In the News
DENVER — In a Washington where practically nothing gets done, Colorado's longest-serving member of Congress is optimistic about a bipartisan effort to accelerate and improve medical cures through the renewed focus on and funding of personalized medicine.
Personalized medicine — the use of individuals' genomes to treat diseases in ways particular to them — is on the rise nationally, but federal regulations and funding issues are getting in the way of developing more advanced drugs and getting them to market.
As such, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Denver) is working on what she calls a "21st Century Cures Initiative," a bipartisan effort with Republican U.S. Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan to make the delivery of health care more efficient by focusing on emerging fields like digital health, and streamlining clinical trials for drugs.
Coolarado Corporation is a manufacturer in Denver that employs about 50 people. CEO Tom Teynor says about half of its product is exported, and he says that's thanks to the Export-Import Bank that's allowed him to take more risks on overseas sales.
"The Export-Import Bank is very valuable," Teynor says. "Without it, I'm quite confident a majority of our sales would have taken place domestically and our growth would have been stunted."
KUSA – Years before the VA started collecting names of people who believe they may have been sickened by exposure to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, doctors at Denver's National Jewish Health started receiving phone calls from men and women complaining of mysterious medical problems.
Dr. Cecile Rose received her first phone call in 2009.
"It was from an active-duty service member saying she had developed unexplained shortness of breath and a cough following her deployment into Iraq," recalls the pulmonologist.
Five years later, the calls continue to come in.
U.S. Senate Democrats, vying to retain control of the chamber in November's midterm election, are touting their support for legislation requiring for-profit companies to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives.
Two Democratic senators in competitive races -- Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Udall of Colorado -- joined a group of women lawmakers today to announce the measure, which seeks to reverse the effect of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week.
WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress said Tuesday that they had developed legislation to override the Supreme Court decision on contraceptives. The bill would ensure that women had access to insurance coverage for birth control even if they worked for businesses that had religious objections.
The bill, put together in consultation with the Obama administration, would require for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby Stores to provide and pay for contraceptive coverage, along with other preventive health services, under the Affordable Care Act.
General Motors Co. Chief Executive Mary Barra returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to brief Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) and other lawmakers in private on the auto maker's efforts to answer their questions about delays in recalling cars with defective ignition switches.
Separately, GM took another step in its effort to speed future responses to safety defects, assigning a senior lawyer to work directly with its newly-appointed vehicle safety czar. At the same time, GM said general counsel Michael Millikin, who turns 66 years old in August, will stay on at the company.
DENVER - The Consumer Product Safety Commission is now investigating one of the most popular baby toys on the market after a CALL7 report revealed dozens of complaints about it overheating and smoldering.
-- Parents complain --
Parents around the world reported problems with their Fisher-Price Soothe & Glow Seahorses.
"We thought it was just a fluke," said Chris Kellermann, who lives in Manchester, New Hampshire. He and his wife purchased their first Soothe & Glow Seahorse in 2011.
DETROIT — General Motors waited years to recall nearly 335,000 Saturn Ions for power steering failures despite getting thousands of consumer complaints and more than 30,000 warranty repair claims, according to government documents released Saturday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the government's auto safety watchdog, also didn't seek a recall of the compact car from the 2004 through 2007 model years even though it opened an investigation more than two years ago and found 12 crashes and two injuries caused by the problem.
Last month, Mary T. Barra, the new chief executive of General Motors, told a panel of stern and dubious House members that she first became aware of a serious safety issue with the Chevrolet Cobalt in December, two months before the company announced a recall that would eventually cover 2.6 million cars.
But an email contained among 700 pages of internal G.M. documents released on Friday by the same House committee raises questions of whether she knew more about safety problems with the Cobalt.