Posts Tagged: cancer

State Library creates Greg Schmidt collection

A tiny sampling of the books on Greg Schmidt's home shelves.

by JOHN HOWARD posted 12.09.2016

The California State Library is setting up a special collection in honor of Gregory Schmidt, the long-time ranking Senate staffer who died of cancer at the age of 69. State Librarian Greg Lucas said in an email that the Greg Schmidt Collection on Political Leadership will include “any number of books, articles, movies, podcasts, lectures and case studies besides those in Greg’s personal library that inform today’s political leaders.”

Tobacco industry spends millions to block Prop. 56

by DARIN LATIMORE posted 11.03.2016

OPINION: Tobacco companies have spent more than $70 million fighting Proposition 56, a life-saving initiative that will protect kids from deadly addiction, improve access to health care for Californians and fight cancer and other tobacco-related diseases. As a volunteer physician for the American Lung Association in California, I strongly support Prop 56.

State bets $30 million on new cancer treatment

A scientist works in a biological laboratory. (Photo: Anya Ivanova, via Shutterstock)

by DAVID JENSEN posted 03.01.2016

A new stem cell company that targets cancer by unleashing an “eat me” trigger has emerged from a $30 million investment by the state of California. Creation of the Palo Alto firm, which is called Forty Seven, Inc., was announced Feb. 24 by its backers and its key researcher, Irv Weissman, director of Stanford University’s stem cell program.

Recent research is focusing new attention on an asbestos-like mineral, blamed for staggering rates of a deadly cancer in Turkey, that also is found in the rocks and soil of 13 Western states, including California. The U.S. Geological Survey has identified 95 sites where the mineral, erionite, exists. Nine of the identified locations are in California.

Governor signs end-of-life bill

Debbie Ziegler, mother of Brittany Maynard, speaks to the media in Sacramento after the passage in September of legislation that would allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives. Gov. Brown signed the bill Monday.(Photo: AP/Carl Costas)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 10.05.2015

Gov. Jerry Brown, in one of the most emotional moments of his long political career, signed into law a bill allowing people near death to end their lives with lethal drugs supplied by a physician. “The crux of the matter is whether the state of California should continue to make it a crime for a dying person to end his life, no matter how great his pain or suffering,” Brown wrote in his official signing message.

Millions of Californians receive quality health care thanks to the Affordable Care Act and Medi-Cal. And though most would probably thank President Obama or the Governor for that, Peter Harbage, who passed away Tuesday at age 43, after a courageous fight with cancer, had a lot to do with it too. “Peter is the unsung architect of health care reform in the United States,” says Anthony Wright, Executive Director of Health Access, a health care consumer advocacy group.

OPINION: It’s the end of August and, like the rest of California, Sacramento is seeing temperatures rise. But over at the Capitol, legislators are sitting in the middle of a blizzard of alarmist rhetoric from the chemical industry about legislation to disclose the use of toxic flame retardants on furniture.

OPINION: Occasionally, a patient can find the information on the individual insurer website, but the formularies are displayed differently with each plan, making it difficult to compare plans to each other. In addition, there is no way to compare out-of-pocket costs.