In this Tuesday, May 14, 2013, photo, Brennan Thickem who helps run the Venice Beach Care Center medical marijuana dispensary in Venice, Calif., poses next to "Yes to Prop D" signs in Venice. Los Angeles politicians have tried and failed for so long to regulate medical marijuana that it was only a matter of time before voters got a chance to control shops that have proliferated. Complicating matters, there are three measures on Tuesday's ballot that would allow sick people to get the drug, but either limit the number of shops, raise taxes or do both.

Fate of LA pot shops left to voters

Los Angeles politicians have struggled for more than five years to regulate medical marijuana, trying to balance the needs of the sick against neighborhood concerns that pot shops attract crime. Photo Gallery Available

In this photo taken April 3, 2013, nutrition scholar Prof. Barry Popkin, who heads the University of North Carolina Food Research Program, poses for a photo in his Chapel Hill, N.C., office. Popkin and researchers he leads are creating a gargantuan map of what foods Americans are purchasing in stores and eating, something he calls "mapping the food genome." "The country needs something like this, given all of the questions about our food supply," he says.

What do we eat? New food map will tell us

Do your kids love chocolate milk? It may have more calories on average than you thought. Photo Gallery Available

Portland revisits issue of public fluoridation

While soaking up the rays in what's been an unusually sunny season, Portlanders have broken away from their polite chatter about food, wine and outdoor adventure to fight about whether to fluoridate the water supply.

In this Monday, July 2, 2012 file photo provided by Andy Copeland, Aimee Copeland smiles as she leaves a hospital in Augusta Ga., headed for an inpatient rehabilitation clinic. Copeland, who lost both hands, her left leg and right foot after contracting a flesh-eating disease, was on her way back from Ohio Friday, May 17, 2013 after being fitted with prosthetic hands.

Flesh-eating disease victim gets prosthetic hands

A metro Atlanta woman who lost both hands, her left leg and right foot after contracting a flesh-eating disease was on her way back from Ohio Friday after being fitted with prosthetic hands. Photo Gallery Available

Correction: Drunken Driving-Zero Deaths story

In a story May 17 about a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation on a blood alcohol threshold for drivers, The Associated Press incorrectly reported the definition of a drink. The standard definition of a drink is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine and 1.5 ounces of 80-proof alcohol.

WHO says single yellow fever shot is enough

The World Health Organization says a yellow fever booster vaccination given 10 years after the initial shot isn't necessary.

14-year term for Calif. doc promising cancer cure

A Los Angeles doctor was sentenced Friday to 14 years in federal prison for bilking patients out of more than $1 million by promising them that an herbal supplement she hawked could cure late-stage cancer and other diseases.

AP PHOTOS: Path to legal pot a long, wild trip

It's one thing to legalize marijuana. It's another to figure out how to sell it, grow it, regulate it, test it and tax it. Photo Gallery Available

Wash. state releases draft rules for legal pot

Officials in Washington state took their first stab at setting rules for the state's new marijuana industry Thursday, nearly eight months after voters here legalized pot for adults. Photo Gallery Available

Music therapist Elizabeth Klinger, right, quietly plays guitar and sings for Augustin as he grips the hand of his mother, Lucy Morales, in the newborn intensive care unit at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago on Monday, May 6, 2013. Research suggests that music may help those born way too soon adapt to life outside the womb. Recent studies and anecdotal reports suggest the vibrations and soothing rhythms of music, especially performed live in the hospital, might benefit preemies and other sick babies.

Tiny preemies get a boost from live music therapy

As the guitarist strums and softly sings a lullaby in Spanish, tiny Augustin Morales stops squirming in his hospital crib and closes his eyes. Photo Gallery Available

FILE - This undated file image released by the British Health Protection Agency shows an electron microscope image of a coronavirus, part of a family of viruses that cause ailments including the common cold and SARS, which was first identified last year in the Middle East. The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia told world health officials that two health care workers became ill this month after being exposed to patients with the a deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS. One is critically ill.

Correction: New Virus story

In a story May 15 about a new SARS-like virus spreading from patients to health care workers in Saudi Arabia, The Associated Press reported erroneously the location of the 20 deaths attributed to the virus. There have been no deaths reported in France and Qatar, only in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Germany and Britain.

This undated image shows the cover of the revised American Psychiatric Association's guidebook of mental disorders being released in May 2013. It is the manual's first major update in nearly 20 years, but prominent critics say the APA is out of control, turning common human problems into mental illness in a trend they say will just make the "pop-a-pill" culture worse.

Shrinks, critics face off over psychiatric manual

In the new psychiatric manual of mental disorders, grief soon after a loved one's death can be considered major depression. Extreme childhood temper tantrums get a fancy name. And certain "senior moments" are called "mild neurocognitive disorder." Photo Gallery Available

Obama planning June 3 mental health conference

President Barack Obama is planning a mental health conference next month in response to gun violence.

In this photo taken Thursday, April 11, 2013 Liz DeRouen, 49, left, gets her blood pressure checked by medical assistant Jacklyn Stra, right, at the Sonoma County Indian Health Project in Santa Rosa, Calif. When DeRouen needs any kind of health care services, from diabetes counseling to a dental cleaning, she checks into a government-funded clinic in Northern California's wine country that covers all her medical needs. Her care and the medical services for her children and grandchildren are paid for as part of the government's obligations to American Indian tribes dating back nearly a century. But under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, DeRouen and tens of thousands of others who identify as Native American will face a new reality. They will have to buy their own health insurance policies or pay a $695 fine from the Internal Revenue Service unless they can prove they are "Indian enough" to claim one of the few exemptions allowed under the Affordable Care Act's mandate that all Americans carry insurance.

AP Exclusive: Health reforms penalize some Indians

When Liz DeRouen needs any kind of health care services, from diabetes counseling to a dental cleaning, she checks into a government-funded clinic in Northern California's wine country that covers all her medical needs. Photo Gallery Available

FILE - This Feb. 26, 2012 file photo shows actress Angelina Jolie, right, and actor Brad Pitt at the 84th Academy Awards in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Jolie says that she has had a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer. The Oscar-winning actress and partner to Brad Pitt made the announcement in an op-ed she authored for Tuesday's New York Times under the headline, "My Medical Choice." She writes that between early February and late April she completed three months of surgical procedures to remove both breasts.

Details of Jolie's breast treatment revealed

Angelina Jolie's mother had breast cancer and died of ovarian cancer, and her maternal grandmother also had ovarian cancer - strong evidence of an inherited, genetic risk that led the actress to have both of her healthy breasts removed to try to avoid the same fate, her doctor said Wednesday. Photo Gallery Available

In this photo made Monday, April 29, 2013, Dr. Jan Brunstrom-Hernandez, left, works with cerebral palsy patient Sam Ward, 15, at St. Louis Children's Hospital in St. Louis. Brunstrom-Hernandez, who founded the Cerebral Palsy Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital 15 years ago, has cerebral palsy, giving her a special empathy for the people she treats.

St. Louis doctor with cerebral palsy offers hope

Dr. Jan Brunstrom-Hernandez gently but sternly admonishes a teenage cerebral palsy patient who clearly hasn't been doing his exercises, stressing the importance of keeping muscles loose and limber.

An advisory on salt shakers location in seen on a table at a Boston Market restaurant in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Boston Market has removed the salt shakers from the tables in their restaurants nationwide. A surprising new report questions how sharply Americans should cut back on salt. Make no mistake: Most Americans eat way too much, not just from salt shakers but because of sodium in processed foods. The Institute of Medicine said Tuesday there's no evidence that cutting well below established guidelines offers any benefit — even though that's recommended for certain people at high risk of heart disease. There are some suggestions that going way too low might harm certain patients.

Study questions how sharply US should cut the salt

A surprising new report questions public health efforts to get Americans to sharply cut back on salt, saying it's not clear whether eating super-low levels is worth the struggle. Photo Gallery Available

Rose Ragona is photographed in Chicago on May 1, 2013. Ragona was diagnosed with breast cancer and recently had a mastectomy where surgeons saved much of her skin and started reconstruction during the same surgery. Treating breast cancer almost always involves surgery, and for years the choice was just having the lump or the whole breast removed. Now, new approaches are dramatically changing the way these operations are done, giving women more options, faster treatment, smaller scars, fewer long-term side effects and better cosmetic results.

Women have more options for breast cancer surgery

One of the world's most glamorous women had an operation that once was terribly disfiguring - removal of both breasts. But new approaches are dramatically changing breast surgeries, whether to treat cancer or to prevent it as Angelina Jolie just chose to do. As Jolie said, "the results can be beautiful." Photo Gallery Available

FILE- In this June 25, 2009 file photo, an Indian mother fans her child with her sari as the child awaits treatment for diarrhea at a government-run children's hospital in Allahabad, India. The Indian government has announced the successful development of a low-cost vaccine proven effective in preventing the deadly diarrhea-causing rotavirus. Rotavirus is the most lethal cause of childhood diarrhea and is responsible for the deaths of 100,000 Indian children annually.

India announces low-cost rotavirus vaccine

The Indian government announced Tuesday the development of a new low-cost vaccine proven effective against a diarrhea-causing virus that is one of the leading causes of childhood deaths across the developing world.

EU court finds Swiss assisted-suicide laws vague

An elderly Swiss woman who would rather end her life now than decline further in health found sympathy Tuesday from the European Court of Human Rights, which called on the Swiss to clarify their laws on so-called passive assisted suicide.

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