BREVITAS

Health

New America Media - Almost four in 10 Americans with chronic illness say they lack enough money to do things necessary to improve their health--and this proportion jumps to six out of 10 Latinos, African Americans and people with low annual incomes, according to a survey released this week at the Aging in America Conference in Las Vegas. Calling the U.S. health care system "bleak and broken" for millions of Americans with chronic health conditions, researchers at the National Council on Aging, in Washington, D.C., reported that an "alarmingly" large proportion of chronic disease sufferers are "delaying health care due to cost, living in pain and feeling abandoned by their health care providers."

Headline of the Day - Senate Votes To Allow Itself To Discuss Health Care For Several More Months - Wonkette

Ecology

Electric Power Daily - The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that a county board of commissioners in the state's scenic Flint Hills region was within its rights when it enacted an ordinance banning the development of utility scale wind farms for aesthetic reasons. In a unanimous ruling issued last month and posted on the court's web site, the court said that 'aesthetics and conformance with a governing body's comprehensive plan may be considered as bases for zoning rulings,' and that the "countywide ban on all commercial wind farms in the instant case was not unreasonable.". . . The court noted in its ruling, the Flint Hills also is a scenic region that 'contains the vast majority of the remaining Tallgrass Prairie that once covered much of the central United States.' In December 2004, then-Governor Kathleen Sebelius asked developers to use 'voluntary restraint' and not develop wind farms."

Orwellandia

Guardian UK - Officers have been told they can place "markers" against the vehicles of anyone who attends demonstrations using the national ANPR data centre in Hendon, north London, which stores information on car journeys for up to five years. Senior officers have been instructed to "fully and strategically exploit" the database, which allows police to mark vehicles with potentially useful information such as drink-driving convictions. The use of the ANPR database to flag-up vehicles belonging to protesters has resulted in peaceful campaigners being repeatedly stopped and searched.

Religion and other beliefs

The Secular Student Alliance has grown from 80 campus affiliates in 2007 to 174 this fall.

Police blotter. . . .

Albert Perkins has pleaded guilty in Kansas City court for robbing a bank. Main evidence against him: a wallet he left on the counter at the bank.