Man Robs Bank for Health Care, Gore Takes on Obama, US Mayors Say No More War!

1. Man Chooses Prison for Health Care
He is a regular Joe- having worked hard all his life- but he lost his job three years ago and his new job in a convenience store did not offer any health benefits. He had a protrusion in his chest, arthritis and other problems. When the pain got too great, he went to a bank teller, handed a note demanding $1.00 and sat quietly waiting for the police.

We are the only industrialized country in the world where a citizen would have to take such a desperate measure. He should be the poster child for the sickness of our profit-driven medical-industrial complex.

2. Gov Walker Grants His Office New Powers to Slash Medicaid
Legislators won't have to take steps to cut the popular Badger Care health care program in Wisconsin that serves about  a million people and the public will have no opportunity to weigh in on the issue. King Walker is intent on slashing help for Wisconsin's neediest.

3. Five GOP States Shut Down Planned Parenthood
Indiana has led the charge to defund Planned Parenthood . The organization provides contraception, STD testing and treatment and cancer screenings and prevention (abortion makes up just 3% of their budget) to over 5 million nationwide (seventy-five percent earn below 150 percent of the poverty line). Planned Parenthood “estimates it prevents more than 620,00 unintended pregnancies each year, and 220,000 abortions.”

Over 9,300 Medicaid patients in Indiana will be denied reproductive health care from today on.

 4. Al Gore Admonishes Obama for Not Doing Enough on Climate Change
In an article in Rolling Stone, Al Gore takes on climate change and Obama's ineffectiveness in rallying the public to fight it.

"According to NASA, 2010 was tied with 2005 as the hottest year measured since instruments were first used systematically in the 1880s. Nineteen countries set all-time high temperature records. One city in Pakistan, Mohenjo-Daro, reached 128.3 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature ever measured in an Asian city. Nine of the 10 hottest years in history have occurred in the last 13 years. The past decade was the hottest ever measured."

Gore goes on to say that despite some green initiatives in the stimulus package, "President Obama has thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change." Gore concludes with five things we can all do to meet the crisis.

5.Some Good News, Finally!
The US Conference of Mayors voted to pass a resolution calling for and end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying the $126 billion spent there annually should be used for urgent domestic needs. It is the first time they have taken such an action since the Vietnam War.