Alex started selling lemonade four years ago with one stand and raised $2,000 in a single day. Each year brought more stands, manned by friends and volunteers.

The take so far: more than $200,000, including $15,000 brought in last year by the stand at the Scotts' suburban Philadelphia.

"She's determined about anything that's important to her, whether it's what kind of ice cream she's eating or raising money," said Alex's mother, Liz Scott. "I think (the stand) does keep her going sometimes."

This year, on Saturday, all 50 states will have "Alex's Lemonade Stands" open for business. Alex's father, Jay Scott, estimates that as many as 1,000 stands will be pouring - http://bordersalertandready.com/?s=pouring&search=Search the icy cold concoction.

"I think it just shows, you read a lot of bad stuff in the news, it shows how good people really are," Jay Scott said.

Two days before her first birthday, Alex was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that originates in certain nerve cells. The survival rate for high-risk neuroblastoma, which Alex has, is just 40 percent.

"Alex would have died many years ago if it wasn't for newer experimental therapies, and I think that's something she and her parents recognize," said Dr. John Maris, who has directed Alex's care at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Neuroblastoma is diagnosed in about 700 U.S. children every year.

Though excited about Saturday, Alex has been drained by the chemotherapy and radiation being used to treat a new attack of tumors, her mother said. After seven years of treatment, her cancer is considered incurable.

"She's tired. She's exhausted," Liz Scott said. "Her future has always been uncertain, but I don't think any of us — me, my husband, her doctor — has felt this pessimistic before.

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Because of her frail condition, 카지노사이트 - http://www.motherbabe.com/ her parents and doctor have encouraged Alex to cut back on her fund-raising activities. But she insisted on appearing on a television morning show last Friday to publicize the fifth annual "Alex's Lemonade Stand" day

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After last year's stand, the Scotts put out a call over the Internet for help in every state. Advertising fliers were posted on Alex's Web site, and the Scotts sent out dozens of coupons for free lemonade mix

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Alex has given $150,000 to her Philadelphia hospital. Thousands more have gone for research in Connecticut, Michigan, Texas and California - http://www.sharkbayte.com/keyword/California . This year's take will also go for research, but the family hasn't decided yet where

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"Alex will have a big say in that," Liz Scott said. "She always does.

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Some days Alex feels good, like earlier this week when she saw the new Harry Potter movie. Other days she doesn't. Every day she lives knowing many of her friends have died of neuroblastoma

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Her mom calls Alex "the bravest person I know," and she holds out hope her daughter can overcome her disease

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"I'm obviously very proud of her, but it's more than that," Liz Scott said. "I feel privileged to be her mom. I admire her."

Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program provided a safety net for children whose parents' coverage ended or became too expensive during the economic downturn at the start of the decade, said the Center for Studying Health System Change, a private research organization in Washington, 카지노사이트 - http://fundacjaestyma.org.pl/ D.C.

"Public insurance clearly picked up the slack," the group said in its report.

A separate Urban Institute report highlighted problems children face when they lack insurance, including missing regular checkups - http://search.about.com/?q=checkups and visiting hospital emergency rooms for routine care. Nearly half of uninsured children had no checkup in the last year, that report said.

The studies were released in tandem by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of its Covering Kids and Families campaign to boost children's health insurance. The foundation said lack of insurance is especially pronounced among African-American and Hispanic children.

Public insurance programs typically see enrollment increase when the economy slows and people lose their jobs. The study of employer coverage found 67 percent of Americans were insured through their employers in 2001. By 2003, that number had dropped to 63.4 percent.

Sustained economic growth should increase employer coverage, easing the burden on public programs, the health research group said.

As it is, states that have struggled with budget crises because of the economy are trying to cut health program costs, although several million more children are eligible for them. State actions have included restricting eligibility, freezing enrollment and increasing participants' contributions, several studies have found.

Federal and state governments share the costs of both Medicaid, which provides health care for the poorest families and children, and SCHIP, for children from working poor families.

The plans cover more than 17 million children, the Johnson foundation said. Eligibility varies by state, but on average, a family of four earning up to $37,000 a year can qualify, it said.By Mark Sherman

Now his son, Luis Angel Valdivia, and union representatives are appealing to companies to take the commonsense measures that could have saved his life.

"There isn't much I can do now, but I don't want other workers to go through what I'm going through now," said Valdivia, who watched his 53-year-old father faint among the grapevines in a field outside Bakersfield, and die in his car last Wednesday, as he sped toward the hospital seeking medical help.

California's grape harvest happens in the middle of summer, when temperatures in the state's fertile Central Valley often soar past 100, and lead to frequent complaints of dizziness and nausea among workers- the symptoms of heat stroke, said Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers.

"There is not a whole lot we can do, except put pressure on the growers to give them what they need to take care of their bodies," said Rodriguez. "They just need to use common sense. If it's 100 degrees out, workers need more breaks, and more water, than the minimum required."

The state's Division of Occupational Health and Safety requires employers to give workers two 10-minute breaks in one day, plus a half-hour lunch. Cool water should also be provided. Workers confirmed there was enough water for them last Wednesday.

But there are no additional safety measures required — longer breaks, shade, salt tablets — to help workers stay hydrated when the heat reaches into the 90s and past 100, said Susan Gard, a spokeswoman for the state occupational safety program

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Employers are only required to report cases of heat stroke or other illnesses - http://www.bing.com/search?q=illnesses&form=MSNNWS&mkt=en-us&pq=illnesses if the worker requires more than first-aid care, Gard said

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"Unfortunately, we only hear about it when it becomes a tragedy, if there is a 24-hour hospitalization or a death," she said

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The state database with numbers of heat stroke victims was not immediately accessible, Gard said

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The agency targets agriculture for additional enforcement because it recognizes the industry is dangerous, Gard said. It publishes an employers' guide on agricultural safety that mentions heat stroke as a cause for concern, and holds farm worker forums to educate them on their rights on the job, she said

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When temperatures soar and the men and women who pick produce work more than 10 hours a day to keep up with the season's peak workload, the minimum might not be enough, said Keith Jilmetti, a workers' compensation lawyer who is helping the family

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"The California labor code says it's the duty of employers to provide a safe and healthful work environment," said Jilmetti. "If they have to go above the minimum (to provide for a safe working environment) so be it.

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The Giumarra Companies, which employed the Valdivias, started when the family patriarch, 카지노사이트 - http://www.webmedialtdhk.com/ Joe Giumarra, set up a small fruit stand in downtown Los Angeles the early 1900s. What began as an immigrant family's small business has grown to a multinational conglomerate that works with growers in California and around the world, from Chile and Mexico to New Zealand and China

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"We have a great relationship with our people, and they come back year after year," the company's president, Joe Giumarra, said Monday. "We did the best we could to respond adequately.

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He said heat stroke had not yet been determined as the cause of death in Valdivia's case, and autopsy results were expected in four to six weeks

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The foreman supervising the field where the father and son had been working initially called for medical help, but then canceled the call when the older worker regained consciousness, although he was never able to talk or walk on his own, his son said

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Giumarra said he knew the foreman called 911, but he said he's not sure what happened after that

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With medical help, his father might have survived, Valdivia said

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"I gave him the only thing I had — water," he said, adding that his father had only been in the United States for one mont

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Workers' compensation insurance will cover the cost of sending Asuncion Valdivia's body back to Jalisco, where he has three other sons in the town of San Juan de los Lagos. But Luis Angel Valdivia, the 21-year-old son who was working alongside his father, will have to stay here. His mother died three years ag

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"I can't afford to go back," he said. "This is terrible, but I have to stay here and work. I have to help the family

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By Juliana Barbassa