Associated Press

By Genevieve Bookwalter

Veronica Villalobos mans a desk in a crowded waiting room at St. James Health Center in San Jose. She’s looking for those whose low income — less than $699 per month for a single person — might qualify them for free medical care. Villalobos wants to find those patients. Her job as patient navigator is to sign them up with Valley Care—Santa Clara County’s newest program providing health insurance for the very poor.

The county’s first target? Patients with little money who don’t qualify for other public health programs. By county estimates, that includes about 23,500 residents.

By Enrique Gili

An organic farm helps soldiers adjust to civilian life and makes farmers out of former fighters.

By Brenda Duran

The national dialogue on the obesity epidemic continues, but city leaders in Long Beach are moving past the talk and springing into action with a citywide mission to get people moving. This past month, city officials agreed to pass legislation for a new initiative, called “Move Long Beach,” that would make exercise and nutrition part of the city’s master plan.

By Chris Richard

A growing body of science has confirmed that dirty freeway air undermines the health of those living nearby, and regulators are studying mitigation measures. But activists say a more pervasive danger has received too little attention: lead in the exhaust of propeller-driven aircraft that routinely fly in and out of small regional airports.

By Robert Fulton

Jesus Lopez is stressed out. Lopez stands outside his small South Los Angeles apartment on a clear, cloudless California afternoon., his black-and-white tabby cat Sylvester encircling his legs. His home has been foreclosed upon and is now the property of U.S. Bank. But the long-time South L.A. resident’s worry isn’t that his own personal American Dream of home ownership is threatened. No, Lopez is stressed because he, like many in South Los Angeles, rents. With his apartment now the property of the bank, Lopez doesn’t know what the future holds.

By Callie Shanafelt

A hotline for seniors – a group at high risk for suicide – helps people manage the emotions that come with aging.

By Minerva Perez

A plaque erected in Merced to remember missing and exploited children has drawn the ire of some parents. The blunt language is not something they want to explain to their children, they say.

But child advocates say the discussion does not have to be so difficult, and it can prevent future heartache.