In the News

It has been months since the nationally renowned Dr. Bennet Omalu abruptly quit his job as chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, sending shock waves through California’s close-knit community of forensic pathologists.

A brilliant practitioner with a stellar reputation for his work identifying a pattern of brain disease among NFL players, Omalu probably could work anywhere in the country. Californians should be thankful that he has opted, so far, to stay here.

By Alex Breitler

While San Joaquin County leaders consider whether to switch to an independent medical examiner’s office, legislation introduced this week at the state Capitol would basically take the decision out of their hands.

The bill, brought by Democratic Sens. Richard Pan and Cathleen Galgiani, would require counties with a population of greater than 500,000 people to replace their coroner’s office with an independent medical examiner’s office by January 2019.

B Street Theatre’s new $30 million arts complex The Sofia, still under construction, got a boost from the state budget.

In a one-time expenditure this year, the state granted B Street $1.9 million to fund items that had been value-engineered out of the project in order to start construction of the complex at 27th Street and Capitol Avenue.

The State of California’s budget contains $1.9 million for the Sofia Tsakopoulos Center for the Arts, the new performing arts center for the B Street Theatre.

“The B Street Theater is one of our community’s great cultural treasures and I am thrilled that we were able to secure $1.9 million toward the construction of a new building,” State Senator Dr. Richard Pan said.

The money will be used to complete construction of the theatre with aspects that had to be pulled from the plans when construction began last summer due to budget constraints.