Project: How green are state governments?
State governments have trumpeted many greenhouse-gas and energy reduction targets for their own state operations — "leading by example" while urging similar change in the private sector. And state agencies have employed an array of energy-saving programs and fleet requirements toward these goals.
"It's not your grandmother's Medi-Cal any more." California's version of Medicaid now provides health services for more than 12 million people, almost a third of all Californians. Medi-Cal insures more people than the populations of all but six states.
Elder abuse is a huge and growing problem, but it gets no where near the budgetary or political recognition of child abuse and domestic violence. It's underreported and government resources are scarce.
It's been half a century since Congress passed the Older Americans Act, providing services to help people age in their homes. But Washington seems to have overlooked the need for funding to keep up with the skyrocketing growth of the older population.
One of these popcorn victims, suffering lung damage after exposure to diacetyl, just won a $7 million verdict in Denver. Read here about the continuing controversy around this food flavoring compound.
Project: Hydrogen Hypocrisy?
Republicans say a big reason to vote for them is that they want to "end corporate welfare" by getting the government out of the business of choosing which clean energy technologies to nurture. But by quietly, but repeatedly, pressing to bet taxpayer money on hydrogen fuel cells, they may have elimna
Project: Preterm Birth and Adult Illness
Premature birth is a global killer. Leaving the womb too early accounts for more than 1 million infant deaths each year, the latest data reveals, almost half of all newborn mortality worldwide. But it’s not just the toll on newborns that increasingly concerns health experts.
Project: Rethinking Healthy Aging
There was a time when menopausal hormone therapy was seen as a near-panacea for the ills of the aging woman. That was before Marcia Stefanick and her Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) colleagues put the theory to the test and upended the medical world.