Health Care Issues

The Forbes 35 (Drunkest)

Toke This

Say 'Screw It' to Smoke Breaks with Snus

Wanna Smoke in Dallas? Don’t Plan on Leaving the House.

Council Committee Moves Toward Smoking Smackdown. Could Be Worse.

Before Council Votes to Ban Smoking, a Lot of Smoke is Blown at City Hall

After nearly three hours of discussion, the city council wrapped up yesterday's briefing on the proposed strengthened smoking ordinance seemingly prepared to vote on the item at next week's agenda meeting. Council members appear poised to approve a ban on smoking in bars, pool halls and within 15 fe ... More >>

Why the New Smoking Ordinance Should Have Been Delayed, and Sorting Through the 10 Amendments

There's a line where government stops and the rights of the people begin, and when Mayor Tom Leppert and nine of his council colleagues voted to strengthen Dallas' smoking ordinance, that line wasn't blurred, they drove right past it as if it didn't even exist. But no matter where you stand on the ... More >>

Joe Bob Briggs

Drive-In Movie Critic of Grapevine, TX

Smoking Bans: "An Affront to Freedom ... An Assault on Small Business"

Friend of Unfair Park "Peterk" forwards along this item from this morning's National Review Online, which excerpts a Friday story from the Financial Times concerning the "law of unintended consequences" created by smoking bans -- like, ya know, the one the Dallas City Council passed two weeks before ... More >>

Couldn't Medicare less

Shady goings-on in the fight over health care

Rich man's Robin Hood

GOP budget is greatest-ever transfer of wealth from the Have-Nots to the Haves

Yes, But Can We Smoke?

City Hall would like to tell you all about the city's new smoking ordinance -- so, if nothing else, you can't say you wasn't warned before enforcement officers hand you that $200 ticket upon lighting up. Hence, this press release that just landed in our in-box:DALLAS - The City of Dallas will host p ... More >>

Hash Over

City Hall would like to tell you all about the city's new smoking ordinance -- so, if nothing else, you can't say you wasn't warned before enforcement officers hand you that $200 ticket upon lighting up. Hence, this press release that just landed in our in-box:DALLAS - The City of Dallas will host p ... More >>

Hash Over

City Hall would like to tell you all about the city's new smoking ordinance -- so, if nothing else, you can't say you wasn't warned before enforcement officers hand you that $200 ticket upon lighting up. Hence, this press release that just landed in our in-box:DALLAS - The City of Dallas will host p ... More >>

Slicing the pie

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison switches to the side of the angels in Texas' tobacco battle

Hash Over

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison switches to the side of the angels in Texas' tobacco battle

Where There's Smoke

Dallas considers strengthening the smoking ordinance...again

Discordant Meows

Plus: Bashing the Bard; Smokeless Night Out; Take My Vote, Please

Puff Puff Poof

Smoking ban passed in the name of public health--right?

Blowing Smoke|Red-Faced Profession|From the Inside Too

Smoking ban passed in the name of public health--right?

Is Expanding the Dallas Smoking Ordinance a Commie Plot?

City Council debate over expanding the smoking ban gets heated

Kelly and Kim Deal Faced Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle Together in The Breeders and With Addiction at Home

City Council debate over expanding the smoking ban gets heated

Tax Dollars at Work

Hey, armed robbers need bullets, too!

Wheeler Dealers

Feds allege scam artists bilked Medicare for millions

Vice Grip

In Dallas restaurants, 2003 was all about smoke. The future may be all about hooch.

No Smoking Gun

The new smoking ban will work--if no one lights up

The Hole in the Doughnut

Carrollton missed the boom, but still hopes to attract restaurant business

Joint Effort

"Aging hippies" team with the desperately ill and one lawmaker to fight for medical marijuana in Texas. Is that just a smoke screen?

Cloudy Issue

Bill proposes to ban smoking in Texas restaurants

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

And your hair, your clothes, and your skin as the Big Smoke blows through Dallas

Smoke gets in his eyes

A Dallas deputy sheriff is transferred because of his allergies

Outside a Quiet Two-Party Town Hall, Health Care Demonstrators Take To the Streets

Patrick MichelsDemonstrators on both sides of the debate shared space outside this morning's town hall meeting with Rep. Pete Sessions and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson.​Update: Check out our slide show for more photos from the meeting and the protest.Walking up to the health care reform protest outs ... More >>

Pot for Pain? Not in Dallas County, No Sir.

​Will the feds' new stance on medicinal marijuana have any impact on local users, even though, sadly, Texas isn't among the states that permit the practice? Craig Watkins's office says no way, no how. Local Libertarians, not surprisingly, are crossing their fingers. (As opposed to ...) "The federa ... More >>

With Shifting Attitudes and a Burgeoning Medical Marijuana Movement, the Future Looks Rosy for Legalized Weed

​Will the feds' new stance on medicinal marijuana have any impact on local users, even though, sadly, Texas isn't among the states that permit the practice? Craig Watkins's office says no way, no how. Local Libertarians, not surprisingly, are crossing their fingers. (As opposed to ...) "The federa ... More >>

Dallas-Born Encycloweedia—Exactly What It Sounds Like—Is Trying a New Way to Turn Pot into Dough

​Will the feds' new stance on medicinal marijuana have any impact on local users, even though, sadly, Texas isn't among the states that permit the practice? Craig Watkins's office says no way, no how. Local Libertarians, not surprisingly, are crossing their fingers. (As opposed to ...) "The federa ... More >>

Caraway: "Quit Smoking Dallas"

Health and Human Services/FDA​Speaking of the mayor pro tem ...City Hall just sent word that tomorrow at City Hall, Dwaine Caraway will be joined by SMU associate psychology prof Jasper Smits, clinical psychologist Jay Ashmore of the Cooper Aerobics Center and others to launch a citywide anti-smok ... More >>

Dwaine Caraway Will Guilt Into Quitting the Smokes. Or SMU Will Pay You. Your Choice.

Andrea GrimesMayor Pro-Tem Dwaine Caraway improvises at today's Quit Smoking Dallas! press conference by inviting a smoking colleague to be mortified without notice.​Joking happily about how he's already told you to pull up your pants and quit the K2, Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway hosted a press co ... More >>

Golden Acres Heads to Federal Court to Take on Kathleen Sebelius and Medicare's "Hospice Cap"

Kathleen Sebelius​The National Alliance for Hospice Access lays out very clearly what the so-called "hospice cap" is, but long story short: In 1982, Congress enacted a law that allowed Medicare beneficiaries to choose hospice care over hospital care. There was one caveat: Congress put in place a c ... More >>

Smoking Declines and Food Fandom Grows. Coincidence?

Cigs: They blunt your sense of taste and stunt your growth.​Smoke-Free Texas, a coalition agitating for a state law prohibiting smoking in restaurants and bars, this month released a study showing people would eat out more often if they didn't have to contend with secondhand smoke. No offense ... More >>

Deuell Language: Planned Parenthood Says Politics Messing With Women's Health Care

Bob Deuell​The state Senate Committee on Health and Human Services voted yesterday in favor of a bill that would renew the Women's Health Program, a Medicaid-funded program that provides basic women's health care. It was set to expire this year unless the Lege took action, but now that it has the ... More >>

State GOP Legislators' Revenge Won't Be on Democrats, But on the Old, Poor and Sick

​People all over America should watch the special session of the Texas Legislature, just now beginning, if they want to see what Republicans are really up to. Among other things, they're out to kill Medicare and Medicaid. The regular session was stymied at the last minute when Democratic sta ... More >>

How Long Should Texas Docs Treat Untreatable Patients? The Debate That Won't Go Away.

Jordan Allen's case will become part of Texas' annual debate over medical futility.​Last week, just outside of Houston, a little boy's parents were scrambling. Doctors at Texas Children's Hospital had told them there was nothing more they could do for the boy, 14-year-old Jordan Allen, whose b ... More >>

It's Getting Expensive As City, Whistleblowing Auditor Wrangle Over Retaliation Claims

​Of the myriad lawsuits involving the city, Doug Moore v. City of Dallas et al is among the most expensive -- and getting a little more pricey all the time. This case, for those not keeping score at home, has already cost the city $2.5 million, paid to the state and the feds in June over allegatio ... More >>

Doc's Whistleblowing Results in Parkland, UT Southwestern Paying $1.4 Million to Feds

Gentilello in a 2005 UT Southwestern photo​Amidst all the other things going on with Parkland at the moment, there remains one other Very Big Thing you've probably forgotten all about: Dr. Larry Gentilello's allegations that trauma residents at the county hospital were treating patients and perfo ... More >>

Old White People Who Think They Can Just Check Out Should Think Again

​So what is all this anger among the old white people really all about? Why are old white people wearing odd costumes and hating the president all the time? We old white people all know exactly what it is. But nobody will say it out loud. It never comes out in the stories, even though it's ri ... More >>

Dan's Silverleaf to Officially Become Denton's First Non-Smoking Venue Later This Month

​For a few years now, venerable Denton venue Dan's Silverleaf has adopted a policy of not allowing cigarette smoking inside its venues during shows. Later this month, the venue plans on making its no-smoking policy a permanent fixture of the room.According to a press release announcing the change, ... More >>

Obama's War on Weed

In a strange about-face, the President tries to hack medical marijuana off at the knees

Dan's Goes Smoke-Free

In a strange about-face, the President tries to hack medical marijuana off at the knees

As Parkland Hospital Selects Interim CEO, It Also Decides What to Do With Ron Anderson

Via.Thomas C. Royer, M.D.​The man who see at right is Thomas C. Royer, M.D., who, for 12 years, was the man in charge of CHRISTUS Health, described on its website as "a Catholic health ministry." Not long ago he received the American Hospital Association's Distinguished Service Award, one among my ... More >>