Tag Archives: california

Hospital fined for breach of octuplet mom’s privacy

The hospital where a California woman gave birth to octuplets in January has been fined $250,000 by the state because nearly two dozen medical workers, including doctors, illegally viewed her medical records, according to state health officials. Kaiser Permanente’s Bellflower hospital, where Nadya Suleman’s eight babies were born, revealed in March that 15 employees lost their jobs and eight others were disciplined for improperly accessing her computerized medical records. There was no evidence that information from the medical files was leaked to the news media, which has intensely covered Suleman’s story, according to Kathleen Billingsley, deputy director of the California Public Health Department’s Center for Health Care Quality.

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Analyst: ‘Bloody urban battle’ looms between Taliban, Pakistan

The Taliban are digging in for a "bloody urban battle" against the Pakistani army in a hotly disputed city in the western part of the country, a strategic expert warned Thursday. “The Taliban are concentrating forces in Mingora — digging trenches, laying mines, taking positions on rooftops,” said Reva Bhalla, the director of strategic analysis at Stratfor, a private firm that describes itself as a global intelligence company. “It is not clear if the Pakistani military is trained and even equipped to go into a situation like that,” she said, adding that even the United States military “would have to think twice” about such an offensive.

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Hispanic population boom fuels rising U.S. diversity

The nation is becoming even more diverse: More than one third of its population belongs to a minority group, and Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment. The U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday that the minority population reached an estimated 104.6 million — or 34 percent of the nation’s total population — on July 1, 2008, compared to 31 percent when the Census was taken in 2000

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Former Mexican president calls for legalizing marijuana

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox has joined three other ex-leaders of Latin American nations calling for the decriminalization of marijuana. Fox, who was Mexico’s president from 2000 to 2006, said the current policy is clearly not working. “I believe it’s time to open the debate over legalizing drugs,” he told CNN on Tuesday.

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Donald Trump to get last word on Miss California USA

The Miss California USA controversy is playing out like one of Donald Trump’s highly rated reality shows, with viewers waiting to hear whether he’ll utter his famous phrase, "You’re fired!" While California pageant officials appointed Carrie Prejean’s runner-up to temporarily take over her public duties, Trump, who owns the Miss Universe pageant, is set to announce Tuesday the final decision on whether Prejean will lose her crown for breaching her pageant contract. The state organization’s officials — who appear eager to say farewell to Prejean — have sent their recommendation to Trump for his consideration, Miss California USA Co-executive Director Keith Lewis said

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Investigator: Texting driver should have seen stopped trolley

The operator of a trolley that rear-ended another trolley should have been able to see the other vehicle was stopped 480 feet ahead, a federal investigator said Monday. The trolley driver has told investigators he was text messaging during Friday night’s collision, which injured 20 people

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Wildfire scorches 8,600 acres in Southern California

A wildfire that has engulfed dozens of homes and displaced thousands of people kept roaring in Southern California late Friday, scorching about 8,600 acres, fire officials said. “We have a lot of resources on the line — our folks are working their hearts out,” Joe Waterman of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection told reporters.

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