Today on CNN Newsroom
Don’t Let a Hospital Kill You
When Susan Gonzalez visited her father in the hospital, she noticed a nurse was about to give him a medicine. When she asked what it was, the nurse answered it was ampicillin, an antibiotic. Gonzalez told the nurse he was allergic to ampicillin, and just in the nick of time. “That could have been a fatal outcome,” says Gonzalez, who herself is a nurse in Austell, Georgia. As many as 98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year as a result of medical errors, according to the Institute of Medicine, and some 99,000 people die each year from infections acquired in the hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For her Empowered Patient column this week, CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen asked nurses for tips on how to stay safe in the hospital.
Developments in Oklahoma rape case
There are new developments in a story we've been tracking for you in the CNN NewsRoom.
There may be more cases against an Oklahoma man who pleaded guilty to raping a 4 year old girl but only got a one year sentence.
Kyra Phillips interviews the Oklahoma Attorney General and the man's adult daughter who says she is also a victim of David Harold Earls.
We have made several calls to David Harold Earls at the Pittsburgh County Jail and he has not responded to any of our messages.
We have also called the office of the Judge Thomas Bartheld numerous times to for his response to criticism of how he handled the Earls case. He has had no comment.
No Tweets For You!
***UPDATE***
From Facebook rep: “Earlier this morning, Facebook encountered network issues related to an apparent distributed denial of service attack, that resulted in degraded service for some users. No user data was at risk and we have restored full access to the site for most users. We’re continuing to monitor the situation to ensure that users have the fast and reliable experience they’ve come to expect from Facebook.”
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***UPDATE***
From status.twitter.com:
The site is back up, but we are continuing to defend against and recover from this attack.
(Despite that, as of 12:40PM ET, lots of CNNers are still unable to log on to Twitter or access TweetDeck)
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***UPDATE***
Per Facebook rep: “We're looking into it and will give you an update as soon as possible.”
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***UPDATE*** (11:13AM ET)
From status.twitter.com:
The site is back up, but we are continuing to defend and recover from this attack.
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As all you Twitter addicts out there probably know, the service has been down since earlier this morning. Turns out it's not just a technical glitch - somebody's apparently targeting the site.
From status.twitter.com:
We are defending against a denial-of-service attack, and will update status again shortly.
By the way, some Facebook folks are also reporting problems logging on/navigating around. We'll bring you more on all this as it develops.
Congress Spending to Fly in Style?
Remember last year - when members of Congress attacked the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for flying private jets to Washington to attend a hearing for possible bailout money? Well, flash forward to the present - and many taxpayer watchdogs are saying that congress has authorized nearly $200 million in additional spending so that members can fly in style.
Congress recently passed the Defense Appropriations Bill which included funding for three new Gulfstream jets - assigned to an Air Force unit. But it is reported that these jets will be used to shuttle congress members around the nation and world 20 percent of the time. The Air Force had asked for one Gulfstream jet priced at about $65 million, but the House Appropriations Committee added another $132 million for two more airplanes.
What do you think? Let us know and we'll read some of your comments on-air.
Health Care: Make-or-Break Month
The August Congressional recess will be anything but a break from the health care reform debate.
Democrats had hoped to spend this month selling hometown constituents on the need for reform. However, several local meetings across the country have become heated with passionate voters asking pointed questions and expressing serious doubts about health care reform.
If you had the opportunity to talk to your representative what would you say or ask?
Leave us a comment.
We’ll share some of them on air in the CNN Newsroom.
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Post by: Filed under: Don Lemon • Fredricka Whitfield • Heidi Collins • Kyra Phillips • Make or Break Month: Health Care in America • Tony Harris |
Time to Raise the Red Flag?
The U.S. Postal Service reported a quarterly net loss of $2.4 billion. The service says it expects a $7 billion dollar loss for the entire fiscal year.
What's to blame? The USPS sites the recession as well as e-mail and electronic bill payment. The volume of so-called snail mail has dropped by 20 billion pieces this year and is expected to drop another 10 billion pieces in 2010.
Postmaster General John Potter says the agency needs to cut delivery service to five days a week.
So what do you think about a reduction in daily delivery? Do you even use the U.S. Postal Service?
Leave us a comment.
We'll share some of them on air in the CNN Newsroom, 11am — 1pm ET
Beating the high cost of funerals
It's a topic that intrigued us: how are people coping with funeral costs in a tough economy?
Watch Kyra Phillips' interview with Josh Slocum of the Funeral Consumers Association and learn about the big mark up on casket costs and why embalming is actually optional.
What do you think? Leave your comments here.
To find more tips from the Funeral Consumers Association click here.
