A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) on Friday announced a proposal that would extend health insurance to an additional nine million U.S. children, the Chicago Tribune reports (Neikirk, Chicago Tribune, 2/16). [click link for full article]

As interest grows among academics and parents in youth’s participation in virtual societies, Danah Boyd, a USC Annenberg Center graduate fellow and expert on the topic, spoke on “Virtual Publics: Youth’s Lives in Emergent Social Worlds” at AAAS 2007.Boyd presented in “Virtual Worlds Seminar Part I: Education, Learning, and Public Diplomacy. [click link for full article]

William Freudenburg, Dehlsen Professor of Environmental Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, presented a talk on the risks of living near sea level at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Francisco.”When Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore, what came surging through the levees of Louisiana was more than just contaminated floodwater,” said Freudenburg. [click link for full article]

Although R.J. Reynolds Tobacco executives think “they have hit on an innovative marketing strategy” by planning to launch a new cigarette brand, called Camel No. 9 aimed at adult female smokers, “this new attempt to woo women smokers can only be viewed as another cynical blow to public health, a [click link for full article]

About 1.7 million current California Medicaid beneficiaries and all new program applicants will be required to provide proof of citizenship under new draft regulations sent to county social service agencies by state officials last week, the Los Angeles Times reports. [click link for full article]

To Robert C. von Borstel, cancer is a metaphorical example of the perfect invasion by a founder species. Like the first pregnant finch that landed on a deserted island in the Galapagos Archipelago, the first cancer cell in the human body has to undergo many mutations through many generations to establish itself as an invader of different organs in the body. But once it is there, like any newly stabilized species in different ecological niches, cancer is tough to get rid of. [click link for full article]

Three University Of Southern California experts discussed at AAAS 2007 in San Francisco. [click link for full article]

In an effort to reach a greater audience, and help patients and their families understand their cancer treatment options, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology now offers Spanish versions of their popular brochures Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer and Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer. [click link for full article]

Cyprus Minister of Labor and Social Insurance Antonis Vassiliou on Thursday announced the government is creating a series social welfare measures that might include paying couples who have three or more children $45,351 in an attempt to reverse the country’s declining population, Agence France-Presse reports. According to Agence France-Presse, Cyprus’ fertility rate is estimated at 1.82 children per woman, well below the 2. [click link for full article]

According to a new study published in the latest issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine and conducted in the Department of Psychology of McGill University, thermography shows great promise as a diagnostic method of measuring sexual arousal. It is less intrusive than currently utilized methods, and is the only available test that requires no physical contact with participants. [click link for full article]