* Maryland won't challenge a federal court decision striking down the state's Fair Share Health Care Act, ending a two-year effort to force Wal-Mart to pay more for employee health care, the Baltimore Sun reports. * The staggering price tag for a universal health care bill in Connecticut — as much as $18 billion — left the plan on life support, and legislators are virtually certain to pull the plug, the Hartford Courant reports.
* Chronic pain costs U.S. employers an estimated a $100 billion a year, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. * New Jersey state senators were shocked to learn that they had voted again and again in recent years for measures that had left the state pension in great distress, and they faulted the state treasury for failing to explain to them the risks of what they were doing, the New York Times reports.
