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Obama To Review Court Picks Over Weekend
President Obama on Wednesday said he would review potential Supreme Court nominees to replace retiring Justice David Souter over the weekend, prompting those involved with the process to believe he will make an announcement within days, the Washington Post reports. Obama was speaking to a group of senators that included Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and the committee"s ranking Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). According to White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs, Obama told the senators that he "would choose a nominee who respects the Constitution and judicial precedent and also has the good judgment and common sense to reach fair decisions" (Murray, Washington Post, 5/14). Although a list of six to eight potential names has been circulating in public, a White House official said an official pick is not likely to be announced before Memorial Day (Weisman, Wall Street Journal, 5/14).During the meeting, the president also urged senators to act quickly during the confirmation hearing so the new justice is confirmed prior to the court"s next session, which begins in October. Obama told Reid that the goal was to hold the confirmation vote before the Senate leaves for its summer recess, for which the official adjournment date is Aug. 7 (Washington Post, 5/14). However, Republican members at the meeting "poured cold water on that idea," the Journal reports. According to McConnell, 60 days usually passes between the naming of a nominee and the first confirmation hearing in the Judiciary Committee. According to the Journal, Obama is aiming to avoid partisan controversy over the summer and "ease his choice onto the court." Obama "got a lift" from Sessions during the meeting when the senator indicated that a filibuster attempt is not in the works, the Journal reports (Weisman, Wall Street Journal, 5/14).Court Watchers Say Next Pick Likely To Be a WomanWhile there has been much speculation on who will be nominated, court watchers have said Souter"s successor likely will be a woman, as the "lack of women [on the court] is widely perceived as the gap that most needs to be addressed," the Journal reports. Advocates for a female nominee argue that the need for a woman on the court is not only a matter of perception. Hannah Brenner, executive director of the University of Texas Center for Women in Law, said that the U.S. and the court benefit from justices with differing experiences and viewpoints. She added that "there is no one who can argue there is not (an) overwhelming number of qualified women who could be nominated to the court" (Forsyth, Wall Street Journal, 5/14).NPR"s "All Things Considered" reports that a list of potential nominees circulating in the public includes the following names: Sonia Sotomayor, a federal appeals judge in New York; Diane Wood of Chicago"s federal appeals court; Elena Kagan, the new solicitor general and former Harvard Law School dean; Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D); and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Merrick Garland of the Washington, D.C., federal appeals court is the only male included on the list. The "triumvirate mentioned most often" is Sotomayor, Wood and Kagan, "All Things Considered" reports (Totenberg, "All Things Considered," NPR, 5/13).However, some critics -- namely conservatives -- say that there is danger in using gender or race as the primary criteria for selecting a nominee, arguing that such an approach could cause justices to believe they need to reflect the views of a particular group instead of act as a neutral figure. Stephen Presser, a legal historian at Northwestern University, said, "You have to be very careful of having the court be a representative body and thinking about it in political terms, because that weakens the rule of law." Deborah Rhode, director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford University, said that studies show a justice"s legal ideology to be a greater predictor of decisions than his or
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A Canada-Wide Technology Platform For Mapping The Human Interactome
On June 18, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) announced the award of $9.16 million for the creation of a national technology platform aimed at mapping the human interactome. This national platform, headed by Dr. Benoit Coulombe from the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montrçİal (IRCM), will not only provide Canadian researchers with new state-of-the-art equipment in proteomics, functional genomics and bioinformatics, but also bring together integrated infrastructure for deciphering the human interactome an expertise that, until now, has been spread in 12 universities across Canada.
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Massachusetts' Individual Mandates, Insurance Exchanges Are Examples For National Plan
"Three years into its experiment with near-universal health care, Massachusetts has some "dos and don"ts" for the nation as it grapples with the best way to cover tens of millions of uninsured Americans," the Associated Press reports. "Do require that virtually everyone have health insurance, the overriding goal in Massachusetts. Don"t ignore rising costs, the single greatest threat to the law"s long-term affordability."
Mental Health

To Stop Spread Of HIV, Prevention Campaigns In China Targeting Sex Workers, MSM

CNN examines China"s efforts to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS by educating sex workers about the disease and prevention strategies. "It is estimated that some 700,000 people are living with HIV in China and there are about 50,000 new infections every year, according to the Chinese government and UNAIDS. The U.N. agency believes a significant number of those new infections include sex workers," CNN writes. "I think sex work is probably one of the most important factors for the potential of HIV spreading in Asia and also in China," Bernhard Schwartlander, UNAIDS coordinator in China, said. He added that sex workers, reflective of the Chinese population as a whole, have a poor understanding of HIV/AIDS. "There are misconceptions. People think that they can avoid HIV infections by taking a pill. People think that they are not at risk for HIV infections because they don"t know anybody (who has it), because you can"t see it, you can"t touch it. And clearly, this is something that we have to change very rapidly," Schwartlander said. Though "[h]istorically, HIV and AIDS have been taboo topics in China" and "prevention in the gay community has also been difficult because of traditional stigmas," the "Chinese government is now conducting educational campaigns to inform higher risk groups, including sex workers, about how to prevent the transmission of HIV," CNN writes. The article points to the success of prevention campaigns that have targeted injection drug users in China. Still, CNN writes, "[a] majority of the infections are concentrated among drug users, men having sex with men [MSM], and sex workers and their clients, Schwartlander said" (Chang, CNN, 6/21). HIV/AIDS cases among MSM have "risen fivefold in Shanghai, the largest metropolis in eastern China, over recent years," according to Chinese health officials, Xinhua reports. The data, presented during a science forum Thursday, were obtained by the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who "began surveying gay males in 2005 to find out more about their sexual behavior and infection experience with HIV/AIDS and syphilis," according to Xinhua. HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns will also attempt to reach MSMs and bisexuals (Xinhua, 6/19). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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