HIV  increase in New York is three times the national rate. The virus that causes AIDS is spreading in New York City at three times the national rate, according to a study released on Wednesday by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The study, reports The New York Times, shows that in New York there are 72 new cases of HIV infections for every 100,000 people, compared with 23 per 100,000 nationally. The findings, based on a new formula developed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimated that 4,762 New Yorkers contracted HIV in 2006, the most precise estimate the city has ever offered. But city officials stress that because the method of estimating infections was new, it could not be said definitively whether the number of new infections in the city had increased or decreased from previous years. Blacks, and men who have sex with other men, are the groups at greatest risk of contracting HIV, the study found. Blacks made up 46 percent of the newly infected; Hispanics, 32 percent; and Whites, 21 percent. Men accounted for 76 percent of new HIV infections and women for 25 percent. (The figures exceed 100 percent because of rounding.) Sex between men was the main cause in 50 percent of new infections; high-risk heterosexual sex in 22 percent; intravenous drug use in 8 percent; and unknown or uncertain causes in 18 percent. Over all, the study found some interesting differences between national and local rates of new HIV infections. Nearly two-thirds of the city’s new infections occurred in people 30 to 50 years old. Nationally, people under 30 accounted for 41 percent of new infections, compared with 28 percent in New York City. Also, within New York City, Whites were infected at four times the national rate, Hispanics at three times the national rate, and Blacks at almost twice the national rate.  
The number of uninsured Americans drops. The number of Americans without health insurance dropped by more than 1 million people in 2007, the first yearly decline in seven years, U.S. Census Bureau officials announced Tuesday. The drop was driven largely by an increase in the number of children covered by government-funded programs. The overall number of uninsured dropped from 47 million in 2006 to 45.7 million in 2007, David Johnson, chief of the Census Bureau’s Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, said during a morning teleconference. The number of children with health insurance increased to 8.7 million in 2007, up from 8.1 million in 2006. “The number of children covered by government health insurance programs increased to 31 percent from 29.8 percent in 2006,” Johnson said. “This is the main reason for the fall in the uninsured rates in children and for the fall in uninsured rates in the general population,” he said. Among Blacks, the number of uninsured dipped from 20.5 percent in 2006 to 19.5 percent in 2007. The number of people with private health insurance did not change. However, the number of people covered by government health insurance such as Medicaid increased from 80.3 million in 2006 to 83 million in 2007. People getting their health insurance through Medicaid increased from 38.3 million in 2006 to 39.6 million in 2007. Karen Davis, president of The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that seeks to promote a high-performing health care system for all Americans, thinks that the drop in the number of uninsured supports the argument for government-sponsored health insurance programs. “When you look at what’s really going on, the number of uninsured dropped by 1.3 million, and the increase in coverage under Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) went up by 1.3 million,” she said. This shows the importance of government-funded safety nets, she said.

A food allergy action plan helps protect children.  Parents, teachers and school staff need to take measures to ensure the safety of the more than 2.2 million American students with food allergies, says the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. “Open and frequent communication between parents and school staff is a key ingredient to keeping food-allergic students out of harm,” Dr. Michael Pistiner, a member of the Academy’s  Adverse Reactions to Foods Committee, said in an academy news release. “It takes a partnership to establish effective avoidance strategies and emergency plans.” The academy’s sample action plan and checklist of safety tips:  Inform the school cafeteria, teachers and other staff of what foods your child must avoid. Pack bag lunches. Your child should avoid classroom snacks and refrain from sharing food with friends. When there’s a classroom party, provide your child with safe snacks he or she can eat during the party. And push for “no-eating” policies on buses and in other settings where there’s no supervision of children. “Parents should be aware of expiration dates and keep in contact with their allergist to insure that all medication, especially self-injectable epinephrine, is replaced prior to expiration,” adds Pistiner, whose own nut-allergic son enters kindergarten this fall. Visit the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology for more on food allergies and their management.

Rapper remains in Florida custody

DMX has been denied bond and the ability to return to his home in Arizona, angering a judge with his reported profanity. The rapper, who’s been held in Miami-Dade County on a bench warrant arrest since Aug. 12, hoped to get bond Tuesday. But Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Schwartz upheld X’s no-bond status, citing the fact that the rapper faces drug charges in Florida. X appeared via video monitor before reportedly stating under his breath “I ain’t going back to no f***ing jail” as he heard the judge’s decision. Schwartz told DMX that he heard the obscenity, as the rapper walked away from a podium. The judge warned a lawyer representing the 37-year-old performer and film star. He’s expected to remain in custody until October. 

Brother of R&B singer explains fainting spell

The man who is shown in Web footage singing dutifully as his brother lay passed out on an Australia concert stage says neither member of the R&B duo was under the influence. K-Ci and JoJo, who recently performed without their Jodeci band mates, are shown crooning live when JoJo walks toward the back of the stage and abruptly crumbles to the floor, loudly dropping his microphone. A stagehand walks out and picks up the mic, ignoring JoJo on the floor as audience members express shock. K-Ci has taken to the airwaves to explain that JoJo suffered an epileptic seizure, and that rumors about the duo’s drug addiction are false. Footage shows JoJo regaining consciousness on his own after about a minute, eventually getting to his feet and waving to the crowd before he’s helped off the stage. K-Ci says JoJo is feeling much better.

“Run’s House” stars write about parental success. Take Back Your Family, a book written by Rev. Run, formerly of rap group Run-DMC, and his wife Justine Simmons is a hit. The self-help guide has reached No. 15 on the New York Times best-selling hard-cover advice list. The book features principles applied within the family whose lives are shown weekly on MTV’s hit reality show “Run’s House.” Take Back Your Family is the first book jointly written by Rev. Run and his wife.

Latinos, Blacks squeezed hard in tight job market.

As the nation’s job market grows tighter, Latinos and Black workers are suffering disproportionately, according to employment specialists and figures from the Department of Labor. While employment shrank by 51,000 jobs in July and nationwide joblessness rose to a four-year high of 5.7 percent, Latino unemployment was 7.4 percent last month, according to the Labor Department. Black joblessness was 9.7 percent in July. It was 9.2 percent in June. The overall teen jobless rate was 20.3 percent in July. It was 27.3 percent for Latino teens and 32 percent for Black teens. Analysts attribute much of the Latino job loss to ongoing contraction in the construction industry. A Labor Department report said the construction industry “has shed 557,000 jobs since its September 2006 employment peak, with nearly three-quarters of the decline occurring since October 2007.” A Pew report and other studies have found that for Black workers and their families, the picture is especially bleak. An Aug. 1 report by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress said that one in four Blacks lived in poverty in 2006. Black lost 55,000 jobs since December and wage growth continued its stall. “During the 2000s’ economic recovery, African American workers’ inflation-adjusted wages grew at an annual rate of only 0.2 percent, after having grown four times as much (0.8 percent) per year during the 1990s recovery,” the congressional committee reported. Between 2000 and 2006, median Black family income fell by 2.9 percent to $39,367, according to federal statistics.

Widow of slain Atlanta judge gets $5 million settlement. The widow of the Atlanta judge who was allegedly shot to death by a defendant during a daring escape from a courtroom three years ago will be paid more than $5.2 million by Fulton County. Under a settlement made public Thursday, Claudia Barnes, the wife of slain judge Rowland Barnes, the county will $5 million to settle lawsuits against itself and Sheriff Myron Freeman. The county will also pay a one-time annuity of $246,000 in a separate benefits case filed by Barnes, a former Fulton County employee. “I miss my husband every day, and this won’t take that away,” Barnes said Thursday. “I’ve had so many irons in the fire. This just closes another chapter of things I have to do.” Rowland Barnes was shot in March 2005 as he presided over a hearing involving convicted rapist Brian Nichols. The defendant allegedly wrested a sidearm from a deputy and shot to death the judge, a court reporter, a sheriff’s sergeant and, later, a federal agent. Nichols’ capital trial for the three deaths has been delayed several times. “Now I can focus all my attention on the criminal trial,” Barnes said.

Even the Klan ads didn’t help the Black challenger win. A nasty Democratic primary came to a close in Tennessee Thursday as the White incumbent congressman had a runaway win against his African-American challenger in a majority-Black district. Rep. Steve Cohen took an astounding 79 percent of the vote, compared with 19 percent for Nikki Turner, a Black lawyer, who throughout the campaign tried to convince voters that they should stick with their own race. In a particularly controversial campaign moment, Tinker ran an ad linking Cohen, a Jew, to the Ku Klux Klan. Sen. Barack Obama even entered the mix on that one, condemning the ad, which juxtaposed Cohen’s picture with that of a hooded Klansman. Cohen has long civil rights record. Just last month, he introduced a resolution to get Congress to issue an apology to African Americans for this nation’s imposition of slavery and Jim Crow.