University of South Carolina Halts Fraternity Recruitment: I'm shocked, SHOCKED, to learn that drinking is going on in college fraternity houses!

What I love is the last line of the article: "USC said sorority recruitment won’t be affected by the decision." Yeah, like girls don't drink. Riiight.

National Public Radio has an interesting piece on Supplemental Security Income [SSI] benefits for children with severe mental disorders:

To those who believe the federal Supplemental Security Income program for severely disabled children is a lifesaver and not a boondoggle, Hulston Poe is a great example.

The 4-year-old was diagnosed with severe ADHD last October, after more than a year of violent temper tantrums, and kicked out of preschool. Case workers said there wasn't much they could do for him.

"We were at a standstill," says his mother, Suzanne Poe, who was scraping by as a single parent of two in Des Moines, Iowa.

Then doctors recommended that she enroll her son in the SSI program this year, and everything changed. A monthly check of $674 helps pay for Hulston's day care, a private tutor and medicines. Perhaps most importantly, the program made Hulston newly eligible for Medicaid, the joint state-federal health insurance program for the poor. He gained access to the doctors he needed.

"I can see a light in his eyes again," Poe says. "He just looks so much happier."

Let's hope worthwhile programs like this one don't end up on the cutting block.

Man Sentenced To 12 Years For Deadly DUI Crash: This guy lost control, spun out, and collided with another vehicle. The three yearold in his back seat was killed. The moral of the story is: don't drink and drive, especially with a child in your car.

Doctors who endorsed Medtronic product got millions. Reading the linked article reveals that some doctors may have received kickbacks -- that's not entirely clear at this point. More troubling, however, is the implication that allowing corporations to conduct their own safety testing is not, and may never have been, a wise procedure:

“Can we accept industry-sponsored studies as the basis to go full bore into the use of a product?” said Dr. Dan M. Spengler of Vanderbilt University. “I’m suggesting probably not, based on our experience here.”

Federal and state government agencies do not have the resources to really keep an eye on these corporations, so the government has relied on them to "self-police." But what about the temptation to buy the results of studies that are supposed to ensure reasonable product safety? Again, the suggestion here is that corporate businesses, which are notoriously amoral -- they're in it for the bucks, and they don't take prisoners -- cannot be trusted to regulate themselves.

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