Friends, loved ones and former colleagues will gather to remember the life of former state Assemblymember Patty Berg at a memorial service from 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 1, at the Baywood Golf and Country Club in Arcata. Berg, the founding executive director of the Area 1 Agency on Aging who went on […]
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Former Assemblymember Patty Berg Has Died at 82
Former North Coast Assemblymember Patty Berg, the founding executive director of the Area 1 Agency on Aging, who spearheaded the state’s first-of-its-kind master plan on aging, has died. She was 82. Berg, best known for her six years serving the North Coast in the California Assembly, was a fierce advocate for seniors and dedicated much […]
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Topsy-turvy Top-two: Is California Primary System Keeping Its Promises?
If you need an example of just how befuddling California’s top-two primary system can be, consider the case of the $50,000 mailer sent to voters across 13 California counties in early June. The mailer’s message: In the crowded race for a state Senate district that sprawls from Modesto to Truckee to the Owens Valley, the […]
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Why Single Payer Died in the California Legislature, Again
Despite, or perhaps because of, an aggressive last-minute push by progressive activists ahead of a crucial deadline, legislation to create a government-run universal health care system in California died Monday without coming up for a vote. The single-payer measure, Assembly Bill 1400, was the latest attempt to deliver on a longtime priority of Democratic Party […]
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UPDATED: Two EPD Officers on Leave, Investigation Underway into Report of Offensive Text Exchanges
Eureka Police Chief Steve Watson placed two officers on administrative leave Wednesday after the Sacramento Bee published an article about obscene, denigrating and sometimes violent texts reportedly exchanged by them and others in their squad over several months in 2020. In a letter to the community, the chief said he had not been aware of […]
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New Laws with New Protections Ring in the New Year
With the new year come new laws and 2020 has a bevy of changes going into effect on everything from California’s minimum wage and the classification of independent contractors to protections for nursing mothers and a ban on smoking at state parks and beaches. Here’s a glance at a few of the ones that may […]
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Bill Aims to Ease Hospital Hiring Restrictions to Boost Rural Docs
In an effort to curb the chronic lack of health care in rural areas like Humboldt County, the state Assemblyman Jim Wood-led Health Committee passed a bill that would give small-town hospitals more freedom to hire doctors. The bill is a response to the difficulties rural areas have attracting and retaining medical providers (as the […]
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Wood Pushes Soda Tax Amid Busy Health Week
Really want that Double Big Gulp? Well, come next year, you’ll have to pay an extra $1.28 for it, if North Coast Assemblyman Jim Wood has anything to say about it. Kicking off what’s proven to be a busy week for Wood and health news, the assemblyman introduced a bill that would impose a 2-cent-per-ounce […]
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Brown OKs Pot Laws
Been holding your breath? Go ahead, exhale, Gov. Jerry Brown has signed those medical marijuana bills. The trio, introduced by State Sen. Mike McGuire and assemblymen Jim Wood and Rob Bonta — and then tinkered with by staff from the offices of many other lawmakers and Brown himself — introduce wide-ranging regulations to the state’s […]
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Pot Regulation Bill Goes up in Smoke
A bill seeking to create a regulatory framework for California’s multi-billion dollar medical marijuana industry died quietly in an Assembly committee today, the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting. Hailed by supporters as an attempt to bring order to the current void of state regulations and vilified by opponents as a brain child of narcotics officers […]