When Alameda County sheriff’s deputies conducted a drug bust in Oakland on May 16, they found drugs, but a search turned up something else, too: personal information on about 4,500 Sutter Health patients. It’s unclear how the information got there, but it may have come from Sutter hospitals, including Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland, Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch and Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, according to a letter to patients from David Bradley, president of Sutter’s East Bay Region.

Keystone represents the false choices of the austerity era. Jobs VS the planet. Economic recovery VS healthy communities. Our money or our lives. The Robin Hood Tax will heal our environment AND our economy. March across the Golden Gate Bridge with 350.org, 350BayArea.org, National Nurses United, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club, Sierra Club SF Bay Chapter, CREDO, Food and Water Watch, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, EQUAL Health Network, California League of Conservation Voters, Center for Biological Diversity, Keystone XL Action Council, UNITE HERE! Local 2850, Movement Generation, Bay Localize, Citizens Climate Lobby, Sustainable San Rafael, Global Exchange, and other environment and public health advocates to send this message to Wall Street and Washington, DC. Tax Wall Street to heal the environment

Wall Street Buying Main Street. First, they prize an economy with low wages and keep wages low for generations. Then they offer mortgages to families whose earnings would never afford them the opportunity to save and buy homes within their budgets. Next, they switch the bait and raise interest rates on the mortgage payments beyond what workers’ wages can meet. Defaults ensue and families are evicted—by the millions.

Today I ran into a Mexican restaurant to grab a quick lunch, and as I ate my meal I came across a table of nurses wearing hospital scrubs. As they chatted amongst themselves I thought about the many nurses my family has interacted with over the last five years, and I found myself filled with such appreciation for what these amazing women and men do for us.

Registered nurses at three St. Joseph Health System (SJHS) medical centers have achieved a tentative settlement with hospital officials on a new collective bargaining agreement that nurses say will bring significant improvements in patient care protections and healthcare security for nurses. The agreement between nurse and hospital negotiators, reached late Wednesday night, must still be ratified by the RNs who will vote on the proposals in membership meetings expected to be held next week. For more information, you can read the press release and news articles collected here.

Registered nurses reached a tentative labor deal with St. Joseph Health, St. Mary, according to a news release from the California Nurses Association on Thursday. RNs say the new collective bargaining agreement will protect RN-to-patient ratios in the Apple Valley hospital while also preventing increases in the cost of nurses’ health care coverage. “We made major improvements to our contract and gave nurses the tools to advocate for their practice and their patients,” said Ron Herron, a critical care RN at St. Mary, in a prepared statement. “We maintained affordable health care benefits which are critical to attracting nurses to our growing community hospital.”