Ralph Riviello | Health-care reformers: Don’t forget women

AFP

Recently I saw a pregnant woman I will call Lillian, a 22-year-old who brought her two children with her to the ER. Lillian has a fulltime job whose health insurance doesn’t cover pregnancy. She can’t afford to cover herself and her family on the individual market, and she makes too much money to qualify for…

In the News

Chris Graham

Friday, July 24 – JMU business students tke first in Marketing Challenge Thursday, July 23 – Staunton City Council work session, meeting agendas Wednesday, July 22 – Man arrested in La. on Staunton sodomy charges – Waynesboro City Council work session agenda – Augusta County Board of Supervisors meeting agenda Tuesday, July 21 – Long-time…

Newsworthy

Chris Graham

Friday, July 17 – Virginia Bioinformatics Institute researchers present systems biology as a clinical approach to cancer Thursday, July 16 – eVA passes $20B purchase mark – ACLU praises Newport News for action allowing tea party Thursday, July 16 – eVA passes $20B purchase mark – ACLU praises Newport News for action allowing tea party…

Collins nominated to NIH post

AFP

Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Staunton native Francis S. Collins as director of the National Institutes of Health at the Department of Health and Human Services. Collins, a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project, served as Director of the National…

Jennifer Rogers | Protecting the public from harmful chemicals

AFP

I recently read an article about Bisphenol-A (BPA) that eerily reminded me of the movie, “Thank You for Smoking.” In the movie, the “merchants of death” or MOD Squad, as they call themselves, are lobbyists for the alcohol, gun, and tobacco industries and meet for lunch while plotting to keep vital information about the harmful…

Earth Talk | Birth-control chemicals in drinking water?

Roddy Scheer

Dear EarthTalk: Is there any truth to the rumor about high levels of birth-control chemicals being found in some cities’ drinking water? If so can these be filtered out? – Elizabeth Yerkes, via e-mail It is true that trace amounts of birth control and other medications—as well as household and industrial chemicals of every stripe—are…