Author Archives: Justine88

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Heels Down Happy Hour: A New Equestrian Podcast from the Horse Radio Network

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Heels Down Magazine presents the Heels Down Happy Hour podcast. There’s a whole lot of stuff happening in the horse world, and someone’s got to keep you up to date. Who’s winning what? What weird rules are you probably going to violate at your next horse show? What does your favorite rider really think about white breeches? Don’t worry, that’s what we’re here for. Grab a drink. Welcome to Happy Hour.

For more about the podcast, visit HeelsDownMag.com/podcast

Tune in for new episodes the 2nd and last Friday of each month on the Horse Radio Network. Download new episodes on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher.

More about our hosts:

Jessica Payne is a 32-year-old international event rider who is rarely seen without her long-haired chihuahua under her arm. She was born in London, Ontario but grew up in Franklin, Tenn. and graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Animal Science. She once lost the tip of her pinky finger clipping her 4* horse, and husband Doug says she can “talk to anyone including a wall….and they will like it!”

Caroline Culbertson is a 27-year-old equestrian journalist who broke her foot “surfing” a mattress down the stairs at age 7. Yes, her parents told her not to. She grew up in the south y’all and graduated from Duke University in North Carolina. She also picked up powerlifting a few months after breaking both bones in her arm, so her judgement is questionable. Hence, she’s an event rider.

Justine Griffin is an award winning 29-year-old journalist who has written about everything from horses to high profile CEOs to her ovaries. (She donated her eggs once.) Two things she loves the most? Whippet puppies and cheese. Justine is a firm believer in unicorns and feminism. So take everything she says with a grain of salt.

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Breaking News: New Beat at the Tampa Bay Times!

After six years or so covering retail and other consumer-related business topics for newspapers in Florida, I’m taking on a new beat.

I was named the health and medicine reporter at the Tampa Bay Times at the end of September. (There was some overlap of beats during and after Hurricane Irma.)

Got a story idea or tip? Please email me: jgriffin@tampabay.com

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Tampa Bay Times: For many, rising premiums for Part B Medicare will erase Social Security gains

By Justine Griffin

Christopher Wittmann, a physician assistant, examines a patient for lower back pain at Trinity Pain Center in Pasco County. Outpatient health care visits like this are covered under Medicare Part B, which will see premium increases of more than 5 percent on average in 2018. Medicare open enrollment begins Sunday and runs through Dec. 7, with a special extension to Dec. 31 for people affected by the recent hurricanes. [Times | 2014]

More than 2.4 million seniors in Florida rely on Medicare, and a good chunk of them could face rising health care premiums next year.

With Medicare’s annual open enrollment period beginning Sunday, most of the changes to plans and services seem slight for 2018. But experts say Floridians will be among the millions affected nationwide by anticipated rising premiums for Part B plans, which cover outpatient care, doctor bills, physical therapy and more routine health services.

Part B is optional to enroll in and costs most people a monthly premium, which was on average around $134 in 2017, depending on the enrollee’s income. However, participants paid around $109 a month if they chose to have the monthly fee deducted from their Social Security checks. These are the prices that will rise in 2018, analysts say.

And, for many, the hike will eat up most of the 2 percent increase in Social Security payments that the government announced on Friday. Typical recipients will get $27 more in their monthly check in 2018, but experts estimate that Part B premiums paid through Social Security will likely be $20 to $30 more a month.

Read more here.

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Tampa Bay Times: Feeling allergy symptoms? Blame Hurricane Irma

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By Justine Griffin

Tampa Bay Times, Oct. 4, 2017

Allergies out of whack?

You can blame Hurricane Irma for that. Well, kind of.

As many continue to wait for cleanup crews to haul away the sopping piles of withering tree debris in front of their houses from Irma, plenty of people across Tampa Bay are sniffling and coughing more than they were before the hurricane passed, narrowly sparing the region from the worst of its wrath.

“I’ve been telling my patients that it seems like Irma brought the allergy season on a little earlier,” said Dr. Rachel Dawkins, a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. “We usually see the peak of it in the fall at the end of October and into November, when the trees start shedding their leaves. But right now we have a lot of trees on the ground, which means we have a lot of pollen on the ground, and there’s an uptick of mold from standing water.”

Read more here.

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Tampa Bay Times: Whatever happened to the Zika epidemic?

By Justine Griffin

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting Zika. Cases of the virus are down dramatically in Florida. Associated Press

Remember Zika?

The last time Gov. Rick Scott warned Floridians about the potential threat of the mosquito-borne virus was in July, when he urged residents to still be vigilant against bug bites and standing water. At the time, doctors and researchers were bracing for what was supposed to be another active summer season for the virus. Some expected it to be even worse than last year, when 1,100 travel-related cases were reported statewide and Zika spread into pockets of South Florida.

But it’s been quiet on the outbreak front ever since, as Zika cases have dropped dramatically this year.

The state Health Department counts only 180 Zika infections in Florida so far in 2017, on track to come in well below the 1,456 cases reported all of last year. The vast majority are travel-related cases brought to Florida by people who came from somewhere else, like Zika hotbed areas in Central and South America or the Caribbean, already infected with the virus. The rest, about 40, were cases where officials could not determine exactly where the patients contracted the virus or instances where people acquired it locally last year but weren’t tested until 2017.

Officials say they have determined one thing for sure: This year, there are no reported areas in Florida with active, ongoing local transmission of Zika, which means no known instances of mosquitoes carrying the virus.

Another piece of good news is that the number of pregnant women with the virus appears to be declining. With only 101 cases reported so far this year, it would be difficult to match last year’s total of 299 cases.

Read more here.