Posts tagged with 'Brooklyn'
Weekly Pulse: DADT, Vampire Bees, and Other Hazards to Your Health
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By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Dr. Kenneth Katz recently published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine titled “Health Hazards of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” This week, he penned an op/ed for RH Reality Check about his experiences treating U.S. military at an STD clinic in San Diego. Dr. Katz sees the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” rule for LGB members of the military as a huge roadblock to good medical care. He’s pretty confident that his military patients feel safe divulging their sexual histories to a civilian doctor like himself. But when those troops go overseas, they are cared for by military doctors. Technically, doctor-patient communication is exempt from DADT, but many patients don’t realize that they can tell their military doctors about gay sex without fear of reprisals (at least in theory). Dr. Katz’s patients have told him that they won’t go for recommended follow-up STD screening after they ship out because they’re afraid to be honest with their doctors. He worries about how many troops are suffering from treatable infections in war zones because they aren’t allowed to serve openly.
Food stamp use skyrockets, swordfish sales unaccountably flat
Monica Potts of TAPPED points to the alarming statistic that in the last month alone an additional 500,000 Americans went on food stamps. She notes that the right wing website Daily Caller is alarmed not by the fact that fellow citizens can’t afford food, but rather that there’s no gruel-only foodstamp program available:
Meanwhile, the conservative news site The Daily Caller is shocked, shocked, to learn that you can use food stamps to buy all manner of food. The government, apparently, doesn’t restrict you from purchasing an $18-per-pound swordfish steak from Whole Foods. But that kind of discovery, like almost everything else in the “debate” over food stamp use, is the sort of ridiculous one that comes from a person who’s never been hungry.
The Hyde Amendment
In Campus Progress, Jessica Arons and Madina Agénor call for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment for being an assault on the reproductive rights of poor women and women of color. The Supreme Court declared abortion to be a constitutional right in 1973, yet nearly 40 years later, the Hyde Amendment still prohibits nearly all federal funding for abortions. In practice, the women most affected by the Hyde Amendment are those who depend on government health care programs like Medicaid and the Indian Health Service:
Former U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), the law’s sponsor, admitted during debate of his proposal that he was targeting poor women because they were the only ones vulnerable enough for him to reach. “I certainly would like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion, a rich woman, a middle-class woman, or a poor woman,” he said. “Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the … Medicaid bill.”
Meanwhile, ultra-conservative Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is calling on Congress to de-fund the reproductive health provider Planned Parenthood, Andy Birkey reports in the Minnesota Independent. In an interview with a conservative news site, Bachmann doubled down on that idea, suggesting that all of health care reform be de-funded because it funds abortions. This is not true. The aforementioned Hyde Amendment guarantees as much. Furthermore, even though health reform never would have funded abortions, President Obama signed an eleventh-hour executive order guaranteeing that health care reform would not fund abortions.
Brooklyn bees gorge on maraschino cherry run-off
Home beekeeping is the hottest new trend for health-conscious locavores. New York City recently changed the law to accommodate beekeepers in the five boroughs. Just because you live in an industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn is no reason to miss out on this sweet action, right? Well, actually, there is a catch. That nice honey at the farmers’ market tastes like lavender because that’s what those rural bees ate. What do bees in Red Hook, Brooklyn eat? Run-off from a maraschino cherry factory. The overindulgent bees “look like vampires” according to one local keeper and their honey runs bright red. Maraschino honey sounds like a delicious mash-up of high and low culture. Unfortunately, Sarah Goodyear reports in Grist that the end product doesn’t taste nearly as good as it looks. Arthur Mondella, the owner of Dell’s Maraschino Cherries, wants to do right by the beekeepers. He initially suggested putting out vats of different colored syrup to “help” the bees make rainbow honey. His proposal was not well-received by the crunchy set. Instead, he has agreed to work with the beekeepers to keep the bees out of the vats next year.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.
Weekly Immigration Wire: From Brooklyn Streets to Hollywood Blvd, Responses to Growing Tension
By Nezua
Media Consortium Mediawire Blogger
We are living in unsure times, filled with drastic transitions that shift our perspectives from day to day. In one sense, immigration is about groups of people shifting in size and moving from place to place. It is also about the formation of new groups, how we live through the transitions, and who we are on the other side. For this week’s Immigration Wire, I’d like to look at how different social groups are dealing with issues related to immigration—and all of its accompanying cultural shifts.
There is much talk, still, of Jose O. Sucuzhañay, the Ecuadorean immigrant who was killed by a homophobe in Brooklyn. ColorLine’s RaceWire blog reminds us that Sucuzhañay is the fourth (reported North Eastern) Latino hate crime victim since July, and Jonathan Adams reports on how Jose’s family is coping in Vigil in Brooklyn for Jose Sucuzhañay:
The victim’s family is reaching out to the public to bring the hateful attackers to justice. Diego Sucuzhañay says, “It shows how far we must still come to address the devastating problem of hate crimes in our communities. Only by exposing these crimes and working together will we be able to make a difference.”
Hundreds of Brooklynites marched to support the Sucuzhañay family, and to “condemn the recent anti-immigrant and homophobic hate crimes.” Over 16 organizations were represented at the march, as reported by New America Media in New Yorkers March Against Hate Crimes.
In The Good, the Bad, and the Promotor, New America Media examines one solution for migra-related tensions: Lucha Libre!
Mexicans love a good fight, or at least seeing one.
And when it reflects a social reality, like pitting them against the U.S. Border Patrol, the seats are going to be sold out.
Gabriel Ramirez, owner and founder of the independent wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling Revolution has taken advantage of this, presenting as his most popular attraction a wrestling match between Mexican legends of lucha libre and American wrestlers who are dressed as Border Patrol agents.
On the topic of entertainment and the Latino community, Nothing Like the Holidays, a major studio release focused on a Puerto Rican family, is out just in time for Navidad (Christmas). RaceWire features the trailer in Dreaming of a Latino Holiday?
Film production houses aren’t the only ones profiting from our changing national demographics. In an upsetting find, Products Marketed to Latinos Can Be More Expensive, New America Media reveals that some retail outlets are taking advantage of their customers.
Also a sign of changing times and relationships, Latin American leaders held a summit in Brazil to “discuss a post-U.S. hegemonic world.” They met to discuss the global economic crisis and Latin America’s growing independence from “the empire” of the United States. Among them were Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, and Bolivia’s Evo Morales. From Truthdig’s Latin Leaders Rebuke U.S.:
The talks, which centered on the “demise” of the capitalist model, also snubbed former colonizing nations Portugal and Spain in a further demonstration of the increasing political autonomy of the region.
And in health-related news, Asian American Donor Program (AADP) Executive director Carol Gillespie put out a call for multi-ethnic and mixed-race heritage people to “step forward and volunteer to become [bone marrow] donors” in New America Media’s Asian American Bone Marrow Donor Program Expands to Include Latinos. The article touches on the difficulty in getting much of the Latino community to register and participate and directly addresses the community’s fears of giving out their personal information.
This week’s collection of stories can be broken down in a few ways. Over here, you have people working together to overcome changes that scare just about everyone. And over there, people are taking advantage of the fear that often accompanies these changes. In this season of giving and love and familia, may you and yours be surrounded by those who fight with and for you.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration. Visit Immigration.NewsLadder.net for a complete list of articles on immigration, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy and health issues, check out Economy.NewsLadder.net and Healthcare.NewsLadder.net. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of 50 leading independent media outlets, and was created by NewsLadder.