Calif. Gov. to Appeal Nurse-Patient Ruling
The Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A judge Tuesday upheld a first-in-the-nation law requiring hospitals to have at least one nurse for every five patients. The Schwarzenegger administration and California Hospital Association both vowed to appeal. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Judy Holzer Hersher said the administration erred when it issued an emergency order last November trying to delay the state law requiring hospitals to provide more nurses. (Schwarzenegger Violated Law in Attack on RN-to-Patient Ratios: "Today's decision sends a compelling, unmistakable message that this governor is not above the rule of law, and that a law enacted to protect patients may not be sabotaged simply to financially benefit his hospital corporate donors," said California Nurses Association President Deborah Burger, RN.)

Nursing Shortage Tied to Lack of Qualified Educators
San Francisco Examiner
When the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation put up $4.2 million last year to help train new nurses at a local junior college, Mayor Gavin Newsom praised the move saying it would help ease a looming nursing shortage and ensure San Franciscans' health care needs will be met for "generations to come." But with grant money set to kick in this fall, City College of San Francisco is scrambling to make good on the promise because of a little-known aspect of the nation's health care woes and a major hurdle to increasing the size of the state's nursing force — a shortage of nursing faculty.

Efforts to Address Nursing Shortage
Create Pressures of Their Own
KVOA.com, AZ
Efforts to address Arizona's nursing shortage are creating their own kind of strain, as medical facilities trying to accommodate more students for hands-on training start to run out of space.

Nursing Shortage Starts In School
Programs Falling Behind Demand
Concord Monitor
Experts say the state's nursing schools have been swamped with applicants in recent years and have turned away many qualified candidates - even though the state is staring down a nursing shortage. The shortage, it seems, is not of men and women who want to go into nursing, but of money, clinical space, teachers and - ultimately -nursing school spots to train them.

Ice Cream, Baked Potato Crisps Recalled
The Associated Press
The following products were recalled Tuesday: Giant and Tops brand chocolate chip ice cream, produced by Giant Food Inc., because it may contain undeclared pecans, which can be deadly to people allergic to them. Baked Lay's original flavor potato crisps, produced by Frito-Lay Inc., because they may contain undeclared dairy product, which can be deadly to people allergic to it.

Drug-resistant TB coming to U.S. from abroad-study
Reuters
WASHINGTON -- Immigrants may be steadily bringing new cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis into the United States, hampering efforts to eradicate the deadly infection, researchers said on Tuesday. The report, published in a special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association focusing on TB, showed the need for global control of the ancient disease, the researchers said. The AIDS epidemic has fueled a resurgence of TB, which is especially deadly to those with immune systems weakened by HIV. Efforts to treat TB have resulted in mutated forms called drug-resistant TB, which results when patients do not complete months of treatment with a cocktail of antibiotics.

EPA Sued Over Pesticides' Effects on Kids
WJLA-TV Washington D.C
SAN FRANCISCO -- The government has failed to protect the children of farmworkers from the harmful effects of pesticides, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by farmworkers, environmentalists and public health advocates. The suit alleges that the Environmental Protection Agency has ignored scientific evidence that children who grow up near farms face increased health risks from exposure to hazardous pesticides from air, soil, water, food and clothing.

Suicide Attempts Linked to Weight Perception
The Associated Press
CHICAGO -- Suicidal impulses and attempts are much more common in teenagers who think they are too fat or too thin, regardless of how much they actually weigh, a study found. Using actual body size based on teens' reports of their height and weight, the researchers found that overall, overweight or underweight teens were only slightly more likely than normal-weight teens to have suicidal tendencies.

U.S. Limits Prosecutions of Health Care Employees Under Privacy Law
ABC News
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department has decided that most health care employees can't be prosecuted for stealing personal data under a privacy law intended to protect medical information. The ruling could jeopardize the lone conviction obtained under medical privacy rules that took effect in 2003 and could stop federal prosecutors from pursuing some of the more than 13,000 complaints that have been filed alleging violations of those rules.

HealthSouth settles SEC suit for $100M
CNN
WASHINGTON -- HealthSouth Corp, the scandal-plagued health care services company, said Wednesday it agreed to pay $100 million to settle claims brought against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC sued HealthSouth (Research) in March 2003, accusing the firm of overstating profits. The settlement pact resolves that litigation only, said HealthSouth, which is involved in several other legal proceedings.