Conservatives Are Dying at Higher Rates Than Liberals

“Your politics could be making you ill, and conservatives are dying at significantly higher rates than liberals, according to a recent study in Nature,” Fast Company reports. “Over the past decade, a health gap has emerged in the United States. While extensive research has examined how factors like income and education shape health outcomes, political […]

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AI Is Taking Over Hospitals

The Atlantic [no paywall] – This is health care’s Uber moment. Every knowledge-based profession may one day reach the point when AI outperforms the human experts. In medicine, that day appeared to come in April. A group of primarily Harvard and Stanford researchers announced the results of a study that pitted ChatGPT against hundreds of ...

Missouri judge strikes down nearly all state abortion regulations

Many of Missouri’s abortion regulations, including laws that Planned Parenthood said made it impossible for providers to prescribe medication abortion, were struck down in a ruling Thursday by a Jackson County judge. One of the regulations most widely condemned by abortion rights supporters, a 72-hour waiting period between an initial consultation and an abortion, has […]

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Parents, Heed the Surgeon General’s New Warning on Screen Use

“Scroll less and live best” is the catchy message of the new 43-page report “Surgeon General’s Warning on the Harms of Screen Use.” The implicit message that spending hours doomscrolling is not the best way to live is practically common sense, yet easier said than done. Published in May, the advisory enumerates a litany of...

Trump administration tightens oversight of state Medicaid demonstration programs

The Trump administration told states last week it will exercise more stringent financial oversight of waivers that states use to design pilot programs under Medicaid, the state-federal program for low-income people and those with disabilities. In letters sent to state Medicaid directors, the administration announced the changes to Section 1115 “demonstration waivers,” which states apply […]

Nationwide survey shows ongoing struggles for pregnant patients on Medicaid

A survey of more than 3,800 people nationwide who gave birth in 2023 and 2024 found those using Medicaid described worse outcomes than those on private insurance, that access to care remains limited for some, and that women often feel unheard and disregarded during pregnancy and labor and delivery. The Listening to Mothers survey, conducted […]

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How many Americans are using AI and how?

USAFacts: “35% of American households are using AI to find information. 14% of people trust that information. New Census Bureau data shows that 57% of Americans have used AI tools to search, brainstorm, complete work or school tasks, and more. Forty-two percent of respondents reported a productivity boost, though the responses also show concern with ...

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The Cloud Has Sound: The Unrelenting and Unseen Cost of A.I. Data Centers

Follow up to Data Centers Exposed – The New York Times – The Cloud Has Sound: The Unrelenting and Unseen Cost of A.I. Data Centers [unlocked article]. “Yes, the cloud has a sound, and some who live closest to data centers that emit the noise have reached their wit’s end trying to block it out. ...

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Trump Admin Cuts Right to the Heart of the Child Gender Mutilation Pipeline

The Federal Trade Commission and four attorneys general filed a groundbreaking lawsuit Wednesday aiming to hold the World Professional Association for Transgender Health accountable for allegedly deceptive trade practices, an action that may dismantle the child gender mutilation pipeline. WPATH may not be a household acronym, but this activist group masquerading as a health authority...

Missouri settlements halt sales of concentrated kratom product 7-OH

Dustin Robinson says he was skeptical when a longtime friend first approached him about going into business selling a concentrated kratom compound known as 7-OH. Robinson had served seven years in a Kansas prison for marijuana offenses. Both of his parents struggled with addiction. And when Vince Sanders, owner of CBD American Shaman, began researching […]

One US-made drug treats congenital syphilis, and the country is running short

The United States has a shortage of the only first-line medication recommended for pregnant women with syphilis to prevent passing it to their baby, even as congenital syphilis rates have been skyrocketing. Last July, drug manufacturer Pfizer issued a voluntary recall of brand name Bicillin L-A, or penicillin G benzathine — a long-acting injectable of […]

Missouri Medicaid will no longer cover chiropractic care after budget cuts

Dr. Quinn James testified in the Missouri Capitol for nine years before lawmakers passed legislation in 2018 that allows chiropractors like him to provide services through the state’s Medicaid program. What convinced lawmakers to get behind the legislation, James told The Independent, were predictions that it could help the state spend less on Medicaid. The […]

Firearms drive majority of veteran suicides, federal data shows

Veterans in the United States die by suicide at higher rates than the general population, and firearms are involved in most of those deaths, according to a new analysis of federal data. The report, released by Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun violence prevention advocacy group, analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs […]

Nearly half of adults struggled to afford healthcare last year, survey finds

Forty-six percent of U.S. adults — regardless of insurance type — reported struggling to afford healthcare last year, according to a report released Wednesday by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research think tank. The report analyzed findings from a December 2025 survey of 10,000 working-age adults across the nation. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson […]

Republican attorneys general urge EPA to classify mifepristone as water contaminant

Republican attorneys general from 14 states and 19 GOP members of Congress are asking U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to classify and regulate the abortion medication mifepristone as a water contaminant. Mifepristone is prescribed as part of a two-drug medication regimen to terminate a pregnancy. Studies have shown medication abortion to be safe […]

Trump Policies Imperiling Social Security, Depleting Trust Fund; ‘BradCast’ 6/11/2026

We kick off today’s BradCast with a story that makes all the ones that follow seem not nearly as bad….right? [Audio to full show follows below.] FIRST UP… In most Ebola outbreaks, fewer than 500 people are infected by the grotesquely deadly disease before it is finally contained. But the worst Ebola outbreak in history, […]

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Breed-aware app for hot-pavement dog safety

boingboing: “After we posted about Pawmometer, the free site that reads live weather to flag pavement hot enough to burn a dog’s paws, reader Chris Fiegel wrote in to say he’d built a phone-sized take on the idea. His iOS app, NorthPaw, computes what it calls a “NorthPaw Index” from your dog’s specific biology — ...

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The White House’s Top Science Goal Is Ignorance

Bloomberg: The White House’s Top Science Goal Is Ignorance: “The administration’s actions are seen as a deliberate attempt to stifle science and ignore the reality of climate change, in order to support the fossil-fuel industry and satisfy the climate denialism of Trump’s base. Shutting down scientific inquiry because it discovers things you don’t like is ...

A Leadership Vaccuum at the Federal Health Agencies

NBC News: “There’s a glaring lack of permanent leadership at the country’s major health agencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has gone from one acting director to another. The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration was ousted last month. The FDA’s second-in-command seat remains empty. And there has been no surgeon general […]

RFK’s Answer to the Maternal Health Crisis: Hide the Data

In April, during a congressional hearing that coincided with Black Maternal Health Week, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the US’s abysmal and largely preventable rates of maternal death compared to its peers. Black women, Lee pointed out, fare three times worse than their white counterparts, even […]

Medicaid paperwork problems continue to cost thousands of Missourians coverage

More than 333,000 Missourians lost Medicaid coverage from January 2025 through February 2026, with nearly 92% dropped because of paperwork issues — not because the state determined they no longer qualified. The data, from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, shows 333,265 Missourians lost coverage during that period. Of those, 91.9% were classified […]

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The mayor of Shelbyville, Indiana, says only people who live in ‘shitty houses’ oppose data center

The Verge: “A proposed $2 billion data center has become a political flashpoint in the small city of Shelbyville, Indiana. And the controversy has only grown more intense after the mayor, Scott Furgeson, was caught on camera saying of the “No Data Center” signs going up that, “I’ve seen a lot of these all over ...

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Federal Watchdog Warns Trump’s Biggest Megaprison Is Rife With Abuse

A sweeping report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office found that the government spent millions of dollars more than necessary on Camp East Montana in Texas, and somehow still failed to meet its contractual requirements with regard to health care, room and board, and safety.

The GAO found that ICE’s expedited contract award and construction negatively affected the acquisition…

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Kansas City hospitals are ready for the World Cup. The world may not be ready for U.S. healthcare

Kansas City hospitals said they are prepared for the influx of international patients expected this summer during the World Cup. But they worry that the patients may not be ready for America’s labyrinthine healthcare system. In addition to bulking up translation services and scheduling more doctors and nurses for shifts during the monthlong tournament, hospitals […]

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