First Edition: November 29, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Democrats Taking Key Leadership Jobs Have Pocketed Millions From Pharma
Three of the lawmakers who will lead the House next year as Congress focuses on skyrocketing drug costs are among the biggest recipients of campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, a new KHN analysis shows. On Wednesday, House Democrats selected Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland to serve as the next majority leader and Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina as majority whip, making them the No. 2 and No. 3 most powerful Democrats as their party regains control of the House in January. (Huetteman, 11/29)
Kaiser Health News:
Under Trump, Number Of Uninsured Kids Rose For First Time This Decade
While not a big jump statistically — the share of uninsured kids rose to 5 percent in 2017 from 4.7 percent a year earlier — it is still striking. The uninsured rate typically remains stable or drops during times of economic growth. In September, the U.S. unemployment rate hit its lowest level since 1969. “The nation is going backwards on insuring kids and it is likely to get worse,” said Joan Alker, co-author of the study and executive director of Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families. (Galewitz, 11/29)
Kaiser Health News:
Watch: Why Infusion Drugs Come With Sticker Shock
Kaiser Health News Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal discusses the latest “Bill of the Month” installment on “CBS This Morning” on Wednesday. The story of an Ohio mom who faced an outrageous bill for a new medicine for multiple sclerosis is part of an ongoing crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR. (11/29)
Politico:
Trump May Finally Be Undermining Obamacare
There has been a steep drop in Obamacare insurance numbers, halfway through the sign-up season for 2019, raising concerns that the Trump administration’s controversial policy changes are undermining the marketplaces. The 9.2 percent drop to roughly 100,000 sign-ups per day has surprised close observers of the Obamacare markets, who expected the number of customers to remain fairly stable even after Republicans eliminated the unpopular individual mandate penalties for being uninsured. Premium hikes were fairly low in most states for 2019, and many parts of the country saw an increase in consumer choice as more health plans participated in what they now see as a more profitable, stabilizing market. (Demko, 11/28)
The Hill:
Top Dems Blame 'Sabotage' As ObamaCare Enrollment Slows
Top House Democrats are blaming President Trump for ObamaCare signup numbers that so far are lower than last year. "While there are still two weeks remaining in Open Enrollment, these lagging numbers show that Republicans' sabotage of our nation's health care system is working,” said Reps. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the incoming chairmen of the three committees overseeing the Affordable Care Act. (Sullivan, 11/28)
Los Angeles Times:
Number Of Uninsured Children Climbs, Reversing More Than A Decade Of Progress, Report Finds
The number of children in the United States without health insurance increased last year for the first time in more than a decade, according to a new report that highlights potentially worrisome backsliding in pediatric care. The erosion in health insurance came despite a robust economy, which in the past has helped fuel expansions in coverage. It likely reflects a number of steps taken by the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress that have targeted safety net programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program known as CHIP, note the authors of the new report from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. (Levey, 11/28)
The Hill:
Dem Senator Murray Calls For Trying Again On Bipartisan ObamaCare Fix
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Wednesday called for reviving bipartisan efforts to reach a deal to fix ObamaCare after an agreement she was part of collapsed last year. “Mr. Chairman, I'm really hopeful that we can revive discussions in the new Congress and find a way past the ideological standoffs of the past,” Murray said to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), her Republican partner in forging last year’s deal, at a hearing on health care costs. (Sullivan, 11/28)
The Hill:
Dem Single-Payer Fight Set To Shift To Battle Over Medicare ‘Buy-In’
Momentum is building among House Democrats for a more moderate alternative to single-payer health-care legislation. The legislation, which would allow people aged 50 to 65 to buy Medicare, is being championed by Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), who supported House Minority Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for Speaker in exchange for a commitment to work on his bill when Democrats take control of the House early next year. (Weixel, 11/29)
Stat:
Once-A-Day Pills For Combating HIV Are A Better Deal Than Some People Think
Contrary to assumptions, once-a-day pills for combating HIV are actually less expensive than multi-tablet regimens and also offer an added bonus — patient adherence is greater, which suggests healthier outcomes, according to a new analysis of pharmacy claims. To wit, patient costs for single-tablet regimens were $6,100 less a year when compared regimens requiring multiple pills. ... Meanwhile, patient adherence was nearly 75 percent among those taking once-daily pills versus 65 percent for those on multi-tablet regimens. (Silverman, 11/29)
The Hill:
Conservative Groups Write Letter Opposing Trump Move To Lower Drug Prices
A coalition of 55 conservative groups has written a letter calling on the Trump administration to withdraw a proposal to lower drug prices, warning of creating “price controls.” The letter from the groups represents a break between President Trump and conservative allies over the drug pricing proposal unveiled in October, which departs from the traditional Republican position on drug prices. (Sullivan, 11/28)
The Associated Press Fact Check:
Entire Trump Tweet On Immigrant Aid Is Wrong
President Donald Trump is spreading a false claim from supporters that people who are in the United States illegally receive more in federal assistance than the average American gets in Social Security benefits. Everything about the tweet he passed on to his 56 million listed Twitter followers Tuesday is wrong. (Woodward, 11/29)
The Associated Press:
Texas Ruling May Allow Licensing Of Migrant Family Detention
A Texas appeals court's ruling Wednesday could allow state authorities to formally license two detention centers that house thousands of immigrant families, something advocates warn might lead to the unlimited detention of migrant children. Two facilities in the South Texas cities of Karnes and Dilley have the capacity to detain roughly 3,500 parents and children. Under federal court rulings, the government is required to release children from Karnes or Dilley quickly because the facilities aren't licensed by a state or local government. That effectively leads to the faster release of many parents as well. (11/28)
The Associated Press:
Baltimore Sues Trump Administration Over Immigration Policy
Baltimore filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday against the Trump administration alleging that "unlawful" efforts altering a State Department policy are restricting visa applicants and deterring law-abiding immigrants from claiming public assistance. In its lawsuit, Baltimore asserts the U.S. State Department earlier this year quietly expanded its definition of "public charge" — someone the United States deems likely to be primarily dependent on government aid. (McFadden, 11/28)
The Washington Post:
Baltimore Sued The Trump Administration Over Efforts To Withhold Visas For Immigrants Who Use Public Benefits
“They’re giving up government-supported health care, they’re giving up free school lunches, they’re giving up food stamps, they’re not applying for housing,” said City Solicitor Andre M. Davis, a former federal judge. “It’s a noncash public benefit that people are abandoning so they don’t lose the opportunity for themselves or their family to get a visa.” (Cox, 11/28)
The Associated Press:
FDA Permits 'Export Only' Medical Devices Not For Use In US
Australian Army veteran Wolfgang Neszpor was stunned when he heard his recently repaired shoulder squeak. "You could really hear it," he said. He recalled when the surgeon examined him and lifted up his arm, "It was a stupid amount of pain." Two months earlier, Neszpor, 36, had gotten a new shoulder joint, a PyroTITAN made by Integra LifeSciences of New Jersey. (11/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
CVS Completes $70 Billion Acquisition Of Aetna
CVS Health Corp. completed its nearly $70 billion acquisition of Aetna Inc., forging a new industry giant and starting the clock ticking on ambitious goals of curbing health-care costs and improving consumers’ experience. The combined company faces significant challenges in bringing together its diverse set of health assets, including CVS’s sprawling network of pharmacies, a pharmacy-benefit manager and Aetna’s employer insurance, Medicare and Medicaid managed-care businesses. Aetna will be operated as a stand-alone unit, and CVS will continue using the brand in reference to its insurance products. (Wilde Mathews and Al-Muslim, 11/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Amazon Makes Inroads Selling Medical Supplies To The Sick
Amazon.com Inc. is selling medical products to patients based on one of the most private corners of the health system: electronic medical records. A growing number of doctors around the U.S. can direct a patient to Amazon to buy blood-pressure cuffs, slings and other supplies via an app embedded in the patient’s private medical record. Hospitals that use the app say the goal is to replace the handwritten shopping lists doctors often hand people, which are easy to lose, and to spare frazzled patients lengthy searches through pharmacy shelves. (Evans, 11/29)
The Associated Press:
Suicide, At 50-Year Peak, Pushes Down US Life Expectancy
Suicides and drug overdoses pushed up U.S. deaths last year, and drove a continuing decline in how long Americans are expected to live. Overall, there were more than 2.8 million U.S. deaths in 2017, or nearly 70,000 more than the previous year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. It was the most deaths in a single year since the government began counting more than a century ago. (Stobbe, 11/29)
The Washington Post:
U.S. Life Expectancy Declines Again, A Dismal Trend Not Seen Since World War I
The data continued the longest sustained decline in expected life span at birth in a century, an appalling performance not seen in the United States since 1915 through 1918. That four-year period included World War I and a flu pandemic that killed 675,000 people in the United States and perhaps 50 million worldwide. Public health and demographic experts reacted with alarm to the release of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual statistics, which are considered a reliable barometer of a society’s health. In most developed nations, life expectancy has marched steadily upward for decades. (Bernstein, 11/29)
The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further
“The continuation of this trend is a warning for all of us that our country has not found a way of addressing the profound needs of the people who are dying,” said Eric Caine, professor of psychiatry and director of the Injury Control Research Center for Suicide Prevention at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “While the economy may be recovering at the macro level, it’s very uncertain whether it’s affecting the lives of these people.” The U.S. has lost three-tenths of a year in life expectancy since 2014, a stunning reversal for a developed nation, and lags far behind other wealthy nations. (McKay, 11/29)
The New York Times:
‘The Numbers Are So Staggering.’ Overdose Deaths Set A Record Last Year.
A class of synthetic drugs has replaced heroin in many major American drug markets, ushering in a more deadly phase of the opioid epidemic. New numbers Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that drug overdoses killed more than 70,000 Americans in 2017, a record. Overdose deaths are higher than deaths from H.I.V., car crashes or gun violence at their peaks. (Katz and Sanger-Katz, 11/29)
Politico:
Drug Overdoses And Suicides Fuel Drop In U.S. Life Expectancy
Although the U.S. has struggled with a drug crisis for years, overdoses have only recently become a major driver of the overall mortality rate because decreases in other causes of death, like heart disease, have leveled off after long-term declines. "In those previous years, the increase in overdose deaths offset the declines in heart disease, but now those have flattened out so that's no longer the case," said Bob Anderson, chief of the Mortality Statistics Branch at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. (Ehley, 11/29)
USA Today:
Suicide: My Mom Took Her Life At The Grand Canyon – And I Wanted A Why
I stood and looked down into the canyon, at a spot where, millions of years ago, a river cut through. Everything about that view is impossible, a landscape that seems to defy both physics and description. It is a place that magnifies the questions in your mind and keeps the answers to itself. Visitors always ask how the canyon was formed. Rangers often give the same unsatisfying answer: Wind. Water. Time. It was April 26, 2016 – four years since my mother died. Four years to the day since she stood in this same spot and looked out at this same view. I still catch my breath here, and feel dizzy and need to remind myself to breathe in through my nose out through my mouth, slower, and again. I can say it out loud now: She killed herself. She jumped from the edge of the Grand Canyon. From the edge of the earth. (Trujillo, 11/28)
USA Today:
Suicide Prevention: Would More Funding, Less Stigma Save Lives?
Americans are more than twice as likely to die by their own hands, of their own will, than by someone else's. But while homicides spark vigils and protests, entering into headlines, presidential speeches and police budgets, suicides don't.Still shrouded in stigma, many suicides go unacknowledged save for the celebrities – Robin Williams, Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain – punctuating the unrelenting rise in suicide deaths with a brief public outcry. Just since 1999, suicide rates have climbed nearly 30 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Godlasky and Dastagir, 11/28)
USA Today:
Native American Suicides: Coping With Trauma Saved This Woman's Life
With practiced precision, Shelby Rowe uses a small needle to lift each bead, stitching it into fabric, coaxing it to become something more. Her black hair fans across hunched shoulders. A silver tree of life hangs from her neck, tethering her to the past, anchoring her in the present. For Rowe, this Native American tradition isn’t just art. Beading is part of survival.“Beads are nothing but broken glass,” she says. “I spend hours of my time mending broken things. Making something beautiful out of something broken.” (Dastagir, 11/28)
USA Today:
Transgender Suicide: How This LGBT Person Copes With Suicidal Thoughts
When Shear Avory was a child, they'd look out the window and hope. For the bullying to stop. For conversion therapy to end. For Mom. Every morning, Avory would sit in bed and count down – three, two, one – before chanting, “Today I begin a new life. Today I am free. Today I start over.” A better day would take years to come. There would be new traumas and wounds from old ones that refused to heal. “I was constantly in a space of being unaccepted, unwelcomed and put down,” said Avory, who identifies as transgender and uses the personal identity pronouns they/them/theirs. “I think from those experiences, I've always held on to hope. … I had nothing else to rely on.” (Dastagir, 11/28)
USA Today:
Suicide Loss Survivors: How Survivors Can Cope, Loved Ones Can Help
Loss survivors – the close family and friends left behind after a suicide – number six to 32 for each death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meaning that in 2016 alone, as many as 1.44 million people unwillingly became part of this group. They are forced to cope with the loss of a loved one and navigate uncertain futures, often caring for confused children as they struggle to accept they may never know "why." (Dastagir, 11/28)
The Associated Press:
Opioid Case Has New Complication: Babies Born In Withdrawal
The long-running federal court case seeking to hold drugmakers responsible for the nation’s opioid crisis has a new complication: How does it deal with claims covering the thousands of babies born to addicts? Attorneys representing the children and their guardians want their claims separated from the federal case in Cleveland that involves hundreds of local governments and other entities such as hospitals. They will argue that Thursday before a federal judicial panel in New York. (Mulvihill, 11/28)
Politico:
Babies Of The Opioid Crisis Seek Their Day In Court
“These kids end up being robbed of a chance because of opioids and because of big pharma,” said Kevin Thompson, one of the attorneys representing the opioid babies. Thompson is pushing for the babies’ cases — there are at least 13 class-action lawsuits — to be carved out from the sprawling lawsuit in Cleveland and transferred to a federal judge in West Virginia, one of the hardest-hit states where roughly 5 percent of all babies are born dependent on opioids. On Thursday morning, a seven-judge federal panel in New York that considers jurisdictional disputes will hear oral arguments on Thompson’s request. (Demko, 11/29)
The New York Times:
Jail Ordered To Give Inmate Methadone For Opioid Addiction In Far-Reaching Ruling
In a ruling that could have tremendous consequences for the country’s correctional system, a federal judge said this week that a Massachusetts man facing a jail sentence could not be denied access to treatment for his opioid addiction. Judge Denise J. Casper of the United States District Court in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction on Monday, saying that Geoffrey Pesce was likely to prevail in his argument that such a refusal violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and was cruel and unusual punishment. (Taylor, 11/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
New York City To Spend $8 Million Combatting Bronx Opioid Epidemic
New York City is dedicating $8 million to programs aimed at stemming drug-overdose deaths in the Bronx, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday. The announcement comes as the city and the New York State Department of Health wrangle over the opening of four safe-injection sites in the city and as rates of unintentional drug-overdose deaths rose for the seventh-straight year. In 2017, one New Yorker died every six hours from an overdose, according to city officials. (West, 11/28)
Stat:
Philadelphia Is Latest City To Consider Licensing Sales Reps To Blunt Opioid Crisis
In the latest bid to blunt the opioid crisis, the Philadelphia City Council is considering an ordinance that would ban drug makers from giving gifts to doctors and also require all pharmaceutical sales reps to become licensed. Specifically, the ordinance, which will be reviewed at a city council health committee meeting on Friday, would require sales reps to provide city officials with materials that are slated for physicians and, possibly, undergo training. Reps would also have to pay an annual $250 licensing fee and would be prohibited from distributing copay coupons for any controlled substances. (Silverman, 11/28)
The Washington Post:
Scientists Call For A Halt To Genetically Editing Embryos, Rebuke Chinese Researcher
“At this summit we heard an unexpected and deeply disturbing claim that human embryos had been edited and implanted, resulting in a pregnancy and the birth of twins,” said the summit’s organizing committee, which called for independent verification of He’s claims that have so far not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. “Even if the modifications are verified, the procedure was irresponsible and failed to conform with international norms,” the organizers said in the summit’s highly anticipated consensus statement that is usually seen as setting the tone and direction for the fast-changing field. (Johnson and Shih, 11/29)
NPR:
Science Summit Denounces Gene-Edited Babies Claim, But Rejects Moratorium
Much more research is needed before anyone tries to prevent diseases by editing human embryos, the organizers concluded. ... But enough scientific advances have been made since the last summit in 2015 to begin plotting a course for how that could happen some day, according to the statement. "Progress over the last three years and the discussions at the current summit, ... suggest that it is time to define a rigorous, responsible ... pathway toward such trials," said Baltimore, a Nobel-prize winning U.S. biologist. (Stein, 11/29)
The Associated Press:
Younger School Entry Could Set Stage For ADHD Diagnosis
The youngest children in kindergarten are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in early grades, a study shows, an intriguing finding for parents on the fence about when to start their child in school. The study found younger students, especially boys, are also more likely to be started on medications for ADHD and kept on the drugs longer than the oldest children. The medications are generally safe, but can have harmful side effects. (Johnson, 11/28)
The Washington Post:
Youngest Kids In Class Are More Likely To Be Diagnosed With ADHD Than Oldest Kids, Study Finds
The new analysis is likely to fuel the debate about whether there is an epidemic of ADHD in the United States or whether the problem is overdiagnosis. The number of children diagnosed with ADHD has significantly increased, from 7.8 percent in 2003 to 11.0 percent in 2011-2012 for children ages 4 to 17, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number among younger children, ages 2 to 5, jumped by more than 50 percent from 2007 to 2011. The most recent numbers released by the CDC — which recently changed how it counts ADHD — showed that 9.4 percent of children ages 2 to 17 had been diagnosed, the equivalent of 6.1 million children across the country. (Wan, 11/28)
NPR:
ADHD Diagnosis Is More Common For Youngest Students In Class
"You could certainly imagine a scenario in which two kids who are in a class who are different in age by almost a year could be viewed very differently by a teacher, or school personnel who's evaluating them," says Dr. Anupam Jena, a physician and economist at Harvard Medical School. "A year of age difference in a 5-year-old or a 6-year-old is huge." (Harris, 11/28)
The New York Times:
Study Warns Of Cascading Health Risks From The Changing Climate
Crop yields are declining. Tropical diseases like dengue fever are showing up in unfamiliar places, including in the United States. Tens of millions of people are exposed to extreme heat. These are the stark findings of a wide-ranging scientific report that lays out the growing risks of climate change for human health and predicts that cascading hazards could soon face millions more people in rich and poor countries around the world. (Sengupta and Pierre-Louis, 11/28)
The Washington Post/The Marshall Project:
Federal Prisons Are Failing Inmates With Mental Health Disorders
In 2014, amid mounting criticism and legal pressure, the Federal Bureau of Prisons imposed a new policy promising better care and oversight for inmates with mental-health issues. But data obtained by the Marshall Project through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that instead of expanding treatment, the bureau has lowered the number of inmates designated for higher care levels by more than 35 percent. Increasingly, prison staff are determining that prisoners — some with long histories of psychiatric problems — don’t require any routine care at all. As of February, the Bureau of Prisons classified just 3 percent of inmates as having a mental illness serious enough to require regular treatment. (Thompson and Eldridge, 11/21)
The Wall Street Journal:
For Treating Severe Strokes, All Hospitals Aren’t Equal
People who suffer severe strokes here can avoid the worst if stricken within a 30-minute ambulance ride to Rhode Island Hospital, the region’s only comprehensive stroke-treatment facility. Just across the Taunton River in Massachusetts, patients even closer to Rhode Island Hospital aren’t so lucky. There, state emergency-medicine rules decree that stroke victims are taken to local hospitals offering more routine treatment. Typically, those patients have to wait an hour or more before being transferred to RIH in Providence, doctors say. (Burton, 11/28)
The New York Times:
Online Cancer Information Is Often Unreliable
Many YouTube videos about prostate cancer are unreliable sources of information. Researchers searched YouTube for “prostate cancer screening” and “prostate cancer treatment.” Then they scored the first 75 hits for each phrase, using validated scales to assess such measures as whether the video favored new technology, recommended unproven treatments, accurately described risks and benefits or showed commercial bias. (Bakalar, 11/28)
Bloomberg:
Fewer People Buy Obamacare Plans As Trump Pushes Other Options
The decline in signups follows an effort by the Trump administration to promote cheaper coverage with fewer consumer protections, which critics called an attempt to undermine Obamacare. Congress also lifted the individual-mandate penalty for going without health insurance -- a fee of 2.5 percent of income that was intended to discourage healthy people from waiting until they got sick to purchase coverage. That change takes effect in 2019. (Tozzi, 11/28)
The Associated Press:
HIV Cases In Children Dropping But Still Too Slowly, UN Says
The United Nations children's agency says the number of youths living with HIV could drop by about one-third to 1.9 million between now and 2030, while children dying each year from AIDS-related causes could drop by nearly half to 56,000 in 2030. Its new report says that while the projected decline in HIV cases is good news, it's still too slow. The report says 270,000 people up to age 19, the bulk of them in Africa, could be infected in 2030 alone. (11/29)
The New York Times:
You Don’t Want French Fries With That
If French fries come from potatoes, and potatoes are a vegetable, and vegetables are good for you, then what’s the harm in eating French fries? Plenty, say experts and nutritionists, including Eric Rimm, a professor in the departments of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, who called potatoes “starch bombs.” Potatoes rank near the bottom of healthful vegetables and lack the compounds and nutrients found in green leafy vegetables, he said. (Mele, 11/29)
The New York Times:
To Treat Eating Disorders, It Sometimes Takes Two
The issue was peanut butter. No matter what form it took — creamy, crunchy, straight from the jar or smeared between two slices of bread — it caused Sunny Gold enormous anxiety. In fact, the gooey spread posed such a threat that during her first few years of recovery from binge eating disorder, between 2006 and 2007, Ms. Gold, 42, a communications specialist in Portland, Ore., couldn’t keep it around the house. It was one of her favorite foods, and she feared she would binge on it. Just knowing it was there, lurking in her cupboard, made her feel “unsafe,” as she put it. (Ellin, 11/29)
The Associated Press:
Sisters Charged In Medicaid Fraud Scheme
Two sisters who ran multiple home health care companies in Pittsburgh were indicted by a federal grand jury for their alleged role in a multi-million dollar health care fraud scheme. Court documents unsealed Tuesday show Arlinda Moriarty and Danyelle Dickens were charged in the scheme, along with 10 of their employees or former employees. (11/28)
The Associated Press:
Panel Rules Against Proposed South Bend Abortion Clinic
A nonprofit group that wants to open an abortion clinic in South Bend was dealt a setback Wednesday after an Indiana health department administrative panel ruled that the agency acted properly when it denied the group a license. "We're obviously disappointed and it's really indicative of the unfair licensing process that we've had to go through that doesn't really apply to any other health care providers," said Sharon Lau, Midwest advocacy director for Texas-based Whole Women's Health Alliance. "We're going to continue. We're not giving up. And we will be pursuing all of our legal options." (11/28)
The Associated Press:
Accused Man Cites State Abortion Law In Sexual Assault Case
A man accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl unsuccessfully argued that he should not be charged with taking advantage of a child because she was actually 16 under a Kansas law that says life begins at fertilization. Defense attorney Cooper Overstreet argued in a motion that Jordan Ross, 21, of Topeka, could not be convicted of aggravated indecent liberties with a child because, under the state's definition of life, the alleged victim would be 16, rather than 15. The age of consent in Kansas is 16. (11/28)
The Baltimore Sun:
Hopkins Hospital In Florida Recorded High Rate Of Death, Complications In Young Heart Patients, Report Finds
The Heart Institute at All Children’s was dedicated to children with heart defects and had been working in recent years to grow in size and prestige, according to the hospital, which announced it would integrate into the Johns Hopkins Health System in 2010. But through extensive interviews with current and former employees and family members of those treated there and a decade’s worth of billing records, the newspaper probe, published online Wednesday, identified many instances of treatment gone horribly wrong. (Cohn, 11/28)
The Associated Press:
Illinois House Expunges Lawmaker's Tainted Water Threat
The Illinois House took the rare step Wednesday of erasing from its record a Democratic legislator's remark suggesting she'd like to infect the water supply of a GOP colleague's loved ones with "a broth of Legionella." Rep. Stephanie Kifowit apologized for the indelicate comment she made about Lombard Republican Peter Breen Tuesday during floor debate on legislation involving the deadly Legionnaire's disease crisis at a Quincy veterans' home. (11/28)
The Washington Post:
Scabies Outbreak: Kona Community Hospital Battles Highly Contagious Skin Infection
A hospital in Hawaii is battling a scabies outbreak after “a number of people” reported symptoms of the highly contagious skin condition, a spokeswoman said. A spokeswoman for Kona Community Hospital said Wednesday that the outbreak was confirmed Nov. 19, although she declined to say how many people had been infected, citing employee and patient privacy. Those who may have been exposed at the hospital, which is in Kealakekua, were contacted and treated for infection, and staff members were given instruction on scabies, according to a statement from the hospital. (Bever, 11/28)