Posts Tagged: communities

News

Public banking movement gaining traction in California

Historical building of Wells Fargo in San Francisco's financial district. Photo: Takako Hatayama-Phillips, via Shutterstock)

San Francisco has taken its first major step toward establishing a public bank, and other California municipalities are also moving forward in exploring public banking, including a regional effort by cities and counties on the Central Coast. The California statute reportedly is adding fuel to a nationwide public banking effort.

Opinion

Race, income have dramatic effect on pollution exposure

Homes in Los Angeles with a refinery and oil storage tanks nearby. (Photo: trekandshoot, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The science is clear. There is no way to effectively protect the health of vulnerable and unserved communities without confronting how factors like race and income impact exposure to the air quality threats created by fossil fuels.

Opinion

Pandemic shows need to invest in public health protections

Cars line up to enter a COVID-19 vaccination superstation at Petco Park, San Diego. (Photo: Simone Hogan, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: One thing we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that there is an immense need to invest in public health and disease prevention tools before there is another widespread outbreak. While we cannot fix the past, we do have an opportunity to ensure California residents are protected from debilitating and deadly diseases in the future.

Opinion

Historic spike in gun violence demands response from Newsom

Gunsmith working on an 300 Blackout AR rifle upper receiver in a vise at a gun shop in California

OPINION: As gun sales and gun deaths have continued to surge since the onset of the pandemic, California’s underinvestment in violence intervention programs has become a glaring policy failure. Even after January 2021 proved to be California’s single deadliest month for gun homicides since 2007, the governor and state legislators have still not agreed to make funding the California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) grant program a priority.

Opinion

State must keep Medi-Cal funding for phone appointments

A physician uses his cell phone for a medical discussion. (Photo: apr.org)

OPINION: The mother on the other end of the phone call was worried about her newborn’s increased fussiness and stomach issues.  After taking a thorough history, the problem became clear: The mother had switched from breastmilk to a formula that triggered symptoms related to the baby’s known history of milk protein allergy. I advised a switch to a hydrolyzed formula.

Opinion

Prioritizing vaccines? Think of public transit workers

A worker gives directions as motorists wait in lines to get the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine in a parking lot at Dodger Stadium in L.A. (Photo: Ringo Chiu, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: As the leader of the association representing California’s public transit agencies and the head of the state’s largest union representing public transit workers, we strongly urge Gov.  Newsom and state and local health officials to provide priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine to public transit workers.

Opinion

Community health centers offer true fairness in vaccinations

A man receives a COVID-19 vaccination from a nurse at a clinic set up in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Mission. (Photo: Ringo Chiu, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Many of the 55 elderly patients arrived for their second COVID-19 vaccines, leaning on their children’s arms or walkers. Most were Latinx or Black. All were age 75 or older, and they were eager to get vaccinated against the deadly virus.

News

Coronavirus devastates California farm workers

Farm workers with masks pick strawberries near Carlsbad, San Diego County. (Photo: Simone Hogan, via Shutterstock)

Back in April, when the lockdown was first beginning, a California Farm Bureau study reported that the agriculture sector had lost more than 2.4 million jobs directly attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, along with the financial hit, farm workers are suffering through increased risk of deadly infection.

Opinion

Defined benefit pensions crucial for economic health

Couple enjoying a lake in Rancho Santa Margarita, Orange County.(Photo: VG Photo, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: As Americans confront the effects of a K-shaped recovery that is further enriching the wealthy even as low- and-middle income workers struggle to stay afloat, the chasm between Wall Street and Main Street has never seemed wider. Finding ways to bridge that chasm remains one of this nation’s greatest economic challenges.

News

‘Pesticide drift’ affecting California health and safety

A helicopter sprays a field in the Salinas Valley. (Photo: Dwight Smith, via Shutterstock)

Angela Mancuso had just dropped off her kids at Glenwood Elementary School when she started to smell something “funky.” She was driving back to her home just a mile away in Stockton and decided to roll down her window for some fresh air. She noticed too late that a helicopter applying pesticide to a nearby walnut grove that Tuesday morning in September 2016 kept flying back and forth across the road, spraying continuously.

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