DENVER—Walking and driving aren’t the only ways to navigate around Denver’s closed or crowded streets during the Democratic National Convention. Bikes can be borrowed free of charge during daylight hours.
Health insurer Humana Inc. and the nonprofit cycling group Bikes Belong partnered with bicycle manufacturers and others to offer 1,000 bikes. They can be checked out from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 25-28.
They’re doing the same thing during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., beginning Sept. 1.
Adults can visit one of seven downtown bike stations in Denver and present a photo ID and credit card to check out a bike and helmet free. They return the bikes at a station in the evening.
Humana has had a bike sharing program since 2007. Humana CEO Mike McCallister said the timing to expand the program during the national party conventions was right, as obesity rates, pollution and gasoline prices rise.
McCallister didn’t disclose what Humana’s financial investment was for the program.
“It’s good for us to be associated with wellness and activity and doing something from the standpoint of helping people do something for their own health,” McCallister said. “Everybody wins on that one.”
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ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP)—The chief executive of the Mayo Clinic is scheduled to speak Monday at an event tied to the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Dr. Denis Cortese will speak at the 2008 Rocky Mountain Roundtable on Health, Wellness and Prevention, which will highlight Democrats’ desire to fix the nation’s health-care payment system.
Officials from the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center have made it clear that they want a seat at the fixing-health-care table when a new U.S. president takes office.
Cortese will argue that the nation should pay most for safe, low-cost, high-quality care instead of paying the highest amounts to health providers who simply order the most tests.
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GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP)—Montana’s youngest delegate to the Democratic National convention is 19-year-old Raphael Graybill of Great Falls, whose father, Turner Graybill, held the same honor in 1972, also at age 19.
The younger Graybill, a Great Falls High graduate and Barack Obama supporter, is one of four Great Falls residents who were picked to be DNC delegates by the state Democratic Party.
To get to the convention, he had to make it through county and state-level elections.
“You do what any good, young politician does: You shake hands and meet lots of people,” Graybill said.
Graybill said the issues facing young Americans are the same issues facing all Americans, such as national debt and war in Iraq.
