Latest California Healthline Stories
California AIDSRide Registrants Down; Pallotta TeamWorks Seeks Court Order to Stop ‘Splinter’ Event
The San Francisco Chronicle today examines the “bitter feud” surrounding this year’s California AIDSRide and how the controversy has resulted in lower participation for the event to date.
The Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative on Tuesday filed a motion asking a federal judge to lift an injunction that bars the group from selling marijuana for medicinal purposes, the AP/Contra Costa Times reports.
High Court Limits Definition of Disability Under ADA
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled yesterday that people must have “substantial limitations” on activities “central to daily life,” not only in the workplace, to qualify as disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the New York Times reports.
The medical information company DigiScript Inc. has created the Bioterrorism Learning Center, a new Web site that shows video presentations of doctors, scientists and government officials dispensing information on bioterrorism and clarifying some misconceptions about bioterrorist threats, the Washington Times reports.
Davis Touts Record on Health Care, Proposes New Programs in State of the State Address
With the state facing an estimated $12 billion budget deficit next year, Gov. Gray Davis (D) last night delivered his State of the State address, promoting his record on a number of issues, including health care, and proposing several new programs, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Poll Finds Strong Support for Physician-Assisted Suicide
A majority of U.S. adults support the right to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide and believe that Attorney General John Ashcroft was wrong to block the Oregon proposition allowing the latter practice, according to a new Harris poll. In the survey of 1,011 adults conducted last month, 65% of respondents agreed that the “law should allow doctors to comply with the wishes of a dying patient in severe distress who asks to have his or her life ended.”
Study Says Tap Water Poses Birth Defect, Miscarriage Risk
A study released Tuesday by two environmental groups says that in some areas, tap water consumed by “millions of Americans” contains more chlorine byproducts than are safe for pregnant women, the AP/St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
The California Endowment Grants $990,000 to KCET ‘Life & Times’ to Expand Health Programming
The California Endowment has provided a $990,000 grant to KCET’s public television program “Life & Times” to “increase coverage of health issues affecting California’s diverse communities.”
Berkeley Anti-Smoking Codes Already Stricter Than State’s New Laws
The city of Berkeley, one of the first localities in the nation to enact anti-smoking measures, “took little notice” of two of the three statewide anti-smoking laws that took effect on Jan. 1 because it already had “tougher” codes than the new laws, the Contra Costa Times reports.
Study Finds Public Health Insurance Programs Result in Only Small Reduction in Uninsured
A new study of public health insurance programs in four states found that the programs only led to a small reduction in the number of uninsured residents and enrolled a number of individuals who could have received coverage from private insurance, raising doubts about the potential for a similar program at the national level.