Category: NEWS

Study finds that breaking up your exercise is more effective, but Tim Dowling remains to be convinced
Tim DowlingFri 18 Oct 2024 09.38 EDTLast modified on Fri 18 Oct 2024 10.05 EDTShareLet me start by saying that I am not looking for ways to be more tired. I’m tired enough. However, a study suggesting that exercise punctuated by frequent breaks requires more energy than “steady-state” exertion has a certain counterintuitive attraction: I can exercise better by resting more.
The results of the study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, are striking. Volunteers on treadmills and stair climbers used 20-60% more oxygen when walking in bursts of 10-30 seconds than they did covering the same distance without stopping. This apparently has something to do with the sheer inefficiency of stop-start activity. “We found that when starting from rest, a significant amount of oxygen is consumed to start walking,” said the study’s author, Francesco Luciano. “We incur this cost regardless of whether we then walk for 10 or 30 seconds, so it proportionally weighs more for shorter rather than longer bouts.” Would this strategy, I wondered, work for me?
I began my investigation with an everyday journey: a walk to the nearest post office, just over half a mile away. On the way there, I walked at a brisk, unbroken pace, but on the return journey I covered the same distance in bursts of 30 seconds, with rests in between. Or at least I tried to – even at a near jog, 30 seconds doesn’t take you very far. It’s about 75 steps, which won’t get you from corner to corner, or from one park bench to the next.
View image in fullscreenTim Dowling and Jean take a rest. Photograph: David Levene/The GuardianAnd it looks stupid: you’re never far enough from your previous rest spot to have a plausible reason for stopping again. You can halt mid-stride to read an email, but not every 75 steps. You can pretend your shoe is untied, but not more than once or twice. On my walk home, the people I overtook kept overtaking me, while I kept pausing as if I’d forgotten something, and then realising I hadn’t, all the way across the park. You can’t help but arouse suspicion. The outbound journey took 12 minutes; the return, more than half an hour. I don’t know which came at a greater metabolic cost, but I know which one I preferred.
I’ll tell you who really isn’t keen on this approach to exercise: dogs. My afternoon study only had a sample of one animal, but the findings were clear: a dog simply will not tolerate a rest break every 30 seconds, much less every 10. As I sat on the first bench, the dog looked at me with a certain wary concern, as if I might be experiencing a cardiac event. Thereafter it just strained at the end of the lead, trying to pull me into a standing position.
“We’re actually using more energy this way,” I said. The dog whined. There is a lot a dog doesn’t understand – for example, why it can’t take home a surgical glove it found in a hedge – but continual, unexplained halting is, from its point of view, a punishment, plain and simple.
View image in fullscreenJean the dog loses patience with the break method. Photograph: David Levene/The GuardianIf this study serves a rebuke to the sort of people who jog in place while waiting at a level crossing – you’d be better off standing there with your arms folded, like the rest of us – it’s also a vote of confidence for anyone who counts leaping up from the sofa to answer the door as circuit training. There is clearly value in bursts of exercise of even the shortest duration, but enforced inefficiency is a little heartbreaking. It’s like being terrible at skipping a rope – you obviously get more exercise than someone who is good at it, but you don’t feel better about yourself when you’re done.
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For my part, I can only say that both the dog and I were unusually exhausted after our highly inefficient afternoon walk. Whether that was from the extra oxygen consumption or the sheer frustration, I’ll never know.

On October 15, 2023, China Post launched a commemorative set of six stamps titled “Chinese Modern Literary Figures,” highlighting the contributions of six prominent Chinese modern writers: Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Lao She, and Cao Yu.

The stamps showcase a unique artistic style that combines traditional Chinese ink painting techniques with Western artistic elements. Each stamp’s background features representative literary works from these authors, including Lu Xun’s “Wild Grass” and “A Call to Arms,” Guo Moruo’s “The Goddess” and “Qu Yuan,” Mao Dun’s “Midnight” and “Erosion,” Lao She’s “Teahouse” and “Four Generations Under One Roof,” Cao Yu’s “Thunderstorm” and “Sunrise,” and Ba Jin’s “Cold Night” and “Family.”

Among these, Ba Jin’s stamp captures his classic image: an elderly man with white hair, smiling gently while looking into the distance, dressed simply and exuding warmth. Zhou Limin, the executive director of Ba Jin’s former residence, shared that Ba Jin himself was an avid stamp collector. “We aim not only to preserve the images of these literary figures but also to cherish their hearts,” he explained. “Their essence lives on in their works and words. It is precisely because their literature continues to resonate that readers remember and honor them.”

Prosecutions of passengers accused of using 16-25 railcard for discounts at wrong time of day are being withdrawn
Nadeem BadshahMon 14 Oct 2024 14.26 EDTFirst published on Mon 14 Oct 2024 14.21 EDTShareRail passengers could be entitled to compensation after Northern was accused of breaking its fare evasion rules to prosecute commuters.
The train operator said on Monday all prosecutions of people accused of using a 16-25 railcard to obtain a discount at the wrong time of day were being withdrawn – with less than 25 previous cases being reviewed.
The company was criticised for prosecuting young people after they used their railcards in a way that would have saved a few pounds on morning journeys.
Under Northern rules, passengers with a railcard travelling on the wrong train must be offered the chance to pay back the deficit on the spot, the Telegraph reported.
A Northern spokesperson said: “We understand that fares and ticketing across the railway can, at times, be difficult to understand, and we are reviewing our processes for ensuring compliance with ticket and railcard terms and conditions. With regard to recent reported cases involving use of the 16-25 railcard with fares under £12 before 10am, we are withdrawing any live cases and will also look to review anyone who has been prosecuted previously on this specific issue.
“We are actively engaged with government and industry to simplify fares to help customers.”
Restrictions on a 16-25 railcard, which can also be bought by full-time students, mean discounts can only be applied to an “anytime” ticket before 10am if the fare is £12 or more, requiring cardholders to pay full fare for cheaper tickets.
However, there are exceptions to this rule: railcards can be used on early morning trains at a weekend, or during the months of July and August. Some rail users said the rules were confusing and they had fallen foul of the regulations after buying discounted tickets, unaware that their railcards were not valid.
Sam Williamson, 22, received a letter from Northern threatening him with prosecution over a £1.90 fare discrepancy after he mistakenly used his railcard on a morning train from Manchester to London on 5 September.
Last week, in a social media post seen by millions, Williamson told how he had received the notice from the government-owned operator. The engineering graduate from Glossop in Derbyshire said he was subsequently contacted by the train operator notifying him that it would “be taking no further steps” against him.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We expect Northern and all operators to ensure their policy on ticketing is clear and fair for passengers at all times. Northern are reviewing the details of these cases and will report back to the department.
“It is clear that ticketing is far too complicated with a labyrinth of different fares and prices, which can be confusing for passengers. That’s why we have committed to the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation, including simplifying fares to make travelling by train easier.”

Local residents and small business owners are calling on Governor Kathy Hochul to address the growing issue of insufficient police presence in their community. On October 9th, they gathered at the Elmhurst subway station to advocate for more National Guard support to help restore a safe environment in Jackson Heights and its neighboring areas.

The crime problem has escalated along Roosevelt Avenue, spanning from 72nd Street to 114th Street and affecting predominantly Hispanic communities such as Woodside, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona. Illegal vendors and sex workers have overtaken the streets, creating challenges for local businesses and raising concerns among residents about the safety of their neighborhoods.

One of the event’s organizers, former state senator Hiram Monserrate, emphasized the urgency of the situation. He stated that crime along Roosevelt Avenue has reached intolerable levels, with brazen sex workers and unscrupulous vendors impacting both residents and businesses. “Today, we stand here hoping that Governor Hochul will recognize the lack of police presence in our area and allocate 100 additional National Guard troops to assist precincts 110 and 115 in tackling gang violence, drug trafficking, theft, prostitution, and robberies,” Monserrate said.

Local merchant Mireya Guitierrez shared her frustration, noting that hundreds of vendors block storefronts, making it difficult for pedestrians to navigate the sidewalks. “I won’t leave this community; instead, I will fight for it. But we need more help from the governor,” she expressed.

Ramon Ramirez Baez, chair of the Let’s Improve Roosevelt Ave coalition, pointed out that New York City is at a critical juncture. He criticized some politicians for attempting to legalize prostitution and cut police funding, arguing that these actions would only lead to more crime. “The state has a responsibility to ensure community safety and confront these issues head-on,” Baez asserted.

The challenges are not limited to the areas mentioned above; Flushing, home to a significant Chinese population, is grappling with similar problems. Martha Flores-Vazquez, a participant in the assembly, pointed out that she has lived in Flushing for 45 years and has seen an alarming rise in prostitution along 41st Avenue. “Our community needs more public involvement. Without the support and voices of residents, these issues will continue to go unnoticed,” she stated.

On October 20, 2023, the highly anticipated 2024 Cross-Strait (Xiamen) Children’s Arts Festival took place at the Artistic Center of Huashang Xiping Bilingual School in Xiamen.

The event kicked off to the joyful sounds of music, with young performers from both sides of the Strait dazzling the audience in their vibrant and unique costumes. A variety of acts, including songs, dances, and instrumental performances, entertained the crowd, showcasing a spectacular blend of talent.

The children expressed their love for life through their lively dance moves, beautiful singing, and exceptional skills, presenting a visual and auditory feast brimming with childlike innocence and joy. Notably, young performers from Taiwan, including Lin Yingzhen, Zhang Yuchen, and Xue Guanjun, delivered a compelling performance of Minnan songs, which elevated the event’s atmosphere to new heights.

Youngsters from Xiamen, Quanzhou, and Zhangzhou also contributed to the show with engaging performances, including songs, line dancing, rumba, and violin ensembles, winning applause and admiration from the audience.

This event was organized by Chen Fei (Xiamen) Cultural Media Co., Ltd., with Huashang Xiping Bilingual School assisting in the execution. It was also part of a project funded by Xiamen’s cultural development special funds.

The organizers emphasized that the “2024 Cross-Strait (Xiamen) Children’s Arts Festival” not only provided a platform for children to showcase their talents but also fostered mutual understanding and communication between young people from both sides. Through this event, the children forged friendships and happiness while gaining a deeper appreciation for their shared roots and connections, strengthening the bonds between them.

Chen Fei, the event’s executive producer and director, expressed his hopes for such cultural exchanges to enhance grassroots collaboration in the arts between the two sides of the Strait. He also pledged to continue organizing more similar events in the future, allowing even more children from both regions to come together and celebrate and promote the rich heritage of Chinese traditional culture.

Parkview Health has spent over $600m building up its sprawling regional medical center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Photograph: Rachel Von Art/The GuardianIn the nation’s most affordable metro area, getting hurt or sick is expensive
By George Joseph, Will Craft and Jessica GlenzaThu 17 Oct 2024 12.00 BSTLast modified on Thu 17 Oct 2024 12.02 BSTShareOn an October evening, Tom Frost was zooming down a dark state road on the northern edge of Indiana. The father of two had just finished his shift at a small town fiberglass factory. Now, he was doing what he loved, riding a Harley Davidson in his typical getup: black gloves, leather chaps, no helmet.
As Frost revved past the corn fields and thinning birch trees that led to his girlfriend’s house, a green pickup jerked off a side road and into his path. Frost didn’t have time. He hit the truck and flew backwards, leaving his body and small trails of blood on the asphalt, police photos show.
First responders loaded Frost, now incapacitated, onto a helicopter and flew him to the area’s biggest hospital, Parkview Health’s Regional Medical Center. The sprawling, near-million square foot campus had opened its doors a year earlier, the capital of a rapidly expanding empire of hospitals and doctors offices spreading out from Fort Wayne to the rural counties of the Indiana-Ohio borderlands.
Parkview Health’s doctors operated on Frost’s fractured right leg and face. Eventually, he woke up from his coma. But for weeks afterwards, he suffered from significant brain trauma. He called his mother, who spent days sitting beside his hospital bed, “Number 1”, not “Mom”. So about a month after the 2013 crash, when a hospital employee pulled aside his mother and asked her to sign an agreement promising to pay for “all” of her son’s charges, the 66-year-old retired bartender signed where she was told.
Frost’s mother didn’t know how much the bill was going to be. All she knew was that her son, who was uninsured, needed care. After Frost’s discharge, Parkview Health, a not-for-profit system, sent him a letter outlining how much it wanted: $629,386.50. Frost’s family was willing to pay, according to a subsequent court filing submitted by his attorney. But the bill was bigger than what they thought was reasonable. For example, after his high-level surgeries, Parkview transferred him to a skilled nursing facility, where he worked on his rehab and recovery for 55 days. For that period, the hospital wanted $144,487.73, effectively a daily charge of more than $2,600. An auditor hired by the family’s attorney identified thousands of dollars in billing errors in the hospital’s itemized statement, some of which the hospital later relented on. More significantly, going off of federal billing guidelines, the auditor concluded the “fair and reasonable value” of the services Frost received actually amounted to $255,903.45 – still a hefty sum, but only about 40% of what the hospital was demanding. After a two year legal battle that threatened to shed light on Parkview’s closely-guarded billing practices, the hospital had Frost sign a confidentiality agreement and settled the case for an undisclosed sum.
But the enormous hospital bill Parkview sent to Frost was not an aberration. Over more than a decade, Parkview Health has demanded that the people of north-eastern Indiana and north-western Ohio pay some of the highest prices of any hospital system in the country – despite being headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which currently ranks as the No 1 most affordable metro area to live in the United States. For 10 of the last 13 years, Parkview hospitals on average have been among the top 10% most expensive in the country, a Guardian US analysis of cost estimates based on data submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid shows.
View image in fullscreenSome staff refer to Parkview Regional Medical Center in private as ‘Emerald City’ for its ritzy amenities and green corporate branding. Photograph: Rachel Von Art/The GuardianParkview’s steep prices are the product of a more than two decade campaign by hospital executives to establish market dominance in Fort Wayne and to squeeze revenue from a pool of patients and employers who feel they have no better alternatives, according to interviews with more than 40 current and former Parkview employees, patients, local business leaders, lawmakers and competitors, as well as leaked audio recordings of meetings and hundreds of internal billing, patient and policy documents obtained by the Guardian.
During this period, Parkview has taken over six former rival hospitals and built up a network of almost 300 sites for its physicians and providers, forming a ring around its gleaming regional center, which some staff refer to in private as the “Big House” or “Emerald City” for its ritzy amenities and green corporate branding.
This consolidation, former employees say, has allowed Parkview to control referral flows, routing primary care patients to their own costly specialists and facilities, even if those patients could get the same services elsewhere for less. It has also increased Parkview’s leverage in negotiations with health insurance companies, as they bargain over procedure prices on behalf of employers that offer the insurers’ health plans to their workers.
Insurance industry sources say Parkview’s growing web of hospitals makes it hard for any insurer to offer a viable health plan locally without including the chain’s facilities in their network, an advantage that has helped the not-for-profit extract high prices and earn a reputation as one of the toughest negotiators in the state.
Not-for-profit healthcare has been good business for Parkview as it has been for hundreds of other ostensible charities across the US which operate nearly half of the nation’s hospitals. In exchange for generous tax breaks, these institutions are required to provide free and discounted care to poor patients, but many have faced criticism for skimping on charity care, demanding high prices and giving executives exorbitant salaries.
Since 2019, Parkview has raked in more than $2bn in revenue annually, enabling the system to give dozens of its executives and top doctors six and seven figure annual compensation packages. Before his retirement at the end of 2022, Parkview’s longtime CEO, an avowed Christian who publicly styled himself as a “servant” leader, took home nearly $3m from the not-for-profit, according to the system’s last publicly available IRS disclosure.
Parkview declined repeated requests in recent weeks to make its current CEO available for interview and chose not to respond to a series of detailed questions submitted by the Guardian several days ahead of publication. In response to criticism about its high prices, Parkview has previously pointed to its various charitable initiatives, its role as a leader in the region’s economic development, and the quality of its care – which varies by facility according to federal ratings. The system has also claimed that past studies of its prices have been “filled with inaccuracies” and “incomplete analyses”.
Graph of Parkview expansion, showing the extent of the system’s growth.Parkview’s expansion in Fort Wayne, a mid-sized, midwestern city surrounded by miles of corn fields and manufacturing plants, reflects a larger trend of consolidation that has transformed America’s once mostly locally run healthcare system and ratcheted up its costs for more than a generation. Since the 1990s, hospital systems across the US – for and not-for-profit alike – have relentlessly chased after market power, executing nearly 2,000 mergers with little pushback from overwhelmed federal antitrust regulators and indifferent state authorities. Research from the American Medical Association found that by 2013, 97% of healthcare markets in the US had little competition and were highly consolidated under Department of Justice antitrust guidelines. By 2021, that figure had risen to 99%.
With consolidation, academic researchers have consistently found significant increases in prices. A 2012 research survey concluded that when hospitals merge in concentrated markets price hikes were “typically quite large, most exceeding 20 percent”. A 2019 study found that prices at hospitals enjoying local monopoly power were 12% higher than those in markets with at least four competitors. A study released earlier this year identified dozens of hospital mergers that it said regulators could have flagged as likely to diminish competition and raise prices. Those mergers did, in fact, result in average price hikes of 5% or more, the researchers found.
View image in fullscreenParkview’s growing ring of hospitals increased its leverage in contract negotiations with health insurers. Photograph: Rachel Von Art/The GuardianRising healthcare costs don’t just hurt patients. They also squeeze local employers, who have to choose between wages, headcount and insurance costs – decisions that low-wage workers pay for down the line. A working paper from earlier this summer found that every 1% increase in healthcare prices, driven by hospital mergers, lowered both employment and payroll at companies outside the health sector by approximately 0.4% – trends, which in turn, increased deaths by opioid overdose and suicide. Zack Cooper, a Yale economist and one of the co-authors of that paper, argues that consolidation has its most pernicious effects in areas like north-eastern Indiana and north-western Ohio, where Parkview has established itself as the dominant player: semi-rural parts of the country which already had comparatively few healthcare providers and are even more vulnerable to consolidation and price hikes. “That’s where you start to see these 10 to 15% price increases over time,” said Cooper. “Outside of New York, LA, Chicago and Houston, often the hospitals are really the biggest employers in town. They’ve got these beautiful campuses and rolling grass lawns, and you say, ‘Oh gosh, this is good for the economy.’ But what we’re starting to see is that many of our local health systems are boa constrictors just tightening around and squeezing the life of some of these local economies.”
The not-for-profit cut services. Then a young mother diedParkview Health is now north-eastern Indiana’s largest employer. And as the hospital system has grown, it has refashioned greater Fort Wayne in its own image.
Parkview has built its own police force with dozens of armed officers stationed across the region. It has stuck its green and gray colors on the jerseys of Fort Wayne’s minor league baseball team, and paid millions to call their downtown stadium, “Parkview Field”. Today, even the local hockey rink, “SportOne Parkview Icehouse”, and a local YMCA, “Parkview Family YMCA”, pay homage to the not-for-profit.
View image in fullscreenParkview paid millions to call Fort Wayne’s minor league baseball stadium ‘Parkview Field’. Photograph: George Joseph/The GuardianIn Fort Wayne and its surrounding deep-red counties, business leaders and Republican state lawmakers have grumbled for years about Parkview’s high prices – including several who spoke on the condition of anonymity for this story. But no major establishment figure has been willing to cross the hospital.
Last summer, the biggest ever local challenge to the not-for-profit’s carefully cultivated reputation came not from elected officials, but a spontaneous coalition of suburban and rural mothers from DeKalb county. The women, calling themselves “Moms Against Parkview”, were upset that the healthcare system had decided to shut down the labor and delivery unit at their local formerly independent hospital, which the system had absorbed and rechristened as “Parkview DeKalb” in 2019. In a statement to the media, the prosperous not-for-profit likened itself to the hundreds of struggling rural hospitals nationwide that have cut maternal care services: “Across the country, rural hospitals have experienced ongoing challenges in ensuring sustainable access to high-quality obstetrics services.”
The protesters didn’t buy this explanation, which they assumed was a convenient excuse for Parkview to slash a money-losing service line. Standing at an intersection near the gargantuan Regional Medical Center last September, several women and their children held handmade signs, declaring in scrawled marker: “Save DeKalbs OB Unit” and “Parkview puts $$$ over mothers!”
View image in fullscreenJennifer Vian and Michelle Dunn hold signs from protests they organized last year against Parkview Health. Photograph: George Joseph/The GuardianThat month, Michelle Dunn, one of the protesters, submitted an anonymous letter to a local newspaper, which she told the Guardian she had received from a nurse working at Parkview Dekalb. “Shutting our unit down would be detrimental to women and their children especially when they cannot make it to Parkview Regional,” the letter stated.
Parkview executives largely ignored the women. A few weeks later, the anonymous writer’s warning proved prescient. Late in the day on 10 October 2023, a 26-year-old named Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski showed up at Parkview DeKalb looking pale, according to one current and one former hospital source.
Parkview hadn’t approved 24/7 onsite ultrasound coverage – a basic medical imaging tool – at the outlying hospital, according to two former Parkview employees with knowledge of the incident. But because of her vitals, the two former employees said, staff suspected she was bleeding internally due to an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening condition in which an egg grows outside of the uterus.
Even after the closure of the labor and delivery unit, Parkview Dekalb still had OB-GYNs who did pre-scheduled procedures and an on-call general surgeon who had the technical skills to try and help Wilkinson-Sobieski, two current and two former Parkview employees told the Guardian.
But alongside the publicly-announced unit closure, hospital executives had also quietly slashed on-call OB-GYN emergency coverage at Parkview DeKalb, so the de facto practice became for staff to transfer pregnancy-related emergencies to Parkview Regional Medical Center, a 20-minute drive away, one current employee and one former high-ranking Parkview employee with knowledge of the matter said.
Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski, 26, died after Parkview Health transferred her away from her local hospital. She left behind her husband and a one-year-old son. Photograph: Courtesy of Wilkinson-Sobieski’s familyThe transfer cost Wilkinson-Sobieski time she could not afford. When the young woman arrived at the regional hub, she was still conscious and doctors were waiting for her, according to a source familiar with her post-transfer care. Staff ran an ultrasound, put her to sleep with anesthesia, and began an operation to put a clamp across one of her fallopian tubes, which by this point had ruptured, the source said.
They got to her too late. She had already lost too much blood. She never woke up again, the source said.
Wilkinson-Sobieski was pronounced dead two days later. She left behind her husband Clayton and their one-year-old son, Reid.
Afterwards, her family received a bill from Parkview, according to her husband and another person familiar with the matter.
Parkview did not respond to numerous detailed questions from the Guardian about the sources’ claims regarding the case, and declined to comment for a previous story about the case in the Indianapolis Star.
In a previous statement to local press about its OB-GYN service cuts, Parkview said its “unwavering commitment to healthy moms and babies” was at “the heart” of its new approach, which it claimed would create “new opportunities to optimize prenatal care, labor and delivery, and postnatal care”.
But current and former Parkview employees told the Guardian the case points to the dangers of treating medicine like a business.
“What do you do about the ectopic? What do you do about the mom that comes in with a foot hanging out?” said one current longtime medical provider at Parkview, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “At the end of the day, that’s why the practitioners routinely say, ‘This cannot be quantified.’ Medicine does not fit neatly into an excel spreadsheet.”
The duo that built ‘Emerald City’With a price tag of over $600m, Parkview’s Regional Medical Center – a campus of brick walls and glass panes – is one of the most expensive developments in north-eastern Indiana.
When patients walk through the sliding doors of its main entrance, they enter a bright atrium. Light floods through the front windows, revealing its immaculate floors and a grayscale glass mural that includes engravings of surgery staff and a motto in cursive: “Generosity Heals.”
This is the house that Parkview built – and that the patients and employers of greater Fort Wayne paid for with some of the highest prices across the land.
View image in fullscreenParkview’s Regional Medical Center, a campus of brick walls and glass panes, is one of the most expensive developments in north-eastern Indiana. Photograph: Rachel Von Art/The GuardianThe ever-expanding campus was a crowning achievement for Parkview’s longtime CEO, Michael Packnett, who retired two years ago, having turned the system from a small community chain into a regional powerhouse. During his 16-year tenure, Packnett, a doughy-faced Oklahoman with a soft voice and a graying widow’s peak, won near universal acclaim for his carefully-cultivated brand of “servant leadership”.
Former employees, from nurses to executive team leaders, reminisce about how Packnett would walk the halls and shake the hands of subordinates, whom he called “co-workers” in public pronouncements. Even today, local critics of the hospital find it hard to believe Packnett could have been in the know about the hospital’s more controversial charging and acquisition tactics. What they don’t like, they sometimes ascribe to Rick Henvey, Packnett’s longtime deputy and eventual successor. Henvey, a balding Texas native with a taut face, does not project Packnett’s “care bear” image, as one Republican lawmaker put it.
But sources who dealt with both over their 23-year partnership say that, in their business practices, the two were closely aligned. Henvey followed Packnett to Fort Wayne. What they built there, one of the wealthiest hospital systems in Indiana, they built together – a trajectory that was not inevitable. When the duo took over Parkview in 2006, Fort Wayne – then a city of around 250,000 – had a relatively competitive hospital market. Parkview had a slightly smaller regional market share than a for-profit competitor, and struggled with wobbly revenues, tough dealings with insurers, and a lack of bed capacity – causing it to sometimes lose patient referrals to its rival.
With the arrival of Packnett and Henvey, the hospitals’ operating revenues exploded, rising from around $700m at the close of 2006 to $1bn by the end of 2011 – a 40%-plus increase, though patient admissions only grew 11% during that period, according to Moody’s Ratings reports from the time. Hospital industry rivals and insurance sources attribute a large part of Packnett’s success in those early days to his team’s aggressive acquisition of dozens of freestanding medical facilities, including doctors’ offices, imaging sites and surgery centers.
Like many hospital leaders across the country, Parkview administrators sometimes reclassified these acquisitions as “hospital-based” outpatient departments, according to one former Parkview employee and two healthcare industry sources familiar with the matter. The reclassifications didn’t fundamentally change the services offered and the facilities were not necessarily on Parkview hospital campuses, sources asserted, but thanks to lax Medicare and commercial insurance reimbursement practices, administrators could insert the hospital’s tax identification number, a hospital address, and higher charges onto bills from these sites.
“So Packnett shows up here from Oklahoma and he realizes he has unlimited dollars,” recalled one rival hospital executive, who was operating in Fort Wayne at the time.
Around 2010, Packnett and Henvey saw an opportunity for this kind of billing arbitrage across state lines in Bryan, Ohio. The town of less than 10,000 people had a small community hospital that was fighting to keep its independence as well as an aging doctors group that was looking to cash out.
Packnett and Henvey wanted both, according to the Bryan hospital’s then CEO Phil Ennen. But when the duo couldn’t convince the local hospital to surrender, they settled for the doctors’ practice, which had its own facility doing affordable imaging and lab work right across the street. Then the Fort Wayne not-for-profit executives jacked up prices, Ennen recalls.
Suddenly, he said, patients in Bryan receiving imaging from the same personnel in the same facility, were on the hook for hundreds of dollars more in charges because of its hospital-based reclassification, a spike that sparked complaints from local employers. “It’s a powerful aphrodisiac, right?” said Ennen. “We can take ’em over and take their lab and their X-ray and make it ours, and charge our prices.” Packnett’s physician grabs also softened up hospital targets for poaching down the line, according to one former high-level Parkview employee. With the Bryan doctors’ group now in Parkview’s hands, Ennen noted, the system began siphoning referrals away from the Ohio community hospital – shifting hospital facility fees and future patient visits from Bryan west to Fort Wayne.
Thirteen years later, struggling with finances, the community hospital group that operated the hospital in Bryan and another one in a nearby small town finally gave in and joined Parkview.
“They put Parkview doctors in Ohio and took their volume away,” recalled the former high-ranking Parkview employee. “It was a slow bleed.”
Announcing the affiliation, Tasha Eicher, Parkview’s market president for north-east Indiana and Ohio, said the system looked forward to “seeing the impact” it could have as “both a healthcare provider and a community partner”.
‘The more you code, the higher you code, the more credit you get’As Parkview took over formerly independent county hospitals and doctors’ offices, more and more patients were referred within its system, exposing them to the not-for-profit’s meticulous revenue strategies.
Within a few years of Parkview’s acquisition of the formerly independent community hospital in DeKalb county, Indiana, in 2019, managers there were ranking doctors by revenue metrics, holding meetings about which practitioners had failed to hit their expected financials, and basing their bonus pay, in large part, on patient volume and new patient encounters, internal documents show.
View image in fullscreenFive former employees said that Parkview’s pay structure incentivized some practitioners to steer patients toward costly procedures and testing. Photograph: Rachel Von Art/The GuardianFive former Parkview employees interviewed for this story asserted that this pay structure incentivized some practitioners to churn through dozens of patients a day and to steer them toward costly procedures and testing.
“The more you code, the higher you code, the more credit you get, which would translate to bonuses,” said one former Parkview office manager, who worked in the system for more than a decade.
“Somebody comes in with knee arthritis and basically they’re having pain, but they haven’t had any other treatment,” recalled a former Parkview doctor, questioning how his colleagues weighed surgeries versus more conservative alternatives. “These guys will jump right to a knee replacement surgery.”
Revenue pressure was even brought down to the level of nurses – some of whom say they have been pushed to charge for the smallest of items from Kleenexes to batteries. One 2022 email, obtained by the Guardian, shows a supervisor at Parkview DeKalb telling nurses that she had reviewed their charts for the week and found they had “missed” $50,000 in charges as a team. The following year, managers told staff to be more stringent about how many linen towels they handed out to patients – an initiative they termed “linen stewardship”.
“It makes me feel disgusting. It makes me feel dirty,” said one current Parkview nurse, describing how staff have been made to charge for supplies and services down to the micro-level. “Why should I be trying to make sure that they’re getting the most money that they can?” In some cases, these volume and coding protocols resulted in enormous bills and significant additional revenue for the system, according to medical and legal records reviewed by the Guardian.
In 2021, after a young girl went to the ER for an accidental razor cut, a doctor applied an “adhesive skin affix”, a special type of wound glue, on her finger for about 10 seconds, according to her mother. Afterwards, Parkview charged just over $85 for the glue capsule, about four to five times the price listed online. The hospital also tacked another $295 onto the bill for the labor, which it classified as an intermediate surgical procedure, according to paperwork reviewed by the Guardian.
In 2022, Indiana’s attorney general announced a $2.9m overbilling settlement with Parkview, which stemmed from allegations that staff at multiple hospital locations were using improper revenue codes for blood-clotting tests to score more Medicaid dollars. In a statement to local press, Parkview said it believed it was “using the correct billing code” and denied any wrongdoing.
The system has also previously argued it needs to “maintain a strong, stable financial position” in order to provide millions of dollars in charity care to poor patients, though such charitable figures are themselves based on the system’s high prices.
‘Take my pricing or no deal’Under Packnett, Parkview’s growing ring of hospitals increased its leverage in contract negotiations with health insurers. Parkview had facilities that insurance companies effectively needed for their network plans in the Fort Wayne region, especially since local employers were afraid of making their workers leave their beloved chain, the one that had put its name on the local minor league baseball field and the local Y, according to two former Parkview employees and two Indiana insurance industry sources.
“The hospital was like, ‘Take my pricing or no deal’,” recalled one former Parkview employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of hospital-insurance bargaining.
Marty Wood, president of the Insurance Institute of Indiana, a lobbying group, told the Guardian that Parkview has been known to force insurance companies in negotiations to accept “all or nothing” agreements as part of their contracts. “All or nothing” agreements make insurers keep all of a system’s hospitals in their networks, regardless of their quality or costs – an arrangement that the California attorney general’s office and class action attorneys in other parts of the country have investigated as part of antitrust cases. “That has absolutely got to drive up the overall costs,” Wood said. Parkview did not respond to questions about whether it used “all or nothing” agreements. With this growing bargaining power, Parkview secured higher and higher payments from private health insurers throughout the 2010s.
View image in fullscreenFort Wayne, Indiana, a mid-sized, midwestern city. As Parkview’s hospital system has grown, it has refashioned greater Fort Wayne in its own image. Photograph: Rachel Von Art/The GuardianIn 2011, commercial insurers were paying an estimated 233% of what the federal government was paying Parkview for the same services through Medicare. By 2019, that number had shot up to 282%. The same year, Packnett took home more in annual compensation than he ever had previously from the not-for-profit: $3.8m.
The escalating costs sparked growing consternation among local employers. That May, the Employers’ Forum of Indiana released a study it had commissioned that found the once obscure regional system had some of the highest hospital prices in the country. Gloria Sachdev, the employer alliance’s president, said Parkview had not taken her up on her offer to meet before its release, but after the New York Times reported on their findings, Packnett invited her to come in from Indianapolis suburbs and discuss the study.
So one morning that May, Sachdev drove into Fort Wayne, past the corn fields, hospital billboards, and the minor league baseball stadium named after Parkview. Around 11am, she found herself at the head of a conference table inside the hospital’s regional center, where c-suite leaders grilled her with methodological questions and expounded on their civic-minded efforts.
After feeling like they had been going in circles for hours, Sachdev abruptly ended the meeting.
“Your job is not to provide revenue for the baseball field,” she recalls blurting out to the hospital executives. “Your job is not to provide revenue for the community outside of healthcare. Your job is to provide the best healthcare you can at an affordable price.” Afterwards, Packnett, who had mostly stayed silent, offered to walk her out. As the two stood in the regional center’s airy atrium, Sachdev said, the hospital CEO asked for her advice.
“His concern was not about the prices. It was not about the impact to the community,” Sachdev recalled. “It was about being in the New York Times and how he should manage that.”
Sachdev says she urged Packett to be a local hero by lowering his chain’s prices. The national news cycle, she told him, was short.
Packnett nodded and looked relieved, she said.
The following year, Anthem, the area’s largest commercial health insurer, used Sachdev’s price study to bargain hard with Parkview, and secured temporary reimbursement reductions. In 2021 and 2022, average prices at Parkview hospitals dropped out of the nation’s top 10% most expensive hospitals. But in 2023, the system’s average prices climbed once again into the top 10%.
“To put it bluntly, I don’t think they were committed and acting in good faith,” Sachdev said of Parkview. “They gave a concession just to pacify people, then they just raised their prices again.”
A Guardian analysis of price transparency data from Parkview’s Regional Medical Center found that prices increased at the flagship hospital in 2024. The Guardian US compared the cost of nearly 500 in-patient medical procedures in 2023 and 2024 and found that private insurance companies with more than 10 covered procedures saw an average price increase of 20% between 2023 and 2024. The Guardian’s analysis also showed just how much costs could swing at Parkview depending on a patient’s coverage. ​​Parkview negotiates the cost of each procedure with each insurance company and on average, the difference between the maximum and minimum negotiated price varies by $30,000.
Graph of the price variation for procedures at Parkview Regional Medical CenterWood, the insurance lobbyist, called the spread “outrageous” and said it suggested that much of what determines hospital rates comes down to negotiating power, rather than real world costs. “How can that be for the same thing? It makes no sense,” Wood said, referring to the differing procedure costs. “They’re forcing the hand of certain payors to pay this much or not be part of their network. That’s all I can think of.” Parkview did not respond to the Guardian’s request to explain its price variations.
‘She could have easily died’The October 2023 death of Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski – the young mother who had an ectopic pregnancy – did not spur change at Parkview’s outlying hospitals. In the months that followed, according to one current and one former employee, Parkview hospital administrators did not restore OB-GYN emergency coverage service to two of its smaller hospitals: Parkview LaGrange and Parkview DeKalb, the local hospital Wilkinson-Sobieski had gone to for help. Nor did they make sure that the facilities had 24/7 ultrasound service – a level of service that is only provided at the regional center, according to internal hospital records from earlier this year obtained by the Guardian. On New Year’s day, less than three months after Wilkinson-Sobieski’s death, another woman who did not know she had an ectopic pregnancy walked through the doors of the ER at Parkview Dekalb.
View image in fullscreenThe emergency room entrance at Parkview Regional Medical Center. Photograph: Rachel Von Art/The GuardianFor most of that day, Melanie Boterf, 33, had felt nauseous. She was having trouble breathing and felt pain between her hips. Worried about incurring a bill for her family, the stay-at-home mom had tried to sleep it off. But after she went to the bathroom and saw blood in her underwear, she drove to her local ER, leaving her husband, a sanitation truck driver, to watch the kids before his early shift the next morning. As in Wilkinson-Sobieski’s case, Parkview DeKalb lacked ultrasound capabilities at night and OB-GYN emergency coverage – limiting the staff’s ability to confirm whether Boterf had an ectopic pregnancy and to care for her if that was the case, according to medical records and a current Parkview employee. The ER doctor at DeKalb that night decided to transfer her, telling her it was because they couldn’t run an ultrasound, Boterf recalls.
Boterf says she was shocked. She had come to her local emergency room after all.
“The moment that they told me I’m not getting imaging here and I need to be transferred, I’m like, ‘Ok what’s the point of this being a hospital then?’”
At Parkview’s Regional Medical Center, Boterf, whose vitals had stabilized, waited more than two-and-a-half hours to be operated on. By the time the team ran her ultrasound, the imaging suggested that she had suffered a “moderate to large” hemorrhage within her pelvis, an indication that one of her fallopian tubes might have ruptured, medical records show.
Fortunately for Boterf, afterwards a Parkview surgeon was able to stop her internal bleeding and save her life. But several medical experts interviewed for this story pointed out that the case could have ended differently. It was impossible to know when exactly Boterf’s tube was going to burst, they said. If it had happened during her transfer, the experts said, she may not have survived.
View image in fullscreenMelanie Boterf went to the ER at Parkview Dekalb, which lacked ultrasound capabilities at night and OB-GYN emergency coverage, and had to be transferred to Parkview’s Regional Medical Center. ‘She could have easily died in that ambulance going from hospital A to hospital B,’ a doctor said. Photograph: George Joseph/The Guardian“You can’t predict when it’s going to happen. If it had happened on the truck she could have died,” said a medical source, who used to work at Parkview DeKalb. “It’s like you’re filling a water balloon. It keeps going and just goes ‘pow!’ Then the hose is still going to bleed.”
“She could have easily died in that ambulance going from hospital A to hospital B,” said Dr Larry Melniker, an ultrasound expert and vice chief of quality at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine.
In an internal meeting ahead of Parkview DeKalb’s OB-GYN service cuts last year, hospital leaders claimed they had tried their best to recruit OB-GYNs, but had been struggling to find enough providers to maintain the same level of services, according to an audio recording obtained by the Guardian. “Healthcare is just rapidly changing,” one executive told staff, in an apparent nod to the national OB-GYN shortage. “We’re not alone in this.”
Some sources questioned this line. They point out that unlike struggling rural hospitals, Parkview has a deep bench of OB-GYNs at its main regional campus and that the cuts allowed the system to skimp on a low-reimbursement service line.
Despite their resources, higher ups have not been willing to make more of their OB-GYN physicians take call shifts at their semi-rural hospitals while investing enough to attract additional recruits there, according to two former high-ranking Parkview employees.
The same month Wilkinson-Sobieski died, Parkview announced it had absorbed the community hospital in Bryan, Ohio, along with two other medical facilities on that side of the Indiana-Ohio border.
This fiscal year it found roughly $140m to pour into capital projects across greater Fort Wayne – investments that, a Moody’s report from July noted, will help further its goal of regional expansion.
The not-for-profit has enough resources to recruit more OB-GYNs for their outlying hospitals, one of the former high-ranking Parkview employees argued.
“They have the money,” she said. “They just don’t want to spend it.”
Jules Feeney and Aaron Mendelson contributed to this story
Methodology boxThe Guardian analyzed Parkview hospital prices using two different data sources. We used a metric called the commercial to Medicare cost ratio to analyze how pricey Parkview hospitals are compared to other hospitals around the country. This metric is an estimate of how much more a hospital charges private health insurance compared with what it charges Medicare and is based on records submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. The Guardian identified Parkview hospitals for each year from 2011 to 2023, and took each hospital’s commercial to Medicare ratio from processed data available from the RAND Corporation. The Guardian found the 90th percentile commercial to Medicare estimate by analyzing every general hospital, an approach adapted from this research paper.
The cost of individual inpatient procedures are based on 2023 and 2024 hospital price transparency files from Parkview Regional Medical Center. The Guardian matched every procedure based on the name of the insurer and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid classification number. We matched 484 different medical procedure codes for 14 insurance companies and found four private insurance companies with more than 10 inpatient procedures in both 2023 and 2024, plus additional Medicare and Medicaid plans. We only compared the cost of one procedure for one insurer in each year to ensure an accurate year-to-year comparison.

Blessing Ibungein Port Harcourt
Stakeholders in Rivers State have been tasked on environmental justice in their various communities and to ensure that sources of climate crisis are maximally reduced.
The task was given by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), yesterday, at a one-day capacity building workshop on environmental monitoring, held in Okrika town, Okrika Local Government Area of the State.
The workshop, which witnessed participants from Ogu/Bolo, Port Harcourt, Fiberesima, Dumo-Ama, Angugu-Biri, Bulome-Biri, Edereme-Biri, Awolome-Biri, Adedeme-Biri, Ngeme-Biri and Amanongo-Biri, focused on educating the people of the area on their right to a healthy and pollution free environment.
THISDAY observed that participants at the workshop were trained on how to build community centered network to advocate for justice and ensure that the Okrika populace gets the good life they yearn for.
Speaking with journalists at the event, the HOMEF Programme Manager, Mr. Stephen Oduware, called for an end to gas flaring, oil pollution which he identified as major challenges confronting the people.
Oduware emphasised the need for a clean-up, remediation and reparation, to cover for the loss and damages the people of the community have experienced and still experiencing.
He explained: “We came to Okrika to have a meeting with the Okrika people, from about 11 communities from the Okrika axis including Ogu/Bolo, to have a capacity sharing and building workshop on environmental monitoring, community solidarity, so as to practically build that community centered network to advocate for justice and for the good life that they yearn for.
“In the course of the meeting, we had sessions where we basically gave out all the elements needed to build community solidarity, integration and responsibilities, and to entrench that common sense of responsibility amongst ourselves as community people.”
“”We went further to have trainings on environmental monitoring, reporting, organising and advocacy, where we highlighted different indicators that monitors should look out for and advocate for.”
Oduware continued that the participants were also trained on how to build an effective network and alliances to carry out advocacy for the betterment of the community, and entrench a sense of that right and Justice that the community so deserve.
“We are asking for three things; the rights of this community people need to be recognised, protected and ultimately, they need to be supported. This community need to thrive again.”
Responding to questions on the needs and challenges identified in Okrika that necessitated the workshop, the HOMEF programme manager said: “We know that this community is on one hand sandwiched by the impact of climate change, sea level rise, coastal erosion and all of that.”
“On the other hand, the impact of oil spills in the community, that alone is a huge challenge and the route to recovery is actually problematic because the communities are not been heard, inspite of the impact they are facing.
“So, we have come here to strengthen ourselves, to tell them that we are with them, including the media, to ensure that that right is preserved, protected and that they have the right to a healthy and pollution free environment.”
The facilitators, Mr. Kentebe Ebiaridor spoke on the importance of oneness in the community and how the community people can leverage on solidarity to be able to achieve things for themselves and for their development.

Kamala Harris spent Wednesday urging Republicans to vote Democrat as Donald Trump defended baseless claims about Springfield, Ohio
Don’t miss important US election news. Get our free app and sign up for election alertsHelen SullivanThu 17 Oct 2024 05.27 BSTLast modified on Thu 17 Oct 2024 05.30 BSTShareDemocratic presidential nominee and US vice-president Kamala Harris focused her campaign on Republican voters, with an appearance at a Pennsylvania rally with more than 100 former Republican officeholders and officials
Later, in a further appeal to right-leaning voters, Harris faced a tough interview on Fox news, with host Brett Baier pressing the vice-president on immigration, the economy and the Biden administration. “Let me be very clear,” she said, “my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency.”
Donald Trump meanwhile spoke at a town hall hosted by Univision, America’s largest Spanish-language network, where he doubled down on baseless claims he has made about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pets.
Kamala Harris news and updates: Surrounded by more than 100 former Republican officeholders and officials, Harris urged GOP voters on Wednesday to put “country first” and abandon Donald Trump. Trump is “unstable” and “unhinged” and would eviscerate democratic norms if given a second White House term, she said. “America must heed this warning”.
In her interview on Fox News, Harris was asked about the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle illegal immigration at the southern border, and laid the blame on Republicans for failing to pass a border bill. Harris said Trump told Republicans to reject the bill because “he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
In the Fox interview, Harris singled out Iran when asked which foreign country she considers to be America’s greatest adversary. Baier questioned whether the Biden-Harris administration was “acting like Iran is the number one threat”.
Of Trump, Harris said, “People are exhausted with someone who professes to be a leader and who spends full-time demeaning and engaging in personal grievances.” She added, “He’s not stable.”
Donald Trump news and updates: Trump’s running mate, JD Vance answered “no” when asked if Trump lost the 2020 election, at a Pennsylvania rally. “What message do you think it sends to independent voters when you do not directly answer the question ‘Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?’” the reporter asked, eliciting boos from the crowd. Vance said, “No. I think there were serious problems in 2020”.
Trump doubled down on his controversial comments about “the enemy from within” made over the weekend. Before an all-female audience in Cumming, Georgia, Trump mocked Kamala Harris and her allies as “sick”, “evil” and “a party of soundbites”. He said, “They’re very dangerous. They’re Marxists and communists and fascists,” Trump told the Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner. “They’re the threat to democracy.”
The former director of Project 2025, a conservative plan to overhaul the US government, has blamed “violent rhetoric” from his former boss Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation thinktank, for the blueprint’s downgrading as Trump has sought to publicly distance himself from it.
In Trump’s Univision town hall he was asked to name three virtues possessed by Harris, which he did, before again attacking her. He said that “she seems to have an ability to survive”, that “she seems to have some pretty longtime friendships” and that “she seems to have a nice way about her”. “I mean, I like the way some of her statements, some of her – the way she behaves, in a certain way. But in another way, I think it’s very bad for our country,” he said.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail A Georgia judge has declared that seven new election rules recently passed by the state election board are “illegal, unconstitutional and void”. Fulton county superior court judge Thomas Cox issued the order on Wednesday after holding a hearing on challenges to the rules. The rules that Cox invalidated included three that had garnered a lot of attention – one that required that the number of ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls and two that had to do with the certification of election results.
Jimmy Carter, the centenarian former Democratic president, has voted in the 2024 presidential election, his representatives confirmed on Wednesday. A statement from the Carter Center did not reveal who he voted for, but it is assumed the 100-year-old, who is in hospice care, cast his ballot for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Alabama cannot remove thousands of people from its voter rolls on the eve of the presidential election, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. The US district judge Anna Manasco, an appointee of Donald Trump, issued a preliminary injunction halting an effort by Alabama’s top election official to try to remove more than 3,200 people from the voter rolls who it suspected of being non-citizens until at least after the presidential election.
The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin has called on the Department of Justice to investigate text messages they say targeted and tried to discourage young people from voting in the November election. The League of Women Voters says it initially learned of the alleged text campaign on 10 October, when the group received numerous complaints from voters who had received the text. Two people in their 20s who work with the League of Women Voters also received the message, which reads: “WARNING: Violating WI Statutes 12.13 & 6.18 may result in fines up to $10,000 or 3.5 years in prison. Don’t vote in a state where you’re not eligible.”
Read more about the 2024 US election:
Presidential poll tracker
Harris and Trump policies
What to know about early voting

David Jakins is cleared of any wrongdoing after he was found with a steel nut in his pocket
Rachel HallSun 20 Oct 2024 09.48 EDTLast modified on Sun 20 Oct 2024 10.01 EDTShareThe winner of the World Conker Championships has been cleared of any wrongdoing after he was found with a steel nut in his pocket.
David Jakins, known as King Conker, won the annual title in Southwick, Northamptonshire, on 13 October for the first time after competing in the competition since 1977.
But when organisers searched his pockets after the runner-up raised suspicions over the way his conker shattered on impact during the final, Jakins, 82, was found to have a metal replica conker, prompting an investigation.
After the scandal generated more media interest than England’s men’s and women’s cricket teams combined, King Conker has been cleared by the organisers, who found no evidence the steel nut was used in the competition.
Jakins, a retired engineer, told the Daily Star: “I’m so relieved to be cleared. It’s been a stressful week. We are gentlemen at the World Conker Championships and we don’t cheat. I’ve been playing and practising for decades. That’s how I won.
“I admit I had the steel conker in my pocket, but I didn’t play with it. I show it to people as a joke, but I won’t be bringing it again.” Photos of the steel conker show that it had been painted to look almost identical to a real chestnut; however, it is much heavier. A spokesperson for the World Conker Championships, which drew 256 players and 2,000 fans to Southwick, Northants, last Sunday, said: “We have studied photos and videos of matches, interviewed judges and examined the chestnuts used by King Conker. “The investigation has found no evidence that the steel conker was used. King Conker has been cleared of suspicion, and his name is being engraved on the trophy.”
St John Burkett, a spokesperson for the championships, told the Guardian that the 3,500 conkers for this year’s tournament were collected two to three days beforehand and blind-picked from a bag by competitors from all over the world to prevent tampering.
He said you would need a “very good sleight of hand” to swap them given there were 14 judges plus a chief umpire, and 2,000 spectators.
WCC rules stipulate that there must be at least 8in (20cm) of shoelace between the nut and player’s knuckle, players take three alternating strikes, any knocked-off conker that doesn’t smash can be re-threaded, more than three snags or tangles leads to disqualification, and if no conker is smashed, players continue under the five-minute knockout rule until one misses. Burkett said that winners typically have “excellent hand-eye coordination, strategy and skill” and that big conkers are not necessarily the best, since they provide a larger target.
Although the WCC takes a purist approach to the game, other competitions, such as the Peckham Conker Championships, opt for an “anything goes” approach to the rules, from oven-baked to vinegar-soaked conkers, or those coated with clear nail varnish.

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo (SAN) has requested airline operators to patronise local caterers, especially for outbound flights, saying it would promote Nigeria’s cultural heritage and economic development.
Keyamo said this while receiving the delegation of Lufthansa Group at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, according to a statement yesterday.
The minister who commended the Lufthansa Group for its services in the aviation industry over the years, equally mandated all aircraft leaving or coming Nigeria to ensure they treat Nigerians well on board of their flights.
He said the essence for requesting patronage of local caterers during outbound flight is to promote Nigeria cultural heritage, economic development and encourage local caterers.
Keyamo appealed to foreign airlines to ensure all aircraft coming to Nigeria are in good shape, decrying a situation where some foreign airlines lift Nigerian passengers with outdated aircraft while using the most modern ones in other countries.
Keyamo informed the Lufthansa Group that the Nigerian government had upgraded the Muhammadu Buhari Airport, Maiduguri to an international airport and urged the airline to utilise the opportunity to harness the huge market awaiting all airlines when the airport commences operation in January 1, 2025.
Senior Director Sales, Southern and East Africa, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, Rene Koinzack, in a remark, commended President Bola Tinubu and the aviation minister for the uncommon transformation at the airports.
He said Nigeria immigration service had been doing excellently at the airport and promised to ensure all passengers have value for their money.
Koinzack said the essence of the meeting was to thank the minister for ease of doing business in Nigeria and further strengthen the partnership between Nigeria and Lufthansa Group.
He stated that going forward, Lufthansa would patronise local caterers on board Lufthansa, maintaining that Lufthansa Group will continue to support the growth of Nigeria aviation industry and its economy in general.