Subject: Health Care Issues

• Greater Kansas City Pipe Club

  September 18, 2008

• Smoked Out

  July 9, 2007

• Embarq Retirees Lose Health Insurance

  July 26, 2007

• Non-Smokers Have the Numbers

  April 7, 2008

• The Wayward Blog Still Allows Smoking

  April 9, 2008

• Tits, Yo! Behind Bazooka’s

  July 15, 2008

• Reports of Dave's Stagecoach Closing/Becoming Gay Greatly Exaggerated, Bartender Says

  August 12, 2008

• Doctors' Orders?

  John Ashcroft says he pushed for "the real" patients' bill of rights. But who's the real John Ashcroft?

  August 31, 2000

• Best Place to Quit Smoking

  October 17, 2002

• Economic collapse good for lung cancer, bad for Texas hold 'em

  Photo by Jay SoldnerOn the Missouri side, Kansas City bar owners have blamed the smoking ban for hurting local businesses alongside the relative novelty of the Power & Light District and everyone losing their jobs. Thanks to the bad economy, KCK residents will probably get to keep their lung candy a bit longer, but it'll be harder to play nickel slots while they puff.

  February 4, 2009

• Best Dinner Under $10

  October 9, 2003

• Pain in the Ash

  September 9, 2004

• Best Place to go Drinking and Not Have to Leave Your Clothes on the Porch Overnight

  October 7, 2004

• Best Place to Eat and Smoke

  October 7, 2004

• Smoke Eater

  October 21, 2004

• Barack will not bogart that joint

  Flickr: Toronto JimIf you happen to live in one of the 13 states that allow medical marijuana, President Obama is cool with that. For all intents and purposes, pot is de facto legal there now. In case you're wondering, Kansas and Missouri are not two of those states. But neighbor Colorado is.Last Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder, discussing some bigger news about a Mexican pot bust, smoothly slid in the news that the DEA would no longer conduct raids on medical marijuana dispensaries. For

  March 2, 2009

• Kansas snubs out another smoking bill

  Flickr: Star5112I don't mean for this to be "let's harp on Kansas" day but sometimes it's too easy. Yesterday, a committee in the Kansas House killed a statewide smoking ban. The Associated Press is reporting that the "House Health and Human Services Committee took less than five minutes Wednesday to vote to table the issue until it receives more information." There's zero chance the bill will get reconsidered this session. This is the third fourth statewide smoking ban bill to not pass in Kansa

  March 19, 2009

• Pot Roast

  June 15, 2006

• Are Big Tobacco and Big Food equals?

  Flickr: Dave KnapikWe've been posting an increasing number of law- and litigation-related items on Fat City. Whether that's simply because legislatures are in session, or due to a busy new administration or several food movements reaching maturity I do not know. The latest comes not from law but from academia, where Kelly Brownell and Kenneth Warner, Yale and Michigan professors respectively, argue that the food industry's -- they call it "Big Food" -- products carry many of the same dangers tha

  March 24, 2009

• Legalize it! (And then invest in it)

  More and more I hear arguments for legalizing marijuana. Joe Klein and Andrew Sullivan are two people pushing especially hard for it right now, although President Barack Obama has blown off the issue -- and for good reason. If Obama made a huge deal about legalizing pot he might make gains among a percentage of people who probably already support him, but he'd lose plenty more voters. But what if pot were to be legalized without becoming legal?That appears to what's happening. Two weeks ago, Att

  April 6, 2009

• Air Supply

  February 1, 2007

• Hey, Smokers!

  February 8, 2007

• Letters from the week of March 1

  March 1, 2007

• As Kathleen Sebelius leaves to help Barack Obama reform health care in Washington, here’s a checkup on what happened in Kansas

  April 9, 2009

• Letters for the week of April 24

  April 24, 2008

• Smoke Scream

  March 27, 2008

• UnSimplifying Kansas City's Smoking Ban

  January 31, 2008

• Hey, Nonsmokers

  May 10, 2007

• Free-Market Brewer

  The guy who's leading the fight against smoking bans may be the brewer of your favorite beer.

  January 25, 2007

• In Search of the Smokiest Bar

  Shots and a cigarette may soon become history. So we hunt for places that make your hair stink.

  January 11, 2007

• Cheeseburger Now!

  September 21, 2006

• Kids or Cigs?

  The Shakespeare Festival's food vendors rough it in the park.

  July 6, 2006

• Burn and Crash

  For the past few years, some clubgoers got all the free Camels they could smoke. But all good things must come to an end.

  June 5, 2003

• Tobacco Twist

  Two lawyers say smoking costs an arm and a leg.

  September 5, 2002

• Kidney recipient in a 'pay or die' situation

  Kidney-transplant patient Harold Allen spends a lot of time searching for money to buy the antirejection drugs he needs to stay alive.

  April 27, 2000

• When do anti-smokers go too far?

  Flickr: Denni SchnappAn electronic cigarette charging.I am not a smoker, except for the occasional cigar. I'm anti-smoking in that I hate the smell of smoke and think it's a disgusting habit.But I'm inclined to believe anti-smoking crusaders have gone too far when they start suppressing opposing arguments -- exactly what tobacco companies did for much of the last century. Especially when the people being suppressed aren't fringe scientists but highly respected anti-smoking activists like public-

  April 16, 2009

• You know what today is don't you?

  Aww dudes, you're never going to guess what time today I originally planned to put up this post. Wait for it -- 4:20!!!Yes, today you can be certain that the smell wafting from your neighbor's apartment is what you think it is as stoners celebrate the second most annoying made-up holiday. (Valentine's still first.) To anyone busted for pot today, I have no sympathy. But I do have news.

  April 20, 2009

• Seblius on the hot seat at House Ways and Means

  Former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius made her first appearance before Congress as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary this week. For those of you who are wondering how the Obama administration's health-care reform effort will play out (or are just interested in following Sebelius' progress), the House Ways and Means Committee's home-page has an intriguing synopsis of how it went, complete with YouTubes of key exchanges.Essentially, the administration wants to please everyone and avoid givin

  May 8, 2009

• Scenes from the health-care struggle in Jefferson City

  June 11, 2009

• How Jason Kander gamed the Republicans

  Kansas City Rep. Jason Kander had an expectation of progress on health-care reform when he took his seat in the Missouri House of Representatives earlier this year. The freshman Democrat thought a landslide victory for Gov. Jay Nixon, who put health care at the forefront of his campaign, would translate into a mandate to provide coverage for more low-income Missourians. "I was naively confident that the Republicans understood the mandate from the people of Missouri to restore some access t

  June 11, 2009

• One Republican state rep who gives us hope on health care reform

  While spending time at the Missouri Capitol, working on this week's feature story, just about every Democratic lawmaker and staffer I spoke to in the House of Representatives emphasized that expanding health-care access had united the sometimes-fractious Democratic Party like no other issue. Rep. Ryan SilveyThat same group think was operating on the other side of the aisle, as well. The House Republicans all dug their heels into the same ideological cement and refused to restor

  June 12, 2009

• Health-care reform BS roundup for the week

  Health and Human Services Secretary (and former Kansas Governor) Kathleen Sebelius worked the Sunday morning talk-show circuit yesterday. The topic was health-care reform. ABC's George Stephanopoulos thinks the "news" he got out of their conversation was that "the secretary wouldn't commit to a presidential veto on health care reform legislation that adds to the federal deficit." He seemed most concerned about how Obama plans to pay for covering everyone. More helpful, however, would be some ser

  June 15, 2009

• The extreme debate about alcohol in moderation

  For years it's been accepted wisdom that drinking in moderation, especially red wine, helps lower the chances of heart disease. But now that presumption has been flipped on its head, as doctors are wondering whether moderate drinking is not a cause of lower heart disease but merely a byproduct. Studies show that moderate drinking is most often done by people who live moderately in other aspects of their life. It may simply be that leading a moderate life of not eating too much, exercising some a

  June 16, 2009

• Counter the BS on health-care reform: Today is national call-in day

  ​Oh, my god, did you hear how much money we're going to spend on socialized health care? It's going to bankrupt the nation! The Democratic Party's in chaos! Moderate "Blue Dog" Dems in the House are wavering! If Congress doesn't vote on health-care reform by the August recess, then Barack Obama's done!Talking points courtesy of the Republican National Committee.The working folks in the Missouri AFL-CIO, along with their allies and Democrats, are now providing some talking points of their own

  July 28, 2009

• Newt shoots Brian Yates a thumbs-up

  Center for Health TransformationGingrich​Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House and the rare conservative who likes to promote new ideas, was in St. Louis today to commend state Rep. Brian Yates (R-Lee's Summit) and two other Missouri lawmakers for a bill that targets Medicare and Medicaid fraud.One of Gingrich's gigs these days is the Center for Health Transformation, a for-profit association of health care providers. The association believes that fraud and waste account for $100 bil

  July 28, 2009

• Phill Kline compares Obamacare to Hitler killing the feeble

  ​Noted health-care expert and Kansan-in-exile Phill Kline finally chimed in "Obamacare"  -- and oh, man. The analysis from Dr. Phill's bloggy bully pulpit (hey, we're peers now, Phill) begins with a quote from an order issued by Adolf Hitler. "Authority (is hereby given for) certain physicians to be designated by name in such a manner that persons who, according to human judgment, are incurable can, upon a most careful diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death."

  August 13, 2009

• Defeat a hangover with Pepto ice cream?

  ​Hangover cures never appear to be designed with the average person's tastebuds in mind. And that's probably your first thought when you hear about the latest hangover cure: Pepto-Bismol ice cream. Blogjam sought to combine two reliable hangover consumables in one meal. The ice cream seems to help with sweats, while the dairy and eggs provide Vitamin B12 -- vitamin deficiency is one of the suggested causes of hangovers.  In the ice cream recipe, vanilla and sugar were used to cut the flav

  August 21, 2009

• Rightbloggers scour Kennedy funeral for Anti-Obamacare ammo

  ​ Starting today, Roy Edroso's Rightbloggers: Exploring the right Wing Blogosphere will run here every Monday until Armageddon.After a plane crash killed liberal Sen. Paul Wellstone, his wife and daughter, and several staff members in 2002, his friends and family held a memorial at the University of Minnesota attended by 15,000 people. The theme was "Stand up, keep fighting" for Wellstone's beliefs, and the expected Democratic replacement for Wellstone on the November ticket, Walter Mondale, w

  August 31, 2009

• Kansas City priest criticizes Bishop Finn for opposition to health-care reform

  Catholic NewsBishop Robert Finn​The National Catholic Reporter has posted a letter from Kansas City priest Father Michael J. Gillgannon criticizing the leadership of Bishop Robert W. Finn. More than any other subject, Gillgannon's letter expresses deep concerns for Finn's opposition to health-care reform. He also takes Finn to task for trying to drag the church back to pre-Vatican II culture and firing staff."You give the impression you are not working from a pastoral model of u

  September 18, 2009

• Rep. Lynn Jenkins talkin' health care on FOX: How'd she do?

  Kansas Congresswoman Lynn "Looking for the Great White Hope" Jenkins made the Republican case against current health-care reform proposals on Fox News on Saturday. Because Republicans really do want to address the issue of health-care reform. They even have an alternative proposal! It's been on Jenkins' Web site for three months now, so, like she says, "it shouldn't be any revelation to the world" that Republicans want to reform health care, too -- they just want to do it right. Right?

  October 13, 2009