Visits to the hospital's psychiatric emergency department have climbed 20 percent in the past three years. "We've seen actually more very serious suicide attempts in that population than we had in the past as well," she said.
Compounding the problem are patients with chronic mental illness who have been hurt by a squeeze on mental health services and find themselves with nowhere to go. On top of that, doctors are seeing some cases where the patient's most critical need is a warm bed.
Mentally ill flood ER as states cut services
Seafood 10,000 Times Over Safe Limit for Carcinogenic Contamination, FDA Says to Eat it Anyway
Despite seafood showing extremely high levels of contamination, the FDA still deems the food safe for consumption. The FDA not only falsely softened the risk of seafood consumption due to carcinogenic contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the seafood supply, but also ignored individual FDA staff members who called for higher levels of contamination protection.
Patriot Missiles Seized, Sold To China by Israel
Germany has a long history of working with Israel, call it “war guilt” or profiteering. The centrifuges used to develop nuclear weapons that were distributed by Israel, first to South Africa then by Israeli Johann Meyer to Libya were of Germany origin. Saddam Hussein received his biological and chemical warfare equipment from Germany, but through Bush family sources, not Israel.
Pentagon Finds No Fault in Ties to TV Analysts
A Pentagon public relations program that sought to transform high-profile military analysts into “surrogates” and “message force multipliers” for the Bush administration complied with Defense Department regulations and directives, the Pentagon’s inspector general has concluded after a two-year investigation.
The inquiry was prompted by articles published in The New York Times in 2008 that described how the Pentagon, in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, cultivated close ties with retired officers who worked as military analysts for television and radio networks.
Fracking Opens Fissures Among States
Pennsylvania regulators ordered Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) to install pressure gauges costing as little as $600 on 114 of its wells after natural gas contaminated drinking water last year.
Officials rejected a call from environmental groups to order safety devices for all similar natural-gas wells, a requirement in neighboring Ohio.
Republican Security Advisers Tied to $40 Billion in Contracts
Five of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s 41 national security and foreign policy advisers have links to companies that last year alone received at least $7.9 billion in federal contracts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Government analyst Christopher Flavelle. Of that, $7.3 billion came from the Department of Defense.
Justice Dept. rejects South Carolina voter ID law
The Justice Department has rejected South Carolina's voter-identification law, saying it discriminates against minorities.
Update at 4:55 p.m. ET: In a speech earlier this month to the American Constitution Society, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez noted the South Carolina law in explaining the Justice Department efforts to enforce the Voting Rights Act and other statutes:
Large Hadron Collider team detect 'new particle'
Large Hadron Collider scientists including a group from the UK believe they have detected their first new subatomic particle. Known as Chi (the Greek X symbol) b (3P), it is a "boson" like the fabled Higgs particle believed to underpin mass.
Chib(3P) provides a new way of combining two other elementary particles, the "beauty" quark and its antiquark, so that they bind together. Quarks are the building blocks of protons and neutrons, which form the cores of atoms.
Gay-friendly clergy disinvited from SF church
Most Holy Redeemer Church, a Catholic parish in the middle of the Castro, is in trouble again with church leaders over how best to minister to its heavily gay and lesbian congregation.
In the latest incident, Archbishop George Niederauer had the church's pastor, the Rev. Steve Meriwether, rescind invitations to a trio of gay-friendly clergy scheduled to speak at a series of pre-Christmas evening services.
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