Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Category Archives: Health and Medical

Gold’s Gym in Santa Ana celebrating their grand opening on April 20

Posted on by Posted in Entertainment, Health and Medical, Santa Ana, Sports 2 Comments

Gold’s Gym Santa Ana Grand Opening Community Carnival

Come celebrate the opening of Gold’s Gym of Santa Ana at our Community Carnival, on Saturday, April 20, from 11 am to 5 pm, at 1945 East 17th Street, in Santa Ana. Open to the public!  Call (714) 558-9700 or email tbaca@goldsgymla.com if you have any questions.

We will kick off the festivities with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. The party will continue with a community carnival featuring complimentary food, prize giveaways every hour, live DJs, dance performances, puppet shows, face painters, balloon twisters, magicians, photo booth, caricature artist, among various other activities. Open to the local community, the carnival will be held until 5 p.m. This is also the last day for new members to take advantage of a no enrollment fee and the first month of gym membership free. Continue reading→

4th Annual Central County Health Expo set for April 13 and 14

Posted on by Posted in Entertainment, Health and Medical, Orange County, Santa Ana, SAUSD Leave a comment

4th Annual Central County Health Expo

The 4th Annual Central County Health Expo 2013 will be hosted by the County of Orange and Supervisor Janet Nguyen’s Office on 4/13/2013 – 4/14/2013, from 8 am to 4 pm, at Santa Ana High School, located at 520 West Walnut Street, in Santa Ana.

Description: Two day event will feature free: vision, medical, dental, and social services along with health screenings. This is a free public event and is open to the general public.

Event activities/topics: Continue reading→

Senator Correa to discuss services on Autism: a spectrum of issues

Posted on by Posted in Entertainment, Health and Medical, Lou Correa, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Autism TownHall 2013

Santa Ana, CA – In an effort to address Autism and related disorders, Senator Lou Correa with the Orange County Autism Regional Taskforce (OCART) invite you to an Autism Town Hall Meeting on April 18, 2013 6pm-8pm at the Regional Center of Orange County, located at 1525 N. Tustin Ave., Santa Ana, CA 92705.

This Town Hall will include a public forum for legislative recommendations that OCART will submit to the California Senate an effort to change how the state provides services to people with Autism and related disorders.  Continue reading→

Council to consider the marijuana dispensary measure, which is a hot mess

Posted on by Posted in 2014 Elections, Civic Affairs, Drugs, Elections, Health and Medical, Marijuana, Planning, Santa Ana 1 Comment

Kids smoking pot

One of our readers asked me to have a look at the information that the Santa Ana City Council will be reviewing and voting upon at tomorrow night’s Council meeting, regarding the medical marijuana dispensary ballot initiative that may end up on the ballot in November, 2014.

You can read the info yourself by looking over the Council’s agenda, however note that the medical marijuana info is way back towards the end of the document.

The initiative specifies that the dispensaries will be allowed in the City’s commercial, industrial and professional office zones, but they cannot be closer than 600 feet from any public or private schools, grades K-12. Continue reading→

Zero Santa Ana restaurants win an O.C. Public Health Award of Excellence

Posted on by Posted in Bars, Food, Health and Medical, Orange County, Public Safety, Restaurants, Santa Ana 4 Comments

playground blood burger

No Award of Excellence for the Playground and their bloody burgers…

Only three Santa Ana businesses have received Awards of Excellence certificates this year from Orange County Public Health.  NONE of Downtown Santa Ana’s allegedly gourmet restaurants received these awards.  In fact no restaurants in Santa Ana won this award.  That’s right.  And wait until you check out the award winners:

  • 7-Eleven, 1220 N Bristol St, Santa Ana, 92703
  • Apoteca Moderna Co., 302 N Broadway, Santa Ana, 92701
  • Aqua Café, 2223 W 5th St, Ste B, Santa Ana, 92703

Orange County Public Health’s Environmental Health Division has issued 3,274 Award of Excellence certificates to local Orange County food facilities, representing an increase of almost 30 additional food facilities from the previous year. From a qualifying group of 9,839 food facilities throughout the County, these establishments were recognized by Environmental Health’s Food Protection Program for their outstanding food safety and sanitation practices during 2012. Continue reading→

SAUSD children at Carr to shave their heads to conquer childhood cancers!

Posted on by Posted in Charities, Education, Health and Medical, Santa Ana, SAUSD, Youth Activities 15 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 7, 2013
Deidra Powell, Chief Communications Officer, (714) 558-5555 Office, (714) 673-4995 Mobile

Media Advisory: Santa Ana USD children to shave their heads to conquer childhood cancers!

March 28, 2013 at Carr Intermediate School

Event: Students and teachers will BRAVE the SHAVE and go BALD during their Fourth Annual St. Baldrick’s Foundation Fundraising event.

The St. Baldrick’s Foundation sponsors head-shaving events around the world by asking the simple question: How much money would you donate to conquer kids’ cancers to see me shave my head? Volunteer barbers donate their time and participants raise funds and then sit back and have their heads shaved in solidarity with kids who have been diagnosed with cancer. The money raised goes towards grants given to doctors and scientists who are dedicated to finding cures and treatments for infants, children, and young adults who have been diagnosed with cancer. Continue reading→

Birth Choice Health Clinics celebrate 32 years with screening of “Crescendo”

Posted on by Posted in Churches and Religion, Entertainment, Health and Medical, Movies, Santa Ana, Women Leave a comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Birth Choice Health Clinics Celebrates 32 Years with Special Screening of “Crescendo”
Renown Speakers Gather to Educate and Commemorate Opening of New Santa Ana Clinic

ALISO VIEJO, CA – March 11, 2012 – Birth Choice Health Clinics (BCHC) will celebrate 32 years of life
saving work on March 21st at its grand anniversary event featuring a special screening of the short film
“Crescendo”, directed by the mother of recording artist Justin Bieber, Patricia “Pattie” Lynn Mallette.
“Crescendo” recently won top short film honors at several festivals, including 11 international awards,
and is taking Hollywood by storm! Continue reading→

Updated Downtown Santa Ana restaurant health and sanitation violations

Posted on by Posted in Bars, Food, Health and Medical, Restaurants, Santa Ana 13 Comments

Grilled Cheese Spot

Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer has requested that the Health Care Agency update the issue of the public’s right to know about restaurant health and sanitation issues, which the Board of Supervisors last dealt with in 2008.  That was the year the Orange County Grand Jury recommended letter grade health ratings for restaurants.

The 2007-2008 Orange County Grand Jury concluded that the procedure for notifying the public in Orange County about the cleanliness and safety of neighborhood restaurants is almost non-existent.  They were right.  It still is.  Oh you can ask a restaurant for their inspection reports, but who does that?

So can you trust our restaurants?  Not the ones in Downtown Santa Ana!  Here are their latest health inspection reports – and major and minor health violations: Continue reading→

O.C. Young Women’s Health Conference set for March 23

Posted on by Posted in Entertainment, Health and Medical, Santa Ana, Women Leave a comment

A Orange County Young Women’s Health Conference will be held on Saturday, March 23, 2013, at Valley High School, in Santa Ana, from 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Join the conference for a free, fun and information session around: Continue reading→

Janet Nguyen holding a fundraiser at a questionable eatery in Costa Mesa

Posted on by Posted in 2014 Elections, Asians, Costa Mesa, Entertainment, Food, Health and Medical, Janet Nguyen, Politics, Republican Party, Santa Ana, Vietnamese Leave a comment

Janet Nguyen at Anqi

From the OC Politics Blog

Supervisor Janet Nguyen and the Atlas PAC are hosting a 2013 Lunar New Year Celebration Fundraiser, for her campaign for the 34th State Senate District – and she couldn’t even find a venue in her district!  That’s right, she is holding this event at a restaurant located outside of the 34th State Senate District, at ANQI Gourmet Bistro, which is located at South Coast Plaza, at 3333 South Bristol St., in Costa Mesa.  The event is set for February 28, 2013, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

I guess the theme of this event is fitting, as this time the Chinese New Year is the “Year of the Snake,” which is an apt description of Nguyen. Continue reading→

Time for the Supervisors to vote for letter grade restaurant health ratings?

Posted on by Posted in Food, Health and Medical, Janet Nguyen, Orange County, Politics, Public Safety, Safety, Santa Ana, Todd Spitzer 15 Comments

c grade restaurant.jpg

From the OC Politics Blog

UPDATE: Supervisor Todd Spitzer now says that he is going to ask the Supervisors to reconsider restaurant letter grade health ratings!  Thank you Supervisor Spitzer!

Despite a warning from the county grand jury, the Orange County Board of Supervisors declined, back in December of 2008, to impose a letter grading system designed to inform would-be diners about the health safety record of restaurants, according to the L.A. Times.

Supervisor Janet Nguyen cast the key vote against the letter grading system for restaurants.   I broke the news afterwards that O.C. Supervisor Janet Nguyen’s husband, Tom Bonikowski, owned a Lee’s Sandwiches franchise in Stanton that had been fined many times by the O.C. HCA.  She never reported that when she voted against the letter grade ratings – and it blew up in the press.  Bonikowski has since sold the restaurant. Continue reading→

The Grand Jury isn’t done thrashing Nguyen over her destruction of CalOptima

Posted on by Posted in 2014 Elections, Health and Medical, Janet Nguyen, Jose Solorio, Orange County, Politics, Santa Ana Leave a comment


Watch The Grand Jury, Supervisor Janet Nguyen and Medi-Cal on PBS. See more from KOCE.

The Orange County grand jury is planning two more reports on CalOptima, the county’s health plan for disabled, low-income and elderly residents, whose oversight by the Board of Supervisors was the subject of a highly critical report last month, CalOptima CEO Michael Schrader said Thursday” according to the Voice of OC.

Here a few more key excerpts from the Voice of OC:

Among its recommendations, the grand jury urged county supervisors to appoint more than one of its members to the CalOptima board. Currently, only Supervisor Janet Nguyen serves on the board. She engineered a complete restructuring of the CalOptima board that left it, as the grand jury noted, with no member who served longer than 20 months and most who have been there less than a year. Continue reading→

County Supervisors whack Latino Health Access’ funding

Posted on by Posted in America Bracho, Health and Medical, Latinos, Orange County, Politics, Santa Ana 12 Comments

“Orange County officials have decided not to renew an exclusive contract with Latino Health Access (LHA) to provide promotores services throughout the county, opting instead to divvy up the approximately $500,000 contract among several community organizations,” according to the Voice of OC.

America Bracho, President and CEO of LHA, says that the county’s decision is political payback.  That is of course complete B.S.  But in reality this is just desserts for Ms. Bracho, who originally hails from Venezuela, where she claims she was a rural doctor, though my sources say she does not have a medical degree.  She has however since earned a Master’s Degree in Public Health. Continue reading→

SAUSD Trustees and administrators busted by State Senate audit

Posted on by Posted in california, Education, Food, Health and Medical, John Palacio, Politics, Public Safety, Roman Reyna, Santa Ana 4 Comments

SAUSD poor performing schools

“Orange County’s largest school district has been ordered to repay $2.7 million that it illegally debited from its student meal program over the past five years, according to a sweeping state audit released Wednesday that examines misuse of money intended to feed impoverished children,” according to the O.C. Register.

That’s right.  The Santa Ana Unified School District has some explaining to do, including:

Continue reading→