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"title": "Victim of Bacterial Meningitis at VA Lab Named; Lab Worked With Several Strains | KQED",
"description": "The 25-year old lab worker who died on Saturday from a bacterial infection has been identified as Treasure Island resident Richard Din. Din died of a form of bacterial meningitis that he likely caught while working in a San Francisco VA lab. According to the VA, Din was working with Neisseria meningitidis serotype B, a particularly virulent strain of bacteria known to cause meningitis and blood infections. Unlike other strains of Neisseria meningitidis, serotype B does not respond to existing vaccines. CDC guidelines state that lab workers working with any serotype of Neisseria meningitidis should be vaccinated. Other VA researchers",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The 25-year old lab worker who \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/05/02/lab-accident-at-san-francisco-va-leaves-man-dead-of-bacterial-meningitis/\">died on Saturday from a bacterial infection\u003c/a> has been \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/03/BAPQ1OD1UA.DTL\">identified\u003c/a> as Treasure Island resident Richard Din. Din died of a form of bacterial meningitis that he likely caught while working in a San Francisco VA lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the VA, Din was working with Neisseria meningitidis serotype B, a particularly virulent strain of bacteria known to cause meningitis and blood infections. Unlike other strains of Neisseria meningitidis, serotype B does not respond to existing vaccines. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5837a4.htm\">CDC guidelines\u003c/a> state that lab workers working with any serotype of Neisseria meningitidis should be vaccinated. Other VA researchers were working with serotypes that do respond to vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lampiris said the VA hasn’t determined whether any of the lab workers had received the vaccine, or even knew it was recommended. “I would say that people in the lab had not received information that there was a routine recommendation for vaccination,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Analysts at the CDC are working with samples from the lab as well as from the victim to confirm that Din’s death did, indeed, stem from workplace exposure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is possible to catch meningococcal disease – the form of meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitides – outside of a lab. But laboratory-acquired cases have a much higher fatality rate than cases in the general population. According to the CDC, half of lab workers who are infected with meningococcal disease generally die from it, compared to a 12-15 percent fatality rate in the general population.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A young lab assistant at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco died on Saturday after becoming infected with a deadly strain of bacterial meningitis that he had been working with in the lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at the VA wouldn’t release the man’s name, but said he was 25 years old and had been working at the lab since October, handling the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis for at least several weeks. (\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/05/02/lab-accident-at-san-francisco-va-leaves-man-dead-of-bacterial-meningitis/#update\">\u003cstrong>Update Thursday\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>: The man has now been identified as 25-year-old Richard Din of San Francisco.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harry Lampiris, Chief of Infectious Disease at the San Francisco VA and a professor of medicine at UCSF, said the man began complaining of a headache and nausea on Friday evening. The next morning, his symptoms worsened, and he developed a full body rash. The man asked his friends to take him to the hospital but became unresponsive in the car and arrived at the VA around noon without a pulse. He was briefly revived, but died of a heart attack soon after. His death came just 17 hours after the first symptoms had appeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Had he called an ambulance and received medical attention sooner, said Lampiris, he might have survived. “I don’t think anyone had any concept as to how sick he was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investigators still haven’t determined how the man became infected with the bacteria, or when the infection occurred. The typical incubation period for meningococcus, the disease caused by the Neisseria meningitidis bacterium, is 3-5 days, but can be as long as eight days, said Lampiris. The man had been handling the bacterium all week. Typically, infection occurs through inhalation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lampiris said San Francisco VA lab workers were accustomed to handling the deadly bacteria, and had been doing so for 25 years. He said researchers followed standard CDC protocol, wearing gowns and gloves and working under a device known as a hood, designed to pull air – and potential contaminants – away from the researcher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researcher, said Lampiris, “was working in a lab that was highly experienced with dealing with these organisms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still it was unclear whether the lab had followed all CDC recommendations for worker safety. According to CDC spokeswoman Alison Patti, “researchers working with Neisseria meningitidis should be vaccinated with meningococcal conjugate vaccine,” with revaccinations occurring every five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lampiris said the VA hasn’t determined whether any of the lab workers had received the vaccine, or even knew it was recommended. “I would say that people in the lab had not received information that there was a routine recommendation for vaccination,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Lampiris added, the vaccine might not have saved the man, because this particular strain of Neisseria meningitidis, serotype B, is resistant to existing vaccines. “No vaccine would have prevented it,” said Lampiris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neisseria meningitidis outbreaks are rare in the US. According to \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/abcs/reports-findings/survreports/mening10.html\">the CDC\u003c/a>, 75 people died from this particular form of meningitis in 2010. Exposures from laboratories are much rarer. The authors of a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1234112/\">2005 research paper\u003c/a> cited by the CDC found that only 16 cases of laboratory-acquired infection were reported worldwide between 1985-2001, including six cases in the US. Eight of those 16 cases were fatal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meningococcus can be prevented with antibiotics if it’s caught before the bacteria take root in the body and symptoms begin to appear. According to the Lampiris, six of the man’s personal contacts have received antibiotics, as well as 60 VA employees. None have shown symptoms, said Lampiris. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lampiris says the VA lab has been closed temporarily and the case is under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that oversees workplace safety issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the San Francisco VA, a town hall meeting was held on Monday to inform the community about what happened, and to offer grief-counseling services. “We’re devastated by the loss of one of our own researchers,” said Lampiris. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca name=\"update\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update Thursday, May 3\u003c/strong>: According to Dr. Harry Lampiris of the VA, unvaccinated researchers at the lab had been working with several strains of Neisseria meningitidis, including serotype B, the strain believed to have killed the researcher now \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/03/BAPQ1OD1UA.DTL\">identified\u003c/a> as Richard Din, 25, of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This appears to be a violation of CDC guidelines, which specify that lab workers handling any type of Neisseria should be vaccinated, even though the vaccine is ineffective against serotype B. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, analysts at the CDC are working with samples from the lab as well as from the victim to confirm his disease did, indeed, stem from workplace exposure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is possible to catch Meningococcal disease – the form of meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitides – outside of a lab. But laboratory-acquired cases have a much higher fatality rate than cases in the general population. According to the CDC, half of lab workers who are infected with meningococcal disease generally die from it, compared to a 12-15 percent fatality rate in the general population.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "A young lab assistant at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco died on Saturday after becoming infected with a deadly strain of bacterial meningitis that he had been working with in the lab. Officials at the VA wouldn't release the man's name, but said he was 25 years old and had been working at the lab since October, handling the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis for at least several weeks. (Update Thursday: The man has now been identified as 25-year-old Richard Din of San Francisco.) Harry Lampiris, Chief of Infectious Disease at the San Francisco VA and a professor of medicine",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A young lab assistant at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco died on Saturday after becoming infected with a deadly strain of bacterial meningitis that he had been working with in the lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at the VA wouldn’t release the man’s name, but said he was 25 years old and had been working at the lab since October, handling the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis for at least several weeks. (\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/05/02/lab-accident-at-san-francisco-va-leaves-man-dead-of-bacterial-meningitis/#update\">\u003cstrong>Update Thursday\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>: The man has now been identified as 25-year-old Richard Din of San Francisco.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harry Lampiris, Chief of Infectious Disease at the San Francisco VA and a professor of medicine at UCSF, said the man began complaining of a headache and nausea on Friday evening. The next morning, his symptoms worsened, and he developed a full body rash. The man asked his friends to take him to the hospital but became unresponsive in the car and arrived at the VA around noon without a pulse. He was briefly revived, but died of a heart attack soon after. His death came just 17 hours after the first symptoms had appeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Had he called an ambulance and received medical attention sooner, said Lampiris, he might have survived. “I don’t think anyone had any concept as to how sick he was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investigators still haven’t determined how the man became infected with the bacteria, or when the infection occurred. The typical incubation period for meningococcus, the disease caused by the Neisseria meningitidis bacterium, is 3-5 days, but can be as long as eight days, said Lampiris. The man had been handling the bacterium all week. Typically, infection occurs through inhalation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lampiris said San Francisco VA lab workers were accustomed to handling the deadly bacteria, and had been doing so for 25 years. He said researchers followed standard CDC protocol, wearing gowns and gloves and working under a device known as a hood, designed to pull air – and potential contaminants – away from the researcher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researcher, said Lampiris, “was working in a lab that was highly experienced with dealing with these organisms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still it was unclear whether the lab had followed all CDC recommendations for worker safety. According to CDC spokeswoman Alison Patti, “researchers working with Neisseria meningitidis should be vaccinated with meningococcal conjugate vaccine,” with revaccinations occurring every five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lampiris said the VA hasn’t determined whether any of the lab workers had received the vaccine, or even knew it was recommended. “I would say that people in the lab had not received information that there was a routine recommendation for vaccination,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Lampiris added, the vaccine might not have saved the man, because this particular strain of Neisseria meningitidis, serotype B, is resistant to existing vaccines. “No vaccine would have prevented it,” said Lampiris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neisseria meningitidis outbreaks are rare in the US. According to \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/abcs/reports-findings/survreports/mening10.html\">the CDC\u003c/a>, 75 people died from this particular form of meningitis in 2010. Exposures from laboratories are much rarer. The authors of a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1234112/\">2005 research paper\u003c/a> cited by the CDC found that only 16 cases of laboratory-acquired infection were reported worldwide between 1985-2001, including six cases in the US. Eight of those 16 cases were fatal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meningococcus can be prevented with antibiotics if it’s caught before the bacteria take root in the body and symptoms begin to appear. According to the Lampiris, six of the man’s personal contacts have received antibiotics, as well as 60 VA employees. None have shown symptoms, said Lampiris. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lampiris says the VA lab has been closed temporarily and the case is under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that oversees workplace safety issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the San Francisco VA, a town hall meeting was held on Monday to inform the community about what happened, and to offer grief-counseling services. “We’re devastated by the loss of one of our own researchers,” said Lampiris. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca name=\"update\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update Thursday, May 3\u003c/strong>: According to Dr. Harry Lampiris of the VA, unvaccinated researchers at the lab had been working with several strains of Neisseria meningitidis, including serotype B, the strain believed to have killed the researcher now \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/03/BAPQ1OD1UA.DTL\">identified\u003c/a> as Richard Din, 25, of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This appears to be a violation of CDC guidelines, which specify that lab workers handling any type of Neisseria should be vaccinated, even though the vaccine is ineffective against serotype B. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, analysts at the CDC are working with samples from the lab as well as from the victim to confirm his disease did, indeed, stem from workplace exposure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is possible to catch Meningococcal disease – the form of meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitides – outside of a lab. But laboratory-acquired cases have a much higher fatality rate than cases in the general population. According to the CDC, half of lab workers who are infected with meningococcal disease generally die from it, compared to a 12-15 percent fatality rate in the general population.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "berkeley-pot-dispensary-biggest-casualty-of-crackdown",
"title": "Berkeley Pot Dispensary Biggest Casualty of Crackdown",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>by David Downs and Michael Montgomery, \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/berkeley-pot-dispensary-biggest-casualty-federal-crackdown-15994\">California Watch\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With its only retail outlet due to close Monday, Berkeley Patients Group is set to become the biggest casualty so far in a bold and controversial legal offensive by federal prosecutors against California’s pot industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group sent an e-mail to customers earlier today announcing the pending closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63953\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 254px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/05/berkpatientsgroups.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63953\" title=\"berkpatientsgroups\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/05/berkpatientsgroups.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"254\" height=\"298\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Montgomery/California Watch\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While dozens of other medical marijuana dispensaries around the state have been forced to shut down since California’s four U.S. attorneys launched the crackdown in October, none is as large or commands the same local political support as Berkeley Patients Group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late last year, Melinda Haag, U.S. attorney for Northern California, warned the group’s landlord, David Mayeri, that the government would seize his assets if marijuana continued to be distributed at the property. The letter cited violations of federal law and the outlet’s 1,000-foot proximity to two schools. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Marijuana dispensaries are full of cash and they’re full of marijuana, and everybody knows that,” Haag said \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/prominent-berkeley-marijuana-dispensary-close-shop-15320\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in an interview in March.\u003c/a> “They are at risk of being robbed, and many of them are robbed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haag said another dispensary being targeted for closure was located next to a preschool in Santa Cruz. In February, armed gunmen robbed the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley Patients Group supporters, including neighboring businesses, contend the facility has operated safely for 12 years and has never been the scene of a serious crime. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s owners declined interview requests. But in written responses today, they said closing the current site “would deprive many patients safe access to their medicine and be particularly difficult for the hundreds of low income patients who rely on BPG for free medical cannabis and holistic health services. This is an outcome that we have been working very hard to prevent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under a legal agreement with Mayeri, Berkeley Patients Group must cease operations at its location tomorrow and vacate the premises by June 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medical marijuana activists have denounced efforts to close the facility. They’ve also condemned a recent raid by federal agents on nearby Oaksterdam University, a medical marijuana training school that has been dubbed the “Princeton of pot.” With federal indictments possible in that case, owner Richard Lee announced he’s stepping down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley Patients Group representatives declined to say whether they have secured a new location for their dispensary. But real estate experts said the federal crackdown has left property owners nervous about renting to medical marijuana establishments, even if they have permits from local authorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s almost impossible to relocate, especially under the rules and regulations that the cities and state have in place right now,” said Adam Peterson, a real estate agent for Cassidy Turley BT Commercial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if the dispensary reopens, other challenges remain, including a whopping tax bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a 2011 state \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/346718-c-berkeley-patients-group-inc-sum.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">audit\u003c/a>, Berkeley Patients Group owes $6.4 million to the California State Board of Equalization for its failure to pay sales taxes from 2004 to 2007. Officials have said they are paying off the debt in monthly installments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group has also been embroiled in bitter legal battles with two former employees – the group’s co-founder and a senior manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the dispute stems from the group’s decision – at the peak of California’s pot boom three years ago – to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in four dispensaries in Maine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginning in 2009, Berkeley Patients Group helped create a sister business, Northeast Patients Group, which eventually won permits for the dispensaries. The group projected annual revenues of more than $22 million, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/347384-npg-package.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">documents\u003c/a> submitted to Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/347383-bpg-npg-complaint.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">documents\u003c/a> from Maine show Berkeley executives pumped more than $600,000 in loans, services and other expenses into the enterprise, which was headed by a former manager and modeled on the group’s operations in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the collaboration went sour. Last year, Berkeley Patients Group filed a lawsuit against the former employee, Rebecca DeKeuster, and Northeast Patients Group, alleging they sold trade secrets to a competitor and failed to repay the loans. The case is still in litigation. Since then, DeKeuster opened three dispensaries in Maine, but Berkeley Patients Group has ended its involvement in the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written statement, the group’s executives said they decided to establish the business in Maine because they wanted to help set up the nation’s first state-run dispensary system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The decision to work in Maine was not taken lightly, but it was a unanimous decision by our Board,” the statement read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But two former employees criticized the way the group went about the expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doug McVay, Berkeley Patients Group’s bookkeeper in 2009 and 2010, said the decision to invest in out-of-state dispensaries was “ill-conceived and over-ambitious at best,” leaving the organization financially vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Funds went out without a clear understanding of whether they were for a loan, an investment or something different, and those designations would change over time,” he said in an e-mail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deborah Goldsberry, a co-founder who left Berkeley Patients Group last year, alleged money for the Maine project was pulled from a special trust account set aside to cover the group’s state tax obligations, according to a wrongful termination \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/346717-bpg-complaint.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">complaint\u003c/a> filed in Alameda County Superior Court in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldsberry declined to comment on the complaint, which was settled in January. In a statement, Berkeley Patients Group denied “using any money set aside for taxes to fund the work in Maine” and said the complaint “was never served and any matters have been resolved to the parties’ mutual satisfaction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Company business documents show money for the Maine expansion came from internal reserves as well as a loan from the group’s landlord, Mayeri. The documents do not show the group drew funds from a special tax account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McVay, Berkeley Patients Group’s former bookkeeper, said the dispute over the Maine project was connected to other financial arrangements, including a deal in which current CEO Tim Schick and Goldsberry purchased a property adjacent to the dispensary. Berkeley Patients Group provided the down payment and covered monthly mortgage installments, according to McVay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the time … we never had a signed agreement on file – no interest, no repayment plan, no terms, nothing,” he said. “The paperwork was minimal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written statement, Berkeley Patients Group said the property was purchased by Goldsberry and Schick in 2009 “in anticipation that BPG would expand physically at that location. Clearly those plans have changed, and what will be done with that additional space has yet to be decided.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some prominent players in the Bay Area’s medical marijuana industry said the acrimony was fueled by a clash between Berkeley Patients Group’s “hippie” roots and the need to operate an increasingly sophisticated business amid murky laws and zealous federal law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a very different organization back then,” said Mickey Martin, an Oakland-based dispensary consultant, referring to the founding of the group after Californians legalized medical marijuana in 1996. “Very hippie-rooted. They tried to run it like a family organization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2003, SB 420 provided legal cover for medical marijuana outlets. Six years later, the medical marijuana retail business was booming across California. Operating with a city permit, Berkeley Patients Group was serving thousands of customers a month with $19 million in annual revenues, according to interviews and Internet postings by company managers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group also cultivated a community-friendly reputation, donating thousands of dollars to local groups ranging from a special school for hearing-impaired children to the local chamber of commerce. In 2009, the Berkeley City Council declared “Berkeley Patients Group Day,” lauding the dispensary for its tax revenue, donations, sponsorships and “living wages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that same year, Berkeley Patients Group started to move away from its hippie roots, according to Martin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martin said the group’s push into new business ventures was spurred in part by competition. In 2010, Steve DeAngelo – owner of Harborside Health Center in Oakland, another large dispensary – founded “CannBe” to export marijuana-related business opportunities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CannBe offered the services of a legalization “A-team” that would work to pass local medical marijuana regulations and win coveted distribution permits for clients around the country. A CannBe internal sales brochure dated October 2010 lists consulting fees of $270,000 for each signed contract plus an additional $5.15 charge for every customer transaction, payable monthly for at least 10 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DeAngelo said the document was similar to a franchise agreement but that actual deals were for “significantly” less money. CannBe folded last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a bill to tightly regulate medical marijuana is debated in Sacramento, Henry Wykowski, a finance expert who advises dispensaries, said more rules could mean fewer disputes of the kind that Berkeley Patients Group and other operators have experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think that more regulation would be bad for the industry. The guidelines are gray and when they’re gray that can lead to all sorts of problems,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported in collaboration with KQED public radio.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Berkeley Pot Dispensary Biggest Casualty of Crackdown | KQED",
"description": "by David Downs and Michael Montgomery, California Watch With its only retail outlet due to close Monday, Berkeley Patients Group is set to become the biggest casualty so far in a bold and controversial legal offensive by federal prosecutors against California’s pot industry. The group sent an e-mail to customers earlier today announcing the pending closure. While dozens of other medical marijuana dispensaries around the state have been forced to shut down since California’s four U.S. attorneys launched the crackdown in October, none is as large or commands the same local political support as Berkeley Patients Group. Late last year,",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>by David Downs and Michael Montgomery, \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/berkeley-pot-dispensary-biggest-casualty-federal-crackdown-15994\">California Watch\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With its only retail outlet due to close Monday, Berkeley Patients Group is set to become the biggest casualty so far in a bold and controversial legal offensive by federal prosecutors against California’s pot industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group sent an e-mail to customers earlier today announcing the pending closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63953\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 254px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/05/berkpatientsgroups.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63953\" title=\"berkpatientsgroups\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/05/berkpatientsgroups.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"254\" height=\"298\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Montgomery/California Watch\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While dozens of other medical marijuana dispensaries around the state have been forced to shut down since California’s four U.S. attorneys launched the crackdown in October, none is as large or commands the same local political support as Berkeley Patients Group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late last year, Melinda Haag, U.S. attorney for Northern California, warned the group’s landlord, David Mayeri, that the government would seize his assets if marijuana continued to be distributed at the property. The letter cited violations of federal law and the outlet’s 1,000-foot proximity to two schools. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Marijuana dispensaries are full of cash and they’re full of marijuana, and everybody knows that,” Haag said \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/prominent-berkeley-marijuana-dispensary-close-shop-15320\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in an interview in March.\u003c/a> “They are at risk of being robbed, and many of them are robbed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haag said another dispensary being targeted for closure was located next to a preschool in Santa Cruz. In February, armed gunmen robbed the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley Patients Group supporters, including neighboring businesses, contend the facility has operated safely for 12 years and has never been the scene of a serious crime. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s owners declined interview requests. But in written responses today, they said closing the current site “would deprive many patients safe access to their medicine and be particularly difficult for the hundreds of low income patients who rely on BPG for free medical cannabis and holistic health services. This is an outcome that we have been working very hard to prevent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under a legal agreement with Mayeri, Berkeley Patients Group must cease operations at its location tomorrow and vacate the premises by June 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medical marijuana activists have denounced efforts to close the facility. They’ve also condemned a recent raid by federal agents on nearby Oaksterdam University, a medical marijuana training school that has been dubbed the “Princeton of pot.” With federal indictments possible in that case, owner Richard Lee announced he’s stepping down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley Patients Group representatives declined to say whether they have secured a new location for their dispensary. But real estate experts said the federal crackdown has left property owners nervous about renting to medical marijuana establishments, even if they have permits from local authorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s almost impossible to relocate, especially under the rules and regulations that the cities and state have in place right now,” said Adam Peterson, a real estate agent for Cassidy Turley BT Commercial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if the dispensary reopens, other challenges remain, including a whopping tax bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a 2011 state \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/346718-c-berkeley-patients-group-inc-sum.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">audit\u003c/a>, Berkeley Patients Group owes $6.4 million to the California State Board of Equalization for its failure to pay sales taxes from 2004 to 2007. Officials have said they are paying off the debt in monthly installments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group has also been embroiled in bitter legal battles with two former employees – the group’s co-founder and a senior manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the dispute stems from the group’s decision – at the peak of California’s pot boom three years ago – to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in four dispensaries in Maine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginning in 2009, Berkeley Patients Group helped create a sister business, Northeast Patients Group, which eventually won permits for the dispensaries. The group projected annual revenues of more than $22 million, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/347384-npg-package.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">documents\u003c/a> submitted to Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/347383-bpg-npg-complaint.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">documents\u003c/a> from Maine show Berkeley executives pumped more than $600,000 in loans, services and other expenses into the enterprise, which was headed by a former manager and modeled on the group’s operations in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the collaboration went sour. Last year, Berkeley Patients Group filed a lawsuit against the former employee, Rebecca DeKeuster, and Northeast Patients Group, alleging they sold trade secrets to a competitor and failed to repay the loans. The case is still in litigation. Since then, DeKeuster opened three dispensaries in Maine, but Berkeley Patients Group has ended its involvement in the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written statement, the group’s executives said they decided to establish the business in Maine because they wanted to help set up the nation’s first state-run dispensary system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The decision to work in Maine was not taken lightly, but it was a unanimous decision by our Board,” the statement read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But two former employees criticized the way the group went about the expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doug McVay, Berkeley Patients Group’s bookkeeper in 2009 and 2010, said the decision to invest in out-of-state dispensaries was “ill-conceived and over-ambitious at best,” leaving the organization financially vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Funds went out without a clear understanding of whether they were for a loan, an investment or something different, and those designations would change over time,” he said in an e-mail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deborah Goldsberry, a co-founder who left Berkeley Patients Group last year, alleged money for the Maine project was pulled from a special trust account set aside to cover the group’s state tax obligations, according to a wrongful termination \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/346717-bpg-complaint.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">complaint\u003c/a> filed in Alameda County Superior Court in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldsberry declined to comment on the complaint, which was settled in January. In a statement, Berkeley Patients Group denied “using any money set aside for taxes to fund the work in Maine” and said the complaint “was never served and any matters have been resolved to the parties’ mutual satisfaction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Company business documents show money for the Maine expansion came from internal reserves as well as a loan from the group’s landlord, Mayeri. The documents do not show the group drew funds from a special tax account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McVay, Berkeley Patients Group’s former bookkeeper, said the dispute over the Maine project was connected to other financial arrangements, including a deal in which current CEO Tim Schick and Goldsberry purchased a property adjacent to the dispensary. Berkeley Patients Group provided the down payment and covered monthly mortgage installments, according to McVay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the time … we never had a signed agreement on file – no interest, no repayment plan, no terms, nothing,” he said. “The paperwork was minimal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written statement, Berkeley Patients Group said the property was purchased by Goldsberry and Schick in 2009 “in anticipation that BPG would expand physically at that location. Clearly those plans have changed, and what will be done with that additional space has yet to be decided.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some prominent players in the Bay Area’s medical marijuana industry said the acrimony was fueled by a clash between Berkeley Patients Group’s “hippie” roots and the need to operate an increasingly sophisticated business amid murky laws and zealous federal law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a very different organization back then,” said Mickey Martin, an Oakland-based dispensary consultant, referring to the founding of the group after Californians legalized medical marijuana in 1996. “Very hippie-rooted. They tried to run it like a family organization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2003, SB 420 provided legal cover for medical marijuana outlets. Six years later, the medical marijuana retail business was booming across California. Operating with a city permit, Berkeley Patients Group was serving thousands of customers a month with $19 million in annual revenues, according to interviews and Internet postings by company managers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group also cultivated a community-friendly reputation, donating thousands of dollars to local groups ranging from a special school for hearing-impaired children to the local chamber of commerce. In 2009, the Berkeley City Council declared “Berkeley Patients Group Day,” lauding the dispensary for its tax revenue, donations, sponsorships and “living wages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that same year, Berkeley Patients Group started to move away from its hippie roots, according to Martin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martin said the group’s push into new business ventures was spurred in part by competition. In 2010, Steve DeAngelo – owner of Harborside Health Center in Oakland, another large dispensary – founded “CannBe” to export marijuana-related business opportunities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CannBe offered the services of a legalization “A-team” that would work to pass local medical marijuana regulations and win coveted distribution permits for clients around the country. A CannBe internal sales brochure dated October 2010 lists consulting fees of $270,000 for each signed contract plus an additional $5.15 charge for every customer transaction, payable monthly for at least 10 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DeAngelo said the document was similar to a franchise agreement but that actual deals were for “significantly” less money. CannBe folded last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a bill to tightly regulate medical marijuana is debated in Sacramento, Henry Wykowski, a finance expert who advises dispensaries, said more rules could mean fewer disputes of the kind that Berkeley Patients Group and other operators have experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think that more regulation would be bad for the industry. The guidelines are gray and when they’re gray that can lead to all sorts of problems,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported in collaboration with KQED public radio.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "obama-defends-medical-marijuana-crackdown-in-rolling-stone-interview",
"title": "Obama Defends Medical Marijuana Crackdown in Rolling Stone Interview",
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"headTitle": "Obama Defends Medical Marijuana Crackdown in Rolling Stone Interview | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63639\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 115px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/MedicalMarijuanaJustinSullivanGetty.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63639\" title=\"An Initiative To Legalize Marijuana In California To Appear On Nov. Ballot\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/MedicalMarijuanaJustinSullivanGetty-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"115\" height=\"80\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Justin Sullivan/Getty\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As first blogged by \u003ca href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/san-francisco/\">The Huffington Post\u003c/a>, Barack Obama’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/ready-for-the-fight-rolling-stone-interview-with-barack-obama-20120425\">\u003cstrong>interview in Rolling Stone\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>, posted yesterday, includes the president answering a question on a topic that’s been the subject of frequent headlines around California recently: the months-long federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries and growers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s the question and Obama’s answer, from the magazine:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Let me ask you about the War on Drugs. You vowed in 2008, when you were running for election, that you would not “use Justice Department resources to try and circumvent state laws about medical marijuana.” Yet we just ran a \u003ca href=\"http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obamas-war-on-pot-20120216\">story that shows your administration is launching more raids on medical pot than the Bush administration did\u003c/a>. What’s up with that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what’s up: What I specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize prosecutions of persons who are using medical marijuana. I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana – and the reason is, because it’s against federal law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I can’t nullify congressional law. I can’t ask the Justice Department to say, “Ignore completely a federal law that’s on the books.” What I can say is, “Use your prosecutorial discretion and properly prioritize your resources to go after things that are really doing folks damage.” As a consequence, there haven’t been prosecutions of users of marijuana for medical purposes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only tension that’s come up – and this gets hyped up a lot – is a murky area where you have large-scale, commercial operations that may supply medical marijuana users, but in some cases may also be supplying recreational users. In that situation, we put the Justice Department in a very difficult place if we’re telling them, “This is supposed to be against the law, but we want you to turn the other way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not something we’re going to do. I do think it’s important and useful to have a broader debate about our drug laws. One of the things we’ve done over the past three years was to make a sensible change when it came to the disparity in sentencing between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. We’ve had a discussion about how to focus on treatment, taking a public-health approach to drugs and lessening the overwhelming emphasis on criminal laws as a tool to deal with this issue. I think that’s an appropriate debate that we should have.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>If that reasoning sounds familiar to followers of this issue, it may be because it’s similar to that expressed in comments made by Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, who \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2011/10/07/california-u-s-attorneys-issue-statement-on-targeting-marijuana-industry/\">announced with her colleagues last October\u003c/a> that they would be targeting medical marijuana dispensaries and growers, plus their landlords. The prosecutors have been true to their words; that’s exactly \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/medical-marijuana/\">what’s happened\u003c/a> and is \u003ca href=\"http://www.marinij.com/novato/ci_20481413/feds-target-novato-pot-dispensaries-one-closes\">continuing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, KQED’s Michael Montgomery sat down with Haag, who for the first time \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/03/15/interview-w-us-attorney-haag-on-pot-operations-if-its-close-to-children-thats-a-line-were-going-to-draw/\">explained her rationale for the amped up enforcement\u003c/a>. Some of her language echoes Obama’s in the Rolling Stone inteview…or vice-versa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The reason that the four California U.S. Attorneys announced our efforts together is that we were all experiencing the same thing, which is that everyone was saying we were hearing and everyone was saying the U.S. attorneys are not going to take any actions with respect to marijuana in California because of the 2009 \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/192\">Ogden memo\u003c/a>. [\u003cem>Note: The 2009 memo written by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden that laid out enforcement guidelines for federal prosecutors in regard to medical marijuana\u003c/em>.] So it’s fair game. We can have grow operations, we can have dispensaries, we can do anything we want with respect to marijuana because the Department of Justice in 2009 in the Ogden memo said that the California U.S. attorneys will not take action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was incorrect. And we felt that we needed to send a message that it wasn’t correct. I actually felt that it was more fair to send a message because, for example, I was hearing from Oakland that it was going to issue licenses and allow large-scale grow operations in warehouses. And what was described to me was that they were going to be quote “Walmart-sized.” And I was hearing that everyone believed that would be okay and that my office would not take any action. And I knew it isn’t okay, it is a violation of federal law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you’re talking about that scale grow-operation across the bay in Oakland it wouldn’t be something that I could ignore. I didn’t think it was fair to stand by, be silent, let people pull licenses in Oakland, put millions of dollars into setting up a grow operation in a warehouse and then come in and take an enforcement action.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, lawmakers from Colorado, Maine, Washington, New Mexico and California — including Assemblymember Tom Ammiano of San Francisco — \u003ca href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/02/lawmakers-in-5-states-tell-feds-medical-marijuana_n_1397811.html\">wrote an open letter\u003c/a> calling on the federal government “not to interfere with our ability to control and regulate how medical marijuana is grown and distributed. Let us seek clarity rather than chaos. Don’t force patients underground, to fuel the illegal drug market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Obama Defends Medical Marijuana Crackdown in Rolling Stone Interview | KQED",
"description": "As first blogged by The Huffington Post, Barack Obama's interview in Rolling Stone, posted yesterday, includes the president answering a question on a topic that's been the subject of frequent headlines around California recently: the months-long federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries and growers. Here's the question and Obama's answer, from the magazine: Let me ask you about the War on Drugs. You vowed in 2008, when you were running for election, that you would not "use Justice Department resources to try and circumvent state laws about medical marijuana." Yet we just ran a story that shows your administration is",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63639\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 115px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/MedicalMarijuanaJustinSullivanGetty.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63639\" title=\"An Initiative To Legalize Marijuana In California To Appear On Nov. Ballot\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/MedicalMarijuanaJustinSullivanGetty-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"115\" height=\"80\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Justin Sullivan/Getty\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As first blogged by \u003ca href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/san-francisco/\">The Huffington Post\u003c/a>, Barack Obama’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/ready-for-the-fight-rolling-stone-interview-with-barack-obama-20120425\">\u003cstrong>interview in Rolling Stone\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>, posted yesterday, includes the president answering a question on a topic that’s been the subject of frequent headlines around California recently: the months-long federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries and growers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s the question and Obama’s answer, from the magazine:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Let me ask you about the War on Drugs. You vowed in 2008, when you were running for election, that you would not “use Justice Department resources to try and circumvent state laws about medical marijuana.” Yet we just ran a \u003ca href=\"http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obamas-war-on-pot-20120216\">story that shows your administration is launching more raids on medical pot than the Bush administration did\u003c/a>. What’s up with that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what’s up: What I specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize prosecutions of persons who are using medical marijuana. I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana – and the reason is, because it’s against federal law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I can’t nullify congressional law. I can’t ask the Justice Department to say, “Ignore completely a federal law that’s on the books.” What I can say is, “Use your prosecutorial discretion and properly prioritize your resources to go after things that are really doing folks damage.” As a consequence, there haven’t been prosecutions of users of marijuana for medical purposes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only tension that’s come up – and this gets hyped up a lot – is a murky area where you have large-scale, commercial operations that may supply medical marijuana users, but in some cases may also be supplying recreational users. In that situation, we put the Justice Department in a very difficult place if we’re telling them, “This is supposed to be against the law, but we want you to turn the other way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not something we’re going to do. I do think it’s important and useful to have a broader debate about our drug laws. One of the things we’ve done over the past three years was to make a sensible change when it came to the disparity in sentencing between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. We’ve had a discussion about how to focus on treatment, taking a public-health approach to drugs and lessening the overwhelming emphasis on criminal laws as a tool to deal with this issue. I think that’s an appropriate debate that we should have.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>If that reasoning sounds familiar to followers of this issue, it may be because it’s similar to that expressed in comments made by Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, who \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2011/10/07/california-u-s-attorneys-issue-statement-on-targeting-marijuana-industry/\">announced with her colleagues last October\u003c/a> that they would be targeting medical marijuana dispensaries and growers, plus their landlords. The prosecutors have been true to their words; that’s exactly \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/medical-marijuana/\">what’s happened\u003c/a> and is \u003ca href=\"http://www.marinij.com/novato/ci_20481413/feds-target-novato-pot-dispensaries-one-closes\">continuing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, KQED’s Michael Montgomery sat down with Haag, who for the first time \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/03/15/interview-w-us-attorney-haag-on-pot-operations-if-its-close-to-children-thats-a-line-were-going-to-draw/\">explained her rationale for the amped up enforcement\u003c/a>. Some of her language echoes Obama’s in the Rolling Stone inteview…or vice-versa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The reason that the four California U.S. Attorneys announced our efforts together is that we were all experiencing the same thing, which is that everyone was saying we were hearing and everyone was saying the U.S. attorneys are not going to take any actions with respect to marijuana in California because of the 2009 \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/192\">Ogden memo\u003c/a>. [\u003cem>Note: The 2009 memo written by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden that laid out enforcement guidelines for federal prosecutors in regard to medical marijuana\u003c/em>.] So it’s fair game. We can have grow operations, we can have dispensaries, we can do anything we want with respect to marijuana because the Department of Justice in 2009 in the Ogden memo said that the California U.S. attorneys will not take action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was incorrect. And we felt that we needed to send a message that it wasn’t correct. I actually felt that it was more fair to send a message because, for example, I was hearing from Oakland that it was going to issue licenses and allow large-scale grow operations in warehouses. And what was described to me was that they were going to be quote “Walmart-sized.” And I was hearing that everyone believed that would be okay and that my office would not take any action. And I knew it isn’t okay, it is a violation of federal law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you’re talking about that scale grow-operation across the bay in Oakland it wouldn’t be something that I could ignore. I didn’t think it was fair to stand by, be silent, let people pull licenses in Oakland, put millions of dollars into setting up a grow operation in a warehouse and then come in and take an enforcement action.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, lawmakers from Colorado, Maine, Washington, New Mexico and California — including Assemblymember Tom Ammiano of San Francisco — \u003ca href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/02/lawmakers-in-5-states-tell-feds-medical-marijuana_n_1397811.html\">wrote an open letter\u003c/a> calling on the federal government “not to interfere with our ability to control and regulate how medical marijuana is grown and distributed. Let us seek clarity rather than chaos. Don’t force patients underground, to fuel the illegal drug market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "audio-transcript-discussion-on-california-case-of-mad-cow-disease",
"title": "Debate: Food Safety in Wake of California Mad Cow Case",
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"headTitle": "Debate: Food Safety in Wake of California Mad Cow Case | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63564\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/beef_cattle_grazing_usda4.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63564\" title=\"beef_cattle_grazing_usda\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/beef_cattle_grazing_usda4.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"164\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: USDA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in California and just the fourth in the U.S. has \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201204260850/a\">sparked a conversation over whether the nation’s food safety protocols are working — or not\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yesterday on KQED Public Radio’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201204250900\">Forum program\u003c/a>, a discussion on the case with:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Jere Dick, veterinarian and associate deputy administrator with USDA Veterinary Services\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Michael K. Hansen, senior scientist at Consumer’s Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tom Talbot, chairman of the Animal Health and Well Being Committee at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, veterinarian and California beef producer\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201204250900\">Listen to the segment\u003c/a> or read the edited transcript below…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Transcript\u003c/em>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>HOST MICHAEL KRASNY\u003c/strong>: The USDA has confirmed, as a result of random sampling, a case of mad cow disease in a dairy cow in Hanford, California near Fresno. Agriculture officials say meat eaters are not at risk because it’s an atypical case, since the affected cow was not intended for the food supply and the disease cannot be transmitted by milk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the brain-wasting disease can be fatal to cattle and fatal to humans eating tainted meat. We discuss Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and other issues facing the beef industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joining us from Washington, D.C. is Dr. Jerry Dick, who is a veterinarian, Associate Deputy Administrator with USDA Veterinary Services. And also glad to have Dr. Michael K. Hansen, who’s a PhD senior scientist with the Consume’s Union, a nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. And we’ll also be joined by Tom Talbot from the National Cattleman’s Beef Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let me begin, Dr. Dick. with you, just by talking about most of the reports coming in saying that this shows how effective testing procedures are for BSE, but some criticism is saying that it’s kind of lucky and random you found this cow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: Actually we have a very extensive surveillance program in place, where we continually sample animals from several surveillance streams in order for us to be able to detect this disease all the time. We’ve been doing that for a number of years and every year we take about 40,000 samples to our laboratories on a randomized basis to continue to stay on the outlook for the disease. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: That’s a detection level of about one case for every million cattle. I know it exceeds the World Health Organization but 40,000 tested each year is, well, not enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: That’s about 10 times the OIE standard. We believe strongly that it is a very high level of sampling in this country, especially with the history we’ve had – we haven’t found but three cases, one of which was an imported case which we found in the Northwest about ten years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So we believe it’s a good sampling system, it provides us with a great level of confidence to find the disease if it’s present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Do we know where this particular cow, where the disease came from with this cow? How the cow got this particular affliction?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: No, we don’t yet. Of course, we just diagnosed this particular case in our laboratory and confirmed it less than 24 hours ago. We’re now starting the second phase, which is the on-farm investigation – what we call epidemiology – or looking for all of the factors that might have contributed to this animal being affected. But we’re just in the very early stages of that and have a lot of work left to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: It’s being assumed that it may be an atypical BSE, maybe mutation?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: Well, again, BSE has been around for over 20 years. There’s been a lot of work done, both in the United States and around the world, a significant amount of research done, and during that period of time the tests have continued to improve and we began to see – the scientific community began to see – occasional variation in the molecular, protein structure in that organism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So very rarely we find one that does not fit the typical molecular protein structure and this one, from our lab experts, appears to not fit the classical BSE structure. So we are referring the tests that we’ve done to other laboratories in Canada and England so we can work with other scientists to begin to classify and further characterize the organism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Dr. Dick, when will be able to get more information from the USDA about the process of how these cases are investigated and is there a plan in the works to do more intensive monitoring here in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: We will certainly provide information as it comes in. We have a \u003ca href=\"http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navtype=SU&navid=BSE\">USDA website\u003c/a> and we would encourage people to go to it. We’ll be providing proactively and transparently the information as it becomes available, as we go through the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Do we know if other cows in the herd have been affected?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: We have not yet been to the dairy at all and we’re just beginning that process so there’s no way to answer that at this point in time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Do you know how many of the 40,000 animals a year are tested for mad cow in California as opposed to other states?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: I don’t have an answer to that. We do know that California is statistically represented well in the sampling scheme. We set up our surveillance system to insure that we have broad representation by regions of countries. We do know that California is well represented and we’re doing an adequate number of sampling surveillance in the state of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: How long will it take, roughly, to determine if this came from the feed?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: Well, we will do the epidemiology. That varies depending on the size of the herd and a lot of different factors, but we have a group of folks hitting the ground today beginning that investigation. It’s likely to take several months before we have all of the factors put together, but certainly we’ll be doing that in a methodical, standardized way so that can capture everything that we need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Michael Hansen is with us as well, senior scientist for the Consumer’s Union, a nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. A lot of concern from Consumer’s Union – break it down for us, if you could, Dr. Hansen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CONSUMER UNION’S HANSEN\u003c/strong>: Yes, the three things we’ve pointed out is, number 1, the surveillance is inadequate in our view. Forty thousand out of over 30 million cattle slaughtered is not an adequate sample size, regardless of what OIE says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would point out, in Japan for example, all cattle above the age of 20 months that go into the food supply are tested. In many European countries, all animals above the age of 30 months are being tested – so it’s a far higher rate. That’s one. Second, in terms of the testing, it’s my understanding they’re not really testing any animals that are going into the food supply but basically testing what’s called ‘dead stock.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Hanford facility in California where this animal was rendered – they have advertisements – specialize in dead stock removal. So there’s a question of whether the animal was even alive when it was sampled, that’s been a problem with this surveillance program over time. When they had the huge expanded surveillance program where they tested 789,000, 85 percent of the cows were dead – no other information added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So we don’t think that’s an adequate sample; we think there needs to be much larger sampling in terms of testing. There have been companies that have wanted to use these same tests that the government is using to be able to test their cattle at slaughter so that they can sell them to other countries as BSE-tested, or even label them that way in this country, and the government is saying they cannot do that because they claim the tests are accurate if the government uses them but if the private sector wants to use them they’re completely inadequate and useless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also the issue of the feed or what we still allow to be fed to cattle, which is not allowed in other countries. We have banned the feeding of cattle parts directly back to cattle, but there’s still a lot of loopholes. Right now, you can grind up cows and they can be fed to pigs and chickens, and then pigs and chickens can be ground up and fed back to cattle. That’s an indirect mechanism where the agent could be getting into cattle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s also, because of these loopholes, a direct mechanism. It turns out cow’s blood is exempt from this so you can feed cow’s blood back to cow’s – and that is being done – spray-dried bovine plasma is being used as a calf milk replacer. We know the infective agent, the prion proteins, the mutated ones, are indeed found in blood that is being fed to cattle in this country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also allow the feeding of chicken litter, and that’s found in chicken coops. There’s two billion pounds, roughly, fed to cattle every year. In 2003, Dr. Lester Crawford, who was then acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, gave an interview where he pointed out that chickens waste so much feed when they eat, that chicken litter could be, up to one-third its weight, spilled feed. And of course, ground-up cows can indeed be put into chicken feed which can be spilled and we know two billion pounds of that is being fed to cattle every year. That practice is not allowed in Europe, not allowed in Japan, and is also not allowed in Canada. We need to close these feeding loopholes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d also like to point out they’re saying this is an atypical case of BSE. The Washington Post is reporting this morning that it is the L-type BSE. The reason that is important is if it is indeed the L-type, there have been scientific studies where they used what are called humanized mice – these are mice that have been engineered so they only express human prions – and when you affect those mice with classical BSE or any of these atypical strains, it turns out that the L-type BSE is more virulent than classical BSE. The animals come down with BSE quicker and more rapidly. This has been shown in scientific studies, so if this is indeed the L-type BSE that is more virulent and that is upsetting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think what needs to be done is a dramatically expanded surveillance program and we need to find out how many other animals have been infected. It would also be good if we found out of the 40,000 of the animals tested every year how many are dead, how many of them were tested from animals that were exhibiting some kind of neurological symptoms when they were at slaughterhouses or elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Well, you’re also concerned that the cows are not being tested before going to the slaughter house, aren’t you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CONSUMER UNION’S HANSEN\u003c/strong>: Yes. We are concerned. We think animals going into the food chain should be tested. You should be testing all the animals above a given age going into the food supply. I can point out that in Europe when they did this they found over a thousand cows between 2002 and 2006 that didn’t exhibit any symptoms but tested positive and were therefore kept out of the food chain, because these tests can also detect animals before they exhibit symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: So Dr. Hansen, you think the USDA should allow private testing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CONSUMER UNION’S HANSEN\u003c/strong>: Absolutely. They should allow private testing with the approved tests that have been approved in this country and that are also used globally as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed there was a court case involving this, that Creekstone Farms brought against the government. They initially won the case but then when it was appealed at higher levels, the government actually got that overturned. We think that’s wrong. Private companies should be allowed to test their cows at slaughter as long as they use the approved tests and as long as any positive result should be required to be turned over to the government and ultimately made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Tom Talbot is joining us as well. He’s a chair of the Cattle Health and Well-Being Committee, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. He’s also a veterinarian and California beef producer. Let’s first get your take on this L-type BSE. What do we know that score? Is this verified or is it just tentative? This could be a lot more serious, back in 2003 actually it was devastating to the beef industry when you had a virulent form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CATTLE INDUSTRY’S TALBOT\u003c/strong>: I have not heard that at this stage, that it would be brand new information for me. I have stayed in close contact with everything that the USDA has put out, as well as a number of other sources, and that’s news to me. I think the bottom line on this is it’s still not the classic form of BSE, it’s a-typical. If as we know, as I think the scientific community within this country and internationally agrees, that the a-typical form is probably not contracted from eating contaminated feed as was the classic form that was seen primarily in Europe. I think the fact that whether it’s an L-form or not, it’s still an a-typical case, really says we’re dealing with an extremely rare form of the disease and probably one and we’re not going to see other cases within this incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Well, you know, it certainly would be reassuring to consumers to know that that’s incontrovertible at this point. But the suggestion that it may be the L-type of BSE brings that into question and now you’re having some concerns in the beef industry about South Korea halting its beef imports and talks about banning in Japan. Why that kind of resistance from Asian countries specifically?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CATTLE INDUSTRY’S TALBOT\u003c/strong>: Well, the Asian countries have been difficult in this thing all along. One of the things that came out immediately yesterday was both Canada and Mexico made the statement right off the bat that this would not interfere with their trading issues with the United States. It’s a different situation in Japan and South Korea. In many cases, we don’t deal with sound science in those countries. Whatever is going on with politics in those countries is what dictates what happens. If we go back to 2003 when we had our first case, and our export markets to those countries were shut down, it took an extremely long time to get those markets back even when we had shown that our country had very, very minimal amounts of this disease, and that we were in compliance with OIE guidelines and all these other things. So, what we deal with in those countries doesn’t go back to dealing with the science, it deals with a great amount of what’s going on politically in those countries. So those are difficult issues for us. If it was strictly up to the science, there should be no reason that we should lose those trading partners in this point in time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: But what about the loopholes we heard Dr. Hansen talking about? That doesn’t concern you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CATTLE INDUSTRY’S TALBOT\u003c/strong>: You know, I don’t think so. One of the things I wanted to touch on with one of his comments that we are testing primarily dead animals. You know, these are the highest risk animals. When we’re looking for the prevalence of a disease, we don’t want to go to the lowest risk animals, we want to go to the highest risk animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, in a situation where we’re looking at the animals that have the highest risk, and if the prevalence in those animals was high then I think there would be a greater concern of testing normal, healthy animals. But the fact the prevalence of this disease in high-risk animals is low, there’s the logical conclusion that the prevalence of this disease is very, very low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other thing is that we’re talking about testing 40,000 heads of animals and if we don’t think that’s enough, we can go back to when we did detect BSE in this country back in December of 2003, a relatively short time after that – approximately June of ’04. Over the next two years, we tested almost 800,00 heads of high-risk animals. And what we found there was that the prevalence rate was extremely low and therefore it was determined that we could go ahead and reduce the amount of animals that were tested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You know, this is based on sound epidemiological studies and I think we can feel comfortable in knowing that the prevalence in this industry is extremely low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: I should mention that we just got word that Japan will not suspend its import of beef from the United States. Although, South Korea as of today has suspended and South Korea is the fourth largest importer of US beef. I wonder if you could say something, Tom Talbot, about pink slime – this kind of beef additive that has a lot of people concerned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CATTLE INDUSTRY’S TALBOT\u003c/strong>: The finely textured lean beef issue – that’s the proper term, I think pink slime is extremely inappropriate to use – finally textured lean beef is a product that has been around, has been produced in this industry for a long time. It’s a very healthy product, it’s a very safe product, and the fact that this issue came up after the product had been in the marketplace for many, many years is inappropriate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You know, there have been a number of studies, there is very good science that says this product is safe, that it is healthy and what it does is it allows us to use a greater amount of the product of the animal and it allows us to keep some of the prices for hamburger, ground beef at a lower rate, makes it more affordable, makes it easier for people to feed themselves. The fact that this was brought to the public’s eye by a disgruntled former USDA employee, and thrown back into our face by one of the news stations is inappropriate. It’s disregarded all of the sound science that we use to make sure that that stuff wasn’t on the market to begin with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Let me go back to Dr. Jerry Dick, who again is a veterinarian and Associate Deputy Administrator with the USDA Veterinary Services. Dr. Dick, people want to know, can they be reassured about buying meat at this point? I’d like to hear, if not reassurance from you, what they maybe ought to be looking for if they should be skeptical or concerned?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: I think Dr. Talbot hit the nail on the head. In short, the U.S. consumer can be confident that our meat and dairy products are safe. We have a long history of good surveillance systems, we are a part of the OIE which is 182 countries around the world that gather scientists together to study the best methods to do things in the cattle industry, the sheep industry, the hog industry, and we can be sure that we also work very closely, it bears pointing out, with the World Health Organization, CDC, and other human health organizations to help insure our science is cutting edge and that we’re providing products that are safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: We’re coming up on a break and I want to hear from the Consumer’s Union Dr. Hansen. If you could Michael Hansen, are you giving a caveat to consumers about beef and dairy products now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CONSUMER UNION’S HANSEN\u003c/strong>: No, we’re saying we’re concerned because enough still hasn’t been done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would just very quickly like to say it’s not true that scientists think this atypical form is not from feed. Both of the atypical forms have been transmitted in humanized mice and if people want to do some feeding studies and grind up some of the brains of L-type or some of these other atypical BSEs, let’s feed them to other cattle and see if we can spread the infection that way. I bet you that most of the prion scientists out there would tell you that would turn up as a positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So this notion that this cannot come from feed, there’s no scientific evidence of that, there’s no feeding study where they’ve taken brain material from an atypical BSE cow and fed it to other cows and not got transmitted.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Debate: Food Safety in Wake of California Mad Cow Case | KQED",
"description": "The discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in California and just the fourth in the U.S. has sparked a conversation over whether the nation's food safety protocols are working -- or not. Yesterday on KQED Public Radio's Forum program, a discussion on the case with: Jere Dick, veterinarian and associate deputy administrator with USDA Veterinary Services Michael K. Hansen, senior scientist at Consumer's Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports Tom Talbot, chairman of the Animal Health and Well Being Committee at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, veterinarian and California beef producer Listen to the segment or read",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63564\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/beef_cattle_grazing_usda4.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63564\" title=\"beef_cattle_grazing_usda\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/beef_cattle_grazing_usda4.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"164\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: USDA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in California and just the fourth in the U.S. has \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201204260850/a\">sparked a conversation over whether the nation’s food safety protocols are working — or not\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yesterday on KQED Public Radio’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201204250900\">Forum program\u003c/a>, a discussion on the case with:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Jere Dick, veterinarian and associate deputy administrator with USDA Veterinary Services\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Michael K. Hansen, senior scientist at Consumer’s Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tom Talbot, chairman of the Animal Health and Well Being Committee at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, veterinarian and California beef producer\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201204250900\">Listen to the segment\u003c/a> or read the edited transcript below…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Transcript\u003c/em>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>HOST MICHAEL KRASNY\u003c/strong>: The USDA has confirmed, as a result of random sampling, a case of mad cow disease in a dairy cow in Hanford, California near Fresno. Agriculture officials say meat eaters are not at risk because it’s an atypical case, since the affected cow was not intended for the food supply and the disease cannot be transmitted by milk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the brain-wasting disease can be fatal to cattle and fatal to humans eating tainted meat. We discuss Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and other issues facing the beef industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joining us from Washington, D.C. is Dr. Jerry Dick, who is a veterinarian, Associate Deputy Administrator with USDA Veterinary Services. And also glad to have Dr. Michael K. Hansen, who’s a PhD senior scientist with the Consume’s Union, a nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. And we’ll also be joined by Tom Talbot from the National Cattleman’s Beef Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let me begin, Dr. Dick. with you, just by talking about most of the reports coming in saying that this shows how effective testing procedures are for BSE, but some criticism is saying that it’s kind of lucky and random you found this cow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: Actually we have a very extensive surveillance program in place, where we continually sample animals from several surveillance streams in order for us to be able to detect this disease all the time. We’ve been doing that for a number of years and every year we take about 40,000 samples to our laboratories on a randomized basis to continue to stay on the outlook for the disease. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: That’s a detection level of about one case for every million cattle. I know it exceeds the World Health Organization but 40,000 tested each year is, well, not enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: That’s about 10 times the OIE standard. We believe strongly that it is a very high level of sampling in this country, especially with the history we’ve had – we haven’t found but three cases, one of which was an imported case which we found in the Northwest about ten years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So we believe it’s a good sampling system, it provides us with a great level of confidence to find the disease if it’s present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Do we know where this particular cow, where the disease came from with this cow? How the cow got this particular affliction?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: No, we don’t yet. Of course, we just diagnosed this particular case in our laboratory and confirmed it less than 24 hours ago. We’re now starting the second phase, which is the on-farm investigation – what we call epidemiology – or looking for all of the factors that might have contributed to this animal being affected. But we’re just in the very early stages of that and have a lot of work left to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: It’s being assumed that it may be an atypical BSE, maybe mutation?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: Well, again, BSE has been around for over 20 years. There’s been a lot of work done, both in the United States and around the world, a significant amount of research done, and during that period of time the tests have continued to improve and we began to see – the scientific community began to see – occasional variation in the molecular, protein structure in that organism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So very rarely we find one that does not fit the typical molecular protein structure and this one, from our lab experts, appears to not fit the classical BSE structure. So we are referring the tests that we’ve done to other laboratories in Canada and England so we can work with other scientists to begin to classify and further characterize the organism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Dr. Dick, when will be able to get more information from the USDA about the process of how these cases are investigated and is there a plan in the works to do more intensive monitoring here in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: We will certainly provide information as it comes in. We have a \u003ca href=\"http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navtype=SU&navid=BSE\">USDA website\u003c/a> and we would encourage people to go to it. We’ll be providing proactively and transparently the information as it becomes available, as we go through the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Do we know if other cows in the herd have been affected?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: We have not yet been to the dairy at all and we’re just beginning that process so there’s no way to answer that at this point in time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Do you know how many of the 40,000 animals a year are tested for mad cow in California as opposed to other states?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: I don’t have an answer to that. We do know that California is statistically represented well in the sampling scheme. We set up our surveillance system to insure that we have broad representation by regions of countries. We do know that California is well represented and we’re doing an adequate number of sampling surveillance in the state of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: How long will it take, roughly, to determine if this came from the feed?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: Well, we will do the epidemiology. That varies depending on the size of the herd and a lot of different factors, but we have a group of folks hitting the ground today beginning that investigation. It’s likely to take several months before we have all of the factors put together, but certainly we’ll be doing that in a methodical, standardized way so that can capture everything that we need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Michael Hansen is with us as well, senior scientist for the Consumer’s Union, a nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. A lot of concern from Consumer’s Union – break it down for us, if you could, Dr. Hansen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CONSUMER UNION’S HANSEN\u003c/strong>: Yes, the three things we’ve pointed out is, number 1, the surveillance is inadequate in our view. Forty thousand out of over 30 million cattle slaughtered is not an adequate sample size, regardless of what OIE says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would point out, in Japan for example, all cattle above the age of 20 months that go into the food supply are tested. In many European countries, all animals above the age of 30 months are being tested – so it’s a far higher rate. That’s one. Second, in terms of the testing, it’s my understanding they’re not really testing any animals that are going into the food supply but basically testing what’s called ‘dead stock.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Hanford facility in California where this animal was rendered – they have advertisements – specialize in dead stock removal. So there’s a question of whether the animal was even alive when it was sampled, that’s been a problem with this surveillance program over time. When they had the huge expanded surveillance program where they tested 789,000, 85 percent of the cows were dead – no other information added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So we don’t think that’s an adequate sample; we think there needs to be much larger sampling in terms of testing. There have been companies that have wanted to use these same tests that the government is using to be able to test their cattle at slaughter so that they can sell them to other countries as BSE-tested, or even label them that way in this country, and the government is saying they cannot do that because they claim the tests are accurate if the government uses them but if the private sector wants to use them they’re completely inadequate and useless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also the issue of the feed or what we still allow to be fed to cattle, which is not allowed in other countries. We have banned the feeding of cattle parts directly back to cattle, but there’s still a lot of loopholes. Right now, you can grind up cows and they can be fed to pigs and chickens, and then pigs and chickens can be ground up and fed back to cattle. That’s an indirect mechanism where the agent could be getting into cattle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s also, because of these loopholes, a direct mechanism. It turns out cow’s blood is exempt from this so you can feed cow’s blood back to cow’s – and that is being done – spray-dried bovine plasma is being used as a calf milk replacer. We know the infective agent, the prion proteins, the mutated ones, are indeed found in blood that is being fed to cattle in this country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also allow the feeding of chicken litter, and that’s found in chicken coops. There’s two billion pounds, roughly, fed to cattle every year. In 2003, Dr. Lester Crawford, who was then acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, gave an interview where he pointed out that chickens waste so much feed when they eat, that chicken litter could be, up to one-third its weight, spilled feed. And of course, ground-up cows can indeed be put into chicken feed which can be spilled and we know two billion pounds of that is being fed to cattle every year. That practice is not allowed in Europe, not allowed in Japan, and is also not allowed in Canada. We need to close these feeding loopholes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d also like to point out they’re saying this is an atypical case of BSE. The Washington Post is reporting this morning that it is the L-type BSE. The reason that is important is if it is indeed the L-type, there have been scientific studies where they used what are called humanized mice – these are mice that have been engineered so they only express human prions – and when you affect those mice with classical BSE or any of these atypical strains, it turns out that the L-type BSE is more virulent than classical BSE. The animals come down with BSE quicker and more rapidly. This has been shown in scientific studies, so if this is indeed the L-type BSE that is more virulent and that is upsetting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think what needs to be done is a dramatically expanded surveillance program and we need to find out how many other animals have been infected. It would also be good if we found out of the 40,000 of the animals tested every year how many are dead, how many of them were tested from animals that were exhibiting some kind of neurological symptoms when they were at slaughterhouses or elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Well, you’re also concerned that the cows are not being tested before going to the slaughter house, aren’t you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CONSUMER UNION’S HANSEN\u003c/strong>: Yes. We are concerned. We think animals going into the food chain should be tested. You should be testing all the animals above a given age going into the food supply. I can point out that in Europe when they did this they found over a thousand cows between 2002 and 2006 that didn’t exhibit any symptoms but tested positive and were therefore kept out of the food chain, because these tests can also detect animals before they exhibit symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: So Dr. Hansen, you think the USDA should allow private testing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CONSUMER UNION’S HANSEN\u003c/strong>: Absolutely. They should allow private testing with the approved tests that have been approved in this country and that are also used globally as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed there was a court case involving this, that Creekstone Farms brought against the government. They initially won the case but then when it was appealed at higher levels, the government actually got that overturned. We think that’s wrong. Private companies should be allowed to test their cows at slaughter as long as they use the approved tests and as long as any positive result should be required to be turned over to the government and ultimately made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Tom Talbot is joining us as well. He’s a chair of the Cattle Health and Well-Being Committee, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. He’s also a veterinarian and California beef producer. Let’s first get your take on this L-type BSE. What do we know that score? Is this verified or is it just tentative? This could be a lot more serious, back in 2003 actually it was devastating to the beef industry when you had a virulent form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CATTLE INDUSTRY’S TALBOT\u003c/strong>: I have not heard that at this stage, that it would be brand new information for me. I have stayed in close contact with everything that the USDA has put out, as well as a number of other sources, and that’s news to me. I think the bottom line on this is it’s still not the classic form of BSE, it’s a-typical. If as we know, as I think the scientific community within this country and internationally agrees, that the a-typical form is probably not contracted from eating contaminated feed as was the classic form that was seen primarily in Europe. I think the fact that whether it’s an L-form or not, it’s still an a-typical case, really says we’re dealing with an extremely rare form of the disease and probably one and we’re not going to see other cases within this incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Well, you know, it certainly would be reassuring to consumers to know that that’s incontrovertible at this point. But the suggestion that it may be the L-type of BSE brings that into question and now you’re having some concerns in the beef industry about South Korea halting its beef imports and talks about banning in Japan. Why that kind of resistance from Asian countries specifically?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CATTLE INDUSTRY’S TALBOT\u003c/strong>: Well, the Asian countries have been difficult in this thing all along. One of the things that came out immediately yesterday was both Canada and Mexico made the statement right off the bat that this would not interfere with their trading issues with the United States. It’s a different situation in Japan and South Korea. In many cases, we don’t deal with sound science in those countries. Whatever is going on with politics in those countries is what dictates what happens. If we go back to 2003 when we had our first case, and our export markets to those countries were shut down, it took an extremely long time to get those markets back even when we had shown that our country had very, very minimal amounts of this disease, and that we were in compliance with OIE guidelines and all these other things. So, what we deal with in those countries doesn’t go back to dealing with the science, it deals with a great amount of what’s going on politically in those countries. So those are difficult issues for us. If it was strictly up to the science, there should be no reason that we should lose those trading partners in this point in time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: But what about the loopholes we heard Dr. Hansen talking about? That doesn’t concern you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CATTLE INDUSTRY’S TALBOT\u003c/strong>: You know, I don’t think so. One of the things I wanted to touch on with one of his comments that we are testing primarily dead animals. You know, these are the highest risk animals. When we’re looking for the prevalence of a disease, we don’t want to go to the lowest risk animals, we want to go to the highest risk animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, in a situation where we’re looking at the animals that have the highest risk, and if the prevalence in those animals was high then I think there would be a greater concern of testing normal, healthy animals. But the fact the prevalence of this disease in high-risk animals is low, there’s the logical conclusion that the prevalence of this disease is very, very low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other thing is that we’re talking about testing 40,000 heads of animals and if we don’t think that’s enough, we can go back to when we did detect BSE in this country back in December of 2003, a relatively short time after that – approximately June of ’04. Over the next two years, we tested almost 800,00 heads of high-risk animals. And what we found there was that the prevalence rate was extremely low and therefore it was determined that we could go ahead and reduce the amount of animals that were tested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You know, this is based on sound epidemiological studies and I think we can feel comfortable in knowing that the prevalence in this industry is extremely low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: I should mention that we just got word that Japan will not suspend its import of beef from the United States. Although, South Korea as of today has suspended and South Korea is the fourth largest importer of US beef. I wonder if you could say something, Tom Talbot, about pink slime – this kind of beef additive that has a lot of people concerned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CATTLE INDUSTRY’S TALBOT\u003c/strong>: The finely textured lean beef issue – that’s the proper term, I think pink slime is extremely inappropriate to use – finally textured lean beef is a product that has been around, has been produced in this industry for a long time. It’s a very healthy product, it’s a very safe product, and the fact that this issue came up after the product had been in the marketplace for many, many years is inappropriate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You know, there have been a number of studies, there is very good science that says this product is safe, that it is healthy and what it does is it allows us to use a greater amount of the product of the animal and it allows us to keep some of the prices for hamburger, ground beef at a lower rate, makes it more affordable, makes it easier for people to feed themselves. The fact that this was brought to the public’s eye by a disgruntled former USDA employee, and thrown back into our face by one of the news stations is inappropriate. It’s disregarded all of the sound science that we use to make sure that that stuff wasn’t on the market to begin with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: Let me go back to Dr. Jerry Dick, who again is a veterinarian and Associate Deputy Administrator with the USDA Veterinary Services. Dr. Dick, people want to know, can they be reassured about buying meat at this point? I’d like to hear, if not reassurance from you, what they maybe ought to be looking for if they should be skeptical or concerned?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>USDA’S DICK\u003c/strong>: I think Dr. Talbot hit the nail on the head. In short, the U.S. consumer can be confident that our meat and dairy products are safe. We have a long history of good surveillance systems, we are a part of the OIE which is 182 countries around the world that gather scientists together to study the best methods to do things in the cattle industry, the sheep industry, the hog industry, and we can be sure that we also work very closely, it bears pointing out, with the World Health Organization, CDC, and other human health organizations to help insure our science is cutting edge and that we’re providing products that are safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KRASNY\u003c/strong>: We’re coming up on a break and I want to hear from the Consumer’s Union Dr. Hansen. If you could Michael Hansen, are you giving a caveat to consumers about beef and dairy products now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CONSUMER UNION’S HANSEN\u003c/strong>: No, we’re saying we’re concerned because enough still hasn’t been done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would just very quickly like to say it’s not true that scientists think this atypical form is not from feed. Both of the atypical forms have been transmitted in humanized mice and if people want to do some feeding studies and grind up some of the brains of L-type or some of these other atypical BSEs, let’s feed them to other cattle and see if we can spread the infection that way. I bet you that most of the prion scientists out there would tell you that would turn up as a positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So this notion that this cannot come from feed, there’s no scientific evidence of that, there’s no feeding study where they’ve taken brain material from an atypical BSE cow and fed it to other cows and not got transmitted.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63388\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 231px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/Eskender.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63388 \" title=\"EskenderAseged\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/Eskender-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"231\" height=\"130\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Eskender Aseged reviews bread toasted for tonight's crimini mushroom crostini in his swank new kitchen at Bayview's Radio Kitchen & Africa. (Credit: KQED/Rachael Myrow)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://radioafricakitchen.com/\">Radio Africa & Kitchen\u003c/a> is one of a growing list of city- supported food businesses on Third Street in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood. It’s all part of a calculated redevelopment strategy to drive foodies to this long neglected corner of Southeast San Francisco. Yes, there is plenty of the mouthwatering BBQ and Soul Food you’d expect to find, but Bayview has a lot more to offer now, including at least three places to get a latte. (Is it just me, or is that a key indicator of foodie culture?)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Welcome to our Bayview. Welcome to Third and Oakdale,” said Mayor Ed Lee at a recent press conference for the restaurant’s launch. Most restaurant openings \u003cem>don’t\u003c/em> feature the local mayor, but the people packing this party were mostly city officials. Because San Francisco is this project’s biggest backer.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=213502483863484932538.0004be5c8180af16486ed&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=37.734442,-122.389412&spn=0.020364,0.019269&z=15&source=embed\">\u003cstrong>Bayview food map\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/04/26/bayview-foodie-crawl-can-you-handle-the-deliciousness-2/#recipe\">\u003cstrong>Recipe: Mushroom Wot Crostini with Mustard Greens, Berbere and Parmesan Cheese\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Radio Africa & Kitchen’s chef, Ethiopian-born Eskender Aseged, has served “pop up” dinners at one venue after another over the last eight years. His approach is heavily influenced by his experience at the now-defunct Square One, one of the first restaurants to take classic recipes from the Mediterranean and reinterpret them for the California palate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take any country from all over Africa, specifically Ethiopia, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal or Nigeria, and then we sort of\u003cem> \u003c/em>bring on the fresher, more straightforward focus and cleaner taste,” says Aseged. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You won’t find \u003cem>fried\u003c/em> food at Radio Africa. Or ketchup. Or hot sauce. Aseged uses what he likes to call the power of Ethiopian spice mixes, like Berbere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a combination of sweet, spicy and aromatic. That is to say, birdseye chili, which can be substitute for cayenne chili, sweet paprika. We got cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, fenugreek, basil, shallot, ginger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I explained in a report for \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/kqednews/RN201204260833\">KQED News\u003c/a>, Aseged couldn’t afford to launch a brick and mortar restaurant on his own, but he could put down about 35 grand. The city, through a variety of agencies, brought roughly $710,000 to the table and built the restaurant from scratch. It’s a street-level commercial anchor to a new condo complex .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months in, Aseged is still in a state of shock over his good fortune. This is a man used to making dinner for about 100 people off of two hot plates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have 12 burners, a grill, griddle, \u003cem>salamander\u003c/em>, two ovens. It’s kind of like, overkill over here,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aseged is expected to source some of his labor locally. The restaurant is serving dinner now, but soon it will open for lunch, featuring a new crop of young line cooks. They’re being trained nearby at the non-profit Old Skool Café, which works with troubled youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the five-year-old Muni T has made this stretch of Third easily accessible, the street intimidates pedestrians, much like Geary and mid-Market do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t feel walkable,” says Andrea Baker, a consultant for San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. “And therein lies the difficulty. Because small businesses tend to rely on foot traffic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While sipping a large cappuccino from the Road House Coffee Company at Third and Thomas, Baker says the city might help launch a \u003cem>bakery\u003c/em> next – or something Indian. (These days, there are more Asian Americans in Bayview than African Americans.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why is it government’s job? Why isn’t it, I would say!” She laughs. “In our system, people pay taxes in the hope that if we all put a little something into it we can create big things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forty years ago, Bayview became a code word for urban decay and gang violence. A lot of people have not reassessed, despite the arrival of gourmet pizza, outdoor concerts, and a new library under construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, it’s not just me saying it. I think if you talk to community leaders, they’re seeing a renaissance here,” Captain Paul Chignell says. He’s the SFPD’s commanding officer for Bayview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not that the area is crime \u003cem>free\u003c/em>. There are lots of beat police in evidence day and night along the corridor. But Bayview still struggles to get the big crowds other crime-plagued neighborhoods in San Francisco enjoy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amy Cohen runs Neighborhood Business Development for the city. “It’s very challenging to get people to come here,” she says. “That’s honestly the power of restaurants in this town. We really feel like people will go anywhere for a good meal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though Radio Africa & Kitchen is bustling/busy on a recent Friday night, its an expensive bet, perhaps the last of its kind after the state put the kaibosh on local redevelopment funds. But Chef Eskender Aseged brings with him a loyal clientele willing to give him — and Bayview — a chance to impress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re game to go on a foodie crawl in Bayview, here’s a Google Map to get you started:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=213502483863484932538.0004be5c8180af16486ed&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=37.734442,-122.389412&spn=0.020364,0.019269&z=15&output=embed\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"580\" height=\"600\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\nView \u003ca href=\"http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=213502483863484932538.0004be5c8180af16486ed&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=37.734442,-122.389412&spn=0.020364,0.019269&z=15&source=embed\">Bayview Foodie Crawl\u003c/a> in a larger map\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chef Aseged has graciously shared his recipe for \u003cstrong>Mushroom Wot Crostini with Mustard Greens, Berbere and Parmesan Cheese\u003c/strong>. As you can tell from the ingredient list, he’s used to cooking for a crowd. Adjust accordingly for your intended audience:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>-1 lb shitake mushroom sliced\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 lb crimini mushroom sliced\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 Tbs minced garlic\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 Tbs chopped parsley\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 Tbs chopped shallots\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-2 Tbs olive oil\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 tsp berbere \u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 tsp sherry vinegar\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 bunch of mustard greens, chopped\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-Salt and pepper\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Directions\u003c/em>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bake crostini in a 350-degree oven for about 5-7 minutes or until lightly browned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saute shallots and garlic in olive oil on medium heat for 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for about 15 minutes on medium low, stirring often. Add the mustard greens and cook for another 5 minutes. Take off of heat and let it rest for a few minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drain some of the liquid out of the pan and add \u003cem>berbere\u003c/em>, sherry vinegar, parsley, and salt and pepper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the \u003cem>berbere\u003c/em>, blend 1 tsp each of ground coriander, ground bird’s eye or cayenne chili, ground cardamom, ground cinnamon, ground or fresh ginger, ground fenugreek, dried basil, and ground pepper, plus 1 tbs sweet paprika and fresh shallot. Mix to taste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scoop a spoonful of mushroom wot on sliced bread and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top of them. Enjoy!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>For more local food coverage, check out KQED’s \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/checkplease/\">Check, Please! Bay Area\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63388\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 231px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/Eskender.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63388 \" title=\"EskenderAseged\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/Eskender-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"231\" height=\"130\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Eskender Aseged reviews bread toasted for tonight's crimini mushroom crostini in his swank new kitchen at Bayview's Radio Kitchen & Africa. (Credit: KQED/Rachael Myrow)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://radioafricakitchen.com/\">Radio Africa & Kitchen\u003c/a> is one of a growing list of city- supported food businesses on Third Street in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood. It’s all part of a calculated redevelopment strategy to drive foodies to this long neglected corner of Southeast San Francisco. Yes, there is plenty of the mouthwatering BBQ and Soul Food you’d expect to find, but Bayview has a lot more to offer now, including at least three places to get a latte. (Is it just me, or is that a key indicator of foodie culture?)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Welcome to our Bayview. Welcome to Third and Oakdale,” said Mayor Ed Lee at a recent press conference for the restaurant’s launch. Most restaurant openings \u003cem>don’t\u003c/em> feature the local mayor, but the people packing this party were mostly city officials. Because San Francisco is this project’s biggest backer.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=213502483863484932538.0004be5c8180af16486ed&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=37.734442,-122.389412&spn=0.020364,0.019269&z=15&source=embed\">\u003cstrong>Bayview food map\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/04/26/bayview-foodie-crawl-can-you-handle-the-deliciousness-2/#recipe\">\u003cstrong>Recipe: Mushroom Wot Crostini with Mustard Greens, Berbere and Parmesan Cheese\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Radio Africa & Kitchen’s chef, Ethiopian-born Eskender Aseged, has served “pop up” dinners at one venue after another over the last eight years. His approach is heavily influenced by his experience at the now-defunct Square One, one of the first restaurants to take classic recipes from the Mediterranean and reinterpret them for the California palate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take any country from all over Africa, specifically Ethiopia, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal or Nigeria, and then we sort of\u003cem> \u003c/em>bring on the fresher, more straightforward focus and cleaner taste,” says Aseged. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You won’t find \u003cem>fried\u003c/em> food at Radio Africa. Or ketchup. Or hot sauce. Aseged uses what he likes to call the power of Ethiopian spice mixes, like Berbere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a combination of sweet, spicy and aromatic. That is to say, birdseye chili, which can be substitute for cayenne chili, sweet paprika. We got cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, fenugreek, basil, shallot, ginger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I explained in a report for \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/kqednews/RN201204260833\">KQED News\u003c/a>, Aseged couldn’t afford to launch a brick and mortar restaurant on his own, but he could put down about 35 grand. The city, through a variety of agencies, brought roughly $710,000 to the table and built the restaurant from scratch. It’s a street-level commercial anchor to a new condo complex .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months in, Aseged is still in a state of shock over his good fortune. This is a man used to making dinner for about 100 people off of two hot plates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have 12 burners, a grill, griddle, \u003cem>salamander\u003c/em>, two ovens. It’s kind of like, overkill over here,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aseged is expected to source some of his labor locally. The restaurant is serving dinner now, but soon it will open for lunch, featuring a new crop of young line cooks. They’re being trained nearby at the non-profit Old Skool Café, which works with troubled youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the five-year-old Muni T has made this stretch of Third easily accessible, the street intimidates pedestrians, much like Geary and mid-Market do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t feel walkable,” says Andrea Baker, a consultant for San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. “And therein lies the difficulty. Because small businesses tend to rely on foot traffic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While sipping a large cappuccino from the Road House Coffee Company at Third and Thomas, Baker says the city might help launch a \u003cem>bakery\u003c/em> next – or something Indian. (These days, there are more Asian Americans in Bayview than African Americans.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why is it government’s job? Why isn’t it, I would say!” She laughs. “In our system, people pay taxes in the hope that if we all put a little something into it we can create big things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forty years ago, Bayview became a code word for urban decay and gang violence. A lot of people have not reassessed, despite the arrival of gourmet pizza, outdoor concerts, and a new library under construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, it’s not just me saying it. I think if you talk to community leaders, they’re seeing a renaissance here,” Captain Paul Chignell says. He’s the SFPD’s commanding officer for Bayview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not that the area is crime \u003cem>free\u003c/em>. There are lots of beat police in evidence day and night along the corridor. But Bayview still struggles to get the big crowds other crime-plagued neighborhoods in San Francisco enjoy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amy Cohen runs Neighborhood Business Development for the city. “It’s very challenging to get people to come here,” she says. “That’s honestly the power of restaurants in this town. We really feel like people will go anywhere for a good meal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though Radio Africa & Kitchen is bustling/busy on a recent Friday night, its an expensive bet, perhaps the last of its kind after the state put the kaibosh on local redevelopment funds. But Chef Eskender Aseged brings with him a loyal clientele willing to give him — and Bayview — a chance to impress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re game to go on a foodie crawl in Bayview, here’s a Google Map to get you started:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=213502483863484932538.0004be5c8180af16486ed&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=37.734442,-122.389412&spn=0.020364,0.019269&z=15&output=embed\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"580\" height=\"600\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\nView \u003ca href=\"http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=213502483863484932538.0004be5c8180af16486ed&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=37.734442,-122.389412&spn=0.020364,0.019269&z=15&source=embed\">Bayview Foodie Crawl\u003c/a> in a larger map\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chef Aseged has graciously shared his recipe for \u003cstrong>Mushroom Wot Crostini with Mustard Greens, Berbere and Parmesan Cheese\u003c/strong>. As you can tell from the ingredient list, he’s used to cooking for a crowd. Adjust accordingly for your intended audience:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>-1 lb shitake mushroom sliced\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 lb crimini mushroom sliced\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 Tbs minced garlic\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 Tbs chopped parsley\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 Tbs chopped shallots\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-2 Tbs olive oil\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 tsp berbere \u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 tsp sherry vinegar\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-1 bunch of mustard greens, chopped\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>-Salt and pepper\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Directions\u003c/em>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bake crostini in a 350-degree oven for about 5-7 minutes or until lightly browned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saute shallots and garlic in olive oil on medium heat for 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for about 15 minutes on medium low, stirring often. Add the mustard greens and cook for another 5 minutes. Take off of heat and let it rest for a few minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drain some of the liquid out of the pan and add \u003cem>berbere\u003c/em>, sherry vinegar, parsley, and salt and pepper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the \u003cem>berbere\u003c/em>, blend 1 tsp each of ground coriander, ground bird’s eye or cayenne chili, ground cardamom, ground cinnamon, ground or fresh ginger, ground fenugreek, dried basil, and ground pepper, plus 1 tbs sweet paprika and fresh shallot. Mix to taste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scoop a spoonful of mushroom wot on sliced bread and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top of them. Enjoy!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>For more local food coverage, check out KQED’s \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/checkplease/\">Check, Please! Bay Area\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>HANFORD, Calif. (AP) The discovery of mad cow disease in a dead dairy cow came soon after it arrived at a non-descript building in the heart of California’s dairy country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63441\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/beef_cattle_grazing_usda3.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/beef_cattle_grazing_usda3.gif\" alt=\"\" title=\"beef_cattle_grazing_usda\" width=\"250\" height=\"164\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63441\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: USDA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The finding, announced Tuesday, is the first new case of the disease in the U.S. since 2006 and the fourth ever discovered in the country. The test was performed when the animal was brought to the building, a transfer facility for a processing plant near Hanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cow had died at one of the region’s hundreds of dairies. A plant official said the cow hadn’t exhibited outward symptoms of the disease: unsteadiness, incoordination, a drastic change in behavior or low milk production. When the animal arrived at the facility with a truckload of other dead cows on April 18, it met criteria for government testing: older than 30 months and a fresh corpse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We randomly pick a number of samples throughout the year, and this just happened to be one that we randomly sampled,” Baker Commodities executive vice president Dennis Luckey said. “It showed no signs” of disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The samples went to the food safety lab at the University of California, Davis. By April 19, markers indicated the cow could have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease that is fatal to cows and can cause a deadly human brain disease in people who eat tainted meat. It was sent to an Agriculture Department lab in Iowa for further testing. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">We randomly pick a number of samples throughout the year, and this just happened to be one that we randomly sampled…\u003cbr>\n–Baker Commodities executive VP Dennis Luckey\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, federal agriculture officials announced the findings: the animal had atypical BSE. That means it didn’t get the disease from eating infected cattle feed, said John Clifford, the Agriculture Department’s chief veterinary officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was “just a random mutation that can happen every once in a great while in an animal,” said Bruce Akey, director of the New York State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Cornell University. “Random mutations go on in nature all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In humans, experts say it can occur in one in 1 million people, causing sponge-like holes in the brain. But they say not enough is known about how and how often the disease strikes cattle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Public Health and the state Department of Food and Agriculture quickly worked to assure consumers that the food supply is safe. The cow hadn’t been destined for human consumption and people cannot become ill from drinking milk, experts say. The building where the cow was selected to be tested sends animals to a rendering plants, which process animal parts for products not going into the human food chain, such as animal food, soap, chemicals or other household products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the unknowns about the current case is whether the animal died of the disease and whether other cattle in its herd are similarly infected. The name of the dairy where the cow died hasn’t been released, and officials haven’t said where the cow was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s appropriate to be cautious, it’s appropriate to pay attention and it’s appropriate to ask questions, but now let’s watch and see what the researchers find out in the next couple of days,” said James Culler, director of the UC Davis dairy food safety laboratory and an authority on BSE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Culler said that in this case the food safety testing program worked and that this form of BSE so rarely occurs that consumers shouldn’t be alarmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Are you worried about all of the meteors that passed the earth last night while you were sleeping? Of course not,” Culler said. “Would you pay 90 percent of your salaries to set up all of the observatories on earth to watch for them? Of course not. It’s the same thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said in a statement that “U.S. regulatory controls are effective, and that U.S fresh beef and beef products from cattle of all ages are safe and can be safely traded due to our interlocking safeguards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The infected cow was identified through an Agriculture Department surveillance program that tests about 40,000 cows a year for the fatal brain disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been three confirmed cases of BSE in cows in the United States _ in a Canadian-born cow in 2003 in Washington state, in 2005 in Texas and in 2006 in Alabama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the 2005 and 2006 cases were also atypical varieties of the disease, USDA officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mad cow cases that plagued England in the early 1990s were caused when livestock routinely were fed protein supplements that included ground cow spinal columns and brain tissue, which can harbor the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Agriculture Department is sharing its lab results with international animal health officials in Canada and England who will review the test results, Clifford said. Federal and California officials will further investigate the case. He said he did not expect the latest discovery to affect beef exports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and federal agriculture officials plan to test other cows that lived in the same feeding herd as the infected bovine, said Michael Marsh, chief executive of Western United Dairymen, who was briefed on the plan. They also plan to test cows born at around the same time the diseased cow was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our members have meticulous records on their animals, so they can tell when the animal was born, the parents, and they can trace other animals to the same facility,” Marsh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, all of the other cows that arrived on the truck with the diseased one are still in cold storage at Baker’s transfer station, which sits in the middle of a wheat field.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>HANFORD, Calif. (AP) The discovery of mad cow disease in a dead dairy cow came soon after it arrived at a non-descript building in the heart of California’s dairy country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63441\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/beef_cattle_grazing_usda3.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/beef_cattle_grazing_usda3.gif\" alt=\"\" title=\"beef_cattle_grazing_usda\" width=\"250\" height=\"164\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63441\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: USDA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The finding, announced Tuesday, is the first new case of the disease in the U.S. since 2006 and the fourth ever discovered in the country. The test was performed when the animal was brought to the building, a transfer facility for a processing plant near Hanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cow had died at one of the region’s hundreds of dairies. A plant official said the cow hadn’t exhibited outward symptoms of the disease: unsteadiness, incoordination, a drastic change in behavior or low milk production. When the animal arrived at the facility with a truckload of other dead cows on April 18, it met criteria for government testing: older than 30 months and a fresh corpse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We randomly pick a number of samples throughout the year, and this just happened to be one that we randomly sampled,” Baker Commodities executive vice president Dennis Luckey said. “It showed no signs” of disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The samples went to the food safety lab at the University of California, Davis. By April 19, markers indicated the cow could have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease that is fatal to cows and can cause a deadly human brain disease in people who eat tainted meat. It was sent to an Agriculture Department lab in Iowa for further testing. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">We randomly pick a number of samples throughout the year, and this just happened to be one that we randomly sampled…\u003cbr>\n–Baker Commodities executive VP Dennis Luckey\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, federal agriculture officials announced the findings: the animal had atypical BSE. That means it didn’t get the disease from eating infected cattle feed, said John Clifford, the Agriculture Department’s chief veterinary officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was “just a random mutation that can happen every once in a great while in an animal,” said Bruce Akey, director of the New York State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Cornell University. “Random mutations go on in nature all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In humans, experts say it can occur in one in 1 million people, causing sponge-like holes in the brain. But they say not enough is known about how and how often the disease strikes cattle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Public Health and the state Department of Food and Agriculture quickly worked to assure consumers that the food supply is safe. The cow hadn’t been destined for human consumption and people cannot become ill from drinking milk, experts say. The building where the cow was selected to be tested sends animals to a rendering plants, which process animal parts for products not going into the human food chain, such as animal food, soap, chemicals or other household products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the unknowns about the current case is whether the animal died of the disease and whether other cattle in its herd are similarly infected. The name of the dairy where the cow died hasn’t been released, and officials haven’t said where the cow was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s appropriate to be cautious, it’s appropriate to pay attention and it’s appropriate to ask questions, but now let’s watch and see what the researchers find out in the next couple of days,” said James Culler, director of the UC Davis dairy food safety laboratory and an authority on BSE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Culler said that in this case the food safety testing program worked and that this form of BSE so rarely occurs that consumers shouldn’t be alarmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Are you worried about all of the meteors that passed the earth last night while you were sleeping? Of course not,” Culler said. “Would you pay 90 percent of your salaries to set up all of the observatories on earth to watch for them? Of course not. It’s the same thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said in a statement that “U.S. regulatory controls are effective, and that U.S fresh beef and beef products from cattle of all ages are safe and can be safely traded due to our interlocking safeguards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The infected cow was identified through an Agriculture Department surveillance program that tests about 40,000 cows a year for the fatal brain disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been three confirmed cases of BSE in cows in the United States _ in a Canadian-born cow in 2003 in Washington state, in 2005 in Texas and in 2006 in Alabama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the 2005 and 2006 cases were also atypical varieties of the disease, USDA officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mad cow cases that plagued England in the early 1990s were caused when livestock routinely were fed protein supplements that included ground cow spinal columns and brain tissue, which can harbor the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Agriculture Department is sharing its lab results with international animal health officials in Canada and England who will review the test results, Clifford said. Federal and California officials will further investigate the case. He said he did not expect the latest discovery to affect beef exports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and federal agriculture officials plan to test other cows that lived in the same feeding herd as the infected bovine, said Michael Marsh, chief executive of Western United Dairymen, who was briefed on the plan. They also plan to test cows born at around the same time the diseased cow was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our members have meticulous records on their animals, so they can tell when the animal was born, the parents, and they can trace other animals to the same facility,” Marsh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, all of the other cows that arrived on the truck with the diseased one are still in cold storage at Baker’s transfer station, which sits in the middle of a wheat field.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>From \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/chemicals-discovered-nontoxic-nail-products-15722\">California Watch\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A report showing potent chemicals are in nail care products that claim to be toxin-free is prompting a state senator to call for reforms, and the state attorney general’s office is reviewing the findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61862\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 203px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/NailSalonReportInternalSM.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61862\" title=\"NailSalonReportInternalSM\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/NailSalonReportInternalSM.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"130\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: California Dept of Toxic Substances Control\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state Department of Toxic Substances Control \u003ca href=\"http://dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/SaferNailProducts.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study\u003c/a> found that 18 of 25 nail care products bought in the San Francisco Bay Area contained at least one chemical linked to cancer or reproductive harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we found was somewhat surprising and somewhat disturbing,” said Karl Palmer, the study leader and the department’s pollution prevention performance manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study released yesterday showed that most of the nail care products claiming to exclude a “toxic trio” of chemicals linked to cancer or reproductive harm did not live up to the claim. Five of the seven products claiming to be “three free” actually included one of the three focus chemicals: toluene, formaldehyde or dibutyl phthalate. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And 10 of the 12 products claiming to be free of toluene actually included the solvent, which can harm a developing fetus or induce asthma-like symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Julia Liou, manager of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cahealthynailsalons.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative\u003c/a>, said during a press call that the report raises serious concerns for the state’s 121,000 full-time nail salon technicians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t want workers to feel they have to choose their livelihood over their health,” Liou said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings of the report echo \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/high-levels-formaldehyde-found-salon-treatment-5183\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">those first reported\u003c/a> by authorities in Oregon who fielded complaints about Brazilian Blowout hair products, which were found to contain formaldehyde despite claims to the contrary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California attorney general’s office \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/attorney-general-targets-brazilian-blowout-over-chemical-6586\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sued the company\u003c/a> that makes the solution and \u003ca href=\"http://oag.ca.gov/news/press_release?id=2617\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reached a settlement\u003c/a>, fining the firm and requiring it to warn salon workers of formaldehyde in two of its products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lynda Gledhill, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Kamala Harris, said her department is reviewing the findings of the Department of Toxic Substances Control nail care products report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, called yesterday for a law to end mislabeling of nail products that contain toxic chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adam Keigwin, Yee’s chief of staff, said the senator’s office is exploring the best way to address the problem, whether it’s higher fines, a chemical ban or sanctions for distributors of foreign products. He said the senator is concerned about consumers and about protecting a largely women-led industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s obviously a problem,” he said. “What the answer is, we don’t know yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Toxic Substances Control\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>report says there are 48,000 nail salons in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christina Jewett is an investigative journalist for \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/\">California Watch\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Toxic Chemicals Discovered in 'Nontoxic' Nail Products in Bay Area | KQED",
"description": "From California Watch A report showing potent chemicals are in nail care products that claim to be toxin-free is prompting a state senator to call for reforms, and the state attorney general's office is reviewing the findings. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control study found that 18 of 25 nail care products bought in the San Francisco Bay Area contained at least one chemical linked to cancer or reproductive harm. “What we found was somewhat surprising and somewhat disturbing,” said Karl Palmer, the study leader and the department's pollution prevention performance manager. The study released yesterday showed that most",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>From \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/chemicals-discovered-nontoxic-nail-products-15722\">California Watch\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A report showing potent chemicals are in nail care products that claim to be toxin-free is prompting a state senator to call for reforms, and the state attorney general’s office is reviewing the findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61862\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 203px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/NailSalonReportInternalSM.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61862\" title=\"NailSalonReportInternalSM\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/NailSalonReportInternalSM.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"130\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: California Dept of Toxic Substances Control\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state Department of Toxic Substances Control \u003ca href=\"http://dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/SaferNailProducts.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study\u003c/a> found that 18 of 25 nail care products bought in the San Francisco Bay Area contained at least one chemical linked to cancer or reproductive harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we found was somewhat surprising and somewhat disturbing,” said Karl Palmer, the study leader and the department’s pollution prevention performance manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study released yesterday showed that most of the nail care products claiming to exclude a “toxic trio” of chemicals linked to cancer or reproductive harm did not live up to the claim. Five of the seven products claiming to be “three free” actually included one of the three focus chemicals: toluene, formaldehyde or dibutyl phthalate. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And 10 of the 12 products claiming to be free of toluene actually included the solvent, which can harm a developing fetus or induce asthma-like symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Julia Liou, manager of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cahealthynailsalons.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative\u003c/a>, said during a press call that the report raises serious concerns for the state’s 121,000 full-time nail salon technicians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t want workers to feel they have to choose their livelihood over their health,” Liou said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings of the report echo \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/high-levels-formaldehyde-found-salon-treatment-5183\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">those first reported\u003c/a> by authorities in Oregon who fielded complaints about Brazilian Blowout hair products, which were found to contain formaldehyde despite claims to the contrary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California attorney general’s office \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/attorney-general-targets-brazilian-blowout-over-chemical-6586\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sued the company\u003c/a> that makes the solution and \u003ca href=\"http://oag.ca.gov/news/press_release?id=2617\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reached a settlement\u003c/a>, fining the firm and requiring it to warn salon workers of formaldehyde in two of its products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lynda Gledhill, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Kamala Harris, said her department is reviewing the findings of the Department of Toxic Substances Control nail care products report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, called yesterday for a law to end mislabeling of nail products that contain toxic chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adam Keigwin, Yee’s chief of staff, said the senator’s office is exploring the best way to address the problem, whether it’s higher fines, a chemical ban or sanctions for distributors of foreign products. He said the senator is concerned about consumers and about protecting a largely women-led industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s obviously a problem,” he said. “What the answer is, we don’t know yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Toxic Substances Control\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>report says there are 48,000 nail salons in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christina Jewett is an investigative journalist for \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/\">California Watch\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>LOS ANGELES (AP) California regulators have formally declared an April 1 rate hike from Aetna on small employers “unreasonable,” but the insurer isn’t backing down from the hike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said Thursday that he doesn’t have the authority to outright reject Aetna’s 1.8 percent average quarterly rate increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones says annually, the hike amounts to an average 8 percent increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones determined the hike to be unreasonable after state actuaries found that Aetna’s projections about medical cost increases weren’t supported by actual claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones says Aetna made a 27.7 percent profit in 2011, paying $1.7 billion in dividends to its parent company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aetna did not immediately return a call seeking comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones says small employers shouldn’t be hit with the rate increase.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>LOS ANGELES (AP) California regulators have formally declared an April 1 rate hike from Aetna on small employers “unreasonable,” but the insurer isn’t backing down from the hike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said Thursday that he doesn’t have the authority to outright reject Aetna’s 1.8 percent average quarterly rate increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones says annually, the hike amounts to an average 8 percent increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones determined the hike to be unreasonable after state actuaries found that Aetna’s projections about medical cost increases weren’t supported by actual claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones says Aetna made a 27.7 percent profit in 2011, paying $1.7 billion in dividends to its parent company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aetna did not immediately return a call seeking comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones says small employers shouldn’t be hit with the rate increase.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 4:01 p.m.\u003c/strong> IRS spokesperson Arlette Lee said the investigation is a joint effort between the IRS and the DEA. She declined further comment, stating the search warrant has been sealed by a federal court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61019\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 225px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/photo-4.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-61019\" title=\"photo 4\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/photo-4-e1333387474596-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Federal agents guard doors of Oaksterdam University. (Photo by Rachel Dornhelm)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 3:12 p.m.\u003c/strong> Federal agents also raided the home of Oaksterdam founder Richard Lee but did not arrest him, according to the AP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Clearly, they’re trying to knock down one of the leaders in the cannabis reform movement,” said Oaksterdam Executive Chancellor Dale Sky Jones.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 11:10 a.m.\u003c/strong> The crowd protesting the federal raid in downtown Oakland has swelled to more than 60 people. KQED’s Rachel Dornhelm reports Oakland police have arrived and closed down one block of 15th street between Broadway and Franklin. Federal agents are still carting evidence out of the \u003ca title=\"Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Coop\" href=\"http://www.rxcbc.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative\u003c/a> and loading it into a white truck. At least one protester has been taken into custody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 10:20 a.m. \u003c/strong>KQED’s Rachel Dornhelm is at Oaksterdam University where about 45 people have gathered to protest. Dornhelm says agents carted out what appeared to be florescent lights and other materials broadly referred to as “evidence.” Protester Maya Rise told Dornhelm, “I’m just against stealing and robbing. There are real sick people with cancer and… chronic pain that rely on cannabis. So they shouldn’t be stealing people’s medicine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original Post:\u003c/strong> OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Federal agents have raided a San Francisco Bay area medical marijuana training school at the heart of California’s pot legalization movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The doors to Oaksterdam University in downtown Oakland were blocked Monday morning by U.S. marshals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration carted trash bags of unknown materials out of the school to a waiting van.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a dozen protesters out front held signs demanding an end to federal crackdowns on medical marijuana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oaksterdam University was founded by Richard Lee, the main backer of the California ballot measure defeated in 2010 that would have legalized marijuana in the state for recreational use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school is in an Oakland neighborhood that has also been home to several medical marijuana dispensaries, including one founded by Lee.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 4:01 p.m.\u003c/strong> IRS spokesperson Arlette Lee said the investigation is a joint effort between the IRS and the DEA. She declined further comment, stating the search warrant has been sealed by a federal court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61019\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 225px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/photo-4.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-61019\" title=\"photo 4\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/04/photo-4-e1333387474596-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Federal agents guard doors of Oaksterdam University. (Photo by Rachel Dornhelm)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 3:12 p.m.\u003c/strong> Federal agents also raided the home of Oaksterdam founder Richard Lee but did not arrest him, according to the AP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Clearly, they’re trying to knock down one of the leaders in the cannabis reform movement,” said Oaksterdam Executive Chancellor Dale Sky Jones.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 11:10 a.m.\u003c/strong> The crowd protesting the federal raid in downtown Oakland has swelled to more than 60 people. KQED’s Rachel Dornhelm reports Oakland police have arrived and closed down one block of 15th street between Broadway and Franklin. Federal agents are still carting evidence out of the \u003ca title=\"Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Coop\" href=\"http://www.rxcbc.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative\u003c/a> and loading it into a white truck. At least one protester has been taken into custody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 10:20 a.m. \u003c/strong>KQED’s Rachel Dornhelm is at Oaksterdam University where about 45 people have gathered to protest. Dornhelm says agents carted out what appeared to be florescent lights and other materials broadly referred to as “evidence.” Protester Maya Rise told Dornhelm, “I’m just against stealing and robbing. There are real sick people with cancer and… chronic pain that rely on cannabis. So they shouldn’t be stealing people’s medicine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original Post:\u003c/strong> OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Federal agents have raided a San Francisco Bay area medical marijuana training school at the heart of California’s pot legalization movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The doors to Oaksterdam University in downtown Oakland were blocked Monday morning by U.S. marshals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration carted trash bags of unknown materials out of the school to a waiting van.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a dozen protesters out front held signs demanding an end to federal crackdowns on medical marijuana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oaksterdam University was founded by Richard Lee, the main backer of the California ballot measure defeated in 2010 that would have legalized marijuana in the state for recreational use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school is in an Oakland neighborhood that has also been home to several medical marijuana dispensaries, including one founded by Lee.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Interviews: Uninsured Conservative Californians on Why They Don't Like 'Obamacare'",
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"headTitle": "Interviews: Uninsured Conservative Californians on Why They Don’t Like ‘Obamacare’ | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Today marks the second anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Not everyone is throwing a party. Detractors, who disparagingly refer to the law as “\u003ca href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/embracing-the-obamacare-label/2012/03/23/gIQAO5eLWS_blog.html\">Obamacare\u003c/a>,” are hoping that next week’s \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/03/19/the-supreme-courts-4-health-care-reform-questions/\">extraordinary three days of hearings on the legislation\u003c/a> by the U.S. Supreme Court will serve as prelude to a judicial override that shrinks the entire enterprise down to a historical footnote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60370\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/paulruffino.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-60370\" title=\"paulruffino\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/paulruffino.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Libertarian Paul Ruffino, 55, has been looking for an insurance plan since leaving his previous job. Several insurance companies refuse to cover him because he has pre-existing conditions.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now you Bay Area folks, in the heart of the heart of Blue Territory — let’s face it, most of you are rooting for the legislation to prevail like you cheered on the Giants versus the Rangers in the World Series. Because the debate over the law has become something much more than an argument over a specific policy. Opposition to the act among Republican politicians is virtually mandatory, and its fate \u003cem>feels like\u003c/em>, at least, a proxy for the success or failure of the entire Obama presidency. Furthermore, opponents’ \u003ca href=\"http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/public-options-death-panels-health-care-debate-evolved/story?id=15982445#.T20ZCo5GydM\">extreme interpretations\u003c/a> of the law’s provisions and their eventual effects are indicative of not just the gaping partisan divide, but an almost \u003cem>metaphysical\u003c/em> chasm between two distinct sets of Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/health-reform-enters-2nd-year-amid-broad-changes-challenges-15404\">\u003cstrong>Effects of health care bill in Calif. so far\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> (California Watch)\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Which all serves as our introduction to interviews that KQED’s Sarah Varney conducted when she traveled outside the Blue Bubble to Madera County, “a largely conservative and agricultural area where one in every three people lacks coverage,” as she \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/03/23/uninsured-and-still-against-the-health-law/\">\u003cstrong>reports on our State of Health blog\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>. “While many people say they want the Supreme Court to throw out the federal health law, I found that many there are struggling to reconcile their political views with the basic need for health insurance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/03/23/uninsured-and-still-against-the-health-law/\">Read the blog post\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/03/23/uninsured-and-still-against-the-health-law/\">listen to The California Report segment here\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As web extra — since many of you may only hear conservatives explicating their opinions when your in-laws are over for Thanksgiving and someone mentions global warming and then it’s “Hey why don’t we all settle down and turn the football game on, it’s THANKSGIVING for God’s sake!” — we’re posting three extended if edited transcripts from Sarah’s conversations with the folks in Madera County, as they explain their feelings about the health care bill. All three live in \u003ca href=\"http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=OCZ&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1245&bih=643&q=oakhurst+california&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x809427a27f5dbc67:0xd0683ed7bb7d8d81,Oakhurst,+CA&gl=us&ei=f_9sT-f6ApDZiQLGyNnGBQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CFsQ8gEwAA\">Oakhurst\u003c/a>, a southern gateway to Yosemite north of Fresno; and all three are both uninsured \u003cem>and\u003c/em> opposed to the law to one degree or another. Here they are…\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Paul Ruffino, age 55\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve been involved in the hospitality business for 35 years at a corporate level and have always had full insurance benefits, major medical, vision, dental, the Cadillac of all packages. This last year I left my job and it was the first time I left without having another one because I was trying to decide what I wanted to do in my old age. I went on COBRA and that ran out. Now here I am at a more independent job, less of a corporate environment, that doesn’t have those insurance benefits. So I am looking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m uninsured! It’s the first time in my life and it’s probably when I need it the most. I ‘m looking at AFLAC, but its very expensive. I was an athlete in college and I’m riddled with pre-existing conditions. So I’m out and about finding policies that wont accept things that I have… in my ankles, knees and my hurt back.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Do I make the government responsible for my choices? I didn’t leave my world and then turn around and say ‘oh my god this is happening to me.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>I’m an old-school libertarian. I get frustrated sometimes when I see government putting their fingers all over it and then I sort of wonder if they have to. I wonder if we can leave it up to individuals and companies and the doctors to sort it out. Because you start getting involved in profit motivation then you effect everybody’s health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What I find in government is lack of accountability. In corporate America, lack of accountability will get you fired. And all I’ve ever seen now is passing the buck, regardless of who comes in. The Democrats, Republicans, there’s no delineation anymore. That’s why I’m on the Ron Paul bandwagon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was a Democrat until Reagan, then Republican, then back and forth with being an independent. Now I’m libertarian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>On being uninsured and his feelings about the law\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not either/or for me. They hide these things. I started to do research on Obamacare and all these things and there’s so much other pork they put in there. I distrust government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do I make the government responsible for my choices? I didn’t leave my world and then turn around and say ‘oh my god this is happening to me.’ I knew beforehand. I have to be responsible for my own decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Would I like to be better? There’s a greedy part of me that says I would. I believe there are people and Americans who need health care a lot more than I do because ultimately the bottom line is I can afford it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My concern is for people who can’t afford it. And that’s where I have to ask: Does there come a time when government has to get involved and at what levels? But when you are distrustful of the system it makes it difficult. I ping pong on this all the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It comes back down to accountability. Our parents used to be responsible for us. Now parents blame everybody else. I think a lot of it has to do with education. We spend a lot of time educating people about sex, abstinence. The problem is we don’t educate people about insurance. It’s never talked about until people are in their 30s, 40s. So I think there’s a little bit of a wake-up call, saying this needs to get talked about soon. Knowing insurance and knowing your responsiblities are as important as telling kids about safe sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have eight children – seven daughters and one son – and my children knew about insurance by the time they graduated from high school. The system we have is sufficient if we have the information. Absolutely. It works. It really does work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I do think companies have to be held accountable. They shouldn’t be allowed to cherrypick. Banks don’t let it happen in the private sector. If a company buys mortgage papers, they can’t buy all A paper. They have to buy the B,C, D paper in order to maintain their licenses. You could say if you want to operate in this community as a licensed health insurance, you must have a certain spread in your portfolio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost is kind of crazy. Is it irrationally crazy? No. To fix it, you have to get people to participate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t anticipate change. I don’t see it getting better…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Stern, age 66\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I own Joe Stern Water Conditioning. I only have two employees so the rates are pretty high. I offered it but they’ve elected not to take it. For myself, I’m on Medicare and I have a Medicare supplement through Kaiser. Before Medicare I had Kaiser, and I just paid for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">I’m totally against the mandate. You can’t make someone buy anything.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>When I went on Medicare, I was paying $670 a month as a single person. And I consider that pretty high. And that was without dental or glasses. So I just paid my dental out of pocket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I thought it was pretty brutal but I was still against Obamacare by far. Because I saw how they did it in the middle of the night. It was just not how you do a radical change like that. You do it slowly so you don’t make mistakes. You study it. But you don’t say we’re going to find out what’s in it after we pass it, like Nancy Pelosi said. That was unbelievable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m totally against the mandate. You can’t make someone buy anything. So I think that’s terrible. The only reason they’re doing it is cause they can’t pay for it any other way and it’s just a horrible bill in every way. There’s nothing good about it. It doesn’t even insure more people like they promised. And by the way, I just read an article in the Wall Street Journal that the cost has doubled from what they predicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our Congress is not qualified to make a law like that. When have they ever done any big change that came out good economically?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What do you think about Medicare?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Laughs) Well, yes, but it looks like we’ve got trouble coming up…\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">I’m glad on I’m Medicare, okay? I paid into it since I was a kid…\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>I think we should always have a safety net for people, and I always thought we did. Why did we need this big cumbersome program that no one really likes except the most liberal people? Or people who just like Obama no matter what…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think we have a safety net in the United States. When they were trying to get the health care bill passed, Obamacare, they said we’ve got 60 million uninsured. A lot of that may not be true. A lot of the uninsured don’t want insurance, like young people. They don’t think they need it. And a lot of people are qualified, for Medi-Cal for instance, and they just haven’t gone out and gotten it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know of anyone that was left on the street to bleed to death. Unless they were some drunk. I don’t know anyone who was really left out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Is it important that everyone have health insurance? \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No. It’s important that everybody who wants it should get it competitively.\u003cbr>\nI think you get competition by… you don’t have the state lines when it comes to coverage, put it out to bid, use economies of scale to get it competitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But mandates? No. I’m a capitalist. I’m a free-market guy. I’m not for government control. Or anything government does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m glad I’m on Medicare, okay? I paid into it since I was a kid. And I’m glad I’m on it, it’s a good plan. Social security is a good plan, but where was that money? It wasn’t invested properly. Government that governs best governs the least.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t think it was good that Obamacare eliminates pre-existing conditions. If you’re unhealthy, you should pay a little more. It’s only fair. Otherwise the healthy people are paying for the unhealthy and that’s more like the socialistic thing which I’m not really in favor of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe a little bit. I am a compassionate person. At least I’m trying to be. I don’t want anyone suffering, and I love people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But still I just don’t think that works very well. It costs way too much. A lot of people just milk the system. If everything were free, then every time you go to a hospital, an aspirin would go up to $17. People would be going there all the time. People would be hanging out at the emergency room. That’s how I see it. Welfare Cadillac. That’s what I’m worried about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We need to really qualify the needy people who do get government assistance. They need to make sure they qualify… not all addicted to drugs, buying drugs, not been on welfare for generations, driving Cadillacs… then I’m all for it. But it wouldn’t be no 60 million people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I try not to follow things too closely… I was guilty of watching Fox news and hanging on to every word for awhile. Nah, why should I just be miserable?\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">I don’t think it was good that Obamacare eliminates pre-existing conditions. If you’re unhealthy, you should pay a little more. Otherwise the healthy people are paying for the unhealthy and that’s more like the socialistic thing which I’m not really in favor of.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>ObamaCare is absolutely horrible, horrible, horrible. It should be struck down immediately and I hope the Supreme Court does it. It’s just terrible. The way they did it, in the middle of the night, promised it would be on CSPAN, he lied… Reid, Pelosi, pathetic… Romney has a good chance of beating Obama But as a Republican in California, I don’t get a say in the presidential election. Around campaign time, I write letters…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do you know many people who are uninsured? My daughter is on Medi-Cal; she’s getting ready to gradate; we didn’t have to pass ObamaCare for her…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Westover\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m a self employed artist-businesswoman… I make purses and luggage and I sell them at street fairs and art and wine festivals. I’ve been divorced for 17 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I was married I had insurance through my husband. Since we got divorced, I was self employed, I just couldn’t afford it. I couldn’t afford the premiums. I was flying by the seat of my pants every inch of the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve only been the doctor or hospital on an emergency basis so I just have to take care of myself. I haven’t been getting regular pap smears, mammograms. I won’t qualify for Medicare for awhile…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I registered as a Republican, but I’m really going to vote the candidate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can’t make people who don’t have money buy health insurance, because they can’t afford it. It will just break them. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What about the subsidies that people will get to help people buy it?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Really? No, never heard of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>If people knew more, would that shift their position on the law? \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think it’s really daunting. For my job, I make money three-quarters of the year and when I don’t do shows, I have no income. People who have families, I don’t know how they could fit one more thing in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I thought about applying for Medi-Cal, but I have a ROTH IRA, and I think you have to exhaust that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moving toward a government subsidy is not a bad idea; it’s worked in other countries, but I don’t know if it’s going to work here because our country is too big and we’re in debt. I don’t know what the answer is. I’m just hanging on by the seat of my pants and hoping I stay healthy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What would you like the Supreme Court to do?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In theory, it sounds like a good idea that they uphold it. I’m sure that if the Supreme Court sees that its going to work and it can be implemented, I think that’s probably the right thing to do. And it’s not going to take place immediately. I don’t know if it will ever impact me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To me, insurance right now is just too daunting. It’s as much as I pay for rent, if I had to insure myself. If it were subsidies, if it were made, you know, manageable, I would want that. And I don’t know how people who can afford it can sit there and say that we shouldn’t have that. Because there are a lot more of us, than them. So…\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Today marks the second anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Not everyone is throwing a party. Detractors, who disparagingly refer to the law as “\u003ca href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/embracing-the-obamacare-label/2012/03/23/gIQAO5eLWS_blog.html\">Obamacare\u003c/a>,” are hoping that next week’s \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/03/19/the-supreme-courts-4-health-care-reform-questions/\">extraordinary three days of hearings on the legislation\u003c/a> by the U.S. Supreme Court will serve as prelude to a judicial override that shrinks the entire enterprise down to a historical footnote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60370\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/paulruffino.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-60370\" title=\"paulruffino\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/paulruffino.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Libertarian Paul Ruffino, 55, has been looking for an insurance plan since leaving his previous job. Several insurance companies refuse to cover him because he has pre-existing conditions.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now you Bay Area folks, in the heart of the heart of Blue Territory — let’s face it, most of you are rooting for the legislation to prevail like you cheered on the Giants versus the Rangers in the World Series. Because the debate over the law has become something much more than an argument over a specific policy. Opposition to the act among Republican politicians is virtually mandatory, and its fate \u003cem>feels like\u003c/em>, at least, a proxy for the success or failure of the entire Obama presidency. Furthermore, opponents’ \u003ca href=\"http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/public-options-death-panels-health-care-debate-evolved/story?id=15982445#.T20ZCo5GydM\">extreme interpretations\u003c/a> of the law’s provisions and their eventual effects are indicative of not just the gaping partisan divide, but an almost \u003cem>metaphysical\u003c/em> chasm between two distinct sets of Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/health-reform-enters-2nd-year-amid-broad-changes-challenges-15404\">\u003cstrong>Effects of health care bill in Calif. so far\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> (California Watch)\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Which all serves as our introduction to interviews that KQED’s Sarah Varney conducted when she traveled outside the Blue Bubble to Madera County, “a largely conservative and agricultural area where one in every three people lacks coverage,” as she \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/03/23/uninsured-and-still-against-the-health-law/\">\u003cstrong>reports on our State of Health blog\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>. “While many people say they want the Supreme Court to throw out the federal health law, I found that many there are struggling to reconcile their political views with the basic need for health insurance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/03/23/uninsured-and-still-against-the-health-law/\">Read the blog post\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/03/23/uninsured-and-still-against-the-health-law/\">listen to The California Report segment here\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As web extra — since many of you may only hear conservatives explicating their opinions when your in-laws are over for Thanksgiving and someone mentions global warming and then it’s “Hey why don’t we all settle down and turn the football game on, it’s THANKSGIVING for God’s sake!” — we’re posting three extended if edited transcripts from Sarah’s conversations with the folks in Madera County, as they explain their feelings about the health care bill. All three live in \u003ca href=\"http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=OCZ&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1245&bih=643&q=oakhurst+california&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x809427a27f5dbc67:0xd0683ed7bb7d8d81,Oakhurst,+CA&gl=us&ei=f_9sT-f6ApDZiQLGyNnGBQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CFsQ8gEwAA\">Oakhurst\u003c/a>, a southern gateway to Yosemite north of Fresno; and all three are both uninsured \u003cem>and\u003c/em> opposed to the law to one degree or another. Here they are…\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Paul Ruffino, age 55\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve been involved in the hospitality business for 35 years at a corporate level and have always had full insurance benefits, major medical, vision, dental, the Cadillac of all packages. This last year I left my job and it was the first time I left without having another one because I was trying to decide what I wanted to do in my old age. I went on COBRA and that ran out. Now here I am at a more independent job, less of a corporate environment, that doesn’t have those insurance benefits. So I am looking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m uninsured! It’s the first time in my life and it’s probably when I need it the most. I ‘m looking at AFLAC, but its very expensive. I was an athlete in college and I’m riddled with pre-existing conditions. So I’m out and about finding policies that wont accept things that I have… in my ankles, knees and my hurt back.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Do I make the government responsible for my choices? I didn’t leave my world and then turn around and say ‘oh my god this is happening to me.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>I’m an old-school libertarian. I get frustrated sometimes when I see government putting their fingers all over it and then I sort of wonder if they have to. I wonder if we can leave it up to individuals and companies and the doctors to sort it out. Because you start getting involved in profit motivation then you effect everybody’s health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What I find in government is lack of accountability. In corporate America, lack of accountability will get you fired. And all I’ve ever seen now is passing the buck, regardless of who comes in. The Democrats, Republicans, there’s no delineation anymore. That’s why I’m on the Ron Paul bandwagon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was a Democrat until Reagan, then Republican, then back and forth with being an independent. Now I’m libertarian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>On being uninsured and his feelings about the law\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not either/or for me. They hide these things. I started to do research on Obamacare and all these things and there’s so much other pork they put in there. I distrust government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do I make the government responsible for my choices? I didn’t leave my world and then turn around and say ‘oh my god this is happening to me.’ I knew beforehand. I have to be responsible for my own decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Would I like to be better? There’s a greedy part of me that says I would. I believe there are people and Americans who need health care a lot more than I do because ultimately the bottom line is I can afford it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My concern is for people who can’t afford it. And that’s where I have to ask: Does there come a time when government has to get involved and at what levels? But when you are distrustful of the system it makes it difficult. I ping pong on this all the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It comes back down to accountability. Our parents used to be responsible for us. Now parents blame everybody else. I think a lot of it has to do with education. We spend a lot of time educating people about sex, abstinence. The problem is we don’t educate people about insurance. It’s never talked about until people are in their 30s, 40s. So I think there’s a little bit of a wake-up call, saying this needs to get talked about soon. Knowing insurance and knowing your responsiblities are as important as telling kids about safe sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have eight children – seven daughters and one son – and my children knew about insurance by the time they graduated from high school. The system we have is sufficient if we have the information. Absolutely. It works. It really does work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I do think companies have to be held accountable. They shouldn’t be allowed to cherrypick. Banks don’t let it happen in the private sector. If a company buys mortgage papers, they can’t buy all A paper. They have to buy the B,C, D paper in order to maintain their licenses. You could say if you want to operate in this community as a licensed health insurance, you must have a certain spread in your portfolio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost is kind of crazy. Is it irrationally crazy? No. To fix it, you have to get people to participate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t anticipate change. I don’t see it getting better…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Stern, age 66\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I own Joe Stern Water Conditioning. I only have two employees so the rates are pretty high. I offered it but they’ve elected not to take it. For myself, I’m on Medicare and I have a Medicare supplement through Kaiser. Before Medicare I had Kaiser, and I just paid for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">I’m totally against the mandate. You can’t make someone buy anything.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>When I went on Medicare, I was paying $670 a month as a single person. And I consider that pretty high. And that was without dental or glasses. So I just paid my dental out of pocket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I thought it was pretty brutal but I was still against Obamacare by far. Because I saw how they did it in the middle of the night. It was just not how you do a radical change like that. You do it slowly so you don’t make mistakes. You study it. But you don’t say we’re going to find out what’s in it after we pass it, like Nancy Pelosi said. That was unbelievable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m totally against the mandate. You can’t make someone buy anything. So I think that’s terrible. The only reason they’re doing it is cause they can’t pay for it any other way and it’s just a horrible bill in every way. There’s nothing good about it. It doesn’t even insure more people like they promised. And by the way, I just read an article in the Wall Street Journal that the cost has doubled from what they predicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our Congress is not qualified to make a law like that. When have they ever done any big change that came out good economically?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What do you think about Medicare?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Laughs) Well, yes, but it looks like we’ve got trouble coming up…\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">I’m glad on I’m Medicare, okay? I paid into it since I was a kid…\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>I think we should always have a safety net for people, and I always thought we did. Why did we need this big cumbersome program that no one really likes except the most liberal people? Or people who just like Obama no matter what…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think we have a safety net in the United States. When they were trying to get the health care bill passed, Obamacare, they said we’ve got 60 million uninsured. A lot of that may not be true. A lot of the uninsured don’t want insurance, like young people. They don’t think they need it. And a lot of people are qualified, for Medi-Cal for instance, and they just haven’t gone out and gotten it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know of anyone that was left on the street to bleed to death. Unless they were some drunk. I don’t know anyone who was really left out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Is it important that everyone have health insurance? \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No. It’s important that everybody who wants it should get it competitively.\u003cbr>\nI think you get competition by… you don’t have the state lines when it comes to coverage, put it out to bid, use economies of scale to get it competitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But mandates? No. I’m a capitalist. I’m a free-market guy. I’m not for government control. Or anything government does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m glad I’m on Medicare, okay? I paid into it since I was a kid. And I’m glad I’m on it, it’s a good plan. Social security is a good plan, but where was that money? It wasn’t invested properly. Government that governs best governs the least.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t think it was good that Obamacare eliminates pre-existing conditions. If you’re unhealthy, you should pay a little more. It’s only fair. Otherwise the healthy people are paying for the unhealthy and that’s more like the socialistic thing which I’m not really in favor of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe a little bit. I am a compassionate person. At least I’m trying to be. I don’t want anyone suffering, and I love people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But still I just don’t think that works very well. It costs way too much. A lot of people just milk the system. If everything were free, then every time you go to a hospital, an aspirin would go up to $17. People would be going there all the time. People would be hanging out at the emergency room. That’s how I see it. Welfare Cadillac. That’s what I’m worried about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We need to really qualify the needy people who do get government assistance. They need to make sure they qualify… not all addicted to drugs, buying drugs, not been on welfare for generations, driving Cadillacs… then I’m all for it. But it wouldn’t be no 60 million people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I try not to follow things too closely… I was guilty of watching Fox news and hanging on to every word for awhile. Nah, why should I just be miserable?\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">I don’t think it was good that Obamacare eliminates pre-existing conditions. If you’re unhealthy, you should pay a little more. Otherwise the healthy people are paying for the unhealthy and that’s more like the socialistic thing which I’m not really in favor of.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>ObamaCare is absolutely horrible, horrible, horrible. It should be struck down immediately and I hope the Supreme Court does it. It’s just terrible. The way they did it, in the middle of the night, promised it would be on CSPAN, he lied… Reid, Pelosi, pathetic… Romney has a good chance of beating Obama But as a Republican in California, I don’t get a say in the presidential election. Around campaign time, I write letters…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do you know many people who are uninsured? My daughter is on Medi-Cal; she’s getting ready to gradate; we didn’t have to pass ObamaCare for her…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Westover\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m a self employed artist-businesswoman… I make purses and luggage and I sell them at street fairs and art and wine festivals. I’ve been divorced for 17 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I was married I had insurance through my husband. Since we got divorced, I was self employed, I just couldn’t afford it. I couldn’t afford the premiums. I was flying by the seat of my pants every inch of the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve only been the doctor or hospital on an emergency basis so I just have to take care of myself. I haven’t been getting regular pap smears, mammograms. I won’t qualify for Medicare for awhile…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I registered as a Republican, but I’m really going to vote the candidate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can’t make people who don’t have money buy health insurance, because they can’t afford it. It will just break them. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What about the subsidies that people will get to help people buy it?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Really? No, never heard of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>If people knew more, would that shift their position on the law? \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think it’s really daunting. For my job, I make money three-quarters of the year and when I don’t do shows, I have no income. People who have families, I don’t know how they could fit one more thing in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I thought about applying for Medi-Cal, but I have a ROTH IRA, and I think you have to exhaust that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moving toward a government subsidy is not a bad idea; it’s worked in other countries, but I don’t know if it’s going to work here because our country is too big and we’re in debt. I don’t know what the answer is. I’m just hanging on by the seat of my pants and hoping I stay healthy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What would you like the Supreme Court to do?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In theory, it sounds like a good idea that they uphold it. I’m sure that if the Supreme Court sees that its going to work and it can be implemented, I think that’s probably the right thing to do. And it’s not going to take place immediately. I don’t know if it will ever impact me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To me, insurance right now is just too daunting. It’s as much as I pay for rent, if I had to insure myself. If it were subsidies, if it were made, you know, manageable, I would want that. And I don’t know how people who can afford it can sit there and say that we shouldn’t have that. Because there are a lot more of us, than them. So…\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "interview-mayor-tom-bates-laments-closing-of-berkeley-patients-group-marijuana-dispensary",
"title": "Interview: Mayor Tom Bates Laments Closing of Berkeley Patients Group Marijuana Dispensary",
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"headTitle": "Interview: Mayor Tom Bates Laments Closing of Berkeley Patients Group Marijuana Dispensary | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_59526\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 127px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/berkeleypatientsgroup1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/berkeleypatientsgroup1-254x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"berkeleypatientsgroup\" width=\"127\" height=\"150\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-59526\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Montgomery/California Watch\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>KQED News intern Dana Varinsky asked Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates today what he thought about the news that the Berkeley Patients Group, one of California’s largest marijuana dispensaries, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/03/15/berkeley-patients-group-marijuana-dispensary-to-close/\">will shut down in response to a warning letter\u003c/a> sent to its landlord by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag. Haag has been targeting dispensaries that in proximity to schools or other locations where children gather. Here’s what Bates had to say: \u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>They have actually been a very good corporate citizen in Berkeley. There have been no complaints — we get compliments from neighbors. They really have a very high-class operation that dispenses marijuana to people who need it. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’re really sorry to see them close up, because if we’re going to have a dispensary, they’re certainly the model. If you’re going to have marijuana dispensaries, you need to make sure they run like the Berkeley Patients Group, and we’d love to see people who have a dispensary in the future pattern themselves after them. There were no instances of violence, they were excellent neighbors, they had good security, they contributed to the economy and helped local non profits by making contributions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The voters of this city voted unanimously that they wanted to have four dispensaries in Berkeley and that was it. We grandfathered them in. But evidently we get trumped by the federal government. \u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>As to whether the dispensary may be able to operate elsewhere in the city, Bates said, “I think they’re definitely looking for an alternate location and have been looking for quite awhile. It’s not easy, because we have schools all around the city. It’s hard to find a location that meets our other criteria too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Attorney for Northern California Melinda Haag offers her rationale for closing dispensaries that would seem to have community support or be problem-free in this \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/03/15/interview-w-us-attorney-haag-on-pot-operations-if-its-close-to-children-thats-a-line-were-going-to-draw/\">\u003cstrong>interview\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> with KQED’s Michael Montgomery. Here’s what she said…\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>We’ve sent letters to a number of dispensaries and we certainly hear back from most if not all of them, or lawyers representing them. And one thing we’ve heard in response is that this is a good dispensary. This is a dispensary that’s patient-run, or they consider themselves to be a good actor in the marijuana space. And I hear them, but I have a hard time making that distinction. I’ve already drawn a line. I’ve already made a distinction. If it’s close to children then that’s a line we’re going to draw. If I then start trying to get in and figure out which ones are quote good or not, it’s just not something I’m capable of doing. So I’ve decided to draw this line, and to keep that line fairly bright.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Interview: Mayor Tom Bates Laments Closing of Berkeley Patients Group Marijuana Dispensary | KQED",
"description": "KQED News intern Dana Varinsky asked Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates today what he thought about the news that the Berkeley Patients Group, one of California's largest marijuana dispensaries, will shut down in response to a warning letter sent to its landlord by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag. Haag has been targeting dispensaries that in proximity to schools or other locations where children gather. Here's what Bates had to say: They have actually been a very good corporate citizen in Berkeley. There have been no complaints -- we get compliments from neighbors. They really have a very high-class operation that dispenses marijuana",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_59526\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 127px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/berkeleypatientsgroup1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/berkeleypatientsgroup1-254x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"berkeleypatientsgroup\" width=\"127\" height=\"150\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-59526\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Montgomery/California Watch\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>KQED News intern Dana Varinsky asked Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates today what he thought about the news that the Berkeley Patients Group, one of California’s largest marijuana dispensaries, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/03/15/berkeley-patients-group-marijuana-dispensary-to-close/\">will shut down in response to a warning letter\u003c/a> sent to its landlord by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag. Haag has been targeting dispensaries that in proximity to schools or other locations where children gather. Here’s what Bates had to say: \u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>They have actually been a very good corporate citizen in Berkeley. There have been no complaints — we get compliments from neighbors. They really have a very high-class operation that dispenses marijuana to people who need it. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’re really sorry to see them close up, because if we’re going to have a dispensary, they’re certainly the model. If you’re going to have marijuana dispensaries, you need to make sure they run like the Berkeley Patients Group, and we’d love to see people who have a dispensary in the future pattern themselves after them. There were no instances of violence, they were excellent neighbors, they had good security, they contributed to the economy and helped local non profits by making contributions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The voters of this city voted unanimously that they wanted to have four dispensaries in Berkeley and that was it. We grandfathered them in. But evidently we get trumped by the federal government. \u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>As to whether the dispensary may be able to operate elsewhere in the city, Bates said, “I think they’re definitely looking for an alternate location and have been looking for quite awhile. It’s not easy, because we have schools all around the city. It’s hard to find a location that meets our other criteria too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Attorney for Northern California Melinda Haag offers her rationale for closing dispensaries that would seem to have community support or be problem-free in this \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/03/15/interview-w-us-attorney-haag-on-pot-operations-if-its-close-to-children-thats-a-line-were-going-to-draw/\">\u003cstrong>interview\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> with KQED’s Michael Montgomery. Here’s what she said…\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>We’ve sent letters to a number of dispensaries and we certainly hear back from most if not all of them, or lawyers representing them. And one thing we’ve heard in response is that this is a good dispensary. This is a dispensary that’s patient-run, or they consider themselves to be a good actor in the marijuana space. And I hear them, but I have a hard time making that distinction. I’ve already drawn a line. I’ve already made a distinction. If it’s close to children then that’s a line we’re going to draw. If I then start trying to get in and figure out which ones are quote good or not, it’s just not something I’m capable of doing. So I’ve decided to draw this line, and to keep that line fairly bright.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"soldout": {
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