Obama Update.  He knows more about economics than you think, thanks to a stint at the University of Chicago. [link]

Homelessness Update.  FOX News reporter donned old clothes and earned about $10 an hour.  Hat tip to Alex Tabarrok at marginalrevolution.com.  The full story is in the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.

Alternative Medicine Update.  Herbal supplements may kill you. The JAMA study is here (gated) and here.

Taxing the Poor Update.  No one's going to ban menthol in cigarettes.  Governments are making too much money from it. [link]

Barriers to Care Update.  As we previously reported here, community health centers are better than Medicaid.  They would be better still if they weren't overregulated, according to Scott Gottlieb in this Wall Street Journal editorial.

Obama Update.  For more than a year, Senator Obama has said he will pay for health reform by repealing Bush "tax cuts for the rich."  Now, Obama economic advisors in a Wall Street Journal editorial are hedging on that threat.  The tax rate on capital gains and dividends will go no higher than 20%.  What about increasing payroll taxes on the rich?  Turns out (a) we are only talking about 4 or 5%, and (b) it will only be part of Social Security reform and (c) that's perhaps a decade away.

Cervical Cancer Update.  The payoff from vaccines may not be as good as previously reported.  This is from the American Health Line (gated):

The study concludes that vaccination costs about $43,600 per additional "quality-adjusted life year" when administered to 12-year-old girls and that the cost increased significantly when researchers included older girls and women in their calculations.

The full study is here.

Obesity Update.  30% of US adults are obese.  An additional 30% are overweight.  These are double the 1980 rates.  Full study here.

World's Fattest Man

Rationing by Waiting Update.  Four in ten patients in California emergency rooms could (and should) have seen doctors elsewhere.  The biggest offenders: Medi-Cal (California Medicaid) enrollees.  Turns out, California pays the lowest Medicaid rates to physicians among the 50 states [link].