Deborah Burger

Mister Cellophane
'Cause you can look right through me
Walk right by me
And never know I'm there... -- Chicago (the musical)

In every city and town across America today there is a "Mr. Cellophane," as the musical Chicago put it, and other men, women, and children...

The far right and their representatives in Congress and many state houses sure have a unique way of celebrating the centennial anniversary of International Women's Day.

News that the Texas House of Representatives last week approved a bill, already passed by the state Senate, to force women seeking an abortion...

Republican candidates from coast to coast are fond of branding their opponents the Nancy Pelosi Democrats. Maybe it's time to talk about the Joe Miller Republicans.

Miller is the Sarah Palin-backed Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Alaska who toppled incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski because she was not conservative enough....

Here's how things work all too often in our "post-racial" society: one of California's largest medical systems, Sutter Health/CPMC, has apparently enacted a ban on the hiring of Filipino registered nurses at a major San Francisco hospital.

As noted journalist Emil Guillermo put it, this is 'Just like...

When the terrible earthquake struck Haiti, followed by a flood of media attention and global concern, RNs in America knew one thing: nurses would be in Haiti long after the TV cameras left.

And this is exactly what has come to be. A team of registered nurse volunteers with National...

We Need Other Reforms to Protect Patients and Families in Final Talks on Healthcare Reform

The nation's largest union and professional organization of registered nurses -- National Nurses United (NNU) -- is today calling on House members to hold the line in opposing a tax on...

"What Happened to Single Payer?," asks the Washington Independent in a recent article.

One answer, the Independent suggests, comes from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. John Conyers, authors of the single payer bills in the Senate, S 703, and House, HR 676:

Both lawmakers argue that private insurers,...

After years of shredding our public health infrastructure and ill-advised minimal preparations for the next great global pandemic, the spreading swine flu threat is at last making clear the very real calamity that could be just around the corner. If not today, surely from the next epidemic.

The Obama administration's...

With the final White House Forum on healthcare scheduled Monday, April 6 in downtown Los Angeles, advocates of single payer/guaranteed healthcare have one more opportunity to shake up what has become a dreary conventional wisdom about the presumed acceptable parameters of the debate.

Hundreds of nurses, doctors, healthcare and...

If anyone can move mountains to build a more humane healthcare system and strengthen protections for patients in the face of the avarice and plunder that so often characterizes the healthcare industry in America, it is registered nurses.

And the latest news for patients, and nurses, is especially promising.

What if we could end the health care crisis dogging our nation -- and grow 2.6 million jobs at the same time?

The good news is we can. If America summons the courage, and the will, to resolve our health care crisis, we can provide our national economy with a...

John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin offers a vivid glimpse of the philosophical leanings of a Presidential candidate who bears little resemblance to the media's rapturous portrait of an independent maverick, and provides a window into the policies that a McCain presidency would promote.

While probably most evident...

In its latest deplorable action, the Service Employees International Union bused in hundreds of its purple clad staff to break up a conference of union members and activists Saturday night in Dearborn, Mich.

Ironically enough, union democracy and empowering workers was one of the themes of the conference, sponsored by...

Roving bands of Service Employee International Union staff showed up on the home doorsteps of leaders of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Association Thursday, harassing and verbally threatening them in a disgraceful escalation of SEIU International's campaign against CNA/NNOC.

Notably, the attacks focused on women leaders forced to confront squads...

It's a beautiful morning in Orange County, the surf's up, and it's spring break for the students at Valencia High School, except one: 17-year-old Nick Colombo. Nick is home in bed, suffering from the devastating and painful complications of his four-year battle with Ewing's Sarcoma. He's waiting for a break...

Someone needs to tell Senator Hillary Clinton and her minions to stop practicing consumer fraud on healthcare. Forcing people to buy insurance is not "universal healthcare."

Especially when you let insurers continue to charge as much as they want, and do nothing to stop their callous, all too routine practice...

If you read the New York Times, Washington Post, or USA Today, you might have noticed an eye-popping ad Monday -- and we hope you too will sign our petition and tell us your story.

Under a news headline reading, "Cheney Treated in Hospital For an Irregular Heartbeat," the ad...

As California continues to grapple with the spate of terrible wildfires - and new reports that some residents will face hardships for weeks to come, including polluted air, no electricity and no drinking water - it's time to ask if the interminable war in Iraq depleted resources that would have...

In alliance with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic leaders of the state Legislature, led by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez are rushing to enact a substandard health reform plan that will not reduce the health insecurity of California families.

They're apparently even willing to jeopardize Sen. Barbara Boxer and their own party's...

What country endures such long waits for medical care that even one of its top insurers recently admitted that care is "not timely" and people "initially diagnosed with cancer are waiting over a month, which is intolerable?"

If you guessed Canada, guess again. The answer is the United States.

Scrambling...