A jury agreed Friday on nine of 10 counts in Imka Pope's civil rights case against King County. Pope says jail nurses and corrections officers violated her civil rights in 1997 by dismissing her claims that she was pregnant.

She had been arrested for sleeping on a bench at a Metro bus stop. In the lawsuit she filed in 2007, Pope said jail health officials locked her in a cell and ignored her for six days. She got help after a guard heard a baby crying.

Her mental illness has delayed the case. It went to trial once previously, but at that time Pope was involuntarily committed to Harborview Medical Center.

A call to the King County prosecutor's office seeking comment on the case was not immediately returned late Friday afternoon.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press

Tourette syndrome has plagued the 20-year-old singer for nearly half of her life. But she hasn't allowed the incurable neurological condition to weaken her faith. Grace says she wants to use her first trip to the Grammys as another platform to share her inspirational story of resolve to motivate others.

"I'm not the only person who has something in their life they can't control," said Grace, sitting in her dorm room, where the walls are lined with Johnny Cash posters and the record player plays the country legend's song "I Walk the Line."

"It's all about taking control over what I can control and that's saying, 'Hey, I've got Tourette's, but I can also play guitar, I can also sing and write songs about it,'" she said. "Hopefully I can encourage other kids who are going through crazy stuff too."

Grace's song "Hold Me," featuring TobyMac, is nominated for best contemporary Christian music song. She wrote the guitar-driven ballad at a time when she felt lonely in her dorm room at Point University, a small Christian college.

"I saw that there was depth there," said TobyMac, a Grammy-winning Christian rocker who signed Grace to his label Gotee Records in 2010 after he discovered her through YouTube. He took notice of her when he learned that she posted a three-minute medley on the online website that included 12 of his songs.

TobyMac saw potential in Grace's airy vocals, her ability to play several instruments and her savvy songwriting. Her constant message of hope and perseverance in songs drove him to introduce himself to her through Twitter.

"She really did intrigue me because she's writing songs that are meaningful," he said. "Her songs have light to them and sound like they can be around for a long time. Her songs have heart to them, unlike most songs that have a hooky track or melody. She has a beautiful story to tell through her music."

It has been a tumultuous road for Grace, who was diagnosed at the age of 11. When she took medication to combat the repetitive symptoms, she said the medicine caused her to lose her hair and made her feel emotionally inattentive, like a "zombie."

At the time, Grace -- known by family and friends as a bubbly character -- lost her motivation to sing and thought boys would never find her attractive. She remembered asking God why she had to struggle to walk on her own, couldn't hold a fork to eat food, or had to wear biker gloves to protect her scarred knuckles because she would unconsciously punch things.

Mona Harper, her mother and manager, said her daughter would be sick four times a week from the medication.

"She lost her unction to go out in front of people and sing," said Harper. "Things regressed for her, but she showed a lot of resilience and wasn't dismantled by the things that were happening to her. The beauty of it for me is to see her bounce back and not break down."

Grace's breakthrough from her somber state came after she heard a testimony by Christian singer Tammy Trent, and her grandfather bought her a drum set when she was 14. She went on to learn how to play the piano, guitar, banjo and the ukulele.

For Grace, music became a stress reliever. She realized that her recurring twitch did not happen as often the more she beat her drums, strummed her guitar or sang a melody.

"It's almost like I'm in another world," she said. "Everything goes silent and it's so amazing. ... I learned how to manage it through music. I can still follow my dreams and I know that God hasn't forgotten about me. I just had to pray about it."

Grace said she had to lean on her faith more since she stopped taking her medication about four years ago. She has learned how to cope with her condition and hasn't allowed it to have a stronghold over her life.

"If I didn't have Tourette, I don't think I would be as strong as I am now," said Grace, who has her own nonprofit mentoring program called GraceTalk. "I wouldn't have the strength of resilience to speak with the 14-year-old girl who doesn't feel beautiful."

In the spring, Grace will graduate with a degree in child and youth development. Along with continuing her musical career, she wants to help families with children who have Tourette's and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

TobyMac feels strongly about the longevity of Grace's music career. With her being a young black singer who has an infatuation with country music, can sing R&B and gospel, and can play the acoustic guitar, he expects her to make more appearances at music's top showcase in the future.

"She's full of surprises and has all of these different facets," he said. "She can really make a mark. For her to earn a Grammy (nomination) this early in her career, I think it's an amazing sign of things to come for her."

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Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The screening probably saved his life, said Thompson, 60, a long-time Roxbury resident who had surgery for the cancer last May.

"Without it I probably would not have discovered that I had cancer, it would have gone on for a number of years and the cancer would have gotten worse," he said.

On Monday, Gov. Deval Patrick and others will attend a ceremony dedicating Whittier's new, $35 million state-of-the-art facility viewed by many as a model for efficient health care delivery to traditionally underserved urban residents. The six-story, 79,000-square-foot building has been described as a "one-stop" center for health care and social services, offering 19,000 residents everything from cancer screening to dental care to violence prevention programs.

Patrick said community health centers like Whittier are critical to the state's twin goals of providing universal care while reducing costs.

"Part of the way to assure access and also part of the way to assure cost-containment is encouraging as many people as possible to get their care in lower-cost community centers," he said in an interview last week. Patrick has been pushing lawmakers to approve a payment reform bill that would shift the health care industry away from a fee-for-service system based on individual tests and procedures and toward a so-called global payment system that stresses a team-oriented approach to patient care.

Construction of the new facility was largely enabled by a portion of the $80 million in federal stimulus funds the state received for eight community-based health centers, four in Boston and one each in New Bedford, Fall River, Fitchburg and Lowell.

Nationally, community-based health centers received about $2 billion in federal stimulus grants over the past two years, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.

Whittier first opened in 1933 to help care for newborn babies in a public housing development. The new building keeps the center's original name though it is now located on a former vacant lot on nearby Tremont Street, with more than twice the size and capacity of the previous facility.

Situated just a few miles from, but in many ways a world removed from, Boston's renowned Longwood medical district, it has faced enormous challenges serving the diverse and largely low-income neighborhood.

"When you look at our mission statement it is about eliminating health and social disparities," said Frederica Williams, Whittier's president and chief executive. "You cannot cure someone's illness and make them engaged if they are dealing with poverty or not making sustainable wages."

Center officials say 60 percent of their patients live below the poverty level and 85 percent live in public housing.

Fewer than one in four patients have private insurance and about half receive Medicaid. And 23 percent have no health insurance at all -- a startling figure in Massachusetts, where 98 percent of all residents have health insurance because of the state's landmark 2006 health care law.

The socio-economic disparities appear to translate directly to health disparities. About 70 percent of Whittier's patients have been diagnosed with at least one chronic medical condition such as diabetes, cancer, hypertension , asthma or obesity. Many live with more than one such disease.

The neighborhood's 1-in-10 infant mortality rate also far exceeds state and national averages.

Four in five patients also have "psycho-social" issues, center officials say, often stemming from violence or substance abuse prevalent in their lives or families.

"If other stressors in your life are preventing you from addressing care or seeing your doctors on a regular basis, then it's hard to stay connected," said Dr. Christopher Lathan, director of the cancer care equity program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Lathan is one of five oncologists assigned on a rotating basis to a cancer clinic at Whittier that is run by Dana-Farber, one of the nation's most prestigious cancer research and treatment centers.

Lathan pointed to statistics showing that African-American men have the highest rates of prostate cancer in the world, and African-American women in the U.S. have higher breast cancer mortality rates. He said Dana-Farber tries to provide Roxbury residents with access to similar care that patients would receive at the institute's main campus in the Longwood medical area.

The clinic, originally funded by a 2008 gift from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his late wife, Myra, may be the first example of a major U.S. cancer center operating in a community-based setting, Williams said.

Monday's dedication culminates a nearly decade-long quest by Williams to find a permanent home for Whittier, yet she understands the building itself doesn't guarantee that all in the community will take advantage of its offerings.

That's why, she said, the center employs roving "health ambassadors" in the neighborhood to seek out residents -- particularly men -- who might otherwise have no contact with doctors until a crisis lands them in a hospital emergency room.

"We are relentless in getting you in here," said Williams. "Once we screen you for the first time, if there is an abnormal result, our patient navigators will follow you and call you until you have no choice but to come in."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The entertainer was hospitalized last month after suffering from a form of mild kidney failure, but he says he is now fully healed.

"This is a great place to get back and debut the healthy Nick," he said on Sunday during a break as the host of NBC's pre-show. "Everybody's out here having a good time, and you know people were worried like, 'Is he going to be able to do the Super Bowl pre-show?' But I am 100 percent feeling good right now."

Cannon attributes his improved health to a change in diet, but says he does not eat the same food as wife Mariah Carey, who recently lost weight after giving birth to their twins Moroccan and Monroe.

"I used to be a fast-food junkie," Cannon explained. "She gets to have higher protein, which isn't fair because I love my steaks and I can't eat that anymore. Her carbs are lower so we are both on a diet, but it is different."

Cannon, who is a New York Giants fan, attended various events in the days leading up to the Super Bowl.

While his family was not with him, they were not far from his mind. When asked if he'd like to expand his brood one day, he laughed and said: "I would love to have more children. Now my wife on the other hand, I think the twins took a toll on her. She is like, 'I ain't doing that again.'"

___

Alicia Quarles is the AP's Global Lifestyles and Entertainment Editor. Follow her at www.twitter.com/aliciaquarles

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

But the proposed action of one Mississippi lawmaker has led some to believe politicians have gone too far by attempting to regulate what people eat.

Senator Bill Stone (D-MS) went public with his idea this week when he presented Senate Bill 2293, a bill that would prohibit recipients of SNAP benefits from buying candy, sugary drinks and unhealthy foods with their EBT card.

theGrio: Congress bans welfare recipients from using funds at strip clubs

This would greatly affect the black populace in Mississippi where state officials confirmed that more than 630,000 people receive monthly benefits to purchase food items.

According to a study compiled by the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS), in September 2011, 21 percent of Mississippians were receiving monthly food stamp or SNAP benefits. Of that ratio, 2.39 percent were Asian/Hispanic/Other, 31.53 percent where white and 66.08 percent were black.

Stone said the purpose of the bill is not to force healthy eating on SNAP recipients, necessarily, but to promote healthy eating for the benefit of the children.

"I know a lot of people have picked up on this bill and they dub it as politicians abusing the system," Stone said. "But this is about what's healthy for the children. That's it in a nutshell."

This was Stone's first time introducing the bill to the legislature and he said it stemmed from what he saw while standing in a checkout line in December 2011.

"I was behind this lady with a shopping basket loaded with sugary drinks, potato chips, cookies and candy," Stone said. "She had nothing of any nutritional value in her cart and when it came time for her to pay, she pulled out her EBT card and paid for it. There was no breakfast cereal, no meats, nothing but pure junk. And I thought to myself, 'we should not be paying for this junk.' We should be providing nutrition to sustain children. She's an adult. What she puts in her own body is her own business. But it's not acceptable for the children."

Johnny, the assistant manager of a grocery store in Grenada, Miss., disagreed.

"I think what he saw was probably a person, not buying food for the family, but probably a person that had a 'Mom and Pop' store,'" he said. "And yes, you do have people that abuse the system. They abuse the benefits. But my opinion on that is, once you give somebody something, you give it to them. You can't dictate what you want them to do with it. This is America. And only in America do you have freedom of speech - freedom of everything. When you start dictating that - you take that freedom away."

Charlie Smith, the Legislative Liaison for MDHS, said the food stamp/SNAP program is federally funded, but ultimately the money comes from taxpayers, and based on MDHS guidelines, SNAP recipients can use their monthly benefits to purchase most food items with the exception of hot foods, such as those in the deli or those that can be eaten in the store.

Other states, such as Illinois, have similar SNAP stipulations, and they allow recipients to use their EBT cards to purchase seeds and plants to grow foods in a home garden environment - as does Mississippi.

But Smith said to his knowledge, no other states prohibit SNAP recipients from purchasing junk food. But past efforts by MDHS officials to restrict SNAP recipients in Mississippi to buying fresh fruits and vegetables, has failed before Congress.

"A lot of people have said you should just have healthy food with SNAP benefits and people shouldn't be able to buy all this junk food," he said. "So we put our two-cents worth in, and if the bill tried to pass, it didn't, or I don't even know if they tried to put in."

Stone, one of the state's few democrats in office, said his decision was largely influenced by first lady Michelle Obama and her efforts for healthier eating and fighting childhood obesity. In fact, one of the "Five Simple Steps To Success" in Mrs. Obama's "Let's Move!" campaign is for parents to "cut down on sugary drinks."

"I'm not trying to be punitive to these recipients," Stone said. "But my intent is to keep families from wasting their benefits. I'm going after foods that are obviously detrimental to children's health."

Proponents of Stone's measure said Stone is on the right track because for the last eight years, Mississippi has consistently held the title as the nation's 'fattest state'. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said in 2010, 34 percent of Mississippians were overweight, while a staggering 44.5 percent of children in the state were considered obese. Again, the highest ranking in the nation.

"We can't spell out everything in the law," Stone said. "When we see parents buying all of this junk food, you wonder what their children are eating. They're going without bacon and eggs, good food that's nutritious."

"It wouldn't bother me at all," said Peggy Lemon, a Mississippi grandmother raising her five grandchildren using SNAP benefits. "I never did buy a lot of candy for my grandkids, so it wouldn't make me a difference one way or another."

Opponents to Stone's bill, however, believe if the bill passes, it may increase crime rates or limit how much a household can buy due to the inflated costs of healthier food options such as fresh fruits and vegetables versus cheaper less healthier options.

"We don't want [vendors] to raise their costs and keep recipients from buying healthy food," Stone said. "But this is one of the things in the bill we'll have to work on."

"You have some people out there who do what they have to do to live," Johnny, mentioned earlier, said. "And I'd rather for someone to spend the benefits the way they want than to be out here robbing, stealing and that kind of thing. The crime rate here is already high. And I feel like if they try to control that, the crime rate is only going to go up."

Charlie Smith, of MDHS, said that while healthier eating is something state officials would like to see with SNAP recipients, he said a mandate to do so would have to be on a congressional level.

"SNAP benefits are a federal program," he said. "We can't take a state law and supersede a federal law. Stone may think it's a state program, but he doesn't have the authority to change it. I think it's a good idea. We'd be for it if we could, but we just can't do it."

Stone said if the bill passes, it would include a revision that MDHS request a waiver from the federal government to change the law. If it passes, he said it would then go to the senate floor for a vote and eventually to Mississippi's governor to veto or sign.

Stone said the deadline for revisions on the bill is the first week of March, and if signed by the governor, the law would go into effect on July 1.

"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," a Susan G. Komen for the Cure statement said.

The Associated Press first reported Tuesday that Komen had adopted criteria excluding Planned Parenthood from grants because it was under government investigation -- notably a probe launched in Congress at the urging of anti-abortion groups.

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In Washington, 26 U.S. senators this week signed a letter calling on Komen to reconsider its decision. "It would be tragic if any woman -- let alone thousands of women -- lost access to these potentially lifesaving screenings because of a politically motivated attack," the senators wrote.

Komen leaders had denied Planned Parenthood's assertion that the decision was driven by pressure from anti-abortion groups. According to Planned Parenthood, its health centers performed more than 4 million breast exams over the past five years, including nearly 170,000 as a result of Komen grants. The grants totaled $680,000 last year.

As the controversy erupted, Komen was deluged with negative emails and Facebook postings accusing it of knuckling under to pressure from anti-abortion groups. Many of Komen's affiliates across the U.S. openly rebelled, and donations to Planned Parenthood poured in. The group said the donations since the original Komen decision surpassed $3 million. It has pledged to use the funds to maintain and expand its breast health services.

Planned Parenthood's president, Cecile Richards, thanked those donors Friday and welcomed Komen's change of heart.

"We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grantmaking criteria," Richards said. "What these past few days have demonstrated is the deep resolve all Americans share in the fight against cancer."

A source with direct knowledge of decision-making at Komen's headquarters has said the grant-making criteria were adopted with the deliberate intention of targeting Planned Parenthood. The criteria's impact on Planned Parenthood and its status as the focus of government investigations were highlighted in a memo distributed to Komen affiliates in December.

According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, a driving force behind the move was Karen Handel, who was hired by Komen last year as vice president for public policy after losing a campaign for governor in Georgia in which she stressed her anti-abortion views and frequently denounced Planned Parenthood.

Brinker, in an interview with MSNBC, said Handel didn't have a significant role in the policy change.

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Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

"It was like a freight train hitting a Volkswagen," Dorsett says now.

"Did they know it was a concussion?" he asks rhetorically during an interview with The Associated Press. "They thought I was half-dead."

And yet, he says, after being examined in the locker room -- a light shined in his eyes; queries such as who sat next to him on the Cowboys' bus ride to the stadium -- Dorsett returned to the field and gained 99 yards in the second half. Mainly, he says, by running plays the wrong way, because he couldn't remember what he was supposed to do.

"That ain't the first time I was knocked out or been dazed over the course of my career, and now I'm suffering for it," the 57-year-old former tailback says. "And the NFL is trying to deny it."

WATCH AP VIDEO OF TONY DORSETT'S CASE:

Dorsett traces several health problems to concussions during a career that lasted from 1977-88, and he has joined more than 300 former players -- including three other members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and at least 32 first- or second-team All-Pro selections -- in suing the NFL, its teams and, in some cases, helmet maker Riddell. More should have been done in the past to warn about the dangers of concussions, their lawyers argue, and more can be done now and in the future to help retired players deal with mental and physical problems they attribute to their days in the NFL.

In interviews conducted by the AP over the past two months with a dozen plaintiffs, what emerged was, at best, a depiction of a culture of indifference on the part of the league and its teams toward concussions and other injuries. At worst, there was a strong sense of a willful disregard for players' well-being.

"It's not about whether players understood you could get a concussion playing football. It's about the negligence of care, post-concussion, that occurred," says Kyle Turley, an offensive lineman for the Saints, Rams and Chiefs who was the No. 7 overall pick in the 1998 draft and an All-Pro in 2000.

Players complain that they carried owners to their profits, in an industry that now has more than $9 billion in annual revenues, without the safety nets of guaranteed contracts or lifetime medical insurance.

"Yeah, I understand you paid me to do this, but still yet, I put my life on the line for you, I put my health on the line," Dorsett says. "And yet when the time comes, you turn your back on me? That's not right. That's not the American way."

Head injuries are a major topic of conversation every day of the NFL season. With the Super Bowl as a global stage, the NFL will air a one-minute TV commercial during Sunday's game highlighting rules changes through the years that have made the sport safer.

The owners of the teams playing for the Lombardi Trophy in Indianapolis -- Bob Kraft of the New England Patriots and John Mara of the New York Giants -- acknowledge the issue's significance.

"There's more of a focus on it now, without question, and I think that's a good thing, and I think it'll continue to be a focus. Because none of us want to put players in perilous situations like that," Mara says. "I don't want to see guys that are on this team, 20 years from now, with debilitating injuries, no matter what they are."

Says Kraft: "We know this is a physical game, and when people play the game, they know it comes with certain risks. We have tried to stay ahead of it."

The most accomplished and best-known plaintiff in the flurry of lawsuits -- a star for the Cowboys after winning the 1976 Heisman Trophy at Pittsburgh -- Dorsett agreed to two interviews with the AP, one over the telephone and one at his suburban Dallas home.

"I don't want to get to the point where it turns into dementia, Alzheimer's. I don't want that," says Dorsett, who ran for 12,739 yards, the eighth-highest total in league history. He is, in that moment, sad and deflated -- in others, pumped up and angry, fists flying to punctuate his words. "There's no doubt in my mind that ... what I went through as a football player is taking an effect on me today. There's no ifs ands or buts about that. I'm just hoping and praying I can find a way to cut it off at the pass."

He spreads two pages' worth of brain scans on his coffee table and says doctors told him that red regions in the color-coded scan mean he is not getting enough oxygen in the left lobe of his brain, the part associated with organization and memory. He already forgets people's names or why he walked into a room or where he's heading while driving on the highway, and fears his memory issues are getting worse.

Dorsett's had surgery on both his knees, and problems with his left arm and right wrist. He says then-Cowboys coach Tom Landry once told him he could play despite a broken bone in his back. Not even the flak jacket Dorsett says he wore beneath his jersey could bring relief, the injury so painful that "tears would just start flowing out of my eyes, profusely and uncontrollably" during practices.

"They would see me and just point to the training room. 'Go to the training room, get some ice and heat and come on back out here,'" Dorsett says.

And during games?

"They were hitting me, and I'd be squealing like a pig," Dorsett says, imitating the guttural sound. "It was so bad that the other team was telling our coaches, 'Get him out of the game.' You know that something's wrong then. And like a fool, I stayed as long as I could. They're going to our sideline, telling our coaches, 'Get him out of the game!' ... You know it's bad when the opposition feels sorry for you."

Nearly 700 women have donated healthy breast tissue to the nation's only facility to collect, catalog and analyze tissue for breast cancer research.

The women donated their tissue Jan. 28-29 during Indy's Super Cure, sponsored by the Super Bowl Host Committee and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Tissue Bank at Indiana University's Simon Cancer Center in downtown Indianapolis.

Click here to read more

After being rushed to the hospital, Atasha never regained consciousness, and died there. After checking her organs and ruling out any alcohol or substance abuse, Home Office pathologist Doctor Michael Heath examined the glue on one of the hair pieces she was wearing. Although allergic reactions to latex typically occur within 30 minutes of contact, Dr. Health said if Atasha was sweating in the club, the perspiration may have caused the latex to enter her bloodstream.

What's odd is that this was far from Atasha's first time wearing extensions. She had been wearing weave since the age of 20, which makes doctors even more curious about her mysterious death. Still, they are sure it was caused by anaphylactic shock.

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"How many push-ups can you do? Because I like to do a push up," said DeGeneres. Michelle coyly replies "Well um you know, I don't know. I can do some -- can you?" The first lady then gently teased DeGeneres, "You know it depends on how your back is, because I know you have these back issues." "Oh no," said DeGeneres, who popped out of her seat and sprung into action

By the time they finish, Michelle Obama tallies 25 push ups. "How amazing is that!?" said DeGeneres.

WATCH the first lady and Ellen's push-up match

Just as Don Cornelius awakened us to the magic of black music and culture, his untimely death should also awaken us to the uncomfortable reality of the pervasive mental "unwellness" in the black community.

Traditionally, the black community has written suicide off as a "white" thing while also frowning upon seeking counseling of any kind. The pervasive logic has been that black people can handle anything because, historically, the black community has been subjected to unthinkable and unimaginable suffering and survived. In 2006, however, a landmark study challenged the "common misconception that suicide is rare in the black community."

Still, as former social worker turned entertainment public relations guru Terrie Williams told theGrio, "suicide is really something that we really don't talk about...so many times you hear that so-and-so passed away when they didn't just pass away; they took their own lives."

Our community's reluctance to discuss mental health issues such as depression, coupled with her own personal challenges, inspired Williams to circle back to her social work roots in her 2008 book Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting. A mental health advocate in the black community, Williams is a powerful force behind Stories That Heal, "a website for people living with mental health problems--and their friends and family," done in conjunction with the Stay Strong Foundation, which she co-founded in 2001, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Neither money nor fame shields people from their mental health issues, according to Williams. "We just think we knew who Don Cornelius was. Just because he was an innovator, a legend in his time, he was just as wounded as you and I are," she noted of Cornelius. "You look at somebody else and you think all is well; you have no idea what people are dealing with."

The reluctance of close family and friends to take note of those wounds is often crippling. On top of that, the tendency of many black people to keep things bottled inside frequently prevents them from seeking the help that they need. Unfortunately, the circumstances surrounding Cornelius's suicide illustrates this.

Presidential chef Cristeta Comerford credits the change in the food coming from the White House's kitchen to Michelle Obama's decision in 2009 to start a garden on the South Lawn as part of her Let's Move campaign to encourage kids to eat healthier.

Comerford acknowledges the White House menus now are a lot different from those in the mid-1990s, when she first started working there during the Clinton administration. President George W. Bush appointed her executive chef during his second term, and the Obamas kept her on when they arrived.

"The White House kitchen has really evolved tremendously in a positive way, having a garden out there," Comerford said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It really has focused me on reworking my menu based on seasonality."

Comerford says the garden has also inspired her in her own home, where she planted a plot and she and her 10-year-old daughter, Danielle, cook together. Comerford herself lost 15 pounds last year.

Cooking with kids is the subject of a new Prevention Magazine initiative that encourages parents to bring kids into the kitchen. Michelle Obama taped a message for the magazine's website endorsing the effort and Comerford shared a vegetable pizza recipe as an example of a fun meal to cook with children.

Comerford says her daughter is fascinated by the home garden, where she can clip her own herbs in the summer instead of going to the grocery store.

"She'll say, 'Mom, I don't think you have enough broccoli on your plate,'" Comerford said.

The White House's new focus on gardening and seasonal cooking has been especially pronounced during the last couple of winters, when most people go to the grocery store and choose from imported vegetables from warmer climates.

The South Lawn garden has hoop houses -- open, plastic, dome-like structures -- that capture the sun and act like greenhouses during the colder months. Comerford said her staff is able to serve "good hearty spinach," collard greens, kale and other vegetables fresh during the winter.

The availability of so many seasonal vegetables out back has shifted the focus of many White House meals.

"It's really garden-driven more than anything," she said. "The vegetable doesn't just become a companion anymore. The protein is a star, but the vegetable is the star as well."

The White House kitchen also benefits from the detailed information it is required for security reasons to get from its purveyors, such as where the food was farmed and how it was grown.

Despite the healthy focus, the chef defends Michelle Obama against critics who pounce when she's seen eating a burger or french fries. Mrs. Obama has said she loves fries and tells audiences that healthy eating doesn't always have to mean deprivation.

"I try to be healthy for the whole week, but there's nothing wrong to treating myself to a nice juicy burger," Comerford says of her own diet.

The Let's Move campaign -- which has pushed for better school lunches, more access to healthy foods and more physical activity -- will celebrate its second anniversary this month, and the first lady is on a two-day swing through California to promote her initiative as well as help Democrats raise money for the upcoming elections.

On Tuesday, Mrs. Obama visited NBC's "Tonight Show." She cajoled Jay Leno into breaking his long-held aversion for all-things-healthy in his diet, feeding the host apples, sweet potato fries and a pizza made with eggplant, green peppers and zucchini.

Prevention Magazine is featuring Mrs. Obama on its March cover. In an interview with the magazine, the first lady says her daughter Sasha recently discovered tomatoes -- a food she always said she didn't like -- after taking a cooking class at school.

But that doesn't mean she'll be taking advantage of the plump red ones grown in her own backyard, the first lady said.

"She insisted that the tomatoes she had at school were different from the ones we have at home," Mrs. Obama told the magazine. "But the real difference is that she had put time into making that sandwich, so she was invested in it."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press

The problem affects 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and 14 lots of generic Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets. Both products are manufactured by Pfizer and marketed in the U.S. by Akrimax Rx Products under the Akrimax Pharmaceuticals brand.

Pfizer found that some packets of the drugs had too many active tablets, while others had too few. Oral birth control products use a series of 21 hormone tablets and 7 inactive sugar tablets to regulate the menstrual period while providing contraception.

The risk of an accidental pregnancy depends on how many doses a patient misses in the pill cycle, pharmacist Mike Parker said. Patients normally can miss a dose and then catch up the next day, but the risk rises if a woman goes more than a couple of days without the right dose.

Parker said birth control pills account for about 25 percent of the prescriptions filled at his store, Fred's Neighborhood Pharmacy, in New Castle, Ind. But he doesn't expect many worried calls from customers about this recall.

He said it focuses on an older pill that used to be popular but doesn't sell as well anymore compared with newer versions that have fewer side effects.

"It's not a No. 1 or No. 2 seller," he said.

U.S. pharmacists filled 38.9 million birth control prescriptions in the first six months of last year, according to the most recent statistics from data firm IMS Health. A total of 78.6 million prescriptions were filled in 2010.

An IMS spokesman said the pills subject to the recall are not among the top 5 prescriptions filled.

A Pfizer spokeswoman said the problem was caused by both mechanical and visual inspection failures on the packaging line. She said the problem has been corrected.

Patients with the affected lot numbers should return them to the pharmacy.

The affected packets have expiration dates ranging between July 31, 2013, and March 31, 2014.

The drugs were distributed to warehouses, clinics and retail pharmacies throughout the U.S.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press

First lady Michelle Obama will touch down in Los Angeles on Tuesday for a two-day visit in which she plans to appear on talk shows and meet with Democratic Party donors.

She is scheduled to sit down Tuesday with Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" and on Wednesday with Ellen DeGeneres on her daytime talk show (this show will air Thursday).

Obama will be promoting her "Let's Move!" initiative, which encourages parents to make healthier food choices for their children and to provide more healthful options in schools, and tries to get people to become more physically active in order to curb obesity.

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Octavia Spencer couldn't be on a better career path - but The Help star is not without some concerns about herself.

"I am not healthy at this weight," Spencer, 39, said backstage at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where she won a best supporting actress trophy. "Any time you have too much around the middle, then there is a problem. [And] when you reach a certain weight, you are less valuable."

But Spencer, who also won a Golden Globe, says that Hollywood should be more accepting of actresses of different sizes, including those who are extra thin.

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