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HavenWorks.com/health/archive/2007 |
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/ Archive
/ 2007
Mike
Huckabee - 
Mitt
Romney
- 
Iowa
- 
Television
- 
Ads
- 
Crime
- 
Money
- 
Illegal
- Immigrants
- 
Colleges
- Abortion
- Health-Care
- 
Arkansas
- 
Massachusetts
- 2008
Election - "Huckabee:
Romney running 'dishonest' campaign." ... "Former
Arkansas [Governor and 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate]
Gov. Mike Huckabee blasted Republican presidential rival [2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate] Mitt Romney as running a "desperate
and dishonest" campaign and predicted the former Massachusetts governor
won't be the Republican nominee." ... "Romney has been blasting Huckabee's
record on crime and taxes as governor of Arkansas in [Iowa] television
ads in the last days of the race." ... "Asked on Monday on CNN's "American
Morning" why he felt the need to respond to Romney's attacks, Huckabee
said, "I think a lot of people are deceived, and you have to ask do people
want to elect a president who has been dishonest in order to get the job
and said things about his opponents that simply aren't true?"" ... "With
the two men locked in a statistical dead heat atop the latest Iowa polls,
Romney has been airing television ads criticizing Huckabee for raising
state spending, backing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants at state
colleges and granting more than 1,000 pardons and commutations." ... "Huckabee
has said the claims are taken out of context, and hit back by questioning
the sincerity of Romney's opposition to abortion -- which was covered by
the state health care program Romney pushed through in Massachusetts."
-CNN
Government
- Corporations
- 
Employee
- 
Retirees
- Health
- Law
- 
Politics
- 
History
- "U.S.
Ruling Backs Benefit Cut at 65 in Retiree Plans."
... "The [Republican President Bush run] Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
said Wednesday that employers could reduce or eliminate health benefits
for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare." ... "The
policy, set forth in a new regulation, allows employers to establish two
classes of retirees, with more comprehensive benefits for those under 65
and more limited benefits — or none at all — for those older." ... "More
than 10 million retirees rely on employer-sponsored health plans as a primary
source of coverage or as a supplement to Medicare, and Naomi C. Earp, the
commission’s chairwoman, said, “This rule will help employers continue
to voluntarily provide and maintain these critically important health benefits.”"
... "But AARP and other advocates for older Americans attacked the rule.
“This rule gives employers free rein to use age as a basis for reducing
or eliminating health care benefits for retirees 65 and older,” said Christopher
G. Mackaronis, a lawyer for AARP, which represents millions of people age
50 or above and which had sued in an effort to block issuance of the final
regulation. “Ten million people could be affected — adversely affected
— by the rule.”" ... "The new policy creates an explicit exemption from
age-discrimination laws for employers that scale back benefits of retirees
65 and over. Mr. Mackaronis asserted that the exemption was “in direct
conflict” with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967." ... "Under
the new rule, employers may, if they choose, provide retiree health benefits
“only to those retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare.” Likewise,
the rule says, retiree health benefits can be “altered, reduced or eliminated”
when a retiree becomes eligible for Medicare." ... "Further, employers
will be able to reduce or eliminate health benefits provided to the spouse
or dependents of a retired worker 65 or over, regardless of whether benefits
for the retiree are changed." -By Robert Pear
-NYTimes
John
Edwards
- 
Barack
Obama
- 
Hillary
Clinton
- Iowa
- Manufacturing
- Jobs
- 
Family
- Health-Care
- 
Environment
- Human
Rights - 
US
- 
China
- Corporations
- 
Iraq
- 
Military
- 
Indiana
- 
Idaho
- 
Illinois
- 
Homes
- Consumers
- 2008
Election - "Behind
the Edwards Surge: Right Message at the Right Time."
... "To a far greater extent than [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidates Barack] Obama or [Hillary] Clinton, [John] Edwards has struck
at the heart of issues that should matter most in the race to replace not
just [Republican President] George W. Bush, but the Bush agenda of corporate
giveaways, job-crushing free trade deals, war profiteering in Iraq, and
subprime mortgage profiteering in Indiana, Idaho, Illinois and, yes, Iowa."
... "Edwards summed up his increasingly aggressive and powerful anti-corporate
themes with a declaration: "What makes America America is at stake: jobs,
the middle class, health care, preserving the environment in the world
for future generations."" ... ""But all those things are at risk. And why
are they at risk? Because of corporate power and corporate greed in Washington,
D.C. And we have to take them on. You can't make a deal with them. You
can't hope that they're going to go away. You have to actually be willing
to fight. And I want every caucus-goer to know I've been fighting these
people and winning my entire life. And if we do this together, rise up
together, we can actually make absolutely certain, starting here in Iowa,
that we make this country better than we left it."" ... "Edwards got to
know workers in Iowa. He stood with them in their struggles." ... "Turning
a broad question about human rights toward the specific issue of trade
policy, the former senator said that human rights, human needs and human
values "should be central to our trade policy."" ... ""But," he added,
"if you look at what's happened with American trade policy, look at what
America got: Big corporations made a lot of money, are continuing to make
a lot of money in China. But what did America get in return? We got millions
of dangerous Chinese toys. We lost millions of jobs." ... ""And right here
in Iowa, the Maytag plant in Newton [Iowa] closed. A guy named Doug Bishop,
who I got to know very well, had worked in that plant, and his family had
worked in that plant literally for generations. And his job is now gone.
The same thing, by the way, happened in the plant that my father worked
in when I was growing up. It is so important that we stop allowing these
corporate powers and corporate profits to run America's policy, whether
it's trade policy, how we engage with China. This is not good for America.
It's not good for American jobs. And it's not good for working people in
this country."" ... "That's an issue Edwards has taken far, far more seriously
than his opponents in what is now a three-way race in Iowa. And that seriousness
has benefitted the former senator." -By John Nichols
-TheNation
Mitt
Romney
- Political
- Corporation
- Marketing
- History
- Gay-Rights
- Pro-Choice
- Stem
Cell - 
Science
- Health
- Law
- Religious
- Salt
Lake City - 
Utah
- Massachusetts
- 
New
Hampshire - US
- Torture
- Prison
- Guantanamo
Bay - 
Cuba
- 2008
Election - "Romney
should not be the next president." ... "[2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt] Romney's main business experience
is as a management consultant, a field in which smart, fast-moving specialists
often advise corporations on how to reinvent themselves. His memoir is
called Turnaround - the story of his successful rescue of the 2002 Winter
Olympics in Salt Lake City [Utah] - but the most stunning turnaround he
has engineered is his own political career." ... "If you followed only
his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, you might imagine Romney as a
pragmatic moderate with liberal positions on numerous social issues and
an ability to work well with Democrats. If you followed only his campaign
for president, you'd swear he was a red-meat conservative, pandering to
the religious right, whatever the cost. Pay attention to both, and you're
left to wonder if there's anything at all at his core." ... "As a candidate
for the U.S. [United States] Senate in 1994, he boasted that he would be
a stronger advocate of gay rights than his opponent, [Massachusetts Democratic
Senator] Ted Kennedy. These days, he makes a point of his opposition to
gay marriage and adoption." ... "There was a time that he said he wanted
to make contraception more available - and a time that he vetoed a bill
to sell it over-the-counter." ... "The old Romney assured voters he was
pro-choice on abortion. "You will not see me wavering on that," he said
in 1994, and he cited the tragedy of a relative's botched illegal abortion
as the reason to keep abortions safe and legal. These days, he describes
himself as pro-life." ... "There was a time that he supported stem-cell
research and cited his own wife's multiple sclerosis in explaining his
thinking; such research, he reasoned, could help families like his. These
days, he largely opposes it. As a candidate for governor, Romney dismissed
an anti-tax pledge as a gimmick. In this race, he was the first to sign."
... "In the 2008 campaign for president, there are numerous issues on which
Romney has no record, and so voters must take him at his word. On these
issues, those words are often chilling. While other candidates of both
parties speak of restoring America's moral leadership in the world, Romney
has said he'd like to "double" the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay [Cuba],
where inmates have been held for years without formal charge or access
to the courts. He dodges the issue of torture - unable to say, simply,
that waterboarding is torture and America won't do it." ... "When New Hampshire
partisans are asked to defend the state's first-in-the-nation primary,
we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions
and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves
and the rest of the world, we'll know it." ... "Mitt Romney is such a candidate.
New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no."
-ConcordMonitor.com
Mitt
Romney
- Pro-Choice
- Stem
Cells - Illegal
- Immigrant
- Health
- Crime
- Politics
- History
- Massachusetts
- 
Michigan
- 2008
Election - "King
said George Romney didn't march: But, as usual, the
truth wasn't good enough for Mitt." ... "Running for Senate in Massachusetts,
in 1994, and trying to establish pro-choice credibility that he had done
nothing to earn, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt]
Romney told stories about his mother, Lenore Romney, running on a strong
pro-choice platform in her own unsuccessful bid for public office in 1970.
Those tales were debunked by Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara."
... "Then, as now, Romney tried to buttress his statement with weak documentation
at odds with the precision of the claim: in that case, Romney provided
the Globe with a vaguely-worded campaign document that could be read as
supporting the pre-Roe v Wade status quo, in which abortion was a felony
in Michigan. ''I support and recognize the need for more liberal abortion
rights while reaffirming the legal and medical measures needed to protect
the unborn and pregnant woman [sic]," the document read." ... "Again, at
that time, Romney did not just pass along falsehood as fact. He sold it
as personal truth, speaking of the painful memories of a close relative's
death, from complications of an illegal abortion." ... "Romney was telling
that tale, of course, when it was politically expedient to be pro-choice.
Today, needing to be pro-life, he has a new, highly personal and emotional
tale of personal conversion after a doctor showed him how stem cells are
handled in research — another specific but uncorroborated story, about
which even the doctor involved has expressed skepticism." ... "Romney once
favored gun control; now, needing gun-rights voters, he has falsely claimed
to be a "lifelong hunter" and to have been endorsed in 2002 by the National
Rifle Association – an endorsement the NRA never gave him. Needing to establish
anti-illegal-immigrant credentials, he boasts of an attitude that he never
displayed while governor — when he expressed no concern over several "sanctuary
cities" in the state — until the very end of his term, when he had turned
his attention to the Republican Presidential nomination." ... "This week,
he finds the need to attack [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidat]
Mike Huckabee on crime, and so Romney has re-invented his record there,
falsely claiming, in a new ad, to have cracked down on methamphetamine."
... "It is not just that these are untruths. They are the actions of a
man desperate to cater to the whims of his audience. What they want, he
must appear to be. " -By David S. Bernstein
-ThePhoenix.com
Stephen
Johnson - 
Mary
E Peters
- 
Dick
Cheney
- Government
- Political
- 
Gas
- 
Auto
- Makers
- 
Fuel
- Economy
- Laws
- Environmental
- Health
- Safety
- American
- 
People
- Transportation
- 
California
- History
- 
Global
- 
Climate
- Clean
Air Act - "EPA
blocks California bid to limit greenhouse gases from cars."
... "The [Republican President] Bush administration blocked efforts by
California and 16 other states Wednesday to limit greenhouse gas emissions
from cars and trucks, setting up a political and legal fight over whether
states can take a lead role in combatting global warming." ... "[Republican
President Bush's] Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen
Johnson rejected California's request for a waiver from the federal government
to impose its tough tailpipe emissions standards. The other states were
poised to adopt similar rules if California's request was granted." ...
"The states represent nearly half the U.S. [United States] population,
and their laws would effectively require automakers to cut greenhouse gas
emissions nationwide, despite [Republican] President Bush's rejection of
mandatory national standards." ... "Johnson said Congress' passage of an
energy bill this week that raises fuel economy standards for all cars and
trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 made the state laws unnecessary."
... "California officials said they believed Johnson had long ago decided
to oppose the state's waiver, and said he was using the newly passed energy
bill as an excuse. Nothing in the new law prevents states from taking stronger
action, they said." ... ""I find this disgraceful," said [California Democratic
Senator] Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.[Democratic-California], who helped
write the fuel-economy law. "The passage of the energy bill does not give
the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] a green light to shirk its responsibility
to protect the health and safety of the American people from air pollution.""
... "It was the first time the EPA has flat-out denied a waiver request
by California under the Clean Air Act. The law gives California special
authority to set stronger standards because the state has a long history
of smog and other air-quality problems." ... "California officials complained
that EPA's decision-making process for the waiver was tainted months ago
when documents revealed that Transportation Secretary Mary Peters led a
lobbying campaign to urge lawmakers to call the EPA and oppose the waiver
request." ... "Automakers have been meeting regularly at the White House
to discuss the new fuel-economy standards. The Detroit News reported that
[Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney met with the CEOs [Chief Executive
Officers] of Chrysler and Ford this fall to try to influence the policy."
-By Zachary Coile -SFGate.com
John
Edwards
- Des-Moines
- Iowa
- Health-Care
- Poverty
- 2008
Election - "Iowa's
first lady to back Edwards for president." ... "Iowa’s
first lady [Mari Culver, wife of Iowa's governor Chet Culver], who had
said she would stay neutral in the presidential race, has changed her mind
and plans to endorse [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate]
Democrat John Edwards Monday." ... "“I decided to join in the fray,” Mari
Culver said in an interview today." ... "She said she agrees with his plans
to fight poverty and to reform health care, and she thinks he offers Democrats
the best chance to take back the White House." ... "“I think John is a
winner. He’s electable,” she said. “He’s been tested. He’s been on the
national ticket before. The national polls show him beating all Republicans
in the general elections. He inspires me. I think he inspires other Iowans,
and I think he can really rally Americans in the fall." ... "Mari Culver
said she will endorse Edwards at a rally in Des Moines [Iowa's capital]
at noon Monday, and she plans to appear at other events.” -By
Tony Leys -DesMoinesRegister
John
Edwards
- Barack
Obama
- Hillary
Clinton
- 
North
Carolina - Illinois
- 
New
York
- 2008
Election - Government
- Oil
- 
Drug
- Companies
- Health-Care
- US
- Iraq
- Military
- Iowa
- Fields
- "Edwards
cuts sharper edge in Iowa trail speeches." ... ""The
few, the powerful, the well-financed, they now control the government,"
[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards told a tight
crowd of about 350 last week. "They've taken over your democracy. And it
affects everything that happens in this country."" ... ""Everything," he
emphasized." ... "During an 18-minute span, the former North Carolina senator
took aim and fired freely at insurance, oil and drug companies and failed
chief executives rewarded with golden parachutes. He described the Republican
field as [Republican President] "George Bush on steroids" and said his
Democratic competitors are talkers, not fighters." ... "In what has often
been portrayed as a two-Democrat battle between [2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois
and [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and New York Senator]
Hillary Clinton of New York the populist Edwards is making an eight-day
blitz across the frozen fields of Iowa, a sort of red-meat express to convince
the middle class that he is the one who will wrest the country from the
clutches of "corporate power and greed."" ... ""I know some people suggest
we'll be able to sit at the table with drug companies and oil companies
and think they can get their power away. Right," Edwards said dismissively,
indirectly referring to the approaches he says Obama and Clinton would
take." ... ""I'll tell you when they'll [corporations] lose their power:
when we take it away from them," he told a cheering crowd at the [Iowa]
Grinnell Eagles Club." ... ""There's been a change in America. We have
greater concentration of wealth and power in a few. We have an increasingly
dysfunctional health-care system. We have this war in Iraq that has gotten
much worse," he said. "I think we need a president who's willing to be
tough and to go after these things."" -By Tim Jones
-ChicagoTribune
Noteworthy
- Industrial
- Government
- 
Accounting
- Environmental
- Health
- Safety
- Politics
- Air
- 
Water
- 
Ground
- "EPA
was pressured to weaken toxic report rules." ...
"The [Republican President Bush] White House pressured the Environmental
Protection Agency [EPA] to weaken requirements that companies annually
disclose releases of toxic chemicals, congressional auditors say." ...
"In a study scheduled to be released next week, the Government Accountability
Office says the changes mean that industry will have to file 22,000 fewer
reports each year, reducing an important public monitoring tool on industrial
emissions." ... "The EPA rushed to complete the changes because of "pressure"
from the White House Office of Management and Budget to reduce the regulatory
burdens on industry, says the report obtained by The Associated Press.
The White House overstated the cost-savings to industry of making the changes,
it added." ... "For more than two decades, industries and businesses have
had to disclose to the EPA the amount of toxic chemicals they produce,
store and discharge into the air, water and ground." ... "Last December,
the EPA reduced the amount of information that needed to be disclosed in
the Toxic Release Inventory Report, or TRI, process." -By
H. Josef Hebert -AP
via -Chron
John
Edwards
- US
- Iraq
- Military
- Corporate
- Government
- Energy
- Drug
- Health
- Family
- Farmers- 2008
Election - "AP
Interview: Edwards on Iraq and Dems." ... "While
[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate John] Edwards continues
to invoke ending the [Iraq] war as one of the major challenges facing the
nation, the thrust of his message is that entrenched corporate power has
prevented the government from tackling long-standing domestic problems."
... ""You hear a lot more questions about corporate power, health care,
energy, family farmers," he said. "Those are the things people ask about.""
... ""My focus for these last few weeks is on a positive agenda," he said.
"That's what America rising is all about."" ... "That's not to say Edwards'
message doesn't have an edge." ... "His culprits are "powerful, well-entrenched,
well-financed interests that are distorting the democracy in their favor
and against the interests of most Americans."" ... ""The specific examples
are oil companies, drug companies, insurance companies, power companies,
there are lots more examples," he said. "They've used money and power to
spread their influence and have kept the democracy from working for most
people."" (1, 2)
-By Jim Kuhnhenn -AP
via -NOLA.com
Mike
Huckabee - Homosexuality
- Science
- Politics
- History
- Federal- Funding
- Civil
Rights - 2008
Election - Arkansas
- "Huckabee
wanted to isolate AIDS patients." ... "[2008 Election
Repbulican Presidential Candidate] Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating
AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding
in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could "pose a dangerous
public health risk."" ... "[Campaigning unsuccessfully to be an Arkansas
Senator] In 1992, Huckabee wrote, "If the federal government is truly serious
about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would
isolate the carriers of this plague."" ... ""It is difficult to understand
the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of
civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated
from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which
there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the
true health crisis it represents."" ... "When Huckabee wrote his answers
in 1992, it was common knowledge that AIDS could not be spread by casual
contact." ... "Also in the wide-ranging AP questionnaire in 1992, Huckabee
said, "I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle,
and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."" -By
Andrew DeMillo -AP
via -Yahoo
Teen
- 
Women- Government
- Science
- Money
- Education
- Politics
- History
- "First
rise in U.S. teen births since '91." ... "In a troubling
reversal, the nation's teen birth rate rose for the first time in 15 years,
surprising government health officials and reviving the bitter debate about
abstinence-only sex education." ... "The birth rate had been dropping since
its peak in 1991, although the decline had slowed in recent years. On Wednesday,
government statisticians said it rose 3 percent from 2005 to 2006." ...
"The reason for the increase is not clear, and federal health officials
said it might be a one-year statistical blip, not the beginning of a new
upward trend." ... "However, some experts said they have been expecting
a jump. They blamed it on increased federal funding for abstinence-only
health education that doesn't teach teens how to use condoms and other
contraception." ... "The new teen birth numbers are based on the 15-19
age group of women, which accounted for most of the 440,000 births to teens
in 2006. The rate rose to nearly 42 births per 1,000 in that group, up
from 40.5 in 2005. That translates to an extra 20,000 births to teen mothers."
-By Mike Stobbe -AP
via -Yahoo
Consumer
- Health
- Safety
- 
Food
- Agriculture
- Country
- Peoples
- Labor
- Law
- Money
- Politics
- Language
- 
West
Virginia - "Democrats
Use Fine Print to Stymie Bush's Deregulation Agenda."
... "It is a single sentence, on page 147 of the annual appropriations
bill funding the [Republican President Bush] White House, listed under
the title ``Additional General Provisions.''" ... "The 18-word clause eliminates
the money to pay for political appointees in each federal agency whose
jobs are to approve any new regulations. By cutting the money for the positions,
Congress would effectively repeal President George W. Bush's 11-month old
initiative." ... "Democrats, writing the budget for the first time since
Bush took office, are using their power over the purse to thwart Bush's
campaign to loosen federal regulations. Lawmakers have added fine print
to must-pass appropriations bills that sets new policy goals and increases
funding for regulators such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
and the Consumer Product Safety Commission." ... "``It is critically important
when we are facing beef recalls, toy recalls, mine collapses and workplace
infringements that Congress provide the necessary resources to the relevant
agencies for them to do the jobs they are required to do,'' said Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, 90, a West Virginia Democrat."
... "Lawmakers also want agencies to file periodic reports to Congress
charting their progress toward a host of Democratic policy goals, such
as developing workplace ergonomic guidelines for a dozen industries, requiring
country-of-origin labels on meat products and regulating a flavoring chemical
that has been linked to lung disease." -By Brian Faler
-Bloomberg
Business
- Government
- Politics
- 2008
Election - Family
- Health
- Safety
- Environment
- Air
- Water
- Soil
- Labor
- Animal
- Farmers
- Energy
- Transportation
- Automakers
- Consumer
- History
- "Business
Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote." ... "Business
lobbyists, nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year’s elections,
are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety,
labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals
from the [Republican President] Bush administration than from its successor."
... "Hoping to lock in policies backed by a pro-business administration,
poultry farmers are seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced
by tons of chicken manure. Businesses are lobbying the Bush administration
to roll back rules that let employees take time off for family needs and
medical problems. And electric power companies are pushing the government
to relax pollution-control requirements." ... "The Federal Register typically
grows fat with regulations churned out in the final weeks of any administration.
But the push for such rules has become unusually intense because of the
possibility that Democrats in 2009 may consolidate control of the White
House, the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time in
14 years." ... "At the Transportation Department, trucking companies are
trying to get final approval for a rule increasing the maximum number of
hours commercial truck drivers can work. And automakers are trying to persuade
officials to set new standards for the strength of car roofs — standards
far less stringent than what consumer advocates say is needed to protect
riders in a rollover." ... "At the Interior Department, coal companies
are lobbying for a regulation that would allow them to dump rock and dirt
from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys." ...
"Some of the biggest battles now involve rules affecting the quality of
air, water and soil." (1, 2)
-By Robert Pear -NYTimes
Work
- Science
- 
- "Working
the graveyard shift may cause cancer." ... "Those
who work the graveyard shift for long periods or who experience jet lag
on a regular basis face a higher risk of cancer, according to a World Health
Organization cancer report." ... "A working group of the International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer arm of the WHO, says they
have reviewed the literature on the effects of working the night shift
and have decided that it disrupts the body's internal clock -its circadian
rhythm -- and "is probably carcinogenic to humans."" ... "The experts'
assessment will appear in the December issue of The Lancet Oncology."
... "The higher cancer rates don't prove that working overnight can cause
cancer and the experts note that the link with shift work observed so far
has been modest." ... "But the IARC's decision to designate night work
as "probably carcinogenic" means there is limited evidence of cancers in
humans but sufficient evidence of cancers in lab animals to make the link."
... "Scientists suspect that overnight work is dangerous because it disrupts
both the circadian rhythm and the production of the hormone melatonin.
Melatonin can suppress tumour development, but is produced by the body
primarily at night." -CTV.ca
Hillary
Clinton
- John
Edwards
- Des-Moines
- Iowa
- New
York
- 2008
Election - International
- Trade
- Jobs
- Health
- History
- "Stumping
for wife, Clinton can help, or hurt, anybody." ...
"[Former Democratic President] Bill Clinton will get his chance in the
Iowa caucuses after all." ... "The Democrat who skipped campaigning in
the state during his own bid for the presidential nomination is stepping
up his role as chief advocate for his wife, [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate] Hillary Clinton." ... "Meanwhile, her leading opponents for
the Democrats' nomination subtly but persistently point out the former
president's failures for which they say the New York senator shares responsibility."
... ""Remember in 1993, we had a Democratic president, a Democratic House
and a Democratic Senate," [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate
John] Edwards told an audience in Grinnell [Iowa] last week. "America got
something it didn't need — NAFTA, which cost us millions of American jobs,
and it didn't get something it desperately needed, which is universal health
care."" ... "Edwards uses the Clinton administration's failed health care
effort, which Hillary Clinton led, and the passage of the North American
Free Trade Agreement, which she supported, to paint her as too close to
moneyed interests." ... "But Hillary Clinton holds her White House years
up as an advantage in the campaign, which invites scrutiny, Edwards also
said." ... ""Senator Clinton uses those years as first lady as credentialing
for her readiness to be president," Edwards said in a Des Moines Register
interview. "When she does that, she opens the door. You can't just take
the good; you have to take the whole thing."" ... "Edwards said he does
not give much thought to how to treat President Clinton's tenure, although
he also told a Des Moines [Iowa] audience last week, "I actually think
Bill Clinton was a good president, to be honest with you."" -By
Thomas Beaumont -DesMoinesRegister
US
- Iraq
- 
Afghanistan
- Military
- People
- Brain
- Science
- Accounting
- Politics
- 
NJ-
"20,000
vets' brain injuries not listed in Pentagon tally."
... "At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during
combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries,
according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY." ...
"The data, provided by the Army, Navy and Department of Veterans Affairs,
show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the
4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also
are not reflected in the Pentagon's official tally of wounded, which stands
at 30,327." ... "More than 150,000 troops may have suffered head injuries
in combat, says [New Jersey Democratic Representative] Rep. Bill Pascrell,
D-N.J., founder of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force." ... "About
1.5 million troops have served in Iraq, where traumatic brain injury can
occur despite heavy body armor worn by troops." -By
Gregg Zoroya -USATODAY
Rudolph
W Giuliani
- 
John
McCain
- 
Fred
Thompson
- Money- Politics
- Consumer
- New
York
- 
Arizona
- 
Tennessee
- 2008
Election - "A
gap in GOP candidates' healthcare proposals: Giuliani,
McCain and Thompson are offering plans to help the uninsured -- but their
aversion to regulations would mean that many of their fellow cancer survivors
would be left out." ... "When [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate]
Rudolph W. Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the spring of
2000, one thing he did not have to worry about was a lack of medical insurance."
... "Today, the former New York mayor joins two other cancer survivors
in seeking the [2008 Election] Republican presidential nomination: Arizona
[Senator] Sen. John McCain has been treated for melanoma, the most serious
type of skin malignancy, and former Tennessee [Senator] Sen. Fred Thompson
had lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system." ... "All three have offered
proposals with the stated aim of helping the 47 million people in the U.S.
who have no health insurance, including those with preexisting medical
conditions." ... "But under the plans all three have put forward, cancer
survivors such as themselves could not be sure of getting coverage -- especially
if they were not already covered by a government or job-related plan and
had to seek insurance as individuals." ... ""Unless it's in a state that
has very strong consumer protections, they would likely be denied coverage,"
said economist Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefit Research Institute,
who has reviewed the candidates' proposals. "People with preexisting conditions
would not be able to get coverage or would not be able to afford it.""
(1, 2)
-By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
-LAtimes
Military
- People
- Money- Politics
- "Wounded
Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back." ...
"The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel
give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments."
... "To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up
to $30,000 in some cases." ... "Now men and women who have lost arms, legs,
eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some
of that money back." -By Marty Griffin
-KDKA.com
Money
- Politics
- School
- Healthcare
- US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Military
- 
Christmas
- National_Debt
- 
Maryland
- "Bush
vetoes domestic spending bill: His first rejection
of an appropriations measure steps up his budget battle with congressional
Democrats, who deride as hypocritical his complaints about the price tag."
... "Intensifying his battle with Congress over federal spending, [Republican]
President Bush on Tuesday vetoed an appropriations bill for the first time,
rejecting $150.7 billion in spending for school aid, healthcare and other
domestic programs." ... "But as he complained about the cost of that bill,
which would have increased spending on these programs by 4.3% over last
year, Bush signed a $471-billion defense appropriations bill that pushed
up military spending by more than 9.5%." ... "And he urged Congress to
quickly appropriate $196 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
... ""Congress' responsibility is clear: It should not go home for the
Christmas holidays without giving our troops on the front lines the funds
they need to succeed," Bush told business leaders in southern Indiana after
excoriating Democrats for mismanaging the federal budget." ... "The president's
veto and his complaints were greeted with derision by congressional Democrats,
who were quick to point out Bush's six-year record of approving unbalanced
budgets passed by Republican Congresses." ... ""It is patently absurd that
President Bush, whose irresponsible policies instigated record budget deficits
and added more than $3 trillion to the national debt, now wants to pretend
that he is somehow an exemplar of fiscal responsibility," said House Majority
Leader [and Maryland Democratic Representative] Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.)."
(1, 2)
-By Noam N. Levey and James Gerstenzang
-LAtimes
Veterans
- Mental
- Health
- Science
- "The
Veteran Suicide Epidemic: A CBS News Investigation
Uncovers A Suicide Rate For Veterans Twice That Of Other Americans." ...
"Beyond the individual loss, it turns out little information exists about
how widespread suicides are among these who have served in the military.
There have been some studies, but no one has ever counted the numbers nationwide."
... "So CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for
their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans,
dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain
of information." ... "And what it revealed was stunning." ... "In 2005,
for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides
among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week,
in just one year." -By Armen Keteyian
-CBSNews
Soldiers
- Mental
- <