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Shots - Health News
3:34 pm
Thu November 15, 2012

Computer Issues May Complicate Launch Of Health Insurance Exchanges

Credit iStockphoto.com
Problems with a computer system could delay work on health insurance exchanges.
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By Julie Appleby

Online insurance markets set to begin selling health coverage to consumers next October may be hampered by software delays.

State regulators learned late last week that an electronic system most insurers will use to submit their policies for state and federal approvals won't be ready for testing next month, as originally planned. The lag is being blamed on the wait for several regulations from the Obama administration that are needed to update the software.

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The Salt
3:31 pm
Thu November 15, 2012

Cheaper Fruit And Vegetables Alone Can't Save Food Deserts

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Credit Carlos Osorio / AP
Five days a week, the Peaches & Greens truck sells affordable fruits and vegetables to families on public assistance, people without a car, homebound seniors and even local workers who otherwise would grab fast food or candy for a snack.
Credit Carlos Osorio / AP
Peaches & Greens driver Diane Brown helps customers out of her truck in Detroit where she sells fresh fruits and vegetables.
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By editor

Originally published on Thu November 15, 2012 5:12 pm

Tens of millions of Americans can't follow the government's guidelines for healthful eating because they can't afford or access enough fresh fruits and vegetables. Sometimes it's because they live in what's known as a "food desert," places devoid of markets with a good variety of quality fresh foods.

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Environment
3:31 pm
Thu November 15, 2012

Loophole Lets Toxic Oil Water Flow Over Indian Land

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Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
Dirty water from the oil wells flows through oil-caked pipes into a settling pit where trucks vacuum off the oil. A net covers the pit to keep out birds and other wildlife. Streams of this wastewater flow through the reservation and join natural creeks and rivers.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
More than 40 years ago, the EPA banned oil companies from releasing wastewater into the environment, but made an exception for the arid West. If livestock and wildlife can use the water, companies can release it. Cows like these grazing near a stream of waste on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming are supposedly the reason the EPA lets oil companies release their waste into the environment.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
The EPA requires that the wastewater streams show no obvious sheen and no solid deposits. But both were visible near oil fields on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
White crystal-like deposits line a streambed where this oil field water is flowing. Researchers for the tribes have also found black oozes, purple growths, dead ducklings and lifeless stretches of streams.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
In most oil fields, the water that companies pump up with the oil gets reinjected deep underground. But the federal government allows a dozen oil fields on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming to pump streams of this wastewater onto the land.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
Rancher Darwin Griebel says his cows need the oil field water, and his business depends on it.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
Wes Martel, vice chairman for the Eastern Shoshone Business Council, stands near a murky gray stream full of oil field wastewater. He's concerned about the effects the wastewater has on wildlife, water quality and, since cows drink it, he wonders: "What's in your steak?"
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
Internal EPA documents released to NPR show some EPA staffers have been trying to figure out what is in the wastewater released by oil companies. There are lots of chemicals. Some leave solid residues like these white and gray mounds. Danger signs near this outflow pipe warn that poisonous gas fumes from the water can cause respiratory irritation or suffocation.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
Dirty water from the oil wells flows through oil-caked pipes into a settling pit where trucks vacuum off the oil. A net covers the pit to keep out birds and other wildlife. Streams of this wastewater flow through the reservation and join natural creeks and rivers.
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Originally published on Fri November 16, 2012 11:55 am

The air reeks so strongly of rotten eggs that tribal leader Wes Martel hesitates to get out of the car at an oil field on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. He already has a headache from the fumes he smelled at another oil field.

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The Two-Way
2:51 pm
Thu November 15, 2012

BP Settlement Of Little Comfort To Some, A 'Down Payment' To Others

Credit Win McNamee / Getty Images
June 2010: A boom floats in the water as contract workers from BP use skimmers to clean oil from a marsh near Venice, La.
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Originally published on Thu November 15, 2012 6:36 pm

There's mixed reaction this afternoon to the news that BP has agreed to a deal with federal authorities to pay $4.5 billion in criminal and civil penalties related to the 2010 Gulf Oil spill.

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The Two-Way
2:25 pm
Thu November 15, 2012

'What Did My Son Do To Die Like This': A Father Mourns His 11-Month-Old Son

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Credit Majed Hamdan / AP
Jihad Masharawi weeps while he holds the body of his 11-month old son Ahmad, at Shifa hospital following an Israeli air strike on their family house, in Gaza City on Wednesday.
Credit Mohammed Salem / Reuters /Landov
Jihad Masharawi, a Palestinian employee of BBC Arabic in Gaza, mourns over the body of his 11-month-old son.
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By editor

Originally published on Tue March 12, 2013 12:39 pm

The picture at the top of this post is quickly coming to represent the human suffering behind the fighting in Gaza.

The Washington Post used it on its front page this morning and it's moved quickly and widely through Twitter.

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