All Samantha Kuehn had on her mind when she wore her new t-shirt to school -- with the slogan save the ta-tas plastered across the front -- was her mom, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last month and just received a mastectomy two weeks ago.

But officials at Oklahoma Union High School in Nowata County are not happy about the senior student's decision to wear such a shirt to school. The moment they saw it, in fact, they sent her home. And they told her not to return until she changed the shirt.

Kuehn and her mom, Michelle Bishop, are stunned that the shirt caused such an uproar.

"I was so surprised that my shirt would cause so much trouble," said Samantha. "Other girls wear low cut shirts or belly shirts and the boys wear shirts with put downs on them and no one bothers them. My shirt isn't really vulgar or offensive at all, and it means something to me. The principal told me 'It could be taken the wrong way'."

Principal Steven Barth believes he made the right call.

"If you check the Web site, the clothing sold there is suggestive," explained Barth. "I feel for the condition of her mother, but the shirt was inappropriate to wear to school."

Kuehn and her mom plan to take the matter to a Board of Education meeting on April 11. And you can bet Kuehn will be wearing her shirt.

Visit savethetatas.com for more information on this breast cancer initiative. Sales of all clothing items -- pick your size, slogan and color -- benefit the fight against the disease.

United States Representative Charlie Norwood will soon depart Washington, for good. He will head straight home to Georgia where he will receive hospice care now that he has decided to decline all further treatment for lung cancer that has spread to his liver.

An air ambulance will fly Norwood, 65, home as early as Wednesday or Thursday. The congressman, who had been traveling the halls of Congress in an eclectic cart, with oxygen tank in tow has spent much of his time this session in the hospital.

Suffering from chronic lung disease and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Norwood received a lung transplant in 2004. Doctors then discovered a tumor on his non-transplanted lung and removed it in 2006. But the cancer had already spread to his liver. And while Norwood considered continued treatment, he ultimately determined, "No, you know what, it's time to go home."

Norwood, whose condition was acknowledged by President Bush in his last State of the Union speech, is said to have been as stubborn in his fight against cancer as he was in this fight for the legislation he thought was important for America.

I guess the concept is happy -- the public urging for our world's policy makers to make cancer a top priority -- but the fact that becomes all too apparent on this World Cancer Day is quite sobering. More than seven million people die from cancer and close to 11 million new cases are diagnosed worldwide each year. In 2006, cancer killed more people than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.

So today is both happy and sad. But for now, let's focus on the happy.

The Geneva-based International Union Against Cancer (UICC) and member organizations in 86 countries are launching a five-year campaign to impart life lessons to children so they can prevent cancer later in life. Parents are critical in this campaign and must take an active role in teaching their children techniques for saving their lives.

Forty-three percent of cancer cases can be prevented through healthy lifestyles that begin in childhood. The World Cancer Campaign slogan -- Today's Children, Tomorrow's World -- underscores the possibility that a concerted effort among world leaders, parents, and their children can make a real difference through four key actions -- providing a smoke-free environment for children; ensuring children keep physically active, eat a healthy diet, and avoid obesity; educating children about vaccines for virus-related liver and cervical cancers; and limiting children's exposure to the sun.

Former First Lady Barbara Bush, Her Royal Highness Lalla Slama of Morocco, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, and tennis star Steffi Graf are some of the powerful voices powering this campaign that UICC president Dr. Franco Cavalli says can save so many lives if embraced by those at the highest decision-making levels.

"Complacency and inaction on the part of world community will effectively contribute to more than 10 million deaths every year by 2020," he said.

Health care coverage for working Americans is like a brittle tree in a hard wind -- and the larger limbs are beginning to snap. Between the years 2000 to 2005, 6.8 million more people became uninsured according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. Current data estimates 46.6 million people are without health insurance coverage. As employer-based health insurance continues to fade, government programs are taking up the slack -- up to a point. But given the lack of funding, there is only so much that can be offered.

In a statement issued by the Center for American Progress, "These problems did not just happen: they resulted from flawed economic and health policies which force Americans to work more for less. When it returns after Labor Day, this Congress should act to mitigate these problems by passing a straightforward minimum wage increase and extend health funding for programs like the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Moreover, policy makers should recognize the need for major change, such as providing affordable health care to all Americans and taking action to address growing income inequality."

Some are calling for a government-based universal health care system that guarantees health care coverage for all Americans. Others are suggesting a mix of private and public health care coverage. What ever the solution, there certainly needs to be one.

We can start with a shift in perspective and change in expectation. If you are working full-time for a company, presumably your efforts are helping that company make a profit. Health insurance coverage should not be viewed as a luxury benefit, nor should the largest burden of health insurance premiums be shouldered by the employee whose earnings just meet living expenses. Yet, this is happening every day in this country. The hard wind continues to batter the brittle tree.

Personally, I am not sold on a government-run, government-backed universal health plan simply because I have covered too many horror stories about rationed care in other industrialized countries. It seems a combination of programs might be the solution but the government and our elected officials certainly need to be held accountable for implementing programs that insure all Americans.

American Public Health Association Georges Benjamin is quoted by United Press International as saying, ""This is the worst news we've had all year. Our nation is not secure if we're not healthy."

Firefighters pull off heroic maneuvers all the time. Heat and smoke and fire are their constant companions. Emergency scenarios keep them perpetually challenged. Risking their lives is a top job responsibility. I can't imagine taking on this line of work, yet I am amazed by those who do -- for their eagerness to save lives while compromising their own. And to read today that cancer is another occupational hazard for firefighters makes me appreciate them even more.

In Edmonton, a firefighter who was praised as a hero for saving the life of a rookie firefighter in 2003 died on Saturday of job-related cancer at the age of 47 -- just two years after doctors diagnosed him with a terminal form of multiple myeloma. Clarke Stevens was expected to live for five years.

Ken Block, president of the Edmonton firefighters union said Stevens' death is a reminder of the risks these heroes take. Block says firefighters are between two and four times more likely to develop certain cancers, and Stevens is the fifth Edmonton firefighter to die of cancer since 2004.

It takes a special person to make saving others' lives a priority. To risk death in so many ways -- for the benefit of strangers -- must be the true definition of selflessness. And thank goodness for these selfless individuals who help keep the rest of us safe.

It is estimated that 1.25 billion men and women currently smoke cigarettes. And if this trend holds steady, tobacco will kill 1 billion people by the end of the century -- 10 times the amount of people who died from tobacco in the 20th century. Every one in five cancer deaths results from tobacco use -- worldwide, that's 1.4 million tobacco-related deaths every year. And lung cancer remains the major cancer among the 10.9 million new cases that are diagnosed annually. All this comes from the Cancer Atlas -- updated and released today along with the Tobacco Atlas and published by the American Cancer Society with assistance from the International Union Against Cancer, World Health Organization, and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While improving nutrition and reducing infection can dramatically reduce cancer rates, reducing tobacco use would have the greatest global affect the number of cancer deaths. And if action is taken now, 2 million lives could be saved each year by 2020 and 6.5 million lives by 2040.

In 11 years, ABC management is claiming that nine women from the Brisbane Toowong studios have been diagnosed with breast cancer. A Brisbane law firm is claiming as many as 12 women have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Either way, the staff and journalists have come to the conclusion they are working in the midst of a cancer cluster and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance union who represents them wants the offices relocated by the end of next week. In the meantime, the union does not believe any of the staff should be forced to return to work until the offices are relocated.

But ABC management is saying independent surveys have shown there is no link between the incidence of breast cancer and the workplace. When Queensland Health investigated, they called the high incidence of breast cancer cases excessive, but stopped short of calling the circumstances the result of a cancer cluster. Let's see. The mother of two in her early 30s -- who was forced to undergo a mastectomy last week -- was the 12th woman to be diagnosed with breast cancer -- and the seventh to work in the same room at the Toowong studios.

What is the distinction made by Queensland Health, between cancer excess and cancer cluster? Would you continue working in an environment where a high number of cancer cases seem to be keep occurring?

Hollywood image makers tend to create one-dimensional figures of celebrity stars. It takes effort to break free from being a cardboard product to being a three-dimensional human being. Eva Longoria, best known for her role as sexy Gabrielle Solis in Desperate Housewives, and more recently, for the Maxim magazine cover that can be seen from space, is both beauty and brains, and struggling with the media focus on issues that to her seem irrelevant. She would much rather speak about serious issues -- such as PADRES Contra El Cancer, parents against cancer, an organization committed to improving the quality of life for Latino children with cancer and their families -- than publicly talk about her personal sex life. Longoria is the PADRES spokeswoman.

In 1985, PADRES was created when two American Cancer Society research studies reported that culturally relevant educational and emotional support services for the Latino patient were missing in the medical community. While PADRES is oriented to the Latino community, and serving predominantly Spanish-speaking people living with cancer, childhood cancer patients from all races and ethnic origins are welcome. According to PADRES, the organization, located in Southern California, is the only Latino organization of its kind operating within the United States. To learn more about PADRES, go here.