Health

In the Weekly Republican Address, U-S Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell today called for the repeal of President Obama's healthcare reform law. Speaking just days before the U-S Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the constitutionality of the law, the lawmaker from Louisville said the bill the White House backed has "made things worse."  McConnell did note that the President was right to join a call for health care reform,but he criticized the Obama plan for leading to higher costs and premiums.

After a week of negotiations, the House Judiciary Committee has passed an amended version of a bill that would regulate pseudoephedrine. The drug—often called PSE—is a key ingredient in allergy medicines, but it is also used to make methamphetamine. In the fight against meth, lawmakers have long debated various proposals to control PSE.

A Federal Appeals Court has upheld a law that requires new, bigger graphic warning labels on cigarette packs. The Associated Press reports that the ruling relates to one of two suits by tobacco companies against the Federal rules that would require them to place large images on cigarette packs, depicting health ravages of smoking. The suit that prompted today's decision was filed in Kentucky.

Brad Rodu says it's time for the public health community to re-think how it looks at the smoking debate in this country.  Rodu is head of the Tobacco Harm Reduction effort at the University of Louisville's James Graham Brown Cancer Center. He says for too long the smoking issue has come down to an all-or-nothing wager: smokers are told they either have to give up cigarettes, or keep smoking and die.