Hundreds of health care workers began a 24-hour strike over contract negotiations this morning at five Daughters of Charity Health System hospitals through the state, including in Daly City, San Jose, Moss Beach and Gilroy.
Members of the Service Employees International Union United Health Care Workers-West started the strike at 6 a.m. today, union spokesman Mason [...]

The Veterans Administration is opening a ninth satellite health care clinic today in Mankato.
V.A. spokesman, Ralph Heussner, says the facility will put special emphasis on mental health care needs.
“Mental health is a high priority for the V.A. Our facility has added 40 staff in the last year. With the additional staff, we’re able expand those [...]

The distilled spirits industry says the 70 per cent increase in tax on pre-mixed alcoholic drinks could lead to an increase in drink spiking.
A senate committee is looking into the tax rise on alcopops, which the Government says it has introduced in an effort to curb teenage binge drinking.
Distilled Spirits Industry Council spokesman Gordon Broderick [...]

A transportation group is accusing the state Education Department of not keeping its training programs for school-bus drivers up to date.
The state annually sets aside $400,000 for school-bus-driver safety training through the Education Department and a database of accidents. In 2007-08, more than $159,000 of the total was not spent, said Peter Mannella, executive director [...]

Heavy marijuana use can boost blood levels of a particular protein, perhaps raising a person’s risk of a heart attack or stroke, US government researchers said.
Dr Jean Lud Cadet of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, said the findings point to another example of long-term harm from marijuana. [...]

Employee disciplinary records show abuse and neglect are systemic in mental hospitals in Texas, which has worked over the past year to revamp its juvenile prison system because of similar allegations, according to a report published Sunday.
Seventy-two workers have been fired in the past three years over allegations of abuse, while hundreds of others have [...]

Four Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn officials, including a vice president, each have been charged with a misdemeanor count of failing to report to police the alleged sexual assault of a stroke victim.
The Scottsdale City Prosecutor’s office pressed the charges in the highly publicized case of the 22-year-old victim, who could only communicate the alleged assault with [...]

EDINBURG - A local company that operates several fitness centers across the region could be fined if investigators substantiate allegations it left clients’ sensitive personal information in a trash bin.
The situation came to light earlier this week when a local TV news report detailed how personal information belonging to one of the station’s reporters was [...]

Workers with job-based coverage for their families saw earnings rise 3% from 2001 to 2005, while their health insurance premium contribution increased 30%, according to the study by researchers at the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota.
The average cost nationally of family coverage during the period increased nearly $2,500, to [...]

Information An online advertisement with men praising Viagra to the tune of an Elvis Presley song has drawn objections from U.S. regulators, who said drugmaker Pfizer Inc failed to list the impotence drug’s risks.
Pfizer said the omission of side effects warnings was due to a technical error on CNN’s Web site, www.cnn.com, which ran the [...]