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quite a few food-related projects, e.g. People's Grocery, Berkeley Food Project, Nextcourse, Bread Project, etc. I can't say what they'd fund in the future, but it's certainly an area of interest. Living as I do in Oakland, I hear quite a bit about this issue. One seriously complicating factor is that merchants don't want to open in neighborhoods where they're putting their employees, their customers and themselves in physical danger. It's not a matter of greed, it's a matter of physical safety. Just about everyone in Oakland, regardless of neighborhood, is at most two degrees of separation from strongarm robbery, home invasion, assault and murder victims. This in turn makes life even more difficult for the residents, who are victimized by the thugs in addition to all their other issues. Unless you can create a situation where the food purveyors and their employees are safe, which is about the most basic aspect of a viable endeavor, things won't change much. On the other hand, Whole Paycheck has been pretty much an unmitigated boon in the area, drawing a very diverse workforce and customer base and actually offering better prices than the mainstream chains on many staple items. And since they're the only grocery chain I'm aware of that has animal welfare as a core value, I am way happy to shop there.

The phenomenon of "food desserts" is somewhat well known, but not nearly enough is done about it, despite some creative thought put into solutions in the last five years. It is an excellent point to bring up in the context of a high incidence of diabetes, especially among the African-American population. It seems ridiculous that there should be food desserts in San Francisco. There is enough public transit that you should be able to go 2 stops on the BART (or bus to BART) and find a farmer's market. But I could be wrong. It makes me want to drive a fresh fruit and vegetable truck along with smoothies in San Francisco Bay Area. Maybe take EBT cards for all but prepared. Do you think REX would fund something like that, Marye, if a collective of people was involved?

> One real boon about living in the Bay Area is that it's relatively easy to get good, fresh, healthy food It depends on where you live in the Bay Area. There's many neighborhoods in the Bay Area that are food deserts, or areas where there are no sources of good, fresh, healthy food, and people who live in these areas often rely almost exclusively on fast food restaurants and convenience stores. Here's a link to a KQED piece on the issue: http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2011/12/03/kqed-forum-eating-healthy-in-a-food-desert/

Very nice write up, Anna, and good sound advice on a disease that afflicts more Americans than any other nation. Corporate trickery...absolutely right. Refined sugar in all of its various forms is ubiquitous in our food supply and that's no accident. I lived about a 1/2 hr from Archer-Daniels Midland in IL. as a child. They're the worlds largest producer (refiner) of high fructose corn syrup. They have plenty of political friends and that's no accident either. "Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten"......eat your fruits and vegetables, get lots of fresh air, play, get plenty of rest.....life seems to start out so simple and then....

I've reported the situation with Tapers Section. I expect it to get resolved pretty quickly.

All too many folks I know are dealing with this issue. One real boon about living in the Bay Area is that it's relatively easy to get good, fresh, healthy food, for which I am duly grateful.

The US has 30,000,000 diabetics with new cases being diagnosed at the rate of 2 million per year. Diabetes is a bummer, no doubt about that. I speak from personal experience. I could dwell on the causes of diabetes and corporate trickery to get us to our current condition and keep us buying supplies but I'll skip that part for today. If you're diabetic and just diagnosed chances are you'll have some time to do something before you go insulin dependent. You are not well educated by the medical profession at this point. They throw a bunch of paper at you or tell you to go to a website but there are no diabetes education computer modules that I am aware of. My point is that you have a chance at this point.... IF you concentrate on exercise and diet. Chances are overwhelming that you are overweight and your diet sucks. Buy the carb. pocket-book. Keep a food log. Take your blood sugars. Learn which foods bring those sugars up. Avoid them. Exercise regularly. Tension exercise from work activity is often not useful. You need to find a routine you can do at least every other day. Set a goal to lose weight. Never give up. Join a gym and do sweats if you have to. Find a way to shed pounds. 80% of diabetics eventually become insulin dependent. Don't despair. Don't give up. The pen injection units are ridiculously easy to use and don't hurt but the tiniest bit with the ultra-fine needles now in use. They don't need refrigeration. My experience is that you have to start out taking the advice of your doctor and then do some experimentation based on blood sugar readings. They'll tell you that you can't combine this or that but you'll find you might be able to. It all depends on your body, which is changing all the time. Now they have general background insulins; meal insulins and a mixture of the two. If you don't want to think for yourself you better do what they say. But if you can think critically, try to find the most effective combination for yourself. Of course, the more varied your diet and mealtimes the harder it will be. Being a creature of habit can only help at this point. There has never been a better time for diabetics to treat themselves. There are now RNA injections (with side effects) and lots of other stuff I don't even know about. All providers tell me the same thing. There is no reason you can't have good control and lead a fairly normal life with good quality almost to the same lifespan. Discipline in blood sugar readings and carb-counting and taking your medicines and exercise is most important, as well as regular care from Dr.s and being aware of infection, especially around the feet. Your health is your own responsibility. If you're a diabetic, I wish you the best of luck.

I see weir 2 weeks behind in Dead song selections from the past: what's up?

35-40 World leaders are so pissed at America for spying on their top execs., including German PM Merkel's cell phone, that a delegation of them are coming to America to talk to Obama about it. What is Obama going to say. Well, the response has been: "We are reviewing our policies in this regard." There is no denial that we have been spying on our allies. We've always done it and always will. The allies will now feel insecure and will take defensive measures to protect conversations and important data. But the reality is that the NSA mostly, but with the collective might of the other Anglos (Britain; Canada; Australia & New Zealand), have a worldwide net that can catch anything. No conversation or piece of data is safe. None of it. You should know that the NSA is spying on it's own citizens and if they target you there is no place in your home they cannot pry into, technically, from the outside. Of course, if you're innocent then you have nothing to fear, unless the fascists come to power. But why should you have to prove your innocence? Why shouldn't their be at least a Grand Jury/FISA Court to hand down a legal decision that there is a proven shred of doubt before privacy is grossly violated? The NSA has now been said to have ignored FISA decisions. People who see Ed Snowden as a traitor are not thinking clearly. He put all his information in the hands of reporters, not foreign intelligence agencies. He has done us all a favor by making a siren call -- PAY ATTENTION! LOOK WHATS HAPPENING! He wanted to stay free so he ended up where he ended up. Why should he be railroaded into jail for pointing the criminal activities of an Administration that was using the Patriot Act to run roughshod over every person in the world's rights? In the end it probably won't change anything (more than it already has). The world has become too dangerous of a place. The instructions for making a plastic gun with a 3D copier are going on the internet.

Anna, I think the answer is in your own post, "War On The Poor." Why save these people when they can just suck up whatever wealth they had and add it to their own growing pile? I mean, if I were a crooked politician, it's what I'd do....