When Louisiana residents ask marine toxicologist and community activist Riki Ott what she would do if she lived in the Gulf with children, she tells them she would leave immediately. "It's that bad. We need to start talking about who's going to pay for evacuations." In 1989, Ott, who lives in Cordova, Alaska, experienced firsthand the devastating effects of the Exxon Valdex oil disaster. For the past two months, she's been traveling back and forth between Louisiana and Florida to gather information about what's really happening and share the lessons she learned about long-term illnesses and deaths of cleanup workers and residents. In late May, she began meeting people in the Gulf with symptoms like headaches, dizziness, sore throats, burning eyes, rashes and blisters that are so deep, they're leaving scars. People are asking, "What's happening to me?" AWIP/Stephen Lendman: Growing Health Crisis in the Gulf.

In its report, EPA Whistleblower Accuses Agency of Covering Up Effects of Dispersant in BP Oil Spill Cleanup, Democracy Now! states that "many lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Obama administration is not being candid about the lethal effects of dispersants," so Amy Goodman interviewed Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and a leading critic of the decision to use Corexit" who disclosed how the officials are lying about many things related to the catastrophe poisoning "millions of people." The rushed transcript includes Kaufman saying, "And I think the media now has to follow the money, just as they did in Watergate, and tell the American people who’s getting money for poisoning the millions of people in the Gulf. The Nation: BP Hires Prison Labor to Clean Up Spill While Coastal Residents Struggle.

Quantifying happiness isn't an easy task. Researchers at the Gallup World Poll went about it by surveying thousands of respondents in 155 countries, between 2005 and 2009, in order to measure two types of well-being. First they asked subjects to reflect on their overall satisfaction with their lives, and ranked their answers using a "life evaluation" score from 1 to 10. Then they asked questions about how each subject had felt the previous day. Those answers allowed researchers to score their "daily experiences"--things like whether they felt well-rested, respected, free of pain and intellectually engaged. Subjects that reported high scores were considered "thriving." The percentage of thriving individuals in each country determined our rankings.

America's wars on Iraq and Afghanistan are taking a toll on US soldiers, as the latest statistics show one out of every nine American soldiers leaves the army on a medical discharge due to a mental disorder. "We have 100,000 troops and a third of them suffer some sort of mental health disease and half of those suffer multiple health disease," Paul Martin from Peace Action told Press TV's correspondent. The army alone saw a 64 percent increase in those forced out due to mental illness between 2005 and 2009, the numbers equal to one in nine of all medical discharges. According to army statistics, last year alone 1,224 soldiers suffering from mental illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, received a medical discharge. According to Mental health experts there is a growing emotional toll on the US military which has been fighting for seven years in Iraq and nine years in Afghanistan, and there is a clear relationship between multiple deployments and increased symptoms of anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Depleted Uranium itself is a chemically toxic and radioactive compound, which is used in armour piercing munitions because of its very high density. It is 1.7 times denser than lead, giving DU weapons increased range and penetrative power. They belong to a class of weapons called kinetic energy penetrators. The part of the weapon that is made of DU is called a penetrator: this is a long dart weighing more than four kilograms in the largest examples: it is neither a tip nor a coating. The penetrator is usually an alloy of DU and a small amount of another metal such as titanium and molybdenum. These give it extra strength and resistance to corrosion.

In addition to armour-piercing penetrators, DU is used as armour in US M1A1 and M1A2 battle tanks and in small amounts in some types of landmines (M86 PDM and ADAM), both types contain 0.101g of DU in the resin cases of the individual mines. 432 ADAM antipersonnel landmine howitzer shells were used on the Kuwaiti battlefields during the 1991 Gulf War. Both M86 PDM and ADAM mines remain in U.S. stockpiles. Patents exist for the use of a ‘dense metal’ as ballast in large ‘bunker busting’ bombs; such weapons have been deployed but it is unclear whether they contain DU, tungsten or a third high density substance, as their contents remain classified.

■ Fallujah and the laws of war
■ Horrific scenes from the ashes of Fallujah
■ Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'
■ Depleted Uranium: A War Crime Within a War Crime
■ Iraq: U.S. depleted uranium and surge in cancer (Photos)

UK defense secretary says American and British forces used depleted uranium (DU) ammunitions during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. "UK forces used about 1.9 metric tons of depleted uranium ammunition in the Iraq war in 2003," UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in a written reply to the House of Commons on Thursday, the Kuwait News Agency reported. The announcement came after a joint study by the environment, health and science ministries in Iraq said there were communities near the cities of Najaf, Basra and Fallujah with increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years. More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels of radiation and dioxins.

■ Fallujah and the laws of war
■ Horrific scenes from the ashes of Fallujah
■ Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'
■ Depleted Uranium: A War Crime Within a War Crime
■ Iraq: U.S. depleted uranium and surge in cancer (Photos)

GULISTAN, Uzbekistan -- Saodat Rakhimbayeva says she wishes she had died with her newborn baby. The 24-year-old housewife had a cesarean section in March and gave birth to Ibrohim, a premature boy who died three days later. Then came a further devastating blow: She learned that the surgeon had removed part of her uterus during the operation, making her sterile. The doctor told her the hysterectomy was necessary to remove a potentially cancerous cyst, while she believes he sterilized her as part of a state campaign to reduce birthrates.

"He never asked for my approval, never ran any checks, just mutilated me as if I were a mute animal," the pale and fragile Rakhimbayeva said through tears while sitting at a fly-infested cafe in this central Uzbek city. "I should have just died with Ibrohim."

Details of the techniques used in a secret manual governing the use of physical restraint in private child prisons were revealed today. Some of the measures employed in the secure training centres, detailed in the "instructor's manual", include ramming knuckles into ribs and raking shoes down the shins, the Observer reported. The contents of the manual were revealed after The Youth Justice Board (YJB) agreed to hand over the document earlier this month. The document includes descriptions of "distraction" techniques, which deliberately inflict pain. The Observer detailed some of the techniques such as placing an "inverted knuckle into the trainee's sternum and drive inward and upward." Another practice reads: "Continue to carry alternate elbow strikes to the young person's ribs until a release is achieved."

Corexit is a product line of solvents primarily used as a dispersant for breaking up oil slicks. It is produced by Nalco Holding Company which is associated with BP . Corexit 9500, four times more toxic than crude oil, is one of the most poisonous dispersants ever developed, and is up to 20 times more toxic than other dispersants, and only half as effective.

When Corexit 9500, with its 2.61 ppm toxicity level, is combined with the warm waters of the Gulf much of it will transition into a gaseous state that will be absorbed into clouds, to be released as toxic rain upon all of the Eastern United States

Aging rats have had their memory loss reversed, thanks to a compound that helps them form new memories again. The compound could be a breakthrough treatment for Alzheimer's. Essential to the creation and maintenance of memories is neurogenesis, in which new neurons are created and then wired into the brain's circuitry. This process occurs in the dentate gyrus, a key sector of the brain's memory hub in the hippocampus. Even in healthy brains, this is a difficult process, with only about 10% of these neurons surviving long enough to become a useful part of memory production. Alzheimer's disease, which is characterized by uncontrolled cell death, the survival rate drops to close to zero.

Do you have daughters but not sons? How about a kid with ADHD? Did you smile in your yearbook photo? Anneli Rufus on the strange ways science can predict a marriage’s success.

A 12-MONTH trial of police Tasers, which was used to justify arming every frontline officer in the state with the controversial weapon, was characterised by a litany of misuses and abuses that were covered up by police and the government. The proof comes in internal police documents relating to the trial in 2008-09, which the Herald obtained after a year-long freedom-of-information battle. The documents reveal that police and the government used the trial as window dressing to affirm a decision they had already made - to give the weapon to all general duties police - and ignored worrying results. The many abuses the Herald uncovered include:

■ Stunning a handcuffed child at a juvenile detention centre. ■ Stunning two suicidal people covered in fuel, which can be ignited by a Taser blast.

Airport body scanners emit radiation up to 20 times more powerful than previously thought, a scientist has warned. Dr David Brenner, head of the centre for radiological research at Columbia University in New York, said Government scientists had not taken into account the concentration of the radiation on the skin. He said it raised concerns about a potentially greater risk of cancer than previously realised. Dr Brenner, who is from Liverpool, said children and passengers with genetic mutations - around one in 20 of the population - were most at risk because they are less able to repair X-ray damage to their cells.

An autopsy concluded that the 36-year-old inmate suffered from no fewer than three serious illnesses — cancer, hepatitis and HIV. The cancer ultimately killed him, causing his spleen to burst. Montoya bled to death internally. But the coroner and a pathologist were more stunned by another finding: The only medication in his system was a trace of over-the-counter pain reliever. That means Montoya, imprisoned for a passing counterfeit checks, had been given nothing to ease the excruciating pain that no doubt wracked his body for days or weeks before death.

Key scientists advising the World Health Organization on planning for an influenza pandemic had done paid work for pharmaceutical firms that stood to gain from the guidance they were preparing. These conflicts of interest have never been publicly disclosed by WHO, and WHO has dismissed inquiries into its handling of the A/H1N1 pandemic as "conspiracy theories." Deborah Cohen and Philip Carter investigate.

Seven oxygen machines donated to the Palestinain Authority by a Norwegian development agency were seized by Israeli officials en route to hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza, the Ramallah-based health ministry said. The machines, the ministry said in a Thursday statement, were confiscated by Israeli officials who claimed that the generators attached "came under the category of possible use for non-medical purposes" if they were delivered to the southern Gaza governorates. While only one generator was bound for southern Gaza, all seven were taken, the statement said, and "all were badly needed for medical treatment."

POLICE STATE: An advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that every person be vaccinated for the seasonal flu yearly, except in a few cases where the vaccine is known to be unsafe. "Now no one should say 'Should I or shouldn't I?'" said CDC flu specialist Anthony Fiore. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 11-0 with one abstention to recommend yearly flu vaccination for everyone except for children under the age of six months, whose immune systems have not yet developed enough for vaccination to be safe, and people with egg allergies or other health conditions that are known to make flu vaccines hazardous. If accepted by the CDC, this recommendation will then be publicized to doctors and other health workers. The CDC nearly always accepts the advisory committee's recommendations.

AGADIR, Morocco – Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of Earth's oceans have built up stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals, according to American scientists who say the findings spell danger not only for marine life but for the millions of humans who depend on seafood.

A report released Thursday noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years. From polar areas to equatorial waters, the whales ingested pollutants that may have been produced by humans thousands of miles away, the researchers said.

"These contaminants, I think, are threatening the human food supply. They certainly are threatening the whales and the other animals that live in the ocean," said biologist Roger Payne, founder and president of Ocean Alliance, the research and conservation group that produced the report.

Threats of a swine flu pandemic were 'vastly over-rated' by the World Health Organisation, an inquiry has concluded. The Council of Europe last night also accused the UN's health arm of 'grave shortcomings' in the process that led it to declare a pandemic last year. Plummeting confidence in health advice could prove 'disastrous' in the event of a severe future pandemic, parliamentarians at the Strasbourg-based senate said. The assembly also accused the WHO of being 'highly defensive' of its handling of the outbreak and drugs companies of influencing the decisions taken. Members, including five British MPs, voted overwhelmingly in favour for greater transparency in public health decisions. AFP: Council of Europe calls for WHO flu handling probe.

International pressure has been mounting on Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza since the deadly raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Palestinian territory. The UN has said 80 per cent of people there depend on food hand-outs. But Israeli officials insist that there is no humanitarian crisis in the enclave. UN aid workers inside Gaza, however, see a different reality. Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston reports from Gaza, where it has been reported that about 14 per cent of children suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has described Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip as a violation of the Geneva Conventions and called on the Israeli government to lift it. In a statement released on Monday, the organisation called the blockade "collective punishment", a crime under international law. It described Gaza as a territory plagued by frequent power cuts, a ruined economy, and a collapsed health care system. "The closure imposed on the Gaza Strip is about to enter its fourth year, choking off any real possibility of economic development," the ICRC said. "Gazans continue to suffer from unemployment, poverty and warfare, while the quality of Gaza's health care system has reached an all-time low."

This Friday will mark the one year anniversary of the start of the H1N1 pandemic. But a new joint report from the British Medical Journal and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism questions the pandemic and alleged conflicts of interest between confidential World Health Organization advisors and their reported financial ties to pharmaceutical companies producing the vaccines. Here in Charlotte, people are torn on whether the pandemic was all hype, one woman saying, "I got tired of hearing it” and another man saying, "I believe it was serious at the time. I truly believe that." Others were surprised to hear we are still in "pandemic" status. "I'm always worried about transmitting diseases, but I thought the risk had passed,” says northeast Charlotte's Edith Noble. The pharmacist at Pike's Pharmacy in east Charlotte tells FOX Charlotte he hasn't had a customer ask for an H1N1 vaccine in months. In March, he shipped back his last 100 doses to the manufacturer because they'd expired.

The United States is using its citizens as guinea pigs to test biological weapons and simulate germ warfare attacks in different locations across the country, reports say. With the spread of some unknown diseases in the US, speculations started soaring that Washington is engaged in covert biological warfare activities which involve the use of chemical and biological weapons against human beings. According to Dr. Hanley Watson, a former military scientist, the US Army, "from 1950 to at least mid-1976" conducted "numerous experiments simulating biological or germ warfare attacks in dozens of locations across the country." "Previously these experiments were downplayed by the Pentagon as 'harmless tests' occurring in about 8 areas in the US and employing benign substances, but this couldn't be further from the truth."

Young offenders from Germany are being sent to Siberia in an attempt to steer them away from further trouble. The extreme climate was once considered punishment, with frozen winters and suffocating humidity in summer. But the teenagers are expected to work hard while there. Oleg Boldyrev reports from Western Siberia.

Suicide Rates (per 100,000), by country, year, and gender. Most recent year available. As of May 2003.

More than 50,000 Greeks with diabetes are left without insulin after Novo Nordisk, the world's leading supplier of the drug, withdraws from Greece in a "brutal capitalist blackmail" after being asked to reduce the cost of its medicine by the Greek government. BBC: Second firm withdraws drugs from Greece over cuts.

Californians likely to vote in November are evenly split over whether to legalize marijuana, with only a small percentage of the electorate still undecided about the controversial issue, according to a poll conducted last week by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. The poll, which surveyed 1,168 likely voters, found that 49% think marijuana use should be made legal, 48% do not and 3% do not know, suggesting that the proponents of the legalization measure will have to wage an expensive and persuasive campaign. Mark Baldassare, the institute's president and pollster, said the results show the legalization campaign faces serious challenges: "It's always hard to start out when you're not even at 50%."

China used the so-called charge of "hooliganism," a catchall term that criminalized everything from premarital sex to dancing with members of the other sex and listening to Western music. During the early 1980s, a woman was sentenced to death for participating in secret dance parties, according to the China Daily.

A man whose same-sex "marriage" has become a symbol of the struggle for gay rights in Africa has vowed to become a martyr rather than give in to homophobia, campaigners say. Tiwonge Chimbalanga and his partner Steven Monjeza are facing a possible 14 years in prison with hard labour after becoming the first gay couple in Malawi to declare their commitment in a public ceremony.

''The rebel leader asked me two things: 'Do you want us to be your husband? Or do you want us to rape you?'" -Congolese mother-of-eight Clementine speaks in a quiet and hesitant voice: "I chose to be raped." She explains: "I told myself, if I tell them that I want to be their wife, they will kill my husband. I didn't want my children growing up saying the one that made our father die is our mother." But that sacrifice was not enough. Her husband left her for another woman. "After they raped me, my husband hated me. He said I was dirty. I often ask myself: 'Surely, I gave up my dignity for him, how come he can abandon me this way?'" Asian Human Rights Commission: PAKISTAN: A girl of 14 year was gang raped to take revenge from her father for nominating accused persons in a theft case.

We’ve known for some time now that the lunatics have taken over the asylum, but this latest story has to take the prize for insanity of the month. A 14-year old autistic boy was arrested on felony charges for drawing a stick figure representation of him pointing a gun at his teacher. It’s all part of the Orwellian newspeak “philosophy” of “zero tolerance.”

"Going beyond prior purification effects in the moral domain, physical cleansing seems to more generally remove past concerns, resulting in a metaphorical "clean slate" effect," the CBS quoted the co-authors of the study, Spike W. S. Lee and Norbert Schwarz, as saying. According to the research published in the journal Science, the psychological impacts of physical cleansing reach beyond the moral domain. "Much as washing can cleanse us from traces of past immoral behavior, it can also cleanse us from traces of past decisions, reducing the need to justify them," the survey says.

Fifty years ago, American family structures were remarkably uniform. The rich married at roughly the same rate as the poor and middle class. Divorce rates were low for the college educated and high school graduates alike. Out-of-wedlock births, while more common among African-Americans, were rare in almost every region and community. That was a long time ago.

A large and growing number of Iraqi children are suffering from severe birth defects, as shown in the heartbreaking CNN segment embedded below, and their parents blame alleged U.S. chemical-weapons attacks. Lawyers representing the families have sued the British government for complicity in the alleged war crimes. But Iraq's deputy minister of health tells CNN there isn't enough evidence to prove causality, and in any case, the U.S. boycott of the International Criminal Court makes direct prosecution of the case unlikely, as do the nation's federal immunity laws. AWIP: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'. + Depleted Uranium: A War Crime Within a War Crime.

Doctors and experts are baffled by an Indian hermit who claims not to have eaten or drunk anything for several decades - but is still in perfect health. Prahlad Jani, a holy man, or fakir, who is over 70 years old, has just spent 10 days under constant observation in Sterling Hospital, in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. During that time, he did not consume anything and "neither did he pass urine or stool", according to the hospital's deputy superintendent, Dr Dinesh Desai. Yet he is in fine mental and physical fettle, say doctors. Most people can live without food for several weeks, with the body drawing on its fat and protein stores. But the average human can survive for only three to four days without water. Followers of Indian holy men and ascetics have often ascribed extraordinary powers to them, but such powers are seldom subject to scientific inspection. "A series of tests conducted on him show his body mechanism is that of a normal person," said Dr Desai. Mr Jani spends most of his time in a cave near the Ambaji temple in Gujarat state. He spent his 10 days in hospital in a specially prepared room, with a sealed-off toilet and constant video surveillance.

Sex workers, gay and bisexual men drive the disease, say researchers. Every hour a baby is born in China with syphilis, as the world's fastest-growing epidemic of the disease is fuelled by men with new money from the nation's booming economy, researchers say. The easy-to-cure bacterial infection, which was nearly wiped out in China five decades ago, is now the most commonly reported sexually transmitted disease in its largest city, Shanghai.

Critics are accusing the Harper government of ideologically driven intimidation for cutting funding to women's groups even as it prepares to champion maternal health at next month's G8 Summit. The Conservatives have axed funding for up to 14 women's groups in the past two weeks. News of the cuts surfaced a day after Tory Senator Nancy Ruth warned aid groups that they risk a backlash from the government if they don't "shut the fuck up" on the government's refusal to include abortion in the G8 plan.

According to a May 3, 2010, online report from People magazine, country singer Chely Wright, on the eve of releasing her new album and memoir, has revealed she's gay. Named Best New Female Vocalist in 1995 at the ACM Awards, Wright, 39, reportedly shares the news in more detail in this Friday's print edition of the magazine. However, per People's teaser report via the Web, the Kansas City, Mo., native said she hid her sexual orientation, because the country music community isn't accepting of such realities.

Dr. Dalil said that despite many vaccination campaigns around the country, only 37% children have been completely vaccinated and in the past one year. 22 children under the age of five and 15 children below the age of one die every hour. And every 30 minutes, a mother dies during childbirth. These statistics were announced by Dr. Suraya Dalil, Deputy Minister for Policy and Planning and Acting Minister of Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in a press conference in Kabul with Dr. Eric Laroche, Assistant Director-General Health Action in Crises, World Health Organization (WHO). She said that these statistics were obtained after a national survey carried out by MoPH and WHO about the losses and dangers a year ago. According to Dr. Suraya Dalil, the mortality rate of children and mothers in Afghanistan is higher than other countries. She elaborated that diarrhea, breathing diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, measles, unhygienic conditions and inabilities of mother and child to reach a health centre are the main reasons for the hiking mortality rates.

...Crying: "What did I do wrong?" This is his immediate panic even when he knows logically he hasn't done anything wrong. Here's an example of how ingrained that panic is: The two of you look on in horror as the dog you had ever since you were a kid gets run over by a city bus. He then notices that you have started crying. Even though it's so totally, ridiculously obvious why, there will be a sickening fraction of a second when he automatically starts mentally sifting through all of his recent misdeeds trying to figure out which one it was that started the waterworks. Why, you ask? One, because he's probably been at least indirectly responsible for a fair amount of the previous crying he's seen you do, so it's kind of a habit. Two, because even though he may not let on, the sight of you crying is so heartbreaking for him that it often short-circuits his brain.

In commemoration of Mother's Day, Save the Children is publishing its eleventh annual State of the World's Mothers report. The focus is on the critical shortage of health workers in the developing world and the urgent need for more female health workers to save the lives of mothers, newborn babies and young children. State of the World's Mothers (Report, .pdf) + Save the Children + State of the World's Mothers, 2009.

Nancy Schaefer "The Unlimited Power of Child Protective Services" (Part 2 of 2)

"After 4 years of viewing the ruthless and unsparing actions of CPS... I wrote a scathing report, entitled 'The Corrupt Business of Child Protective Services." The report cost me my senate seat."

As we now know, Nancy Schaefer lost more than her senate fighting CPS. Let's keep her spirit alive, and keep fighting against the "ruthless and unsparing" gang of thugs known as CPS. This video is Part 1 of a 2, a powerful speech, given by Nancy Schaefer in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, August 15, 2009.

When Dina Khiry is feeling a bit down, she reaches for chocolate. "I like Reese's peanut butter cups, Hershey's bars, and chocolate cake batter," says the 24-year-old public relations associate. "I feel better in the moment -- and then worse later on, when I realize that I just consumed thousands of calories." Khiry's emotional relationship with chocolate isn't uncommon, new research suggests. According to a study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, people who feel depressed eat about 55 percent more chocolate than their non-depressed peers. And the more depressed they feel, the more chocolate they tend to eat. AIM: Chocolate and Depressive Symptoms in a Cross-sectional Analysis [Please scroll down...].

Iranian doctors have carried out an in situ transplant of bio-artificial trachea in humans for the first time in the world. A team of tissue-engineering scientists at the Lung and Tuberculosis Center at Tehran's Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services carried out the transplant on a 29-year-old woman who had lost her trachea in a car accident two years ago. The researchers used bio artificial materials instead of stem cells and injected them directly into the trachea to make a good architecture of the organ.

Scottish scientists have made cancer tumours vanish within 10 days by sending DNA to seek and destroy the cells. The system, developed at Strathclyde and Glasgow universities, is being hailed as a breakthrough because it appears to eradicate tumours without causing harmful side-effects. A leading medical journal has described the results so far as remarkable, while Cancer Research UK said they were encouraging.

Troubling new data show there are an average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans who are receiving some type of treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department. Seven percent of the attempts are successful, and 11 percent of those who don’t succeed on the first attempt try again within nine months. The numbers, which come at a time when VA is strengthening its suicide prevention programs, show about 18 veteran suicides a day, about five by veterans who are receiving VA care. Access to care appears to be a key factor, officials said, noting that once a veteran is inside the VA care program, screening programs are in place to identify those with problems, and special efforts are made to track those considered at high risk, such as monitoring whether they are keeping appointments. A key part of the new data shows the suicide rate is lower for veterans aged 18 to 29 who are using VA health care services than those who are not. That leads VA officials to believe that about 250 lives have been saved each year as a result of VA treatment. Antiwar Newswire: Stunned by suicides, Fort Campbell finds new ways to help its soldiers cope.

A couple have won a legal battle to prevent social workers taking their five-year-old son into care after the authorities claimed that his health had been damaged by a meat-and-dairy-free diet. Social services even tried to get police to investigate the family and threatened to seize the boy’s two older siblings during the two-year ordeal. The parents, Ken and Marie, were forced to represent themselves in court after their legal aid was removed — simply because they had insisted on contesting the case.

Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place--wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.

One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold's care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes. Ignoring Clay's significant role in Harold's life, the county continued to treat Harold like he had no family and went to court seeking the power to make financial decisions on his behalf. Outrageously, the county represented to the judge that Clay was merely Harold's "roommate." The court denied their efforts, but did grant the county limited access to one of Harold's bank accounts to pay for his care. What happened next is even more chilling.

How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA: A new model of the way the THz waves interact with DNA explains how the damage is done and why evidence has been so hard to gather. Great things are expected of terahertz waves, the radiation that fills the slot in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the infrared. Terahertz waves pass through non-conducting materials such as clothes , paper, wood and brick and so cameras sensitive to them can peer inside envelopes, into living rooms and "frisk" people at distance.

The way terahertz waves are absorbed and emitted can also be used to determine the chemical composition of a material. And even though they don't travel far inside the body, there is great hope that the waves can be used to spot tumours near the surface of the skin. With all that potential, it's no wonder that research on terahertz waves has exploded in the last ten years or so. But what of the health effects of terahertz waves? At first glance, it's easy to dismiss any notion that they can be damaging. Terahertz photons are not energetic enough to break chemical bonds or ionise atoms or molecules, the chief reasons why higher energy photons such as x-rays and UV rays are so bad for us. But could there be another mechanism at work?

Walnuts are a rich plant source of omega-3s, the fatty acids also found in cold water fish like salmon. Omega-3s are known to lower the risk of a host of health problems from depression to heart disease. Walnuts are also loaded with gamma tocopherol (a form of vitamin E), phytochemicals known as polyphenols, and antioxidants. Now, for the first time, scientists have reported that these nutrient-rich nuts have the ability to reduce the size and growth of prostate cancer.

Scientists from the University of California-Davis just reported their discovery at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held in San Francisco this week. "Walnuts should be part of a prostate-healthy diet," Paul Davis, Ph.D., who headed the study, said in a statement to the media. "They should be part of a balanced diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables."

Eating lots of nuts, fish and poultry while cutting down on red meat and butter could reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, research suggests. A study of more than 2,000 pensioners in New York found that those who went on to develop dementia were more likely to eat diets rich in high-fat dairy products. One dietary pattern was significantly associated with a reduced risk of the disease, according to the Columbia University study, published in the journal Archives of Neurology. You Tube: Nutrition & Health - the big picture.

People with dented smiles run a greater risk of dying of heart disease than those who still have all their pearly whites, a Swedish researcher says. "Cardiovascular disease and, in particular, coronary heart disease is closely related to the number of teeth" a person has left, Anders Holmlund said yesterday, explaining the results of a study to be published in the Journal of Periodontology. "A person with fewer than 10 of their own teeth has a seven times higher risk for death by coronary heart disease than a person of the same age and of the same sex with more than 25 teeth left," Professor Holmlund said.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the health care overhaul signed into law last week costs too much and expands the government's role in health care too far, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, underscoring an uphill selling job ahead for President Obama and congressional Democrats. Those surveyed are inclined to fear that the massive legislation will increase their costs and hurt the quality of health care their families receive, although they are more positive about its impact on the nation's health care system overall.

“The ink has not yet dried on the health care reform bill, and already some deplorable health insurance companies are trying to duck away from covering children with pre-existing conditions. This is outrageous.”

Concern is growing that the United Kingdom's Liverpool Care Pathway, intended to ease the comfort of patients whose death is inevitable, is being misused to railroad elderly patients onto a path toward early death. "While we've been preoccupied with the moral pluses and minuses of living wills, assisted suicide and euthanasia, legalized execution of some of society's most vulnerable has become available, most probably at a hospital near you," writes Telegraph columnist Liz Hunt. "How did we let this happen?"

Democrats said their health care legislation would provide greater medical security to those in need. But it appears to fall short on protecting arguably the most vulnerable demographic: sick children. Insurance companies wasted no time after the bill was passed to unearth a loophole that allowed them to deny coverage to children with pre-existing illnesses for the next four years. According to the New York Times, "Insurers agree that if they provide insurance for a child, they must cover pre-existing conditions. But, they say, the law does not require them to write insurance for the child and it does not guarantee the 'availability of coverage' for all until 2014."

Though not opposed to healthcare reform most Americans do not want this KIND of reform which is a dangerous UN-AMERICAN UNCONSTITUTIONAL We want reform that makes sense and that is helpful for all not a destructive death warrant for the unborn and the elderly. We want government to stay out of our personal life decisions period. This is America !!

With the Senate working through an all-night session on a package of changes to the Democrats’ sweeping health care legislation, Republicans early Thursday morning identified parliamentary problems with at least two provisions that will require the measure to be sent back to the House for yet another vote, once the Senate adopts it.

Quadrant Online: Breaking America: Obamacare and the decline of a nation:

“Obamacare is a major weapon to carry out Obama's plan to transform America into a country of incredible debt, government control of industries, redistribution of taxpayers' earnings and savings to non-taxpayers, and massive authority exercised by weirdo czars. The American people - and the various states - are not going to accept Obama's transformation.”

About 1 million children in the US received Rotarix vaccine. Federal health authorities recommended Monday that doctors suspend using Rotarix, one of two vaccines licensed in the United States against rotavirus, saying the vaccine is contaminated with material from a pig virus. Rotarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved by the FDA in 2008. The contaminant material is DNA from porcine circovirus 1, a virus from pigs.

It has for decades been deemed politically impossible to attack basic entitlement programs in the US, such as Social Security and Medicare, which account for an enormous and rising portion of the federal budget. Now, with Obama’s health care plan, the stage has been set for slashing these programs. This is the reason for the general jubilation in media and financial circles. The claim that a genuinely progressive social reform has been dispensed as a gift from above flies in the face of the whole of American history. This is a country where every significant social reform has been the outcome of decades of the most bitter and bloody struggles against a ruling class that savagely resists social progress. Daily Telegraph: US health care: 14 states file lawsuits over Barack Obama's reforms. AWIP/Sheldon Richman: Health Care Reform: We're Being Fooled Again.

The health insurance bill passed, and it's one more triumph of the federal government over individual rights. All statists, rejoice! You've managed to succeed in having Big Brother intrude into one more aspect of your life. I, for one, am not happy about it, not only because I don't like living under the watchful eye of Big Brother, but also because I know that American health care used to be run in a very different way. AWIP: House passes health care legislation.

Sometimes things are a little clearer in retrospect. Now that health care reform has passed in the House, it seems there are two main questions in people’s minds: What’s next? Why, procedurally, was the legislative process so confusing and painful to watch? Let’s answer that second question first. To help do that, we’ve drawn up some helpful infographics. AWIP/Chris Hedges: The Health Care Hindenburg Has Landed.

As the representatives of what passes for the liberal establishment in the United States, the New York Times has played a key role in promoting Obama’s health care agenda and characterizing it as a progressive reform. In fact, the Times represents those privileged sections of the ruling elite who stand to profit most from its cost-cutting features and the gutting of health care for ordinary Americans.

Last Night, the House passed the Senate Health care bill by a vote of 219-212. It will now be sent to the President for his signature. The Reconciliation bill, which also passed the House, now heads to the Senate for debate in that body. CNN: Democrats cheer and chant "Yes We Can" as healthcare is passed -Video. Wagist: List of Democrats Who Voted ‘No’ on the Senate-Passed Health-Care Bill. CSM: Attorneys general in 12 states poised to challenge healthcare bill.

WSWS: An attack on health care in the guise of reform:

■ After months of closed-door negotiations with insurance CEOs and pharmaceutical executives, Obama made the absurd claim that the measure came “from the bottom up.” In fact, the legislation was entirely dictated from the top. It represents the opening shot in a sweeping attack on health care for working people. ■ The main features of the bill include hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare, and the requirement that individuals and families obtain insurance or pay a fine, thus providing a new influx of cash-paying customers for private insurance companies. Businesses are under no obligation to provide their workers with insurance, paying only minimal fines if they do not.

AWIP/Stephen Lendman: The Death of American Populism:

Current legislation doesn't "provide universal, comprehensive or affordable care to the American people. It shovels hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money (to predators that) created the problem: the Aetnas, CIGNAs" and other insurers. It requires no contractual accountability or other benefits for people denied coverage under a "pay-or-die system that is the disgrace of the Western world."

Natural News: Health care reform bill dooms America to Pharma-dominated sickness and suffering:

Today the medical mafia struck another devastating blow to the health and freedom of all Americans. With the support of an inarguably corrupt Congress that has simply abandoned the real needs of the American people, the sick-care industry has locked in a high-profit scheme of disease and monopoly-priced pharmaceuticals in a nation that can ill afford either one.

[Editor's Comment:] How many of the Dems had actually read the bill before they passed it? -Probably none of them. (We're not considering the republicans here because they can't even read.)

You Tube: Know the TRUTH about the Government Health Care Bill H.R.3200 - Key Points FDL: Fact Sheet: The Truth About the Health Care Bill. The Health Care Bill (.pdf)

New tax mandates and penalties included in Obamacare will cause the greatest expansion of the Internal Revenue Service since World War II, according to a release from Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas. A new analysis by the Joint Economic Committee and the House Ways & Means Committee minority staff estimates up to 16,500 new IRS personnel will be needed to collect, examine and audit new tax information mandated on families and small businesses in the ‘reconciliation’ bill being taken up by the U.S. House of Representatives this weekend. Scores of new federal mandates and fifteen different tax increases totaling $400 billion are imposed under the Democratic House bill. In addition to more complicated tax returns, families and small businesses will be forced to reveal further tax information to the IRS, provide proof of ‘government approved’ health care and submit detailed sales information to comply with new excise taxes.

The decision by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Democrat from Ohio, to vote and campaign among his fellow members of Congress for the White House health care bill falls under the heading of the entirely predictable. Anyone who has paid attention to the career of this phony populist knew more or less how the process would unfold. Kucinich would slam the regressive measure until close to the end, then fold his tent and meekly bow to the pressure exerted by the Obama administration, and through the latter, the most powerful sections of the American ruling elite.

Kucinich now promises to vote for a reactionary bill that unashamedly protects the profits of the giant insurance and pharmaceutical interests while sharply reducing and rationing care for the majority of the American people. The Obama administration, in the guise of “reform,” has crafted a measure that will enable the health insurance companies to rake in untold revenues from millions of new customers forced to purchase bare-bones health coverage. Moreover, hundreds of billions of dollars will be cut from Medicare, the program for the elderly and disabled. There is nothing progressive about the health care measure; it is not a step or half-step forward. It represents a full-scale social regression. WaPo: Kucinich Sells Out On Health Care After Ride In Air Force One. Chris Floyd: Pressure Drop: Brave Sir Dennis Ran Away.

Dissident Voice: Kucinich’s Healthcare Sell-out:

Most of all, Kucinich’s betrayal points to the burning need for political activity, both electoral and social movement based, independent of the Democrats and Republicans. The political system is already so saturated with corporate money that Democrats and Republicans are structurally incapable of acting in the interests of working people in America. Now is the time for a green and red rebellion at the ballot box and on the streets. Only then can we can be done with the wavering Kucinichs of the world and get down to the task of creating a society that values human needs over corporate profits. We need a single-payer healthcare system now and only an uncompromising movement made up of everyday people will get us there.

You Tube: Know the TRUTH about the Government Health Care Bill H.R.3200 - Key Points

The British historian Tony Judt is dying, slowly and painfully, from a variant of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (A.L.S.), better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He has written matter-of-factly about his condition — he is now, essentially, a quadriplegic — in The New York Review of Books. At some point he will be able to communicate only by blinking an eye. For now he is dictating his words to assistants.

Best known for his book “Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945” (2005), Mr. Judt has long been an engaged and unpredictable intellectual of the left, one who is sometimes given to controversial opinions. Mr. Judt, who is Jewish, has argued, for example, that Israel is an “anachronism” that should convert “from a Jewish state to a binational one” including Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians. His prose tends to be as biting as his ideas.

Mr. Judt’s new book, “Ill Fares the Land,” is a slim and penetrating work, a dying man’s sense of a dying idea: the notion that the state can play a significant role in its citizens’ lives without imperiling their liberties. It makes sense that this book arrives now, not merely during the hideous endgame of the national health-care debate but during mud season; this book’s bleak assessment of the selfishness and materialism that have taken root in Western societies will stick to your feet and muddy your floors. But “Ill Fares the Land” is also optimistic, raw and patriotic in its sense of what countries like the United States and Britain have meant — and can continue to mean — to their people and to the world.

So Markos Moulitsas over at Daily Kos wants to primary Dennis Kucinich author an advocate of HR 676 Single Payer Health Care! Reckon Markos Moulitsas is looking for more air time on MSNBC? Surely Markos Moulitsas isn't trying to increase his blog traffic and advertising revenues from folks like JPMorgan Chase & Co., by pulling a stunt like this. Or is he?

From the intro: Doctors in the Iraqi city of Falluja are handling up to 15 times as many birth defects as they were one year ago. The chronic deformities include multiple tumours, heart problems, nervous system anomalies and eye deficiencies. Residents of the city blame the surge in chronic deformities on controversial weapons used by US forces against Sunni fighters in 2004. White phosphorus and depleted uranium shells were allegedly among the munitions used. Most doctors are unsure about the reasons for the surge in birth deformities over the past year but say it could be a result of the chemicals left over from the fighting. AWIP/Doug Westerman: Depleted Uranium – Far Worse Than 9/11 + AWIP/Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'.

Faced with the dilemma of how they could possibly justify their year-long claimed support for the public option only now to fail to enact it, more and more Democratic Senators were pressured into signing a letter supporting the enactment of the public option through reconciliation; that number is now above 40, and is rapidly approaching 50. In other words, there is a serious possibility that the Senate might enact a public option if there is a vote on it, because it's very difficult for these Senators to vote "No" after pretending all year long -- on the record -- that they supported it. OpEdNews: Dennis Kucinich, an unwavering progressive Democrat, is saying that he will vote against the the Health Reform bill.

Amnesty report condemns US death rates of women in childbirth. The death rate of women giving birth in the US is worse than in 40 other countries, including nearly all the industrialised countries, Amnesty International said today in a report that describes the country's approach to maternity care as "disgraceful and scandalous". According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the likelihood of a woman dying in childbirth in the US is five times greater than in Greece.

Thank you to Guardian News for another report on the babies born with deformities as a result of depleted uranium munitions and chemical weapons. AWIP/Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'.

Sour Gropes: Glenn Beck's interview with Eric Massa wasn't a total waste of time -- he got a new sign-off phrase.

This black and white photos are just to disturbing. I believe that when you see them you will share my opinion too. This photos are made in South part of Serbia-Kosovo. This photos are taken in the mental institution, and you will get to see that most of the people are with some physical disability too. The conditions are terrible and this people don’t get the proper medical care.

I urge you to reject the Obama health care bill. This is not reform; it is a bailout of bankrupt insurance companies at the expense of average working people, obtained through coercion and extortion. Forcing Americans to buy insurance from private, for-profit, deregulated companies is clearly unconstitutional. The idea of a mandate to purchase insurance is a reactionary Republican invention, and we want no part of it. Furthermore, this bill’s $500 billion in Medicare cuts are a direct attack on the economic rights of Americans implemented under the New Deal and the Great Society, and will cause incalculable suffering and human tragedy. These colossal Medicare cuts will inevitably result in rationing, delay, and the denial of care, causing patients to die needlessly. The spirit of this bill is that of OMB Director Peter Orszag, the sinister Malthusian bureaucrat who is behind recent attempts to deny Americans Pap smears, mammograms, and PSA tests – as cost-cutting measures.

When a tsunami crashed into an asylum in Chile, two unlikely heroines, one schizophrenic, the other mentally disabled, formed a team to save their friends' lives. With water up to their necks, they dragged other patients to safety. Boston.com: The Big Picture: Chile, nine days later (41 photos total).

Non-doctors would be trained to administer a lethal potion to elderly people who 'consider their lives complete'. The radical move would be a world first and push the boundaries even further in the country that first legalised euthanasia. The Dutch parliament is to debate the measure after campaigners for assisted suicide collected 112,500 signatures in a month.

Obviously literacy (and education) does not cause this trend. What it does suggest though is that if the social structure is in place to favor boys over girls, and if the economic means are there, then a better educated population is actually more at risk. This is surprising: one would have thought that a higher literacy rate (and thus better education) would correlate with a more enlightened attitude towards females. Sadly, this seems not to be the case.

AWIP: Dennis Kucinich "This Bill Is A Sellout To Insurance Companies!" -VIDEO

Interview with Dennis Kyne, 15-year U.S. Army Veteran serving in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. AWIP/Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'.

Six years after the intense fighting began in the Iraqi town of Fallujah between US forces and Sunni insurgents, there is a disturbingly large number of cases of birth defects in the town. Fallujah is less than 40 miles (65km) from Baghdad, but it can still be dangerous to get to. As a result, there has been no authoritative medical investigation, certainly by any Western team, into the allegations that the weapons used by the Americans are still causing serious problems. The Iraqi government line is that there are only one or two extra cases of birth defects per year in Fallujah, compared with the national average. AWIP/Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'.

In the wake of last week's "bipartisan summit" -- which proved that no Republicans in Congress will vote for health care reform -- an avalanche of Democratic senators are announcing today that they will vote YES for the public health insurance option if it is brought up in "reconciliation." Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are the latest to announce their support, raising the number of senators on record from 0 to 30 in under 2 weeks. LA Times: The question everyone should be asking: What do we need health insurers for anyway?

A few suggestions for anxious parents who typically hover on the edge of the playground with a first aid kit: Let your child lick a 9-volt battery, just to see what happens. Encourage them try to drive a nail. And by all means, let them play with fire.

Plagiarism, "unethical research" and unreliable findings from "fabricated data" are grounds for retraction of medical journal articles says the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). But one look at the US National Library of Medicine database shows the bogus, ghostwritten papers Wyeth (now Pfizer) planted in medical journals in a ghostwriting scandal that reached Congress last year, still stand unretracted.

A generation of parents in Buenos Aires can only watch in despair as their sons and daughters are consumed by paco, a lethally cheap drug. A toxic and highly addictive mixture of raw cocaine base cut with chemicals, glue, crushed glass and rat poison, paco is the curse of Argentina's urban poor. And consumption of this bastardised, low-grade drug is eating away at the vitality and hope of the most deprived neighbourhood areas of the capital.

US states are imposing major cuts to Medicaid, the health insurance program for low income Americans jointly funded with the federal government. The cuts are being enacted in response to huge budget deficits in states throughout the country and a sharp increase in enrollment fuelled by the unemployment crisis.

According to the study, male prisoners were more likely than females to report sexual activity with facility staff, but less likely than females to report forced sexual activity with other youth. Surprisingly, a whopping 95 percent of all youth reporting staff sexual misconduct said they had been victimized by female staff members. In the most troubling facilities, between 20 and 30 percent of incarcerated youth reported abuse.

Cancer is spreading like wildfire in Iraq. Thousands of infants are being born with deformities. Doctors say they are struggling to cope with the rise of cancer and birth defects, especially in cities subjected to heavy American and British bombardment, notes Jalal Ghazi. Forget about oil, occupation, terrorism or even Al Qaeda. The real hazard for Iraqis these days is cancer. Cancer is spreading like wildfire in Iraq. Thousands of infants are being born with deformities. Doctors say they are struggling to cope with the rise of cancer and birth defects, especially in cities subjected to heavy American and British bombardment. AWIP/Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'.

I've been sentenced for a D.U.I. offense. My 3rd one. When I first came to prison, I had no idea what to expect. Certainly none of this. I'm a tall white male, who unfortunately has a small amount of feminine characteristics. And very shy. These characteristics have got me raped so many times I have no more feelings physically. I have been raped by up to 5 black men and two white men at a time. I've had knifes at my head and throat. I had fought and been beat so hard that I didn't ever think I'd see straight again. One time when I refused to enter a cell, I was brutally attacked by staff and taken to segragation though I had only wanted to prevent the same and worse by not locking up with my cell mate. There is no supervision after lockdown. I was given a conduct report. I explained to the hearing officer what the issue was. He told me that off the record, He suggests I find a man I would/could willingly have sex with to prevent these things from happening. I've requested protective custody only to be denied. It is not available here. He also said there was no where to run to, and it would be best for me to accept things . . . . I probably have AIDS now. I have great difficulty raising food to my mouth from shaking after nightmares or thinking to hard on all this . . . . I've laid down without physical fight to be sodomized. To prevent so much damage in struggles, ripping and tearing. Though in not fighting, it caused my heart and spirit to be raped as well. Something I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for.

India has deferred the commercial cultivation of what would have been its first genetically modified (GM) vegetable crop due to safety concerns. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said more studies were needed to ensure genetically modified aubergines were safe for consumers and the environment. The GM vegetable has undergone field trials since 2008 and received approval from government scientists in 2009. But there has been a heated public row over the cultivation of the GM crop.

As Republican leaders are urging President Obama to scrap the Democrats’ health care reform legislation and start the process from scratch, they’ve found an unlikely ally in Rep. Dennis Kucinich. The Ohio Democrat — a perennial presidential candidate — wants President Obama to consider government-sponsored, single-payer health coverage in lieu of the insurance industry-based reforms being proposed by Democratic leaders.

A recent study offers the first evidence linking exceptional intellectual ability to bipolar disorder. Researchers found top students were almost four times as likely to develop bipolar disorder as adults, compared to those with average grades.

A record 38.2 million Americans were enrolled in the food stamp program at latest count, up 246,000 from the previous month and the latest in record-high monthly tallies that began in December 2008. Food stamps are the primary federal anti-hunger program, helping poor people buy groceries. The Agriculture Department updated enrollment data on Friday with a preliminary figure for November.

Air passengers should be made aware of the health risks of airport body screenings and governments must explain any decision to expose the public to higher levels of cancer-causing radiation, an inter-agency report said. Pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, even though the radiation dose from body scanners is “extremely small,” said the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety report, which is restricted to the agencies concerned and not meant for public circulation. The group includes the European Commission, International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Energy Agency and the World Health Organization.

One in eight Americans does not have enough to eat and requires emergency food assistance. This staggering number is revealed in a report released on Tuesday by Feeding America (FA), a network consisting of thousands of food pantries, soup kitchens and similar agencies serving 37 million people in the US. The report, entitled Hunger in America 2010, paints a devastating portrait of the social misery faced by millions of American working people. Economic Policy Institute: A long and persistent middle-class squeeze. NYT: 20,000 Jobs Lost in January as Jobless Rate Falls to 9.7%.

Zumante Lucero, a 9 year-old Denver boy with asthma, died in July after a severe attack. His family had previously been on Medicaid, but was unexpectedly cut off from the program, and lost access to medication as a result. Zumante's doctors believe that access to a prescription that helped control inflaming in his lungs could have saved his life. Since Zumante's death, it has become clear that the Lucero family should have had prescription drug benefits under Medicaid, and the State of Colorado erred in cutting them off of coverage.

Scientists have been able to reach into the mind of a brain-damaged man and communicate with his thoughts. The research, carried out in the UK and Belgium, involved a new brain scanning method. Awareness was detected in three other patients previously diagnosed as being in a vegetative state. The study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that scans can detect signs of awareness in patients thought to be closed off from the world. Patients in a vegetative state are awake, not in a coma, but have no awareness because of severe brain damage. The scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) which shows brain activity in real time. New England Journal of Medicine: Willful Modulation of Brain Activity in Disorders of Consciousness [the original scientific article].

Despite being legalized nearly 40 years ago, the topic of abortion still raises huge controversy in the US, as some argue it is leading to genocide of the African-American population. The founder of www.blackgenocide.org website, Rev. Dr. Clenard H. Childress Jr., has told RT that African-American women are being sold abortions.

Children are hit particularly hard, according to the report by Feeding America, a network of 203 food banks nationwide. One in five children, 14 million, received food from soup kitchens, food pantries and other agencies, up from 9 million in 2005, the year of the group's last major survey. More here: Hunger in America 2010