Are pit bulls more aggressive than other dog breeds? That seems to be the subtext of a new measure given preliminary approval yesterday in San Bernardino County. The measure would require all pit bulls and pit bull mixes to be spayed or neutered, and comes after pit bulls killed four people in the county over the last five years, including a 2-year-old boy who was mauled by his family’s dog in May. Last year LA County passed an ordinance requiring all dogs to be spayed and neutered, with special exceptions for breeders, but does the San Bernardino measure single out pit bulls as an especially aggressive breed? Does it punish responsible dog owners? And how will it be enforced?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the suicide rate for the middle-aged has increased for the second consecutive year. Men age 45 - 54 are in the highest risk group for suicide. Researchers are not sure what’s causing the up tick, but they know that 90% of people who kill themselves have some kind of a mental disorder at the time of their death. The CDC lists health, jobs and financial stress as risk factors for suicide. Hmmm, could the economic meltdown, rise in the unemployment rate and the lack of affordable health care be contributing factors?
And you thought the health care battles were over—turns out that the colossal effort to get a health reform bill passed earlier this year was just the opening shot in a wider war, and the second front is quickly forming. Insurance companies across the country are rushing to impose premium rate increases ahead of the implementation of the reform bill, which doesn’t fully kick-in until 2014. Californians saw this earlier in the year when Blue Cross-Anthem tried to impose a rate increase as high as 32%, after later backing down. Before the reform law establishes a new health care safety net the average consumers of health insurance are in for a rough ride: states are cutting Medicaid budgets for the poorest Americans; special extended COBRA coverage for unemployed Americans is about to run out; and rising healthcare prices and skyrocketing insurance premiums will sock the already insured. Is a health care crisis—the kind that this reform bill was supposed to head off—inevitable?
When California’s AB32 was passed in 2006 it was a landmark bill—it was the first and toughest carbon emissions control bill in the country, with the goal of controlling California’s greenhouse gasses and bringing the state into near compliance with the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol. While the bill was lauded by environmental activists for its ambitious goals of bringing carbon emissions back down to 1990 levels it was largely reviled by business groups who feared the negative economic impact of strict controls on pollution. The ultimate decision on AB32 will now go before the voters as a proposition that would suspend AB32, until the state’s unemployment hits 5.5% or lower for a full year, was approved for the November ballot. The focal point of this debate probably will not be the environmental impact of AB32 but rather jobs—proponents of the proposition arguing that AB32 will be a jobs killer and that California can ill afford to be unfriendly to businesses in this lousy economic climate. Which side will prevail in the fight over environment and economy?
War is not the perfectly-edited adrenaline rush of a two-hour movie. It’s also not the three-minute summaries on the nightly news. War is a feeling and a life that only those involved can understand. That’s what filmmakers Sebastian Junger (author of <i>WAR</i> and <i>The Perfect Storm</i>) and Tim Hetherington (<i>Long Story Bit by Bit: Liberia Retold</i>) hoped to capture with their 90-minute documentary, <i>Restrepo</i>, which followed the soldiers of the Second Platoon at their outpost in the highly dangerous Korengal Valley, Afghanistan. The cameras rolled and chronicled every action of these soldiers through the eyes of the Second Platoon, from the mind-numbing stretches of anticipation to the adrenaline-filled chaos of an ambush. It’s as entrenched as you can get, but yet you’re still in the theater…
Patt Morrison is known for its innovative discussions of local politics and culture, as well as its presentation of the effects of national and world news on Southern California.
