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After wiping out $6.7 billion in medical debt, this nonprofit is just getting started
Soon after giving birth to a daughter two months premature, Terri Logan received a bill from the hospital. She recoiled from the string of numbers separated by commas.
Logan, who was a high school math teacher in Georgia, shoved it aside and ignored subsequent bills. She was a single mom who knew she had no way to pay. “I avoided it like the ...Read more

Scorching summer tests states workplace heat rules
PORTLAND, Ore. — When a record-breaking heat wave settled over the Pacific Northwest in late July, it didn't take long for high temperatures to test the effectiveness of new state safety rules aimed at addressing the effects of climate change on both indoor and outdoor workers.
As temperatures exceeded 95 degrees Fahrenheit for more than a ...Read more

Can you reverse abortions? Some say yes; others call the treatment unethical, possibly dangerous
SEATTLE — The service advertised by Care Net of Puget Sound might seem startling to those unfamiliar with crisis pregnancy centers.
"Reverse Your Abortion," the organization's website proclaims. If you've started a medical abortion, taking only the first of two drugs, "you can still change your mind."
The proposed solution: a highly ...Read more

How this lab is helping Philly learn about its contaminated drug supply
HORSHAM, Pa. — Inside the sprawling complex of NMS Labs in Horsham, scientists are mapping the contours of a crisis.
The toxicology lab, one of the largest in the country, tests blood and tissue samples for a host of substances, helping clinicians, law enforcement, and medical examiners’ offices investigate everything from suspicious deaths...Read more

Not easy being green: Newsom clashes with with Calif. environmentalists on climate, water
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The word got out and the environmental lobby was quick to pounce: After years of silence on the issue, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration was reviving a controversial plan to burrow a tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the fragile hub of California’s water-delivery system.
Environmentalists said the ...Read more

How a California lawyer's bragging prompted a judge to throw out winning malpractice verdict
LOS ANGELES — When his medical malpractice trial concluded in April, Dr. Essam Quraishi left an Orange County civil courtroom in victory. Swiftly and unanimously, 12 jurors had decided that the gastroenterologist had not been responsible for the death of a patient.
That was before his lawyer, Robert McKenna III, appeared in an online ...Read more

Rights leader warned Congress about Haiti gangs. But the problem has only gotten worse
When the number of gang-involved massacres in Haiti stood at five a few years ago, the head of a leading human rights group warned U.S. lawmakers about the Caribbean nation’s exploding crises of gang violence and firearms trafficking.
“Haiti faces severe security challenges that affect all Haitians,” said Pierre Esperance, the executive ...Read more

Proud Boy files to run for a Sacramento-area school board. The GOP isn't supporting him
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A member the far-right group Proud Boys who recently lost a bid for the California state Assembly has filed papers to run for a seat on a Sacramento-area school board.
Jeffrey Erik Perrine, 38, plans to challenge San Juan Unified School District Board of Education member Michael McKibbin in the November election. Tanya ...Read more
Oakland church that gives cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms as communion sues over police raid
An East Oakland church that gives out cannabis and psychedelic plants as sacrament filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Oakland and the Oakland Police Department over a 2020 police raid.
The Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants, an assembly of the Church of Ambrosia, filed a lawsuit Friday alleging that the city, police department...Read more
Family of disabled Southern California boy who died after fall at school settles suit for $18 million
LOS ANGELES — The family of an 8-year-old La Puente boy with Down syndrome who died in 2017 after falling off a chair at school and severing his spinal cord has reached an $18 million settlement with the district, the family's attorney said Wednesday.
Because of his disability, Moises Murillo could not walk, talk or sit up straight and was ...Read more

Toddler slips out apartment door, falls out Bronx building window: 'It was so loud I thought it was a car crash,' neighbor says
NEW YORK — A 3-year-old girl fell out a Bronx window Wednesday after sneaking out the front door of her second-floor apartment and scampering up the stairs to a higher level — with her frantic grandfather in panicked pursuit.
Michelle Boadu’s grandpa had just gotten home from work and was walking into the apartment on Sheridan Ave. near E...Read more
News briefs
Mehmet Oz responds to crudités shopping video
PITTSBURGH — No one expected the discourse in one of the country's most important U.S. Senate races to be hijacked by talk of crudités and grocery stores, but that's the reality of a race between a self-proclaimed internet troll and a longtime TV celebrity.
Republican Mehmet Oz, facing a ...Read more

21,000 fish died in catastrophic UC Davis lab mishap. Some were endangered species
Researchers discovered Aug. 9 that 21,000 fish had died in their enclosures at UC Davis’ Center For Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture — a mass die-off that appears to have been caused by chlorine exposure. About 100 fish — mostly tilapia — survived.
The Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture, or CABA, focuses on species conservation; ...Read more

R. Kelly's federal trial in Chicago opens with a musical flashback, harsh allegations of sex with children and an attempted cover-up
CHICAGO — Jurors in R. Kelly’s federal child pornography trial had been told the evidence in the case would transport them back in time, but they probably didn’t think they’d find themselves watching the 1998 Grammy Awards.
“Every once in a while, a song comes along that touches us all in a way that is out of the ordinary,” actor ...Read more

Stanford monkeypox case not sex-related, raising questions about transmission
A monkeypox case reported in the San Francisco Bay Area adds to the growing evidence that people can contract the virus in multiple ways — and raises questions about just how easy it is to get infected during casual encounters with others.
A case investigation released this week by the Centers for Disease Control reveals that a man in his 20s...Read more

Prosecutors can't enforce Michigan abortion ban until judge decides on injunction
PONTIAC, Mich. — Oakland County Circuit Judge Jacob Cunningham signed an order Wednesday keeping his temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of Michigan's abortion ban in “full force and effect” until he decides on a broader request for a preliminary injunction.
Cunningham made the announcement at the start of what is expected to...Read more

California man behind 1976 kidnapping of 26 children and bus driver will be released on parole
A parole board affirmed Tuesday that Frederick Woods, one of three men convicted of kidnapping a school bus full of 26 children and their driver in the Central California city of Chowchilla in 1976, will be released, according to officials.
Woods, 70, was first found suitable for parole in a hearing at the California Men's Colony in San Luis ...Read more

Former Army Ranger from Pa. charged with assaulting cops during Capitol riot faces DC bench trial
Former Army Ranger Robert Morss, the Glenshaw, Pennsylvania man charged with storming the Capitol and assaulting police in support of former President Donald Trump's election lies, will go on trial without a jury on Aug. 29 in the District of Columbia.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden on Tuesday set a bench trial date for Morss and three ...Read more

LA County coroner reveals Anne Heche's cause of death
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner‘s office ruled Anne Heche’s death an accident, days after the “Another World” actor’s death and nearly two weeks after her fiery and fatal car crash in Mar Vista.
Heche died from smoke “inhalation and thermal injuries,” the coroner’s office said. She also suffered a...Read more

Georgia Gov. Kemp blasts Fulton County DA's office for playing politics as he fights subpoena in 2020 election probe
ATLANTA — A long-simmering clash between two branches of Georgia government exploded into public view Wednesday when an attorney for Gov. Brian Kemp moved to kill a subpoena seeking the Republican’s testimony before the Fulton County special grand jury studying potential criminal interference in Georgia’s 2020 elections.
The 121-page ...Read more
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