Health
Diaper costs are something that many non-parents don’t think about. Individual diapers seem relatively inexpensive and are often considered part of the cost of childcare, but for homeless or low-income families finding $1,100 a year for diapers, which is the average yearly cost to diaper a baby, can be an overwhelming household expense.
Oakland’s Center for Environmental Health tests everyday objects for lead, a toxic heavy metal that is associated with impaired cognitive and behavioral development in children. It may be no further away than your closet.
Oakland is considered a great place to ride bikes—it has temperate weather, flat streets, hills and a diverse array of scenery. After Oakland North did a story on 10 great walks in Oakland, we thought a story on five great bike rides in Oakland would be helpful, too.
Only one generation ago, almost half of all children in the United States walked to school. But today a look at the car-jammed streets outside of schools in the morning and afternoon tells a different story. Only one in ten children now walk to school regularly, with the number of walking and bicycling trips to school made by children down by 65 percent over the last 40 years, according to the U.S Department of Transportation. Parents’ concerns about traffic safety are…
Say you’re at the Rockridge BART station and you’re planning to ride your bike to downtown Oakland. You get on Shafter Avenue—the main through street with the least amount of traffic—and begin riding. The Webster/Shafter corridor, as bike route is called, is one of the several dozen projects the City of Oakland’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Program will be working on in 2011.
Medical marijuana is now legal in 16 states, and during the last election cycle 22 state legislatures considered marijuana-related bills. Reporter Abby Baird has put together an interactive US map showing which states have considered marijuana-related legislation, and how each legislature voted.
Holding an oversized, fleshy mushroom in one hand, an excited Steven Cochrane says, “Let’s key this out!” Cochrane is an amateur mycologist, and he’s holding an item irresistible to mushroom enthusiasts: an unidentified fungus.
Wearing gloves and holding shovels, a group of volunteers knelt down along the Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline on Wednesday afternoon near the Oakland International Airport. They were carefully planting seedlings in the soil surrounding a piece of marsh. “One Mississippi,” a lady in a straw hat counted to herself quickly—the verbal signal is a simple technique to avoid pouring too much water onto a new plant.
Do you have old paint, batteries or fluorescent light bulbs sitting around the house? You know that you shouldn’t throw them away, yet you’re not sure how to properly get rid of them? Here’s a step-by-step guide to everything you need to know on disposing of and recycling your household hazardous waste.