Health Care reform and a forward-looking energy policy are not competing subjects in need of Congressional action, but interlocking national priorities, said speakers at a Santa Rosa rally yesterday.

Sebastopol City Council member Kathleen Shaffer (left), spoke out strongly in support of the health reform plan endorsed by President Obama, and the much maligned "public option" within it.

 Photos courtesy of John Hartong

Another speaker at the rally, Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo, defended proactive climate change legislation as a potential engine for economic, as well as environmental benefits.

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The Santa Rosa rally was one of many scheduled across the country yesterday by MoveOn.org.

Budget cuts resulting in faculty layoffs and reduced course offerings are inescapable at Sonoma State University for the coming year; the remaining question is where will the axe fall, and how deep will it cut.

The CFA's membership vote on the furlough question closed at 5 pm Wednesday. The balloting was conducted online, as a means of obtaining greater participation during the summer, when few faculty are on campus. Because this was the first time the union has held a web-based referendum, they are taking a little extra time to ensure the accuracy of the results before making the outcome public on Friday morning, when they'll be posted on the CFA website.

 How much difference can the outcome of the furlough vote make? As much as $3 million for the Sonoma campus alone, says Melinda Barnard, SSU's Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.

Even though the exact courses and faculty positions that will be cut due to the budget shortfall will not be decided for weeks to come, SSU Political Science professor Andy Merrifield (who is also a Regional Vice President for the California Faculty Association) predicts that the campus will be a markedly difference place by the start of next spring semester.

Doctors see the effects of poverty in the patients almost every day, but treating the root causes requires taking action outside their clinics and hospitals.

Dr. Paula Braveman (right) is a professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF, where she also directs the Center on Social Disparities in Medicine.

 Dr. Mary Maddox-Gonzales, head of the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, urges doctors and other medical practitioners to speak out about the public health implications of policies at every level of government.

The recent  PBS television series Unnatural Causes  answered the basic question it posed in the affirmative. So did the  KRCB-Television report on  same question here in the North Bay. You can see what we found out here. Both the national series and our local report will be rebroadcast again this fall.

YouthBuild, an education and job training program for young people in the Santa Rosa area, is going green.

Many of the recent YouthBuild graduates like to return and visit the current class, and Program Director Casey McChesney welcomes them as walking role models for the youth who are developing their own ideas of what success could represent for them.

You can hear a previous North Bay Report about YouthBuild from December 2008 here.