A battery array storing backup energy for an office. (Photo: Vittee, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Everyone is familiar with the saying about an ounce of prevention. California Professional Firefighters urge the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) to take a common sense, important action to help prevent avoidable fire hazards.
A patient gets help walking at a nursing home. (Photo: Photographee.eu, via Shutterstock) OPINION: If there were Olympic medals for the delivery of quality care in the state’s nursing homes, California would have just scored gold, silver and bronze in seven separate categories. That’s how the federal government ranks the care that is currently delivered – 24 hours a day – to 350,000 residents in skilled nursing facilities in California.
A nurse with her young patient, and the patient's father. (Photo: Monkey Business Images, via Shutterstock)OPINION: California is one of just 12 states that still excludes qualified nurse practitioners from taking a leading role in helping patients prevent and manage chronic disease like obesity, diabetes and hypertension. I believe this outdated model has deadly consequences for people in our community, where our specialized care for diabetes suffers for lack of qualified health care providers.
A Californian casts a ballot. (Photo: Vepar5 via Shutterstock)Democrats are traversing the 4th Assembly District, seeking support in the sprawling district that stretches from the Bay Area to Sacramento and even further north into the Sacramento Valley and North Coast mountains. The big money from Sacramento hasn’t dropped in yet and might not, depending on whether special interests feel they have a candidate they really want.
Students at a graduation ceremony at Santa Monica City College. (Photo: American Spirit, via Shutterstock)California’s universities receive more and more applications every year. Last year there were a record 193,873 applicants to the University of California and 290,473 to the California State University system. Each applicant applied, on average, to two or three campuses. But just as this demand is growing, more and more eligible students are being turned away from California’s universities.
Election 2014: California voters will decide in November whether to raise the decades-old $250,000 cap on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. The ballot initiative, which also calls for drug and alcohol testing for doctors, will join four other measures that already have qualified for the ballot.