So you’re a state employee in Washington State and you’re lying there on the operating table waiting for your heart surgeon to unblock a clogged artery with a stent. That doctor may think the best kind of stent for you is one that is drug coated. Studies show it improves the quality of life for recipients. But it also costs about $2,000. more than the standard bare metal stent or BMS. A panel of 11 health care professionals has decided that the state will only cover the cost of the drug coated stent in the worst cases where re-blockage is deemed likely. So your doctor doesn’t have a choice. You’re getting the BMS.

This scenario is a glimpse into what some would like to see happen across the United States. In fact, in the stimulus bill Congress set aside $1.1 billion to create a Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. Supporters say it’s good public policy and will reduce the spiraling cost of health care. Opponents call it rationing and government interfering with the doctor-patient relationship.

In Washington State the Health Technology Assessment group has made a half dozen binding decisions and several have been controversial. The panel decided to not cover a virtual colonoscopy because it is more expensive and no more informative than a regular optical colonoscopy. Many health care professionals believe that because the virtual test is less invasive it would encourage far more people to get screened for colon cancer. But the panel went with a survey that showed only a marginal increase and decided that wasn’t worth the extra cost.

One of the doctors on the panel compared it to grocery shopping. “You may want filet mignon, but you can’t afford it,” says Dr. Brian Budenholzer. “At some point, we will have no choice but to look at health care services and ask, ‘Are they good value or not?’ Around 750,000 Washingtonians; those state workers, Medicaid recipients and people on workers comp are now officially eating chicken.

Medina, Washington is a place unlike any other. Not only is it home to the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, it’s taken security to a new and some say frightening level. The city of 3,100 residents just across Lake Washington from Seattle, has installed cameras that are videotaping every single person who enters the town. Other cameras take pictures of every license plate. The information is instantly transmitted to the police station where it’s run through the state patrol database checking for outstanding warrants and stolen cars.

Residents in this city, which has an average income of $220,000.,  are largely supportive. They see the cameras as a great crime deterrent. The program was approved unanimously by the city council even though most cities would love to have Medina’s “crime problem”. In 2008 there were no murders, no assaults or robberies and only 12 burglaries or attempted burglaries.

Other cities have installed cameras in high crime areas and those programs have withstood legal challenges. Courts have ruled citizens don’t have an expectation of privacy in public places. But critics say Medina is going further. The police store all the images in a server for 60 days allowing them to develop patterns and conduct ongoing investigations of people suspected of no crime at all. Opponents say Medina is acting like a police state. The police in Medina say they can be trusted with the information. But when we asked to see the system, the police chief turned us away. He compared it to him showing me his gun.

The Port of Tacoma is quiet … for now. But every few months the port has exploded into a nasty standoff between anti-war protesters and the U.S. Army. That conflict has led to dozens of arrests and now an allegation from the protesters that the military unlawfully spied on their activities. The Port Militarization Resistance  or PMR accuses the Army of sending a mole into their group for the purpose of collecting information on them and sharing it with local law enforcement.

For two years they thought John Jacob was a peace activist interested in stopping the war in Iraq. Recently they claim they learned that John Jacob was really John Towery, a civilian employee at Fort Lewis in Washington state working for the base’s force protection division. Neither Towery nor Fort Lewis would speak with us, but Public Affairs did confirm Towery worked on base charged with gathering intelligence aimed at counter-terrorism and protecting base personnel.

Legal experts say the Army appears to be on shaky ground. For 130 years the military has been barred from acting like a domestic police force.  There are some exceptions such as if a domestic group is thought to have nuclear weapons or is linked to a foreign enemy or terrorist group. Fort Lewis has launched an internal investigation. Military law experts say the Army needs to find out who ordered Towery to infiltrate the PMR and what exactly was his mission.

PMR is convinced Towery, gthe U.S. Army and all the police agencies that received Towery’s information were breaking the law and violating their constitutional rights to free speech and association. They say there group is non-violent and is planning a lawsuit. Meanwhile they’d like to have all the charges of civil disobedience dropped against their members. The military does have their supporters on this. Retired military and military moms we spoke with think the PMR does pose a threat to the troops and they believe it is the military’s job to protect their own not local police.

The weather in Fairbanks was unusually hot Sunday in Fairbanks, then Sarah Palin kicked it up a few degrees with a farewell speech that scorched critics in the media, Hollywood and Washington D.C.

But before Palin took the stage, a large crowd had already gathered at Pioneer park to get a closer look at her. It seemed everyone had a camera and people were crowding around trying to get a picture as she served up hot dogs. Her line was well over an hour wait, while people could step right up and get a dog from incoming Governor, Sean Parnell.

Palin stood there greeting people in the food line for around 90 minutes then she made her way to an old paddle wheel boat that used to run the Yukon river. There she changed clothes and hung out with family and close friends until the big handover of power.

Most of the crowd was eating up the attack lines in Palin’s speech, but there were a few hecklers. They didn’t seem to bother Palin.

Almost as soon as Palin was finished speaking and Parnell was sworn in, the crowd started to thin out. Parnell’s first speech as Gov.  was to a smaller, less enthusiastic crowd. Palin shook a few hands when the whole thing was over then disappeared. I don’t think she plans on leaving the national limelight anytime soon. She certainly looks like she enjoys giving speeches and working a crowd in her folksy way. But just what is her plan for the future? Even she may not know.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin broke her silence following her announcement she was stepping down. Her spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton offered FOX News along with ABC, NBC and CNN a chance to interview the Governor in Dillingham, Alaska where she was fishing with her husband Todd and daughter Piper. Palin wanted to set the record straight concerning her shocking decision. She told me that she’s been considering the move for months. Palin says the attacks both in her home state and the media coverage she’s endured outside of Alaska led her to conclude she could get more done outside the governor’s office.

At times Palin appeared bitter about her treatment in the press. She called attacks by bloggers “bull crap”. She’s been hit by 15 ethics complaints, most of which have been dismissed. She won’t say if she’s ultimately planning a run for the White House, but did tee off on those in the Republican party establishment who have criticized her move. She says she’s an unconventional politician who doesn’t feel she needs to seek advice leaders of a party that has not had much success recently.

After Palin passes the baton to her Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell, she will finish work on her book. It’s due to be released in the Spring of 2010. Stapleton says Palin will then go on a book tour. She’s also fielding numerous offers to speak around the country.

Palin says she will work to get politicians who share her priorities elected. Todd Palin was all smiles as he captained the fishing boat in Bristol Bay out to nets filled with Sockeye. Todd grew up commercial fishing these waters and Sarah has been making the summer trip to Dillingham for many years. She joked that even though she’s been helping Todd haul in fish for decades he still yells at her for doing it wrong. The governor and another hauler lifted the nets out of the water and pried the salmon out.

It was tough work. She wore rubber gloves, knee-high boots and waders.

This was a portrait of the woman that emerged soon after she was picked by Sen. John McCain to be his running mate. This was Sarah the moose hunter and folksy hockey mom and definitely not the diva some McCain staffers made her out to be after the campaign.

Image makeover? Perhaps. The final word from Sarah Palin? Definitely not.