LA Launches Recruitment Efforts To Woo Doctors Into Working In Jail System
The county Board of Supervisors approved a plan to pay up to $120,000 in student loans as an incentive to attract specialists who can join right out of their residency program, and senior physicians with at least five years out of residency and some program oversight experience.
LA Daily News:
LA County Offers To Pay Off Student Debt For New Doctors — If They Work In Its Jails
On the outside, Richard Brent was a thief and a user. He stole and used meth and heroin, acted tough and aggressive, all of which got him a 90-day sentence to Los Angeles County’s Men’s Central Jail. But for Dr. Lauren Wolchok, his physician on the inside, Brent is neither criminal nor inmate. For her, he is a person in need of medical care like anyone else. (Abram, 2/26)
In other news from across the states —
LA Times:
Judge Orders California Agricultural Officials To Cease Pesticide Use
A judge has ordered California agricultural officials to stop spraying pesticides on public and private property to control insects that threaten the state's $45-billion agriculture industry. The injunction by a Sacramento County Superior Court judge, issued late last week, could throw a substantial hurdle in front of efforts by the state Department of Food and Agriculture to control dozens of crop-damaging pests such as the Asian citrus psyllid, which carries bacteria that have decimated the citrus industry in Brazil and Florida. (Mohan, 2/26)
LA Daily News:
Filmmaker Kevin Smith Had A Heart Attack, And He Turned It Into Excellent Social Media
As a guy who’s rarely come close to what my doctor would call ideal body mass index, I’ve always admired the filmmaker Kevin Smith’s owning of his own girth. How the “Clerks” director and podcasting raconteur would always talk about how much his wife loved him no matter how big he got, how he Internet-shamed Southwest Airlines for removing him from a flight for being “too fat” . . . . Stuff like that was, if not exactly empowering or inspirational, at least semi-encouraging in a “let me be me” kind of manner. (Strauss, 2/26)
The Associated Press:
LA Police Shoot Man With Weapon Described As Mentally Ill
Los Angeles police say officers have shot and killed a man described as mentally ill who was armed with a sharp weapon. Officer Drake Madison says the man, believed to be in his 20s, died at the scene in Panorama City Monday morning. Madison says police initially responded to a report of a man with a mental illness wielding a 16-inch edged weapon. (2/26)