Health

Welcome to July! Enjoy those summer rides! Remember to slather on the sunscreen and sport the sun sleeves. Consider packing more water than usual, and try to ride in the cooler parts of the day.  Oh, and take the family out for an Independence Day...

Santa Clara County and the union representing nurses at the county’s hospitals and clinics have reached an agreement on a four-year contract, after months of negotiations, failed mediation efforts and a first-ever three-day strike last month. About 88% of the Registered Nurses Professional Association members...

Santa Clara County has earmarked more than $8 million in local funds for immigration related services in the recently adopted 2025-26 budget.  The funding builds on the county’s previous investments in services for the immigrant community that include an emergency $5 million allocation in 2024...

Every Saturday, scores of people make the drive to Pinnacle Farms market in San Juan Bautista to buy fresh, organically grown produce. Owners Phil and Katherine Foster began farming in San Benito County in 1968. Today they grow certified organic fruit and vegetables on 295...

Although farm and food production workers were considered essential workers during the pandemic, many of California's food employers endangered those workers, violating Cal/OSHA's Covid-19 guidelines more often than most industries, a new report said. The California Institute for Rural Studies’ report said farm and food...

A fleet of 12 new ambulances dedicated to transporting patients among the county’s hospitals and medical offices was unveiled at Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy on May 9.  The new emergency medical vehicles will improve transport times among Santa Clara Valley Healthcare’s three hospitals—SLRH,...

Santa Clara County supervisors —and the public—on Dec. 12 got their first public explanation from county officials on the explosive revelations a week earlier that county-run hospitals had for at least a year illegally dumped medical waste, drugs and patient data into dumpsters. Healthcare officials...

The wild and suspenseful saga that is the winter of 2023 continues, with the latest chapter bringing rare snowfall to South Valley—not just once, but multiple times since last week—blanketing the hills above Morgan Hill, Gilroy and Hollister with accumulated frozen precipitation.  Some locations in...

Santa Clara County health officials on Aug. 14 reported the first local death attributed to West Nile virus, a mosquito-borne illness. The death this month of an immunocompromised adult at a local hospital “after experiencing West Nile virus symptoms” is the second reported human case...

Every year,  lawmakers in Sacramento introduce a flurry of bills, most of which are eviscerated during the legislative process and end up on the Assembly or Senate trash heap. A select few make it to the governor’s desk, and assuming they dodge the veto...