From her seat on the Democratic Party's credentials committee, former San Diego Congresswoman Lynn Schenk will help end the debate over whether delegates from Florida and Michigan will get a full vote during next week's Democratic National Convention in Denver.
The two states were being penalized for holding their primaries earlier than the date approved by the Democratic National Committee. However, with Hillary Clinton now out of the race and backing Barack Obama, the delegate counts of Florida and Michigan (both states favored Clinton) are less controversial.
An earlier ruling allowed delegates only half a vote each, but this month Obama officially requested that they get full vote restoration.
Schenk predicts that's exactly what will happen Sunday when the 17-member committee meets in Denver the day before the convention. “It would be good for party unity and a symbol of healing,” she says.
What's next?
Rachel Buehler, 22, didn't get word until late July that she had made the Olympics U.S. women's soccer team. Despite the short notice, her family, who lives in Del Mar, was able to get to Beijing to see the U.S. team win the gold medal Thursday by shutting out Brazil, 1-0.
What's next for the Torrey Pines graduate who played soccer at Stanford? Like her dad, Dr. Donald Buehler, a cardiac surgeon at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, she wants to be a doctor. Upon returning from China, she plans to take her med school entrance exam.
Still making news
Craig Slike, who was revealed as “The Mole” on ABC's reality show by that name, can't seem to escape the limelight. He was having lunch with a friend at Ruby's Diner in Westfield Mission Valley mall when he saw a man choking in the next booth. The man's wife was patting him on the back in vain.
Slike jumped up, performed the Heimlich maneuver and out popped a piece of hamburger that was obstructing the man's windpipe.
“It was an unusual day even by my standards,” says Slike, who can now add “saving a life” to his resumé.
When he related the incident to his mom, she reminded him that he had learned the Heimlich maneuver as a child watching “Sesame Street.”
VIP visitors
Actress Geena Davis and her husband, Dr. Reza Jarrahy, are planning to attend Salk Institute's “Symphony at Salk” gala tonight with event co-sponsors Jean and Steve Hamerslag. It's a homecoming of sorts for Jarrahy, who performed his medical residency at UCSD and the La Jolla VA Hospital in 2001 . .
Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher, America's Cup racer Dennis Conner and Meg Whitman, the ex-CEO of eBay, will join a John McCain presidential fundraising sail Sunday at the downtown S.D. Marriott and Marina . .
Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck didn't merely oversee the official opening Wednesday of his Asian fusion Jai restaurant in the La Jolla Playhouse, he popped into the kitchen and cooked up some extra hors d'oeuvres requested by an attendee.
A Leap of faith
While the miracle of modern medicine has robots joining the staff at Pomerado Hospital, a local man is relying on an old-fashioned medical treatment: leeches. Kevin Leap severed one finger and nearly severed another in a newly installed wrought iron fence.
At UCSD Hospital in Hillcrest, leeches were prescribed to stimulate blood flow in an attempt to save his ring finger. Leap, director of the S.D. International Auto Show, has kept his humor in tact – even naming some of his new pets: Bubbles, Speedboat, Poll Dancer and Aguirre.
“The biggest thing is to not let them slither off down the hallways, terrifying the masses. They are quick,” quips Leap.
Diane Bell's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Fax items to (619) 260-5009, call (619) 293-1518 or e-mail to diane.bell@uniontrib.com.
