|
|
|
|
|
Senate chair: fix "dysfunctional" Indian health
MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press
• BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- The chairman of the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee says he wants the Obama administration to address the "dysfunction" that's hobbling the federal Indian Health Service.
• U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has invited tribal leaders from Montana and Wyoming to a Tuesday field hearing amid rising dissatisfaction over poor or delayed care on reservations.
• The Montana Democrat earlier this month requested an investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office after complaints from the Crow Tribe about the Indian Health Service area office in Billings.
• A 2010 Senate investigation examined the health service in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa. It uncovered hospitals at risk of losing their accreditation, a shortage of providers, missing or stolen narcotics and improperly licensed staff.
•
Hop plant product helping North Dakota beekeepers
BLAKE NICHOLSON, Associated Press
• BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Beekeepers in the nation's top honey-producing state are getting help through a product tied to a plant typically associated with beer.
• The federal government is once again allowing North Dakota beekeepers to use Hopguard pesticide -- made from an extract of the hop plant -- to control a pest thought to be connected to colony collapse disorder.
• "Left uncontrolled, varroa mites cause deep and widespread losses in bee colonies," Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said. "They are the most serious pest problem facing beekeepers."
• Goehring successfully lobbied the federal Environmental Protection Agency to allow the use of Hopguard in North Dakota while the product made by Washington, D.C.-based BetaTec Hop Products is still going through the federal registration process.
• North Dakota has received a Hopguard exemption in each of the past four years. (Continued on page 14)
|
|
|
|
|
