East County News Service

December 29, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – The Consumer Product Safety Commission today announced recalls on Polaris Sportsman 570 all-terrain vehicles due to fire hazard.  In addition Joyride children’s three-wheeled scooters have been recalled because of wheels that can detach, causing injury.  Below are full details. 

East County News Service

December 27, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Mumps Cases Rise in San Diego and Across the Nation (KPBS)
• New Ebola vaccine gives 100% protection (New York Times)
• Wins and Losses in Global Health in 2016 (NPR)
• Despite Pledges to Cut Back, Farms Are Still Using Antibiotics (NPR)
• Multiple sclerosis drug 'a landmark' (BBC)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Security risk on in-flight entertainment systems, say researchers (BBC)
• Privacy Advocates Claim Interactive Doll Spies On Children (NPR)
• Evernote opens satellite office in San Diego (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Facebook says government requests for account data rise 27 percent (Reuters)
• Pulse victims lawsuit: Did social media provide 'material support' for terrorism? (CS Monitor)
• No risk seen from Fukushima 'fingerprint' on US West Coast (CS Monitor)
• Cheetahs heading toward extinction as habitat crashes (BBC)
• Scientists amazed by iron 'jet stream' in Earth's molten core (CS Monitor)
• 'Klingon' newts and 'Ziggy Stardust' snakes among 150 new Mekong species (CS Monitor)
• Rumblings of Europe's supervolcano: Will the sleeping giant awaken? (CS Monitor)
• Long before Rudolph, these gigantic birds flew around the North Pole (CS Monitor)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

By Cate Kortzeborn, Medicare’s acting regional administrator for Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Pacific Territories.

December 22, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- Not long ago, I had dinner with a group of friends from college. One of the big topics of conversation was Medicare, for which we’ll all be eligible in the next several years. (Farewell, callow youth!) And one of the biggest questions about Medicare was, “How much is it going to cost me?”

East County News Service

December 19, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• U.S. life expectancy drops for first time in 22 years (CNN)
• Caesarian births ‘affecting human evolution’ (BBC)
• Brain tests predict children's futures (BBC)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Reindeer are shrinking: warming threatens Christmas icon (Yahoo news)
• Scientists are frantically copying U.S. climate data, fearing it may vanish under Pres. Trump (Washington Post)
• What Silicon Valley executives plan to tell Trump this week (Washington Post)
• Exclusive: SWIFT confirms new cyber thefts, hacking tactics (Reuters)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

Source: County of San Diego Communications Office

December 12, 2016 (San Diego) -- If you’re planning on attending your work holiday party or other gatherings with family and friends, the County urges that you make sure you don’t bring an uninvited guest: the flu.

East County News Service

December 6, 2016 (La Mesa) – The volunteer citizens group overseeing the spending of millions of dollars in taxpayer-approved bonds for new and improved patient care facilities at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa has elected its chairman and vice chairman to serve through June 2017.

By Richard Collins, San Diego

December 6, 2016 (San Diego) -- U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Representative Kevin Brady, Chairman, Ways and Means Committee, and Representative Tom Price, Chairman, Budget Committee, who is President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, are among Republican leaders in the U.S. House who support legislation to privatize Medicare by converting it to a "premium support" system.  I urge your newspaper to editorialize against their efforts to change Medicare to a "voucher" plan that will raise the cost of health care for seniors.

Just because the Republican Party has majorities in the House and Senate and the President-elect, it is not a mandate to destroy Medicare with a "voucher" plan to pay outright subsidies to insurance companies who make big contributions to many members of Congress.

East County News Service

December 2, 2016 (Sacramento) – The Association of California Healthcare Districts (ACHD), a statewide trade association for California’s several healthcare districts, has announced that Randy Lenac has joined the ACHD Board of Directors. Lenac has served since July 2014 as a member of the Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD) board of directors in San Diego County. GHD represents more than 500,000 people residing in the district’s 750 square miles in San Diego’s East County region. GHD is one of 79 healthcare districts in the state, providing health and wellness services in their respective communities.

East County News Service

SDSU psychologists discover brain connections in people with autism show more symmetry between hemispheres.

December 1, 2016 (San Diego) — Divvying up tasks between the left and right hemisphere of the brain is one of the hallmarks of typical brain development. The left hemisphere, for instance, is involved in analyzing specific details of a situation, while the right hemisphere is involved in integrating all the various streams of information coming into the brain.

East County News Service

November 29, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Women veterans face mental health crisis (Huffington Post)
• Want To Prevent The Flu? Skip The Supplements, Eat Your Veggies(NPR)
• Bagged salad is Salmonella risk, study finds (BBC)
• How You Can Stop Antibiotic Resistance (And Still Eat Bacon) (NPR)
• Infants' brains attuned to baby talk and nursery rhymes (BBC)
• Heavy Screen Time Rewires Young Brains, For Better And Worse (NPR)

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

• Alaska Airlines tests fuel partly made from trees: Is this a sustainable solution? (CS Monitor)
• SpaceX seeks U.S. approval for internet-via-satellite network (Reuters)
• Seawater's DNA secrets to life in the deep(BBC)
• New Zealand sea floor lifted by quake becomes cliff on a beach (CS Monitor)
• In one more bleached Pacific reef, some corals are 'back from the brink’ (CS Monitor)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

East County News Service

November 25, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) — Gels derived from aloe vera plants are prized by consumers for use on skin conditions and minor burns. But testing of store brands at Wal-Mart, Target and CVS found that some contained no aloe vera at all.

East County News Service

November 20, 2016 (San Diego) – The Sabra company has announced a voluntary recall of its hummus dip products after finding Listeria Monocytognes at the manufacturing facility, but not in tested finished product.

Consumers with any product with a "Best Before" date up through January 23, 2017 are urged to discard it. You can find code and "Best Before" date on the lid of each package. The recall includes all hummus products by Sabra except not organic hummus. The recall does not include other Sabra products such as guacamole, salsa, or Greek yogurt dip.

Hear our 2015 radio interview with Dr. Butcher:  http://k003.kiwi6.com/hotlink/9ljhcdy6y7/Newsmaker-RichardButcherMD-heal...

By Miriam Raftery

November 18,  2016 (El  Cajon)—Dr. Richard O.  Butcher,  77, an El Cajon resident and  prominent San Diego physician honored nationally for his dedication to serving patients in poor and minority communities,  died of heart failure Saturday while attending the American Medical Association’s annual meeting in Florida.

Dr. Butcher was  highly respected in San Diego’s medical, philanthropic and sports communities,  as well as at the national  level.   Last year, he received the National Medical Association’s Practitioner of the Year Award.

By Miriam Raftery

November 15, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) – Nurses may soon be going out on strike at Sharp Healthcare facilities, including Grossmont Hospital here in East County.

The union, Sharp Professional Nurses Network, overwhelmingly approved a strike, with over 98% voting to strike unless wages are raised more than the 16 to 26 percent that Sharp has proposed over the next three years.

"Let's repeal ObamaCare, abolish Common Core, and get constitutional judges on the Supreme Court,"-- California Republican Party

"For the more than 20million Americans who gained health insurance coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act, repeal and replace means death and despair.”-- California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones

By Miriam Raftery

November 11, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) – Leaders in the California Republican and Democratic parties are speaking out following the election of President-Elect Donald Trump. Reactions range from praise to condemnation.