Ballot Measure: A Medical Marijuana Bureaucracy in California?

Medical Marijuana: Advocates are pushing forward a California ballot initiative that would create a Board of Medical Marijuana Enforcement to oversee the state’s burgeoning industry, Lisa Leff reports for the Associated Press. We’re imagining the snacks at board meetings.

Health Reform: California Healthline’s Dan Diamond highlights five health reform issues for reporters and policymakers to watch closely in 2012. First among them: the Supreme Court review of health reform’s constitutionality.

Medicare: Scammers create intricate webs of shell companies to defraud Medicare, Brian Grow and Matthew Bigg report for Reuters’ “Shell Games” investigation of corporate secrecy.

Doc Fix: Once again, Congress has failed to temporarily prevent automatic cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, and they’re hopping mad. This time, the so-called Medicare doc fix was linked to the stalled payroll tax extension. Stay tuned.

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