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Sunday, February 12, 2012   |  Miller-McCune Homepage

David Rosenfeld

David Rosenfeld is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Oregon with 10 years of experience writing for newspapers. He writes primarily about health care, conservation and the changing world around us.

Righting the Voting Income Gap

The “motor voter” law, an almost decade-old federal effort to encourage voter registration among Americans receiving public assistance, is bearing fruit.

Eyewitness IDs Can Be Made Better

It’s business as usual for many police agencies, even after bungled eyewitness procedures led to high-profile exonerations.

Noise Complaints Draw Opposition to Wind Farms

The health effects from wind turbine noise tell us interesting things about the way we hear things.

Stunting Stents

The quicker, easier solution isn’t always the wisest choice when it comes to many things in life, including heart disease.

Can Mining Provide a Renewable Energy Future?

Developers are looking into mining waste heaps as a home for solar panels and windmills.

Voting Technology Research Gets In-Depth

As election systems technology in America is getting more advanced, is the real world catching up to the laboratory?

Study Finds Racial Pay Disparities Among Nurses

Researchers use statistical regression analysis to spot discrimination in an unexpected profession.

Is American Medicine Too Stent Happy?

For heart attack patients, a stent is the medical device that provides the best chance of recovery. But studies comparing the use of stents to medical therapy alone have sparked controversy.

Pentagon’s Claims of Gitmo Recidivism Don’t Add Up

Researchers at Seton Hall and New America Foundation track the Pentagon’s claims that released Guantanamo detainees ‘returned to battle.’

Both Sides Exaggerate Effects of Public Option

The fight over a public option means nil to the majority of Americans — who won’t have the option to buy it anyway.

Shadow Market Delays Recovery, Helps Defiant Homeowners

In a follow-up to a story we published in March, our featured homeowner still lives defiantly without payments or eviction for more than a year.

Obama Plan to Cap Health Insurance Overhead Flawed

Health insurance watchdogs in Oregon say the way regulators and the industry have analyzed administrative costs for decades are wrong. Will Obama and Congress listen?

Health Care Charges Under the Knife

As health care reform swirls around who pays and not what they pay, health insurers point fingers at medical providers for charging exorbitant prices that few know are negotiable.

Jackson Case Highlights Medical Ethics

Two prominent doctors in the field of pain management reflect on the malign influence of celebrity.

Physician, Heel Thyself

As it attempts to balance controlling costs and providing health care while not stepping on entrepreneurship, will Congress take on self-referring doctors?

Touring the Nation’s Most Contaminated Land

The Department of Energy plans to take up to 3,500 people this year through the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Iran 2009, Meet Ohio 2004

Statistical progression suggests the Ahmadinejad landslide was unlikely, although his win was predictable. In other words, while the election may have been rigged, it wasn’t stolen.

What’s With the Media’s Twitter and Facebook Obsession?

The media may seem obsessed with Twitter because the people who are the media are obsessed with Twitter.

Hospitals Save Money with Homeless Outreach

Two studies, one in Chicago and the other in Seattle, prove we can save health care dollars by housing and helping the homeless.

What Would Horatio Alger Do?

Thousands of Americans are defying eviction notices and exercising civil disobedience.

Doctors Fight Back Against Denial by Algorithm

Facing a technological arms race over billing, doctors score a win over insurers but are nowhere close to even par.

Green Recovery: Welcome to SolarWorld

In a nondescript industrial park near Portland, Ore., lies a solar gem that just might save the American Dream.

Big Margins Sidetrack Election Reform

Five ways to safeguard voting rights and how close Senate races could save the election reform movement.

Citizen Exit Poll Driven by Distrust

As Election Day approaches, citizen activists are gearing up to conduct their very own exit poll.

Vote-Fraud Fears Fall Before Disenfranchisement Fear

Republicans in at least 10 swing states have cited problems with new voter registrations — including some clearly spurious applications submitted across the nation — creating the possibility of widespread voter fraud.

It May Be Harder to Vote in Swing States

With fewer than two weeks before Election Day, lawyers for both parties are in the courtroom sparring over voting rights.

The Dirty Details of Voter Purges

Secretive, error-riddled methods for cleaning up the voter rolls and how the Help America Vote Act isn’t helping.

Misleading Mailers Descend on Swing States

Short on detail or just plain wrong, mailings with GOP return addresses are sowing confusion on voting status with fewer than two months before the big day.

Ohio Voter Caging in Play Despite Directive

A change in the law may be needed to protect Ohioans from voter caging.

Update: Ohio Removes Vote Caging Possibility

Ohio directive issued Friday says 60-day notice can’t be used to challenge voters.

America Wants YOU to be a Poll Worker

Research shows how poll workers on the front lines of elections affect voter confidence.

E-Vote Vendor Admits Decade of Flaws

A leading voting machine maker says software used in 34 states has been losing votes.

Report: Vendor Control Undermines Elections

Nonprofit group claims vote-counting machine vendors are the ones in control during some elections.

Voting Rules Create Land of Disenchantment

Advocacy groups are battling New Mexico’s strict voter registration laws as election looms.

Buying the Farm

With health insurance costs these days, why not just buy the whole clinic?

What Barriers Stand in Your Way to the Polls?

The methods are far less conspicuous than fire hoses and more legally ambiguous than poll taxes and literacy tests.

Faulty Machines Ready to Count Your Vote

Based on scientific research, we have a clearer picture of just how vulnerable our American voting system really is.

A Prognosis on Mandates and Guarantees

“Experiments” in eight states provide pointers on how America might provide guaranteed health insurance.

Software Helps Insurers Profit from Denials

New York’s attorney general investigates possible fraud in an industry built on denying care, and two U.S. representatives want Medicare to have no part in it.


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from the source

Gender Wage Gap Skewed By Survey Flaws

The wage gap between the sexes in America has been closing much faster than anyone realized, but that’s tempered by learning it’s been much wider than measurements had shown.

‘Orcas as Slaves’ Argument Sinks

An effort to identify five performing orcas as slaves failed in part, argues one scholar, because there’s no legal precedent establishing them as persons.

The Perceived Delicacy of the Female Conductor

New research finds listeners judge symphonic music differently when they’re told the conductor is a woman.

House Puts Transportation in Partisan Crossfire

Transportation used to be one of the few guaranteed areas of agreement when ideology trumped pragmatism in D.C. But that’s no longer the case.

Pressure to Conform Can Inspire Creativity

New research suggests less-creative people do more innovative thinking when they are told individualism is the norm, and instructed to conform.

Better Super Bowl Makes for Better Ads

A lot of people say they watch the Super Bowl mostly for the ads. But it turns out a good game surrounding those ads makes them seem better.

Overseas Troops Finally Get Fair Shot at Voting

After decades of obstacles hindering the voting process, new laws will allow overseas and military voters to submit their votes in time for the 2012 election.

Neglected Tropical Diseases Neglected No More?

World health leaders announce coordinated push to eradicate or control neglected tropical diseases.

Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World

A survey of award-winning children’s picture books from 1938 to 2008 suggests our increasing estrangement from the natural environment.

Traffic Solution: Make Drivers Less Lonely

Rather than moaning about too many cars on the road, the Ridesharing Institute says the real key to battling traffic congestion and pollution is filling empty passenger seats.