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New Study Finds Worrisome Pattern of Birth Defects in Fracking Communities

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By Miriam Rotkin-Ellman/Switchboard–Natural Resources Defense Council

Science has long known that the developing fetus is sensitive to experiences of the mother – alcohol consumption, dietary factors, and mercury exposure are some of the more well-known examples.  This sensitivity makes newborn babies an early indicator of something going wrong in the environment of the mother.  Unfortunately, a team of researchers found preliminary evidence of something gone wrong when they looked at the patterns of birth defects in newborn babies in Colorado.  The researchers found that babies whose mothers lived in close proximity to multiple oil and gas wells were 30% more likely to be born with defects in their heart than babies born to mothers who did not live close to oil and gas wells.

As a public health scientist, this finding raises alarm bells and leads to many questions.  This is the first published peer reviewed study realistically examining whether people living near sites where fracking has occurred are experiencing more health impacts.  The fact that it found a statistically significant association, is very worrisome especially in combination with early reports of similar findings from a study in Pennsylvania. Although these types of studies can’t tell us definitively that pollution from oil and gas wells is the cause of the elevated birth defects, the findings of this study are like a flashing light saying something is going on here and we need to take action to make sure our most vulnerable are protected.  In fact, it is studies like this one that have ultimately led to the understanding we now have of how to protect pregnant women and ensure healthier babies.   [Read more…]

City Attorney Ploy to ‘Slut Shame’ Woman Sexually Assaulted by Cop Backfires

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By Doug Porter

“Jane Doe” is one of thirteen women who sued the City of San Diego following the arrest of SDPD officer Anthony Arevalos for sexually assaulting women while on duty by threatening them with arrest. It was her courage in filing a complaint that triggered an investigation leading to an arrest of the officer.

Yesterday reporters with 10News revealed that taxpayer dollars, authorized by the City Attorney’s office, were used to hire a private investigator to follow and videotape Jane Doe over a 23 day period. The investigator’s report, uncovered during the discovery process, clearly indicates the intention to portray her as ‘wanton woman.’

Twelve of the victims have settled their lawsuits, with payouts totalling $2.3 million. Jane Doe has stood fast, even as City Attorney Jan Goldsmith has portrayed her in the news media as a gold digger.  The real issue at hand is the young woman’s demand that the city create an independent monitor at the San Diego Police Department to watch for corruption. She and her attorneys claim there were several reports and accusations Arevalos engaged in similar misconduct over a decade.   [Read more…]

Gardening Is the New Front Porch in America

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By Susan Taylor

Gardening is the new front porch in America. Scratch not too deeply and we all have agricultural roots from someone, somewhere. San Diego is growing veggies in the front yard, the back yard, a community garden or even on someone else’s property. The “new” hot landscaping is called edible landscaping. Take a walk and look around. See any lettuce, chard or grapevines next to the sidewalk, near the front door?   [Read more…]

Our Oppression, Our Responsibility

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By Will Falk

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about responsibility.

It all started when a friend of mine asked me why she should feel responsible for this culture’s oppression. “I’m not doing any oppressing,” she said. “I refuse to accept responsibility.”

This shocked me – not so much because I haven’t heard people say this before, but because it came from a woman I consider a very compassionate person. If she refused responsibility maybe I should think about it, too.

This spun me into a tornado of self-examination. We only get one chance at this life, right? If the oppression is not my responsibility, why should I spend all my life fighting it?   [Read more…]

Wyatt’s Wish Turns One – Helping the Homeless in San Diego, One Care Package at a Time

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This 10-year-old has done more to help the homeless in the last year than most people do in their entire lives.

By Eva Posner

From the time he was in preschool, Wyatt Phillips, 10, has had an intense amount of compassion for the homeless.

“Whenever I see a homeless person it just makes me very sad,” he says. “No person should have to go through that. I just want to do something to help them.”

His mother recalls when he was three years old, he saw a homeless man on the side of the road.

“We had just gone through the drive through at Wendy’s. He said to me, ‘Mommy, turn around. I want to give him my food.’ And he did. He handed a perfect stranger his kid’s meal. I was astounded.”   [Read more…]

Pollution: In Our Air, In Our Politics

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By Joy Williams / Environmental Health Coalition

As a kid growing up in the LA air basin during the smoggy 50s and 60s, I thought of irritated eyes and a sore chest as normal parts of life. The sky on hot summer afternoons was a brownish yellow shade, and the air sometimes made your eyes water. In my later childhood years, I came to view air pollution as a symbol of how radically alienated from nature Southern California life was; as I thought of it in apocalyptic, if poetic, terms, we had poisoned heaven. Later, in college, I learned to think in more analytical, and hopeful, ways — smog could be analyzed, understood and to a large extent, controlled. The ochre-brown color came from nitrogen oxides; the lung-damaging substance was ozone.

Particulates added a hazy quality. It wasn’t an amorphous cloud of human failure hanging over our cities, it was a specific set of pollutants with knowable causes and controls. If you increased the fuel efficiency of cars and added on catalytic converters, the air quality got better. And the photochemical smog picture of SoCal actually has improved since the 60s.   [Read more…]

Calls Intensify for Obama to Fulfill Campaign Promise on GMO Labeling

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Members of congress, farmers and businesses await response from president

By Elizabeth Kucinich / Center for Food Safety

When polled, 93 percent of the American public said they supported the labeling of genetically engineered food and ingredients. Sixty-four countries already have GMO labeling standards.

A morning press conference offered a beacon of hope for farmers and activists on Capitol Hill today as members of Congress and 200 organizations demanded Obama fulfill his 2007 campaign promises to label GMOs.   [Read more…]

About Those Legal Changes in Military Sexual Assault Cases…

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By Kathy Gilberd

The Department of Defense has just released preliminary figures showing that reported cases of sexual assaults in the military have increased by 50% in the last fiscal year — from 3,374 in 2012 to more than 5,000 in 2013. While DoD officials are still evaluating the numbers, their initial public statement claims that this does not represent an increase in the total number of sexual assaults (which they assume to be about the same as the 26,000 cases in 2012), but rather in the number of people willing to come forward and file reports after having been assaulted.

If DoD’s assessment is correct, the increase in reporting is the result of a year of public and congressional pressure on the military to treat assaults seriously, and resulting new regulations that have provided some additional protections to victims/survivors of assault. Congressional hearings and statements, lawsuits challenging the military’s handling of assaults, and diligent work by organizations such as Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) have created a climate in which servicemembers may have a little more confidence that reporting assault could lead to punishment of the offenders and, hopefully, that reporting would not lead to retaliation.   [Read more…]

A Good Moral Philosopher Would Go Hungry These Days

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Long running disregard for the care of mentally ill exacerbates chronic homelessness, creates public safety dilemma.

By Bob Dorn

Today (ed., January 22) the park rangers moved out the couple living across the street in our dilapidated corner of Balboa Park.

I wasn’t sorry to see them go. I wasn’t happy to see them go. Homelessness long ago became another national shrug. No one’s to blame any more, neither the Republicans nor the Democrats, maybe not even the very wealthy, unless they were lucky enough to own banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America which made The American Dream a thing of the past for many, like the two across the street.

This is an unlikely pair. He sports a trim grey beard, a black porkpie and an overcoat, looking like a former rock and roller or rogue spy gone to seed. He might be 50, he might be70. I doubt he lives there with her because I frequently see him riding his bike down in the mornings, and leaving on the bike before nightfall.   [Read more…]

Peters, Family Health Centers Combine Efforts to Bring Health Care to Local Residents

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Logan Heights branch of Family Health Centers of San Diego adds twist to Congressman’s ACA outreach efforts.

By Andy Cohen

Congressman Scott Peters may have his issues with the Affordable Care Act—and let’s be honest, who doesn’t?—but you’d be hard pressed to find another elected member of Congress who has done more, conducted more outreach efforts to inform his or her constituents about what the law really is, how it works, and how they can best take advantage of what it has to offer.  It’s an imperfect solution to an even more imperfect healthcare system, but it’s a start, and a reasonably good one particularly given the current political environment and adamant GOP opposition to a law they have exactly zero chance at undoing.

The ACA, or “Obamacare” as it’s come to be known, is a work in progress, says Peters.  It can be a success, and it will be, but we have to work to make it better.

His Republican colleagues, says Peters, would seem to prefer a return to the old way of doing things with regard to health care in America, and that’s simply not an option.  The old way wasn’t working…..for anyone.  And yet they have done everything in their power to undermine and sabotage the first significant expansion of healthcare in America since Teddy Roosevelt first tried over a century ago.  “They’ve talked a lot about alternatives, but they haven’t offered a single one,” said Peters.  Thankfully, he says, now that the law has been fully implemented, the days of constant repeal votes in the House of Representatives appear to be at an end.  At least that‘s the hope.   [Read more…]

A Personal Story: Anthem Blue Cross Profits by Denying Prescriptions

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By Brenda McFarlane / OB Rag

It’s happened again. I have been denied coverage for Modafinil yet again, this time by the exact same company who has already approved it.

I’ve been on a prescription medication that treats my Ideopathic Hypersomnia for several years now. It’s an extremely expensive drug, even the generic form can be more than a $1000 a month. I have been diagnosed by a esteemed sleep doctor in San Diego and he confirms that the drug is both medically necessary and that no effective (and non-narcotic) substitute exists.

Without the drug I suffer from sometimes overwhelming sleepiness. Without it I get a band of sleep deprived headaches, driving may be either impossible or require pulling over to take naps, even after 5 minutes on the road. I grew up with this condition – undiagnosed – and lost years of my life to sleepiness. Smoking cigarettes or eating sugar were the two things I could rely on to help stay awake especially to drive.

I am writing this as I wait on hold for the next patient care advocate with Express Scripts, I am at 43 minutes.   [Read more…]

Toll of U.S. Sailors Devastated by Fukushima Radiation Continues to Climb

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By Harvey Wasserman / Common Dreams

The roll call of U.S. sailors who say their health was devastated when they were irradiated while delivering humanitarian help near the stricken Fukushima nuke is continuing to soar.

So many have come forward that the progress of their federal class action lawsuit has been delayed.

Bay area lawyer Charles Bonner says a re-filing will wait until early February to accommodate a constant influx of sailors from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and other American ships.   [Read more…]

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