July 9, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Trump administration halts billions in insurance payments under Obamacare (Reuters)
• Trump administration names new U.S. drug enforcement chief (Reuters)
• HPV test more effective than Pap smear in cancer screening, study suggests (CNN)
• Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore evacuated due to possible TB exposure (Reuters)
• Sperm quality improved by adding nuts to diet, study says (BBC)

SCIENCE AND TECH

• The California Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Bad Yelp Reviews (Reason)
• Scientists create 'test-tube rhino' in hopes of saving dying species (CNN)
• A new study shows that students learn way more effectively from print textbooks than screens (Business Insider)
• Dear Cable TV, You're Fired! Says Consumer Reports (MediaPost)
• EU's controversial copyright law rejected by parliament (BBC)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

Trump administration halts billions in insurance payments under Obamacare (Reuters)

The Trump administration on Saturday halted billions of dollars in payments to health insurers under the Obamacare healthcare law, saying that a recent federal court ruling prevents the money from being disbursed.

Trump administration names new U.S. drug enforcement chief (Reuters)

…Uttam Dhillon, who most recently served as deputy White House counsel, was named as the DEA’s acting administrator at a time when the agency is devoting much of its attention to grappling with a national opioid epidemic…Dhillon earlier in his career served under President George W. Bust as director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement

HPV test more effective than Pap smear in cancer screening, study suggests (CNN)

CNN - A new study finds that testing for HPV was linked with significantly fewer cases of precancer in a 48-month period compared with using Pap smear testing.

Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore evacuated due to possible TB exposure (Reuters)

A small amount of the tuberculosis bacteria may have been released while being transported between two of the hospital’s cancer research buildings, the spokeswoman, Kim Hoppe, said in an email. Tuberculosis, or TB, is a serious airborne infection.

Sperm quality improved by adding nuts to diet, study says (BBC)

Men who ate about two handfuls of mixed almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts daily for 14 weeks improved their sperm count and had more viable "swimmers", scientists found.

SCIENCE AND TECH

The California Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Bad Yelp Reviews (Reason)

The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of online review site Yelp.com after a lawyer attempted to use the courts to have a negative review forcefully removed.

Scientists create 'test-tube rhino' in hopes of saving dying species (CNN)

Scientists have used in-vitro fertilization techniques to develop hybrid rhino embryos -- "test-tube rhinos" -- which could help save the endangered northern white rhinoceros species, according to a new study.

A new study shows that students learn way more effectively from print textbooks than screens (Business Insider)

… Students said they preferred and performed better when reading on screens. But their actual performance tended to suffer. For example, from our review of research done since 1992, we found that students were able to better comprehend information in print for texts that were more than a page in length. This appears to be related to the disruptive effect that scrolling has on comprehension.

Dear Cable TV, You're Fired! Says Consumer Reports (MediaPost)

Consumer Reports, is taking aim at the cable industry -- calling on readers to help Consumers Union (parent of the magazine) identify and fight against absurd fees that cable companies routinely add on to cable bills every month.  In fact, CR is advocating that consumers take charge of their TV-viewing expenditures by exploring a host of alternatives to cable.

EU's controversial copyright law rejected by parliament (BBC)

The proposed rules would have put more responsibility on websites to check for copyright infringements, and forced platforms to pay for linking to news.