Insights

<p>I had a hunch that Carolyn Cannuscio had a story teller’s heart when she plucked out this detail from a Philadelphia city-dweller account of gentrification: ‘One woman described the way she saw her “people being pulled out like sweet potatoes, roots and all—and their health has never been the same since.’”</p>

<p>San Francisco and the Bay Area is, in many ways, a microcosm of much of America. As a metaphor for the extremes of environmental wealth and poverty in America today, you can walk 10 short San Francisco blocks from 6th and Market to 1001 Taylor Street. In that short distance, your walk spans the divide between&nbsp;an area where&nbsp;homeless men lie in igloos of wool blankets as urine trickles down a crack in the sidewalk,&nbsp;up to where&nbsp;Grace Cathedral's soaring&nbsp;Ghiberti Doors, known as the gates of paradise, open over Nob Hill.

<p>For the first time, this fellowship gives me the opportunity to do a health story right.</p> <p>Health issues usually mean big trouble when it’s breaking news or an investigative story.</p> <p>Agent Orange. Ebola virus. West Nile. H1N1. In their time, viruses, pesticides and other causes of sudden, mass illnesses have forced all of us who cover the news to drop what we’re doing and take a crash course in an unexpected health crisis.</p>

<p>When my 2-year-old son has to see a doctor for his eyes or ears, I plan to take at least a half a day off work, if not a full day. Between the hours-long wait in the overcrowded specialists’ offices and the time it takes to travel to another county, our time is eaten away because these doctors are so few and far between in the San Joaquin Valley. That’s the mantra of Tulare County and health care. There aren’t enough doctors to go around, specialist or otherwise.

<p>A painful irony exists in California’s agricultural heart: farm workers, far too often, don’t have access to the fruits of their own labor.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>I thought about this irony, more than a year ago, when I first read about the massive drought relief food give-aways in the San Joaquin Valley. In recent years, demand at the food bank in Fresno County has increased four-fold. The State of California has spent millions on food aid to the region. And hunger is hitting a new set of people.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re checking out today:</p> <p><strong>Health Reform:</strong> The Washington Post and Kaiser Health News <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/18/AR20101… fact-check election-season rhetoric about the impact of health reform</a>.&nbsp;</p>

<p>They are neighborhoods where a wilting head of lettuce costs two or three times as much as a dollar meal. Where fast-food spots litter the landscape but the nearest supermarket is miles away. "Shopping local" in these communities means buying food at a convenience store or a gas station where limited shelf life restricts choices to calorie-dense, highly processed foods with little nutritional value. Fried food abounds; fresh food is near impossible to find.</p>

<p>As the national conversation about gay teen suicide continues in the wake of <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/gay-teen-suicide-sparks-debate/story?id=117881… Clementi’s death</a>, it’s worth taking a moment to examine how the media covers suicide among people of any age and orientation – and how we can do better.</p>

<p>Beginning in 2014, businesses with more than 50 workers will have to provide health insurance or face a penalty per each full-time employee. At the same time, many of these small businesses are struggling to stay afloat.</p>