Four Loko, 11 Young People And A Busy Emergency Room

Here at Shots, we’ve been watching the uproar over the alcoholic energy drink Four Loko ever since college kids last year reportedly started ending up in hospitals after drinking too much of the stuff. We weren’t the only ones. A team of emergency room docs in New York provides some more data on how the [...]

Rural Arizona Hospital Prepares For Future Cuts

Mayor Jack Porter arrived at the only post office in Bisbee, Ariz., on a red motorcycle. Getting off, he walked with a slight limp, the only lingering effect of a frightening morning last July when he awoke with numbness in his right side and slurred speech. The paramedics had rushed him to the only emergency [...]

After 15 Years, GOP Revives Balanced Budget Idea

It’s an idea whose time may have come again. There was lively debate about amending the Constitution to require a balanced budget throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, but the issue seemed to die off in the face of the federal surpluses that marked the end of the Clinton years. “The reason it fell [...]

Sebelius Defends Birth Control Without Co-Pays

The federal government recently announced that starting Aug. 2012, insurers must offer female preventive health services without extra costs to patients. Host Michel Martin discusses the controversial plan with the Health and Human Services Secretary. Martin also explores what the debt deal means for the Affordable Care Act with a Senior Correspondent from Kaiser Health [...]

Now History, Debt-Ceiling Fight Left Much Wreckage In Its Wake

With the Senate’s passage of the debt-ceiling legislation and President Obama having signed it Tuesday afternoon, the nation no longer needs to worry about defaultmageddon, at least not until early 2013 when the U.S. Treasury once again runs out of the room to borrow again. But even though there wasn’t a default, the fight left [...]

Debt Impasse Over, GOP Hopefuls Turn To Spending

For the Republicans vying to replace President Obama, the debate on the campaign trail has taken a back seat to the debate in Washington. Among the GOP presidential hopefuls, the dominant position on the deal is thumbs-down, though some reluctantly supported the agreement. But now, the issue of federal spending promises to become one of [...]

Harry Reid: GOP Must OK Tax Increases Or Ax Falls On Defense

Democrats may have yielded on their demand for tax increases to Republicans to achieve the debt-ceiling deal President Obama signed into law Tuesday. But Sen. Harry Reid had a warning for congressional Republicans when he talked Tuesday with Michele Norris, co-host of All Things Considered. Later this year when Congress has to decide on additional [...]

Despite Interventions, No-Show Students Drop Out

Fourth of a five-part series In Baltimore, the vast majority of kids who never finish school drop out because of extreme poverty, homelessness and a drug epidemic that has left some neighborhoods desolate and dangerous. In the toughest neighborhoods, kids miss lots of school days, and that puts them at risk of dropping out. Now, [...]

A High School Dropout’s Midlife Hardships

Fifth in a five-part series Today, the people who seem to be hurting the most in our sputtering economy are dropouts in their 30s, 40s and 50s. Despite their work experience, some can’t even apply for a new job without proof that they completed high school. One man has thought a lot about his education [...]

Why Dropout Data Can Be So Unreliable

Accurate dropout figures are very hard to find because most states don’t adequately collect or analyze the data. Part of the problem is that every state has had a different definition for dropout. In some states, for example, students who leave school aren’t counted as having dropped out if they enroll in adult education classes [...]