A Southern Life in Scandalous Times

Former US Surgeon General Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, says the American people are not getting facts based on the best science on subjects ranging from stem cell science to sexual education, but rather biased reports aimed at promoting a particular political agenda.
In fact, the selective filtering of the facts on health-related topics and political interference occurred under both Democratic and Republican presidential administrations, Carmona reports.



Some critics say firms such as Blackstone that go public should be regulated like other publicly traded investment companies, such as mutual funds. The SEC has exempted Blackstone from regulation because it deemed that most of its assets are not "investment securities." That strikes some as a technicality.


The U.S. Senate was expected to take a pause in its debate on the Iraq war this week to allow Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) to offer a gay- and transgender-inclusive hate crimes bill as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.The Shepard bill would give the federal government authority to prosecute hate crimes against gays and transgender persons as well as against persons with disabilities. Existing federal law allows federal authorities to prosecute hate crimes targeting people because of their race, religion or ethnicity.