Insights

<p>For your Friday reading, here's what's not to miss in today's&nbsp;<em>Daily Briefing.</em></p>

<p>Could Chinese drywall scrap be responsible for health problems linked to American-made drywall? Answers and more in our Daily Briefing.</p>

<p>Health care, education, politics, and pride take a back seat when you have no shelter.</p>

<p>How did William Hamman, the United Airlines pilot <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20101214/NEWS06/12140350/1318/-Fake-doc-ha… faked being a cardiologist</a>, get away with it? By speaking with authority and knowing that nobody was going to bother to fact-check his résumé, including the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board.</p>

<p>Does the HIV "cure" recently reported in Germany live up to the hype it's getting? Answers and more from our Daily Briefing.</p>

<div class="articleparagraph"><p>Reporter's note:</p><p>One year ago from yesterday, 11-year-old Chandler Nash Elliott hung himself while his father was at work. We received a press release about the suicide over the fax. Like most news agencies, we do not report on suicides unless they are in a public place or the deceased is a public figure.</p><p>I told my colleagues -- and we all agreed -- that this would not make the news unless the family approached us, wanting to tell the boy's story.</p><p>The next morning, that's exactly what happened.</p></div>

<p><a href="http://twitter.com/jonathanwatts">Jonathan Watts</a> has had a dream assignment, in many ways. He has been able to watch China transform itself into a true economic superpower and has detailed the resulting environmental and societal problems in his stories for the Guardian in London.</p>

<p>Last week, I posted the <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/qa-dr-neel-shah-part-1-getting-doctors-consider-costs-care">first part of my conversation</a> with Dr. Neel Shah, founder and director of <a href="http://www.costsofcare.org/">Costs of Care</a>, a nonprofit that urges doctors to consider how their treatment decisions affect patients’ pocketbooks and develops tools to help them do so. Shah shares his thoughts on current news coverage of health care costs and offers some story ideas.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>Lawsuits and health surprises abound in today's&nbsp;<em>Daily Briefing.</em></p>

<p>Ken sleeps under a sheltered overhang in the Financial District, an area full of sun-glinting towers and chic lunchtime hot-spots. Our own<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/maps/top100/2009sf&quot; target="_blank">&nbsp;map of the Top 100 restaurants</a>&nbsp;shows a hefty number clustered there,