WATSONVILLE – For the greater part of 2008, Dr. Chris O’Grady closed his doors to new Medicare patients.
He was already caring for so many elderly patients in his Watsonville-based family practice that he was often going home at 10 p.m.
Medicare paid him far less than he considered fair – and now the government was threatening to cut the rates again.
Many of the county’s primary care doctors have struggled before reaching the same conclusion.
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CORNELIUS, N.C.
In the waning days of the Bush administration, the Food and Drug Administration finalized new guidelines to make it easier for drug manufacturers to promote “off-label” prescription drug uses, which can be deadly for patients.
The move came despite criticism from Bush’s own Department of Veterans Affairs, which said the change “favors business interests over public safety” and could lead to a “decline in drug safety.” It also was Read the rest of this entry »

150-plus nations agreed this weekend to cut lobbyists’ ties to government.
from the November 24, 2008 edition
JOHANNESBURG, south africa -
One hundred sixty nations, many of them in the developing world, have vowed to stand up to the tobacco industry and its efforts
to water down antitobacco laws.
Bolstered by a 2005 global treaty, sponsored by the World Health Organization – the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control
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Friday, December 26, 2008
Preparation is everything for the Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski team.
Under the leadership of 22nd-year coach Rick Kapala, the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s cross-country ski squad has become one of the five or six best training and competitive programs in the U.S.
It hasn’t happened by chance. Strong parental support, a community that values fitness, and up to 150 kilometers of groomed trails have set the foundation Read the rest of this entry »

LAS VEGAS—Police say a gunman used a chain saw to cut into an apartment door and shot through the hole, wounding his estranged wife and killing her new boyfriend in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas police Officer Jacinto Rivera says the woman’s 18-week-old fetus also died several hours after the 1:10 a.m. Monday shooting at an apartment complex about two miles east of the Las Vegas Strip.
The alleged shooter, 25-year-old William Keck, is jailed to await Read the rest of this entry »

In Orlando, a 38-year-old contractor suffers from erectile dysfunction, a side effect of the drug he takes for depression. The anti-ED prescription his doctor gave him doesn’t help. He seeks steroids instead.
And in a town north of Seattle, an eighth-grade boy wants steroids for school sports. If he can get his weight up to 170, he thinks he can make the football team.
Here, from the business records of a Florida wellness center that was closed Read the rest of this entry »

CORNELIUS, N.C.
In the waning days of the Bush administration, the Food and Drug Administration finalized new guidelines to make it easier for drug manufacturers to promote “off-label” prescription drug uses, which can be deadly for patients.
The move came despite criticism from Bush’s own Department of Veterans Affairs, which said the change “favors business interests over public safety” and could lead to a “decline in drug safety.” It also was Read the rest of this entry »