Category: Health

The Voice of San Diego, an online news publication, has begun a series on the dismal nature of San Diego County’s safety net. It is too excellent to pass up. Here is an excerpt and links to the original article byKelly Bennett and Dagny Salas:

San Diego County’s safety net is riddled with gaps ….

A voiceofsandiego.org investigation has found that the county government’s historical resistance to provide social welfare programs has left a wide chasm between last-resort aid and those on the bottom rungs of economic survival.

The California Senate approved creating a government-run health care system for the nation’s most populous state on Thursday, ignoring a veto threat from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Supporters said it is time for state legislatures to take up the debate as the Obama Administration’s national health care proposal falters in Congress. “If it’s not to be done at the national level, let us take the lead,” said state Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego. The move in California comes after Massachusetts voters changed the calculus in Congress by electing a Republican to the Senate who opposes the pending plan.

Democrats are the majority in both houses of the California Legislature. The 40-member state Senate passed the single-payer plan on a 22-14 vote, sending it to the Assembly. One Democrat voted against the measure.

Editor: I received this email from a good friend this morning after he had watched President Obama’s State of the Union speech:

…. For me, an Obama supporter who contributed hundreds to his campaign – well, tonight I removed my Obama bumper sticker. Based on his speech, he’s a 20th century president in the 21st century, looking backwards into the future. Nuclear power, capital gains cuts, and a health care bill designed by the greedy for the greedy – insurance companies, he’s as much a republican as he needs to be. Just better looking with a better presentation. His approval rating is sinking not because he’s losing the right – he never had them. He’s losing everything left of center.

Here’s an analysis of the Speech:

by John Nichols

Say what you will about Barack Obama. But don’t accuse the president of veering from the course he charted at a point when his term was new, his popularity ratings were high and Americans took seriously all that talk of “hope” and “change.”

Contamination signs have been posted at Dog Beach due to a sewage spill up in Linda Vista. The warning signs were posted today – Wednesday – at Dog Beach – where the San Diego River enters the ocean. It’s estimated that around 4,150 gallons of sewage spilled, contaminating Dog Beach – all from grease blocking a main sewer line.

The city’s Public Utilities Department said it occurred about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at 7011 Linda Vista Road, near Ulric Street.

by Sunshine

Women. Questing, contrary, willful, inventive, questioning women. We are women who name ourselves and announce ourselves as the oracles we are. Breaking the mirror of deceit that kept us tamed, framed, within the mirror, the cage. Unbound in this world, free to achieve our hearts desires.

I am reminded of such women by Laughing Womyn’s (Whispers of Our Knowings by Laughing Womyn Ashonosheni) words on First Woman.

“Return, return, sisters, with me to the time of our origins. Remember First Woman…she whose body was made from this Earth, molded and shaped to carry and birth the coming generations of children, of ideas, of human ways of being. Remember, sisters, when we gave birth to words, and writing, and counting. Remember our healing ways, our artwork, our ways of expressing ourselves, our strong muscles and bones, our minds that fly with our souls.”

Women like this have lived in OB for generations.

California medical marijuana patients won a court battle Thursday.

In a unanimous decision, the state Supreme Court struck down a state law that set an 8-ounce limit on the amount of medical marijuana a patient can possess at one time. The court, in a ruling issued in San Francisco, said the measure approved by the Legislature in 2003 was an illegal amendment of the medical marijuana law enacted by state voters in 1996.

The initiative, known as the Compassionate Use Act, doesn’t set a limit and allows patients to possess the amount needed for “personal medical purposes.” The court ruled in the case of a Los Angeles County patient, Patrick Kelly, who was prosecuted and sentenced to probation for possessing 12 ounces.

Editor: This was sent to us by an OBcean who wanted us to know about Gary Headrick’s address to the San Clemente City Council about his safety concerns at the San Onofre Nuclear power station. Headrick made the following remarks before the San Clemente City Council on January 20th:

City Council Members of San Clemente:

I need to take a few minutes of your time to bring something urgent to your attention. I recently wrote an article about the whistle blowers at San Onofre. Since then, another person with many years in management at the power plant has come forward with more serious allegations, but wishes to remain anonymous. This and other revelations are compelling reasons to temporarily halt progress at San Onofre before they fire up the new generators. The normal channels of communication through the NRC and FEMA have failed, and now we can only seek immediate action from Governor Schwarzenegger.

Sometimes some of the scariest news I read is in the business section. This morning, for example, “Johnson & Johnson accused of paying kickbacks, Federal case involves drugs in nursing homes.”

I am getting more and more anti-drug. Or maybe I should say anti-pharma. When I watch television I have to hit the mute button during all the pharmaceutical ads just to drown out the “fine speak,” the hurried, monotone spiel informing consumers of all the possible side effects of the wonder drugs they are trying to promote. What really torques me is that a lot of the time they don’t even say what the drug is supposed to do for you, but inform you to “ask your doctor if it might be right for you.” How many people ask doctors about drugs to treat conditions they don’t even have? Probably more than I would be willing to admit, and those people trust their doctors, don’t they. And they trust their pharmacists to give them the straight dope, right?

In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.

According to the study, which was summarized by Rady Ananda at Food Freedom, “Three varieties of Monsanto’s GM corn – Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and Roundup® herbicide-absorbing NK 603 – were approved for consumption by US, European and several other national food safety authorities.”

The National Weather Service has issued a high surf advisory and authorities were warning beachgoers to avoid the potentially dangerous conditions.

The advisory is in effect from from 4 a.m. Wednesday through 9 a.m. Friday for San Diego and Orange counties. High surf is expected in most areas, with sets up to 15 feet on west-facing beaches, according to the weather service.

Costal flooding is possible during the astronomical high tides early Wednesday through Thursday afternoon, the weather service reported. In San Diego County, the areas most vulnerable to flooding are between Camp Pendleton and Leucadia in Encinitas, between Cardiff and Del Mar, from Mission Beach to Ocean Beach, and from the Silver Strand south to the mouth of the Tijuana River.

By Mike Lee / Union-Tribune / Originally published January 6, 2010

Nearly five years after regional water-pollution cops announced a landmark order to clean toxic muck in San Diego Bay, they’re back with a plan that would remove just 16 percent of the sediment targeted initially.

The latest strategy was crafted during months of confidential talks with groups on the hook for the work. It’s expected to cost about half of the $96 million price tag from the original cleanup order, which the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board spent years developing so it could withstand courtroom challenges.

Is it me or does this thing about the City putting up tsunami signs ring a wrong tune in these budget cutting times?

On one hand, OB and the rest of San Diego beaches are threatened with losing our fire pits, yet at the same time, the City goes around and puts up these warning signs.

Whew! I am sooo relieved. I never would have known which way to run, ride or skate if OB was faced with a tsunami.