Text-driving is more dangerous than drunk driving. Young drivers are putting themselves in more danger than if they were driving drunk when they text behind the wheel, says a new study. Texting while driving – either reading a text or writing one – caused problems for a small group of young drivers (ages 17 to 24) who were studied while behind simulators in London. Reaction times slowed to 35 percent when they were writing or reading texts messages on their phones or handheld devices, the researchers found. By comparison, reaction time deteriorated 21 percent for people who had smoked marijuana and 12 percent who were driving legally drunk. Steering control also dropped a surprising 91 percent for text drivers compared to 35 percent for drunk drivers, the Transportation Research Laboratory – which carried out the study for the RAC Foundation – discovered. The tests also showed that texters were less able to maintain safe distances from other cars and they tended to drift out of their lane more often. RAC Foundation director Stephen Glaister said the research “clearly shows that a motorist who is texting is significantly more impaired than a motorist at the legal limit for alcohol.”

Vital Signs: Your finances and job can affect your health. With all that’s going on on Wall Street, there’s new evidence that a poor financial outlook can lead to all sorts of health problems. Vital signs has the results of two new studies, and some solid solutions offered by the non-profit arm of financial services company ING.

TV ads featuring HIV-positive Latinos will air. The Kaiser Family Foundation and Univision Communications Inc., the nation’s leading Spanish-language media company, have unveiled “SOY…” (“I AM…”), a groundbreaking Spanish-language media campaign featuring the personal stories of a diverse group of Latinos living with HIV and the people who love them. The campaign was previewed today for about 3,000 members of the HIV/AIDS community during the opening session of the 2008 United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Thursday. SOY… will debut nationally on Univision network and radio in conjunction with National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD) on Oct. 15 and continue throughout 2009. The campaign was developed as part of ¡Entérate del VIH y SIDA! (Get the Facts about HIV and AIDS!), a long-standing public information partnership established in 2001 between Univision and the Kaiser Family Foundation to provide culturally relevant Spanish-language information and resources about HIV/AIDS.

The civil rights leader says he’s “grateful to God” that it’s over

The feds are finally giving the Rev. Al some slack. Last year, federal prosecutors announced that they had issued subpoenas to at least 10 of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s associates, demanding all records related to the civil rights leader’s personal finances, business dealings and transactions associated with his organization, the National Action Network. Sharpton has admitted being behind on his taxes, and, between the IRS, the state of New York and the city, he owes somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million. He has also failed to file taxes for several consecutive years or to obtain workers’ compensation insurance for employees with the network. “We learn from every experience to be more cautious, more accountable,” Sharpton told The Associated Press. While the Harlem-based minister does not collect a salary from the National Action Network, he earns “several hundreds thousand dollars a year in personal income from his nationally syndicated radio show, book royalties and speaking fees,” according to AP. “I’m just grateful to God and my family, and all of our supporters” that the feds have dropped the criminal case, he said.