Brookings Institution released a study of mortality and morbidity in the 21st century.

Case and Deaton find that while midlife mortality rates continue to fall among all education classes in most of the rich world, middle-aged non-Hispanic whites in the U.S. with a high school diploma or less have experienced increasing midlife mortality since the late 1990s. This is due to both rises in the number of “deaths of despair”—death by drugs, alcohol and suicide—and to a slowdown in progress against mortality from heart disease and cancer, the two largest killers in middle age.

The combined effect means that mortality rates of whites with no more than a high school degree, which were around 30 percent lower than mortality rates of blacks in 1999, grew to be 30 percent higher than blacks by 2015.

[More..]

Baltimore was in chaos today when riots erupted after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a young African American who died in police custody.

Gray's family was shocked by the violence... they hoped to organize a peace march later in the week, said family attorney Billy Murphy. He said they did not know the riot was going to happen and urged calm.

"They don't want this movement nationally to be marred by violence," he said. "It makes no sense."

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency in Baltimore and activated the National Guard.

BET aired its interview with President Obama on race tonight. (Warning: video plays automatically.) It's called "BET News Presents: A Conversation with President Barack Obama."

More Ferguson grand jury documents were released today.

The ACLU responds to DOJ's new racial profiling guidelines. It also points out that allowing racial profiling near the border is a bad precedent.

Protests continue around the country.

The protests in New York over the grand jury's failure to indict the officer who killed Eric Garner and over-aggressive police conduct in general continue. Earlier tonight, about 100 protesters staged a "die in" at the Apple store on 59th & 5th (across from the Plaza Hotel and entrance to Central Park)and at Macy's at Herald Square and Grand Central Terminal.

In a surprising departure from previous nights, however, more than a hundred people stormed into an Apple Store on Central Park South and Fifth Avenue to stage a brief "die-in," sprawling on the floor of the crowded showroom as shoppers and employees watched. The group left without incident after about five minutes.

Similar demonstrations were staged at Macy's .... As they did at the Apple store, police stood by but allowed the protesters to briefly occupy both locations.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan proposed a budget plan for 2012. It's scheduled for a vote next week. Among its features: Ending Medicare and gutting Medicaid.

[T]he nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has outlined what adoption of this proposal to supplant Medicare with vouchers and private insurance exchanges would mean. The overall cost of healthcare would go up, and retirees' out-of-pocket medical expenses would double — an increase that would push tens of millions of people living on fixed incomes over the financial brink.

Ryan calls his plan "The Path to Prosperity." For who? No surprise here: it calls for further tax reductions for corporations and wealthy individuals. He claims to be saving Medicare, notwithstanding his plan would push tens of millions of people over the financial edge. Ryan writes: [More...]

The Wall St. Journal reports President Obama's budget, to be released on Monday, won't include changes to social security:

"The president believes that we should strengthen the program without putting at risk current retirees or slashing benefits for future generations, and he believes we can only achieve this goal by working together—Democrats and Republicans—to find a bipartisan solution," said White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage.

Joan at Daily Kos has more.

The first baby boomer turned 65 on January 1. Millions more will follow. ABC News has a video report, dissing the boomers in every way: from calling them "demanding" to implying they are only concerned about themselves and their needs.

The worst is when the reporter says boomers will soon be demanding social security and medicare, "payable by the generations that came after them."

As if baby boomers are asking for a free ride. [More...]

Reprehensible news article of the day:

From 1946 to 1948, American public health doctors deliberately infected nearly 700 Guatemalans — prison inmates, mental patients and soldiers — with venereal diseases in what was meant as an effort to test the effectiveness of penicillin.

American tax dollars, through the National Institutes of Health, even paid for syphilis-infected prostitutes to sleep with prisoners, since Guatemalan prisons allowed such visits. When the prostitutes did not succeed in infecting the men, some prisoners had the bacteria poured onto scrapes made on their penises, faces or arms, and in some cases it was injected by spinal puncture.

If the victims came down with the disease, they were treated with antibiotics.

The U.S. officially apologized today. The President of Guatamala appropriately expressed his outrage, calling the tests "crimes against humanity."

(Warning: This post is going to be controversial and expresses my views only.)

Both the House and Senate bills would create a voluntary federal program to provide long-term care insurance that pays small cash benefits to people with severe cognitive or physical disabilities. Like the elderly.

I don't think most people understand what long term care insurance covers. It covers nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and for the cognitively or physically disabled, some home health care costs in lieu of going to a facility. This isn't medical coverage but coverage that assists those who can't feed, clothe, toilet or bathe themselves. You aren't eligible until you can't do at least two of the above. The payments cover a fraction of the actual cost of the services. In other words, you have to be basically physically or mentally dysfunctional to qualify for what is a paltry amount of benefits. [More...]

Studies show women pay up to 50% more than men in health insurance premiums when they buy individual policies in Colorado. It's not just because of maternity coverage:

They pay more even when maternity coverage is not included. And in many cases, a female nonsmoker pays more for health coverage than a man who smokes.

Pending federal health care legislation would change that. What do the insurance companies say?

... the insurance industry warns that lowering premiums for younger women could mean higher premiums for most everyone else.

...Insurance companies probably would have to raise prices on other groups to make up the difference if they were forced to lower prices for younger women, said Tom Gosselin, director of small-group underwriting at Anthem.

[More...]

Good for Target, Walgreen's and other stores which have pulled Halloween costumes mocking undocumented residents from their shelves and websites:

Several well-known chain stores have halted sales of an "illegal alien" Halloween costume after complaints from immigrant-rights activists.

The costume includes an orange jumpsuit similar to prison garb, with ILLEGAL ALIEN stamped across the chest, a "green card" and a space alien mask. Activists began complaining Friday when they learned the costume was being sold in stores or on Web sites of retailers including Target, Walgreen's and Amazon. The costume was priced between $27.49 and $39.99.

The costume was made by Forum Novelties Inc., based in Melville, New York. Now that's a company boycott I'd support.

A new study shows fewer Americans support abortion rights.

Only 47 percent of Americans now feel abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a drop from 54 percent a year ago, according to the poll. Meanwhile, 45 percent say it should be illegal in all or most cases. That's up from 41 percent a year ago.

Demographically: [More...]

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said “I think health care is a privilege. I wouldn’t call it a right.”

Journalist Arthur Salm makes the argument that health care is a right under the Constitution. His authority:

Take this from the Preamble to the Constitution (my italics):

” … establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare …

And this, from the Declaration of Independence (again, my italics):

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

So, Salim argues these documents, "as read and understood through modern sensibilities" provide a right to health care. [More...]

The Gates arrest and its aftermath proves that the discussion of race and its impact on life in the United States continues to stir emotion. The discussion is nonetheless important. It's too easy for members of one racial or ethnic group to ignore or remain ignorant of the perceptions commonly held by members of other races and ethnicities.

Too rarely does the discussion include the nation's indigenous peoples. Brenda Golden provides this brief account of the injustices Native Americans have endured from the days of conquest to the present. She reminds us that the native leaders who resisted conquest or mistreatment "were branded an enemy and thrown in prison if not killed in battle."

Many of these leaders were imprisoned for long periods of time; Geronimo died a prisoner of the US at Fort Sill, Oklahoma on February 17, 1909.

This reminder is particularly timely given that Leonard Peltier's "first full parole hearing in 15 years" was held today. The results should be known in about three weeks. [more ... including a new addendum to the original post]

The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is "vastly expanding" a Bush administration initiative "to identify and deport illegal immigrants held in local jails." A pilot program in Harris County, Texas has been expanded to scores of additional counties "with an eye toward establishing it nationwide by late 2012."

One might think the program would please Rep. Lamar Smith, the super-genius who equates illegal immigrants with "terrorist weapons," but Smith fears that focusing deportation efforts on individuals who committed crimes creates "a de facto amnesty" for undocumented workers who, after entering the country, live peacefully, support their families, pay their taxes, and obey the nation's laws. This is the super-genius' preferred solution:

“We can prevent many of these crimes by deporting illegal immigrants before they have committed them, instead of waiting until after the fact,” he said, echoing the views of many hard-liners.

We could prevent a whole lot more crimes by locking up all the Republicans before they commit them. What do you think of that idea, Rep. Smith? [more...]