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By Tracey D. Samuelson, The Christian Science Monitor
Those promoting Thursday's Great American Smokeout 2009 have their work cut out for them. That's because cigarette use among Americans, after declining for decades, has remained virtually unchanged for five straight years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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By Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press, Montgomery Advertiser
ATLANTA -- The first county-by-county survey of obesity reflects past studies that show the rate of obesity is highest in the Southeast and Appalachia, with two Alabama counties -- Greene and Dallas -- having adult obesity rates that are among the highest in the nation.
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AL: White Rock: EBSCO dumped hazardous waste
By Malcomb Daniels, The Birmingham News
At a press conference today, representatives of White Rock Quarries, a company that wants to put a limestone quarry in Vincent, said EBSCO Industries is trying to block the project to hide 15 years of illegally dumping hazardous waste from its nearby plant.
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AR: Fight health bill, ex-Clinton adviser urges
By L. Lamor Williams, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
The health-care overhaul bill being considered in the U.S. Senate is "the most serious threat to our lives and our liberties we Americans have faced since World War II," former Clinton adviser Dick Morris told about 250 Arkansans who rallied against the legislation. The group gathered Thursday on the Capitol steps in front of a "Hands Off Our Healthcare" tour bus.
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AR: Swine flu death toll 20 in state
By Staff Reports, Arkansas News Bureau
Two more Arkansans have died from swine flu, pushing the death toll from the H1N1 virus to 20 in the state, the state Health Department said today.
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CA: California, Sacramento County to probe in-home care
By Susan Ferriss, The Sacramento Bee
California teamed with Sacramento County officials Thursday to launch a first-in-the-state multi-agency task force to investigate fraud in In-Home Supportive Services. The program could benefit from the state budget approved last July that included $10 million to bolster anti-fraud efforts in the rapidly growing in-home care program.
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CT: Schools shift strategy on swine flu, staying open more
By Grace E. Merritt, The Hartford Courant
Despite a handful of school closings last month when a second wave of swine flu hit the state — including one decision to close schools in a district where only 6 percent of the students were out sick — superintendents overall now seem to be showing more restraint when deciding whether to close.
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FL: Broward grand jury recommend pain clinic reforms
By Scott Hiaasen, The Miami Herald
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A Broward County grand jury issued a damning report Thursday bemoaning the explosion of illegal painkillers sold through Broward pain clinics -- and warning that reforms passed by the Legislature may not be enough.
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GA: No new patients being admitted to Central State Hospital
By Travis Fain, The Macon Telegraph
Georgia's state-run psychiatric hospitals continue to have serious problems, and a recent Department of Justice visit to the largest facility — Central State Hospital in Milledgeville — led the hospital to stop taking new patients indefinitely.
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GA: Health reform in D.C. could influence gubernatorial race
By Aaron Gould Sheinin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The fractious debate over health care reform has mostly been a federal affair. But if the version favored by the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate becomes law, leaders in the states could play a huge role by choosing to opt out of the so-called "public option."
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MA: Bay State flu 'crisis'
By Marie Szaniszlo, Jessica Van Sack, Richard Weir and Edward Mason, Boston Herald
Weeks before its predicted peak, the swine flu pandemic already has hit a historic high in the Bay State, with one hospital unit reporting a third of its nurses felled by the raging virus and a local health official warning that the Thanksgiving holiday could only accelerate the outbreak.
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MA: Shrewsbury opposes medical waste facility
By The Associated Press, Boston Herald
SSHREWSBURY, Mass. — Shrewsbury residents are mobilizing against a proposal to build a 21,000-square-foot medical waste disposal facility near a residential neighborhood in town.
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MD: State slashes budget by $362M
By Liam Farrell, The Capital (Annapolis)
The latest round of state budget cuts imposed yesterday will limit student financial aid, slice Medicaid payments to hospitals and even reduce commuter bus trips for state employees when the legislature is not in session.
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ME: Flu vaccine slow getting to Maine
By Meg Haskell, Bangor Daily News
Fewer than two-thirds of the very highest-priority Mainers — children and pregnant women — have been vaccinated against the H1N1 flu, largely due to the national shortage of vaccine, according to Maine's top public health official.
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NC: Doctor is brusque. Patient complains. Doctor fires back.
By Sarah Avery, The Charlotte Observer
Dr. Earl Sunderhaus, an Asheville eye doctor, has what might charitably be described as a brusque bedside manner. That much is not in dispute. But the N.C. Medical Board may decide Sunderhaus overstepped the bounds of decency when he recently told a patient she was irresponsible for being unemployed, on Medicaid, and relying on taxpayers to cover another pregnancy after giving birth less than a year earlier.
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ND: Dakotas deal with vaccine shortages
By Wayne Ortman, The Associated Press, The Bismarck Tribune
The uncertainty over weekly allotments of a limited supply of H1N1 vaccine has complicated efforts to organize immunization clinics and distribute it to hundreds of providers in North Dakota and South Dakota.
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NJ: Colleges spot chance to fight sexual assault
By Staff Reports, The Star-Ledger (Newark)
On college campuses across the state, students mix in dormitories and mingle at parties, but experts say they remain dangerously shy about confronting the warning signs of sexual assault.
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NM: State mulls reducing Medicaid coverage
By Barry Massey, The Associated Press, Santa Fe New Mexican
Gov. Bill Richardson's administration is proposing to overhaul Medicaid and scale back health care services to some lower-income New Mexicans to cope with a projected budget shortfall of $300 million next year in the state's largest health care program.
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PA: State taking heat for 'chaotic' flu shots
By Steve Twedt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In the last several weeks, as the H1N1 flu has swept through the nation and health officials scrambled to find scarce vaccine, questions have been raised about how Pennsylvania chose to handle the process of distributing the limited doses available.
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TN: UK goes smoke-free
By Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press, The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky's flagship public university gave the official heave-ho to tobacco on Thursday, touting the health benefits of a smoke-free policy covering all of its sprawling campus in the heart of burley tobacco country.
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TX: Hospital war
By Emily Ramshaw, The Texas Tribune
DALLAS — As lawmakers in Washington hammer out a health care reform bill, physician-owned specialty hospitals — a quarter of which are in Texas — face an uncertain fate. Those under development could see bulldozers, not cranes. Those already in operation may face serious limits on growth.
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TX: Who's got the swine flu vaccine?
By Tony Plohetski and Nathan Adkisson, The Austin American-Statesman
State health officials said Thursday that they have funneled most doses — about 147,000 in Travis County — to private physicians, urgent care clinics and hospitals, where workers must decide whether patients meet the criteria to receive the scarce immunizations.
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UT: Abortion bill approved by Utah legislative committee
By James Thalman, The Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
A bill that would make seeking an illegal abortion a second-degree felony as well as remove any immunity for Utah women seeking illegal abortions was approved by a legislative committee Wednesday morning.
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VT: Vermont smokers seek help quitting
By Nancy Remsen, Burlington Free Press
Vermont is likely to fall short of reducing the number of adult smokers to 11 percent of the population -- the target set in 2000 for 2010. Still more smokers are seeking help, especially from the state's online Web site -- Vermont Quit Network.
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WA: Ranks of uninsured swell in state
By John Stucke, The Spokesman-Review (Spokane)
Washington state is on pace to reach a dangerous milestone within 14 months, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said Thursday: 1 million uninsured residents.
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WV: Foster-care agencies seek higher payments
By Alison Knezevich, Charleston Gazette
Private foster-care agencies in West Virginia hope state lawmakers will boost their daily payments, saying it will help them retain good foster parents and social workers who care for abused and neglected children.
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Budget insiders see worse ahead in Calif., Mich.
By Daniel C. Vock, Stateline.org Staff Writer
Two of the states hit hardest by the Great Recession–California and Michigan–are bracing for an even tougher time making ends meet next year, putting big spending cuts or outright elimination of some services on the table, top budget officials from both states said Friday (Nov. 13).
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