A Red Lion, PA resident who says she's still suffering from the fungal meningitis she got from a painkiller shot a year ago, yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the New England Compounding Center in Framingham and against the individual members of the Conigliaro family who owned and ran it.

In her suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, Michele Erkan recounts what she says happened after she received "a caudal epidural steroid injection from the Wellspan Interventional Pain Management facility in York, Pennsylvania:"

Autism Intervention Specialists of Worcester and principal Nassim Aoude today filed a federal libel suit against a New Hampshire man who says it peddles "horseshit" because it refuses to accept his theory that autism is caused by mercury in vaccines.

In its suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, Autism Intervention Specialists wants John Best's blog posts about it replaced with retractions and a suitably large, if unspecified, amount of damages.

WBUR's CommonHealth rounds up the conventional wisdom on the law Gov. Patrick signed yesterday to control health-care costs. Josh Archambault, director of healthcare policy at the Pioneer Institute, is more dour, and refers to a system already dominated by Partners Healthcare (MGH and the Brigham):

Ai-Jen Poo, a gifted community organizer recently honored by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, will speak at the Greater Boston Care Congress on June 16th. The Congress will launch the Massachusetts Caring Across Generations Campaign, part of a national movement to unite care workers, seniors, members of the disability community, and allies in order to create jobs, win affordable care services, and transform the care industry. The Massachusetts Domestic Worker’s Alliance will convene in the morning at the same location to draft legislation for a Massachusetts Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights.

Poo is a daughter of pro-democracy immigrants from Chiang Kai-shek’s Taiwan who has been active for decades in worker-led groups. She was influential in New York’s recent passage of a historic Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights and is providing leadership for the new national campaign, Caring Across Generations.

Caring Across Generations is the movement-building campaign of a national coalition of several hundred organizations representing care workers and care consumers. The Massachusetts Caring Across Generations Campaign is led by a steering committee of local organizations including 1199/SEIU, Mass Senior Action Council, Massachusetts Coalition of Domestic Workers, and Massachusetts Jobs With Justice.

Dr. T, an anesthesiologist, reports on her son's appendectomy at Children's Hospital - where she did some of her training:

The Patriot Ledger reports the chairman of Progressive Insurance has contributed $525,000 to a group pushing a ballot question to legalize the medical use of marijuana here. The group has raised $1,167 from other sources.

Paul Levy, who complained loudly about Partners Healthcare when he was CEO of Beth Israel, marvels at what he says is the spin on its recently announced contracts with Tufts and Blue Cross, that what the hospital holding company says is a willingness to rein in costs only perpetuates a system in which consumers and employers pay more than they should.

Mike the Mad Biologist analyzes the bill from a recent four-hour ER visit, including a %676 charge for a bag of saline solution.

WBUR reports on a group called MAIM that wanted to eliminate the requirement than individuals buy health insurance if they don't have employers who provide it.