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When columnist and blogger Daniel Weintraub left the Sacramento Bee last October, he said his plans were to start a non-profit website on California health policy. HealthyCal debuts today, billing itself as "a new independent, non-profit web site focused on the health of Californians and their communities." Its aims and community standards are high.
The site’s mission is to inform Californians about public health and community health issues, to engage readers in an ongoing conversation about matters ranging from health care policy to land-use, transportation, environment, criminal justice and economic policy, and to show how all of these things are connected....Our goal is to build an online community where civil and spirited discourse are the norm. For that reason we ask that all members of the community use a full name and hometown to identify themselves, and that our community members engage each other in a respectful manner. HealthyCal.org is a safe haven from the anonymous, often angry and hateful dialogue that serves as commentary on many web sites today.
The site has initial funding from the California Endowment. Weintraub is also contributing a weekly politics column to the Bay Area pages of the New York Times.