The Jefferson Exchange

Jefferson Exchange — September 5, 2012, HOUR 1 Up to Speed with Medicare We can argue about the future of Medicare, but at the moment, the old rules apply.  And they include annual open enrollment periods during which people can sign up for Medicare or change options.  The next period opens October 15th, but the HICAP program in California is offering workshops now, to help Medicare patients get ready. VENTSday Our weekly ritual is renewed, as we throw a pair of topics on the table--in theory, unrelated--and open up the phone lines and the email box to gather your take on either or both of the issues.  It's VENTSday on The Jefferson Exchange, and you participate by calling 1-800-838-3760 or 541-552-6782 or emailing JX@jeffnet.org. THIS WEEK, give us your thoughts on: 1) California's just-passed ban on the "open carry" of long guns? 2) Early medical tests on a birth control pill for men-would you take it?

Jefferson Exchange — September 5, 2012, HOUR 2 Last Hunger Season In Africa, the calendar says 2012, but the farming techniques on small farms look like something out of the 1930s.  Longtime Wall Street Journal reporter Roger Thurow writes about a group of Kenyan farmers who tried to break out of past constraints, in "The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change."