Bloggers have lots of thoughts on Obama’s budget:

• Merrill Goozner at GoozNews gives us the big picture
• Maggie Mahar at Health Beat explores the challenges of the budget’s approach to healthcare
• Ezra Klein explains how it addresses the question of an individual mandate for health insurance
• Sarah Rubenstein at WSJ’s Health Blog highlights proposed spending on food safety, the healthcare workforce, cancer, and autism
• Emily Douglas at RH Reality Check examines reproductive-health related items
• Kate Sheppard at Gristmill gives us a rundown of the environmental provisions

Elsewhere:

Tom Philpott at Gristmill reports that Obama has apparently picked a real reformer for the deputy USDA post (in contrast to his choice to head that agency).

Kane at OSHA Underground finds a large penalty from OSHA to be a sign that things are changing at the agency (plus: Kane posts Hilda Solis’s first message to Department of Labor Employees)

Nancy Goldstein at Broadsheet explains why proposed Tennessee bill on drug-addicted pregnant women is problematic.

Robert McClure at Dateline Earth brings word of progress on efforts to get mining firms to clean up their messes.

Craig Lefebvre at On Social Marketing and Social Change has some thoughts about how social marketers should proceed given the latest findings about different diets being equally effective for weight loss.

Maryn McKenna at Superbug highlights an Oklahoma finding that suggests another possible connection between industrial farming and the spread of harmful bacteria.

Mead Over at Global Health Policy questions the evidence about cell phones’ usefulness in health promotion efforts.