Tag: Ahimsa Porter Sumchai M.D.

A survey sent in April of 2008 by the Union of Concerned Scientists to 5,419 EPA scientists reports that 900 scientists say the White House watered down documents regarding climate change and inserted industry language into EPA power plant regulations and that scientific advisory panel conclusions about toxic chemicals went unheeded.

In 2001 I founded the Radiological Subcommittee of the Hunters Point Shipyard. I became obsessed by the potential for one of the worst toxic environmental impacts to the human cell being realized with this development project on a federal Superfund site: Small radioactive particles called radionuclides becoming airborne on dust and breathed into the lungs and circulatory system of children.

Recent DNA analysis confirms the earliest inhabitants of modern day China migrated from the African continent thousands of year ago and brings to full circle a genealogical journey I have embarked upon to embrace my African and Asian roots. I grew up in public housing in southeastern San Francisco where racial tension and conflict today exist between the African American and Asian communities sparked by culture clash and kindled by gentrification.

The latest “evolutionary debutante” is Ardi – Ardipithecus Ramidus – whose complete skull and pelvis crowns her as the greatest grandmother of modern day humans. About 2 million years ago these women evolved into the species Homo erectus. They walked upright out of Africa to populate the world.

By the 1980s, the largest population of African Americans in the state of California owned homes, property and businesses in the Bayview Hunters Point district of San Francisco. Now, the BVHP Redevelopment Project threatens to deprive them of their land, historical legacy and culture, fulfilling the United Nations definition of a government sponsored genocidal campaign.

Back on the front burner! The Obama White House has taken the “bull by the horns” in an effort to move the momentum of national health reform forward in the midst of stagnation, charges of political corruption and back room deal making and a shifting tide of public opinion regarding the need for massive overhaul of our nation’s health care system.

Tuesday, Jan. 5, at 4 p.m. in City Hall Room 416 is the FINAL hearing on the Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard EIR, a very callous, negligent and dangerous document that identifies numerous life threatening and potentially disastrous impacts to human health and the environment - most dangerous of all the potential construction activities at a federal Superfund site listed as one of the most toxic properties in the nation!

The known health disparities that contribute to premature death from breast cancer in African American women have galvanized righteous opposition to the USPSTF mammogram recommendations. In the past, these recommendations have influenced decision making by physician groups and the health care insurers who pay for preventative studies.

The 2009 U.S. Conference on AIDS opened in San Francisco at the Hilton Hotel on Oct. 29. The three-day event drew leadership from around the country, highlighting the “changing tide” of leadership in the forefront of the battle against HIV. The lobby of the downtown Hilton was a sea of energy and vibrant color as African American, Latino, Asian Pacific Islander and women policymakers mingled in excited conversation.

The outbreak of swine flu worldwide captured immediate attention because it is a new strain - a combination of a virus found in pigs that changed enough to cause infections in farm workers in Mexico with other known flu viruses including influenza A. Billions of people on earth have no "herd immunity" to a new virus.

In an email to the San Francisco Bay View, Laurence Pelosi verified that he was a Lennar senior executive in March of 2004 at the time San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, his cousin for whom he had served as mayoral campaign treasurer, had signed the Hunters Point Shipyard Conveyance Agreement at the behest of Laurence's Aunt Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"Biomonitoring is the next logical, critical step for us to take in addressing threats to public health." - Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, author of the California Biomonitoring Program, SB689

The California Universal Health Care Organizing Project wants President Obama to support congressional legislation authored by Rep. John Conyers that will stop the private health care insurance industry from denying claims, neglecting the sick and wasting 31 cents of every health care dollar.

The way we grow, distribute and prepare food should celebrate our various cultures and our shared humanity, providing not only sustenance, but justice, beauty and pleasure.

Lennar's LEN stocks had sunk to $3.60 per share by mid-November despite restructuring and partnership with the financial firm CB Richard Ellis, headed by Richard Blum, a UC regent and husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a principle sponsor of the Lennar-funded Proposition G.