Insights

This site is my personal portfolio of articles and tips for doing watchdog reporting. www.alisonyoungreports.com

<p>In 2003, Oakland, California, was one of the most dangerous cities in America. The <em>Oakland Tribune</em> ran a static map with thumbnail photos of victims overlayed on a map of the city. Sean Connelly, journalist and photographer, visited victims' families, but even for him, the real people involved were becoming a blur.</p>

<p>Seeing Dr. Cleveland Enmon's alleged misdeeds, retold on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6wleqQ_M3M">nightly news</a>, prompts a double take. A doctor? In a life or death situation? Stole a patient's watch? And the patient was a cop?</p> <p>Enmon <a href="http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090929/A_NEWS/909… arraigned</a> last week on grand theft charges in Stockton, Calif., for allegedly swiping a very pricey watch off the wrist of retired Manteca police officer Jerry Kubena.</p>

<p>Our children shouldn’t live this way.</p>
<p>They shouldn’t have to play at contaminated abandoned industrial sites because their neighborhoods have no green space. They shouldn’t be at risk of dying before their first birthday because the color or their skin makes getting health care difficult. They shouldn’t go to schools where there is no learning and where their parents’ greatest hope is that they don’t join a gang or get attacked.</p>

<p>From the <a href="/blogs/health-not-just-health-care-says-fellowship-seminars-keynote-speaker">opening keynote</a> of this week's National Health Journalism Fellowship seminar, prevention and health beyond just health care have been common themes. Today's afternoon panelists gave examples of programs that take simple, novel approaches to integrating physical activity into people's daily lives.</p><p><b>Take a Walk</b></p>

<p>Stan Dorn, senior research associate at the Urban Institute, says that in the game of health care reform legislation, "We are in the playoffs."</p><p>The players are largely Democrats and the few Republicans who are not opposing reforms outright. Here is a roundup of the agreements and debates in Washington, D.C., as well as a few story ideas, which Dorn outlined in this morning's seminar with the <a href="/fellowships/seminars/national-health-journalism">National Health Journalism Fellows</a>.</p>

<p>Behind the construction projects surrounding the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, affordable housing is hard to come by. There were three apartment buildings in the block just north of the stadium, between Georgia and Figueroa Streets, but in the last year, tenants from two of the buildings were forced to move when the buildings were condemned. <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/26/local/me-landlord26">Which appears to be just fine by owner, Frank McHugh</a>.

<p>The National Health Journalism Fellows will take a tour of the varied landscapes of Downtown Los Angeles this afternoon. Their guides, Sandra McNeill, Executive Director of the Figueroa Corridor Community Land Trust, and Roberto Bustillo, a tenant organizer for Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), say that the much lauded revitalization projects are exacerbating problems faced by long-time tenants in the area.</p>

<p><em>The New York Times</em> reported in September that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/us/26domestic.html">domestic violence programs in the state of California have have been largely eliminated</a>. The Domestic Violence Program's last $16 million was cut completely in July, in efforts to close a near $24 billion state budget deficit.</p><p>Violence is a public health problem, said Eve F. Sheedy, Deputy City Attorney, Domestic Violence Legislative and Policy Advisor in the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office. It matters to public health that these resources have been cut.</p>

<p>Chemical remains pose health hazards to fish, migrant fishermenFor decades the Nyanza Color &amp; Chemical plant manufactured dye and textile chemicals in Ashland, Massachusetts. The site was settled in a populated area and was first identified as a hazard in 1971, when pollution was found in the nearby Sudbury River, once considered as a potential source of drinking water for the Boston area. In 1982 the site was put on the Superfund National Priority List and shut down. Over 45,000 tons of chemical sludge had been generated by the waste water treatment processes.