Salem-News.com Health articles

The Climate Crisis: Now is the Time to Act

"...save countless lives with robust climate justice policy."

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA.) - Amidst raging wildfires exacerbated by prolonged drought and three-digit temperatures, too many Americans are treating the climate crisis with resignation bordering on acceptance.

As our government seems unwilling or unable to solve this coming calamity to planet Earth...

Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Presumptive Conditions

Up to one million military members and families have suffered from the effects of polluted water at Camp Lejeune.

(SALEM, Ore.) - All eligible veterans and certain family members who served at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days (cumulatively) between 1953 and 1987 are currently eligible for two benefits from the VA.

Veterans exposed to polluted waters at the base during the qualifying period are granted disability compensation...

Don`t Blame the Mentally Ill for Gun Violence

Mental illness sufferers are far more likely to be the victims of violence than perpetrators of violence.

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA.) - Now anytime there is gun violence, especially a mass shooting, the mantra adopted by opponents of gun control, unfairly point the finger at mental illness, not guns, as the cause.

This is unfair to those suffering from mental illness.

SCOTUS Limits EPA`s Power to Combat Climate Change

The window for limiting global warming to relatively safe levels is rapidly closing.

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA.) - The Court ruled that in cases involving particularly consequential policy decisions, the agency must be able to point to clear congressional language allowing it to act.

Congress, of course, lacks the expertise, time, and ability to legislate in every area of need facing the nation.

Choice Without Shackles

Beyond the confiscation of women’s rights, I feel something else missing: a valuing — an understanding — of life itself.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - 11 states still allow the barbaric practice known as “shackling” within the system: handcuffing and chaining incarcerated pregnant women, including when they are, God help us, in labor.

The cruel absurdity of this practice is almost beyond comprehension.

The Climate Front: People Who Live There, Part 2

Alaska's many cultures developed their own way of doing things over tens of thousands of years.

(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) - My conversation with Patrick Anderson (Tlingit) is about how trauma, both intergenerational and acquired, is compounded by difficulties, logistical, economic, and elemental, along the front lines of climate change in America.

In one Alaska village, Kivalina, survival itself can be overwhelming.

Why Would I Talk to Them?

Research shows we can talk across our political divides.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - We all avoid talking to the other side for similar reasons: the other person won’t listen, will get too emotional, and there would be no point. Essentially, we’re united in how uncomfortable these exchanges make us feel.

If we do engage, we often do aggressively. However, positive encounters relax us.

The Climate Front: People Who Live There

Explore the climate impacts to front-line communities in Alaska and the Lower 48.

(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) - The story of humans and Climate Change, that is, for the most part, not on CNN, became tangible over the course of a year.

It began by dropping in on National Geographic Senior Producer Scott Ressler’s film, “The Last Ice,” for a “behind the scenes” interview about his five years in Greenland and Nunavut, Canada, around the Arctic Circle, where Inuit people hunt on the sea ice.

After School Shootings, Senate Republicans Block Domestic Terrorism Bill

Brief comment on the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA.) - Over Memorial Day weekend, just days after the killings, former president Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R.TX), South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Texas Gov. Greg Abbot (prerecorded) and other Republicans spoke at the at the NRA’s annual meeting in Houston, about 270 miles from Uvalde.

Each rejected any suggestion that gun control measures were needed to stop mass shootings.

Oregon to Provide 12 Months of Continuous Postpartum Medical Coverage

Federal decision ‘critical to ensuring health and well-being of mothers and their babies’

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Oregon’s request to expand Medicaid and Oregon Health Plan (OHP), to one year postpartum has been approved.

The change will allow individuals to maintain access to medically necessary physical, oral and behavioral health services for 12 months after childbirth.