A nonprofit provider of mental health services paid nearly $557,000 to settle allegations of improper billing to government health programs, the state attorney general's office said yesterday.

Tri-City Mental Health Center began reviewing employee complaints about irregularities in its government claims practices in 2003, and the nonprofit's board ordered an outside audit, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said.

Tri-City reported the improper billing to the government in late 2004, and was never charged.

State and federal investigators found Tri-City Mental Health billed the state Medicaid program and the state Department of Mental Health for psychiatric services that were never provided or couldn't be documented.

The improper billing occurred for more than two years, starting in Sept. 2001 at a center in Malden.

At least one manager at the Malden office was fired as a result of Tri-City's internal investigation, Coakley said.

Ellen Dalton, a manager at Tri-City, said the improperly received government payments were used to fund the nonprofit's operations, not for any personal use by its nearly 500 employees.

Dalton said Tri-City set aside cash from recent years' operations, and has paid the $556,687 settlement total in full.

"The agency is ready to move forward, and no services will be disrupted," she said.

The nonprofit, which began operations in the 1960s, runs mental health centers in the neighboring communities of Malden, Medford, and Everett.

The settlement total equals the amount of money that investigators found had been improperly billed, plus interest, according to Dalton.

Under the settlement, Tri-City agreed to ensure future compliance with rules governing Medicare reimbursement.

The settlement relieves Tri-City and its board of any civil or administrative liability.

Coakley said Tri-City "has cooperated fully with the investigation."

Chipmaker Intel Corp. said on Thursday it will set aside $275 million less than it had planned for taxes as a result of a settlement with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and says its 2007 tax rate will be lower than expected.

The IRS told Intel on Tuesday it closed its examination of the chipmaker's tax returns for the years 1999 to 2002, resolving several issues, including the tax benefit for export sales. The two sides also agreed on the tax benefit for export sales for the years 2003 through 2005.

In connection with the settlement, the company expects to reverse previously accrued taxes, which will reduce the current quarter's tax provision and reduce the income tax rate for 2007 below the previous forecast of about 30 percent.

In February, Intel said it would appeal an IRS tax adjustment related to export sales that could increase its tax due by $2.4 billion from 1999 through 2006.

Intel has been contesting the issue since August 2003 when the IRS first gave it notice of the adjustment.

But he has no other details and terms weren't disclosed. Trial in the lawsuit was to begin April ninth. The Ropers sued when State Farm denied their claim after Hurricane Katrina reduced their Ocean Springs home to a slab in August 2005.

The couple sought more than $75-thousand in actual damages and an unspecified amount in punitive damages.

Thousands of Polish citizens marched in Warsaw on Wednesday in support of a proposed constitutional amendment to enact a complete ban on abortion. The opposition Civic Platform party is expected to block passage of the amendment when it comes to a vote in April. Poland's current 1993 abortion law is considered among the strictest in Europe, allowing abortions only if the pregnancy threatens the life or health of the mother; if a fetus has a potentially life-threatening condition; or if the pregnancy is the product of a crime, which is only permitted during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. A two-thirds majority is needed to amend the Polish constitution.

Last year, a Polish woman challenged the abortion law before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as violating her privacy rights under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The ECHR decided in her favor last week, but the ruling will not affect the Polish law.

The proper balance among these and other public policy objectives lies not only in recognizing the creator's rights but in giving due weight to their limited nature. In crassly economic terms it would be as inefficient to overcompensate artists and authors for the right of reproduction as it would be self-defeating to undercompensate them.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca

The case comes on appeal from the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which held in January that the shareholder's complaint had enough detail to establish "a strong inference that knew had exaggerated its revenues." This case is one of several cases being considered by the Supreme Court where companies hope to limit class actions suits against them. On Monday, the Court agreed to consider whether shareholders of companies that commit securities fraud should be able to sue investment banks, lawyers, and auditors that allegedly also participated in the fraud. The Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case involving shareholders seeking damages from banks that allegedly violated antitrust laws.

For its 10th anniversary, Yahoo Mail is upping the ante to maintain its position as the leading free e-mail service in the world. It's bet: infinity.

"We will begin offering everyone unlimited e-mail storage starting in May 2007," said John Kremer, VP of Yahoo Mail, in a blog post on Tuesday.

When it launched in 1997, Yahoo Mail offered users 4 Mbytes of storage. Then came the information explosion. In 2004, storage capacity was raised to 100 Mbytes. A year later, it was 1 Gbyte.

Google's Gmail currently offers 2.8 Gbytes of storage to its users, an amount that has been creeping upward since the service debuted with 1 Gbyte. Google watchers speculate that some sort of competitive answer to Yahoo's announcement may come on April 1st, the third anniversary of Gmail.

Windows Live Mail offers 2 Gbytes of storage. MSN Hotmail offers 1 Gbyte for its free plan.

Yahoo Mail has long been the most popular free e-mail service worldwide. In February, it received some 243.4 million visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix. Microsoft's MSN Hotmail and Windows Live came in a close second, with 233.3 million visitors the same month. Google's Gmail remains a distant third, having served 62.4 million visitors last month.

However, of the three leading free e-mail services, Yahoo Mail has been growing the slowest. Between February 2006 and February 2007, worldwide traffic at Yahoo Mail grew 9%. Hotmail/Windows Live Mail grew 13% and Gmail grew 68% during the same period, according to comScore.

Unlimited storage, if unanswered by Microsoft and Google, may help Yahoo maintain its lead in the market.

"We hope we're setting a precedent for the future," said Kremer. "Someday, can you imagine a hard drive that you can never fill? Never having to empty your photo card on your camera to get space back? Enough storage to fit the world's music, and then some, on your iPod? Sounds like a future without limits."

It may sound like that, but limitless things often have limits, as is the case with Comcast's "All You Can Eat" broadband service. Kremer, in fact, acknowledged there will be some limits: "[L]ike any responsible Web mail service, we have anti-abuse limits in place to protect our users."

A Yahoo spokesperson declined to elaborate on limits to unlimited storage. "We do have controls in place to ensure that people benefit from the unlimited storage feature, but are not able to abuse the system," a Yahoo spokesperson said in an e-mail. "Our anti-abuse limits are there to monitor suspicious activity and to ensure our users have a safe, efficient and reliable Web mail experience. As always, we will require users to abide by the Yahoo Terms of Service. I do not have any other details to share with you at this time."