opportunity

Today the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a Commentary on the health effects of the Gulf oil spill that I wrote along with my colleague Sarah Janssen, who is also a physician and specialist in occupational and environmental medicine at UCSF and NRDC. Our goal was two-fold: (1) to help alert Gulf coast health care providers to the main issues they should be aware of in their communities; and (2) to try to learn from history by summarizing the existing science on oil spill health effects.

Public Policy Polling looked at Washington’s Senate race [pdf] and the top-two primary and found Murray leading Rossi, in the primary, 47 percent to 33 percent. In the probable general election line-up, her lead is just three points, 49 percent to 46 percent. To clarify a bit, Washington uses a “top two” primary system, so whichever two candidates get the most votes in the primary advance to the general elections, regardless of party affiliation or the preference of the state party organizations.

UPDATED Former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman has been quietly gauging support for a potential run for chairman of the Republican National Committee. Coleman, who lost his re-election bid to Al Franken (D) by the slimmest of margins, has been meeting in private with “multiple high-level GOP officials” in the past month, Politico reports. Politico’s Jonathan Martin sought comment from Coleman about his potential interest in the job — now held by embattled RNC chief Michael Steele — but the Minnesota Republican declined to offer specifics.

I don’t usually come here to shamelessly hawk my goods . . . okay maybe I do. Still, I want to take this opportunity to draw your Huff Po attention towards what I believe to be an excellent hour of television airing Thursday night at 9PM on ABC called Hollywood Salutes Matt Damon: An American Cinematheque Tribute .

Layne Gray isn’t your typical investigative journalist. Philanthropist and founder of Vivanista , her mission is to empower women to be better fundraisers, organizers and volunteers. Yet when she poked around, she discovered that billionaire Meg Whitman may not be walking her talk with her foundation. While Whitman’s campaign for Governor of California is rolling in the dough, spending reportedly $59 Million, her foundation, by comparison, has been largely dormant, with only a couple of questionable contributions.

Van Jones, founder and head of Green for All and a YES! magazine contributing editor, is joining the Obama administration as a special advisor on green jobs. At YES!, we were a bit startled when the rumors started to fly about this appointment. We had just gone to press with the Spring issue of YES! which included an interview I did with Van shortly after the election; in that interview , he actually laughed out loud when I asked him if he would join the Obama administration. “No, no!” he assured me.