Confronting sugar addiction
[Author]by Mark Hyman, MD[/Author]
Most of us have felt the urge, the unstoppable craving driving us to seek out something sweet and devour it in a flash. That uncontrollable yen for cookies, cake or ice cream or that whole basket of bread calling to us to finish it off. Why do you overeat? Why does that cookie have such power over you, even though you know it will make you fat and sick? Is it an indication of your moral weakness, lack of will power, or is it a powerful hardwired brain response over which you have little control?
Debate has raged recently about whether junk food, the hyper-processed, hyper-palatable food that has become our SAD (standard American diet) is addictive in the same way that heroin or cocaine is addictive. A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that, in fact, higher sugar, higher glycemic foods can be addictive.
David Ludwig, author of Ending the Food Fight, and his colleagues at Harvard, in a very sophisticated study, showed that foods with more sugar, foods that raise blood sugar even more than table sugar such as white flour, white potatoes and refined starch have what is called a high glycemic index, trigger a special region in the brain called the nucleus accumbens that is known to be “ground zero” for conventional addiction, such as gambling or drug abuse.
I stopped by CBS This Morning recently to talk about this groundbreaking study. Watch the interview here.
It appears part of the reason almost 70 percent of Americans are overweight or one in two Americans has pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes may not be gluttony, lack of willpower or absence of personal responsibility but plain old, garden variety biological addiction.
Many previous studies have shown how this region of brain, the pleasure center, lights up in response to images or eating sugary, processed or junk food. But many of these studies used very different foods as a comparison. If you compare cheesecake to boiled vegetables, there are many reasons the pleasure center can light up. It tastes better or it looks better. This is interesting data, but it’s not hard proof of addiction.
This new study took on the hard job of proving the biology of sugar addiction. The researchers did a randomized, blinded, crossover study using the most rigorous research design to ward off any criticism (which will inevitably come from the $1 trillion food industry).
They took 12 overweight or obese men between the ages of 18 and 35 and gave each a low sugar or low glycemic index (37 percent) milkshake, and then, four hours later, they measured the activity of the brain region (nucleus accumbens) that controls addiction. They also measured blood sugar and hunger.
Then, days later, they had them back for another milkshake. But this time they switched the milkshakes. They were designed to taste exactly the same and be exactly the same in every way except in how much and how quickly it spiked blood sugar. The second milkshake was designed to be high in sugar with a high glycemic index (84 percent). The shakes had exactly the same amount of calories, protein, fat and carbohydrate. Think of it as a trick milkshake. The participants didn’t know which milkshake they were getting, and their mouth couldn’t tell the difference, but their brains could.
Each participant received a brain scan and blood tests for glucose and insulin after each version of the milkshake. They were their own control group. Without exception, they all had the same response. The high sugar or glycemic index milkshake caused a spike in blood sugar and insulin and an increase in reported hunger and cravings four hours after the shake. Remember — exactly the same calories, sweetness, texture and macronutrient content.
This finding was not surprising and has been shown many times before.
But the breakthrough finding was this: When the high glycemic shake was consumed, the nucleus accumbens lit up like a Christmas tree. This pattern occurred in every single participant and was statistically significant.
This study showed two things.
First, the body responds quite differently to different calories, even if the protein, fat and carbs (and taste) are exactly the same.
And second, foods that spike blood sugar are biologically addictive.
This game-changing study must force a shift in the conversation about obesity in America. There are 600,000 processed foods in the marketplace, 80 percent of which have added hidden sugar. The average American consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar a day, mostly hidden, and the average teenage boy has 34 teaspoons a day (more than two 20 ounce sodas).
One serving of Prego tomato sauce has more sugar than a serving of Oreo cookies. Sweetened yogurts can have more sugar than a can of soda.
Sugar is the core ingredient used by the food industry to make bad ingredients (processed flour and chemicals) taste good. Our consumption has increased from 10 pounds per person in 1800 to 140 pounds per person per year today.
Each year, the average American also consumes 133 pounds of white or wheat flour, which raises blood sugar more than table sugar (sucrose).
When a 12-year-old boy needs a liver transplant after a steady diet of soda and white flour, or when a 2-year-old can’t walk because he is too fat at 50 pounds, we can no longer point to personal responsibility as the solution to our obesity epidemic.
It is time to stop blaming the fat person. Can we really blame our children if we freely give them drugs of abuse in the school lunch line or as after school snacks? Can we really blame the average overweight person? The nutritional landscape in America is a food carnival.
Kelly Brownell from Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has created a validated food questionnaire to help you determine if you are a food addict. He recently also published a textbook, Food and Addiction, that lays out the science of how our hyper-processed, hyper-palatable, hyper-sweet industrial food has hijacked our brain chemistry and biology.
Here are five clues you may be addicted to sugar, flour and processed food:
- You consume certain foods even if you are not hungry because of cravings.
- You worry about cutting down on certain foods.
- You feel sluggish or fatigued from overeating.
- You have health or social problems (affecting school or work) because of food issues and yet keep eating the way you do despite negative consequences.
- You need more and more of the foods you crave to experience any pleasure or reduce negative emotions.
If you are among those whose brain chemistry, taste buds and hormones have been hijacked by the food industry (up to 70 percent of us, including 40 percent of children), then it is time to stop blaming yourself and consider food rehab or a sugar detox
There are resources to help you break your food addiction and stop the cravings.
Now, I would love to hear from you.
Have you experienced uncontrollable cravings for sugar and refined foods?
How has it affected your life?
Have you blamed yourself for your behavior?
Do you think we should change food policy to protect children from marketing of foods proven to be addictive?
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, MD
Grand concert of Latin Jazz and dance
[Author]Compiled by the
El Reportero’s staff[/Author]
The elegant 1914 Kohl Mansion will pulse with 2014 Latin rhythms at its 100th anniversary concert !Feliz Cumpleaños! on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. The John Santos Sextet and the VNote Ensemble wrap up the Mansion’s anniversary year with their vibrant offerings of hot Latin Jazz.
The rousing concert, a culmination of year-long anniversary events, will be presented by Music at Kohl Mansion, the Kohl Mansion and Mercy High School and sponsored by the Sam Mazza Foundation and Thomas John Events. Radio station KCSM Jazz 91.1 FM Program Director Melanie Berzon will be the guest emcee.
Audience members will enjoy margaritas and tastes of Latin cuisine for the Gala party. There will be a dance floor for those who just can’t sit still to the irresistible rhythms of the John Santos Sextet and VNote Ensemble.
The Sextet has been called “highly innovative, intimately explosive.” Santos, a 5-time Grammy Award nominee is a Bay Area legend in Latin Jazz, a lecturer, educator and consummate percussionist, and a favorite of Music at Kohl audiences.
Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014, 7 p.m. At the Great Hall, Kohl Mansion – 2750 Adeline Drive, Burlingame. Tickets: $75 / $50 (650) 762-1130 or www.musicatkohl.org
New paintings of the San Francisco Mission District
The heart of the Mission District has been and is being painted is such details that one cannot miss the landscape location of Anthony Holdsworth’s oil paiting. Over 30 master piece paintings will have been painted by project end. The whole work is a master piece never been done in the history of the district.
For more information you should attend his receptions. His art work exhibition will be in displayed from Dec. 15 – Jan. 9, 2015 with the two receptions days: Monday Dec. 15, from 6 – 8 p.m., and Friday, Dec. 19, from 6 – 8 p.m., Special guests to be announced.
At Alley Cat Gallery, 3036 24th St, San Francisco. For more info call (415) 824-1761, or visit www.anthonyholdsworth.com.
Children and families have chance to read and play during school break with bingo
In December, the library will distribute cards for its new “Winter Bingo” game, encouraging children in grades K-5, and parents of younger children and babies, to do activities that stimulate literacy and learning. Any child or parent may return a bingo card with five activities marked in a row to any Oakland Public Library between Dec. 18, 2014, and Jan. 31, 2015, to select a free paperback book to keep, as a prize.
Activities include direct reading activities such as “Listen to a story” or “Read about your favorite thing” as well as social activities such as “Make someone laugh,” or “Bring a friend to the library,” and active play such as “Dance” or “Play outside.” Activities for parents to do with babies and preschoolers include “Use a recipe to make a snack,” and “Ask your child to turn the page.” Bingo cards will be available at all library locations and distributed to partner organizations, and are available in Spanish, Chinese, and English.
For more information, please visit www.oaklandlibrary.org or contact Nina Lindsay, Supervising Librarian for Children’s Services, at nlindsay@oaklandlibrary.org, or 510-238-6706.
Local film producer works on a movie three months after launching another one
[Author]by the El Reportero’s staff[/Author]
SF Bay Area film producer Vicky Contreras recently celebrated with red carpet, in August, the premiere of her movie Frontera: Camino al Infierno, after a successful run at the Broadway International Film Festival in Los Angeles, which won the best drama and action movie award.
And now, just about three months later, a new movie, also written and produced by Contreras, was just finished filmed. The film includes part of the actors from the Frontera film and new ones. El Buen Parricida (The Good Parricide), which will be out of the the editing room in just a few days, could be seen in the movies near you as soon as February 2015.
El Buen Parricida, is the story of a middle class family with strong family and religious values, who took an oath of unity even after death, but see this unity in danger when one of its members passes away.
The family, which is comprised of the father, the mother and two adolescent children, suffered the death of the father, leaving the mother in charged of the care of the children. A few years go while supporting the children on her own, until she meets a man with whom she contemplates to starting a new family.
The children, fearing that this will break the oath of unity they all had promised to keep, disagree on their mother’s decision to start a new conjugal relationship. But despite the obstacles, the wedding day arrives.
The older son, convinced that a sin would be committed, and a penance to be inflicted in the family for breaking the promise, kills his mother at the church gate, thinking that this would be the only way that could prevent the breaking of the promise to their father.
The killer son is sentenced to die for the crime, while the younger son tries to proof his brother’s innocence because he did it as an of faith.
Contreras, who has participated in 26 films and has previously stood out as a modeling teacher, and show talent, has been regarded a one of the most internationally promising producers by movie icons like Carmen Salinas, Rogelio Guerra, Roberto Ballesteros and Héctor Soberon.
Originary from Michoacán, México, and with domicile in Hayward California, most of Contreras films have been produced and filmed in this state. Because of her tenacity she was given the main role in the film, Doña Tormenta, which received excellent reviews.
Name of the actor of Jesus in the movie The Bible is revealed
The producing company of the highly anticipated continuation to the successful miniseries The Bible, recently announced the name of the Hispanic actor that will plays Jesús.
The acclaimed Argentine actor Juan Pablo di Pace says he has been chosen to interpret Jesús. Di Pace is a better known for his role of Petros in the successful movie Mamma Mía, in addition to his prizewinning work at theatrical companies in London and Spain.
A.D. is an inspiring and heartbreaking passage that covers the first moments of the birth of the Church, continuing where the success, The Bible, remained. A.D. continues the first ten chapters of the Facts of the Apostles, exploring the aftereffects of Christ’s death and his deep impact in his disciples, his mother Maria, and principal political and religious leaders of the age; an impact that would change to the world completely.
A.D. will take to the audience the intense sadness of Christ’s supreme sacrifice up to the astonishment of the touching of the Resurrection and it them will bring you to the struggle of his disciples to survive against the opposition which they face while they keep on sharing his message of love towards all, everywhere.
The series of 12 weeks is released on Sunday of Easter in April 5 of 2015.
The move to depopulate planet Earth
[Author]FROM THE EDITOR:[/Author]
Much has been said about a so-called ‘conspiracy theory’ about the depopulation of the planet. In this article, Stephanie R. Pasco, follows the trails of statements – going back decades -made by world leaders confirming that in fact exists a plan to depopulate the planet Earth. You be the judge, readers. Due to the length of the article, El Reportero will publish in several parts, extending to several weeks. THIS IS PART 4 OF A SERIES.
by Stephanie R. Pasco
It is my intention to give you clips from documents, many from the United Nations that prove there is a plan to depopulate this planet. I will also provide quotes from various people and organizations that further show this agenda is afoot. I pray the guidance of the Lord God Almighty will be with me in this pursuit to warn others of this dark plot against humanity.
Everything written in this paper is easily verifiable. It may take some time and effort, but I took great pains to make this paper as accurate as I possibly could.
The depopulation agenda is based on nature worship, or Gaia worship. In Genesis, God clearly told Adam and Eve, and then Noah and his family to go forth and multiply to fill the earth. Nowhere in the Bible does God rescind that clearly spoken commandment. Therefore man is attempting to supersede the command of the Lord God in heaven: The Creator! I ask you, who knows more about the state of the earth, the created, or the Creator?
The basis for the depopulation agenda is a standard all elitist’s hold dear. This standard is called:
The Hegelian Dialectic:
Problem – Reaction-Solution
Alexander Haig is quoted referring to the US State Department Office of Population Affairs, which was established by Henry Kissinger in 1975. The title has since been changed to The Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs:
“Accordingly, the Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs has consistently blocked industrialization policies in the Third World, denying developing nation’s access to nuclear energy technology–the policies that would enable countries to sustain a growing population. According to State Department sources, and Ferguson himself, Alexander Haig is a “firm believer” in population control.
Although the above stated quotes should be sufficient to prove that the elitists in power have definite intent to depopulate this planet to what they deem to be a sustainable level. Some will argue these are only opinions and are of no real consequence. I will now move on to providing bits of documentation showing this is a plan that has a worldwide scope of influence.
Most of these documents are at least 10 years old, some older. That however, does not take away from the seriousness of the content. Do not think them invalid due to their age. It takes time to foment plans on such a grand scale. But, if you are honest with yourself you can see glimpses of these things happening today.
I am going to cover some issues stemming from the UN Treaty on Biological Diversity (Agenda 21), which Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993 before it was sent to the U.S. Senate for ratification.
EPA Internal Working Document Ecosystem Management:
“The executive branch should direct federal agencies to evaluate national policies…. in light of international policies and obligations, and to amend national policies to achieve international objectives.”
“In other words, our federal bureaucrats are writing U.S. law, independent of Congress who has Constitutional authority to do that. They are changing regulations and creating laws out of thin air.”
“They are no longer working for the people of the United States. They are working for the international community. There are so many treaties written up that they have (effectively) bound the United States. Whereas a few of the treaties were not a problem, the abundance (100’s) of them have now taken control over all of our lives” -Michael Coffman
UN Treaty on Biological Diversity Assessment on Desirable Culture:
“…Traditional societies have considered certain sites as sacred, where most human activities are prohibited.”
That is the heart of the Convention on Biodiversity. Locking up nearly 50% of the land area of the United States is their idea of protecting biological diversity. -Michael Coffman
UN Treaty on Biodiversity Diversity Usage of Fertilizers Not Sustainable:
“That fertilizers have played an essential part in producing the world’s harvests is undisputed. (It) is estimated that if the use of fertilizers ceased, the world’s harvests would be cut almost in half. However, the negative side of the equation is that the nitrates from fertilizers seep into ground water aquifers and they are seriously implicated in the eutrophication of lakes, rivers and coastal ecosystems causing often drastic changes in the fauna and flora.”
“They are willing to take a course of action that will reduce the world’s food supply by half, or more, as they will likely reduce the use of pesticides knowing full well how many people this will kill”. -Michael Coffman
UN Biodiversity Assessment on Sustainable Human Population; US Senate September 9, 1994:
“A reasonable estimate for an industrialized world society at the present North American material standard of living would be one billion people. This must be implemented within 30-50 years, 2/3’s of the population must be cut.”
“The UN says property rights are not absolute and unchanging, but are there for the convenience of whatever government wants to do.” – Michael Coffman
“Nobody owns biodiversity, so everything we do impinges on biodiversity. Property rights become meaningless. At the Rio De Janeiro Summit it was decided that the Global Environmental Facility would be the depository of all property rights.” – Michael Coffman
UN Biodiversity Assessment The Worldview of Western Civilization Section 12.2.3, Page 835:
The western “worldview is characteristic of large-scale societies, heavily dependent on resources brought from considerable distances. It is a worldview that is characterized by the denial of sacred attributes of nature… (which) became firmly established about 2000 years (ago) with the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious traditions.”
This same treaty considers rocks to be living beings on an equal plane with human beings. Rocks, many believe, will reincarnate into lower life forms; and gradually into human beings.
Medicinal herb garden – what to grow and how to keep it all winter
[Author]by PF Louis
Natural News[/Author]
You may not think it a worthwhile endeavor to grow culinary herbs indoors, or outdoors for that matter. After all, a quick trip to most food stores will usually allow you to come back with the spices you need. But how fresh are they and have they been irradiated?
There are medicinal qualities to some culinary herbs that are best ensured by growing your own. And they don’t require much space. They can even be cultivated indoors if you lack outdoor earth space or if your area suffers severe winter weather.
All material sources for this article recommend using the kitchen or area near the kitchen where there is six hours of sufficient sunlight. But if your area gets a good deal of cold weather, don’t cultivate too close to windows. In lieu of sunshine, grow lamps can be used. Just be prepared for that SWAT team to bash your door down looking for weed (kidding, sort of).
One source advises bringing in herbal plants during cold weather that are perennial instead of annual. Perennials keep on going even outdoors when they go dormant during cold winters. Annuals have to be replanted.
If your dwelling requires heat throughout most of the winter, make sure that the area of potted herbal plants is humid. Without a humidifier, pebbles with water in a tray where your plant pot can be placed should work.
Culinary herbs with strong medicinal properties and health benefits
Cilantro (coriander) grows rapidly and is best started from seeds. Once harvested, cilantro does not continue growing. So it’s best to stagger three pots planted some time apart to get through winter months.
Cilantro offers remedies for many maladies that can be found here. Even more importantly, cilantro has been discovered to actually remove heavy metals from organ tissues. These heavy metals include three of the most harmful: lead, mercury and aluminum.
By using cilantro for pestos, soups and sauces or simply constantly garnishing many cooked foods, you would be undergoing constant heavy metal chelation. Not a bad idea in our heavily contaminated heavy metal environment.
Cilantro’s chelation properties were discovered intentionally and incidentally through several studies over the past few years. Combining chlorella with cilantro boosts heavy metal, especially mercury, chelation.
Rosemary is a perennial that does well in drier air, but the soil should never dry out. There are two basic types, upright and trailing. Obviously, uprights would be more appropriate for kitchen cultivating.
Rosemary has been proven by two separate studies in Spain to help ward off radiation damage from even ionizing radiation, which is the more dangerous type of radiation from atomic energy, radon and medical equipment such as mammograms, X-rays and CT scans. Airport scanners also emit ionizing radiation, which is capable of removing electrons from atoms, thus instantly damaging cells and DNA.
Other sources of radiation that are common to everyday life are Wi-Fi, cell phones and cell phone towers, all of which excite electrons in atoms enough to put them into different orbits. Not as quickly damaging short-term as ionizing radiation, but ultimately damaging with chronic exposure over time.
Using rosemary often can help reduce the effects of radiation from everyday living and even ionizing radiation.
Other herbs that can be easily grown indoors
Oregano, especially of the Greek variety, can keep growing for a couple of years. Harvesting leaves encourages that growth. Oregano is useful in a variety of foods, and oregano oils have powerful medicinal qualities.
Parsley has both a flat leaf and curly leaf variety. It thrives indoors. Harvesting the outer leaves encourages more plant growth. Parsley seems to be an underrated herb for health benefits. But it does have many health benefits.
Thyme, dill, mint and sage can also be grown indoors.
U.S. Border Patrol to test body cameras on its agents
[Author]by the El Reportero’s wire services[/Author]
Nearly two months ago, the U.S. Border Patrol is ready to test the use of body cameras on its agents in New Mexico to determine if they are using excessive force in certain cases.
The move comes in response to criticism and several investigations and lawsuits over alleged abuses by the Border Patrol.
The initial tests will be undertaken at the Border Patrol training academy in Artesia, New Mexico.
The measure was applauded by the ACLU, which has several suits outstanding against the Border Patrol for excessive use of force by its agents that in some cases has resulted in the deaths of immigrants or even of Mexicans on their own side of the border, as in the case of Jose Elena Rodriguez, who died in Nogales, Sonora, in October 2012.
“While it has been proven that body cameras drastically reduce the use of force in incidents with local authorities, we still have to see how the Border Patrol will use them,” James Lyall, an ACLU attorney in Tucson, Arizona, told Efe on Monday.
According to Lyall, the Border Patrol committed itself more than a year ago to undertaking a pilot program with body cameras and it is good to know that finally some efforts in that direction are being made.
“In the face of the ongoing refusal of the Border Patrol to (comply with) the law and better practices, it’s too early to say if this move forward will have any impact on the deeply-rooted culture of abuses and impunity,” Lyall added.
But for Guadalupe Guerrero, the mother of Carlos Lamadrid, the young Mexican man who died in March 2011 after being shot by a Border Patrol agent in Douglas, Arizona, this does not change anything.
“It’s already being taken note of that they’re corrupt and, above all, that they remain unpunished because of the 40 (immigrants) they have killed none (of the agents) has set foot in a court. But very soon everything’s going to change. The situation with the cameras – I hope – will prevent them from killing any human being and hiding evidence,” Guerrero told Efe on Monday.
Meanwhile, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents more than 17,000 agents, said that they are not opposed to the measure.
“We’re not afraid, we only want to assure ourselves that these cameras are not going to be … used against the agents. What concerns us is knowing how they are going to be used,” he told Efe.
In U.S. undocumented people can donate but not receive organs
[Author]by Viji Sundaram
New America Media[/Author]
SAN PABLO, Calif. – Without treatment to replace her failing kidneys, Olga knows she will die.
The 37-year-old single mother is desperate to get a transplant so she can get well enough to nurture and provide for her three children again – something she hasn’t been able to do for the last couple of years.
But her undocumented status disqualifies her from getting on the organ transplant list, endangering her life.
Olga’s frail health forced her to stop working as a house cleaning woman and attendant at a Bay Area car wash, something she did seven days a week to supplement the $800 monthly checks her children’s father sends her. Those were jobs she could do without revealing her unauthorized status. In 2010, she was abruptly forced to quit her job loading boxes at a UPS facility, when her employer one day asked her for her Social Security number.
Olga, who asked that her last name not be used, stopped working completely two years ago after her legs began to swell and she suffered persistent headaches. Her trips to the emergency room only gave her temporary relief. She tried going on disability with the help of an immigration attorney provided by a charitable organization, but was told she didn’t qualify.
The Mexico-born woman was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2001. In 2012, doctors told her she would require dialysis for the rest of her life unless she could get a kidney transplant. But to get on the transplant list, they told her, she would need to have legal status. Until then, she could receive dialysis on an outpatient basis three times a week. California currently has 50,057 dialysis patients.
Though not very health literate, Olga appreciates the irony of her situation. She knows it would be cheaper for her to get a kidney transplant for about $100,000 than it is to receive a lifetime of dialysis, which costs around $80,000 a year in the San Francisco Bay Area.
On average, transplantation doubles the life expectancy of a patient compared to dialysis. But even if she were given a transplant, Olga’s medical treatment would be far from over because she would need anti-rejection drugs costing about $10,000 a year for the rest of her life. Many transplant centers say an undocumented person’s status could compromise his or her ability to continue paying for follow-up care.
“Essentially, all transplant centers require that all transplant candidates have medical insurance, be it public or private, so that the patients will have coverage following transplantation to cover the cost of the immunosuppressive drugs, which are expensive,” said Dr. John Scandling, medical director of the kidney transplant center at Stanford University, where some undocumented patients living in Santa Clara County have received transplants.
But he asserted: “My personal opinion is that undocumented patients should not be kept off the organ waiting list. We don’t turn down organs donated by undocumented people, but we are not willing to provide organs to them.”
An oddity in the U.S. health care system requires that federal Medicare cover all patients with end-stage renal disease, regardless of their age, for dialysis and organ transplantation. The exception is undocumented immigrants. But low-income undocumented patients can receive emergency care for which hospitals are reimbursed by the federal-state funded insurance program for low-income people called Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California). Olga is lucky that California, like New York and North Carolina, defines the outpatient dialysis she receives as “emergency care.”
Last year, following protests by 14 undocumented patients in critical need of organ transplants, two Chicago-area hospitals agreed to put undocumented patients in need of organ transplants on the wait list.
Even if Olga could get on the kidney transplant list, she would likely have to wait six to 10 years to get a transplant in the San Francisco Bay Area because there is a greater demand for kidneys here than there are donors, Scandling said. In the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest, by contrast, the wait time is between one and three years.
Olga’s father, who had lived in the United States illegally since he, his wife and Olga immigrated here from their native Mexico 15 years ago, moved back home in 2012 to seek treatment for his diabetes.
Olga, too, could go back to Mexico, where a kidney transplant costs around $40,000, but she would have to sneak back in through the desert to reunite with her three U.S.-born children. That, she said, would be too dangerous.
Laura López, executive director of Street Level Health Project, an Oakland-based non-profit that helps immigrants get access to health care and other services, believes that California should provide health care for all of its residents. She supports democratic Sen. Ricardo Lara’s Health Care For All bill.
“People shouldn’t have to go back to their homeland to die because they can’t get health care in the U.S.,” López asserted.
Can a Police Commission really police the police?
[Author]by Michael Lozano
New America Media[/Author]
Editor’s Note: This week, strong emotions and riots ensued after the police officer who shot and killed Ferguson, Mo. teenager Michael Brown was not charged by a federal grand jury. People all over the nation, including Pres. Obama, called for widespread change in law enforcement practices and advocated against police brutality, especially within the black community. In the wake of this nationwide uproar, Long Beach VoiceWaves took a look at a local police oversight agency to ask what can be done to hold police accountable.
The Long Beach Police Department recently told Pamela Fields, a local resident, that she could not pick up her late son’s cellphone, but she could “collect his bloody clothes” if she wanted to.
Her son was Donte Lamont Jordan. He was 39 years old when Long Beach police gunned him down late last year. Police accounts allege that Jordan fired a weapon at a dark-colored vehicle. Fields said her legal team’s findings change that narrative: he was carrying a cellphone, not a gun, when police shot him.
“He was on his cellphone at the time of his assassination with his back turned,” she said witnesses reported. “It doesn’t justify you shooting a man in his back.”
Jordan, an African American, was just one of the 22 officer-involved shooting victims in 2013, with six occurring this year so far.
This year of police shootings in Long Beach comes at time when the nation is calling into question police community relations with the killing of unarmed Missouri youth Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer this summer.
An era of oversight has begun, with some departments requiring officers to wear mini-cameras to record their interactions with citizens, and others beginning to compile police interaction data into public databases, determining if racial bias exists.
Locally, the Citizen’s Police Complaint Commission (CPCC) has served as Long Beach’s oversight body reviewing police misconduct allegations since 1990. But what powers does the CPCC really have?
According to CPCC Chairman Jeffrey Price, the commission can subpoena witnesses, but not officers.
“The officer has an officer’s bill of rights which protects them,” he said.
In 2012, the commission received 654 total allegations, 86 percent of which were closed with a “No Further Action” finding, according to its annual report posted on the city’s website. About a third of the remaining allegations were found as “Not Sustained”, meaning evidence was insufficient to prove allegations of misconduct.
Even if allegations are sustained, the commission’s charter does not give it the authority to discipline officers. “We only recommend to the city manager what our findings are. It’s up to the city manager to take that back to internal affairs and decide what, if anything, the punishment will be,” Price said.
According to CPCC executive director Anitra Dempsey, while the meetings are public, the commission is limited to providing confidential recommendations on individual cases to the city manager.
“We never comment on stats. We are complaint-driven,” said Dempsey. “There are incidences that may make the news that this body may not see if complaints are not filed.”
In fact, Fields, whose son was killed by LBPD officers last year, has never filed a complaint with the CPCC because she has never heard about them.
That’s also the case for Jessica Loarca whose 21-year-old son, Jesse Delgadillo, was killed by the Long Beach Police Department on April 28, 2013.
“When we hear there are people not aware of us, we recognize that,” Dempsey said. “We take advantage of every reasonable and ethical opportunity to share information about what this body does.” (The commission can be reached at 562-570-6891, with public meetings occurring the second Thursday of every month at city hall).
Dempsey added, “The commissioners are individuals who represent the community and take their job very seriously,” she said. “We hope that you don’t need us, but if you do, we are here, and we handle every case as if it was our own.”
The CPCC came under scrutiny in past years for being biased towards police, an allegation made by the CPCC’s own former investigator.
Complainant demographics are also concerning. The 2012 CPCC Annual Report states that African-Americans make up about 43 percent of complainants, though only 13 percent of the city’s population according to the 2010 census. Latinos tend to file complaints less often. They make up 19 percent of complainants but about 41 percent of the population.
On Nov. 13, only one person attended the commission’s public meeting at city hall.
According to Long Beach activist Michael Brown, residents don’t attend commission meetings because city leaders don’t promote the meetings and because residents ‘know they don’t work’.
Brown asserts that the commission remains a ‘rubber stamp institution’.
“They don’t have any teeth,” he said. “(There are) individual police officers who people in certain neighborhoods know are bad… There’s no mechanism in place to remove that problem police officer.”
As for solutions, Brown says that community control has to be a starting point, with local communities deciding themselves how they want to be policed. “The community should have direct control, they should have subpoena power, they should have the power to remove a police officer from the street and everything will flow from there.”
The mothers of those killed by local officers also have some ideas.
“If there’s a police-involved shooting we need an outside agency like the federal government to investigate instead of a local agency,” Fields said. “The way they did my son was just wrong… I think there needs to be a federal investigation.”
Actually all the police shootings in Long Beach are reviewed by the L.A. County District Attorney and LBPD Internal Affairs, but none of the officers involved in any of the 2013 shootings have been charged, according to the district attorney’s office.
The Long Beach Police Department did not respond to email inquiries on their use of force.
Last year former LBPD Chief Jim McDonnell announced the establishment of the Use of Force Advisory Board in response to the unusually high number of police shootings in the city.
McDonnell said earlier this year that “in almost all of these incidents, the suspect shot at or used a weapon either directed at an officer or at a third party victim.” Information on armed statuses of targets is not readily available for many local cases.
Dignity and Power Now organizer Mark-Anthony Johnson said local statistics on excessive force charges is precisely what’s needed.
“There’s no local reporting of data or patterns of who is most affected by excessive force by race, gender, or mental health condition,” he said. “We [only] see these national trends that define a crisis that needs to be shifted.”
Nationally, black youth are 21 times more likely to be killed by police than white youth, according to a ProPublica analysis of federal data.
Advisory board member Sandy Cajas,said that while reviewing statistics is one of the functions of the board, “that’s about it.”
“We are there just to know what the City of Long Beach is doing to communicate with the community,” she said.
As the focus on police use of excessive force narrows in on racism, some community residents argue race is not the only factor behind being a target of an officer-involved shooting.
“Rich people do not get killed by cops,” Brown said. “Kelly Thomas was homeless,” he said, mentioning the 2011 case of a white homeless man killed by Fullerton cops. In 2010, Long Beach police shot and killed Doug Zerby, a working class white man, Brown said.
Salvadoran lady dies in San Francisco
[Author]by the El Reportero’s staff[/Author]
Mrs. María Cármen Jiménez died on Nov. 4 in the city of San Francisco. She was 77 years old.
Mrs. Jiménez, born on July 14, 1937 in El Salvador, was employed for many years at the janitors’ union in San Francisco.
Her remains, which were escorted by the San Francisco Police Motorcycle Unit, were transported and buried in the Cemetery of Cypress, in Colma, after having been blessed at the St. Dominic Catholic Church, to which she belonged for many decades.
She is survived by her only son, Víctor Cruz and his wife,Evelyn Martínez, and seven grandchildren who loved her very much.
The staff of El Reportero newspaper and especially its editor, Marvin Ramírez, extend their most sincere condolences to the family in this time of grieve.