Tuesday,  Aug. 20, 2013 • Vol. 15--No. 36 • 27 of 30

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through waist- or neck-deep waters, holding on to ropes strung from flooded houses.
• More than 200 evacuation centers were opened in Manila and surrounding provinces, filled with tens of thousands of people, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said. Overall, more than 600,000 people have been affected by the floods.
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HEALTHBEAT: To make waiting lists for new livers fairer, specialists consider redistricting

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Where you live can affect your chances of getting a liver transplant, and your risk of dying while waiting. The nation's transplant network says it's time to make the system fairer -- and it may take a cue from how politicians redraw voting maps.
• "Gerrymandering for the public good" is how Johns Hopkins University transplant surgeon Dr. Dorry Segev describes a proposal to change the map that governs how donated livers are distributed around the country.
• The problem: Some areas have fewer donated organs, and higher demand for them, than others. The sickest patients go to the top of the waiting list. But the geographic variation means that someone in California, among the toughest places to get a new liver, waits longer and is a lot sicker before getting transplanted than someone in Ohio or Florida -- if they survive long enough.
• "This should not be happening," Segev said.
• Segev is advising the United Network for Organ Sharing, which runs the transplant network, as its liver specialists consider the novel idea of "redistricting" how livers are allocated -- redrawing the nation's 11 transplant regions based on the distribution and demand for donated organs, much like lawmakers set political districts based on the party voting histories of different areas.
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William and Kate choose family snapshots as first official portraits of Prince George

• LONDON (AP) -- Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge have bypassed professional photographers and chosen family snapshots for the first official images of their new son, Prince George.
• Royal officials on Tuesday released photos of Kate holding the swaddled baby while standing beside William -- and in one image, the couple's cocker spaniel,

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