Month: February 2014

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California would become the first state to require warning labels on sodas and other sugary drinks under a proposal a state lawmaker announced Thursday.

By Lacey Johnson GEORGETOWN, Delaware (Reuters) – A Delaware jury found a prominent pediatrician and best-selling author guilty on Thursday of endangering his stepdaughter in a trial featuring testimony that he subjected the girl to a form of waterboarding to punish her. Dr. Melvin Morse, an author on near-death experiences who has appeared on “Oprah” and “Good Morning America,” could face up to 10 years in prison. Morse went on trial in late January on charges of child endangerment dating back to July 2012, when his stepdaughter was 11 years old. His stepdaughter, now 12, told authorities that Morse, 60, had physically abused her, including waterboarding her on four occasions.

Now, those who are uncomfortable with selecting “male” or “female” can choose up to 10 descriptors from more than 50 identities, including transgender, androgynous or genderqueer.        

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – The only three insurance companies in Louisiana that sell healthcare policies under President Barack Obama's healthcare law throughout the state are rejecting payments from a federal program intended to help low-income HIV patients, advocacy groups said on Thursday. The Louisiana Health Cooperative and Vantage Health Plan, two smaller insurers, made the move following a decision by the state's largest insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, late last year to reject the payments. Lambda Legal, a non-profit group, filed a civil rights complaint about the two smaller carriers' action with the Obama administration on Thursday, following a similar complaint about Louisiana Blue last week. "Additional carriers are jumping on the discrimination bandwagon," said Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation for Lambda Legal, which works to protect the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV.

By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) – Sodas and most other sugar-sweetened drinks sold in California would be required to carry warning labels for obesity, diabetes and tooth decay under a bill introduced in Sacramento on Thursday and backed by several public health advocacy groups. The first proposal of its kind would put California, which banned sodas and junk food from public schools in 2005, back in the vanguard of a growing national movement to curb the consumption of high-caloric beverages that medical experts say are largely to blame for an epidemic of childhood obesity. A growing body of research has identified sugary drinks as the biggest contributors to added, empty calories in the American diet, and as a major culprit in a range of costly health problems associated with being overweight. Efforts to curtail consumption of sugary drinks through taxes and other efforts have met fierce resistance from the U.S. food and beverage industry, which came out against the California labeling bill on Thursday.

By Malena Castaldi and Felipe Llambias MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) – The United States and Europe need a new strategy in the war on drugs and should look at alternatives such as the regulated sale of marijuana, says Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, whose country recently legalized the production and sale of cannabis. "For a small country, it's possible to experiment with this, but it's also very possible for a developed country because of the resources it has." In December, Uruguay's parliament approved a bill to legalize and regulate the sale and production of marijuana. Until things change there, it will be very difficult to change elsewhere," said Mujica from his home on the outskirts of Uruguay's capital, Montevideo, where he lives in a simple cottage with his wife and dogs. Mujica pointed to changing laws in other places, including those of U.S. states that have taken steps to decriminalize and even legalize marijuana use, as evidence of an "undeniable evolution" in attitudes.

By Marina Lopes NEW YORK (Reuters) – A record number of wives in the United States are more educated than their husbands, as the rate of college-educated women grows, according to the Pew Research Center. "It used to be more common for a husband to have more education than his wife in America," Wendy Wang, a research associate at Pew, said in a statement on her findings. After three decades of steadily increasing, the percentage of couples in which husbands are more educated fell to 20 percent in 2012. The trend among newlyweds is even more pronounced, in part, due to rising college graduation rates for women, the study says.