The United States has backed a United Nations draft resolution favoring universal healthcare coverage. The nonbinding measure calls on U.N. member states to ensure citizens' access to health insurance, and was approved by the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday.
Supporters say the draft resolution paves the way for the post-2015 development agenda to include universal health coverage.
US backs United Nations measure in favor of universal health coverage
Regulators Under Fire for Keeping Fracking Pollution Test Results Under Wraps
Residents living in the shadow of fracking rigs say they've suffered from headaches, nosebleeds and other health effects since drilling began in their communities. Meanwhile, state agencies refuse to release the results of air and water pollution tests.
Thirty years ago, Jenny and Tom Lisak moved into a historic farmhouse in Pennsylvania's rural Jefferson County. The couple raised three children there and established a certified organic farm they named LadyBug Farm.
Bosnian Serb general found guilty of genocide, sentenced to life
A Bosnian Serb general was convicted of genocide and other war crimes Wednesday by a United Nations tribunal in the Netherlands for his role in plotting and carrying out the murder of thousands of Muslim men in Eastern Bosnia in 1995.
Zdravko Tolimir, intelligence chief and deputy to wartime Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, was found guilty of murder, persecution, deportation and genocide by a 2-1 judgment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Alex Baer: Good Thing We Still Have One Left
Republicans control the Michigan state legislature. It was the perfect opportunity to push through laws limiting union power and labor rights for public-sector workers. So, they did. Michigan is now the 24th state out of 50 designated as a "right-to-work" state.
For critics, this act translates into a "right-to-fire-and-treat-workers-anyway-we-want" law. Critics will also know that Republicans and their fat cat constituents are no doubt all smiles with today's action in the House of Representatives, a push they began last week in the Senate.
Gov. Rick Snyder makes Michigan 24th right-to-work state
Gov. Rick Snyder said today he has already signed right-to-work legislation into law, soon after the House passed it earlier today.
The word historic kept coming up Tuesday as the state House of Representatives considered and ultimately passed controversial right-to-work legislation for public- and private-sector employees.
It was a historically large crowd outside, estimated at 12,500 people by police. Most of the folks were loudly protesting the bills that would make it illegal to require a financial contribution to a union as a condition of employment. Plenty of right-to-work supporters were on hand, too, leading to heated words between the pro- and anti-forces, and the dismantling of tents erected to shield the right-to-work supporters.
Big Beef: Industry fights back using money, science
It was here in this thriving New England town that America’s love affair with beef started to lose its sizzle. It was here a half-century ago that obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels were all identified as risk factors for heart disease.
Indeed, it was here that scientists coined the term “risk factor,” triggering the deluge of nutrition research that keeps beef from being “what’s for dinner” in many households.
Poisoning the Well: How the Feds Let Industry Pollute the Nation’s Underground Water Supply
Federal officials have given energy and mining companies permission to pollute aquifers in more than 1,500 places across the country, releasing toxic material into underground reservoirs that help supply more than half of the nation's drinking water.
In many cases, the Environmental Protection Agency has granted these so-called aquifer exemptions in Western states now stricken by drought and increasingly desperate for water.
EPA records show that portions of at least 100 drinking water aquifers have been written off because exemptions have allowed them to be used as dumping grounds.
Alex Baer: Time Out for the Wild Side of Life
We're looking in on some of those ubiquitous, Year-End summaries, letting them out of their cages and urging them to stretch their legs -- to take wing a bit early this December. Call it a seasonal lark.
It's not that we're likely to forget these tales (we have memories like elephants). There's just a good supply of animal tales squirreled-away in our cache: Dogs and deer, whales and flies, ducks, cats, elephants, even a sort-of giraffe.
Drug overuse in cattle imperils human health
Two kids seriously injured in the Joplin, Mo., tornado in May 2011 showed up at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City suffering from antibiotic-resistant infections from dirt and debris blown into their wounds.
Physicians tried different drugs, but at first nothing seemed to work. Blame the overuse of antibiotics in livestock, according to the doctors familiar with their cases. “These kids had some really highly resistant bacteria that they clearly had not picked up in a hospital,” said Jason Newland, director of the Children Mercy’s antibiotic stewardship program.
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