Many FlashReport readers are no doubt aware of the fine work of longtime columnist and writer Dan Weintraub. Dan’s career has spanned multiple newspapers, most recently he left the Sacramento Bee and is doing some writing for the New York Times. While Dan is not an ideological right winger, per se, he often ends up sounding that way in many of his columns because conservative ideas, put into practice, work — and Dan’s figured that out. He’s thoughtful, thorough, and insightful. OK, he’s also my friend.
All of that said, Dan is today launching a new endeavor. But rather than having me explain to you all about it — I reached out to Dan and he has penned this piece below, telling you what he is up to! Read on, and then check out his new website!
— Flash
A NEW WINDOW INTO THE DISCUSSION ON HEALTH CARE POLICYby Dan Weintraub
After more than 25 years covering public policy and politics for California newspapers, today I begin a new online journalism initiative that promises to report on California’s government and its communities in new ways.
HealthyCal.org, a nonprofit web site I’m creating with initial funding from the California Endowment, will cover public health policy from inside the Capitol and from communities across California. The goal is to connect the two in a conversation that will inform both.
The site is about much more than health care and insurance. It will cover environmental policy, economics, land-use, transportation and criminal justice issues – anything that affects our health or the health of our communities.
My new blog, the California Health Report, will focus on policy from inside the Capitol and elsewhere around the state. I will post items and stories based on my reporting, and also link to interesting stories from elsewhere. As I’ve done with my columns and blogs in the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, the Sacramento Bee and the New York Times, I hope to be a guide for readers to the often-bewildering world of Capitol policy and politics.
Another feature, the Community Report, will include stories from around the state by free-lance writers and citizen journalists. This section will focus on people who live with the results of public policy decisions and deal every day in their lives and work with the issues that are, or perhaps should be, the focus of policymakers. This part of the site will give prominence to the voices of regular people from all over California who have not traditionally had access to the media or the policy-making world, detailing their challenges and celebrating success stories.
The site will also include guest commentary on the issues of the day, a searchable database to track campaign contributions from the health care industry, a round-up of recent research, and summaries of key legislation in the public health world.
We’ll also encourage a spirited and civil dialogue on these issues through public comments on our stories and a forum that will be open to anyone who joins our online community.
HealthyCal.org will be non-partisan and fiercely independent. If the site has a bias, it will be that the health of California’s residents is too important to be left to government, politicians and the medical industry. Individuals and community groups must connect and engage, not only to influence public policy but to lift up their neighborhoods, tackle problems block-by–block and take back for themselves some of the power that has been ceded over time to big institutions.
I hope you’ll join me on this new journey. See you at www.healthycal.org.