ProgressNow.org Daily News Digest

India Opens Call Center to Help Control Population Growth - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401502.html The phone rang at a call center in New Delhi one recent afternoon. When an agent picked up the receiver, a young woman whispered hesitantly. She said that she lived with her large extended family in a remote rural settlement and that nobody knew she was calling. "I told her to be open and have no fear. She paused after every word," recalled Payalkumari, 27, the call center agent, who uses only her first name. "Then she slowly opened up. She was newly married. She said her mother-in-law wanted her to have a child right away, but she was not ready to. She asked, 'Is there some contraception that I can use secretly and nobody else will get to know in the family?' " Payalkumari has taken hundreds of such calls since June, when India's government-sponsored National Population Stabilization Fund opened a call center to provide reliable information about such socially taboo subjects as family planning, contraception and reproductive health -- the first service of its kind in the country.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

More stories in National/Reproductive Choice | Colorado/Reproductive Choice

Health providers’ ‘conscience’ rule to take effect - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-conscience19-2008dec19,0,6352558.story The Bush administration announced its "conscience protection" rule for the healthcare industry Thursday, giving doctors, hospitals, and even receptionists and volunteers in medical experiments the right to refuse to participate in medical care they find morally objectionable. "This rule protects the right of medical providers to care for their patients in accord with their conscience," said outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. The right-to-refuse rule includes abortion and other aspects of healthcare where moral concerns could arise, Leavitt's office said, such as birth control, emergency contraception, in vitro fertilization, stem cell research and assisted suicide. The rule, to be published today in the Federal Register, takes effect the day before President Bush leaves office.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

More stories in National/Reproductive Choice | Colorado/Reproductive Choice

Military to be on high alert for inauguration - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-inauguration18-2008dec18,0,702570.story About 11,500 troops, including chemical attack experts, will join the security detail as Obama takes the oath of office.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

More stories in National/Military | Colorado/Military

Feds rate U.S. nursing homes - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-12-18-nursinghome_N.htm The scores reflect tens of thousands of inspection records, complaint investigations and quality measures, such as how many nursing staff hours were provided each day to patients, how many patients developed bedsores and how many were placed in restraints. Much of the data were collected in 2008. Acting Medicare Administrator Kerry Weems says offering the data in a simple five-star format should prompt "a national conversation about nursing home quality" and spur homes to improve.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

New security rules approved for nuclear power plants; defense against potential cyberattacks—chic

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-ap-nuclear-plant-security,0,1484840.story The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved new security rules for nuclear power plants, including measures aimed at better protecting against potential cyberattacks. For years in the making, the rules update requirements first imposed in emergency orders after the Sept. 11 attacks. But watchdog groups have criticized the agency for not going far enough. They say the rules do not call on plant operators to help protect against a potential attack from a large aircraft that might be flown into a reactor or a used fuel storage pool. The groups also say security forces still are not required to be strong enough to counter potential coordinated ground attacks by a dozen or more well armed terrorists. The NRC has maintained that protection against an attack by a large aircraft must be a joint responsibility among government agencies, the military and plant operators and is beyond the responsibility of a reactor owner. The new rules require a reactor operator to have in hand "strategies and response procedures to address an aircraft threat," the NRC said in a statement.

More stories in National/Energy Policy | Colorado/Energy Policy

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Insurers Seek Presence at Health Care Sessions - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/us/politics/17health.html?ref=washington When supporters of President-elect Barack Obama hold house parties to discuss ways of fixing the health care system over the next two weeks, they may find some unexpected guests.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Feds: Suspicious packages sent to National Guard bureaus and Reserve facilities in 36 states—chic

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-ap-suspicious-letters,0,6865741.story Federal authorities are reporting that suspicious packages have been sent to National Guard bureaus and reserve facilities in 36 states. A Dec. 16 report from the Department of Homeland Security says the 51 packages include anti-war compact discs, and one package also had a suspicious powder. It said the powder, sent in a package to Utah's National Guard headquarters in Draper, was tested and found not to be toxic, the report said. The FBI is investigating the incidents. Eight U.S. embassies in Europe and more than 40 governors' offices around the United States have received suspicious letters and are also under FBI investigation.

More stories in National/Crime and Penal Reform | Colorado/Crime and Penal Reform

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Ohio toughens state laws for pharmacy technicians - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/drugs/2008-12-16-pharmacy-technicians-laws_N.htm Inspired by the memory of a 2-year-old girl who died from a prescription error, Ohio lawmakers gave final legislative approval Tuesday to a law that would require pharmacy technicians to meet minimum safety standards. Emily Jerry, undergoing treatment for a grapefruit-sized tumor, died in March 2006 after a pharmacy technician at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland mixed a chemotherapy drug with a saline solution that contained 26 times more salt than the normal amount. The hospital pharmacist failed to detect the error.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Woman undergoes face transplant in Cleveland - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-facetransplant17-2008dec17,0,4084042.story A woman being treated at the Cleveland Clinic has an almost entirely new face following the most extensive facial transplant ever performed, the medical center said Tuesday. The surgery was the first face transplant in the U.S. and the fourth in the world. Few details about the patient have been released in advance of a news conference scheduled for today. About 80% of the patient's face was replaced with skin and muscles harvested from a cadaver. The family of the patient has asked that her name and age not be released so she can remain anonymous, the clinic said. It was not clear when the surgery took place. Dr. Maria Siemionow, the Cleveland Clinic plastic surgeon who performed the marathon procedure, is well known among microsurgery specialists, and colleagues were quick to praise the achievement. They said face transplants would become routine in the coming years.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Bush Prepares Crisis Briefings to Aid Obama - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/us/politics/17transition.html?ref=us The White House has prepared more than a dozen contingency plans to help guide President-elect Barack Obama if an international crisis erupts in the opening days of his administration, part of an elaborate operation devised to smooth the first transition of power since Sept. 11, 2001.

More stories in National/Effective and Ethical Government | Colorado/Effective and Ethical Government

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Court Allows Suit Against ‘Light’ Cigarette Makers - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121501197.html The Supreme Court said yesterday that consumers may sue over what they allege to be deceptive marketing of "light" cigarettes, a decision that opens tobacco companies to what could be billions of dollars in liability in court cases nationwide. The justices voted 5-4 in saying that a group of Maine smokers may proceed with their suit against Philip Morris USA, now owned by Altria. The marketing of what the tobacco companies had once called a more "healthy" cigarette is perhaps the biggest legal liability facing the industry, experts say. The court said federal laws regarding the labeling of cigarettes for health dangers do not stand in the way of suits under state laws that regulate fraudulent marketing practices.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

V.P. Cheney lauds Obama’s choice of national security team - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2008-12-16-cheney-obama_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip Vice President Dick Cheney is calling President-elect Barack Obama's national security lineup "a pretty good team." In a wide-ranging interview with ABC News with 35 days left in the Bush administration, Cheney also again vehemently defended going to war in Iraq, said waterboarding of suspects in the war on terror was justified in some instances and opposed closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "I must say, I think it's a pretty good team," Cheney said of Obama's national security choices, in a segment of the interview broadcast Tuesday on Good Morning America. "I'm not close to Barack Obama, obviously, nor do I identify with him politically. He's a liberal. I'm a conservative," he said.

More stories in National/Civil Liberties and Equality | Colorado/Civil Liberties and Equality

More stories in National/Effective and Ethical Government | Colorado/Effective and Ethical Government

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

FDA Will Continue to Study BPA - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121502920.html The Food and Drug Administration, criticized by its own scientific advisers for ignoring available data about health risks posed by a chemical found in everyday plastic, said yesterday it has no plans to amend its position on the substance but will continue to study it. The agency has been reviewing its risk assessments for bisphenol A, a chemical used to harden plastic that is found in a wide variety of products, from baby bottles to compact discs to the lining of canned goods. The chemical, commonly called BPA, mimics estrogen and may disrupt the body's carefully calibrated endocrine system. BPA is found in the urine of more than 90 percent of the U.S. population, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scientists believe it is most easily ingested after leaching from plastic containers into food and drink. In September, the first large study of BPA in humans found that people with higher levels of bisphenol A had higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and liver abnormalities.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Death rates for heart disease and stroke drop significantly - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-heart16-2008dec16,0,4857838.story The death rates for heart disease and stroke each dropped by about 30% between 1999 and 2006, allowing the American Heart Assn. to reach its 2010 goal of a 25% reduction in deaths four years early, researchers said Monday. "It's one of the most remarkable achievements of modern medicine to have this kind of decline," said Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, a cardiologist at UCLA's Geffen School of Medicine who was not involved in the research. "But there is still obviously a lot of work to be done. We still have the No. 1 and 3 killers of men and women in the United States." The association had announced in January that it had achieved its goal for heart disease and was close to achieving its mark for stroke. But experts fear the declines may soon be reversed.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Next Director of National Institutes of Health Faces Budget Challenges - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/12/AR2008121203973.html The director of the National Institutes of Health may be the least political of a president's political appointments. The director's job is not to promote administration priorities -- in fact, it's the opposite. The chief, if unwritten, task is to keep the president and Congress from meddling with the agency. The NIH this fiscal year will spend just under $29.5 billion on basic and applied medical research. More than 80 percent of the funding takes the form of 50,000 grants to 325,000 scientists in the United States and a few overseas. About 10 percent supports research by 6,000 staff scientists, most working at the agency's campus and hospital in Bethesda. In the past decade, the NIH's budget saw an unprecedented doubling, from $13 billion in 1998 to $27 billion in 2003. In the past five years, however, it has risen only slightly -- and, when adjusted for inflation, has declined. Of the many people inside and outside the agency who were queried about the issues facing a new director, nearly every one said renewed growth of NIH spending is the top priority.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Court allows lawsuits over ‘light’ cigarettes - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/supremecourtopinions/2008-12-15-scotus-light-cigarettes_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip The Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 vote Monday that federal regulation of cigarette labels does not prevent smokers from bringing state lawsuits against tobacco companies for fraud in the marketing of "light" and "low tar" cigarettes. The decision, given a recent trend in the court's cases, allows a group of Maine residents who smoked Marlboro Lights and Cambridge Lights to press their lawsuit based on Maine anti-fraud law against Altria Group, the parent company to Philip Morris. The smokers say the company deceptively advertised the cigarettes as "light" despite knowing they were not safer than regular cigarettes. The ruling in the dispute closely followed by health advocates and manufacturers takes a step back from prior rulings that had shielded companies from various state consumer protection laws based on federal regulation in the field.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

A Lifeline for Families Faces Cuts - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/13/AR2008121301773.html Sometimes it seems as though all Doreen Tiseo does is care for her 87-year-old father, who has memory loss from Alzheimer's disease. She supervises him in the shower and gives him reminders, such as "pick up the soap" and "wash your face." In the morning, she helps him dress and slips a handkerchief into his pocket. At night when he wanders, she tells him, "It's dark out, time to sleep." But during the day, she gets a respite to go to her job as her father attends a city-funded program. It offers people with dementia and Alzheimer's art and music therapy, lunch, physical activities, and guided discussions and socializing -- critical, Tiseo says, to keeping her father alert, happy and relatively healthy. Now, because of a budget crisis, New York City plans to eliminate funding for all 12 of these adult day-care programs at the end of this month, saving $1.2 million before the next fiscal year begins in July. The programs, which receive most of their funding from the city, are facing immediate closure unless they can raise fees dramatically or find new donors -- in a climate in which other government agencies, corporations and individuals are also cutting back. Even then, they may be able to remain open only a few days a week.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Storm-related power failures across Northeast continue to leave residents shivering in the dark - Lo

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-icestorm14-2008dec14,0,6522718.story Temperatures fell over the ice-coated Northeast on Saturday, where storm-related power failures had already plunged more than a million homes and businesses from Pennsylvania to Maine into the dark and cold. "If you don't have power, assume that you will not get it restored today, and right now make arrangements to stay someplace warm tonight," warned Gov. John Lynch of hardest-hit New Hampshire. State utilities said that power probably wouldn't be restored until Thursday or Friday, partly because of the sheer number of outages and partly because of the devastation. "What is facing us is the apparent need to rebuild the entire infrastructure of some sections of the electrical delivery system," said Martin Murray, spokesman for Public Service of New Hampshire.

More stories in National/Energy Policy | Colorado/Energy Policy

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Estrogen, progestin pills increase breast cancer risk, study finds - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-breast14-2008dec14,0,1651168.story Taking menopause hormones for five years doubles the risk for breast cancer, according to a new analysis of a big federal study that reveals the most dramatic evidence yet of the dangers of these popular pills. Even women who took estrogen and progestin pills for just a couple of years had a greater chance of getting cancer. But when they stopped, their odds quickly improved, returning to a normal risk level about two years later. Collectively, these new findings are likely to end any doubt that the risks outweigh the benefits for most women. Breast cancer rates plunged in recent years mainly because millions of women quit hormone therapy and fewer newly menopausal women started on it, said the study's leader, Dr. Rowan Chlebowski of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Obama names Tom Daschle to head healthcare overhaul - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-health12-2008dec12,0,7459722.story Far from pulling back on his commitment to overhaul the nation's healthcare system, President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday said the economic downturn makes major changes more imperative, not less. "The time is now to solve this problem," Obama said at a Chicago news conference, where he formally announced he would nominate Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senate leader from South Dakota, to be secretary of Health and Human Services. "It's not something that we can sort of put off because we're in an emergency. This is part of the emergency." If successful, Obama will have achieved a goal that has eluded presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Obama, who last month offered Daschle a post in his administration, said he planned to nominate Daschle to lead a new White House Office of Health Reform as well.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Obama, Democratic Leaders Expanding Health Measures in Stimulus Package - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/12/AR2008121200003.html President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress are devising plans to significantly expand the health provisions in next month's economic recovery legislation, arguing that pouring billions of dollars into an array of health programs will not only boost the economy but also make a down payment on promises of broader health-care reform. In a stimulus bill that could exceed $500 billion, Obama has already pledged to increase federal Medicaid spending -- perhaps by more than $40 billion over two years -- and to make a large investment in health information technology. Talks are underway about also adding money to retrain medical workers, extending the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and expanding the law that allows unemployed people to purchase health insurance through a previous employer's plan, known as COBRA. At a Chicago news conference yesterday to introduce Thomas A. Daschle as his choice for health and human services secretary, Obama said major reform of the health-care system "has to be intimately woven into our overall economic recovery plan."

More stories in National/Economy | Colorado/Economy

More stories in National/Effective and Ethical Government | Colorado/Effective and Ethical Government

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

FDA Draft Report Urges Consumption of Fish, Despite Mercury Contamination - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121103394.html The Food and Drug Administration is urging the government to amend its advisory that women and children should limit how much fish they eat, saying that the benefits of seafood outweigh the health risks and that most people should eat more fish, even if it contains mercury. If approved by the White House, the FDA's position would reverse the government's current policy that certain groups -- women of childbearing years, pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants and children -- can be harmed by the mercury in fish and should limit their consumption. The FDA's recommendations have alarmed scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency, who in internal memos criticized them as "scientifically flawed and inadequate" and said they fell short of the "scientific rigor routinely demonstrated by EPA."

More stories in National/Environment and Conservation | Colorado/Environment and Conservation

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Number of Children Immunized Has Been Inflated for Years - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121103318.html Many of the world's poorest countries have for decades routinely exaggerated the number of children being immunized against disease, apparently driven by political pressure and, more recently, financial incentives. That is the finding of a huge analysis that has provoked heated discussion even before its publication in the Lancet, a European medical journal. Since 1986, progress in childhood immunization in the developing world has been about half that officially reported by governments in the developing world. Not only are year-to-year improvements overstated, but the total percentage of children immunized is far lower than publicly acknowledged, the study found.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

Boston health commission votes to ban cigar, hookah bars - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-12-11-cigar_N.htm Boston officials approved some of the toughest anti-tobacco rules in the nation Thursday, extinguishing cigar bars and hookah bars and ending the sales of tobacco in pharmacies and on college campuses. The Boston Public Health Commission, however, decided to give the bars 10 years before they would have to close, doubling the original proposed grace period for the establishments. Even then, the bars could seek an extension for another 10 years. Boston is the largest city, by far, to move to outlaw smoking bars, which have been exempt from the city's four-year-old workplace smoking ban. "As we all know, smoking is the number one cause of preventable cancer deaths in the U.S.," said Dr. Paula Johnson, chairwoman of the commission.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety

FDA advisers: Advair OK, but some long-acting asthma medications too risky for use—chicagotribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/health/sns-ap-asthma-drugs7a,0,5525046.story Government health advisers recommended restrictions Thursday on some long-acting asthma drugs, although not Advair, a top-selling medication. Outside experts advising the Food and Drug Administration said Foradil and Serevent no longer should be used for asthma. But they said the benefits of the more widely used Advair and Symbicort clearly outweigh the risks. Each contains an ingredient that relaxes muscles around stressed airways. But that may mask symptoms that can trigger life-threatening asthma attacks. Advair and Symbicort contain a second ingredient that reduces inflammation inside breathing passages and may help patients avoid such problems. For all four drugs, the FDA's drug safety experts had recommended restrictions, including not using them to treat asthmatic children. The agency's respiratory specialists disagreed, saying the risks were manageable.

More stories in National/Health Care and Public Safety | Colorado/Health Care and Public Safety