Month: January 2013

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) – Governor Jerry Brown, hailing what he described as a hard-fought rebound in California's fortunes, used his annual State of the State address on Thursday to urge fiscal discipline to avoid a return to budget deficits and cycles of "boom and bust." He called on the legislature of the most populous U.S. state to help him keep a promise to voters to "jealously guard" the billions of dollars in additional revenue made available through passage last year of a ballot measure temporarily extending tax increases. …

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Just over ten percent of women in the military said in 2008 they’d had an unintended pregnancy in the last year – a figure significantly higher than rates in the general public, according to a new study. The findings come amid news that the Pentagon will lift the ban on women in front-line combat jobs starting in 2016. “It does definitely have implications for troop readiness, ability to deploy (and) troops in combat missions if they are potentially at high risk for unintended pregnancy and pregnant women can’t be deployed,” said Dr. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Most Americans want President Barack Obama and Congress to reduce the federal deficit without cutting Medicare, Social Security and education, according to polling data released Thursday. A joint survey by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Harvard School of Public Health and the Kaiser Family Foundation also showed majorities support President Barack Obama's plan to expand Medicaid and provide subsidized private health insurance to working families through new online state exchanges. …

A New Hampshire toddler is on the mend after she impaled herself with an orange colored pencil, which lodged between her eye and the back of her skull two weeks ago. Susie Smith was with her 20-month old daughter, Olivia, who was coloring with a…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Despite hopes that a Mediterranean-style diet would be as good for the head as it is for the heart, a new study among French men and women found little benefit to aging brains. The research, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, looked at the participants’ dietary patterns in middle age and measured their cognitive performance at around age 65, but found no connection between Mediterranean eating and mental performance. …

The “Sydney strain” of norovirus has been blamed in 140 outbreaks.