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Quote of the day. “There is a time to die and a way to do that with reverence. Hospitals should not be meccas for dying. Dying belongs at home, in the community. We built this place with that in mind.” Sister Mary Lou of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a congregation in Rochester, NY, on the convent’s ministry to dying sisters, which provides a social network and continued engagement in life and spiritual beliefs, along with palliative health care. (New York Times)
Health care. Discord on Health Care Dulls Luster Of New Pacts “The Obama administration, hoping to boost its health-care reform effort with financial concessions from the hospital and pharmaceutical industries, is instead confronting deep dissension on several fronts within Democratic ranks and possible defections among key constituencies.” Democrats Divide Over a Proposal to Tax Health Benefits “An effort by Senator Max Baucus of Montana to develop compromise health care legislation has come under sharp assault by fellow Democrats who have urged him to abandon a plan to help pay for the bill by taxing some employer-provided health benefits.” Baucus and Grassley team up on bipartisan healthcare compromises “But unlikely as it may seem, the partnership between these two slightly eccentric men may hold the key to overhauling the nation's sprawling healthcare system -- a legislative grail that has eluded the giants of the Senate for more than half a century.” 'Double failure' at USA's hospitals “Too many people die needlessly at U.S. hospitals, according to a sweeping new Medicare analysis showing wide variation in death rates between the best hospitals and the worst.”
“Plan B.” Pharmacists can't refuse Plan B pill, appeals court says “Pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the 'morning after' contraceptive on religious grounds, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.”
Immigration. Obama Revives Bush Idea of Using E-Verify to Catch Illegal Contract Workers “President Obama will abandon a controversial immigration crackdown, sought by his predecessor, to pressure U.S. companies to fire 9 million workers with suspect Social Security numbers, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced yesterday. Instead, Obama will mandate that federal contractors confirm the identities of 4 million workers against federal databases beginning in September, pushing ahead under pressure from Senate Republicans with another long-stalled Bush administration initiative.” Government to Require Verification of Workers “After a six-month review, Homeland Security officials decided to go ahead with a worker-verification plan based on the electronic system, called E-Verify.”
Homelessness. Homelessness in suburbs increases “As the recession took hold last year, homelessness shifted toward rural and suburban areas and gripped a growing number of families, the U.S. government reports today.”
Dying well. Convent Sisters Face Death With Dignity and Reverence “For end of life care, sisters in a Rochester suburb rely on social networks and spiritual beliefs instead of aggressive medical intervention.”
G8 and climate change. Ban blasts G8 emissions targets “U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has criticized leaders of the G8 industrial nations for failing to make deeper commitments to combat climate change.” G8 fails to agree climate cuts target “World leaders, including the developing nations, yesterday committed themselves only to 'substantially reducing global emissions by 2050', but failed to agree a specific target.” Group of 8 Agrees On a Ceiling for Temperature Rise “The world's leading industrial nations tentatively agreed Wednesday to try to prevent global temperatures from rising above a fixed level, after a more far-reaching proposal to slash production of greenhouse gases fizzled, according to U.S. and European negotiators.”
G8 and development aid. Obama Enlists Major Powers to Aid Poor Farmers With $15 Billion “If the assistance is delivered and is in fact mostly new money, it will constitute the largest international effort in decades to combat hunger by investing in the fundamentals of an agricultural economy, including seed, fertilizer, grain storage and research into new plant varieties.” Brown hails G8 step to make rich countries accountable for aid pledges “Amid mounting criticism that the G8 was failing to live up to its financial commitments, the leaders of the developed west said they wanted to improve the transparency and effectiveness of their efforts to eradicate poverty.” G-8 leaders pressured to honor aid pledges “Underlying the alarm over a rising tide of poverty, infant mortality, and hunger is the criticism that wealthy nations have not honored their commitments to substantially increase global aid.”
Mexico. Mexican Army Using Torture to Battle Drug Traffickers, Rights Groups Say “The Mexican army has carried out forced disappearances, acts of torture and illegal raids in pursuit of drug traffickers, according to documents and interviews with victims, their families, political leaders and human rights monitors.”
Pakistan. U.S. drones back up Pakistani military's domestic struggle “The United States conducted two drone missile strikes in Pakistan's South Waziristan region Wednesday, killing at least 45 people, in the latest example of expanded direct American support for Pakistan's military offensive against key Pakistani insurgent leaders.” Taliban eyes new allies “Pakistani Taliban and allied members of al Qaeda, under new pressure from a U.S. and Pakistani offensive, may join forces with a militant Sunni Muslim group called Jundallah, which has staged attacks on Iran and strained Iranian-Pakistani relations.”
Iran. G8 issues Iran nuclear 'deadline' “Leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) nations have deplored post-election violence in Iran, and said the Islamic Republic had until September to negotiate with the West over its nuclear program.” Violent clashes erupt between Iranian protesters and security forces “Clashes between hundreds of determined young men and women chanting 'Death to the dictator' and 'God is great' and security forces wielding truncheons erupted in downtown Tehran today.” Iran Releases Protesters, but Still Holds 500 “Iranian officials said Wednesday that they had released 2,000 people who were arrested for participating in demonstrations after the nation’s disputed presidential election, but continued holding an additional 500 prisoners who would be put on trial.”
Opinion. Benedict and Barack (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post) “… whether he is the beneficiary of providence or merely good luck, Obama will have his audience with Benedict just three days after the release of a papal encyclical on social justice that places the pope well to Obama's left on economics. What a delightful surprise it would be for a pope to tell our president that on some matters, he's just too conservative.” Obama’s Big Missile Test (Philip Taubman, New York Times) “Now that Mr. Obama has set a promising arms reduction agenda with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, he faces the greater challenge of getting his own government and the American nuclear weapons establishment to support his audacious plan to make deep weapons cuts and ultimately eliminate nuclear weapons.”
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