Category: Health

Editor: Hugh Moore is the Chair of the San Diego Green Party.

An Open Letter to the California Democratic Party:

By Hugh Moore, RN, / June 13, 2011

I’m a registered nurse who works in a hospital that serves the disenfranchised and sees every day the damage that the lack of a healthcare system causes. So when I heard that the California Democratic Party had added the principle of healthcare as a right rather than an option of all people I was ecstatic.

By Laurie Macrae, MLS

May 25th, Capitol Action Day in Sacramento, saw a thousand members of the disability community, in-home health care workers and family members massed before the capitol trying to get the attention of state legislators who have put their survival on the chopping block.

It rained steadily as people, many in wheel chairs, many being assisted by care workers and many family groups moved about the pavilion and the various organization tables, gathering information and communicating with their regional counterparts. All day individuals and groups trooped in to the capitol building to meet with legislators.

Editor: Here are several reports from local San Diego media on this issue.

Grocery Workers Get Support From Other Union Members

Union leaders say the Vons, Ralph’s and Albertson’s stores are trying to gut the worker’s health care plans, shifting up to 80 percent of the cost to the workers. The grocery chains say they’re are making a fair offer that gives workers access to excellent coverage. The AFL CIO Labor Council’s 190,000 members pledged to honor a possible strike.

Mayor vows not to veto compromise budget as Council finds $9 million

By Craig Gustafson / SignOnSanDiego / June 6, 2011

The deep cuts once proposed for San Diego parks and libraries won’t happen and the ongoing “brownouts” of city fire engines will stop July 1 — six months ahead of schedule — under a budget approved Monday by the City Council.

Using synthetic drugs such as spice will do more than just risk your military career — it could lead to serious and potentially long-term mental disorders.

That’s the initial observation by a Navy psychiatry resident who worked with sailors and Marines treated this past year at Naval Medical Center San Diego for using the popular-yet-banned drugs.

BERLIN — Europe’s economic powerhouse, Germany, announced plans Monday to abandon nuclear energy over the next 11 years, outlining an ambitious strategy in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster to replace atomic power with renewable energy sources.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hopes the transformation to more solar, wind and hydroelectric power serves as a roadmap for other countries.

The National Weather Service for the San Diego area has issued a Coastal Hazard Message about a High Surf Advisory.

The high surf advisory is in effect until 3 a.m. Friday, June 3, for south facing beaches.

Another large, long period southern hemisphere swell will generate high surf along most south facing San Diego County beaches, as well as along most of Orange County beaches, today through early Friday morning.

By Dave Maass / CityBeat / May 30, 2011

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station suffered yet another accident this weekend when a mechanical failure resulted in the release of 75 gallons of sulfuric acid, according to a spill report (pdf) filed with the U.S. National Response Center.

By Eugene Davidovich / Nug Mag

In April of this year, the San Diego City Council passed an ordinance that effectively denied safe access to thousands of patients in the city. If left as is, it would have negatively impacted the most vulnerable members of our community by cutting off access to their medicine.

As the ordinance is written, all locations where patients currently safely obtain their medicine, would be forced to shutter their doors and only a small handful would be allowed to open in far flung industrial areas of the City, only after coming into compliance with an onerous year-long conditional use permit process.

Finding Information for Senior Citizens

Obecians and beyond- I need your help! A few weeks ago a close friend of mine asked about medical marijuana dispensaries in the Hillcrest area. I pointed out a dispensary on University Avenue, not far from where we attend our weekly Buddhist meditation. I also tore out the back pages of the Reader which provide a pretty comprehensive list of locations and handed them to her.

Supreme Court Calls BS on California’s 3 Decades of “Law and Order”

by Robert Cruickshank / Calitics / May 23, 2011

I suppose someone should write about [Monday’]s 5-4 US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Plata, where the court ruled that California must release 33,000 prisoners to relieve overcrowding in state prisons. So I’ll take a shot at it.

Washington, DC — A Coalition of advocacy groups and patients filed suit in the DC Circuit Court [May 23, 2011] to compel the Obama administration to answer a 9-year-old petition to reclassify medical marijuana.