Our Work

Robyn Norwood on energy drinks and the health of young athletes

Our Robyn Norwood made the cover of USAToday the other day with this revelatory piece about energy drinks and their impact on the health of children and adolescents, partocularly those engaged in sports. From her story:

From youth playing fields to major league clubhouses, caffeinated energy drinks such as Red Bull and its scores of cousins have become a familiar presence in sports.

"The bottom line is, it's a long season. You're going to do what you have to do, whether you feel like you have to jump into a cryogenic freezing tank or a hyperbaric chamber or drink a Red Bull," said Texas Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson, a World Series starter who says he has never used alcohol or drugs but consumes energy drinks socially and to prepare himself to pitch. "I see nothing wrong with drinking Red Bull."

Some athletes and industry officials compare the beverages to a cup of coffee.

But doctors and other experts increasingly warn of misunderstandings about energy drinks' contents, lax labeling requirements and the risks of high doses of caffeine — particularly to young athletes.In June, a clinical report in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, warned that "stimulant-containing energy drinks have no place in the diets of children or adolescents."

Janet Wilson looks at links between local environment and a family's illnesses

Our Janet Wilson has a deeply reported piece out through California Watch on the suspected links between persistent illnesses among members of one Maywood, California, family, and industries adjoining their neighborhood (in this separater piece Janet explains her reporting). From her story:

The Martin family lives 10 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, in a neat yellow house in a city called Maywood. 

Starting a few blocks from their home, nearly 2,000 factories churn out Southern California’s hot dogs, pesticides, patio furniture and other products. Trucks rumble off the I-710 freeway into sprawling freight rail yards. Odors of rotting animal carcasses waft through the family’s windows on hot summer nights.

The Martins also have endured years of illness. 

From the time Anaiz Martin was born until she was a toddler, her father would carry her in his arms, his big mustache tickling her baby cheeks. This simple embrace carried a haunting consequence. By age 3, Anaiz weighed just 19 pounds and could barely raise her head. Her parents said they were told by doctors that Salvador Martin’s mustache probably held sickening levels of lead from his plating factory job.

The heavy metal attacked her neurological system, permanently robbing her of critical learning skills.

Two decades later, her family's woes continue. Anaiz, now 21, her mother and siblings – Adilene, 22, and Sal Jr., 18 – have suffered irritable bowel syndrome, an ovarian cyst, skin rashes, chronic nausea, diarrhea, asthma and depression.

Their mother, Josefina, frets constantly about what she thinks are likely causes: the air they breathe, the ground beneath their home and, most of all, the gunky black, brown or yellow water that has intermittently run from their faucets for years.

“Sometimes I think, ‘Oh my God, I can’t take it anymore,’ ” Josefina, 45, said during an interview in the summer of 2010. “I try to keep myself up and going, but I am really upset all the time. I just want to know what’s going on with my family and all of this contamination.”

 

Leslie Carlson with a little click-and-learn

Our Leslie Carlson created this interactive graphic for a story by the Center for Health Reporting on preparations by hospitals for the eventuality of a significant earthquake. It turns out that hospitals along the riskiest faults, such as the San Andreas, are unprepared to remain open after a major earthquake - with some obviously serious potential effects on the communities they serve.

 

Rosemary McClure on difficult choices in difficult times

Our Rosemary McClure has this poignant piece in the Los Angeles Times about the difficulties in finding reliable - and safe - caregivers for aging parents who need help. From her story:

During the 10 years I employed caregivers — first for my mom, then for my dad — I rarely used agencies. For the most part, I did my own hiring. Two of the 10 or so workers I hired were wonderful, selfless people who remained friends long after their employment ended.

But I made some major mistakes. One worker stole, one tried to convert my parents to her religion and one quit after one day on the job.

One night after work, I parked my car in the driveway and found the front door standing open and my mother wandering outside. I never found out when the worker had left or how long the door had been open; the worker never returned.

I attribute my mistakes to doing a bad job as an employer. I never followed [the advice of Claudia Ellano-Ota, director of the Caregiver Resource Center of Orange County].... I didn't write a job description, nor did I discuss rules with potential workers.

I also ignored another one of her key recommendations: Demand two references, and check both carefully. Most of the people I hired showed up with a letter from one reference; I always called that person. But I didn't look any further.

"People try to fly by the seat of their pants when they hire help for their parents," said Ellano-Ota. "That's dangerous."

I can testify to that.

 

Leslie Carlson and the role of lawyers in consumer protection

Our Leslie Carlson, a graphic artist/visual journalist, put together this detailed interactive graphic for Protect Consumer Justice, a nonprofit organization working to inform about, and defend, consumers' rights to seek redress through the courts for everything from product safety to medical malpractice. From the intro to the graphic:

Product safety. Medical negligence. Environmental oversight. Corporate wrongdoing. The civil justice system has had a dramatic effect on our day-to-day lives, allowing ordinary people a platform to tap constitutional rights enshrined by America’s founders and battle back to hold powerful corporations accountable. Consumer attorneys have helped increase the safety of products, improve our environment and ensure our health by fighting for people who often can’t fight for themselves. Their efforts have addressed dangers in the home and the workplace, on the road and in the sky — and by doing so have improved the quality of life for each of us.

Rosemary McClure on yet another aspect of the housing crisis

Rosemary McClure had an interesting piece last month (sorry, we're just catching up to it) on an unexpected ramification of the housing crisis, seniors in adult-care centers getting evicetd becasue of the financial woes of their care-givers. From her piece in the Los Angeles Times:

"California's foreclosure crisis has severely impacted some of the most vulnerable tenants in our state — seniors who live in residential-care facilities," says state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco). "These residents had no warning that they were about to lose their homes, and their families and caretakers were left in a panic to find immediate emergency housing."

The situation is all the worse because of the health issues faced by many of those evicted. "Being uprooted like that is a horrifying situation for older adults, many of whom are frail and confused," says Shelley Woolery, who has been involved in two cases in her role as ombudsman program coordinator with the Council on Aging in Orange County.

Bankruptcies, foreclosures and other financial difficulties are inflicting new worries on residents and their families who thought they had secured their futures in a retirement community or other form of senior housing, ranging from "55+" developments to nursing homes.

The problems confront older Americans at every income level.

One of the first red flags in the crisis emerged from the top end of the spectrum in 2009: bankruptcies at continuing-care retirement communities, known as CCRCs. These pricey communities, which require entrance fees averaging $250,000 (some are close to $1 million), offer upscale dining, activities, entertainment and long-term care.

Robyn Norwood on a baseball Hall of Famer's fight with cancer

Robyn Norwood has a nice update in USA Today on Tony Gwynn, the ever-smiling baseball Hall of Famer, and the cancer that, for time, robbed him of that famous grin. From her piece:

LONG BEACH — Tony Gwynn couldn't smile. The idea that the Hall of Fame outfielder who spent 20 years in a San Diego Padres uniform needed smile therapy was like saying the eight-time batting champion couldn't slap a single between short and third.

But for a time, the effects of treatment for cancer of a salivary gland discovered last August robbed Gwynn of what he called "a big part of who I am."

"I can smile again. I can laugh again," said Gwynn, coach of the San Diego State Aztecs the last nine seasons, as he sat in the dugout before a game against Long Beach State this month on a field where he played many games during his Long Beach youth.

"People who know me love to hear you laugh, see you smile," he said. "For a while, I couldn't do either. That was really concerning."

Robyn Norwood on the ramifications of a despicable act

Our Robyn Norwood, a veteran sports writer, has a piece in USA Today looking at the repercussions from the savage beating of a San Francisco Giants fan after a recent game at Dodger Statium in Los Angeles. From her story:

Dodgers fans and supporters of other teams who have ventured to Dodger Stadium wearing a rival's cap or shirt have traded stories of incivility for years. A woman tells of her 7-year-old being hassled by an inebriated fan because the child was wearing Giants gear. (The mother was wearing a Dodgers cap.) Another says she was cursed out while 81/2 months pregnant for wearing a Chicago Cubs jersey.

But the attack on Stow has roused public and political sentiment in a way that neither a shooting death in the Dodger Stadium parking lot in 2003 nor a death after a fight in the stands at Angel Stadium in neighboring Anaheim in 2009 did.

Despite a downward trend in crime across the city, roughly half of all serious crimes in the neighborhood occur on stadium grounds. According to the LAPD, there were 21 serious crimes — which includes rape, homicide, aggravated assault, robbery and burglary — at Dodger Stadium in 2010, down from 32 in 2009.

"I think the fact that it was unprovoked, that it was so senseless, that it was so brutal," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says. "That they hit him from behind, kicked him on the ground. It just hit the heartstrings of everybody.

"This really isn't just about one game. This is about a culture that thinks it's OK to attack this way."

Kris Lindgren, and a young man who suffered an unusual stroke

Our Kris Lindgren, who is writing for the University of California-Irvine, had an article picked up by the Physorg website on a young man who suffered an unusual malady. From her piece:

Darrin’s sudden inability to move his left side, coupled with severe pain on the right side of his head and difficulty speaking, suggested – however improbably in a 15½-year-old – a stroke from a blocked artery or bleeding in the brain. Rather than go to a closer community hospital, the EMTs sped to the nearest nationally certified primary stroke facility, UC Irvine Medical Center, in Orange.

Alerted by paramedics in transit, the medical center’s acute stroke team was ready for Darrin. After a rapid examination, he underwent advanced brain and arterial imaging.

“Right away, we could see a clot lodged in his right middle cerebral artery,” says neurologist Dr. Vivek Jain, director of UC Irvine’s highly ranked Stroke & Cerebrovascular Center. “If left untreated, a blockage in that location will usually cause devastating brain injury.”

Rick Schmitt, and the challenge of health care for former prisoners

Rick Schmitt, writing for Kaiser Health News, has an interesting look at the difficulty ex-prisoners have in finding medical care. From his story:

Expanded indigent-care is expected to help many of the 130,000 former inmates discharged every year in the state, as well as the mainly impoverished communities where they move upon release. The newly freed arrive home in neighborhoods in Oakland and Hayward, Richmond and Antioch, bringing high rates of chronic and communicable disease and serious mental illness.

The federal aid results from an agreement that state officials negotiated with the Obama administration to get early access to funds under the health care overhaul law. Officials in Alameda County say they could receive an extra $35 million a year on top of the roughly $100 million the county spends annually on indigent care. While details have yet to be fully worked out, they intend to spend a chunk of the new money on the formerly incarcerated.

"The reentry population is a perfect target," says Alex Briscoe, director of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency.