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    Kathleen Miles

    Kathleen Miles

    Executive Editor, The WorldPost

  • How Obamacare Leaves Some People Without Doctors

    In January, a doctor told Noam Friedlander, who was suffering from excruciating lower back pain, that she needed surgery to remove part of a severely herniated disc. Friedlander had Blue Shield insurance through Covered California, California's version of Obamacare, and planned to use it to cover the costs of the operation. Friedlander spent days on the phone, hours on hold, making dozens of calls across Southern California, trying to match a surgeon with a hospital that would both be covered.

  • This Program Would Save Heroin Addicts' Lives, Help Curb Disease And Save Money

    Needle exchange programs could save thousands of American lives and reduce strain on the public health care system. Through a needle exchange program, drug users can receive clean syringes in exchange for turning in used ones. "In the South, syringes are still seen as a moral issue," Tessie Castillo, who works at the North Carolina Harm Reduction Center, told The Huffington Post, noting that opponents of needle exchanges argue that giving drug addicts access to syringes encourages substance abuse.

  • Los Angeles Shutters More Than 100 Pot Shops

    Los Angeles has shut down more than 100 pot shops since the summer, the city attorney announced this week. The city is enforcing a new law, approved by voters in May, to limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in LA to 132 shops. Enforcing the law, called Proposition D, is no small task given the estimated 800 pot shops that exist across the city, according to the city attorney's figures.

  • Just How Much The War On Drugs Impacts Our Overcrowded Prisons, In One Chart

    America's prisons are dangerously overcrowded, and the war on drugs is mainly to blame. Over 50 percent of inmates currently in federal prison are there for drug offenses, according to an infographic recently released by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (see chart below). This means that people convicted of two broad categories of nonviolent crimes -- drugs and immigration -- make up over 60 percent of the U.S. prison population.

  • This Map Shows Why The Plan To Split Up California Would Be A Dystopian Nightmare

    It would be Ayn Rand's dream come true: separate states for rich people and poor people. A proposal to split California into six states, introduced by billionaire investor Tim Draper in December, would formally create state lines between the haves and the have-nots. "You'd be creating one exceptionally wealthy state and others with dire poverty," Corey Cook, a political science professor at the University of San Francisco, said to The Huffington Post.

  • Red Carpet Protesters Ask For Yearly Wages That Add Up To At Least One Oscar Gown

    Days before celebrities strut their Armani and Gucci gowns at the Oscars, protesters rallied on the red carpet Friday to shine a spotlight on one of the awards show's biggest disparities. The security officers and others who make the star-studded event happen often earn yearly wages that are topped by the price of a single designer dress. About 50 security officers and supporters demonstrated in the lobby of the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard to protest the low pay and part-time work schedules they said leave security officers in poverty.

  • This Chart Proves Just How Miserably America Is Failing On Climate Change

    America is passing the buck when it comes to climate change. The United States is the second-worst polluter in the world, after China, and its only "flagship" climate change law is more than 50 years old, according to the Globe Climate Legislation Study released Thursday. Meanwhile, 60 of the 66 other top-polluting nations have passed flagship climate change laws since 2000.

  • Gay Bar's BRILLIANT Response To Homophobic Legislators

    The Abbey announced Monday that it is banning, effective immediately, any legislator who supports bills to discriminate against gays and lesbians. The bar is keeping a list of politicians who voted for such bills by the door for the bouncer's reference. Meanwhile, bar staff is currently compiling dozens of headshot photos of the politicians to put up as well, a representative from the bar told The Huffington Post.

  • These Charts Show Just How Bad America's Heroin Problem Has Become

    Heroin use is on the rise in the United States. Heroin users seldom start out seeking the drug. Overall drug overdose death rates have increased roughly fivefold since 1990, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  • Next Time Someone Argues For 'Trickle-Down' Economics, Show Them This

    Conservatives like to say that "a rising tide lifts all boats." In other words, if an executive makes $20 million a year, his income will eventually trickle down into the rest of the economy and ultimately benefit poor people. The highest-earning 20 percent of Americans have been making more and more over the past 40 years. Other studies have shown a correlation between bigger tax cuts for the 1 percent and income inequality.

  • California Considers Highest Minimum Wage Of Any State

    California may soon require the highest minimum wage of any U.S. state. State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) introduced a bill Monday to raise the state minimum wage to $11 per hour in 2015, $12 per hour in 2016 and $13 per hour in 2017. Beginning in 2018, the state minimum wage would be adjusted annually with the rate of inflation.

  • California May Have Hit Its Driest Point In 500 Years And The Effects Are Frightening

    California is dry as a bone, and the effects are like something out of an apocalyptic film. For California, 2013 was the driest year since the state started measuring rainfall in 1849. Paleoclimatologist B. Lynn Ingram says that, according to the width of old tree rings, California hasn’t been this dry for about 500 years.

  • WATCH: Disturbing High School Bullying Video Shows How Real This Problem Is

    A bullying incident at a local high school caught on video has captured national attention. On Wednesday, Jan. 8, Etiwanda High School freshman Kobe Nelson and a classmate had a violent confrontation between classes. "After school, about 3:30 in the afternoon, I received a phone call from the principal at Kobe's school," Nelson's father, Tommy Purvis, said.

  • The Future Of Porn

    With the adult film industry facing a critical challenge to its continued existence in Los Angeles, more than 2,000 industry members will gather this week in Hollywood for an annual conference on topics from legal issues to new cutting-edge technology. Ultra resolution porn, high tech pleasure products and condoms all will be discussed as part of the three-day, XBIZ 360 Adult Industry conference held at the W Hollywood Hotel beginning on Wednesday. It is billed as the world's largest technology event geared toward those who work with X-rated content.

  • LA Sheriff's Department Wrongly Keeps Inmates' Money, Audit Finds

    The Sheriff's Department took $1.6 million -- most of belonging to released inmates -- instead of directing it to the appropriate county agency, according to a report released Thursday by the county Auditor-Controller. Whitmore said the department would adopt all of the report's recommendations.

  • Smoke From California Fire Is Visible From Space

    A large wildfire in the San Gabriel Mountains, about 25 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, is generating plumes of smoke that are visible from space. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. The images were captured by NASA and the National Weather Service's satellites.

  • LA Considers Highest Minimum Wage In U.S.

    Los Angeles may soon require the highest minimum wage in America. In the coming weeks, three city council members plan to introduce a motion to raise the minimum wage to $15.37 an hour for the city's hotel workers -- roughly double the California minimum of $8 an hour and the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. The proposal's authors said they would like to see it apply to all workers citywide, not just hotel workers.

  • LA Becomes Largest U.S. City To Implement Plastic Bag Ban

    A rack of cream-colored canvas bags greeted shoppers Thursday at the checkout line at North Hollywood's Fresh & Easy, a reminder of the city's new plastic bag ban. Shoppers could use their own bag, buy a canvas sack or plunk down 10 cents for each paper bag. "It was kind of a shock," said Romulo Pedroza, describing his reaction at the lack of plastic bags at the counter.

  • LA Sheriff's Deputies Accused Of Rape, Smuggling Undocumented Immigrants, Heroin

    This was just some of the misconduct investigated -- and corroborated -- by the Office of Independent Review in a recently issued report. The OIR, a civilian oversight body created by the county Board of Supervisors, is tasked with making sure the LASD's internal affairs investigations are thorough and effective, and the recommended discipline is fair. The report, posted on the OIR's website, provided summaries of administrative discipline cases resolved through Sept. 30, 2013.

  • PETA's Dramatic Response To SeaWorld's Float Leads To 19 Arrests

    At the New Year's Day Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., SeaWorld's float depicted a happy family of orcas swimming free in the sea. The animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) attempted to stop the float, calling it "a mockery" because at SeaWorld, orcas are not kept in families and are in captivity -- not free to swim in the sea. About 100 PETA supporters protested the police-flanked float, according to the nonprofit, and 18 adults and one juvenile were arrested when they attempted to sit down in front of the float, KTLA reports.