Health

Celebrating Mother Payne: North Richmond church remembers a matriarch

Graddye Mae Payne, a longtime matriarch of North Richmond Missionary Baptist Church, went by many names in her 97 years: Mrs. Payne, Dr. G.M. Payne and Auntie Graddye among them. But even though she had no children, she was known to most simply as Mother Payne. Scores of church members and Payne’s loved ones came together Tuesday to remember a woman marked by wisdom, a passion for teaching, and getting deep-down into her Bible. Payne, a former Berkeley resident and…

West County voters to decide on parcel tax to save Doctors Medical Center

Residents of West Contra Costa County will vote this fall on a special parcel tax to support the ailing Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo. The five-member West Contra Costa County Healthcare District board, the elected body that oversees the public hospital’s operations, voted unanimously last week to approve a ballot measure that would raise over $5 million per year to pay for the hospital’s continued operations.

Scores of volunteers and county agencies deploy for disaster response drill

Contra Costa College’s San Pablo campus was turned into a relief shelter for families displaced by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake that hit the Bay Area at 1:30 Tuesday morning. Didn’t feel the shock? That’s because the earthquake was made up as an exercise that gave volunteers a chance to practice giving aid to displaced families. And the pace? Perhaps a tad more casual than if it were a real disaster response—but only by a little.

$1 million grant hopes to take a bite out of unhealthy food

Kaiser Permanente wants to HEAL Richmond. Not with expensive medicine or shiny surgical knives, but with good old-fashioned Healthy Eating Active Living, or HEAL Zones, the acronym chosen for a program that will help residents fight obesity through education. The program also includes a small business action plan that will encourage local businesses to promote responsible food and exercise choices. The three-year $10 million HEAL Zones’ initiative is a continuation of Kaiser Permanente’s 2006 Healthy Eating Active Living Community Health…