Los Angeles Times

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a longtime critic of the county's health bureaucracy, has begun gathering signatures for a 2014 city ballot measure.

A nonprofit group that delivers services to people with HIV and AIDS wants voters to force the city of Los Angeles to create its own health department, separate from the county.

The governor wants to scale back some of the Medi-Cal benefits that the Legislature has proposed. But Democrats see this as a good time to fill some aid gaps.

SACRAMENTO — As Democratic lawmakers speed to implement President Obama's healthcare overhaul in California, they are finding themselves at odds with the leader of their own party: Gov. Jerry Brown.

Plantar fasciitis. If you haven't had to deal with it personally, just ask around. Chances are you know lots of people who can describe it in great detail: stabbing heel pain and agonizing steps followed by a frustratingly slow recovery. Plantar fasciitis — an inflammation of the plantar facsia, a thick band of tissue that runs along the arch from the heel to the toes — has become so ubiquitous that podiatrists can practically make the diagnosis before a patient even sets foot in their office.

Take your pick next weekend: a 26.2-mile sweat-slicked slog or a 3.1-mile jog in which you are likely to get blasted with powders in all the colors of the rainbow.

Putting the Wilson Steam 99S, Babolat AeroPro Drive, Head YouTek Graphene Speed Pro and Prince EXO3 Warrior 100 to the test.

Put a bunch of brand new, high-tech tennis rackets in front of a handful of pretty good middle-aged 4.0 players (7.0 being Roger Federer and 1.0 being an untrained monkey), and they won't care what kind of Nobel Prize-winning innovations went into building them. But they will tell you what works. Here's how they rated the hottest new tennis technology, all about $200 retail, on a cold winter night in suburbia under the lights.

If you don't want your upper arms waving long after you've said goodbye, you'll need to work on your triceps.

Not so long ago, people made juice by squeezing oranges on a little cone-shaped tool. How quaint, compared with the machines and shops and ingredients that are part of the world of juicing.

A national review of the Army's behavioral health workforce outlines delays in care, inaccurate diagnoses and a need for more workers.

SEATTLE — Problems with combat stress in soldiers have escalated so rapidly that the Army has doubled its behavioral health workforce over the last five years and still needs to hire more help, according to a nationwide review of the military's troubled system for handling the mental wounds of war.

Bacteria don't discriminate between the homeless and the affluent; the contagion does not respect neighborhood boundaries.

There's a $200-million hotel on the drawing board for downtown Los Angeles, so tourists from around the globe can kick up their heels at LA Live.

The upscale chain will make labeling mandatory by 2018. Industry observers expect other retailers to join the movement.

Although California voters didn't back the labeling of products made with genetically modified ingredients, the practice will soon be mandatory at Whole Foods Market Inc.

Experiments show that honeybees are three times as likely to remember a floral scent a day later if the nectar contains a bit of caffeine.

Think coffee's just the drug of choice for humans looking to stay alert? Scientists have some eye-opening news for you: Bees get a buzz when they drink nectar laced with a little caffeine, and it supercharges their long-term memory.

Manufacturers can charge wildly different prices for essentially the same generic medicine. Pharmacies should make clear whether a customer is getting the lowest-priced generic available.

Diane Shattuck filled a prescription in December for a generic antibiotic called doxycycline. With insurance, she paid $4.30 for 60 pills at a CVS store in Orange.

The findings on how the compound, found in red wine and dark chocolate, works to combat the effects of obesity, diabetes and some cancers could pave the way for drugs with life-extending qualities.

Scientists hoping to mimic the life-extending qualities produced by a chemical found in red wine and dark chocolate say they have solved one of the mysteries about how this compound works to combat the effects of obesity, diabetes, certain cancers and a host of other maladies.

The state wants retail workers to help consumers enroll in healthcare expansion. Critics say Wal-Mart does not provide adequate health coverage and shouldn't be advising consumers on the matter.

California officials face mounting criticism from union leaders over plans to let retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. enroll shoppers in President Obama's healthcare expansion.

The increases average more than 11% for about 47,000 individual and small-business policyholders. State insurance regulators had found them unreasonable.

Despite objections from regulators, health insurers Blue Shield of California and Aetna Inc. are proceeding with double-digit rate increases that state officials said were unreasonable.

Doctors say the girl, now 2, has only trace amounts of HIV in her bloodstream and has been able to keep the virus in check without medication. The next step is to try to replicate the results.

For the first time, doctors are reporting that a child born with HIV and put on an unusually aggressive treatment regimen has been functionally cured of the infection.

Researchers find a majority of children with ADHD have continued symptoms, or symptoms of another psychiatric disorder, in adulthood.

Childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder frequently persists into adulthood, bringing heightened risks of additional psychiatric issues and nearly five times the risk of suicide, according to a 20-year study that followed children diagnosed with the disorder.

Calvin Woodard and his white van are a lifeline for those who are unable or unwilling to keep important medical appointments. 'He has a rapport sometimes that we can't have,' says a nurse practitioner.

He knows all about his patients: who likes to cook, whose blood pressure is out of control, who is quarreling with her husband. He keeps track of their appointments and recalls many of their phone numbers by heart.

A budget blueprint being drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan includes a proposal to create a voucher-like system, despite the GOP promise not to change the program.

WASHINGTON — Fired up as once-unimaginable spending cuts start to slice the federal budget, Republicans are launching a new phase in their austerity campaign — resurrecting the party's cost-cutting plan to turn Medicare into a voucher-like system for future seniors.

Many people get home from work in need of a trip to the gym or an exercise class. But the list of excuses is myriad, starting with that most precious commodity, time. Factor in a dog — in my case, a rambunctious terrier mix named Beanie — and it's likely that all thoughts of a workout vanish.