Al's Morning Meeting

The study, which was released by the University of Central Florida, criticizes the Federal Graduation Rate system, under which the above statistic was calculated, saying it "give[s] an unfair depiction of a school because it does not account for transfer students [and other factors]."

The study says the "NCAA's new Graduation Success Rate [system], developed in 2005, which accounts for these factors, [is] a better way to fairly measure the results."

But the study says that even the data collected using the Graduation Success Rate system displays a significant disparity in the graduation rates of black and white players.

In a report on the UCF study, Inside Higher Ed points out:

The picture was significantly worse for black basketball players, according to the data. While 41 of the men's tournament teams graduated 70 percent or more of their white basketball players under the Graduation Success Rate, only 19 graduated 70 percent or more of their African-American players using that measure. Twenty-nine teams have a 30-percentage-point-or-greater gap between the graduation rates of white and black basketball student athletes. 

The Big Business of College Basketball

With the NCAA tournaments on the horizon, I thought it would be fun for you to take a look at the schools' expenses and revenues.

This stuff actually is reported to the Department of Education and is contained in federal documents.

Bracketmania: Gambling on College Basketball

A survey by career publisher Vault found that 27 percent of employees join March Madness office pools and that a third of them spend at least 30 minutes of work time completing their brackets.

KPIX-TV says:

There's an estimated 23-million working college basketball fans with Internet access. CBS SportsLine.com is offering the games online. The Web site has a way for employees to avoid getting fired with a "boss button." Click on it, and a mock spreadsheet pops up to make the boss think you're actually working.

The workplace consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates March Madness will cost companies at least $1 billion in lost productivity.

Should employers forbid office pools? The Orange County (Calif.) Register includes this advice:

Jeffrey Thurrell, partner in the Irvine office of Fisher & Phillips LLP, defends employers for a living, over issues such as harassment, retaliation and discrimination. If an employer enforces one part of the company handbook, such as termination for excessive tardiness, and doesn't enforce the policy on no gambling, that shows lack of consistency, he said. And that lack of consistency can be seen as selectively enforcing company policy, which makes the employer vulnerable to charges of discrimination.

The San Francisco Chronicle points out that the feds have tried to make online gambling illegal:

The government's latest effort to get Americans to stop gambling via the Internet has been largely ineffective, according to the online gambling industry.

In autumn, Congress passed -- and President Bush signed into law -- the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. U.S. lawmakers can't crack down on the online betting sites because most operate from foreign countries, so they instead moved to cut off the flow of money.

The law makes it illegal for American financial institutions, such as banks and credit card companies, to transfer funds between U.S. citizens and online gambling sites that offer sports wagering, poker or casino games.

If online gamblers can't get money to the online sites to gamble with -- and more importantly, can't collect their winnings -- they'll stop gambling, lawmakers figured.

They figured wrong.

"Some people have stopped betting on sports online because of (the law), but savvy bettors know how to get around the law," said Russ Hawkins, an expert on the online sports betting industry.

Al's Morning Multimedia

Take a look at The Boston Globe's Web site to see how it took the Veterans Affairs hospital story that started at Walter Reed in Washingont, D.C., found a local angle and produced some compelling, local multimedia content.

This story of vets awaiting outpatient care could well be in your backyard, too.

The Growing Pet-Healthcare Industry

The Associated Press ran an interesting piece that says something about the times in which we live:

Until recent decades, American veterinarians still concentrated on care that reflected the country's agrarian roots: keeping farm animals healthy to protect the human food supply. Instead of being medicated, a very sick animal was quickly sacrificed to save the herd. Pets were typically kept outside with the cows, chickens and pigs. A dog was lucky for a dry place in a crude shelter; a cat, for a warm spot in the barn.

Within the last five years, pets have finally overtaken farm animals in the pharmaceutical marketplace, claiming 54 percent of spending for animal drugs, according to the trade group Animal Health Institute.

Keeping more than 130 million dogs and cats alone, Americans bought $2.9 billion worth of pet drugs in 2005. Though equal to only 1 percent of human drug sales, the market has grown by roughly half since the year 2000.

"As more and more drugs are being developed for people, more and more drugs are being developed for veterinary medicine. It's really a parallel track," says Dr. Gerald Post, founder of the nonprofit Animal Cancer Foundation.

The story gives a picture of how the pet-drug business is changing:

Most pet drugs are still sold by vets, but that could be changing. Internet-based companies are fighting for business, stirring tension with vets who argue that they can better protect pets with careful examinations. "In the past, veterinarians have gouged the public," fires back [Bruce] Rosenbloom at 1-800-PetMeds.

Health insurance for pets has finally begun to catch on in the past five years. It multiplied from near invisibility in 2002 to as much as 3 percent in 2005, a marketing study found. Now insured are dogs, cats, birds, pigs, mice, snakes and other exotics.

Veterinary Pet Insurance of Brea, Calif., claims close to 80 percent of the U.S. market with its 400,000 policies, typically costing $30 a month in premiums. Company spokesman Brian Iannessa says the total market is expected to climb to $500 million by 2010.

Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.