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11.02.2009 9:01 pm

Seeking a less catastrophic way to cool global warming

Phorusrhacos longissimus roamed part of what is now Argentina during the Middle Miocene.

Who wants a drumstick? The six-foot-tall phorusrhacos longissimus roamed what is now Argentina during the Middle Miocene.

People often talk as if warming temperatures are the only evidence of human-induced global climate change. But the amount of carbon dioxide in the…

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11.02.2009 9:01 pm

Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. The legal system does.

In Sunday’s third installment of a Post-Dispatch series on loopholes in Missouri’s drunk driving laws, we learned that the state law that mandates a one year-suspension of driving privileges for drivers who refuse to take a breathalyzer test often is a joke.

In…

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11.01.2009 9:00 pm

Sharing responsibility for health care costs

House Democrats unveiled a sweeping health care reform bill last Thursday built on shared responsibility.
Individuals would have to buy health insurance for themselves and their families.
Taxpayers would subsidize coverage for those unable to afford it on their own.
Employers would have…

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10.30.2009 9:01 pm

The way it is: Budget cuts move Missouri south.

R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

Last week, Gov. Jay Nixon whacked another $203.7 million from the state’s budget. He’d already cut $385 million in July, and vetoed another $105 million when he signed the $23 billion budget in June.

The governor really had no choice.…

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10.30.2009 9:00 pm

EPA ruling might mean a cleaner Mississippi River

Water skiing on the Mississippi River

Water skiing on the Mississippi River

It takes more than 200 pages of dense, legalistic language to detail the intricacies of the federal Clean Water Act. But the bottom line is simple: Federal and state governments must protect lakes, streams and…

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10.27.2009 9:01 pm

Time to end Doe Run’s serial contamination cycle.

R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

The Doe Run Company has been operating a giant lead smelter in Herculaneum for decades. For just as long, elevated lead levels have been found in people, properties and roads around it.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Missouri Department…

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10.23.2009 9:00 pm

Vote Yes on Proposition N.

About 60 percent of Americans - 175 million people - now live in communities that restrict smoking in public places.

On Nov. 3, voters in St. Louis County can add the county’s nearly 1 million residents to the list by voting…

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10.21.2009 9:00 pm

Borrowing tactics from both sides on health reform

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, was in a fine fury Tuesday morning. Speaking on the Senate floor, he blasted Democratic lawmakers for a plan to permanently adjust the Medicare formula used to set payment…

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10.20.2009 9:01 pm

Improving health systems means better care for less money

If there were a way to save $207.4 million, avoid 30,000 unnecessary hospitalizations and more than 2,000 premature deaths, we’d jump at it, right?
That’s what Missouri would gain if its health system performed as well as the systems in Vermont,…

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10.20.2009 9:00 pm

A tale of two Rods: Illinois-style politics in Jefferson City

R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

Last April 8, the Missouri House passed a measure that would have given voters the right to change the state’s non-partisan judicial selection process and put politics back in the system.

On Sunday, The Kansas City Star looked at that 85-72 vote…

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10.16.2009 9:01 pm

Markets, competition and health reform

Flanked by doctors, President Barack Obama speaks after last week's historic Senate health reform vote.

President Barack Obama speaks after last week's historic Senate health reform vote.

Forget all the angry shouting about socialized medicine and government take-overs. Health care reform is really all about markets, competition and choice.
That’s probably not what you’ve heard. But as…

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10.15.2009 6:33 pm

Taking a closer look at the ‘real uninsured.’

To hear some people tell it, the number of people without health insurance in the United States is vastly overstated.
There are the illegal immigrants, the argument goes, and then there are those who can afford to buy insurance but don’t…

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10.13.2009 9:03 pm

DWI? Ho-hum.

The more you learn about how drunk driving laws are enforced — or more often, not enforced — in the St. Louis area, the more obvious it becomes why drunk driving remains so prevalent.

Unless a drunk driver runs into someone or…

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10.13.2009 9:00 pm

Waging an imprecise war on illegal drugs in Union.

Flu season — or at least the traditional flu season — still is a month away. But four Jefferson County schools are taking an unexpected holiday this week, closed by outbreaks of swine flu.
That’s left doctors and public health officials…

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10.12.2009 9:00 pm

Premiums headed up, with or without health reform

Robin Beaton's breast cancer surgery was cancelled when her insurance company claimed she failed to report being treated for acne.

Robin Beaton's insurance company cancelled her breast cancer surgery because she didn't disclose she'd been treated for acne.

Health insurance companies launched an 11th-hour assault Monday on a compromise health care reform bill in the Senate. In a new report and a…

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10.11.2009 9:01 pm

Opting not to vaccinate, gambling with children’s health

Suppose you were asked for a list of the game-changers in modern medicine — treatments that saved the most lives and had the greatest health impact.
You might name organ transplants or drugs to fight cancer and AIDS. Maybe if you…

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10.09.2009 9:01 pm

Time for Gov. Nixon to lead on health care

For a guy who focused so relentlessly on health care as a candidate, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has been remarkably quiet of late.
At a time when health care dominates the national debate, Mr. Nixon is one of just six Democratic…

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10.07.2009 9:00 pm

Seeking an Olympian achievement on climate change

A home destroyed by beach erosion in the Alaskan village of Shishmaref, on an island inhabited for 4000 years. It's facing evacuation because of global warming.

A home destroyed by beach erosion in the Alaskan village of Shishmaref. It was evacuated because of global warming.

When President Barack Obama was in Copenhagen on Oct. 2, he was trying to attract an Olympic Games for Chicago.
Next time, he…

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10.05.2009 9:01 pm

Are Illlinois drinkers helping Missouri tax collectors?

Missouri’s grim revenue picture got even grimmer last month, with tax collections falling 16.3 percent below what they were in September 2008 — and revenue in September 2008 was lousy to begin with.

The only bright spot in Missouri’s revenue picture —…

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10.04.2009 9:01 pm

Calamity Jane strikes again.

Alabama Gov. George Wallace in the schoolhouse door, arguing for states' rights on June 11, 1963.

Alabama Gov. George Wallace in the schoolhouse door, arguing for states' rights, June 11, 1963.

Whatever hopelessly wacky idea is floated in the conservative blogosphere, Missourians can be confident that state Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, will lasso it and bring it back…

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