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Children as young as four years old can now be diagnosed and medicated for Attention Deficit Disorder or ADHD based on new guidelines issued by The American Academy of Pediatrics. Ten years ago the diagnosis could only be made for children between the ages of 6 and 12, but now the official age range has been expanded to include children between the ages of 4 and 18. Prescribing drugs to children under six is not a welcome development by some who believe distinguishing between the normal behavior of an active 4 year old and one with ADHD is difficult. The number of all children being diagnosed with ADHD is on the rise. The percentage of children between the ages of 6 and 12 who are on medication for ADHD has increased, from …

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The Activist Beat with Rose Aguilar, host of Your Call on KALW in San Francisco is a weekly roundup of progressive activism that the mainstream media ignores, undercovers, or misrepresents.

Just hours after riot police armed with tear gas, rubber bullets, and beanbag rounds brutally raided Occupy Oakland and arrested more than 80 demonstrators yesterday, President Obama arrived in the Bay Area for yet another fundraiser. He attended a $7,500 per plate fundraiser at the W Hotel in San Francisco. That’s a real bargain compared to the $38,500 per plate fundraiser he attended in Los Angeles on Monday.

You know things are bad when the people who usually pay the high ticket price would rather be outside holding signs. Susie Tompkins Buell, co-founder of the Esprit clothing company and one of the …

“[T]he hungry ghost realm [is a Buddhist phrase], the creatures in it are depicted as people with large empty bellies, small mouths and scrawny thin necks. They can never get enough satisfaction. They can never fill their bellies. They’re always hungry, always empty, always seeking it from the outside. That speaks to a part of us that I have and everybody in our society has, where we want satisfaction from the outside, where we’re empty, where we want to be soothed by something in the short term, but we can never feel that or fulfill that insatiety from the outside. The addicts are in that realm all the time. Most of us are in that realm some of the time. And my point really is, is that there’s no clear distinction between the identified addict and the rest of us.” — Gabor Mate

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Police in Oakland raided that city’s Occupy Wall Street encampment early this morning with 200 officers. Dozens of people were arrested. Even though the Occupy Los Angeles encampment in front of City Hall continues to enjoy good relations with the city police, mass arrests continue to happen in other cities. Over the weekend, 130 Occupy Chicago protesters were arrested. Members of the National Nurses United Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel’s offices in protest, chanting “Arrest the 1%.” Famed intellectual Cornel West was arrested along with 30 people for blocking the entrance to a police station in Harlem as part of the Occupy Harlem movement. He and others were protesting the NYPD’s so-called “stop-and-frisk policy,” which they says racially profiles black and brown men. In more Occupy news, over the weekend, world-famous linguist and …

“One of the most ironic things about capitalism is that the capitalist will sell you the rope to hang himself with. Actually they will give you the money to make a movie that makes them look bad, if they believe they can make money off it.” — Michael Moore

Early Tuesday, the city began ousting protesters who have camped out for two weeks at the Occupy Oakland tent city on Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Police started assembling around the tent city at 14th Street and Broadway at about 3 a.m.

At a press briefing at City Hall, Police Chief Howard Jordan said the police operation went smoothly, without injuries to police or protesters. No children were found at the camp. Dogs and their owners were allowed to leave.

Tear gas was used, as well as bean bag rounds, officials said. The operation will be investigated and reviewed, according to Jordan.

The hundreds of officers at the scene came from police departments around the Bay Area, including the Alameda County Sheriff, Berkeley, UC Berkeley, Hayward, Fremont, Pleasanton, Union City Newark, Alameda, the CHP, Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Jose.

Read Full Article here.

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In 2003 Texans lost the right to collect more than $250,000 in non-economic damages in medical malpractice suits. That cap on damages was ushered in on a wave of so-called tort-reform advocacy by medical and independent groups, and Governor Rick Perry. Proponents of the ballot initiative claimed high medical costs were directly related to frivolous malpractice lawsuits. Texans were largely convinced that pain and suffering not tallied on a hospital bill were exaggerated in trials, and that juries were manipulated into awarding exorbitant amounts to harmed patients. Governor Perry crusaded for the bill by equating a yes vote as, a “vote for your doctors and for affordable health care.” But earlier this month, the non-profit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen found health care spending has not dropped in Texas since the cap …

Early Tuesday, the city began ousting protesters who have camped out for two weeks at the Occupy Oakland tent city on Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Police started assembling around the tent city at 14th Street and Broadway at about 3 a.m.

At a press briefing at City Hall, Police Chief Howard Jordan said the police operation went smoothly, without injuries to police or protesters. No children were found at the camp. Dogs and their owners were allowed to leave.

Tear gas was used, as well as bean bag rounds, officials said. The operation will be investigated and reviewed, according to Jordan.

The hundreds of officers at the scene came from police departments around the Bay Area, including the Alameda County Sheriff, Berkeley, UC Berkeley, Hayward, Fremont, Pleansanton, Union City Newark, Alameda, the CHP, Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Jose.

Read Full Article here.

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Welcome to Civic Circus, This is Ankur Patel breaking down local politics, going to three hour meetings so you don’t have to. Each week on uprising I’ll bring you a report on City, County, and State Bureaucracy.

President Obama has been talking about maintaining bridges and building roads on a regular basis, but the reality of crumbling infrastructure is felt at the local level. Los Angeles is no different. At the city level, instead of long term budgeting and proper maintenance planning, it’s about kicking the can down the road until we have no option but to increase fees.

We are facing that situation now with an estimated 2,100 miles or 30%, of Los Angeles’ 6,400-mile sewer system being over 80 years old and in need of replacement now.

The Bureau of Sanitation already collects over $700 million dollars …

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The LA Weekly published an article today headlined, “Occupy LA Sees a Homeless Invasion.” The Occupy LA encampment is just blocks from Skid Row, and there are an estimated 15,000 homeless people in the city. So far Occupy LA has no rules governing who can set up camp and share in the communal food, supplies, and tents. The Occupy Los Angeles encampment is outfitted with port-a-potties, make-shift showers, and supply centers where people can leave and take sweaters, blankets, and more. The set-up is meant to support temporary occupiers but has attracted homeless populations here and in other encampments. The confluence of communities is not surprising. Barbara Ehrenrich observed in a Sunday article for Tom Dispatch, “LA’s Skid Row endures constant police harassment, for example, but when it rained, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa …