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A Portland diabetic Native American mother risks difficult pregnancy…

The doctor confirms Candida KingBird and Bruce McQuakay’s good news: a child on the way.
But Oregon Health & Science University physician Jorge Tolosa, a specialist in preterm births, warns it’s a high-risk pregnancy.

KingBird, 38, has lived a decade with diabetes and has five children, the last of whom nearly died from problems related to the disease after a cesarean section.

She and McQuakay, 30, lean and reserved, met a year earlier during the intense Sun Dance ceremony on Mount Hood. They found a bond in their Native American culture and spirituality. She is Ojibwe; he has the blood of four tribes, including Cree and Tlingit. She likes that he has completed high school, has silversmith skills, helps lead the Sun Dance, dances in full regalia at powwows and has been sober more than two years.

Read the whole post at oregonlive.com

Emergency Savings: Cutting costs for Oregon Health Plan

A barefoot Joyce Jones, 30, creeps like an old woman into the living room of her grandmother’s apartment, settles into an easy chair and talks to the person trying to keep her out of the hospital.
“I was in the ER last night,” Jones says weakly. “Had nausea. Abdominal pain.”

That’s not what Becky Wilkinson wants to hear, but Jones is making progress. Since Wilkinson stepped in two months ago, Jones has been admitted to the hospital once and in the emergency room five times. Last year, Jones dragged into the ER 95 times and had 16 hospital stays.

Total cost: Just under $250,000.

Read the whole article at oregonlive.com

The Rise and Fall of Richard Lariviere

Richard Lariviere had captured the imagination of the University of Oregon community. The new president proposed to govern UO with an independent board and to build a sustainable financial plan. He found a way to raise pay for nearly a third of faculty and administrators. Fall enrollment hit 24,447 students, a record. Incoming freshman were the smartest ever.
“We’re on fire,” Janice Monti, UO Foundation trustee, told the State Board of Higher Education last Monday.

Minutes later, the board voted unanimously to fire Lariviere. He had 30 days to pack.

Read the whole store at oregonlive.com

The Exam Dream

You sit in a classroom, and your teacher puts an exam on your desk. English History during the Middle Ages?
You know nothing about it. You forgot you ever signed up for this course. You’ve not cracked a single book. You’ve skipped every class. And if you don’t pass this exam, you don’t get your degree. You reel between dread and panic.

And then you wake. Sometimes sweating.

Seniors in Oregon’s public universities cramming for final exams next week may never have had the exam dream. But chances are they will. In earning a college degree, they’ve become prime candidates for the nightmare for decades to come.

Read the whole article at oregonlive.com