Author: Reporter

Medicaid programs in many states are expanding to provide dental care for their poorest residents

For months, Carlton Clemons endured crippling pain from a rotting wisdom tooth. He could not sleep, barely ate, and relied on painkillers to get by. The 67-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee, could not afford to see a dentist on the $1,300-a-month his family gets in Social Security and disability payments. So he waited for the state to roll out a program this year that offers dental care to the more than 650,000 Medicaid recipients like him who are 21 and older. Tennessee is spending about $75 million annually on the program. “Man, I thought I had made it to heaven...

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Research finds that AI chatbots used to provide health care services are perpetuating racism

As hospitals and health care systems turn to artificial intelligence to help summarize doctors’ notes and analyze health records, a new study led by Stanford School of Medicine researchers cautions that popular chatbots are perpetuating racist, debunked medical ideas, prompting concerns that the tools could worsen health disparities for Black patients. Powered by AI models trained on troves of text pulled from the internet, chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google’s Bard responded to the researchers’ questions with a range of misconceptions and falsehoods about Black patients, sometimes including fabricated, race-based equations, according to the study published in October in...

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Safe Mobility: New immigration policy that avoids a dangerous journey is working but alternatives needed

Five years ago, Alexis Llanos and his family fled Venezuela for Colombia, escaping death threats and political persecution. The family then planned to make the dangerous and deadly journey north, through the Darien jungle leading through Panama, with hopes of eventually crossing illegally into the United States. Their plans changed when a friend mentioned a new migration program from the U.S. government that would allow them to stay put while they pleaded for a chance to come legally. It worked. After a four-month process that included medical exams and interviews with the United Nations and the U.S., Llanos, his...

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Technology-driven educational center designed by White House Historical Association to open this year

A White House tour is practically a must-do when visiting Washington, but the experience can leave some guests wondering about spaces they did not get to see, like the Oval Office. The White House Historical Association hopes to provide answers to some of those questions when it opens The People’s House: A White House Experience, in the fall of 2024. Situated on three floors of a building a block from the White House at Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street, the $85.5 million educational center will use cutting-edge technology to teach the public about the storied executive mansion and its...

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Car-obsessed culture: Pair of high-speed electric rail routes get federal pledge for billions in funding

The Biden administration on December 5 said it will give more than $6 billion to a pair of high-speed electric rail routes in the U.S. West, injecting new life into long-stalled projects hailed by supporters as the future of public transportation but bemoaned by critics for their high price tags and lengthy construction times. U.S. senators from California and Nevada said the federal government will give $3 billion for a planned privately-owned route between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area plus another $3.1 billion for an initial segment of California’s publicly-funded effort to eventually connect Los Angeles and...

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U.S. Postal Service embraces plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions after years of pressure to adopt EV

The U.S. Postal Service announced sweeping plans in February to reduce greenhouse emissions by diverting more parcels from air to ground transportation, boosting the number of electric vehicles, cutting waste sent to landfills and making delivery routes more efficient. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy described a mix of environmental initiatives and cost-cutting business practices that together would combine to reduce the Postal Service’s contribution to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 40% over five years, meeting the Biden administration environmental goals in the process. “We reduce costs, we reduce carbon. It’s very much hand in hand,” said DeJoy, who acknowledged being...

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