Today's Papers: Attack of the Swine Flu

The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal's world-wide newsbox lead with, and everyone else fronts, the growing fears that the world may be entering a global pandemic as U.S. officials declared a public health emergency relating to the swine flu that has been detected in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Eight cases were identified in New York, and one in Ohio, bringing the total of confirmed cases in the United States to 20. Several countries have said they've identified people who had recently traveled to affected areas and are suffering from influenza-like symptoms but there are no confirmed cases anywhere else in the world. Still, some have issued travel bans and are instituting plans to quarantine travelers who may have the disease that is incredibly difficult to tell apart from a regular flu. The New York Times leads with a look at the nationwide shortage of doctors, a problem that the Obama administration is trying to fix as it works on proposals to increase medical coverage for millions of people. Of particular concern is the shortage of primary care providers. Some are suggesting that Medicare payments to general practitioners should be increased, but specialists say their payments shouldn't be cut to achieve this. USA Today leads with data that show the nation's largest electric utilities increased spending on lobbyists by 30 percent in the last six months of 2008 as Congress began to seriously debate climate change.

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