SPORTS SCORES INSIDE

11,896

T H E N A T I O NS N E W S P A P E R

$1.00

DOW FALLS 513

Fear grips market
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
11,384

An eye opener
The Help showed actresses a South they didnt know, 1D
USA TODAY

Emma Stone

TOP 25

USA TODAY COACHES POLL

Wall Street plunges on European debt crisis, weak U.S. economy. All eyes now on todays key jobs report, 1B

Deaths plague even top hospitals

By Steve Sternberg and Christopher Schnaars USA TODAY

WEEKEND, AUGUST 57, 2011

Newsline

End tax-free shopping days?

Critics of back-to-school tax holiday say states need money, only wealthy benefit, 1A uWatch out for slick ads. A lot of dorm room essentials are a waste of money, 1B

Sooners, led by QB Landry Jones, start the season at No. 1, 1C uFull poll, 8C uTeam-by-team schedules, 10C
AP

Patients, performance diverge, data show

More than 120 hospitals given top marks by patients for providing excellent care also have a darker distinction: high death rates for heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia, a USA TODAY analysis of new Medicare data has found. Experts say the newspapers analysis of data released today by Medicare offers a window into the relationship between patients perceptions of the quality of their hospital care and more objective measures, such as hospitals death and readmission rates. This is a very important uMaking finding, says Donald Ber- an informed wick, director of the Centers decision, 2A for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Although patient-survey data offer critical insights into how it feels to be a patient at different hospitals, patients perceptions dont tell the whole story, he adds. Over the past decade, rising costs and a flood of complex therapies have prompted patients, employers, insurers and the federal government to demand public disclosure of health care data. Armed with this evidence, Berwick says, doctors, insurers and patients themselves can make better choices about where to obtain medical care. The challenge is to measure hospitals accurately. Experts still debate what measures to use, says John Wennberg, founding editor of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care and author of Tracking Medicine: A Researchers Quest to Understand Health Care. Medicares analysis of more than 4,600 hospitals found that 323, or one of every 14, had above-average death rates for heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia. Two Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, S.C., and Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in Macomb had high death rates in all three categories. Thirteen had low death rates across the board. Veterans Affairs hospitals performed well, according to data released for the first time this year. Ten hospitals had lower death rates than average for heart failure; two were lower for heart attacks; and five for pneumonia. All VA hospitals were as good as or better than the national rate for heart attack and heart failure. Contributing: Anthony DeBarros and Luke Kerr-Dineen

By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

China picks up another classic American pursuit: RV camping

Change is coming fast. When I talk to U.S. RV suppliers, they ask if I want to buy three or four, says one park manager. I want to buy 1,000. 9A.

Suicide risk higher for college students who are veterans

Rate is six times higher for those who served in the military than that of the average student body, researchers find. 9A.

Marketers reshape how college teams sell tickets

In scramble for revenue, push for sales intensifies
By Steve Berkowitz USA TODAY Somewhere in the Atlanta area today, a person who has crossed paths with Georgia Tech is getting a phone call about Yellow Jackets football. Maybe its an alum, an employee or a contractor. Maybe its a Georgia Tech parent, the purchaser of an item through the schools website or someone who has attended a Yellow Jackets basketball game. The call is coming from Georgia Techs campus from a line in the athletic complex. It sounds as if its coming from someone with Georgia Tech athletics. Theyre selling Georgia Tech football tickets. And if you tell them about your friends who like Georgia Tech football, theyll make sure your friends get a call, too. The caller doesnt work for Georgia Tech. He or she works for the Aspire Group, an Atlanta-based firm that has been hired by Georgia Tech and other schools seeking to join the latest trend in college sports: a push to boost revenue by being dramatically more aggressive and sophisticated in sales and marketing activities. Aspire specializes in selling tickets, but other companies and consultants and athletic programs, on their own are reshaping a college sports industry that has a history of not COVER STORY being aggressive, (of) letting people come to them, says Bill Sutton, a professor at the University of Central Floridas DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program and a consultant whose clients include college athletic departments. For years and years, if you put up enough billboards and sent out enough brochures, people would show up at college games. Please see COVER STORY page 5A u

Automatic defense cuts would hurt U.S. security, Panetta says

Defense secretary says Pentagon can manage $400 billion in planned cuts, but any more would damage nations military capabilities. 6A.

Idaho to Florida, places to chow down like a local

Morgan Murphy, author of Off the Eaten Path, shares 10 favorite family-owned restaurants. 5D.

Batman, super-earnings hero

Video games, comics, animated home videos and a sequel for the big screen, the Caped Crusader is a franchise that really sells. 6B.

Download the Microsoft TagReader app at http://gettag.mobi and capture a photo of todays tag.

See news photos of the day on your smartphone

Critics say states should discontinue tax holidays

Tax groups say wealthy are main beneficiaries
By Jayne ODonnell and Oliver St. John USA TODAY The back-to-school sales tax holidays that start today in many states may be popular with politicians and retailers, but critics say revenue-starved states should abandon them. Seventeen states plan to give shoppers a break on sales taxes for school-related purchases this season. Massachusetts and Arkansas added a holiday for the first time, while Illinois dropped its holiday this year. Illinois State Sen. Toi Hutchinson, a Democrat who was chief sponsor of the states holiday last year, says Illinois just cannot afford it this year. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, acknowledged last week that his state decided to have a sales tax holiday not because its particularly fiscally prudent but because its popular, the Boston Globe reported. New York was the first state to enact a back-to-school sales tax holiday in 1997. Other states soon followed, sometimes to keep residents from crossing state lines to shop in states with tax holidays. National Retail Federation CEO Matthew

QIJFAF-05005v(N)L
Percentage who say: Flip-flops Miniskirts Strapless tops or dresses Shorts Open-toed shoes

COPYRIGHT 2011 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc.

Crossword, Sudoku 5B Editorial/Forum 10-11A Market scoreboard 4B Marketplace Today 5B State-by-state 8A Weekend TV 6-7D

Subscriptions, customer service 1-800-USA-0001 www.usatodayservice.com

USA TODAY Snapshots

What is inappropriate in the workplace? rkplace

71 71% 70 70% 66% 55% 31%

Source: Opinion Research Corp. for Adecco Staffing survey of 1,000 adults ,000
By Anne R. Carey and Alejandro Gonzalez, USA TODAY

Shay says the holidays bring people into stores like few other promotions. Studies have shown, however, that the holidays simply shift the timing of purchases consumers already planned. The tax holidays can help consumers reap a modest windfall, says Carol Kokinis-Graves of tax publisher CCH. But she warns consumers to watch out for exceptions, such as exclusions for athletic wear. The Tax Foundation and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy say the holidays mostly benefit wealthy families. Low- and middle-income families dont have the discretionary income or time to shop only on the tax holidays, the groups contend. The Tax Foundation says states should simply cut sales taxes if they want to give consumers a break. Policy think tank ITEP says states should instead offer sales tax credits to consumers who need them the most. To get the credits, eligible consumers would have to ask for them on their tax returns. A sales tax credit could be designed to target the low- and middle-income families lawmakers want to help, says ITEPs Matthew Gardner. The striking thing about sales tax holiday laws, Gardner says, is that policy people all over the ideological spectrum agree theyre a dumb idea.

AT&T. Get itfaster with

att.com/network
4G speeds delivered by HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul. Available in limited areas. Availability increasing with ongoing backhaul deployment. Requires 4G device. Learn more at att.com/network.
2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. Service provided by AT&T Mobility. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
C