1983

Jean Hanff Korelitz's new novel, The White Rose, has been lauded as a "sophisticated tale of love triangles, subterfuge and secrets" by Library Journal, "a great love story tender, sophisticated, perverse and drenched in feeling" by Edmund White, and "droll, sexy and very clever" by Scott Turow. This retelling of the opera DerRosenkavalier set in modern day Manhattan follows two other adult novels—A Jury of Her Peers and The Sabbathday River—as well as a collection of poetry titled The Properties of Breath. Her children's novel Interference Powder (order from Amazon for your kids ages 8-11) earned rave reviews from Debbie Michel Roschs 11-year-old daughters Amelia and Catherine. In addition Jean writes for several major magazines, including Vbgue. She and husband Paul Muldoon—winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and head of the creative writing department at Princeton University—live in Princeton, New Jersey, with children Dorothy (13) and Asher (6).

Chris Koller predicts that when he leaves his position he will be the best health insurance commissioner in Rhode Islands history. Why so confident? For one thing, he is the first (and only) one to ever hold this position, created by the legislature with the goal of making insurance companies more accountable for the effects of their actions on the consumers, employers and providers. His challenge is to create public policies that address the conundrum of health care costs rising 10-15 percent a year while wages are going up at 3 percent, with one in six people nationally without health insurance. There may be other reasons. Rhode Island Gov. Donald L. Carcieri did not conduct a national search for this position because we had national caliber talent right here," he said, extolling Roller as "Rhode Islands most innovative advocate for high quality, affordable health care." Chris' experience as CEO of Neighborhood Health Plan should serve him well in this critical mission. Chris and his wife, Colette Cook, have a son Benjamin (13) and daughter Rachel (10). He recently took a rare moment away from the health care crisis to play Frisbee on the Hanover Green with Benjamin during a summer trip to Vermont. Best of luck to you.

Whistleblower lawyer Michael Behan announces the opening of a new law firm with his wife, Linda Wyetzner. Behan & Wyetzner concentrates in the representation of whistleblowers under the False Claims Acts. This caps a great year for him, which included representing the plaintiffs in the largest False Claims Act settlement ever achieved in Chicago, resulting in Northrop Grumman Corp. reporting payments of $134 million to resolve a fraud case involving the B-2 Stealth bomber and other military programs. For that case he was nominated as "Trial Lawyer of the Year" by Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. Other notable victories include a case revealing criminal fraud in public road projects and successfully defending the constitutionality of the Illinois Whistleblower Act before the Illinois Supreme Court. Michael is a former federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorneys office for New York City and in private practice continues to advance the prosecution of frauds areas, including defense contracting and health care. Anyone with a whistle to blow, log onto www.whistlebloweraction.com or www.behnwyetzner.com

Hey, did anyone send in news off the class Web site to either Jim or myself, and then see nothing about yourselfin the column? We aren't ignoringyou or deeming you un-newsworthy—we just didn't get it. We recendy tested both our e-mails on that link and they didn't go through, so I hope we didn't offend anyone, and implore you to resend whatever you sent.

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