Spartan Echo

  RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — How do you expand Medicaid under the federal health overhaul law without provoking the wrath of conservatives dead set against it under any circumstances? A Virginia panel attempting that high-wire act took its first good look at the daunting challenge of modernizing the federal-state program, making it more like a [...]

  DALLAS (AP) — Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced Monday, June 17, that a physician with a long career in health policy and research will become the breast cancer charity’s new president and CEO. Judith A. Salerno will replace Nancy Brinker as CEO of the Dallas-based organization. Brinker, whose promise to her dying [...]

  NEW YORK (AP) — Here’s the latest goal for food makers: Perfect the art of imperfection. When stretching out the dough for its premium “Artisan Pizzas,” Domino’s workers are instructed not to worry about making the rectangles too perfect: The pies are supposed to have a more rustic look. At McDonald’s, the egg whites [...]

  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africans on Saturday, June 8, said their thoughts were with former President Nelson Mandela, who was in “serious but stable” condition after being taken to a hospital to be treated for a recurring lung infection. Mandela, who is 94 years old, was treated in a hospital several times in recent [...]

  NEW YORK (AP) — After setting off a storm of criticism from abortion rights groups upset that a Democratic president had sided with social conservatives, the Obama administration said it will comply with a judge’s order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without prescriptions. But in doing so, at least [...]

  CHICAGO (AP) — New research suggests that bad genes may be responsible for more breast cancer cases in black women than has been previously known. About 1 in 5 African-American women with the disease have an inherited mutation that drastically raises their risk for breast and ovarian cancer, according to a study released Monday, June 3. It may [...]

  NEW YORK (AP) — Girls of any age can buy generic versions of emergency contraception without prescriptions while the federal government appeals a judge’s ruling allowing the sales, a federal appeals court said Wednesday, June 5 . The order, the latest in a series of rulings in a complex back-and-forth over access to the [...]

  ATLANTA (AP) — Doctors have known for some time that a sexually spread virus can cause some types of oral cancer. But actor Michael Douglas’ comments on his own throat cancer in a newspaper story Monday, June 3,  threw a spotlight on a subject not often discussed. And it raises a lot of questions: [...]

  MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Islamic extremist rebels are fighting a campaign in Somalia to administer a polio vaccine, charging that it contains the virus that causes AIDS or could make children sterile, a battle of words that is frustrating health workers. Al-Shabab, the rebels linked to al-Qaida, have discouraged many parents from getting their [...]

  MUMBAI, India (AP) — A simple vinegar test slashed cervical cancer death rates by one-third in a remarkable study of 150,000 women in the slums of India, where the disease is the top cancer killer of women. Doctors reported the results Sunday, June 2, at a cancer conference in Chicago. Experts called the outcome “amazing” and said [...]

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Alcoholic beverages soon could have nutritional labels like those on food packaging, but only if the producers want to put them there. The Treasury Department, which regulates alcohol, said that beer, wine and spirits companies can use labels that include serving size, servings per container, calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat per [...]