Before you give: Find out exactly who’s calling. Ask if the caller is a paid telemarketer. Get the exact name and location of the charity he or she represents. Beware of charities that mimic the names of well-established groups and of claims that you’ve given before to a charity you’ve never heard of. Find out […]
Health Care
Flaws in the U.S. health care system, federal health programs and with individual medical providers and patients
Posted inAmerica's Worst Charities, Health Care
Part 1: Dirty secrets of the worst charities
The worst charity in America operates from a metal warehouse behind a gas station in Holiday, Fla. Every year, Kids Wish Network raises millions of dollars in donations in the name of dying children and their families. Every year, it spends less than 3 cents on the dollar helping kids. Most of the rest gets […]
Posted inHealth Care
Hole in California law allows sex offenders to become addiction counselors
California State CapitolAndy Z./Shutterstock “Sexual psychopath.” That was the diagnosis a court-ordered psychiatrist gave Donald Robert Hoffman after he was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 1965. Hoffman, the psychiatrist determined, was a danger to others. But that history didn’t stop Hoffman from becoming a state-registered drug and alcohol counselor decades later, even though […]
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Posted inHealth Care
In Kern County, Latinas shake off stress, shimmy to better health
Marciela Sanchez leads the “Sexy Moms Club” in a Zumba workout based on bailoterapia, dance therapy, near Bakersfield. “They get rid of tiredness, relax their minds,” said Sanchez, one of 80 certified instructors, or “promotores.”Michael Fagans / The Bakersfield Californian LAMONT, Calif. – Like many women in the Central Valley, Elizabeth Sanchez spends her days […]
Posted inHealth Care
Car is king in street design, to detriment of pedestrians
Jose Flores Miguel, in a family photograph, crossed Clayton Road nearly every day to catch the bus or pick up groceries – as he was doing the evening he was killed in 2010.Courtesy of Flores’ family After Jose Flores Miguel, 65, was killed in 2010 crossing a busy Concord boulevard, city officials took action: They […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care
Calif. disability center staff weighs in on patient abuse claims
Patrick Leslie, a chaplain at the Sonoma Developmental Center, speaks about the facility’s need for good publicity at a public forum hosted by California Watch and the Sonoma Index-Tribune. Anna Vignet/California Watch SONOMA, Calif. – California’s largest full-time care center for the severely disabled needs more staff and accountability to correct major internal breakdowns that led […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care
Video: In Jennifer’s Room
A young developmentally disabled woman just wanted to be left alone. What happened next shattered a family.
Posted inHealth Care
Researchers pinpoint antibody critical to fighting flu
Researchers have discovered an antibody (in red) that neutralizes the flu (in blue).Wilson Lab/ Scripps Research Institute Sifting through thousands of proteins, researchers have identified an antibody that not only prevents the influenza virus from taking hold of its victims’ cells, but also cures already infected animals. And by examining the cell and virus in […]
Posted inHealth Care
Health officials warn of lead in eye cosmetic
A girl wears kohl around her eyes. Similar products are known in other languages as tiro and surma. New York City Health Department After a Massachusetts doctor found high levels of lead in an infant’s blood last year, hospital staff found no hazards in common sources of the toxic metal – paint at the family’s home, […]
Posted inHealth Care
With rise in young painkiller abusers, officials see more heroin overdoses
With the steady rise of prescription drug abuse across the state, young pill addicts are succumbing in increasing numbers to another vice: heroin. For young people who otherwise might have been turned off by the needles and track marks associated with intravenous drug use, switching from abusing pills perceived as “clean” and “safe” to snorting […]