The Student Loan Crisis Everyone Saw Coming

SAUSALITO, CA (ASRN.ORG) -- When there are Americans whose Social Security checks are being garnished to pay off their outstanding student loan debt, then it is clear that the United States has a problem. And the rising number of seniors who haven’t paid off loans taken out decades earlier is only one of several reasons to be alarmed by a report on student loan debt released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in March.

Who is Making a Killing Off Student Loans?

SAUSALITO, CA (ASRN.ORG) -- Underneath the now-iconic red sculpture at Liberty Plaza, now cleared of tents and ringed by barricades plastic-cuffed together, several “students” stood draped in fake chains over their caps and gowns, brandishing debt bills instead of diplomas.

Troubling Flaws in a Heart Device Shake Implant

SAUSALITO, CA (ASRN.ORG) -- Last October, a high school football coach named Greg Jessee was standing on the sidelines watching his son play when he felt a jolt to his chest. The heart defibrillator implanted in him five years earlier was firing wildly. The next jolt made him double up. The one after that knocked him unconscious.

About Those Ultrasounds: What if Doctors Just Say No?

SAUSALITO, CA (ASRN.ORG) -- (This from a post called "Civil Disobedience" by palMD at his blog, White Coat Underground.)

"In the case of abortions, where time is essential and providers may not be easy to find, delays in care are unconscionable. To enforce a waiting period violates the doctor’s ethical duty to provide appropriate, timely care and to avoid causing the patient unnecessary grief. The law forces us to violate our ethics. To force us to perform ultrasounds, transvaginal or otherwise, is battery. p>

Could This Be the End of Health Care Reform?

SAUSALITO, CA (ASRN.ORG) -- What if the Supreme Court declares unconstitutional the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that everyone buy health insurance? What if it strikes down all the act’s insurance provisions, including the requirement that insurance companies cover everyone, regardless of pre-existing illnesses? Would this totally put an end to the health care reforms we have passed in the last three years?p>