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A dozen sites
I'm diggin'

*1. Seven key questions about a car company bailout.

*2. Just in time for Thanksgiving, PETA posts a video of turkey abuse on a poultry farm.

*3. The Flip Cam has gone HD with a customizable cover.

4. A fun video to help you with digital conversion.

5. ProPublica's investigation into air marshals gone bad.

6. An awesome storm chaser photo blog.

7. Planet Money is a really good blog about money and finance.

8. ESPN's "The Journey of Richard Jensen" -- the comeback of a wrestler -- is an extra good video.

9. You can lay subtitles or text bubbles on video -- any video. I will be using this to teach about storytelling.

10. I now use Utterz to file audio reports. You can use your computer's mic or any phone. It's simple and would be a great reporter's tool.

11. Kare 11 investigates a local children's transplant hospital.
Sites marked with a * have been added recently.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them.

Circumcision Rates Vary by Region

A new study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) finds [PDF] that in 2005:

Only 31 percent of newborn boys in the West were circumcised in hospitals in 2005. That compares with 75 percent in the Midwest, 65 percent in the Northeast, and 56 percent in the South. Factors influencing circumcision rates may include immigration from Latin America and other areas, where circumcision is less common, and insurance coverage.

Nationwide, about 56 percent of newborn boys -- 1.2 million infants -- were circumcised. The national rate has remained relatively stable for a decade. It peaked at 65 percent in 1980.

About 60 percent of circumcisions were billed to private insurance, 31 percent were billed to Medicaid, nearly 3 percent were charged to other public programs, and about 4 percent were uninsured.

Hispanic parents were far less likely to choose circumcision for their babies than other ethnicities.

Fifteen states now do not allow Medicaid to cover circumcision unless there are medical reasons for performing the surgery. But the AHRQ found that most hospitals bundle the estimated $200 cost into the cost of infant care at birth, so it is difficult to determine the cost of the circumcision alone. Some groups have launched attacks on states that still use taxpayer dollars to pay for what opponents consider unnecessary medical costs.

Posted by Al Tompkins 12:00 AM

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