The Duluth man who knowingly exposed his female partner to the HIV virus through unprotected sex has been sentenced to 90 days in jail and more than $400 in fines. Apparently exposing someone to a deadly and lifelong disease isn't a big deal in the court of law.
Jessie Allen Tuff, 39, pleaded guilty to the crime last month. He was charged with intentionally inflicting or attempting to inflict bodily harm to sexual partner Debra Jean Miller by having unprotected sex with her and not telling her he had the AIDS virus.
This is believed to be the first case of its kind in Minnesota. Miller said she was in a consensual sexual relationship with Tuff between October and November 2008. She found out he was HIV positive when she read an email sent to him by his ex-wife who said she got the disease from him. The ex-wife provided medical records that shows Tuff had had HIV for more than 10 years. Miller has tested negative for HIV.
Daniel Hauser and his family had wanted to use natural methods to cure his Hodgkin's lymphoma, but his oncologist filed a medical neglect petition against his family for refusing chemotherapy. A judge ruled that Hauser must undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
A Brown County district judge ruled Monday to dismiss the petition once Hauser is done with treatments Nov. 6. He is still undergoing some radiation. Doctors said his chest tumor is gone and Hauser appears to be regaining strength and energy.
What is there to say that hasn't been said before? Rep. Michele Bachmann continues to surprise us, despite us believing she couldn't ever surprise us again with her over-the-top and flat-out false fear mongering.
This is a good one though. Bachmann has decided that part of the health care bill that discusses school-based clinics (she calls them sex clinics) would lead to students being whisked away during school hours for abortions without parent consent. OMG. Totally plausible.
The bill also says that the clinics would follow patient confidentiality as well as parent notification laws already in place, which Bachmann doesn't seem to understand. You can see parent consent requirements for abortions here. And states also vary on confidentiality of patients under 18, but most teens can get services without their parents knowing unless it is a life-threatening situation.
But that doesn't matter to Bachmann. And it also doesn't matter that Planned Parenthood provides many other amazing services to young people besides abortions to help them better understand their bodies and health care.
It's such a sin to understand how your body is developing and learn it from people who make it easy to talk about.
Check out the video and text of her statement on the House floor below. (via)
The research, conducted by Willaim Frey of the University and his colleagues in Germany, shows promise for other drugs that don't usually penetrate the blood-brain barrier, according to the U.S. News and World Report story. If the cells are suspended in fluid, they quickly reach the brain fully intact. The research was recently published in the European Journal of Cell Biology.
How did they conduct the research? Having mice sniff dropped of adult rat stem cells. Sounds like a task in itself.
Two different polls making the rounds recently have us confused beyond belief. Like most polls out there today, it's pretty easy to find a legitimate poll that seems to perfectly fit whatever view you have of the world.
Rep. Michele Bachmann made a post on Townhall today pointing us to a poll in Investor's Business Daily that says "two out of three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington." It even says that 45 percent of those polled would consider quitting their jobs if the current overhaul plan passes.
But according to the poll making the rounds earlier this week, nearly two-thirds of doctors polled think President Obama's plan, a combination of both public and private options, is the best choice for the U.S. health care system. About three-quarters of those polled think some form of a public option is best. That was reported by National Public Radio.
How can these two polls coexist? We're not quite sure. The only major difference we found was that the poll reported at NPR was conducted over a longer period of time: from June to early September. The Investor's Business Daily's reported poll was just from the past two weeks. If you spot any other differences to explain these, we'd love to hear it.
Standing inside a nearly packed Target Center Saturday afternoon, you'd probably think everyone was in love with President Obama's health care reform plan following his feel-good rally to supporters. Reality is, many people are still fighting against it and some of those nay-sayers are Blue Dog Democrats from Minnesota.
Republicans and some Democrats spoke out this weekend against the plan, citing lack of details or unease with the public option. We've rounded up some of their comments to spoil all the fun you had Saturday, watching Obama with tiny tears running from your eyes. He isn't God, people.
If you haven't slit your wrists and become blood brothers in the fight against health care reform, Rep. Michele Bachmann is giving you another chance to do so. Just don't cut too deep, folks. The last thing we need is a cult-style mass suicide on our hands.
Bachmann announced another town hall meeting this Saturday. And if Bachmann isn't really your style, others in the Minnesota delegation are hosting their own town halls this week and would probably happily take you in. Blood sharing for all!
When riled up tea baggers swarmed Sen. Al Franken at the Minnesota State Fair, the situation seemed to be a guaranteed disaster. After watching countless interactions from around the country where anti-health care reformers have chanted, screamed, and made absurd accusations toward liberal members of Congress, this didn't look like it would end well.
But leave it to Franken to be the Congressional superhero of the day. As the crowd starts throwing tough questions about health care his way, he is somehow able to use a calm and rational tone to actually explain the reform and why he supports it. And the tea baggers seem to be OK with that.
Maybe other tea baggers around the country can take some debate pointers from these Minnesotans.
We saw this Minnesota Public Radio headline and gave an unnecessarily and obnoxiously loud groan: "A day of eating at the Minnesota State Fair." We immediately thought that once again MPR was sucking all of the fun out of everything we enjoy. Our Minnesota State Fair trip is probably one of the best days of summer (or the whole year) and the last thing we needed to hear is how it would lead to heart failure, obesity, and all cancers imaginable.
But no, MPR actually made our day. Our year perhaps. Despite their attempt to scare us with their full day of eating and calorie counting at the "Great Minnesota Get-Together" (2.5x the calories in one day! GET OUT!) they actually gave us the greatest state fair news yet...
A day of state fair eating actually improves your cholesterol. We're doing the bad-food celebration dance as we type this.
St. Paul welcomes all health care reform lovers, haters, and anyone who fears euthanasia by Obama. Rep. Betty McCollum will be hosting a health care forum tonight for constituents to talk about how much they really love being ripped off by private health care providers. It's grass roots, baby!
If you want to be part of the action, make sure to get there early. MinnPost says the space only holds 400 people.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced she will be hosting a tele-town hall meeting Sunday evening for Minnesota constituents to discuss health care reform. She will be joined by Mayo Clinic President and CEO Dr. Denis Cortese.
The town hall meeting will be live and allow constituents to ask questions, according to the release. Unfortunately this allows the real health care reform protesters a chance to say something inappropriate without being mocked by the world in a YouTube video. And we'll miss all of the screams, interruptions, and terribly incorrect facts normally spewed in the middle of intelligent conversation. Klobuchar sure knows how to control dissent.
Details on signing up for a space on the call list below.
A Duluth man who has been diagnosed with the AIDS virus for a decade was having unprotected sex and not telling his partners about his disease, prosecutors say. Jessie Allen Tuff, 39, has been charged with knowingly transferring the virus to others. It's the first charge of its kind in Duluth.
According to the Duluth News Tribune, Tuff is accused of "intentionally inflicting or attempting to inflict bodily harm upon another by knowingly harboring an infectious agent and committing the act of sexual penetration with another person without having first informed the other person that the person has a communicable disease.''
If prosecuted, Tuff could pay a $1,000 fine and spend 90 days in jail for infecting women with a lifetime illness. Seems a little light if you ask us.
Alaska gubernatorial quitter Sarah Palin is learning a lesson or two from our very own Rep. Michele Bachmann. In addition to fully taking on Bachmann's ability to make up facts and spread fear across the country about all things Democratic, Palin is even citing Bachmann as a source of health care reform information.
Palin, you might want to look elsewhere. We don't exactly trust a word that comes out of her mouth these days and she's only going to bring down your goals for higher office.
Anyway, have you heard of these President Obama death panels? Sounds like Trig Palin is up first.
In the next two years, people in need of emergency help won't even need to call 911 to get responders at their door. Minnesota will start work this fall to upgrade the 911 system to accept text messages as well.
The upgrade will also include other features like tying some of your vital health information with your phone number. If you had a heart monitoring device, that detail would go to the call center when you dial 911.
The texting would be a big boost to emergency services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing as well as people in situations that make it dangerous to make a phone call. A town in Iowa started accepting 911 text messages yesterday and is the first in the country to do so.
If there can be any good that comes out of the tragedy of military deaths, this has to be it.
Minnesota Army Ranger Benjamin Kopp, 21, died last month while serving in Afghanistan, but the soldier's heart is giving one woman another shot at life.
His organs were donated and a 57-year-old woman in the Chicago suburbs received his heart.
Kopp did two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan as a member of the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment based in Fort Benning, Ga. His burial is schedule for Friday at Arlington National Cemetery.
Congress seems to be in a full-out frenzy lately to rush health care reform through to the president, which has led to some missteps and confusion over future plans of health care in the United States. As you'd expect, some of those proposed reforms aren't the best options and medical professionals have been there step-by-step to call out some of the changes they find less than stellar.
So when the Mayo Clinic, based in Rochester, put out a statement about one of the committee's proposed provisions for health care reform, Fox News's starlet Sean Hannity pounced and quickly over-dramatized the life out of it.
Media Matters called him out, pulling together the evidence.
Hannity decided this one statement meant that Mayo Clinic "slam(med) Obama's health proposal" and took it to the extreme. So much for context these days. You won't believe some of the phrases Hannity pulled into one sentence.
Maybe you have unsexy bald spots from ripping out your hair or pencil-thin eyebrows from too much plucking. You might also bite your nails to the skin or wash your hands raw. Some new University of Minnesota research shows some promise in fixing obsessive behavior and just might have a solution for you.
While his results aren't completely promising, the doctor thinks it will help further research in the area. U of M psychiatrist Dr. Jon Grant found that an antioxidant called N-acetylcysteine (NAC) helped about half of the compulsive hair-pullers in his research. While some did it less, others quit completely. The over-the-counter supplement costs just $15 for 100 pills.
And if it doesn't work, don't sweat it. We can just compare you to other animals that over groom too. It's the same concept, Grant says.
Minnesota women had fewer abortions in 2008, marking the second-straight year of declining numbers. There were 12,948 abortions performed last year, down by 895 from 2007, according to a Minnesota Department of Health report. That number marks a decline among almost all ages of women and girls.
Minnesota saw a jump in abortions in 2006, but has been seeing a steady decline for almost 30 years. Our state peaked in 1980 with 19,028 abortions.
The Hauser family hoped they could regain control of their son's cancer treatment at a hearing yesterday in Brown County, but the judge held firm to the court's ability to control the treatment. The mother and son did flee the state just a month ago trying to avoid the very treatment they know claim they can handle on their own.
Daniel Hauser has been following the court-ordered chemotherapy treatment after he and his family refused the treatment for his Hodgkin's lymphoma. They opted for more alternative treatments, which they believe are more helpful and safe.
Daniel Hauser was hoping to get out of the chemotherapy treatment, despite X-rays that show it is helping. He says he believes the alternative treatments he is doing alongside the chemo is actually the reason for the shrinking tumor.
He might be a minor and the issue might be medical records, but that doesn't mean this family will have any medical privacy in their case as their boy has forced chemotherapy treatment for his cancer.
A judge denied their request to seal the medical records of Daniel Hauser, 13, who made national headlines when he fled the state with his mother to avoid chemo for his Hodgkin's lymphoma.
We're pretty sure every Minnesotan will soon be living inside the Mall of America and never leaving our indoor mecca. Next up: A Mayo Clinic to keep you alive forever.
That is if the expansion ever happens in the first place. MOA has been trying for years to get this expansion completed, but the state Legislature doesn't want to pay for it.
Mayo is doing a press conference at the Mall of America with Gov. Tim Pawlenty right now, so additional information will be available soon.
The Minnesota Zoo will officially go smoke-free starting Saturday. The Apple Valley zoo already bans smoking indoors, but now all outdoor spaces will be off limits too. If you need a smoke, head out to the parking lot, which is the one smoking zone on the grounds.
So why are they banning cigarettes in the great outdoors? Health concerns, zoo officials say. Oh and it makes the zoo cleaner because it's almost impossible to get a cigarette butt in a disposal container.
We're not sure if these are health concerns for the animals or the visiting humans, but we like to imagine it's an animal-run initiative. Watching a bone-thin tiger cough up a lung doesn't exactly sound worth the price of admission.
According to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal report, about two out of three zoos and aquariums accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums are smoke-free or have smoking zones.
If your doctor seemed a little too excited about getting you hooked on Ambien the last time you came into the office, you might want to think twice about those faint dollar signs you swore you saw reflect back at you as you took the prescription form.
The Pioneer Press has created an easy-to-use database of all payments to doctors from 2002 to 2008 from pharmaceutical companies. You can search by doctor name, location, or company in question. At least you'll have an idea of what could be enticing your doctor to fill your body with drugs or push one brand over another.
We've been appreciating The Onion's recent focus on Minnesota "news" that brightens our day. This time they have a radio news brief about God's routine physical at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Supposedly the ancient man was accompanied by his son Jesus and looked pretty damn good for his 14.5 billion years. If God trusts Mayo, we should too.
A Minneapolis vigil has been scheduled to remember late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller who was murdered Sunday in Kansas. People will gather at 9 p.m. at Loring Park for a candlelight vigil.
Check out the details below from the Minnesota Choice Coalition.
After the murder of late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in Kansas this weekend, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota is accepting additional security from the U.S. Marshals Service, according to the Washington Post (via).
Tiller was gunned down while walking into his church in Wichita. He was a well-known abortion provider who had been targeted in the past. The suspect in the slaying, Scott Roeder, is a recognized antiabortion activist who believes it is acceptable to kill doctors who perform the procedures.
After a court hearing Wednesday, 13-year-old Daniel Hauser was returned to his parent's custody following a week-long search for him and his mother led them back home under a national spotlight.
Daniel had fled the state after a judge ruled he must undergo chemotherapy for his Hodgkin's lymphoma against his family's wishes and religious beliefs. They returned a week later after their apparent plan in California fell through.
In what appears to be a change of heart, the Hausers now say they will follow the judge's order and put Daniel through chemotherapy treatment.
Twin Cities residents, despite our insatiable Midwestern lust for dairy and hot dish and fried-things-on-sticks, are among the fittest in the country, according to a study released today by the American College of Sports Medicine. Our fair cities bested the likes of Denver, Boston, and San Francisco, but couldn't quite edge out Washington D.C. for some reason.
Daniel and his mother Colleen were gone for a week and turned themselves in to authorities in Southern California. He was reunited with his dad and seven siblings in Sleepy Eye. He was accompanied by Brown County child protection workers and his parents to an evaluation at a Twin Cities hospital.
The court hearing that will likely be held today will go over Daniel's custody during his cancer treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Police have been unable to track down 13-year-old Daniel Hauser and his mother after they skipped a court hearing about the boy's cancer. Daniel has been ordered by the courts to undergo chemotherapy for his Hodgkin's lymphoma after his family opted for alternative treatments.
There is currently an arrest warrant out for his mother, Colleen, and Daniel is on the Missing and Exploited Children network as the search goes nationwide.
Officials said Daniel and his mom were last seen in the Los Angeles area and are likely heading to Mexico or have already crossed the border.
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