A Highland Park letter to the editor: As we begin to emerge from this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, we should take stock of what we ve been through and all we ve accomplished.
Updated 5/26/2021 3:58 PM
The Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act purports to set requirements and establish programs to, among other things, regulate the prices of prescription drugs, health care costs, and insurance coverage.
Under HR3, the United States Department of Health and Human Services would then be in charge of negotiating the prices for certain drugs.
Concerns can be raised that governmental agencies or politicians may be acting with the intent of furthering their own agendas rather than in the best interests of the people.
The government does not need to start dictating the prices of medications or adding regulations; what is needed is for the government to enact policies that advance new medical developments especially in the middle of a global pandemic. America is a leading innovator in medicine and in the pharmaceutical industry, and the future of cutting edge medicines and treatments is at stake.
Alcohol, the legal drug of choice
“Having a drink” is the great Australian tradition, the legacy of the “Rum Corps” of colonial Australia.
The harm alcohol consumption has done to our Indigenous and other Australian citizens in the years following colonisation is inestimable and irreparable.
It is, apparently, un-Australian not to drink alcohol. People who don’t drink are often labelled “wowsers” or “designated drivers”. Peer pressure has led to teens and young adults drinking until they pass out.
Alcohol advertising, especially associated with sports, must acknowledge the impact on social issues of alcohol.
Ten per cent of the Australian population are alcoholics. “AA” programs are in high demand, after the horse has bolted.
Lawmakers should make bold statement on coal
Updated 5/24/2021 11:00 AM
The Illinois General Assembly is poised to pass a major clean energy bill that will set a deadline to close every dirty coal power plant in Illinois. Or it isn t. Our legislators need to take a stand now.
Global warming is getting worse and it already accounts for at least $820 billion in health damage in the U.S. every year. Even looking just at the impacts of one kind of pollution from those fossil fuel power plants expected to still be operating in Illinois in 2030, the numbers are sobering. We can still expect to see roughly seventy premature deaths, thirty heart attacks, and two thousand instances of breathing difficulties not to mention an economic cost of $740 million per year. We can t let people suffer and die when clean renewable energy can give us the power we need without these tragic results.