(Continued from page 18)

had been diagnosed with diabetes. In 2010, it was about 1 in 14.
• Most of the increase has happened since 1990.
• Diabetes is a disease in which the body has trouble processing sugar; it's the nation's seventh leading cause of death. Complications include poor circulation, heart and kidney problems and nerve damage.
• The new study is the CDC's first in more than a decade to look at how the nationwide boom has played out in different states.
• It's based on telephone surveys of at least 1,000 adults in each state in 1995 and 2010. Participants were asked if a doctor had ever told them they have diabetes.
• Not surprisingly, Mississippi -- the state with the largest proportion of residents who are obese -- has the highest diabetes rate. Nearly 12 percent of Mississippians say they have diabetes, compared to the national average of 7 percent.
• But the most dramatic increases in diabetes occurred largely elsewhere in the South and in the Southwest, where rates tripled or more than doubled. Oklahoma's rate rose to about 10 percent, Kentucky went to more than 9 percent, Georgia to 10 percent and Alabama surpassed 11 percent.
• An official with Oklahoma State Department of Health said the solution is healthier eating, more exercise and no smoking.
• "And that's it in a nutshell," said Rita Reeves, diabetes prevention coordinator.
• Several Northern states saw rates more than double, too, including Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Maine.
• The study was published in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
•

• OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A survey of business leaders indicated for the third month in a row that economic growth is expected in the Midwest and West, but people also are worried about how a looming federal tax hike and budget cuts will affect the region.
• The business leaders expressed concern about the so-called "fiscal cliff," in which tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush are set to expire at the same time big federal budget cuts go into effect next year -- unless Congress acts before then.
• Lawmakers are expected to try to hammer out a deal, but with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats running the Senate, it could be tough.
• "The biggest issue we face soon is the fiscal crises with a locked-up Congress," said Dale Bradley, chief executive office of The Citizens State Bank in Miltonvale,

(Continued on page 20)