An artist's photo illustration depicting a mental illness. (Image: Triff, via Shutterstock)OPINION: As I have shared throughout my career I, like many people, have a mental health condition. I have anxiety and bi-polar depression. I am also in recovery for alcoholism. I regularly see a psychiatrist, therapist and I take medication.
A gunsmith works on a 300 Blackout AR rifle in a Placerville gun shop.(Photo: SvetlanaSF, via Shutterstock)California may well have the toughest gun laws in the country, but criminals still get automatic weapons and everyday people still head to the gun store in times of trouble. And the pandemic with its parade of woes has motivated thousands of first-time gun buyers. It turns out, while some Californians hoarded toilet paper and hand sanitizer, others bulked up on firepower.
A worker inspects planks at a California timber yard. (Photo: sirtravelalot, via Shutterrstock)The year 2021 was a long year battling COVID-19. As coronavirus restrictions ease under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s SMARTER Plan in 2022, we turn to the Golden State’s labor market. Is it on track to rebound to its pre-pandemic shape? Here are the employment numbers, then and now.
A nurse at a protest at Alameda Hospital in 2020 seeking improved medical protective equipment. (Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald, via Shutterstock)On the front line of health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, registered nurse members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United are pushing for more employer accountability tied to a crisis of staffing and unsafe workplaces. The union, which represents about 100,000 registered nurses in California, says the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has not adopted such workplace protections.
An April 2021 demonstration in Los Angeles against masks and vaccination requirements. (Photo: Michael Gordon via Shutterstock)A proposal sailing through the California Legislature that aims to stop people from getting harassed outside of vaccination sites is raising alarms among some First Amendment experts. The measure was introduced after protesters briefly shut down a mass vaccination clinic at Dodger Stadium in January.
An illustration of several Big Tech companies on a cell phone display. (Photo: Koshiro K, via Shutterstock)Gov. Gavin Newsom has embraced Silicon Valley tech companies and health care industry titans in response to the covid-19 pandemic like no other governor in America — routinely outsourcing life-or-death public health duties to his allies in the private sector. At least 30 tech and health care companies have received lucrative, no-bid government contracts, or helped fund and carry out critical public health activities during the state’s battle against the coronavirus, a KHN analysis has found.
Illustration: Hydrocodone pills and prescription bottles. (Image: Andy Dean Photography, via Shutterstock.)OPINION: A record 3,200 Californians lost their lives to opioids in 2019 — well before the stress and disruption caused by COVID-19 caused overdose deaths to spike to new highs nationwide. By May 2020, powerful synthetic opioids such as fentanyl caused California’s 12-month all-drug overdose death rate to spike nearly 27%, significantly faster than the national average.
Pallbearers carry a coffin into a church for services. Photo: Krysja, via Shutterstock)COVID 19 is not only overwhelming California’s hospitals, it’s overwhelming cemeteries and funeral homes as well. Funeral directors across the state are being forced to tell grieving families that they have no more room and cannot serve them.
A medical researcher at work. (Photo: National Cancer Institute, via Wikimedia Commons.Capitol Weekly’s John Howard and Tim Foster were joined by Dr. Dean Blumberg, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, UC Davis School of Medicine and Acting Chief, Pediatric Infectious Disease Section, UC Davis Medical Center.
A hospital in Tustin with signs lauding health care workers. (Photo: BrianPham75, via Shutterstock)OPINION: The numbers grow scarier each day. Over the past week, California has topped more than 20,000 new cases of COVID-19 in a single day, with more than 8,000 people hospitalized due to the virus. Those volumes dwarf any seen in the past year, and the impact of get-togethers during Thanksgiving are not yet being felt, nor is the projected effect of the December and New Year’s holidays.