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National levels of personal health-care access and quality can be approximated by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective medical care (ie, amenable mortality). Previous analyses of mortality amenable to health care only focused on high-income countries and faced several methodological challenges. In the present analysis, we use the highly standardised cause of death and risk factor estimates generated through the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) to improve and expand the quantification of personal health-care access and quality for 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2015. We mapped the most widely used list of causes amenable to personal health care developed by Nolte and McKee to 32 GBD causes. We accounted for variations in cause of death certification and misclassifications through the extensive data standardisation processes and redistribution algorithms developed for GBD. To isolate the effects of personal health-care access and quality, we risk-standardised cause-specific mortality rates for each geography-year by removing the joint effects of local environmental and behavioural risks, and adding back the global levels of risk exposure as estimated for GBD 2015. We employed principal component analysis to create a single, interpretable summary measure–the Healthcare Quality and Access (HAQ) Index–on a scale of 0 to 100. The HAQ Index showed strong convergence validity as compared with other health-system indicators, including health expenditure per capita (r=0·88), an index of 11 universal health coverage interventions (r=0·83), and human resources for health per 1000 (r=0·77). We used free disposal hull analysis with bootstrapping to produce a frontier based on the relationship between the HAQ Index and the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a measure of overall development consisting of income per capita, average years of education, and total fertility rates. This frontier allowed us to better quantify the maximum levels of personal health-care access and quality achieved across the development spectrum, and pinpoint geographies where gaps between observed and potential levels have narrowed or widened over time. Between 1990 and 2015, nearly all countries and territories saw their HAQ Index values improve; nonetheless, the difference between the highest and lowest observed HAQ Index was larger in 2015 than in 1990, ranging from 28·6 to 94·6. Of 195 geographies, 167 had statistically significant increases in HAQ Index levels since 1990, with South Korea, Turkey, Peru, China, and the Maldives recording among the largest gains by 2015. Performance on the HAQ Index and individual causes showed distinct patterns by region and level of development, yet substantial heterogeneities emerged for several causes, including cancers in highest-SDI countries; chronic kidney disease, diabetes, diarrhoeal diseases, and lower respiratory infections among middle-SDI countries; and measles and tetanus among lowest-SDI countries. While the global HAQ Index average rose from 40·7 (95% uncertainty interval, 39·0–42·8) in 1990 to 53·7 (52·2–55·4) in 2015, far less progress occurred in narrowing the gap between observed HAQ Index values and maximum levels achieved; at the global level, the difference between the observed and frontier HAQ Index only decreased from 21·2 in 1990 to 20·1 in 2015. If every country and territory had achieved the highest observed HAQ Index by their corresponding level of SDI, the global average would have been 73·8 in 2015. Several countries, particularly in eastern and western sub-Saharan Africa, reached HAQ Index values similar to or beyond their development levels, whereas others, namely in southern sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and south Asia, lagged behind what geographies of similar development attained between 1990 and 2015. This novel extension of the GBD Study shows the untapped potential for personal health-care access and quality improvement across the development spectrum. Amid substantive advances in personal health care at the national level, heterogeneous patterns for individual causes in given countries or territories suggest that few places have consistently achieved optimal health-care access and quality across health-system functions and therapeutic areas. This is especially evident in middle-SDI countries, many of which have recently undergone or are currently experiencing epidemiological transitions. The HAQ Index, if paired with other measures of health-system characteristics such as intervention coverage, could provide a robust avenue for tracking progress on universal health coverage and identifying local priorities for strengthening personal health-care quality and access throughout the world. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

[Christopher Leasher] pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of statutory sexual assault, indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor and delivery of a controlled substance.

\"I have far beyond learned my lesson,\" he said. \"Scared straight doesn't even begin to say it.\" [Christopher Leasher], who went by the name \"Christopher Jive\" on the popular social networking Web site, pleaded guilty in February to statutory sexual assault, indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor and delivery of a controlled substance to a minor. He was arrested in August after the victim told police that Leasher had sexually assaulted her while she was high on drugs. Prosecutors say he initially lied to them, but later confessed to the crime, calling the girl a \"teenybopper\" and one of his \"young fans.\"

\"I have far beyond learned my lesson,\" he said. \"Scared straight doesn't even begin to say it.\" [Christopher Leasher], who went by the name \"Christopher Jive\" on the popular social networking Web site, pleaded guilty in February to statutory sexual assault, indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor and delivery of a controlled substance to a minor. He was arrested in August after the victim told police that Leasher had sexually assaulted her while she was high on drugs. Detectives used the phone number Leasher gave the victim to track him down at his girlfriend's Montgomery County home. Prosecutors say he initially lied to them, but later confessed to the crime, calling the girl a \"teenybopper\" and one of his \"young fans.\"

\"I have no excuses,\" [Christopher Leasher] said in the Doylestown courtroom. \"I'm so sorry for everything and to everybody involved in this ordeal. I'm sad to say that this saved my life. It will allow me to live a life that I'm proud of from now on.\" Leasher pleaded guilty in February to statutory sexual assault, indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor and delivery of a controlled substance to a minor. He was arrested in August after the victim told police that Leasher had sexually assaulted her while she was high on drugs. In court Monday, Leasher's attorney, Richard Fink, noted that his client was an Eagle Scout whose only brush with the law before the case was a minor traffic citation. Fink said Leasher has read self-help books while incarcerated and is looking forward to serving his time and then getting back to his music career.

Jul. 9--Major bouquets to the Southeast (Portage County) Music Boosters for stepping up and out to help 14-year-old Matthew Craft of Edinburg Township on the field as a member of Southeast High School's marching band. \"The first step has been accomplished with help of Tom Sayre of Cornerstone Medical of Akron and Tom Strauss, CEO of Summa Health System, who graciously donated a wheelchair for Matthew with big, heavy-duty wheels to maneuver on grass and rock surfaces and full armrests with a tray to hold bells, snare and any assorted percussion equipment.\" When Delta Upsilon fraternity -- where [Donna Carlton] has served as adviser for many years -- announced last year it was establishing a scholarship in [Dylan Fitzgerald Carlton]'s honor, [Ryan Leasher] was motivated to do his part, which turned out to be major.

[Randy Leasher], dressed in a dark suit and blue shirt, told the judge he wanted \"to apologize to Vic Cassano Jr., the Cassano family, Cassano employees and the community. I am sorry this happened. I want to move forward.\" Investigators said Leasher took $322,373.37 out of his company's petty cash fund for fake expenses. They said he also arranged kickbacks from an outside business owner who was one of Cassano's close associates. The outside vendor was not prosecuted in exchange for helping prosecutors and Kettering police with their case against Leasher. Leasher resigned from Cassano's March 27.

Because of the way those spots are allotted, anglers on McLean County teams garnered four of the 12 positions. They are Bill Leasher and Steve Tatum from McLean County Bassmasters, Brian Koch from the Mackinaw Valley Bassmasters and Larry Russell from the Bloomington Normal Bassmasters.

\"Parents always say to me, \"I don't want to invade my child's privacy,' \" [Diane Gibbons] said Tuesday during a press conference. But by allowing kids and teens unsupervised access to the online world, parents are tacitly authorizing contact far beyond the keyboard. \"For them, it's just an older guy who is paying attention to them, and it's flattering,\" [Kathy Bennett] said. \"They don't realize the criminal nature of it all.\" \"We're grooming our children to be tech savvy, which is a wonderful thing,\" [Mary Worthington] said. \"But it's just like driving a car. There are rules and there are safety guidelines that have to be followed.\"

The investigation that led to [Randy Leasher]'s court appearance began soon after [Vic Cassano Sr.] received a tip in March that Leasher had pilfered up to $100,000 from the petty cash account. Cassano was out of town. Leasher, knowing the vendor could not afford to lose Cassano's business, pressured the vendor to submit bogus invoices to the company. Leasher made sure the invoices got paid, [George Patricoff] said, and the vendor would deposit the checks and kick back 90 percent or so to Leasher, Patricoff said. Leasher also made the mistake of confiding in a former Cassano's employee now working in another city, Patricoff said. The former employee called Cassano's and told officials what Leasher had said.