URBANA – Colleagues are remembering State Senator Scott Bennett for his wit, his work on public safety, and his Central Illinois upbringing. In a statement Friday afternoon, his wife Stacy says Bennett succumbed to complications of a large brain tumor. Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup says the 45-year-old Champaign Democrat was pronounced dead Friday afternoon…
CHAMPAIGN — December 24 will mark half a year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortions. The June 24 decision to overturn Roe and the related 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, individual states could suddenly regulate abortion in their jurisdictions. Bans and restrictions spread throughout the country….
WASHINGTON — For decades, the U.S. struggled to create a national system for tracking opioid overdoses. Critics including Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) say the lack of accurate, real-time data has made it harder for health officials to respond as black market pain pills, heroin and illicit fentanyl flooded communities. Listen to this story here. “It…
Health officials remain concerned that too few are getting the new COVID booster shots. The shots have been available since September. In Illinois, just over 16% of the eligible population have received the booster dose. Compare that to 70% who have completed their primary series of vaccines. The concern comes as the holiday season is…
It’s turning out to be a bad flu season. Memorial Health reports it is seeing a dramatic increase at its five area hospitals, following national trends. “This year’s strains of influenza are proving to be highly contagious,” said Raj Govindaiah, MD, Memorial Health senior vice president and chief physician executive. “We don’t like to see…
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois lawmakers last week passed significant legislation dealing with electric vehicle manufacturing incentives and the availability of hygiene products for prisoners in the state’s correctional system. But some weightier issues, including a possible assault weapons ban, will wait until a lame duck session scheduled for early January. Last week, lawmakers wrapped up a…
Legal battles have waged for years to force drug companies to pay for their role in America’s opioid epidemic. Finally, in landmark settlements over the last year, thousands of states, counties and local governments have won more than $50 billion from opioid makers, prescription drug distributors and pharmacies. But now these 3,000 state and local…
CHICAGO — From 1,800 feet in the air, the view from a tiny, four-seater plane reduces the Chicago suburbs to a vast landscape of miniature patterns. Above us, flocks of geese fly in v-shape formations beneath sheets of white clouds. Sitting behind a small wheel, the pilot removes his jacket, places his glasses on his…
WASHINGTON — Green Sprouts, a maker of reusable baby products sold at chain retailers including Whole Foods and Bed Bath & Beyond, is recalling its stainless-steel cups and bottles over a lead poisoning hazard. The voluntary recall, issued last week, affects about 10,500 units, according to an alert on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s…
URBANA – Converting adult intensive care beds, and naming nurse teams after Hogwarts houses – these are just a couple of the ways Carle Hospital in Urbana is weathering a surge of respiratory infections among children this winter. As COVID-19 precautions have waned, other respiratory viruses like respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza have spread…
The four months of care Annie Mae Bullock received for her stage 4 lung cancer were rocky at best. But the final three days of that care, her daughter Karen Bullock said, were excellent. Annie Mae spent those few days in hospice care at home surrounded by loved ones singing, chanting and praying as she…
INDIANAPOLIS — Maxine Thomas got her first Child Tax Credit payment in the spring of 2021. She was skeptical, like it was too good to be true. “I really didn’t think I was going to get it for some reason,” she said. Thomas is a single mom of five children. She works full time at…
LOS ANGELES — Wes Yin says it’s impossible to study health care these days without coming across the issue of medical debt. “There’s a lot of people who are struggling,” said Yin, an associate professor of economics at UCLA and one of the nation’s leading researchers on medical debt. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s4780019/audio/2022/11/medicaldebt-2way.mp3 Listen to this story here….
For months, abortion providers in the Metro East have described a surge in patients since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. A national report from the Society for Family Planning has documented that increase. It notes that Illinois clinics performed nearly 30% more abortions in August than…
VALPARAISO, Ind. — When Susie Talevski sued the agency that managed her elderly father’s care before he died, she hoped to get justice for her family. She did not expect the case would balloon into what it is today. A ruling against her could strip millions of vulnerable Americans of their power to hold states…