ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
INSIDE SCOOP
COMMENTARY
LOCAL ARTIST DIES AT 37 PAGE 3 PROPOSED COMMISSION BARKS UP WRONG TREE PAGE 4
MONDAY, JULY 7, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 202
Santa Monica Daily Press
AN ODE TO DETROIT SEE PAGE 8
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE BIG BLUE ISSUE
Heal the Bay finds new report fishy BY ALICE OLLSTEIN Special to the Daily Press
SM PIER A new report on sport fish safety released by California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has come under attack by Santa Monica-based environmental group Heal the Bay for relaxing weekly consumption limits. The lengthy report, entitled,“Development of Fish Contaminant Goals and Advisory Tissue Levels for Common Contaminants in Sport Fish,” is simply “an effort of the government to be more transparent” and meant to serve only as “a description of the framework we’ll use as we issue fish consumption advisories,” said co-author Dr. Robert Brodberg of the Pesticide and Environmental Toxicology Branch of OEHHA. The first of its kind, the study weighs the health benefits of fish against the risks of eating contaminated species. "It’s not nearly as protective of public health as it should be,” said Heal the Bay President Mark Gold. “This is a circumstance where the California administration has been worse on public health than the Bush administration. We have the right to eat fish that’s not contaminated, and now we’re losing that right. It’s being eroded.” Gold’s main concern is that the report Brandon Wise brandonw@smpd.com
SEE REPORT PAGE 11
WAITING GAME: The Santa Monica Pier is a popular destination for sport fisherman. A state report recently relaxed fish consumption guidelines.
COMMUNITYPROFILES EM LEWIS
Weighty subject matter leads to major recognition BY CHRISTINA YOON Special to the Daily Press
WILSHIRE BOULEVARD While many want nothing more than to flip on the television after a long day’s work, local playwright EM Lewis looks forward to creating stories about prisoners of war in Iraq, Cambodian refugees and musical prodigies once she is off the clock. “Having a day job and being a playwright is like two full-time jobs,” Lewis said, wrapping her hands around a steaming mug of tea at a coffee shop near her home in Santa Monica, where she has lived for five years. By day, Lewis works in the student information systems office at the University of Southern California, where she earned a
master’s degree in professional writing. The 37-yearold Oregon native said that she writes whenever she can fit it into her life. In five years of writing plays, Lewis has written four full-length works and over 20 shorter plays. “I will write on Christina Yoon news@smdp.com my lunch hour,” LEWIS she said. “I’ve also been going 65 miles an hour on the freeway, artists who are making scribbling against my steering wheel.” theatre community.
platinum
But Lewis would not want it any other way, and neither would her fans. In June, Lewis was honored with the 2008 Francesca Primus Prize. The prize is given by the Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation and the American Theatre Critics Association to recognize female a difference in the
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Lewis received the prize for her 2007 play “Heads,” a drama that centers around a British Embassy worker, an American engineer, a network journalist and a freelance photographer who are imprisoned in Iraq. The play premiered in August at The Blank Theatre in Hollywood. Daniel Henning, the artistic director of The Blank, said that after seeing a performance of “Heads” at a workshop, he could not get the story out of his head. “The play haunted me,” he said. “I felt like it was a play that needed to be done and it needed to be done at that exact moment.” Despite its timeliness, Lewis said that the play doesn’t alienate audiences politically. SEE CP PAGE 9
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