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Chinapicks up another classicAmerican pursuit: RV campingChange is coming fast. WhenI talkto U.S.RVsuppliers, they askif I want tobuy threeor four,saysone parkmanager.I want tobuy 1,000. 9A.

Suicide risk higher for collegestudents who are veteransRate issix timeshigher forthose who servedinthe militarythan thatof theaveragestudentbody,researchersfind. 9A.

Automatic defense cuts wouldhurt U.S. security, Panetta saysDefense secretarysays Pentagoncan manage$400billionin planned cuts,but anymorewoulddamagenationsmilitarycapabilities.6A.

Idaho to Florida, placesto chow down like a localMorgan Murphy, author ofOffthe EatenPath,shares10 favoritefamily-ownedrestaurants.5D.

Batman, super-earnings heroVideogames,comics,animatedhome videos anda sequelfor thebigscreen,the CapedCrusaderisa franchise thatreally sells. 6B.

ByCalumMacLeod,USATODAY

Crossword, Sudoku 5BEditorial/Forum 10-11AMarket scoreboard 4BMarketplace Today 5BState-by-state 8AWeekend TV 6-7D

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QIJFAF-05005v(N)L The back-to-school sales tax holidaysthat start today in many states may bepopular with politicians and retailers,but critics say revenue-starved statesshould abandonthem.

Seventeenstatesplan to giveshoppersa break on sales taxes for school-relatedpurchases this season. Massachusettsand Arkansas added a holiday for thefirst time, while Illinois dropped itsholi-daythis year.

Illinois State Sen. Toi Hutchinson, aDemocrat who was chief sponsor of thestates holiday lastyear,says Illinoisjustcannot afford it thisyear.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, aDemocrat, acknowledged last week thathis state decided to have a sales taxholiday not because its particularly fis-cally prudent but because its popular,the BostonGlobe reported.

NewYorkwas thefirst state to enact aback-to-schoolsales tax holiday in 1997.Other states soon followed, sometimesto keep residents from crossing statelines to shop in states with tax holidays.National Retail Federation CEO Matthew

Shaysays theholidaysbringpeopleintostores like few other promotions. Stud-ies have shown, however, that the holi-dayssimplyshift thetiming of purchasesconsumers already planned.

The tax holidays can help consumersreap a modest windfall, says Carol Ko-kinis-Graves of tax publisher CCH. Butshe warns consumers to watch out forexceptions, suchas exclusionsfor athlet-ic wear.

The Tax Foundation and the InstituteonTaxationand Economic Policysay theholidays mostly benefit wealthy fam-ilies. Low- and middle-income familiesdont have the discretionary income ortime toshoponlyonthe taxholidays,thegroups contend.

The Tax Foundationsays states shouldsimplycutsalestaxesif theywantto giveconsumers a break. Policy think tankITEPsaysstatesshouldinsteadoffersalestax credits to consumerswho needthemthemost. To getthe credits, eligible con-sumers would have to ask for them ontheirtax returns.

A sales taxcredit could be designed totarget the low-and middle-income fam-ilieslawmakers want to help, says ITEPsMatthew Gardner.

The striking thing about sales taxholiday laws, Gardner says, is that pol-icy people all over the ideological spec-trum agreetheyre a dumb idea.

Critics say states shoulddiscontinue tax holidaysTax groups say wealthyare main beneficiaries

ByJayneODonnellandOliverSt.JohnUSA TODAY

WEEKEND, AUGUST 57, 2011

Newsline

More than 120 hospitals given top marks bypatients for providing excellent care also have adarker distinction: high death rates for heartattack, heart failure orpneumonia,a USATODAYanalysisof newMedicaredata hasfound.

Experts say the newspapers analysis of datareleased todayby Medicare offers a window intotherelationshipbetweenpatientsperceptionsof

the quality of their hospital care and more ob-jective measures, such as hospitals death andreadmissionrates.

This is a very importantfinding, says Donald Ber-wick, director of theCentersfor Medicare & MedicaidServices.

Although patient-survey data offer critical in-sightsintohowit feelsto be a patient atdifferenthospitals, patients perceptions dont tell thewhole story, he adds.

Over thepast decade, risingcostsanda floodofcomplex therapies have prompted patients, em-ployers, insurers and the federal government todemand public disclosure of health care data.Armedwith thisevidence, Berwick says, doctors,insurers and patients themselves can make bet-ter choices aboutwhere to obtainmedicalcare.

The challenge is to measure hospitals accu-rately. Experts stilldebate whatmeasuresto use,says John Wennberg, founding editor of the

Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care and author ofTracking Medicine: A Researchers Quest to Un-derstand HealthCare.

Medicares analysis of more than 4,600 hospi-tals found that 323, or one of every 14, hadabove-average deathrates for heart attack, heartfailure or pneumonia. Two Piedmont MedicalCenter in Rock Hill, S.C., and Southwest Mis-sissippi Regional Medical Center in Macomb had high death rates in all three categories.Thirteen hadlow deathrates across theboard.

Veterans Affairs hospitals performed well, ac-cording to data released for the first time thisyear. Ten hospitals had lower death rates thanaverage for heart failure; two were lower forheartattacks;and fivefor pneumonia.

AllVA hospitalswereas good asor betterthanthe national rate for heart attack and heart fail-ure.

Contributing: Anthony DeBarrosandLuke Kerr-Dineen

Deathsplagueeven tophospitalsPatients, performancediverge, data showBy SteveSternbergand Christopher SchnaarsUSA TODAY

Somewherein theAtlanta area today,a personwho has crossed paths with Georgia Tech isgetting a phone callabout YellowJacketsfootball.

Maybe its an alum, an employee or a contrac-tor.Maybe itsa Georgia Techparent,the purchas-er of an item through the schools website orsomeone who has attended a Yellow Jacketsbasketball game.

The call is coming from Georgia Techs campus from a line inthe athleticcomplex.It soundsasif its coming from someone with Georgia Techathletics. Theyre selling Georgia Tech footballtickets. And if you tell them about your friendswho like Georgia Tech football, theyll make sureyour friends geta call,too.

Thecaller doesnt work forGeorgiaTech.He or

sheworksfor theAspire Group,an Atlanta-basedfirm that has been hired by Georgia Tech andother schools seeking to join the latest trend incollege sports: a push to boost revenue by beingdramatically more aggressive and sophisticatedin salesand marketingactivities.

Aspire specializes in selling tickets, but othercompanies and consultants and athletic pro-grams, on their own are reshaping a collegesports industry thathasa history ofnotbeing aggressive,(of)lettingpeople cometo them, saysBill Sutton,a professor at the University of Central FloridasDeVos Sport Business Management GraduateProgram and a consultant whose clients includecollege athletic departments. For years andyears, if you put up enough billboards and sentoutenough brochures, peoplewouldshowup atcollege games.

COVER STORY

Marketers reshape howcollege teams sell ticketsIn scramble for revenue,push for sales intensifies

By SteveBerkowitzUSA TODAY

PleaseseeCOVERSTORYpage5Au

USATODAYSnapshots

Source: Opi nion Re d eccoAsearch Corp.forStaffingsurveyof 1,000adults

ByAnne R. Careyand AlejandroGonzalez, USATODAY

What is inappropriatein the wo k ce?Percentagewho say:

1%

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66

5%

31%

Flip-flops

Miniskirts

Shorts

Strapless topsor dresses

Open-toedhoes

Wall Street plungeson European debt crisis,

weak U.S. economy.All eyes now on todayskey jobs report, 1B

Feargripsmarket

DOWFALLS513

Downloadthe Microsoft TagReaderappat http://gettag.mobiandcapturea photo of todaystag.

See news photosof theday on your smartphone

uMakingan informeddecision, 2A

Critics of back-to-school tax holiday saystates needmoney, onlywealthybenefit,1AuWatchoutfor slick ads. A lotof dormroom essentials are a waste ofmoney, 1B

End tax-free shopping days?

COLLEGEFOOTBALL

USA TODAYCOACHES POLLTOP

Sooners, led byQB LandryJones,start the seasonat No. 1, 1CuFull poll, 8CuTeam-by-teamschedules,10C

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