Grumpy Editor

NOT ALL SURGERY CENTER DOCTORS ARE BOARD CERTIFIED: REPORT

 

Grumpy Editor notes a USA TODAY story that reveals more than one in three outpatient surgery centers employ doctors who are not board certified in their respective medical specialty.

 

The information comes from a survey by Washington, D.C.-based Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit that summarizes trends in safety and quality of care for same-day surgical services.

 

Leapfrog Group also reports nearly 30 percent of those that provide anesthesia at doctor-owned centers are not board certified. 

 

Nonprofit Leapfrog Group polled more than 1,400 hospital and ambulatory surgery centers to give the public information on the facilities that now perform the majority of U.S. surgical procedures.  Patients who undergo operations and other procedures at the centers are released the same day.

 

"Unlike hospitals that keep patients overnight and must report quality measures, comparatively little information is available to the public when evaluating same-day-surgery centers, points out the USA TODAY story.  It adds, "The centers handle more than 60 percent of all surgeries and procedures as doctors and specialists shift away from hospital operations, particularly for healthier individuals who don't required the level of monitoring a hospital provides.”

 

It quotes Leapfrog Group’s CEO Leah Binder:  "“Virtually nothing is known in a systematic way about the safety of these centers. When you go under the knife, you want the reassurance of an independent report on their safety. That’s why we did it.” 

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

HALLOWEEN OUTLAYS MOUNT.  WalletHub projects Halloween spending reaching $8.8 billion this year, including $3.2 billion going to costumes and $2.6 billion to candy.  It finds 36 percent of parents think children 12 or 13 years old are old enough to trick-or-treat alone.

 

SAILORS ALLOWED TO WEAR FALSE EYELASHES.  Males in the Royal New Zealand Navy, starting Friday, will be allowed to wear discreet makeup, clear or pale nail varnish and "trimmed, neat and natural" false eyelashes when in uniform, under new gender-neutral guidelines. One pair of natural colored stud or sleeper earrings will also be allowed along with moderate amounts of perfume or cologne.

 

MILITARY CASUALTIES IN TRAINING EXERCISES.  It was a bad week for service members undergoing training exercises.  In Laurel, Mississippi, 32 paratroopers were injured, with 18 of them hospitalized, after jumping from a C-130 aircraft when the wind blew them into pine trees. At Fort Stewart in Georgia, an armored vehicle fell from a bridge in post-midnight darkness landing upside down in water, killing three of those inside and injuring three others.  

BLANK FRONT PAGES IN AUSSIE PROTEST.  Australia’s leading media outlets launch a co-ordinated campaign to protest restrictions on press freedom by blacking out texts on front pages.  It comes  amid mounting concerns over what government critics describe as a culture of secrecy, in which national security legislation has been deployed to deliberately target investigative journalism.

BANK HIRES EX-CRIMINALS.  New York-based JPMorgan Chase is expanding its efforts to hire people with criminal backgrounds, continuing the trend of big companies giving people second chances. The bank hired 2,100 people with criminal records in 2018, which equals about 10 percent of total hires last year.  Applicants with criminal records are being considered for entry-level jobs like account servicing and transaction processing.

BILL MAKES ANIMAL CRUELTY FEDERAL FELONY.  The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill that would make animal cruelty a federal felony. The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act bans abusive behavior including crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impaling and other bodily injury toward any non-humans. Violators could face criminal penalties of a fine, a prison term of up to seven years, or both.

K-9s ASSIST IN MARIJUANA BUST.  Four Connecticut state police drug-sniffing dogs are credited with helping troopers collar two men on drug-trafficking charges by sniffing out 420 pounds of marijuana.

INSURERS NIX FIRE COVERAGE.  Insurance companies are raising premiums and refusing to renew fire coverage in existing policies to 350,000 Californians.

UNION PUSHES RAISES FOR FINANCIAL NEWS OUTLETS.  The union that represents business journalists at The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch.com and Barron’s asks the parent company for raises of at least 3.25 percent over the next three years.

GWEN IFILL ON POSTAGE STAMPS.  Pioneering journalist Gwen Ifill, who died three years ago, is being memorialized on a U.S. Postal Service Forever stamp, the 43rd stamp in the Black Heritage series. After being a reporter for  The New York Times and The Washington Post, Ifill switched to television in the 1990s and covered politics and Congress for NBC News. She moved to PBS in 1999 as host of "Washington Week" and also worked for the nightly "NewsHour" program.

 

USING B-WORD COULD LEAD TO JAIL TIME.  A bill introduced by a Massachusetts lawmaker seeks to make an expletive a fineable offense --- up to $200 --- with jail time, up to six months, a threat for repeat offenders. The word: b----, to accost, annoy, degrade another person "shall be considered a disorderly person."

Dark disrespect cloud drifts over United States

Disrespect and anti-American are the words coming into play in the past week linked to two shameful events --- both with limited media coverage, noted Grumpy Editor.  

A Gold Star family from California, on their way by plane to meet the remains of their Army son, Sgt. John Perry, killed by a suicide bomber inside Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, were greeted by boos from some first-class passengers when the American Airlines pilot of their delayed jet allowed a "special military family" to deplane first so they could make a connection in Phoenix.

The father, Stewart Perry, a retired Marine, said, “It was really disgusting on the passengers’ part.” 

Sgt. Perry, who will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, was among four American's killed and 14 injured on Nov. 12.

Meanwhile, following a performance of the Broadway show "Hamilton," and with the cast lined up on stage for a curtain call at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, cast member Brandon Victor Dixon took to the microphone to address Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who was departing, with the message:  “We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights."

President-elect Donald Trump later demanded an apology to Pence from Dixon and the show's producers.

Meanwhile, the theater's PR person is probably having fits while bracing for a drop-off in ticket sales for the show.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Post-election media notes. The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and CNN continued to take post-election jabs at Trump and his actions.  Example from a N.Y. Times lead: "With Donald Trump set to become the 45th president of the United States, the spirit of openness that has permeated everything from our increasingly global economy to how we travel may be poised to change.”…A majority (59 percent) of U.S. adults reject the idea of adding interpretation in news stories, saying media should present the facts alone, found a Pew Research Center survey..."One of the biggest disappointments of this election season has to be the final unraveling of the mainstream media," declared Mario Diaz, writing at CNSNews.com. "I hesitate to say it, but for practical purposes, the mainstream media are dead." He added, "They're dead because they cannot be trusted.” Díaz serves as Concerned Women for America's (CWA) legal counsel and leads CWA's Legal Studies Department…A Texas television reporter is out of a job after she criticized President Obama and praised President-elect Trump on her personal Facebook page --- claiming the country went “downhill” under the outgoing commander-in-chief.

Fort Motor Co. decided to reverse course on a plan to relocate Lincoln sport-utility production from Kentucky to a factory south of the U.S. border...And the slow legal action continues: Trial for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, accused of walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009, is now slated for May 15, 2017...Projectiles fired from the Navy's biggest and most advanced destroyer cost too much.  So the USS Zumwalt is likely to be firing blanks...California quake chatter pops up again: Scientists discovered two fault lines link north of San Francisco, creating a risk for those living in the Bay Area…Three Trump Place apartment buildings along New York’s Hudson River were being renamed solely with their street addresses --- 140, 160 and 180 Riverside Blvd. --- after a group of residents started a petition before the election to take the name down. While built by the Trump organization, new owners took over in 2005…Fashion designer Sophie Theallet, who dressed first lady Michelle Obama, said she refuses to dress incoming first lady Melania Trump because of the “rhetoric of racism, sexism, and xenophobia unleashed by her husband’s presidential campaign,” reported the Huffington Post.

 

Look for major changes at Bloomberg Businessweek. The action will include layoffs, desk shuffling and new top leadership.

Shaky US. health care system shows widening cracks

 

Few people recall the days when newspaper staffs included medical editors who focused on doctors, hospitals, medicine and medical developments.  Among natural current topics for such a specialized journalist would be the difficulty one has in trying to contact a specialist to set a date soonest for an office visit or to reach a physician for input on a nagging medical condition.

Grumpy Editor knows of a woman with a severe back problem in late January whose earliest visit to a doctor’s group with 22 orthopedics was in far-off April.  Then there’s a senior bachelor who just returned home after spending three months in a hospital, terming the confinement “just terrible.”

What’s going on?

Dr. Diana Hoppe, an obstetrician and gynecologist, founder of Amazing Over 40 Inc., a health coaching certification program for women and an author/speaker who has been featured on a number of TV shows, including “Dr. Oz,” puts some light on the situation, listing what she calls “staggering, and depressing, statistics.”

• From 2011 to 2014, the rate of physician burnout increased to 54.5 percent from 45.5 percent, with the most common burnout symptom being emotional exhaustion.
• The rate of suicidal ideation among physicians jumped from 4 percent to 7.2 percent, an increase of 80 percent.
• Physician work-life balance is completely awry --- with 44.5 percent of physicians lacking adequate time for their personal and/or family life.

• The U.S. faces a shortage of as many as 90,000 physicians by 2025, including a critical need for specialists to treat an aging population that will increasingly live with chronic disease.
• Health care costs in the U.S. are higher than any other country.
• Eighty-six percent of all health care spending in 2010 was for people with one or more chronic medical conditions.
• About 70 percent of chronic conditions could be treated with lifestyle changes.

Dr. Hoppe hastens to point out that the most common chronic and costly medical conditions in the U.S. today are preventable. Heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, obesity and arthritis are conditions that could be treated with simple changes in patients’ behavior.

She cites four of the most common health risk behaviors that cause chronic disease are lack of exercise or physical activity, poor nutrition, smoking and drinking too much alcohol.

Her suggestion to doctors: “Rather than handing them a list of prescription medications, give your patients a weekly nutrition and exercise journal.”

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Grumpy Editor edges out Associated Press by 19 days in reporting an increase in cable and Internet charges to Cox Communications customers with the Feb. 1 posting on the fee battle between Cox and Las Vegas’ CBS-TV outlet KLAS…On top of a crime:  The Feb. 19 issue of a newspaper (largest daily in its state) reports a description of three men in connection with a bank robbery --- on Dec. 8.  Story includes what the bad guys were wearing (such as “a black hoodie and a white bandana mask”), like they might be in the same attire more than 10 weeks later…It’s layoffs for some Yahoo employees as it focuses its resources on four key verticals: news, sports, finance and lifestyle…What are consumers doing with the money saved on lower-price gas these days? One survey finds while many people say they put the extra cash toward savings, credit card data reveal the money is being spent at restaurants…Wine Market Council research finds millennials drank 42 percent of wine consumed in the U.S. last year, more than any other generation at an average of two cases per person…Bloomberg reports dozens of members of Congress plan to ask the Obama administration to review the planned acquisition of the Chicago Stock Exchange by a Chinese firm, to assess whether it poses a national security risk or a risk to the companies traded on the exchange…In Japan, as Shinzo Abe’s government seeks to silence criticism, Hiroko Kuniya, a leading TV anchor known for her tough questioning style, will be replaced in April after 23 years hosting a social affairs show on public broadcaster NHK...Hillary Clinton, in  a CBS interview Thursday says she doesn't believe she has ever told a lie and vowed to do her best to be honest going forward...Think of how many times South Carolina was mentioned on television in the past two weeks.

 

Paying monthly cable bill for this?

CNBC yesterday (Sunday) listed paid programming all day through 7 p.m. Eastern.

Media quiet as mystery disease affects 65 U.S. Marines

With print and broadcast media providing around-the-clock coverage of ebola, overlooked is a mystery disease that so far has affected 65 U.S. Marines, up from 31 last month, with more expected to become ill, finds Grumpy Editor.

The ailing 3^rd Division Marines recently trained at the Jungle Warfare Training Center at Camp Gonsalves in northern Okinawa.

In uncovering this, Matthew M. Burke, a reporter on the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, said, “Symptoms included fever and chills, head and muscle aches, nausea and vomiting, jaundice, abdominal pain, diarrhea and rashes. Some cases were mild; others required hospitalization.”

Burke mentioned Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joy Dierks, a III Marine Expeditionary Force preventative medicine officer, and her team from U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa were tasked with figuring out the cause and stopping it before more become ill.

One suspected source:  Leptospirosis, which the World Health Organization described as a bacterial disease that affects both humans and animals. Early stages may include high fever, severe headache, muscle pain, chills, redness in the eyes, abdominal pain, jaundice, hemorrhages in skin and mucous membranes (including pulmonary bleeding), vomiting, diarrhea and a rash.

But pinpointing it will not come soon.  Burke said Dierks believes definitive answers are expected by the end of next month.

In the meantime, Marines continued training at the Jungle Warfare Training Center but water submersion in pools and pits was prohibited, added Burke.  Marines have also been instructed to wash down thoroughly after training and dry their uniforms.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

London’s Daily Mail reported China has toppled the U.S. to become the biggest economy in the world, citing figures from the International Monetary Fund that showed the Chinese economy was worth $17.61 trillion compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.  The newspaper added, “The White House seemed caught flat-footed by the news, crowing on Wednesday about America's relative economic strength in comparison with the rest of the world”…US Airways is facing a major PR problem from many of its passengers and others who noted hundreds of tweets following an onboard incident on a Portland, Ore. to Charlotte, N.C. aircraft Friday.  It centered on a flight attendant who refused coach-ticketed Army Ranger First Sgt. Albert Marle’s request to place his heavily-decorated jacket in a closet to avoid wrinkles.  Reason?  He wasn’t in first-class.  A first-class passenger observed, “I was really appalled at not only the way she looked at him but the way she spoke to him in an angry type of attitude.”  Read more via a New York Daily News account here…Another PR problem, now on a regular basis in the City of  Angels, stems from White House visitors, mainly for fundraising.  Grumbling Los Angeles area drivers met snarled traffic via street closures and detours last week in wide areas from eastside to westside. Motorcades with Vice President Joe Biden stirred things up Monday and Tuesday, President Barack Obama followed on Thursday and Friday with routes from Brentwood, near Beverly Hills, to San Dimas 28 miles east-northeast of downtown L.A....In a late decision, the press today will be allowed to cover Hillary Clinton’s speech to the University of Nevada Las Vegas Foundation. Clinton’s fee for the speech at the Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip:  $225,000…While most people around the country are observing Columbus Day today, Seattle and Minneapolis are marking Indigenous People's Day. Associated Press mentioned it “celebrates the contributions and culture of Native Americans and the indigenous community" as well as "the rich history of people who have inhabited the area"...Retired NBC talk show host and car collector Jay Leno is negotiating with CNBC for a show about cars, a subject dear to his heart...Where are the fact checkers?  President Barack Obama, in a video message, offered advice to West African countries on how to avoid ebola. He mentioned:  "You cannot get it through casual contact like sitting next to someone on a bus." Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was advising Americans who travel to ebola-stricken nations to "avoid public transportation”…Turner Broadcasting, with CNN, HLN, TNT and Cartoon cable networks in its family, said it would slash its work force by 1,475 positions.  Turner's parent is Time Warner Inc.

 

Getting it straight with a long-delayed fix:  The New Jersey Herald in Newton on Thursday issued a correction to a story --- published 162 years ago.  It related to a bear mauling a teenage boy to death.  The 1852 story didn't list a location of the bear attack, making it appear it happened in New Jersey. In the correction, with recent confirmation, the Herald said the incident actually happened in Arkansas. 

Halting source of salad mix illness takes two months

 

It took two months to halt shipments of prepackaged salad mix that brought 576 cases of cyclospora to 19 states, at last count by the federal Centers for Disease Control through Thursday, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The outbreak started in Iowa and Nebraska before spreading to 17 other states:  Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York (including New York City), Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Medical writers, essential staffers at one time before newsroom cuts became routine, probably could have cracked source and distributor in a matter of days. 

First cases of cyclospora --- a single-celled parasite often associated with contaminated fresh produce --- turned up in early June.  Shipments of Mexican-grown Taylor Farms salad mix were halted Aug. 9. 

Reports circulated that some restaurant chains served the contaminated salad mix.

Cyclospora symptoms can take several days or weeks to appear and include diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue, nausea and stomach cramps. 

J-school grads take 6-8 months to land jobs 

It’s been a tough time for journalism graduates to line up jobs pronto. 

A University of Georgia’s Grady College survey found about 66 percent of 2012 journalism graduates took six to eight months after graduation to line up full-time positions.  That was up from 62 percent in the prior year. 

The J-school graduates were going into a market where thousands of newsroom jobs have been slashed at both large and small publications. 

“Employers might be shedding senior-level jobs, but there’s always pressure to hire entry-level jobs,” said Lee Becker, University of Georgia journalism professor and co-author of the report. He noted there was an increase in start-up online publications. 

The median salary for new hires hasn’t been earth-shaking:  $32,000 in 2012, edging up from $31,000 a year earlier.

 

In case you missed these… 

Celebrity scandals or Egypt riots?  A new Rasmussen Reports national survey found 81 percent of Americans think fellow Americans pay too much attention to celebrity news and not enough attention to other developments that have real impact on their lives.  In allied action, Rasmussen tallied 58 percent of those surveyed, when given the choice, preferred to read printed versions of newspapers rather than online material, while 29 percent gave the nod to online versions of papers --- and 12 percent were undecided.  

Rick Folbaum, from Fox News Channel, joined Miami’s WFOR-TV (known as CBS4) as co-anchor of the station’s weeknight 5 and 11 newscasts.  He goes on air next Monday…Also in Miami, demolition is under way at the former Miami Herald headquarters by the Genting Group which paid nearly $240 million for the site on Biscayne Bay.  Genting plans a condominium and hotel project on the property and is seeking approval to incorporate a casino…Sports makes way for classical music beamed from California’s Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz radio station KYZZ 

Chris Roush at Talking Biz News uncovered a busy business editor at the Statesboro (Ga.) Herald.   He pointed out Jan Moore, along with editing business items for the daily, also is a psychologist for the local school system and is running for mayor of Statesboro. 

The city, with a population of about 28,000 is in Bulloch County, southeast Georgia.

USS Nimitz spooking marijuana boats zips by editors

Most news media this week missed an interesting high seas story involving the 101,600-ton USS Nimitz, one of the largest warships in the world, scattering three 25-foot boats loaded with 100-pound bags of marijuana last Saturday off the Southern California coast, notes Grumpy Editor.

The Associated Press summed up the unusual encounters at sea --- which involved three U.S. ships and one Mexican vessel --- in a four-sentence mid-week story that lacked many details. 

Among media outlets that included the saga in news reports were ABC News, CBS News, New York Daily News, and Stars and Stripes. 

The supercarrier Nimitz, 1,092 feet long, was conducting flight qualification tests when sailors spotted two small boats about four miles away. 

When a Seahawk helicopter went in for a closer look, two marijuana-loaded boats sped toward the coast and began dumping bags which were later found to contain 100-pound bales of marijuana.

Another small “marijuana” boat, spotted three hours later, also dumped similar cargo after being spotted by air.

Also getting into the act was the nearby USS Princeton.  The cruiser sent sailors in inflatable boats to retrieve several dozen of the floating, dumped bales.

A Mexican navy ship arrived later and helped secure the remainder of the 186 bales of marijuana recovered that day.

Total retrieved:  18,600 pounds of marijuana.

The marijuana was subsequently transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Edisto (which fished 156 bales of marijuana tossed by a speedboat off the Baja California coast in December, 2008).

Despite all the action, Saturday's drug runners escaped.

 

Obama’s jobs remarks fail to raise D.C. media's eyebrows

President Barack Obama’s remarks about the economy at Friday’s news conference illustrates that more business writers should be in attendance asking questions, suggests Grumpy Editor.

After the president mentioned, “We’ve created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone.  The private sector is doing fine,” not one news person in attendance raised an eyebrow --- or hand seeking amplification.

Later on Friday, after questions were raised outside the White House, Obama adjusted his “private sector is doing fine” line by saying:  “It is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine.” 

As for the jobs statistics, the president’s aides came up with the 4.3 million figure based on the February, 2010, low point for the private sector.

That ignored job losses in his first year at the White House. 

The latest employment report --- for May --- showed the economy added only 69,000 jobs. 

Despite all this, some news folks backed the president’s presentation. 

For example, on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” yesterday, Terence Smith, former media correspondent for PBS’ NewsHour, argued:

“It’s a slow news season.  It’s a slow news period.  Obama makes a statement that is Romneyesque in its clumsiness and yet everybody jumps on it, takes it literally. 

“He knows it’s not fine.”

 

Poll: Public ranks ‘high confidence’ in press near bottom

The press still has much work to do in elevating its near bottom “confidence” ranking with the American public, notes Grumpy Editor after reviewing a new Harris Poll. 

Utilizing its Harris Confidence Index, the poll --- of those saying “a great deal of confidence” --- gives the press an 11. 

That ranks slightly above Wall Street, with a 7, and Congress, at the bottom, with 6. 

Highest press ranking in the past decade: 16 in 2002. 

Television news, meanwhile, gets 17 in the poll conducted by Harris Interactive between April 9 and 17.  That rank compares with a high of 24, also in 2002. 

So which institutions rank highest in the latest poll of 2,060 adults? 

The military tops the list with 55. 

Small business follows with 50. 

These are well ahead of third-place medicine with 34.

 

Teeth-yanking Polish dentist story turns out to be hoax

The print/broadcast headline-grabbing story making the rounds earlier this month about a jilted Polish dentist yanking all the teeth from her 45-year-old ex-boyfriend turns out to be a hoax, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The fabricated report, complete with quotes attributed to names of those involved, apparently originated with London’s Daily Mail. 

Strangely, the Daily Mail writer behind the story is fuzzy on the origination of the details --- and the story has been yanked from the newspaper's Website. 

But, figuring it was a legitimate item, the unusual event was odd enough that print/broadcast editors thought it had enough bite to give it major treatment. 

So it made headlines with MSNBC, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, ABC News, Fox News, Yahoo! News and many other news outlets in the U.S. and around the world. 

Polish police are not investigating the incident --- because they say there is no such case. 

A Polish medical association reports there is no such dentist’s name as reported in the story. 

Thus, Polish news outlets did not report the teeth-pulling story. 

Bottom line:  since the story has no teeth, it’s more of a case of someone pulling the leg of a news writer. 

 

New tests back up Dr. Oz’s apple juice/arsenic findings

With orange juice and its arsenic content back in the news, most print and broadcast media yesterday missed an important element that was spotlighted by Dr. Mehmet Oz 11 weeks ago on “The Dr. Oz Show” on television --- most apple juice distributed in the U.S. is imported, observes Grumpy Editor. 

In his September TV show, Dr. Oz revealed 60 percent of the juice concentrate comes from China.  He commented on arsenic content in apple juice after testing samples from some of the nation’s best-known brands.

The Food and Drug Administration at that time immediately disputed the findings. 

After Consumer Reports this week announced its own tests on several apple juice brands and called for stricter standards, the FDA said it will examine whether its restrictions on the amount of arsenic allowed in apple juice are stringent enough. 

Arsenic, not always regulated in other countries, is a toxic heavy metal known to cause cancer if consumed at high levels or over a long period. 

TV channels yesterday placed a variety of doctors, nutrition experts and medical/health correspondents before cameras.  But their apple juice comments focused on such things as sugar content, high calories, danger to waistlines, lack of fiber vs. whole fruit and tooth decay in small children. 

Deep in an Associated Press story in some newspapers today, Marilynn Marchione, AP’s chief medical writer, reported “only 17 percent of the apple juice sold in the U.S. is produced here” with the remainder coming from mostly China, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, according to the Juice Products Association. 

Indeed, a close look at apple juice containers’ fine print on labels will most likely indicate a foreign source. 

Sadly, the number of U.S. farms producing apples --- mainly in Washington State, New York and Michigan --- has continued to slide, tumbling from nearly 34,000 in the late 1990s to 25,600 in 2007, the most recent year tallied.