TV News LIES

One of the strictest abortion bans in the country will be on the ballot this November after Idaho’s secretary of state certified a ballot measure on Monday that would reverse the state’s abortion ban that prohibits the procedure at all stages of pregnancy.

The ballot initiative was headed by a volunteer-run group called Idahoans United for Women & Families, which ran a petition drive to get the measure in front of voters this fall. They gathered more than 100,000 signatures, surpassing the required 70,725 to get on the ballot.

If approved by voters, the measure would create a law for “reproductive freedom”, rather than serve as an amendment to the state constitution.

The change would make Idaho’s law similar to what it was before the supreme court ruled to overturn Roe v Wade in 2022, allowing states to ban abortion. Idaho’s new law would allow abortion until fetal viability, which is generally considered to be after about 21 weeks into a pregnancy. It would also allow people to make their own choices for abortion, contraception and fertility treatment.

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One in four Israelis now engages in harmful substance use as the psychological fallout from Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its expanding wars across the Middle East reshapes daily life, according to research cited by Haaretz.

The Israeli Centre for Addiction and Mental Health said substance misuse had risen sharply since October 2023, when Israel launched its war on Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the rate stood at one in 10 Israelis. It climbed to one in seven during the pandemic before reaching about 25 percent after October 2023.

The centre found that sedative use had increased by 2.5 times, while the consumption of opiates ahttps://www.middleeasteye.net/news/one-four-israelis-using-drugs-amid-gaza-genocide-and-regional-warsnd stimulants had almost doubled. Alcohol and cannabis use had also risen.

Among people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, the rate of substance misuse now stands at 54.2 percent.

Prof Shauli Lev-Ran, the centre’s founder, told Haaretz that repeated crises had entrenched habits formed during periods of extreme pressure.

“The more stress there is, the more people use,” he said, warning that consumption often continues even after immediate stress levels fall.

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Martha Lillard, who contracted polio at age five and spent most of her life dependent on an iron lung machine that helped her breathe, died on 26 June in Oklahoma, according to an online obituary.

Lillard slept inside the metal cylinder device that enclosed her body while changing air pressure within forced air in and out of her lungs. Despite that, she attended grade school for two hours daily before completing the rest of her education through tutoring.

“They told her she wasn’t supposed to live past 20 years old,” Cindy McVey, Lillard’s younger sister, told the Associated Press on Friday. “She had the enthusiasm and the drive to continue living and make the best of her life.”

McVey said she believes the effects of a long-term case of Covid-19 contributed to her sister’s death. According to McVey, Lillard’s death certificate lists chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome as her causes of death.

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New York City’s famed Solomon R Guggenheim Museum was among a number of Manhattan buildings that recently tested positive for the bacteria that causes legionnaires’ disease.

The city health department on Friday released a list of 31 buildings on the Upper East Side that have been ordered to clean and disinfect their cooling towers as the city deals with the latest outbreak of the disease, which is a serious form of pneumonia.

The distinctive, cylindrical-shaped art museum was among 19 that have already completed the remediation, according to the department’s list. The rest were expected to complete the work by Saturday.

City officials stressed the positive test results do not confirm any of the buildings as the source of the outbreak as the tests conducted could not distinguish between live and dead bacteria.

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The state of New York this week sued several companies over “forever chemicals,” a family of toxic chemicals that have commonly been used in consumer products.

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday sued five firms, alleging that they knew and hid information indicating these chemicals were toxic and persistent in the environment.

James also alleged the companies knew their products were harmful to the environment.

New York’s lawsuit is against DuPont, 3M and DuPont spinoffs Chemours, Corteva and EIDP.

“Big companies like 3M and DuPont knowingly sold toxic products that threatened New Yorkers’ health and polluted our environment for decades. It’s time for them to pay for the damage they caused,” James said in a written statement.

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Just a few weeks after President Donald Trump’s December promise that prescription drug prices would plummet "fast and furious," Patricia Brown checked into a California clinic for an infusion of Merck & Co.'s blockbuster cancer drug, Keytruda. 

When the bill arrived, the clinic's charge for a 400 milligram dose dominated the page: $162,567.74.  

Brown, an accomplished cook battling lung cancer, owed about $2,000.

But the six-figure charges to Brown and her insurance company show how quickly prices for cutting-edge medical treatments can balloon in the U.S. health care system. Someone has to pay: An employer, taxpayers, or regular people whose insurance premiums go up and up.

The price of Keytruda for Americans starts high and often heads higher. Merck lists Brown’s dose at an already steep $24,000. Then, depending on the insurer, the health care provider and any number of middlemen, prices can rise.

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