Mac Miller Overdose Shows Fentanyl’s Deadly Power
Popular rapper Mac Miller is the latest musician to die after ingesting fentanyl — a grim tribute to the drug’s power. A coroner in Los Angeles says…
Reporter’s Notebook: The Road To A Story
I’m used to long roads. I grew up at the dead end of a dirt one in rural Montana. For my latest radio story, I drove about 11 hours. Every person I interviewed was a stranger in a town I’ve never been. Mostly, I found them online. Don’t tell my mother. That latest story —…
Forty Percent Of Rare ‘Polio-Like’ Cases Are In The Midwest
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t know why young children across the country are coming down with a rare condition called Acute…
Doctors, Patients Sing Art Therapy’s Praises. So Why Isn’t There More Support?
Paulina Nieto, who grew up in Columbus, Indiana, was only 2 months old when she started to have heart problems due to a narrow artery.
Handing Off: The Reality Of Land Transfer Between Older, Younger Farmers
As life expectancy increases, farmers are staying in the business, but there’s still a need to plan for what happens when they die. At the same time,…
Illinois Tightens Flu Shot Requirements For Health Workers. But Who’s Enforcing It?
A new Illinois statute aims to boost flu shot rates among healthcare workers by making it harder for employees to decline the vaccine. Lawmakers say…
Telemedicine Helps Reach Stroke Patients in Rural Illinois
Two years ago, Donna Patton became one of the nearly 800,000 Americans who suffer a stroke each year. She still remembers waking up from surgery and…
Cannabis-Derived Drug Gains Full Federal Approval, Some CBD Reclassified
There’s good news for hemp growers across the U.S. who are preparing for harvest. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration removed some cannabidiol, or…
Why Your Sense Of Smell Could Be A Clue To Alzheimer’s Disease
Your sense of smell may give doctors early clues as to whether you’ll deal with Alzheimer’s disease. Since there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s disease,…
When Insurers Deny Mental Health Coverage, Families In Crisis Struggle Even More
When Matthew Timion needed to get his son treatment for mental illness, he did not anticipate it would be so hard to get the insurance company to pay…
U.S. Voters Say Government ‘Needs To Do More’ For Rural Broadband, New Poll Finds
A new poll suggests 72 percent of voters, regardless of party affiliation, believe Congress and federal regulators “need to do more” to bring high-speed internet to rural Americans. The survey, done by by the organization Connect Americans Now, which advocates for using TV frequencies for wireless internet, comes just a few weeks before the midterm elections….
Medical foods are vital for a rare disease. Why doesn’t insurance cover them?
Every day, Amanda Moller scoops powdered formula out of a can and shakes it up with water from her kitchen sink in University City, Missouri, a suburb…
Data Show Opioid Prescriptions Declining In IL
There is some good news in the fight against opioid abuse in Illinois. Doctors prescribed fewer opioids to patients in 2017 than 2016, according to numbers from the statewide prescription monitoring program. The database can’t track illegal narcotic use, but the drop in prescriptions is still widely seen as a good sign as the majority…
With Insulin Prices Soaring, Some Diabetics Turn to Dangerous Work Around
Nicole Smith-Holt’s son Alec was 23 when he started feeling sick. His muscles cramped. He was lethargic. He woke up multiple times every night to use…
Battling Drug Addiction: What Comes After Detox?
Like many states, Illinois is battling an opioid epidemic. Loran Owens, who lives in Franklin county in Southern Illinois, knows what the epidemic is…