS0NGETTY IMAGES Grassley R-lowa spoke out who write behavioral health prescriptions number of prescriptions recorded for Dr Fernando Mendez-Villamil is high when compared to other Medicaid Vause wrote but the number does not that there is anything improper regarding his prescribing If a doctor is a specialist like Dr Fernando Mendez-Villamil it can be expected that he would have a high number of clients requiring the specialized treatment offered by psychiatric MONITORING SYSTEM Vause wrote many of the prescriptions the psychiatrist wrote could have been for refills She said AHCA uses a warning system of that indicate causes for concern about a prescribing patterns has a small percentage of prescriptions that hit against these Drug makers recommend that doctors monitor closely patients taking atypical antipsy-chotics because users are prone to obesity and diabetes In 2007 Mendez-Villamil prescribed this class of drugs 6000 times 6tate records show He told The Herald that he leaves possible side effects such as diabetes to the general practitioners your croissant?" Herald delivered RATES FROM 1C mist at MKM Partners predicted rates would stay where they are for most of next year believe the Fed is essentially out of the picture until late 2010 or early Darda said'The was constrained by a long list of he added Low inflation is one sign of the weakness Com-' panies are finding it hard to raise prices because consumers fearful for their jobs remain wary of spending much That was clear from a Labor Department report Wednesday on consumer prices Prices did move higher last month But that was mainly because of volatile energy costs After stripping out volatile energy and food prices inflation disappeared last month That gives the Fed leeway to hold its key interest rate at a record low to aid the recovery At the same time home construction rebounded in November after a setback in October And applications for new building permits a gauge of future activity rose more than economist had predicted A housing recovery is vital to the overall economy Also the government said its broadest measure of foreign trade posted a sharp increase in the July-September quarter signaling higher demand for foreign goods That too is seen as a sign of a slowly strengthening economy The current account is the broadest measure of trade because it includes not only DOCTOR FROM 1C the No 2 Medicaid prescriber in the state The huge number that this physician wrote approximately 153 prescriptions each and every day assuming he did not take Gras-sley wrote Mendez-Villamil told The Herald he works long hours and sees patients only for 10 minutes every two or three months Medicaid pays him $45 per office visit Each patient may require four or five prescriptions he said accounting for the large numbers he writes you know the patient and the patient is stable 10 minutes is long enough" said Mendez-Villamil whose office is on Coral Way He said he sometimes works 12-hour days during the week as well as Saturday mornings He said he only prescribes medically necessary A reporter visiting his office at 8 am on Saturdays has found a couple of dozen patients milling around out front waiting to get in to see him Mendez-Villamil 42 received his medical degree from the Universidad Central del Caribe in Puerto Rico He did his residency in psychiatry at Jackson Memorial Hospital and has been licensed in the state since 1998 EXPENSIVE PRESCRIPTIONS The mental health drugs that Mendez-Villamil prescribes do not generally have a value as street drugs but they are expensive He writes thousands of prescriptions a year for Zyprexa ($84193 for 30-day supply at Drugstorecom) Abilify ($634) and Seroquel ($430) All Medicaid drugs are paid for by Florida taxpayers David Katz a Yale doctor specializing in public health issues said tough to critique a work from afar but he and others have abiding concerns about mental health treatment for underserved populations such as poor Medicaid patients Low reimbursement rates can lead to the "How about some Nothing goes better trade in goods and services but also investment flows among countries For last month the Consumer Price Index the most closely watched inflation barometer rose 04 percent That was up from a 03 percent increase in October The government said energy prices rose 41 percent reflecting more expensive fuel oil and gasoline Energy prices though are already in retreat Oil prices are down about 10 percent this month from the surge in energy prices there were few signs of any inflationary said Paul Ashworth economist at Capital Economics Ltd The uptick in inflation last month however slight ate into already-weak wages Average weekly earnings adjusted for inflation dipped 07 percent from November 2008 according to a separate Labor Department report It jvas the First such drop this year The Fed said it expects to wind down several emergency lending programs when they are set to expire next year That seemed to strike a fconfi-dent note that the Fed thinks it can gradually lift supports it provided at the height of the financial crisis Some encouraging signs for the economy have emerged lately The economy finally returned to growth in the third quarter after four straight losing quarters And all signs suggest it picked up speed in the final quarter of 2009 any link to your good bank or Iran should be according to a court document Instead Credit Suisse used abbreviations for Iranian customer names or the phrase of our to describe the client Credit Suisse also made transactions on behalf of Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa and Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Co in violation of US sanctions el Nuevo Herald staff writer Gerardo Reyes contributed to this report RAISING THE ISSUE: Sen Charles about Medicaid overspending use of prescription which can into substandard care and preventable Alfred Jonas a Miami psychiatrist been practicing for more than a quarter-century said he wondered about practice are psychiatric patients who can be seen every two months because they are so Jonas said inconceivable to me that entire caseload would be like that especially if they require four or five medications if they require that many prescriptions unlikely that many also need which requires far more than a 10-minute session all way too much for In his letter to Kathleen Sebelius secretary of Health and Human Services Grassley demanded to know federal agencies in place to monitor utilization rates across the NOTHING IMPROPER In an e-mail to The Herald Thursday afternoon AHCA Press Secretary Tiffany Vause wrote that the state has a contract with the University of South Florida to monitor prescribing practices of doctors crosswords with with breakfast than The Miami BANKING Credit Suisse slapped for dealings with Iran IRAN FROM 1C nominated transactions to evade detection Suisse knew that without such alterations amendments and code words automated (US Department of the Office of Foreign Assets Control) filters at US clearing banks would likely halt the payment messages and securities prosecutors said in charging documents The bank told its Iranian clients no circumstances A 1-800-441-0444.