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Around a year ago we asked the question, is Wal-Mart evil? This goes along with a more recent question: are we getting poorer or does it just FEEL that way? A recent study shows that if there?s a Wal-Mart nearby, it’s probably TRUE.

University of Nebraska researcher Azzeddine Azzam discovered that in Nebraska, counties where a Wal-Mart is located have experienced on average a slower growth in standard of living than counties without one. compared how growth in household income from 1979 to 2002 differed between 19 counties with Wal-Marts and 74 without. Azzam says, “There is a Wal-Mart effect, but we don’t completely understand it.
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If the Federal government won’t take a stand against global warming, individual states will have to do it alone. California has filed a lawsuit against six leading car manufacturers, saying that the emissions from the cars they produce are changing the state’s weather.

Andrew Gumbel reports in the Independent that California attorney general Bill Lockyer is suing General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota and Nissan because they “either knew or should have known the severe impact their vehicles would have on the health of the planet?Vehicle emissions are the single most rapidly growing source of the carbon emissions contributing to global warming, yet the federal government and the automakers have refused to act.”
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A little over a year ago, we reported that the dangerous Marburg virus had spread to Europe. Researchers have long searched for the source of this incurable disease, which caused an epidemic in Africa in 1998?2000. They’ve been looking for a host, which will be an animal that spreads the disease to humans that come into contact with it, but which is not affected by the disease itself. Now they think they may have finally found it in a bat cave in the Congo.
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When it comes to women’s health, we try to keep you informed about the basics. A new 15-year study reveals that women who get breast implants to increase the size of their breasts have a significantly higher suicide rate. Meanwhile, one of the most baffling recent US government actions has been to ban the addition of a newly-discovered prevention for cervical cancer, to the vaccinations given to every young girl, because it might encourage future sexual promiscuity. But one brave group is doing its best to change that.
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