You guessed it…money from big business, specifically, the trucking industry via large campaign contributions to the current administration has the latter weakening rules of the road as promulgated by the (FMCSA) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. 

It is reported that every year as many as 5,000 lives are lost on our nation’s highways, and it is also documented that driver fatigue is a major cause of these accidents.  

That’s just what this country needs! (Please note that I am being sarcastic here)  Truckers with no sleep driving longer hours per week from 60 to 77 hours per week (an increase of 11 hours) so that trucking companies can make more money, and motorists on the nation’s highways will be in greater danger.

How do these people sleep at night?   Call me crazy, but the current administration should have to account for why it has put trucking industry profits over our national highway safety! I guess the answer is that Air Force One doesn’t use the nation’s highways among those driving 18 wheelers who have had no sleep, and maybe on speed. 

Mesothelioma - Cancer of the Lung Lining

Mesothelioma is a very rare form of lung cancer that arises in the mesothelium. The mesothelium is made up of parietal and visceral membranes, thin layers of tissue, which surround organs and body cavities, such as the lungs or abdomen. The visceral membrane immediately surrounds the organ, and the parietal membrane is a sac covering the visceral membrane. The visceral and parietal membranes that make up the mesothelium.

This fluid helps organs move easily among surrounding structures. In the case of the lung, it helps reduce friction between the lung and chest wall during normal breathing as the lung expands. The mesothelioma is referred to by different names, depending on what part of the body it is found in. In the abdomen, it is called the peritoneum, in the lungs, the pleura, and in the heart, the pericardium. These correspond to peritoneum mesothelioma (cancer of the abdomen/stomach), pleural mesothelioma (cancer of the lung lining) and pericardium mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is linked to asbestos exposure.

According to the Associated Press…

It seems that small town drug stores have been adversely affected by the prescription drug bill that was passed by Congress.  Many of them are closing due to the great difficulties in dealing with the new law. 

Apparently, before the Medicare drug benefit, which began on January 1, 2006, many of the small town pharmacy’s customers paid cash.  However, under the new law, private insurance plans would pay the tab — which is the problem.

  These insurance companies use their considerable clout to demand bigger discounts from the drug stores, and they withhold their payments to the drug stores for a considerable amount of time — to get their way in the bargain for discounts…and thus, small town drug stores are starved out of existence by the drug and insurance companies. 

The Medicare Drug Benefit aka Medicare Part D, means lower and slower payments to drug stores.  Insurance companies have an economic incentive to delay payment, because they get millions from the federal government and Medicare beneficiaries for administering the drug benefit law; the longer they can hold onto the money, the more interest that money can generate.  Unfortunately, the losers are the small town pharmacies and their customers.