WASHINGTON – The number of one-star Veterans Affairs hospitals has dropped from 14 to nine since last year, according to new star rankings the VA released Wednesday.

But five VA hospitals remain at the bottom of the rankings for the third straight year, including in Big Spring and El Paso, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona, where a wait-time crisis in 2014 triggered a national scandal.

Also among the one-star hospitals for the third straight year is the VA medical center in Memphis, Tennessee, where USA TODAY reported patient safety problems have soared in recent years. 

Overall, 40 VA hospitals dropped one star or more, 68 stayed the same and 38 improved in the rankings. The largest improvement was in Hot Springs, South Dakota, which went from two stars to five.

“With closer monitoring and increased medical center leadership and support we have seen solid improvements at most of our facilities,” VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said in a statement. “Even our highest performing facilities are getting better, and that is driving up our quality standards across the country.”

The VA regularly scores 146 of its medical centers based on dozens of quality factors, including death and infection rates, instances of avoidable complications and wait times. The agency uses a five-star scale with one being the worst and five being the best.

The rankings compare VA hospitals against each other but the number of one-star hospitals is not constant. Medical centers in that bracket can be elevated to two stars based on quality-of-care factors.  

The agency did not start releasing the ratings until USA TODAY obtained and published them for the first time in 2016. The VA then committed to posting them annually.

More: New VA hospital rankings: The worst still the worst

The VA also rates 133 agency nursing homes on a one-to-five star scale and kept those ratings from the public until learning earlier this year that USA TODAY and The Boston Globe planned to publish them.

Those ratings, unlike the hospital rankings, take private-sector nursing home averages into account. As of March 31, 2018, nearly half of VA nursing homes – 58 – received the lowest one-star rating.

Use the column heads below to sort by city, state or star rating or to see how this year’s hospital ratings compare to last year.

 

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John Lockette, a 64-year old former Morgan Stanley wealth manager who is suing the brokerage over race discrimination, is fighting for his day in court.

Lockette, who claimed in a complaint filed in February that he was fired in retaliation for raising concerns about race discrimination at the bank, is in an ongoing legal battle for the right to have his suit heard in a US federal court rather than through a process called mandatory arbitration, whereby complaints are heard in a private forum.

Lockette told Business Insider that despite bringing the region under his control from 12th place out of 12 to No.1 on training performance, he was given negative work reviews, denied raises and bonuses, nicknamed “Johnny” because he was black, and fired in August 2016 after raising concerns over race discrimination.

Lockette said a superior told him: “Well, it’s a cultural thing. Blacks aren’t exposed to finance at this level, so they don’t do well in this environment.”

Lockette said, “It just became very dark at the time.”

But Lockette might not have the right to have the complaint heard in court, thanks to a 2015 email.

Morgan Stanley updated its employee arbitration contracts to ban racial-discrimination claims and class actions that year by sending out blanket emails to over 20,000 employees, including Lockette, records show. Employees who didn’t opt-out of the new terms and conditions in the email, or just didn’t read it, were automatically enrolled in the new arbitration agreement.

The strategy is being used to strip employees of their rights by “stealth” in companies across the US, said Linda Friedman, Lockette’s lawyer at Chicago civil-rights firm Stowell & Friedman, who is challenging the legality of the move in a separate case.

Morgan Stanley has become like “a lawless institution, without fear of being held accountable for their prejudice.” Friedman said, adding, “They do believe … that money is white. It’s not green.”

A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman denied the allegations in the complaint, saying in a statement, “The Firm is strongly committed to nondiscrimination, and looks forward to addressing this former employee’s claims on the merits.”

The case highlights that even amid heightened awareness for racial- and sexual-discrimination in the #MeToo era, it remains difficult for employees to seek legal justice in the court system.

Where Wall Street leads, corporate America follows

Mandatory arbitration bars workers from filing lawsuits against their employers for a variety of civil-rights and labor complaints, and is written into an increasing number of employee contracts across corporate America. It is a legally binding agreement that says that disputes that fall under certain categories will not be heard in court but put in front of private arbitrators in cases that are kept confidential.

Wall Street has been a leader in the implementation of mandatory arbitration contracts, which are now spreading into the wider economy.

Proponents of arbitration say it’s cheaper, faster, and quieter than the courts, benefiting all parties; critics of the practice say it favors companies over workers, restricts access to open justice, and conceals employer abuses because resolution takes place in isolation behind closed doors.

Reuters

In all, 60 million American employees are now barred from using the courts for an array of claims against their employers, including race discrimination, short pay, workplace safety, and class-action litigation.

The number of US employees covered by mandatory arbitration agreements now exceeds 55%, up from 2% in 1992, and 80% of Fortune 100 companies have used arbitration since 2010, including Amazon, Nike and Exxon Mobil.

In July, the US Court of Appeals for the second circuit ruled that David Weiss, a disabled former employee of Macy’s who claimed that his manager harassed and terminated him because of his disability, could not go to court.

It was ruled that he was bound by a mandatory arbitration agreement, despite claims he was never aware of it.

Private justice

Lukasz Siekierski/Shutterstock

Business Insider spoke with employment lawyers, corporate lawyers, arbitrators, academics, and judges about the expansion of mandatory arbitration in the US, and its impact on discrimination and civil liberties across corporate America.

“Privacy is where good claims go to die,” said Cliff Palefsky, a leading US employment lawyer and partner at McGuinn, Hillsman & Palefsky.

He raised concerns about private justice wherein employee win rates were lower than in jury trials and powerful “repeat players” such as big banks that regularly use arbitrators have a greater chance of winning cases.

Employee win rates can drop as low as 12% in arbitration when a company uses the same arbitrators often, compared with 33% and 36% employee win rates in federal court, research by professor Alexander Colvin of Cornell University has shown, and the complaints are heard in secret with the outcome sealed to the public.

Lockette and his lawyer are fighting to remain in the courts, but if the case is sent to arbitration his complaint will be adjudicated by a private for-profit arbitration firm called the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, or JAMS, whose fees of between $500 per hour and $10,000 a day are paid for by the bank, according to both Friedman and Richard Chernick, the vice president and managing director of JAMS’ arbitration practice.

According to Friedman, Morgan Stanley’s frequent use of JAMS — which describes itself as the world’s largest alternative dispute resolution company — gives it a “repeat player” advantage, and the bank’s payment of the fees introduces the appearance of potential bias in proceedings, which should be impartial.

Victoria Pynchon, a corporate lawyer who formerly worked as an arbitrator with the American Arbitrators Association, said that, in her experience, there could be bias toward companies who used arbitrators frequently because they were repeat players paying the bills — and there was fear from arbitrators of not getting picked to settle claims in the future.

“The word among arbitrators when I first started arbitrating was, you never want to award punitive damages against a corporate entity because you will never get rehired,” Pynchon said. “That was something lots of people said.”

She added that she was given that advice by at least a dozen arbitrators, including two who worked for JAMS.

Proponents of mandatory arbitration said the process was valuable for employees, too, because courts are expensive and difficult to access for the average worker. The clauses give them a free or inexpensive forum to have their dispute heard.

Professor Colvin’s research showing that lower employee win rates in arbitration has also been contested by University of Michigan professor Theodore Antoine, who has argued that the actual win rate for arbitration has been more comparable to the courts.

Louis DiLorenzo, a corporate lawyer at Bond, Schoeneck & King, who has represented companies and banks, told Business Insider that arbitration could be a fair way to resolve disputes that sees both employer and employee benefit, with the advantage of privacy that protects the reputation of both parties which can be “sullied” in a court case.

A JAMS spokesperson issued the following statement:

“We want to stress that JAMS is committed to providing neutrality, integrity, efficiency and mutual respect in all of our interactions. JAMS arbitrators are retired judges and attorneys who have a reputation for providing a fair, neutral and ethical process. They make decisions without regard to whether one party or the other will retain them in the future and our experience does not support the validity of the repeat player argument. ”

“JAMS arbitrators do not get involved in the payment of fees; JAMS handles this administratively.”

Apart from a $400 initial charge, the arbitration fee is paid by the company involved in the dispute, but employees are allowed to pay if they want to, the JAMS spokesperson added.

Legal and political battle

William Young, a federal district court judge for Massachusetts and critic of mandatory arbitration, told Business Insider that arbitration contracts mean Americans are becoming separated from the belief that they can get justice.

“Arbitration clauses are ever more pervasive, squeezing people out of the courthouse and closing the courthouse doors to people,” he said. “In the short term it seems clear to me that large aggregations of economic power favor the exclusionary benefits that they get form arbitration clauses, that bind their employees and those who challenge them.”

In fact, one public trial can do more to deter discrimination than a hundred arbitrations can, regardless of who wins, said employment lawyer Palefsky.

A former judge and a current arbitrator, who said they wished to remain anonymous, agreed and told Business Insider the secrecy of the process can be damaging. “Sunshine is the best disinfectant,” the arbitrator said.

Something wicked this way comes… and her name is Sabrina Spellman. The witch is back in Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a dark and campy take on Archie Comics’ beloved Sabrina the Teenage Witch starring Madam Satan herself.

Based on the horror title from Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the occult drama is not for the faint of heart — seriously, the fake blood budget on this show must be astronomical.

On the eve of her 16th birthday, Sabrina is faced with a tough choice: Sign her name in the Dark Lord’s book and commit herself to the coven, or go against her family legacy and remain in the mortal world forever. (To be fair, the mortal world has her dreamy boyfriend Harvey Kinkle in it, so that sounds like the better option.)

The full-length trailer gives us a glimpse of some of the horrors in store for Greendale’s teen residents, including Sabrina’s terrifying 16th birthday, sacrifices to the Dark Lord, and downright sinful behavior. “I’m not an evil person,” Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) says. “But these are desperate times.”

And similar to Riverdale, the adults on this show aren’t any better, from Madam Satan’s evil plot to get revenge on the Spellman family to Hilda and Zelda’s fatal bickering.

Aguirre-Sacasa serves as writer and executive producer on the series, along with fellow Riverdale EPs Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Jon Goldwater. Lee Toland Krieger, who has directed several episodes of Riverdale, is also an EP and director on the series.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina hits Netflix on October 26.

A decade ago, self-described boy band Brockhampton would’ve remained tucked away in an obscure corner of the Internet, critical darlings only your very coolest friend knew about. It’s 2018, though, and the 13-member hip-hop collective that was conceived on a message board in 2010 — capturing the lonely hearts of not-so-hip-kids across the country — is one of the biggest breakout acts of the past few years. This week, they scored their first No. 1 album with major label debut Iridescence.

“We were excited and shocked and proud,” says de facto leader Kevin Abstract, about the chart-topping news. “It felt like the biggest accomplishment because we made something that was very personal to us, and a lot of times when you make something that personal, it’s probably not gonna be the most successful thing you’re making.”

“Grime and electronic music out of London inspired us, but it’s just new,” adds 22-year-old rapper Merlyn Wood, of the group’s sound. “The music we’re putting out right now gives me the same feeling of newness that I felt when Kanye was putting out GOOD Friday [songs].”

Brockhampton’s ambitious and raucous multi-genre output, energetic singalong shows, and Abstract’s blunt lyrics about being openly gay — a rarity in rap — have sparked breathless profiles of the new sensitive and evolved “boy band of the future.” In March, they announced a year-long world tour, a 10-day recording stint at London’s Abbey Road Studios, and their first major label release, due as part of a deal with RCA that Billboard reported was worth more than $15 million.

RELATED: A Beginner’s Guide to Brockhampton

But this May, their charmed existence was threatened. Several women tweeted accusations of sexual misconduct toward founding member Ameer Vann, and the news rocked the close-knit crew of guys, who left stages in tears and cancelled their summer tour after ousting Vann. The tumult would’ve sunk most newcomers, but Brockhampton did what they do best — bared their souls not only on a new record, Iridescence, but also Longest Summer Ever, an illuminating documentary film about its making. “I like that people can have the context of everything that went into the album and what led up to it and what we went through,” says the 22-year-old Abstract. “Listening to the music afterwards makes way more sense.”

In Longest Summer Ever, the group delves into the making of Iridescence and the new-found freedom of recording an album outside the confines of the Saturation trilogy. “It makes it feel fun and fresh again,” says HK, the group’s creative director. “Versus making a third album in a trilogy where you’ve already set parameters and guidelines of how things should be. Having that open canvas again and taking it where we want to go has been the most eye opening and refreshing thing.“

Still, adds Wood, “Doing a documentary was a new type of vulnerability. It’s a radical shift to go from expressing yourself in the music to being vulnerable on camera. There’s no music behind you — it’s just your voice and your truth.”

If any group was up for that challenge, though, it was Brockhampton, not least because they used the doc to shore up their relationships and build an even more united front. “A lot of this felt like therapy,” says Joba. “It helped us break down barriers within ourselves that we didn’t know existed.”

“Seeing how we got through what we got through? Most people would’ve just quit, given up, gone back to the [job at the] bank,” says Abstract. “This was really scary. I think we’re always scared, but we have each other to lean on, so we’re not being extremely vulnerable in front of the world by ourselves. We have each other.”

The guys have long maintained Brockhampton is more family than band; indeed, when they first moved to Los Angeles from Abstract’s native Texas, they all piled into a single house. Inspired by the incubator he saw in the movie The Social Network, Abstract envisioned the space as a place to further bond as the group worked, played, and sat down to dinners of ramen or Postmates’ deliveries together. His instinct was right — the ordeal with Vann seems to have resulted in a surge of creativity and a cementing of their crew. “When you go through something with a group of people and you’re the only people who go through it, it brings you closer,” says producer Romil Hemnani, 23. “I’m super thankful.”

But even after navigating those early struggles and nabbing a No. 1 album, Abstract knows there’s still plenty of work left to do. “There’s so many goals we have, so it’s kinda hard to sit down and have a proper celebration,” he says. “I just know we all wanna be way more successful. I know that sounds kinda weird, knowing that we have the number one album in the country right now, but I still know that the possibilities are endless and limitless. There’s so much more work that we need to do to be considered one of the greats.”

Image: mashable composite:  Brandon Goldman/getty images and bob al-greene/mashable

This post is part of Hard Refresh, a soothing weekly column where we try to cleanse your brain of whatever terrible thing you just witnessed on Twitter.

Autumn has finally arrived, which means it’s time for apple picking, cider donuts, and some seasonally appropriate methods of stress relief.

When it comes to unwinding in the fall, there are a variety of glorious options like taking a walk in the crisp air or jumping in a huge pile of leaves. But if you’re stuck inside staring at your computer, we highly recommend watching some professional pumpkin carving videos to cleanse your brain while simultaneously getting your seasonal fix.

Any human with average carving skills knows that carving pumpkins always seems like a fun activity, until you find yourself covered in pumpkin guts and unable to properly wield a knife in such a way that produces the picturesque design you’d hoped for. But watching other people carve ’em up? Now that makes for an absolutely great time, not to mention it’s mess-free.

I first saw a professional pumpkin carving video when I stumbled onto Sculpture Geek‘s YouTube channel. Seconds into a 15-minute-long video titled, “How to Carve a 3D Pumpkin,” I was hooked. Something about watching skilled hands use carving tools to shave off pumpkin pulp and fibrous strands puts me in a serene trance. And before I know it, the pumpkin’s transformed into an impressively realistic face.

Over the course of the time lapse, the sculptor creates immensely detailed facial features for the pumpkin. And though the process is most certainly NOT simple, the video makes carving look effortless, which is part of what makes watching so extremely soothing.

About seven minutes into the video the carving comes to an end and the final product is revealed. The remaining footage is a scene from Sculpture Geek’s full carving tutorial, so even you can attempt the remarkable feat. It seems like a ridiculously complex endeavor, TBH, but if you really want go there you can pay $24.99 to watch the full video.

If you’re in the mood to leave the mess to the pros though, you can check out Sculpture_Geek’s Resident Evil and Nintendo-themed pumpkin videos, and search for other impressive carvers by looking up 3D-pumpkin or jack-o’-lantern carving videos on YouTube.

You can even watch Martha Stewart try her hand at carving faces alongside artist Ray Villafane. What’s more relaxing than that?!

While I prefer to kick back and watch skilled carvers go to town, those of you who want to step up your pumpkin game this year might want to invest in some classic carving tools from Amazon.

There are also a bunch of less intimidating carving tutorials for beginners online, most of which you don’t have to pay for. So perhaps consider starting small and working your way up. Who knows? One day you might even be skilled enough to make your own soothing time lapse videos.

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Saudi and Turkish officials have made conflicting statements on the whereabouts of a prominent journalist who has reportedly gone missing while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident critical of the country’s crown prince, entered the consulate’s premises at around 1pm (10:00 GMT) on Tuesday in what seemed to be a routine visit to sort out paperwork, before disappearing.

Turkey’s presidential spokesperson said on Wednesday that Khashoggi remains inside the Saudi consulate, a day after his fiancee reported he had failed to emerge from a meeting in the mission.

“According to information we have, this individual who is a Saudi national is still at the consulate as of now,” Ibrahim Kalin said.

He also said that Turkish authorities were in contact with Saudi officials and he hoped the situation would be resolved.

In contrast, a Saudi official quoted by Reuters news agency said the journalist was “not in the consulate nor in Saudi custody”.

“Mr Khashoggi visited the consulate to request paperwork related to his marital status and exited shortly thereafter,” the official said. 

Khashoggi, who has been living in self-exile in the United States, is a prominent columnist for the Washington Post. He has long criticised the Saudi government’s reform programme under the auspices of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Fiancee calls police

His fiancee – who requested anonymity – told the Post she accompanied him but waited outside and called the police when Khashoggi did not emerge after the consulate closed.

Khashoggi, who once acted as an adviser to the Saudi royal family, fled Saudi Arabia in September of last year amid a crackdown on the kingdom’s intellectuals and journalists.

He told Al Jazeera’s UpFront in March there was no room left for debate in Saudi Arabia, with citizens rounded up and jailed for questioning the government’s policies.

“As we speak today, there [are] Saudi intellectuals and journalists jailed.

“Now, nobody will dare to speak and criticise the reforms [initiated by the crown prince],” he said, adding “it would be much better for him to allow a breathing space for critics, for Saudi intellectuals, Saudi writers, Saudi media to debate”.

Jim Harbaugh is making $7.5 million this season to coach football at the University of Michigan. Jimbo Fisher is making roughly the same at Texas A&M. Only Alabama’s Nick Saban ($8.3 million) and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer ($7.6 million) are making more.

Such soaring salaries seem more suited to Wall Street than Sesame Street, but let’s borrow a sing-song game from the venerable children’s show anyway: One of these things is not like the others.

Three of these coaches have won national championships. Harbaugh has not.

Database: Breaking down what each coach makes

Nor has he won a Big Ten championship, or even a division title; his Wolverines have finished third, third and fourth in the Big Ten East. Oh, and his record against bitter rivals Ohio State and Michigan State is a lamentable 1-5.

The brassy fight song – Hail! to the victors valiant. Hail! to the conqu’ring heroes – sounds a tad hollow when none of the victors’ victories come against ranked teams on the road.

All of which leads to a leading question: Is Harbaugh really worth $5.5 million plus $2 million in premiums for a creative life insurance policy that can create millions more down the road?

“Absolutely,” Michigan athletics director Warde Manuel says. “Every dime.”

Rodney Fort, a sports economist and professor of sport management at Michigan who is sometimes critical of college athletic spending, also thinks the answer is yes. He points out Harbaugh has been highly successful in creating interest and filling seats.

More: Nick Saban’s coaching tree grows in size, title and compensation

More: Five best deals among college football coaches contracts

More: Five worst deals among college football coaches contracts

“You have to put 107,601 of the nicest people every week into the hole that Yost dug,” Fort says.

That would be Fielding Yost, Michigan’s coach when Michigan Stadium opened in 1927. The cost to build the Big House then: $950,000 – or roughly $13.7 million in today’s dollars, not enough to pay Harbaugh for two seasons.

As it happens, $950,000 was the average salary when USA TODAY Sports began its analyses of coaches’ salaries in major-college football in 2006. That’s more than $1.2 million in today’s dollars. This season, among the same group of schools studied in 2006, that average salary has more than doubled to $2.6 million. And Harbaugh makes nearly triple that.

Michigan’s athletics department can handle that. In 2017, it was among just 21 of 230 Division I public-school sports programs that transferred excess funds to its university, according to reports the schools annually file with the NCAA.

Harbaugh declined to speak for this story through an athletics department spokesperson, but the Fox TV station in Detroit asked him in 2015 if he was worth his princely pay. No, Harbaugh said. Well, should he give some back?

“Nah,” Harbaugh said then, “I like making a buck just like the next guy.”

That TV interview was lighthearted fun: Harbaugh hadn’t coached a game at Michigan yet and Wolverines fans still luxuriated in the giddiness of possibility. His storyline was storybook: Former Michigan ball boy and quarterback coming home from a successful stint coaching in the NFL. Cue the marching band. Play the fight song. Visions of national championships danced in fans’ heads.

These days, with Harbaugh in the fourth season of his seven-season deal, the fan base largely stands by him, though some cracks are beginning to show.

“This is the first year patience is starting to wear thin,” says Mike Persak, co-managing sports editor of The Michigan Daily, the school’s student newspaper. “People always bring up his record against rivals. He has only one win against Michigan State and Ohio State combined and then he lost at Notre Dame earlier this year.”

That was the Wolverines’ season opener. Michigan president Mark Schlissel spoke at the Detroit Economic Club days later. The theme was the state of research at the state’s research universities, but Schlissel got a question concerning Harbaugh’s status.

“He is not on the hot seat,” Schlissel said. “He is under contract for four more years.” (That’s including the rest of this season.)

Schlissel declined to be interviewed for this story through an administration spokesperson who provided a statement from the president: “Coach Harbaugh embraces everything the University of Michigan is about and I fully support him. His student-athletes take their studies seriously and they graduate. He makes a commitment to each player that he brings to campus. Coach sets the tone in wanting to win every single game, and more importantly, he wants every student-athlete to have a great, full U-M experience while they’re doing it.”

Michigan’s ‘Unicorn’

John Bacon is the author of Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football, a 2015 book that includes the story of how the university lured Harbaugh from the San Francisco 49ers after the 2014 season. Bacon figures Big Ten titles are just one measure of Harbaugh’s worth.

“The flip side is, from a purely financial perspective, there’s absolutely no question it’s been a phenomenally wise investment,” he says. “When Brady Hoke was let go at the end of the 2014 season … they were doing 60,000 or 70,000 fans, no matter what the attendance figures they issued said. So to have the Big House and the sky boxes one-third empty costs you a ton of money at Michigan, to say the least.”

Michigan has led the NCAA in attendance in each of Harbaugh’s three seasons there. And Harbaugh offers plenty of fodder for news media and fans across the college football landscape.

“Whether people like Harbaugh or not, who does not talk about him nationwide to get more clicks?” Bacon says. “Harbaugh losing to Notre Dame gets more attention than Ohio State winning.”

James Hackett became Michigan’s interim athletics director on Halloween in 2014, midway through a season in which the Wolverines would finish 5-7 and Hoke would be fired. Harbaugh would go 8-8 that season with the 49ers, two seasons removed from their Super Bowl loss to his brother John’s Baltimore Ravens.

Hackett is now president and CEO of Ford Motor Company. He declined to speak for this story through a Ford spokesperson. But Bacon’s book tells how Hackett and Harbaugh spoke by phone on Saturday nights during that late fall and early winter, a time when Hackett called Harbaugh by an internal code name – “Unicorn” – reflecting his status as a one-of-a-kind candidate.

Bacon says coaches must fit the culture at their colleges in ways that are unnecessary for coaches on the NFL level.

“These college programs may be businesses to the athletic directors, but they are religion to the fans,” he says. “And to have one of your own come back, the prodigal son and all that, it goes a long way.”

Manuel is also a U-M grad. That means something there.

“Look, nobody takes it easy on me or easy on Jim because we went to school here and we’re Michigan men,” Manuel says. “The production and what you do and how you are” is also important. “And I’m pleased with who Jim is and where he is and how he treats these student athletes.”

‘Top perk in corporate America’

Ron Weiser is vice chair of the university’s Board of Regents, which does not approve coaching contracts. Does he think Harbaugh is worth the money?

“I don’t know,” Weiser says. “I don’t know what his contract is for.”

Hard to fathom, given that Harbaugh’s contract is a matter of public record and a matter of much news media and fan scrutiny.

“That’s not up for me to determine anyhow,” Weiser says of Harbaugh’s worth. “That’s up to the athletic department to determine.”

Harbaugh’s contract spells out his worth this way: This season he is making $550,000 in base salary and $4.95 million in additional compensation plus $2 million paid into a life insurance policy from which Michigan will recover part of the death benefits. Michigan is scheduled to pay $14 million in loan advances into the policy over the life of the contract.

Howard Sharfman, senior managing director of NFP Insurance Solutions, ran a program for USA TODAY Sports to show what a split-dollar life insurance plan might look like using the parameters in Harbaugh’s deal. (Sharfman is not involved in Harbaugh’s case but is an expert on such matters; he offers these numbers for purposes of illustration.)

Currently, the policy would provide Harbaugh’s estate a death benefit of a little more than $75 million, from which Michigan would get repayment for the premium loans, plus interest. But there’s a longer-haul feature: Using present dollar values and assuming Michigan pays all of the scheduled premiums, Harbaugh would be able to draw more than $1.2 million a year in tax-free income from the policy’s accumulated cash value from age 70 through age 84 – and the death benefit would still be more than $32 million, minus the roughly $20 million in loans and interest Michigan would be owed. The dollars likely will be worth much less in those years than they are now, but it’s still an attractive setup.

Bennett Speyer is an attorney who represents coaches, athletics directors and sports executives. He declines to name his clients but says he has about 10 with split-dollar insurance plans in their contracts, with two more in the works in the months ahead.

“This has been a longstanding top perk in corporate America,” Speyer says. He figures he negotiated his first split-dollar insurance plan in a college coaching contract roughly 10 years ago. And he thinks such plans will become increasingly popular in coaching contracts in the years to come.

That’s in part because the new tax law places a 21% excise tax on nonprofits on compensation over $1 million for an organization’s top-five-paid employees.

“It costs universities an additional 21 cents on the dollar for compensation over $1 million,” Speyer says. “So let’s take a coach making $5 million. If it’s all cash compensation, it’s going to cost the university basically $5.8 million, and change, to pay the coach $5 million.”

‘Moving in the right direction?’

Micheline Maynard is an author and journalist who is a lecturer in journalism in the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program at Michigan. Last year she used Harbaugh’s contract in a class.

“It was a discussion about executive compensation,” she says. “Normally I would pull a CEO contract, but instead I pulled Harbaugh’s because I figured it might have a little more relevance to the Michigan students.”

The Michigan Daily recently ran a story on the contracts of all of the coaches at Michigan. Persak, the co-managing sports editor, said it is among the Daily’s most popular stories of this school year.

Weiser, of the board of regents, says he can well understand why Michigan’s president might not want to talk about Harbaugh’s deal.

“No more than I really want to talk about the contract because I don’t know anything about it,” Weiser says. “I’m only talking in general about the athletic department and the fact that it is a positive for the university as far as revenue is concerned.”

While getting less than $300,000 each year from the university – none from student fees – Michigan’s athletics department annually operates at a surplus and sends more than $1 million of that surplus to the university, according to financial reports filed with the NCAA. During its 2017 fiscal year – the most recent one for which a financial report is available – the athletics department gave more than $4.3 million to the university.

“There’s no money that goes from the school, from the education part of the school, to the athletic department,” says Weiser, chair of the state Republican party. “It is the other way around. All of the student-athletes who are on scholarship, the money is paid in full by the athletic department to the education part of the school. So it’s money coming our way.”

According to its NCAA financial reports, Michigan’s annual operating revenue from football is much greater under Harbaugh than it was under his predecessor, Brady Hoke. However, Michigan has spent so much more on football under Harbaugh – beginning with his compensation – that its surplus from the sport is a little less than it was under Hoke, who was making $2.85 million in his final season with the Wolverines.

In 2013 and 2014, the two full fiscal cycles with Hoke, Michigan reported averages of $86.4 million in football revenue and $24.9 million in expenses – an average surplus of $61.5 million.

In 2017, the one full fiscal cycle available for the Harbaugh era, football revenue was $105.9 million and expenses $46.2 million – a $59.6 million surplus.

Maynard thinks Harbaugh earns his worth for Michigan just in terms of global marketing.

“He’s achieved one of Michigan’s goals, which was to elevate the visibility of its football program,” she says. “Has he achieved the goal of winning championships? No, he hasn’t … but he’s done one part of (his job) splendidly.”

Manuel cites Harbaugh’s creativity.

“You think about the international trips that we’ve invested in for our student-athletes,” Manuel says. “The way we have driven success on the academic side. A lot of people focus on, ‘Do we win? Do we win Big Ten championships, do we win national championships under Jim?’ ”

Manuel focuses instead on what he calls a more broad-based look at the goal of building toward those championships.

“Are we moving in that direction?” he says. “Absolutely.”

WASHINGTON – White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who has revealed she herself is a victim of sexual assault, defended President Donald Trump’s mimicking of Christine Blasey Ford during a political rally in Mississippi Tuesday night.

Conway said Wednesday that Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser “has been treated like a Faberge egg by all of us, beginning with me and the president.”

Criticizing testimony Ford gave before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week accusing Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were both teenagers, Trump began imitating Ford by saying in a mimicking tone, “‘I had one beer, that’s all I remember.’”

He later said of Ford: “‘I don’t know’ – over and over … And a man’s life is in tatters.”

At least three swing-vote Republican senators, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, criticized Trump’s performance at the rally.

“I wish he hadn’t done it and I just say it’s kind of appalling,” Flake said on NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday morning.

Murkowski called Trump’s comments “wholly inappropriate” and “unacceptable.” While Collins call them “just plain wrong.”

Last week, Trump said he found Ford’s testimony compelling, but in recent days he has been more critical.

At the White House on Wednesday, Conway accused reporters of distorting Trump’s remarks, and said the president was pointing out “inconsistencies” and “memory gaps” in Ford’s testimony.

Conway, who at times has appeared sympathetic to Ford’s allegations, which Kavanaugh vehemently denies, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” she herself was a victim of sexual assault. 

The revelation happened as Conway appeared to get emotional herself during the Sunday morning interview. “I feel very empathetic, frankly, for victims of sexual assault, sexual harassment and rape,” Conway said. “I’m a victim of sexual assault.” 

 

 

                                                                    

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Sen. Bernie Sanders’ bill meant to go after Amazon and other large companies remains stuck in congressional limbo.

The bill has not been brought up in any committee or received any hearing. But Amazon’s announcement Tuesday that the company would increase its minimum wage for all workers to $15 an hour means Sanders has already won.

Sanders’ bill, and the accompanying House version introduced by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, would impose an additional tax on companies that have workers who use public assistance like food stamps. The goal is to force employers to pay employees enough to keep them from needing public programs.

Sanders’ bill, called the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act or, using an acronym, the Stop Bezos Act, took direct aim at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the target of the senator’s months-long crusade against poor working conditions in the retail giant’s fulfillment centers.

While both Sanders and Khanna made a ruckus about introducing the legislation, neither bill was necessarily meant to become law. Instead, they were designed to draw attention to Amazon and pressure the company to raise worker pay.

The issue spawned debate among columnists, think tanks, economists, and political operatives, raising the profile of Sanders’ fight for better working conditions at Amazon.

Message bills aren’t uncommon. Since 2005, only 2% to 4% of bills introduced in Congress in any given year have become law. Since 1974, the 100th Congress — which ran from 1987 through 1988 — holds the high-water mark for introduced bills that eventually became law, at 7%.

Most of those nonstarter bills produce no results. For instance, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama has introduced a bill in each of the past 20 years that would pull the US out of the United Nations and any affiliated group.

Even higher-profile message bills produce few meaningful results. The slew of Obamacare-repeal bills passed by the GOP-held Congress while President Barack Obama was in office sent a strong message. But when it came time to actually repeal and replace the healthcare law under President Donald Trump, Republicans balked.

In contrast, Amazon indirectly cited the Sanders bill and resulting public-relations push as reasons for Tuesday’s announcement. Bezos even responded to Sanders on Twitter after the senator praised the company’s move.

“Thank you @SenSanders,” Bezos said. “We’re excited about this, and also hope others will join in.”