Insights

<p>The California Health Journalism Fellowship is officially underway after our first meeting tonight, here in downtown Los Angeles. Keynote speaker and social epidemiologist Carolyn Cannuscio presented her jaw-droppingly thorough report on health in needy Philadelphia communities, and I wanted to share a few thoughts before calling it a night.</p>

<p>Carolyn Cannuscio comes from an avid newspaper-reading family. The health and science sections were always the table favorites. She recalls a conversation with her father where he imparted his wish that she do "something big" with her career. "Write a letter to Jane Brody about your work!" he sai

<p>Here’s what we’re checking out today:</p> <p><strong>Health Insurance:</strong> Los Angeles’ City Attorney has <a href="http://www.latimes.com/health/la-fi-healthmarkets-20101021,0,7689480.st… national health insurer HealthMarkets</a> and its financial backers, including Goldman Sachs Group, for selling “junk insurance” to consumers and businesses, Duke Helfand of the Los Angeles Times reports.</p>

<p>With my <a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/blogs/clearing-air-air-pollution-issue… entry</a> in this blog, I described some of the potential environmental effects that could be caused by massive expansions at the Port of Long Beach and nearby facilities. With our Reporting On Health Fellowship beginning this weekend, I thought I would post another quick update with a few details.</p>

<p>Last year, I was reporting a story about alternative churches in San Francisco. I talked to Matthew Fox, an Oakland pastor and the creator of the Cosmic Mass, a Christian rave that replaces sermons and hymns with techno music and dancing. Hold the drugs. Fox developed his event as a way for people to experience and process intense feelings of ecstasy, anger, and grief.</p> <p>"We're not shown ways to deal with grief," he said. "It's where a lot of our addictions come from. We bottle it up, we take a drink or a pill."</p>

<p>I attended a meeting Tuesday evening where I felt real inspiration.</p>

<p><em>We have a guest post today from <a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/users/ivanoransky">Ivan Oransky</a>, executive editor of Reuters Health and co-author of the newish Embargo Watch and Retraction Watch blogs. Here, he has some tips for dealing with embargoed medical research. </em></p>

<p>Only if you were too caught up in celebrity divorces this week could you have missed the latest blockbuster investigation from ProPublica: <a href="http://www.propublica.org/topic/dollars-for-doctors">Dollars for Docs</a>.</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re checking out today:</p> <p><strong>Nutrition:</strong> Irony alert: Chicago public schoolchildren <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-school-gardens-20101019,0,4…’t eat the healthy, organic produce they grow in their school gardens</a> because of rules that commercial growers <em>don’t have to follow</em>.&nbsp;</p>

<p>For the viewing, I sported green Nike running shoes and a 2nd hand brown suit. I thought I looked fine. But on the way over to the church, my friend, who I'll call Tony, laid into me:</p> <p>"You look like an idiot. What the hell are you doing wearing that? You're the only fool I know that would go to a funeral dressed like you're running to a 1975 prom."</p>