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A FRIEND was recently hospitalized after a bicycle accident. At one point a nursing student, together with a more senior nurse, rolled a computer on wheels into the room and asked my friend to rate her pain on a scale of 1 to 10. She mumbled, "4 to 5." The student put 5 into the computer --- and then they left, without further inquiring about, or relieving, my friend's pain. This is not an anecdote about nurses not doing their jobs; it's an illustration of what our jobs have become in the age of electronic health records. Computer documentation in...

When Kay Hagan voted for President Barack Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus package, the Democratic senator hailed it as “the best way forward for working families across North Carolina.” One of the families that later benefited is her own. JDC Manufacturing, a company co-owned by the Democratic senator’s husband, Chip, received nearly $390,000 in federal grants for energy projects and tax credits created by the 2009 stimulus law, according to public records and information provided by the company. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/kay-hagan-husband-stimulus-cash-111339.html#ixzz3EWVKPLqx

Washington (CNN) - Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are likely to meet in early May to discuss a Santorum endorsement, his role as a Romney surrogate and conservative policy issues, CNN has learned. John Brabender, a senior strategist for the Santorum campaign, told CNN that Santorum's goal is to have a policy-oriented session in which he tries to find a "comfort level" about the role "social conservatives, tea party activists and blue collar Republicans will play in the campaign and in the Romney administration." Even so, he said, "we are not walking in there with a litmus test. This is...

Mitt Romney, it turns out, was against calling stay-at-home mothers “working moms” before he was for it. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes broke the news this morning. Back in January, Romney appeared at a town hall even in Manchester, New Hampshire, where he explained his position on welfare. “While I was governor,” Romney said, “85 percent of the people on a form of welfare assistance in my state had no work requirement. I wanted to increase the work requirement. I said, for instance, that even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. And people...

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, reporters found that Santorum sent “hundreds of millions of dollars to Pennsylvania,” by looking at press releases from Santorum’s office and at news accounts at the time. Thus, we can conclude that Santorum did request earmarks as a member of Congress. Furthermore, Santorum voted for the notorious 2005 Highway Bill, which contained literally thousands of earmarks including the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” (Senate Roll Call Vote #220, 2005). Not only did Santorum vote for the bill that contained the Bridge to Nowhere, but when Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma offered an...

Mitt Romney has won the Illinois primary. But, the turnout of voters was dismally low. Given an incumbent Democratic president with an abysmal record, why aren't Republicans turning out in droves to vote in primary states for the man who many say is the "inevitable" nominee? Conservative economist Thomas Sowell, author of Intellectuals and Society, recently challenged the notion that Mitt Romney is the “inevitable” Republican nominee, and, in doing so, the many pundits who have essentially told Newt Gingrich to drop out of the race “for the good of the Republican party.” Dr. Sowell, a Harvard graduate and current...

As Rick Santorum desperately tries to make a dent in Mitt Romney’s formidable delegate lead, he faces an unlikely obstacle on the primary calendar: his home state of Pennsylvania. Yes, Santorum is currently favored — though hardly a lock — to win the popular vote in the state he represented in Congress for 16 years. But Pennsylvania’s non-binding primary rules for distributing delegates raise the prospect that Santorum, who has said he’ll win the vast majority of the state’s delegates, could actually come away from next month’s primary empty-handed at a time when he can ill-afford it. Which means the...

The wife of presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Thursday that his rise in the polls is due to God working in mysterious ways. "I personally think this is God's will. I think He has us on a path, and I do think there's a lot more happening than what we're seeing," Karen Santorum told Glenn Beck as she and her husband sat for an interview on his Web-based show, GBTV. "Personally I mean I think Rick's a great guy, and he's really smart and everything. But I think a lot more is happening than what we can actually see."

MITT ROMNEY ABC News’ Gary Langer: “Riding Electability & Expectations, Romney Rolls to 35 Percent Support” Bolstered by the twin engines of electability and perceived inevitability, Mitt Romney’s on a roll, advancing in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll to a 2-to-1 lead over his closest competitor in support for the Republican presidential nomination. Coming off his eight-vote victory in Iowa and strong showing in New Hampshire, a vast 72 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents now expect Romney to be their nominee — up by 32 points from mid-December.

Right now, President Obama and Congress are considering a deal to pay the nation's bills that could cut the Social Security and Medicare benefits seniors have earned through a lifetime of hard work.

More than 100 community members gathered outside of the Historic Courthouse Monday afternoon to protest the 287(g) program. Another 20 people gathered to show support for the immigration law and Henderson County Sheriff Rick Davis, who wants to expand the program. Organizers said the purpose of the "peaceful vigil" outside the courthouse on Main Street was to raise awareness about the damaging effects the 287(g) program has on Henderson County's families. "The 287(g) program was originally intended to target and remove undocumented immigrants convicted of violent crimes, human smuggling, gang/organized crime activity, sexual-related offenses, narcotics smuggling and money laundering," IRC...

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, has not decided whether he will vote for or against the Senate's version of health care reform. The House is expected to take up the legislation later in the week. "Basically at this point we are waiting to see what happens (before deciding)," Shuler spokeswoman Julie Fishman said. "There are some things that are up in the air as far as abortion and the Congressional Budget Office score (cost to implement the bill)."