Idaho was not on the list of affected states but bordering states Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and 29 other states were alerted late Friday that over 1 million cooked eggs needed to be recalled by Michael Foods.

The Minnesota-based food company recalled its hard-cooked eggs after tests revealed some may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria. The eggs are sold in large pails of brine for institutional use.

The Food and Drug Administration said the eggs were bought by food distributors and not sold directly to consumers. The products were sold under six brand names: Columbia Valley Farms, GFS, Glenview Farms, Papetti's, Silverbrook and Wholesome Farms.

Listeria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, or others with weakened immune systems. Listeria can also cause high fever, headache, stiffness, nausea, abdomonimal pain and diarrhea.

Following a two-day firestorm ignited by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure's announcement that it would cut funding to Planned Parenthood, the Komen organization said this morning that it would amend its funding rules and allow continued funding of breast health programs operated by Planned Parenthood.

"That is what is right and fair," said Nancy Brinker, Komen's founder and chief executive. "We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants. We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives."

Komen officials had originally said they would cut funding to Planned Parenthood because the group was the subject of a Republican-led congressional investigation believed to be fostered by anti-abortion advocates. But following Komen's earlier announcement, 26 U.S. senators called on Komen to reconsider its decision.

As the controversy erupted, donations to Planned Parenthood poured in. In addition to more than $400,000 in individual donations from 6,000 people, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged $250,000 to match future donations.

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization, which for nine years has held a wildly successful race attracting tens of thousands of participants, has severed its national ties with Planned Parenthood.

A spokesman for the national Komen office, Leslie Aun, told the Associated Press that Planned Parenthood is under investigation in Congress and her charity recently adopted criteria barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. In September, Republican Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns launched an inquiry to determine whether Planned Parenthood had used public money to fund abortions.

Planned Parenthood said Komen grants totaled approximately $680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before.

Planned Parenthood has more than 800 health centers nationwide, including the Treasure Valley. It provides an array of services, including birth control, abortions, pregnancy counseling and cancer screenings. It's estimated that Planned Parenthood performed more than 4 million breast exams over the past five years.

Health care reform was on the menu today for a Boise luncheon packed with lawmakers and Chamber of Commerce members from each corner of Idaho. A side order of politics was also served up.

A man who knows a lot about both was the featured speaker: Michael Leavitt, the three-term governor of Utah and former secretary of Health and Human Services, under President George W. Bush. Levitt also served as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The gathering of the Idaho Chamber Alliance wasn't necessarily neutral regarding the Affordable Care Act. As each attendee opened the agenda to the program, tucked inside was a flier that said, "Say no to a federal exchange because the right solution for Idaho is a state exchange."

Leavitt urged attendees to get going on developing Idaho's own health care marketplace, rather than default to a federal version.

"You have three choices," said Leavitt, referring to what he called Obamacare. "Number one: fight it and die. Number two: accept it and maybe you'll get a chance to change it. Number three: lead it and prosper."

Levitt pointed to his home state of Utah's exchange, which is still not federally qualified under the guidelines set by the ACA. But he insisted that it would be a part of a group of at least 25 other states designing their own exchanges, forcing the White House's hand to acknowledge local control.

"I don't believe HHS won't approve those," he said.

Now retired from public service, Leavitt has a very personal stake in health care. He has returned to his family-owned Leavitt Group, which is now the nation's second-largest privately held insurance brokerage, including its Boise office.

Millions of parents and caregivers are talking about proposed changes in the definition of autism. One top expert said the revisions could "make the autism epidemic go away."

The proposed change, under review by a panel appointed by the American Psychiatric Association, could sharply reduce the ever-increasing rate at which autism is diagnosed. The revisions would not change the diagnosis of children already born with the problem, but could vastly narrow the set of problems currently linked to the autism spectrum.

Rates of autism and disorders such as Asperger syndrome have skyrocketed since the 1980s, to rates as high as one in 100 children.

According to The New York Times, "disagreement about the effect of the new definition will almost certainly increase scrutiny of the finer points of the psychiatric association's changes."

The revisions could be final by this December, according to Dr. David Kupfer of the University of Pittsburgh, chairman of the task force making the revisions.

Currentlly, at least a million children and adults have a formal diagnosis of autism or a related disorder. The diagnoses trigger services to help offset the disorders' disabling effects.

A jaw-dropping report this morning from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: 1 in 5 American adults suffer from mental illness. The government survey documents nearly 46 million U.S. adults reported a mental illness in the past year. Worse yet was the finding that almost 30 percent of those aged 18-25 experienced a mental illness, twice as many as those aged 50 and older. Additionally, more women suffered from a mental illness in the last year - 23 percent compared to the men's 17 percent.

"These conditions are multifactorial," said Peter Delaney, director of SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies. "There are genetical issues, there are biological issues, there are social issues and also personal issues."

Other highlights in the report:
-39 percent of those with an illness received mental-health services
-8.7 million Americans had suicidal thoughts in the last year
-2.5 million made plans to kill themselves
-1.1 million attempted suicide
-One-fourth of those with serious mental illness were substance abusers

You can read the full report here.

Physicians will soon be required to disclose any and all income from pharmaceutical companies that pay them for research, consulting, travel and entertainment. The rule, part of the Affordable Care Act, will go into effect sometime after a public comment period, which wraps up on Feb. 17.

The New York Times reports this morning that some doctors pocket "thousands or millions of dollars" in exchange for providing advice and giving lectures on behalf the drug companies. According to the Times, about a quarter of doctors take cash payments from drug or device makers and nearly two-thirds accept routine gifts of food, including lunch for staf members and dinner for themselves.

The Times also found that doctors who take money from drug makers "often practice medicine differently from those who do not, and that they are more willing to prescribe drugs in risky and unapproved ways, such as prescribing powerful antipsychotic medicines for children."

But the new reforms, part of what some critics have dubbed Obamacare, will require doctors to disclose the drug company payments, and the federal government will post the payment data on a website, where it will be available to the public. The rule says physicians will have to report any payment worth more than $10, including stock options, research grants, knickknacks, consulting fees, travel and any similar corporate gift-giving.

One of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act is to scrutinize any proposal for an insurance coverage rate increase above 10 percent. Therefore, Blue Cross of Idaho's recent request to bump up its rates by 13.3 percent for one of its small-group plans will come under formal review. The increase, if approved, would apply to a plan that currently covers more than 6,000 Idaho highway and commercial-construction contractors and their families.

Blue Cross said policy holders of its Associated General Contractors plan used more medical services last year, and that's why the increase is necessary. A Blue Cross spokeswoman said that the requested increase does not fully cover the company's costs.

The proposed increase is the third instance of an Idaho insurer asking for a 10 percent or more increase since the enactment of the 2010 health care reforms.

A new study, published this morning in the New England Journal of Medicine, reveals that a widely used vaccine against herpes has failed in a large clinical trial. The vaccine has been used primarily to reduce the risk of genital herpes viruses in women who are in so-called seriodiscordant couples, in which one partner had the virus and the other didn't.

But the study indicates that the vaccine's efficacy was only 20 percent. Research revealed the vaccine had some effectiveness against herpes simplex-1 but not against herpes simplex-2, which recurs more than HSV-1. The study followed more than 8,000 women, ages 18-30.

"It's the reason we do clinical trials," said Dr. Peter Leone of the University of North Carolina, who co-authored the study. "We're really disappointed by the results."

Kroger and Smith's Food and Drug, which owns Fred Meyer stores in the Treasure Valley, is pulling Arizona iceberg lettuce from its shelves after salmonella was found in an Arizona field near the grower's farmland. None of the Growers Express lettuce has tested positive for salmonella but the grower alerted retailers of the test results and sought a withdrawal of its lettuce "out of an abundance of caution."

Kroger and its affiliated grocery chains decided to pull the product from 200 stores in Idaho and six other states.

Growers Express, which according to the Associated Press supplies product to Green Giant, hasn't been ordered to issue any official recall. No illnesses have been reported.