Aptos psychologist: I will vote NO on all 5 CA tax measures because taking money dedicated to health & children services likely to cause considerable harm. See arguments below for and against.

Vote YES on IA if you want 2 EXTRA years of actual income, sales and vehicle tax increases. Vote NO on IA if you believe the legislative analyst – who says the measure is incomprehensible.

Vote YES on IB if you want a multi-billion increase in education spending. Vote NO on IB if you dislike the grip of unions on government. In California, 57 percent of government workers are unionized compared to 37 percent nationally. CA teachers make 25 % more than elsewhere and are highest paid in nation.

Vote YES on IC
if you want more people buying CA lottery tickets. Vote NO in IC if concerned about the poor – who overwhelmingly buy the bulk of all lottery tickets. Vote NO if gambling money away is particularly bad during these economic times.

Vote YES on ID which grabs the tobacco money. Vote NO on ID because that tobacco money currently is dedicated to children’s services which you do not want cut.

Vote YES on IE which takes the so-called millionaire tax money. Vote NO on IE because that money is currently dedicated to health services. Vote NO because The biggest cut in Santa Cruz County will be the health services. Vote NO because swine flu, T.B and other infectious diseases must be kept in check.

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Aptos: Best restaurant! Cafe Rio on the Beach offers good food at great prices.

How about an excellent appetizer and 2 glasses of house wine for $10? Go to Cafe Rio – in my opinion the best overall restaurant in Aptos. I was there tonight and had their mussels. Could not have been better. Then take a walk on the beach right in front. Beautiful evening.

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Gilroy lays off a sixth of its work force including 6 police & fire positions

As property values plummet across California, Santa Clara County is expecting an almost-unheard-of drop in its property tax rolls — about 2 percent.

Gilroy should be so lucky. The Garlic Capital of the World is facing a plunge of 11 percent — which represents a cut of about $1 million in tax revenue.

While many other cities in the county are now only beginning to panic about the sudden drop in revenue, the South County city has been struggling to keep from drowning for a year now.

As sales tax revenue plunged and building fees dried up last fall, the city council voted to lay off a sixth of its workforce — the equivalent of 48 full-time employees, including six full-time positions in both the police and fire departments.

Residents are being told to report many crimes online instead of in person or on the phone. The fire department went from three engine companies to two.

“It’s a bloodbath down there,” said county Assessor Larry Stone.

The pain has filtered down to Monterey Street, the downtown’s main drag in this city of 52,000.

At Sue’s Coffee Roasting Company, owner Sue Shalit has noticed a smaller morning crowd, in part because there are fewer city employees grabbing a morning Joe.

“Some people just don’t come that early any more. Now, unfortunately, they’re getting to sleep in,” said Shalit, who misses not only their business but the people themselves.

One of the toughest cuts for the police department was losing its community services officer who specialized in fighting graffiti. She not only photographed the tags so investigators could identify the vandals, she also cleaned up the graffiti herself.

“Now we’re seeing more graffiti,” said Sgt. Jim Gillio, “and it’s staying up longer.”

The economy took a nasty turn just when downtown Gilroy was making a comeback. The city had just spent millions on new sidewalks and street trees. Dozens of condos were being built on Monterey Street.

Now, many buildings sit empty, in part because laws require vacant properties with unreinforced masonry to be retrofitted before new tenants can move in. Plans were afoot to fix the buildings, but now owners can’t get loans or are reluctant to spend money until the economy picks up.

“It’s been a mess, even before we learned about the million dollar loss in property tax,” Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro said.

When Gilroy officials were initially preparing their current budget, they calculated the city would end the fiscal year with a $10 million deficit — representing about 20 percent of the budget. The city immediately froze 23 positions; eliminated all non-mandatory training and travel; and delayed projects such as remodeling city hall.

Over the next several months, however, the city continued to bleed red ink as the economy tanked, prompting the layoffs.

Like Morgan Hill and parts of San Jose, Gilroy has a lot of newer homes. Those were generally the first to drop in value as builders slashed prices. As mortgage values began to exceed home values, foreclosure rates skyrocketed.

“We have homes worth half as much as a couple of years ago,” said Gilroy City Administrator Tom Haglund.

The poster children for this frightening trend were fast-growing Central Valley cities such as Manteca and Tracy. But in many ways, Haglund said, “we’re the Central Valley of Santa Clara County.”

Indeed, in “feel” and in politics, the majority-Latino, relatively conservative city is more closely aligned with the agricultural towns to the south and east than with Silicon Valley.

“Gilroy is the only city in Santa Clara County that doesn’t touch another city,” said developer Gary Walton, a Gilroy resident who has an office downtown.

The isolation may make the place distinctive and quaint. But it also presents problems.

“I do worry about Gilroy, because we’re kind of an island,” Fire Chief Dale Foster said.

With a smaller fire department, he said, Gilroy will sometimes have to depend on far-flung departments for help.

“Luckily, we haven’t had that many big fires,” Foster said. “But the potential is also there for a train wreck or a big traffic accident on 101.”

To ease its pain, the city has been dipping into reserves — $4.7 million alone in the last fiscal year. But the city council decided it can no longer drain the rainy-day fund. In the next few weeks, it “will put together a truly balanced budget for the next fiscal year,” which will mean even deeper cuts, Mayor Pinheiro said.

That likely means a lot fewer employees, or a lot of employees making less. The city has asked its unions to reduce wages and benefits to save jobs.

Amid the gloom, there are signs Gilroy voters are willing to share the pain.

Despite the city’s reputation for turning down tax measures, voters in November passed a $37 million bond measure to build a new library. “Nobody could believe it,” said Lani Yoshimura, the longtime community librarian. The same day, voters in the Gilroy Unified School District passed a $150 million bond measure for school improvements.

The city recently got great ratings for the new library bonds, largely because the bond-rating agencies thought city officials had done a good job wielding the budgetary ax before things got worse.

City officials also say they’ve seen a spike in volunteerism. Residents have volunteered to help police patrol the streets and staff the Gilroy Museum, which lost all its paid employees to budget cuts.

Mayor Pinheiro said he was amazed when he tried to find residents willing to organize the town’s Memorial Day parade. He sent out a mass e-mail and quickly came up with a committee of nine to make sure the town didn’t cancel its popular parade.

Perhaps, developer Walton said, the do-it-yourself spirit can catch on downtown. “Maybe,” he said, “it’s time for us to start cleaning our own sidewalks.”

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Aptos & there abouts: Find a psychologist through the Monterey Bay Psych Assoc. www.mbpsych.org

There is a Find A Therapist directory to assist. When I searched for “autism” only one name appeared. I would think that more than one psychologist does diagnosis and treatment of autism. Autism is a disorder that can be screened for accurately by 18 months. Probably “developmental disorders” will give you more choices of clinical psychologists who can assist you.

For more info go to: Monterey Bay Psychological Association

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Join A-Autism Net for Testing on Monterey Bay Forum

Do you work with children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders? Parent of a child? Join A-Autism Net for Testing at www.freedomOK.net/wordpress Tell your stories. Get support. For northern CA parents and professionals. Dr. Jackson is a member of the Asperber’s Ring which is a group of blogs that focus on Asperger’s Disorders and similiar issues.

Dr. Cameron Jackson wants to collaborate with other professionals who screen and treat children with autistic spectrum disorders. One other psychologist is listed in the Monterey Psychological Association as working with autistic children. Contact Dr. Jackson at: cameronjacks@gmail.com

For other resources go to: Web Ring

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Aptos psychologist: Dumb decision? Hardest hit will be the Public Health agency. 212 jobs may be cut in proposed Santa Cruz County budget

The County Administrative Office on Friday released a budget proposal for next fiscal year, beginning in July, that calls for up to 140 job cuts, an average of 20 percent less funding for county departments like public works and probation and a 20 percent cut to nonprofits providing “safety-net” services for the elderly and poor.The proposed budget includes no new funding for infrastructure, like road construction or technology improvements. The budget entails major cuts at Juvenile Hall, including elimination of a once promising alternatives-to-incarceration program. And, the budget barely toes the line when it comes to sheriff patrols.

Hit hardest is public health,
whose programs not only benefit those with limited access to health care but ripple across the entire region, say health officials.

“Swine flu does not pay attention to how much income you make or your legal status, and this is true of all infectious diseases. You want a community whose health is good and has access to medical care,” said Rama Khalsa, director of the county Health Services Agency.

The 530-person health agency will lose about 60 positions under the budget proposal, which translates into reductions in mental health services, substance abuse assistance and clinical care.

The cuts proposed this week by county administrators attempt to close a $25 million gap between the county’s projected revenues and spending. The estimated $367 million general fund budget for next year reflects a roughly 6 percent decrease over this year’s budget.

The county, like a city government, is responsible for basic municipal services in the unincorporated areas, like road maintenance and planning, with the additional responsibility of providing state-mandated regional programs like the courts and health and human services.

Although no part of the roughly 2,400-person organization is immune to cuts, county administrators say they’ve made some funding priorities in the proposed budget, like public safety.

The Sheriff’s Office will lose positions, but most will be in support areas and perhaps investigations but not front-line police work.

“This will mean that some cases will take a lot longer to be handled,” said incoming Sheriff-Coroner Phil Wowak. “But patrols services and emergency services would be the last thing we would cut.”

The proposed budget calls for an 8.6 percent reduction of the county’s total work force, meaning 212 positions, though county administrators say only about two-thirds of those are currently filled.

Last month, the personnel department directed 156-hour furloughs for upper- and middle-management, as part of the ongoing cost-saving effort, presenting another significant cost savings in the proposed budget.

County administrators are currently in talks with representatives from the county’s largest labor union, Service Employees International Union, and say they hope a similar furlough arrangement can be set up. Such a concession, they say, would stave off many of the proposed layoffs.

An SEIU representative on Friday had no comment on whether they would agree to take time off.

The county’s proposed budget will be the subject of hearings in coming weeks and is expected to be finalized in June.

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Aptos psychologist: Why does Utah have highest rate of Autistic Spectrum Disorder?

Currently, 1 in 150 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder (autism, pervasive developmental disorder, asperger’s disorder). Uhah’s rate is 1 in 133 children. Why so much higher? Beats me. The quality of life lead by adults with ASD is higher in Utah. Why? I suspect that family connections and social connections are tighter in Utah compared to a state such as California.

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Aptos psychologist: First born, breach and mother over 35 are risk factors for Autistic Spectrum Disorder children

“Children who are firstborn or breech or whose mothers are 35 or older when giving birth are at significantly greater risk for developing an autism spectrum disorder, University of Utah School of Medicine researchers have reported in a new study with Utah children.

In the April 27, 2009, online issue of the journal Pediatrics, the researchers showed that women who give birth at 35 or older are 1.7 times more likely to have a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), compared with women between the ages of 20-34. Children diagnosed with ASD also were nearly 1.8 times more likely to be the firstborn child, the researchers found.

Although they didn’t identify a causal relationship between breech births and autism, children diagnosed with the disorder were more than twice as likely to have been a breech presentation, meaning they were not born head first.

“The results of this study give us an opportunity to look more closely at these risk factors for children across the autism spectrum, and not only those diagnosed with autism,” said first author Deborah A. Bilder, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry. “This shows that further investigation of the influence of prenatal factors is warranted.”

Autism is a complex brain disorder that impairs social, communicative, and behavioral development and often is characterized by extreme behavior.

Bilder and her colleagues in the U medical school’s department of psychiatry and the Utah Department of Health examined the birth records of Utah children who had been identified as having an autism spectrum disorder in a 2002 epidemiological study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That study looked at 8-year-old children in Utah’s three most populous counties-Salt Lake, Davis, and Utah-and used nationally accepted criteria for an ASD classification. The researchers compared birth records for children identified with an ASD with unaffected children born in those three counties in 1994. Of that group, 196 were identified with an ASD. Birth certificates were available for 132 of those children, and the researchers examined those records for possible prenatal, perinatal, and neonatal risk factors related to ASD.

Their investigation showed that the mother’s age when giving birth (older than 34), breech presentation, and being firstborn were significant risk factors for the development of an ASD. The researchers also identified a small but significant relationship between the increased duration of education among mothers of those children.

Further investigation would be needed to understand how these three risk factors may relate to ASD. But a possible explanation for the correlation of firstborn children might be that parents are reluctant to have a second child if the first is diagnosed with ASD. A possible interpretation of increased risk associated with advanced maternal age is that changes in genes occurring over time may contribute to autism spectrum disorders. The association found between breech presentation and ASD most likely indicates a shared cause, such as neuromuscular dysfunction. The vast majority of children born breech, however, are healthy.

This study follows several from the University in recent years, which found that Utah has one of the highest autism spectrum disorder rates in the country (one in 133 Utah children has the disorder), helped indentify a gene that may predispose people to autism, and showed that Utah adults with autism have a better quality of life than those in other studies.

For the next step in their research, Bilder and her colleagues want to repeat this study, using a larger population of Utah 8-year-olds from subsequent birth years, to see if it replicates the results of the current study. They also may study the subset of children with breech presentation to determine whether they haven a genetic vulnerability that put them at increased risk for developing an autism spectrum disorder.

The study’s other authors are Judith P. Zimmerman, Ph.D., research assistant professor of psychiatry; Judith Miller, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry; and William M. McMahon, M.D., chairman of the Department of Psychiatry.

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Medicare patients get kidney removed in contrast to private insurance patients who get to preserve organ function. Should the government decide how to ration medical services?

Does A Person’s Insurance Coverage Affect Their Access To Quality Cancer Care? YES. Do you want that choice?
ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2009) —

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“We discovered a discrepancy in the type of surgical treatment patients are offered based on their health insurance,” says Robert G. Uzzo, MD, chairman of the department of surgery at Fox Chase and the study’s lead author. His research evaluated differences in surgical treatment for kidney cancer based on a patient’s health insurance carrier. The study explored this question in one specific area of medicine, but the results may have implications for other areas of medicine as well.

The study results showed that kidney cancer patients with Medicare as their primary payer were more likely to have their kidney surgically removed entirely (radical nephrectomy) whereas those with private insurance were offered surgery to preserve organ function (partial nephrectomy).

“The notion that the kind of insurance you have can affect the quality of the care you receive has implications for the ongoing discussion about national health care reform. This research raises important questions for the government to consider,” adds Uzzo. “As our national leaders begin to discuss health care reform, it will be important to keep in mind that who pays for the care can affect the quality of care received.”

Kidney cancer is commonly treated by surgically removing the entire organ, but this is often unnecessary. Due to its technical demands, however, kidney-sparing surgery remains widely underutilized except at high-volume academic centers, where surgeons are experienced not only in resection of very complex kidney tumors but also in minimally-invasive techniques to treat patients with kidney cancer.

There are numerous long-term health benefits to patients when the non-cancerous portion of the kidney can be preserved. These include preserving maximum kidney function, reducing the risk of dialysis down the road and a longer life expectancy.

Uzzo’s study evaluated the potential impact of a patient’s primary insurance status as it relates to the likelihood of the patient undergoing a radical or partial nephrectomy. The study relied on inpatient discharge data from nearly 42,000 adult patients in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania over a six-year period.

The study results revealed that disparities in quality of care exist. Patients 65 and over, with Medicare coverage, were significantly less likely to undergo kidney-sparing surgery for treatment of renal malignancy (kidney cancer) than patients whose primary payer was a private insurance carrier.

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Journal reference:

Kutikov et al. Patients With Medicare As The Primary Payer Are Less Likely To Undergo Nephron Sparing Surgery (NSS) For Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) Than Their Privately Insured Counterparts. The Journal of Urology, 2009; 181 (4): 77 DOI: 10.1016/S0022-5347(09)60221-4
Adapted from materials provided by Fox Chase Cancer Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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MLA Fox Chase Cancer Center (2009, April 28). Does A Person’s Insurance Coverage Affect Their Access To Quality Cancer Care?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 28, 2009, from

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Aptos psychologist: Why huge increase in autism in California?

What do you think are likely enviornmental causes of huge incease in autism? Why the huge increase in California? Tell us what you think. Pesticides? Contaminated water? Pollution? Something that gets into the food source? Routine ultas-sounds of babies? More overweight and older women having baies later? Diet? Women returning to work earlier as two incomes are needed to survive? The following was released by the M.I.N.D. Instutute in Jam., 2009:

“A study by researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute has found that the seven- to eight-fold increase in the number children born in California with autism since 1990 cannot be explained by either changes in how the condition is diagnosed or counted – and the trend shows no sign of abating.

“Published in the January 2009 issue of the journal Epidemiology, results from the study also suggest that research should shift from genetics to the host of chemicals and infectious microbes in the environment that are likely at the root of changes in the neurodevelopment of California’s children.

It’s time to start looking for the environmental culprits responsible for the remarkable increase in the rate of autism in California,” said UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute researcher Irva Hertz-Picciotto, a professor of environmental and occupational health and epidemiology and an internationally respected autism researcher.

Hertz-Picciotto said that many researchers, state officials and advocacy organizations have viewed the rise in autism’s incidence in California with skepticism.

The incidence of autism by age six in California has increased from fewer than nine in 10,000 for children born in 1990 to more than 44 in 10,000 for children born in 2000. Some have argued that this change could have been due to migration into California of families with autistic children, inclusion of children with milder forms of autism in the counting and earlier ages of diagnosis as consequences of improved surveillance or greater awareness.

Hertz-Picciotto and her co-author, Lora Delwiche of the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences, initiated the study to address these beliefs, analyzing data collected by the state of California Department of Developmental Services (DDS) from 1990 to 2006, as well as the United States Census Bureau and state of California Department of Public Health Office of Vital Records, which compiles and maintains birth statistics.

Hertz-Picciotto and Delwiche correlated the number of cases of autism reported between 1990 and 2006 with birth records and excluded children not born in California. They used Census Bureau data to calculate the rate of incidence in the population over time and examined the age at diagnosis of all children ages two to 10 years old.

The methodology eliminated migration as a potential cause of the increase in the number of autism cases. It also revealed that no more than 56 percent of the estimated 600-to-700 percent increase, that is, less than one-tenth of the increased number of reported autism cases, could be attributed to the inclusion of milder cases of autism. Only 24 percent of the increase could be attributed to earlier age at diagnosis.

“These are fairly small percentages compared to the size of the increase that we’ve seen in the state,” Hertz-Picciotto said.

Hertz-Picciotto said that the study is a clarion call to researchers and policy makers who have focused attention and money on understanding the genetic components of autism. She said that the rise in cases of autism in California cannot be attributed to the state’s increasingly diverse population because the disorder affects ethnic groups at fairly similar rates.

“Right now, about 10 to 20 times more research dollars are spent on studies of the genetic causes of autism than on environmental ones. We need to even out the funding,” Hertz-Picciotto said.

The study results are also a harbinger of things to come for public-health officials, who should prepare to offer services to the increasing number of children diagnosed with autism in the last decade who are now entering their late teen years, Hertz-Picciotto said.

“These children are now moving toward adulthood, and a sizeable percentage of them have not developed the life skills that would allow them to live independently,” she said.

The question for the state of California, Hertz-Picciotto said, will become: ‘What happens to them when their parents cannot take care of them?’

“These questions are not going to go away and they are only going to loom larger in the future. Until we know the causes and can eliminate them, we as a society need to provide those treatments and interventions that do seem to help these children adapt. We as scientists need to improve available therapies and create new ones,” Hertz-Picciotto said.

Hertz-Picciotto and her colleagues at the M.I.N.D Institute are currently conducting two large studies aimed at discovering the causes of autism. Hertz-Picciotto is the principal investigator on the CHARGE (Childhood Autism Risk from Genetics and the Environment) and MARBLES (Markers of Autism Risk in Babies-Learning Early Signs) studies.

CHARGE is the largest epidemiologic study of reliably confirmed cases of autism to date, and the first major investigation of environmental factors and gene-environment interactions in the disorder. MARBLES is a prospective investigation that follows women who already have had one child with autism, beginning early in or even before a subsequent pregnancy, to search for early markers that predict autism in the younger sibling.

“We’re looking at the possible effects of metals, pesticides and infectious agents on neurodevelopment,” Hertz-Picciotto said. “If we’re going to stop the rise in autism in California, we need to keep these studies going and expand them to the extent possible.”

The study was funded by grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and by the M.I.N.D. Institute.

In 1998, dedicated families concerned about autism helped found the UC Davis M.I.N.D. (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute. Their vision? Experts from every discipline related to the brain working together toward a common goal: curing neurodevelopmental disorders. Since that time, collaborative research teams at the M.I.N.D. Institute have turned that initial inspiration into significant contributions to the science of autism, fragile X syndrome, Tourette’s syndrome, learning disabilities and other neurodevelopmental disorders that can limit a child’s lifelong potential.

UC Davis M.I.N.D.

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