YAKIMA, Wash. -- Jamie Spencer, a cancer survivor and successful dieter, is on a mission to make Yakima thin.

The Yakima woman is planning a 5K walk on June 6 at Sarg Hubbard Park. "We’re going to make Yakima healthy," Spencer said.

She credits Weight Watchers with shrinking her from size 16 to 4. It took time but it was safe and effective, she said.

Spencer survived pancreatic cancer and now serves as a volunteer mentor to other patients from all over the cou... Read this post

Infections with toxin-producing E. coli have been recently identified in two Washington residents who drank raw, unpasteurized milk from a Whatcom County dairy. The two cases confirmed this month bring the count of infections this year associated with one Bellingham dairy to eight.

Although it’s legal to buy and sell raw milk, the state departments of Health and Agriculture remind consumers that raw milk can be dangerous.

The two new patients say they d... Read this post

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A public meeting will be held Wednesday on ways to address high-risk sexual behavior in Yakima County, which is one factor contributing to the county’s poor showing in a recent health ranking.

The meeting will be from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the conference center of the Yakima Health District at 1210 Ahtanum Ridge Road.

The Health District determined that based on feedback from an earlier forum, the discussion will center around high-risk sexual behav... Read this post

Recent sewage spills in the Yakima Valley should remind people to take precautions before swimming, wading, fishing and floating in local waters this summer.

Some 670,000 gallons of raw waste spilled into the Yakima River recently because of malfunctions in sewage systems operated by Mabton and Grandview.

The state Department of Ecology and local health agencies said today in a news release that parents and children should be aware that warm weather increases... Read this post

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A national reporting system that ranks inpatient rehabilitation facilities scored Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center in the top 10 percent out of 805 facilities.

"Achieving this distinguished level of care is not something that can be done in a week, a month or a year," said Janet Carbary, Regional chief executive.

"It’s a goal that can only be achieved one day and one patient at a time through a staff that is continually dedicate... Read this post

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The New York Times reports today on a study by Hewlett-Packard engineers that finds dairies can sell biogas from manure digesters to technology companies building server farms in rural areas.

"Information technology and manure have a symbiotic relationship," said Chandrakant D. Patel, the director of H.P.’s sustainable information technology laboratory, which w... Read this post

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Most of the health stories that come out of Hanford focus on exposure to radioactive material at the large clean-up site.

But the investigative journalists at ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom that’s hired some of the best journalists in the country, has published a thorough piece on workers’ exposure to beryllium dust used in the manufacturing process at Hanford.

ProPublica reports on why safety officials downplayed the risks, the hi... Read this post

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Barbie Maybee of Yakima, a breast cancer survivor, has been selected by Bumble Bee Foods as the Seattle-area ambassador for the Mother’s Day Walk to Empower on May 9.

The fifth annual Seattle Walk to Empower begins at the Seattle Center Mural Amphitheater, continues downtown along First Avenue and heads back to Seattle Center along the Waterfront. Registration and entertainment begin at 7:30 a.m. with the walk starting at 9 a.m.

Maybee&rs... Read this post

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Amanda Bravo, 16, has a big fight ahead of her.

The Eisenhower High School student was recently diagnosed with a malignant bone tumor in her leg called osteosarcoma and is in Seattle at Children’s Hospital receiving chemotherapy.

Doctors plan to remove her femur in order to save her leg. The surgery is scheduled for May 26 followed by 20 more weeks of chemotherapy in Seattle.

A fundraiser to help defray the costs of her mother’s stay i... Read this post

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month, and Yakima’s Neil Dickinsen has become a very active promoter of awareness of this disease, which afflicts more than 60,000 people in the Northwest.

He says an astonishing 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Dickinsen was diagnosed three years ago. With professional care, medication and an exercise program, he’s resumed an active life as a retiree.

Parkinson’s is a neurological condition with s... Read this post