The Congressionally chartered Institute of Medicine said in a high-profile report yesterday that the nation must reach universal health care coverage by 2010.

Asthma hospitalization rates for kids are lower than they have been since the city started collecting the data in 1984.

As the state’s poverty rate climbs and low-wage jobs expand, the minimum wage–$5.15 an hour—has less buying power than it has had since the 1940s.

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist attacked a law passed last spring that limits judges’ ability to depart from sentencing guidelines.

Almost a third of Chinatown residents lived below the poverty line as of the 2000 Census, compared to 21 percent of the city as a whole.