April Dembosky
April Dembosky is the health reporter for The California Report and KQED News. She covers health policy and public health, and has reported extensively on the economics of health care, the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in California, mental health and end-of-life issues. Her work is regularly rebroadcast on NPR and has been recognized with awards from the Society for Professional Journalists (for sports reporting), and the Association of Health Care Journalists (for a story about pediatric hospice). Her hour-long radio documentary about home funeralswon the Best New Artist award from the Third Coast International Audio Festival in 2009. April occasionally moonlights on the arts beat, covering music and dance. Her story about the first symphony orchestra at Burning Man won the award for Best Use of Sound from the Public Radio News Directors Inc. Before joining KQED in 2013, April covered technology and Silicon Valley for The Financial Times, and freelanced for Marketplace and The New York Times. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Smith College.
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California just lowered its cannabis tax from 19% to 15%, to keep people buying on the legal market. But youth groups and drug-prevention programs that get much of that tax revenue are concerned.
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Two years ago, California launched an experiment that lets judges order people with psychotic illness into care. Some counties are emphasizing something else the law enabled: "relentless outreach."
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In California, the state veterinarian banned chicken shows to limit the spread of bird flu. That left county fairs across the state devoid of chickens — and their 7-year-old 4H caretakers despondent.
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Pro athletes are increasingly speaking out about mental health challenges. In baseball, the San Francisco Giants have emerged as a leader in setting up mental health resources for their players.
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AI-generated speech can be heard in customer service and media. Now some patients who lost the ability to talk due to cancer or other disease are using AI to resurrect their natural voices. *
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Only seven states have legalized human composting as a burial practice. That's why 29 percent of the bodies brought to Recompose, a composting facility in Seattle, come from out of state. -
Research suggests the biggest source of pain for children in the health care system is needles. One California doctor says the fear of needles is a serious problem, but proposes some simple solutions. -
A new approach to schizophrenia involves managing early psychosis symptoms and keeping young people in school or jobs. The treatment is effective, but private insurance plans don't usually cover it. -
A new approach to schizophrenia involves managing early psychosis symptoms and keeping young people in school or jobs. The treatment is effective, but private insurance plans usually won't cover it.
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A new California law will allow low-income teens on Medicaid to get therapy without parental approval. That's already allowed for teens on private insurance. But the change aroused opposition.
