Health
Alameda County officials have declared a state of emergency to prevent the further spread of the H1N1 influenza virus. This declaration will allow for distribution of free vaccine this Saturday to uninsured, high-risk residents at select county locations.
Oakland, like some other cities, requires right-to-life protesters to keep a certain distance from women entering or leaving abortion clinics. But clinic escorts–those who accompany women past the sidewalk protesters–face no such restriction. A lawsuit has pushed the issue into federal court.
In Mosswood Park’s community garden, two local businessmen have installed a growing area that displays their new eco-technology. It’s got vegetables, goldfish, and self-contained watering–and it’s set off deep divisions among the neighbors.
UPDATED: 9:00p.m. A still-undetermined amount of oil spilled from the Panamanian-flagged tanker ship the Dubai Star into the San Francisco Bay Friday morning around 6:48 AM, causing an oil slick two miles long and 220 yards wide.
County D.A Nancy O’Malley and Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, who wrote the legislation, joined other officials yesterday to explain a new state law quadrupling penalties for sex trafficking of young people.
The race, last run in Oakland in 1984, will take marathoners from City Hall through North Oakland, and then all over town.
Two hundred people joined at Lake Merritt early Saturday morning and walked together into daybreak. The walk, called Out of the Darkness, was part of a national effort to publicize suicide prevention.
Volunteers did the heavy lifting this weekend as the rooftop of an Oakland middle school was prepped for its winter’s work: growing vegetables to help feed and teach local students and families.
In old age homes and residential care facilities across the country, low-income seniors are already part of a government-run healthcare system–through MediCal, the state benefits program for the poor; and Medicare, the federal program for those over 65. But for some seniors those benefits don’t necessarily provide easy access to medical care either. A special Oakland North radio podcast.