Daily Rounds: Televise Obamacare Ruling; Cranberry Lobbying; Celebrex Papers

Health care ruling should be on TV (Nashua Telegraph) - "Whatever the decision’s final permutations, one would be hard-pressed to cite another ruling in recent history that stands to affect so many millions of Americans in so many ways and perhaps influence the nation’s political direction for at least the next four years. All this contributes considerable weight to the argument that the court’s ruling should be televised for the nation to witness live. Public interest in the decision trumps any of the court’s previous justifications for being camera shy."

Health law's mandate valid, professors say (Bloomberg News) - "The ­Supreme Court should uphold a law requiring most Americans to have health insurance if the justices follow legal precedent, accord­ing to 19 of 21 constitutional law professors who ventured an opinion on the most-anticipated ruling in years. Only eight of them predicted the court would do so."

Cranberry industry lobbying to avoid school ban (The Boston Globe) - "Senator John F. Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, is accustomed to tackling big issues, like war and the balance of world power. But recently he has been extolling the health virtues of the diminutive cranberry, particularly for urinary health. Senator Scott Brown has also taken up the cranberry cause, holding up photos of himself deep in the bogs of Massachusetts, sharing proudly that he sprinkles the dried fruit on his morning cereal. It’s more than just bipartisan berry boosterism. Cranberry industry officials are leveraging high-profile support to help keep cranberry juice cocktails off the list of sugary drinks that could soon be banned from schools as part of a campaign to reduce childhood obesity."

In documents on pain drug, signs of doubt and deception (The New York Times) - "The research chief’s e-mail, sent in 2000, is among thousands of pages of internal documents and depositions unsealed recently by a federal judge in a long-running securities fraud case against Pfizer. While the companies’ handling of the research was revealed a dozen years ago, the documents provide a vivid picture of the calculation made by Pfizer at the time and its efforts ever since to overcome doubts about the drug."