Children in communities south of San Diego near the port and the traffic-choked border suffer higher rates of asthma than kids in other parts of the county. Is diesel pollution to blame?
Month: February 2012
By Minerva Perez
One California county needed to make some quick adjustments to accommodate the low-level offenders newly under their supervision since last year, when prison realignment started.
In the shadow of USC and close to a new light rail line, property in the northern portion of South L.A. couldn’t be hotter. Older homes and apartment buildings have been refurbished and rented to students at much higher rates than typical long-time working-class South L.A. families can afford. And new development is expected with the introduction of the Expo Line, making buildings like Rolland Curtis Gardens all that more attractive.
By Jessica Chang
For Terri Soares, Merced City School District Nutrition Services Director, it’s all about making the food familiar to students – from its taste to its shape. “Merced city kids have 4 flavor profiles that they know – fat, sugar, salt and fast food,” she said. “And unfortunately, introducing anything outside of those flavor profiles, [they need to become] accustomed to it.”
By Mary Flynn
Larry Romer wants a better future for his son and his hometown in Hayward. The 44-year-old grew up in a neighborhood known as the Jackson Triangle, a diverse and low-income area. Larry stays involved in the community – he tutors school children, coaches baseball and sits on a school committee at his son’s school – but despite his own efforts or the efforts of others, the schools and the neighborhood have deteriorated.
But thanks to the successful collaboration of several civic and community agencies, Romer’s old neighborhood, one of Hayward’s most vulnerable, has been awarded a momentous grant from the Department of Education that will provide nearly $25 million dollars in support services and programs over a five-year period.
The Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula recently received a gold seal of approval from the Joint Commission for its advanced inpatient diabetes care. It is one of six hospitals to receive the certification in California, and one of 41 in the nation.
Urban agriculture is the latest craze, from the White House to Berkeley. But some urban residents have been growing their own food for years, long before it was cool. Rosa Ramirez has the story.
Like the federal Affordable Care Act, the idea behind the Riverside program is that an up-front investment in consistent care will save lives and in the long run, dollars, by reducing hospital stays and emergency room visits. Chris Hernandez, an uninsured 58-year-old who said he’s been in constant pain for months, is one of the early enrollees. His story highlights the rocky road Riverside County could face as it prepares for health reform.
The legal settlement reached Thursday among five big banks, the federal government and 49 states won’t fix the housing market, but it should help two categories of homeowners who are plentiful in California.
California is the state with the highest number of seniors living below federal poverty levels, and half of all California workers will spend their final years in poverty if nothing changes with our retirement system. But women are particularly at risk for economic hardship because they generally live longer and earn less than men over the course of their lives.