During the health care reform fight the women’s reproductive rights groups and legislators were basically sold out. President Obama decided to cut a deal with Bart Stupak’s Gang. He assumed that the pro-choice and women legislators in the House and pro-choice groups would just fall in line, and they did with very little fighting. Today’s decision to stop the OTC availability of Plan B morning after contraception is another example of what happens when you don’t extract a price.

Though the FDA supported it, the Department of Health and Human Services decided against allowing young teens access to the morning after pill in over-the-counter drugstores without a prescription. Though birth control is now available for free from doctors for anyone with health insurance, women under 17 facing an unplanned pregnancy will still have to consult a doctor before getting the morning after pill.

The Obama Administration continued its “we can’t wait” initiative by ordering earlier notification of potential shortages and/or price gouging for medical drugs. But shortages and exorbitant prices are the natural outcomes of allowing drug monopolies and extended patent protection.

The Obama Administration promised a formal response to on-line petitions that got enough signatures, and highly popular marijuana legalization petitions got more than enough. The White House response is dismissive and insulting to those who signed the petitions.

When Barack Obama ran for president he promised to respect the states’ medical marijuana laws. But since taking office Obama has been steadily using more and more parts of the federal government to wage a war on medical marijuana.

One of the policy items you hear the Administration tout as part of defending their record is the food safety bill. Food policy experts considered it flawed, but generally a step in the right direction, and the first overhaul of the nation’s food safety system in decades. There’s every reason for the White House to use that as part of their list of accomplishments.

There’s only one thing: as a result of the legislation, the FDA has more responsibility but does not have more money.

Senator Dianne Feinstein put out a press release indicating that the Department of Defense should consider taking the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, also known as Lariam, out of the DoD drug formulary as it is too dangerous.

Feinstein also indicated the drug has been administered to military personnel without the safeguards put in place by a 2009 Department of Defense protocol. Moreover, according to the press release, “These service members are now suffering from… preventable neurological side effects….”

And what “preventable neurological side effects” were these?

Radiation Nation is Firedoglake’s attempt to turn frustration into information. It is an effort to take all of the news, statistics, websites and debates about the fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and turn them into a useful, productive, dependable, and, above all, understandable resource. Radiation Nation may not start with all the answers, but it starts with the idea that we—me, you, other FDL contributors, and a wide variety of experts, authors, researchers, and journalists—will find ways to get the answers.

This is a rare piece of good news reflecting the positive impact investigative journalism and public outcry can have. The Food and Drug Administration has partly reversed its horrible decision to grant a drug company an exclusive monopoly over an already commonly used medication, which allowed that company to jack up prices 15,000%.

The White House, the FDA and the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board are teaming up with a group of celebrity chefs to promote the eating of Gulf Seafood.