The city of San Francisco has started an advertising push with a very specific target market: illegal immigrants. They all carry the same message: you are safe here. In what may be the first such campaign of its kind, the city plans to publish multilanguage brochures and fill the airwaves with advertisements relaying assurance that San Francisco will not report them to federal immigration authorities. NY Times 4/6/08
Scientists are closing in on possible control of the puzzling disease that has killed thousands of oak trees in California and threatens other plants. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant physiologist Daniel Manter has found that extracts from tree heartwood can limit the growth of Phytophthora ramorum, the microbial agent that causes this devastating disease. Since it surfaced on the West Coast in the mid-1990s, sudden oak death has killed an estimated 1 million oaks and tanoaks. Central Valley Business Times 4/8/08
Farmworker advocates and environmentalists want a federal court to strike the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision allowing the use of four common pesticides. In a lawsuit filed Friday, Earthjustice attorneys argue that the pesticides have put thousands of farmworkers and families at risk of serious illnesses, including cancer and reproductive deformities. The four compounds—methidathion, ethoprop, methamidophos and oxydemeton-methyl—are used on a wide variety of fruit, vegetable and nut crops. SJ Mercury 4/7/08
Settlements reached yesterday with four Northwest Indian tribes would commit federal agencies to spend $900 million over the next decade on improving conditions for endangered salmon, but leave intact hydroelectric dams in the Columbia River Basin that environmentalists say kill fish. The deals would end years of legal battles between the Bush administration and the four Northwest tribes, but they would not affect a fifth tribe that is party to a lawsuit nor environmental groups that vowed to press on in their efforts to breach four dams on the Lower Snake River. San Diego Union Tribune 4/8/08
A lawsuit surrounding a dispute over eight redwoods ended up in Santa Clara County criminal court is ongoing and legislation surrounding the issue has been planned. At stake is the Solar Shade Act which makes it illegal to block solar panels with trees. Senator Simitian’s bill, headed for a committee vote this month, determines when trees can grow amid solar panels (if they are planted ahead of time) and when they cannot (if they are planted after a solar-panel is installed). The state, Mr. Simitian pointed out, has a law to encourage the construction of one million solar roofs.
In pockets of the United States, rural and urban, a confluence of market and medical forces has been widening the gap between the supply of primary care physicians and the demand for their services. Modest pay, medical school debt, an aging population and the prevalence of chronic disease have each played a role. Now in Massachusetts in an unintended consequence of universal coverage, the imbalance is being exacerbated by the state’s new law requiring residents to have health insurance. Since last year, when the landmark law took effect, about 340,000 of Massachusetts’ estimated 600,000 uninsured have gained coverage. Many are now searching for doctors and scheduling appointments for long-deferred care. NY Times 4/5/08
Is Cuisine Still Italian Even if the Chef Isn’t? NY Times 4/7/08
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