NEW YORK — Publicly funded family planning prevents nearly 2 million unintended pregnancies and more than 800,000 abortions in the United States each year, saving billions of dollars, according to new research intended to counter conservative objections to expanding the program.
The data is in a report being released on Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health think tank whose research is generally respected even by experts Read the rest of this entry »

GALVESTON — Legislators and other officials today condemned a consultant’s proposal  that  the University of Texas Medical Branch move its hospital off Galveston Island to compensate for the $710 million in losses caused by Hurricane Ike.
Four University of Texas regents heard the recommendation by Atlanta-based consultant Kurt Salmon Associates assailed by speaker after speaker during a public hearing at the Moody Garden’s Convention Read the rest of this entry »

Despite overseeing the most radical change in structure and staffing in the NZ ADS Foundations history, dealing with the fallout from those changes and facing what she acknowledges is a “blowout’ in HIV levels amongst gay and bi NZ men, the Foundation’s boss says she is still enjoying the job.
But Rachael Le Mesurier knows that she, and the organisation she heads, are the target of ongoing criticism. In recent times, perhaps since her arrival as Read the rest of this entry »

Published: November 23, 2008
For 10 years, the landmark Master Settlement Agreement has been dogged by high expectations.
The deal between the top U.S. tobacco manufacturers, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., and 46 state attorneys general changed an industry when it was signed 10 years ago today.
The states, including North Carolina, agreed to drop their lawsuits against the industry for a $206 billion payout over 25 years, primarily to Read the rest of this entry »

Critics are raising flags about a provision in the economic recovery package that they say would give the federal government
too much control over health care.
The sticking point is a section that would direct billions of dollars toward
digitizing medical records and would authorize a “National Coordinator for Health Information Technology” to provide information
to “help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care.”
Read the rest of this entry »

“This is a failure of imagination on the part of the state and
it ends up with people dead,” Alexander said.
Prison Health officials defended the company, saying it pitched
a superior bid.
“That’s usually the way these things are determined — best
proposal, lowest cost,” spokesman John Van Mol said.
A message seeking comment was left with the Corrections
Department.
Correctional Medical has hired doctors and others to see
patients for about Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone searching for yet another leading economic indicator in these hard times should have a good look at what’s on the critics’ plates at the TV press tour in Universal City.
Even just a few years ago, the network-catered lunches were lavish enough that carb-loaded journalists sometimes slumped home after two or three weeks with another inch or two on their waistlines.
This year, though, those of us in the media scrum went on the networks’ new Read the rest of this entry »

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN)
— The deadly outbreak of salmonella traced to a Georgia peanut plant was fueled by poor oversight by food safety regulators and a slow response by federal agencies, state health officials and outside experts say.
Eight deaths have been linked to the outbreak, which has sickened at least 575 people in 43 U.S. states and one in Canada. Thousands of peanut products have been pulled off store shelves since mid-January. Read the rest of this entry »

GALVESTON — Legislators and other officials today condemned a consultant’s proposal  that  the University of Texas Medical Branch move its hospital off Galveston Island to compensate for the $710 million in losses caused by Hurricane Ike.
Four University of Texas regents heard the recommendation by Atlanta-based consultant Kurt Salmon Associates assailed by speaker after speaker during a public hearing at the Moody Garden’s Convention Read the rest of this entry »

And they didn’t like what they found.
They said vague language in the ban allowed restaurants to create separate ventilated rooms for smokers but didn’t define the standards for such a room. And they said the fine for ignoring the ban was tiny — $25 for a violation. The advocates realized, said Cathleen S. Grzesiek, director of government relations for the American Heart Association, that they were very far from their goal of banning smoking in Read the rest of this entry »