Like most men his age, Thaine High, 92, takes a number of medicines for his health problems. He used to get the drugs for free from the Department of Veterans Affairs because he has a service-related disability, but things changed when his dementia worsened and he could no longer take his drugs without supervision.
For patients like High who need help with their medicines, Waterford will dispense only drugs that are sealed in individual doses commonly known as blister packs or bubble packs. The VA won't bubble-pack drugs, so Ellena has no choice but to buy her dad's prescriptions through Medicare. She said she's paying $300 to $400 a month for drugs that her dad should be getting for free as a result of his service-related disability.

(AP) -- The odds of obesity appear stacked against Black and Hispanic children starting even before birth, provocative new research suggests.

ROSEMONT, Ill.(AP) -- Malik Shabazz came to the Nation of Islam the way many before him have: through jail. The 47-year-old, now a Houston businessman, did 15 years for embezzling from a former workplace to help feed a cocaine habit. But while incarcerated he was inspired to reform by a movement that embraces Black nationalism.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House called for a "simple up-or-down" vote on health care legislation Sunday as Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind President Barack Obama's chief domestic priority even it if threatens their political careers. In voicing support for a simple majority vote, White House health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle signaled Obama's intention to push the Democratic-crafted bill under Senate rules that would overcome GOP stalling tactics.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) -- Former career home run king Hank Aaron says Mark McGwire should have a clear conscience after his recent admission he used performance-enhancing drugs as a player.
Aaron said other players still harboring similar secrets also should come clean...

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) -- A 35-year-old state law is being used as a new weapon by Pierce County authorities in their battle against Tacoma's Hilltop Crips gang.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The NAACP elected a health care executive as its youngest board chairman Saturday, continuing a youth movement for the nation's oldest civil rights organization.

NEW YORK (NNPA) - The federal government has decided that it will not prosecute the police officers involved in the 2006 shooting death of Sean Bell. The news comes from the Department of Justice, which said that there is insufficient evidence to suggest that the officers acted willfully during the shooting.
At a Feb. 16 press conference at the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network headquarters in Harlem, Bell's fiancée, Nicole Paultre-Bell, Joe Guzman and Trent Benefield expressed their outrage over the decision.

ATLANTA (AP) -- The message on dozens of billboards across Atlanta is provocative: Black children are an "endangered species."
The eyebrow-raising ads featuring a young Black child are an effort by the anti-abortion movement to use race to rally support within the Black community. The reaction from Black leaders has been mixed, but the "Too Many Aborted" campaign, which so far is unique to only Georgia, is drawing support from other anti-abortion groups across the country.

(AP) Many jobless people have reached a conclusion that captures the depth of the unemployment crisis: Looking for a job is a waste of time.
The economy is growing. Yet it's creating few jobs. That's why in the past eight months, 1.8 million people without jobs left the labor market. Many had grown so frustrated by their failure to find a job that they threw up their hands and quit looking for one...