State Budget Update Governor Brown and the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) reached a compromise deal on a ballot initiative to raise revenues for critical state programs.

Exchange Board Meeting Focuses on Marketing, Outreach & Enrollment  Three panels of presenters provided information on issues and considerations related to marketing, outreach, and enrollment assistors and navigators at a recent Exchange Board meeting.

California’s Commitment to Health Reform California has invested deeply in health reform.

Counties to Pilot Dual Eligibles' Transition to Managed Care Comments are being accepted on the demonstration project.

Healthy Food in California’s General Plans AB 1897 would require all cities and counties to incorporate a healthy food element into their general plans.

April Hunger Action Day Advocacy Trainings Hunger Action Los Angeles is conducting a series of interactive educational trainings on California food security policy and advocacy throughout April.

Listen to Prevention & Wellness, Session 5 in CHC's webinar series Closing the Gap: Making the Most of Health Reform. This webinar covers the benefits of the Prevention Fund for consumers, health advocates and healthcare professionals. The ACA prioritized chronic disease prevention and wellness as critical components of healthcare reform. How does this benefit community-based advocates? What are the implications for under-served communities? We review the budget impacts on current and future prevention and wellness provisions, particularly for low-income and communities of color and the impact of the ACA's Community Transformation Grants on LA County. Presenters are Richard Hamburg, Trust for America's Health, and Dr. Paul Simon, Director LA County Department of Public Health. Follow up questions.

Previous sessions include Public Education Campaigns & Health Reform (October 2011), Health Insurance Exchanges (July 2011), Patient-Centered Medical Homes (February 2011), and Getting Ready for Health Reform (December 2010). For more information and links to the recorded webinars, visit our Health Reform page.

Issue Brief: Marketing and outreach must be seen as an integral component of California's Health Benefit Exchange ongoing efforts. Read stakeholder comments on how best to assure maximum enrollment of eligible individuals in the Exchange, Medi-Cal and Healthy Families in 2014 and beyond. (January 2012)

Show your support for President Obama’s healthcare law by signing the "People's Amicus Brief"!

NEW in 2012! A rich and diverse food resource environment gives residents a greater opportunity to make choices that support healthy living. Fast Food Restaurant Report: Promoting Healthy Dining in South Los Angeles provides a growing body of evidence on the correlation between the proximity and density of fast food restaurants and greater fast food consumption and presents a strategy to combat the obesity crisis in South LA. The report recommends policy and system changes the City and County of Los Angeles can adopt to limit the density of fast food restaurants while encouraging the development of new healthy restaurants of all types.

This brief is the second in a series of reports on transforming South LA's food desert. The first, Food Desert to Food Oasis: Promoting Grocery Store Development in South Los Angeles, focused on the development of new full-service grocery stores in under-served neighborhoods, documenting the area's market potential and providing recommendation to attract healthy food retail in South LA.

Hear a panel discussion about LA's food deserts with CHC's Lark Galloway-Gilliam and other experts on Southern California Public Radio's Patt Morrison show.

Tune in to KCET TV on March 23rd at 9pm (and other dates) as SoCal Connected reports on the controversial oil and gas drilling technique called “fracking” taking place in the Baldwin Hills/Inglewood oil field that has residents worried. Under current California laws, oil companies don't need permits, nor do they disclose where they are "fracking."

Over 100 community members packed into a small room on March 8th to voice their questions and concerns about fracking.  Months after agreeing to increase health and safety protections in the Baldwin Hills/Inglewood Oil Field, the oil company in charge of the field (PXP) has begun “fracking”—a controversial practice that aims to access hard-to-reach deposits of oil and natural gas by drilling techniques that inject a mixture of water, sand, and toxic chemicals into the ground. Fracking usually takes place in rural areas, but the Baldwin Hills oil field is the largest urban field in the country. Nationwide, fracking has prompted debate about the impacts to ground and surface waters, as well as its potential link to earthquakes.

To get a recap of Thursday’s meeting, read this article from the Natural Resources Defense Council. As part of the settlement agreement negotiated, PXP is required to conduct a Fracking Study. Support the efforts of the Greater Baldwin Hills Alliance for environmental justice by:

• Emailing questions about fracking to Rena Kambara at the Department of Regional Planning by this Thursday March 15th at 5PM.
• Inviting your friends, neighbors, and anyone concerned about fracking to learn more about what they can do through the Greater Baldwin Hills Alliance. Sign up for email updates with CHC Community Liaison Mark Glassock.

Read more about the March 8th meeting in the Los Angeles Wave and learn about fracking in California with comments from CHC's executive director in the Los Angeles Times. You can view the presentations given at the meeting, including a PowerPoint discussing the Fracking Study, at PXP’s website.