Category: Health

By Karen Pearlman / East County Magazine / July 9, 2025

…”I have never seen such a destructive project with such negative impacts on the people who live in a community.” — former Supervisor Dianne Jacob, a Jamul resident

The Cottonwood Sand Mine is a wash, at least for now.

After nearly six hours of testimony, presentations and discussion, the San Diego County Planning Commission on Wednesday voted to disapprove a permit for the planned private sand mining operation in Rancho San Diego.

The six-member Planning Commission deadlocked to approve the project, and its tie vote constituted a no-go for mining about 215 acres of the 280-acre golf course site.

“We had a big win today, and it was a little too close for comfort, but 3-3 is a denial,” said Barry Jantz, part of the Stop Cottonwood Sand Mine Group.

A judge last week delayed the preliminary hearing to Aug. 25 for a woman charged with stabbing two men in Ocean Beach after yelling, “That’s not how you treat a lady!”

Jana Nichole Halaska, 29, appeared before San Diego Superior Court Judge Dwayne Moring on June 25 and delayed the hearing at her attorney’s request. Halaska has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder of Gabriel Milan and assault with a deadly weapon on Christopher Abrahamsen, both of whom were seriously injured on April 13.

The assault took place at 1:06 a.m. at Bacon Street and Newport Avenue. Both men were strangers to Halaska, but Milan had a brief argument with one woman and kicked her, according to a court document.

By Michael Chen / KGTV 10News / Jul 01, 2025

The family of a 20-year-old Point Loma Nazarene University student is reporting hopeful news after he was critically injured in a freak accident at a beach in Hawaii. Dakota Briley, son of legendary 1990s Pipeline surfer Shawn Briley, is now breathing on his own, though the long-term impact of his head and spinal injuries remains unknown.

“There has been an outpouring of love,” said Erin Lau, Briley’s sister.

Lau described the moment she received news of the accident: “I’ve never prayed and begged so much he would be okay.”

The accident occurred on June 14, while Briley was home for summer break from Point Loma Nazarene University. He was preparing to give a surf lesson on Oahu’s North Shore when disaster struck.

By Joni Halpern

We must have been only five and six years old, my sister Rosie and I, when we were enlisted into providing care for our mom, who was only 35 years old and suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

That was back in 1954, when there was no such thing as Medicaid, In-Home Supportive Services, or affordable health care. There were no food stamps, no child care, nothing to help a father working six days a week to make a living that would give his kids a chance and pay for the care his wife needed.

We were a family of six siblings ranging in age from babyhood to 10 years old.  Our baby sister had already been sent to live with relatives, because my mom could not hold her after she was born.

My dad was a carpenter who worked at the California School for the Deaf, just across the street from where we rented a small house.  He had a group health insurance plan, but it required co-payments; some treatments and medications were not covered at all.  He took us to the doctor as little as possible, relying on old Italian home remedies my immigrant grandmother had taught him.  If we got well, the remedies were said to have worked.  If not, things got worse, and finally, Dad would be forced to take us to the doctor.  But most of the time, we waited it out, missing school, with no one to watch over us except the lady next door, who would peek in the living room window and ask my older sister (who missed school to care for us) if we were okay.

By Arturo Castañares – Publisher / La Prensa / June 26, 2025

A New York judge last month ordered an appointed remediation manager to oversee the notorious jail on Rikers Island in New York after 40 inmates have died since 2022, yet more inmates have died in San Diego County jails without any substantial reform taking place.

46 inmates have died in San Diego County jails since 2022, including 19 in 2022, 13 in 2023, 8 last year, and 6 so far this year.

Those are more deaths per year than Rikers, a jail known as one of the worst -if not the worst- in the country, with stabbings, slashing, fights, assaults on staff, and high numbers of inmate deaths.

In comparison, Rikers has had 40 deaths since 2022, with 19 that year, 9 in 2023, 7 in 2024, and 5 so far this year.

And, before anyone complains about comparing apples to oranges, the jail population of Rikers is larger than the combined population of all seven of San Diego’s County jails, so the percentage of deaths per thousand is even higher for San Diego jails.

“ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT” WILL HURT US ALL, Parts 2 – 4

By Joni Halpern

PART 2: WHOM SHOULD WE GO AFTER?

The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) derives the biggest budget cuts from two massive public health programs — Medicaid and Medicare. It also makes changes that will reduce enrollment in health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Today, more than seven million seniors and 10 million people with disabilities rely on Medicaid. Data show that about 15 million more older adults and people with disabilities and chronic conditions are insured through Medicaid though they do not qualify for it based on age or disability. Almost 70 million people are enrolled in Medicare.3 Almost eight million people will lose Medicaid eligibility because of OBBBA’s changes to the program, 3.1 million will lose other health coverage from OBBBA’s changes affecting ACA Marketplaces, almost one million more will lose coverage from OBBBA’s incorporation of Trump’s proposed ACA rule, and about 4.2 million additional people will lose coverage due to OBBBA’s expiration of ACA premium tax credits.4

Three Big Targets For OBBBA Strategists

Medicaid is a jointly funded state and federal program that helps cover healthcare costs for people with limited income who meet other eligibility requirements. (Medi-Cal is California’s version of Medicaid.). Medicaid is the largest public health insurance program for low-income Americans and the primary payer for long-term services and supports. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that OBBBA will cut federal Medicaid spending by almost $800 billion over 10 years and Medicaid enrollment by 10.3 million.

by Hector Trujillo / Times of San Diego / June 24, 2025

Point Loma Nazarene student Dakota Briley is in a coma and fighting for his life after being hit by a car while he was on the side of a road on June 14 in Hawaii.

Dakota Briley, the 20-year-old son of surfing icon Shawn Briley, is a passionate surfer and member of the Point Loma Nazarene surf team.

He was reportedly unloading surfboards on the North Shore of Oahu near Chun’s Beach when the collision occurred. He is now in an intensive care unit in Honolulu.

“He’s still going through multiple surgeries after being brought to the hospital in critical condition,” said his sister Erin Lau. “Dakota has had several surgeries to stabilize his lower body and repair his lungs.”

By Joni Halpern

First of 4 Parts 

PART 1: IF PIGS COULD FLY

The sales pitch for H.R. 1, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and now under consideration by
the Senate, promises, among other things, that health care will be strengthened across the nation if the bill becomes law. That would be true, if pigs could fly.

What is true is that all of us will feel OBBBA’s pain, either directly or indirectly.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-4 th Dist., Louisiana) want to pass the bill and have it on President Trump’s desk by July 4, 2025. Even if OBBBA does not pass by then, the reconciliation process will end Sept. 30. That’s why it is important for Americans to understand what will happen to our health care under the bill.

OBBBA is expected to kill health insurance coverage for 16 million low-income people, including older adults, caregivers, people with disabilities, children and lawfully present immigrants and families. Of those 16 million, over 90% are U.S. citizens and lawfully present immigrants. 1

OBBBA accomplishes this massive reduction in various ways, but some of the biggest cuts come from restricting Medicare eligibility, rescinding premium assistance
under the Affordable Care Act, and rolling back provisions that make Medicare affordable to low-income enrollees. It makes many other changes designed to reduce
access to these programs, but OBBBA eats away at so many aspects of health care coverage that it is impossible to explain them all in this article.

By The Prebys Foundation / June 22, 2025

What happens in Washington doesn’t stay there.  It reaches all the way into San Diego’s labs, hospitals, and classrooms.

Proposed federal cuts to medical research threaten the life-changing work happening right here at home. From childhood cancer breakthroughs to ensuring diverse voices shape the future of medicine, local researchers are at risk of losing the support they need to keep pushing science forward.

To explore these impacts, the Prebys Foundation and the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network are hosting a public forum on “This Affects All of Us: The Real Impact of Cutting Medical Research Dollars” on Thursday, June 26, 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Neil Morgan Auditorium, San Diego Central Library, 330 Park Boulevard.

The Conrad Prebys Foundation / May 29, 2025

As federal funding for medical and life sciences research faces deep and destabilizing cuts, Prebys Foundation is stepping in with a rapid response package totaling $7 million to defend San Diego’s biomedical research sector?—?one of the world’s leading innovation hubs.

Federal grants have historically provided nearly half of all medical research funding in the United States. This support has enabled transformative advances in drug discovery, fueled job growth, and secured America’s position as a global leader in the life sciences.

In San Diego, the impact has been profound, home to internationally renowned research institutes, universities, and biotech startups that together make up a biomedical ecosystem unlike any other in the country.

Executive orders and steep reductions in federal research investment are threatening critical local initiatives, halting active projects, and forcing early- and mid-career scientists to look abroad or leave the field altogether. Without swift and targeted action, the region risks an exodus of talent and a slowdown in the medical breakthroughs that improve lives and drive the economy.

By Miriam Raftery / East County Magazine / May 20, 2025

Years after the Cottonwood Sand Mine was first proposed along the Sweetwater River on the site of the Cottonwood Golf course in Rancho San Diego, the San Diego County Planning Commission will hold a hearing on the proposed sand mine. The latest draft environmental impact report can be viewed here .

The hearing, originally set for April, will now be held Friday, June 13 at 9a.m. at the San Diego County Operations Center hearing room, 5520 Overland Ave., San Diego.

The Valle de Oro Community Panning Group in March voted 10-1 to oppose the controversial project, with one abstention, as ECM reported. (Rag repost here.)