Bay Area briefs

SAN FRANCISCO — A national organ transplant association criticized Kaiser Permanente’s San Francisco Medical Center Wednesday for mismanaging its kidney transplant program.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network declared the medical center to be a "member not in good standing” because it "effectively denied patient access to kidney transplantation and threatened safety for patients on its waiting list,” network president Sue McDiarmid said in a statement.

The San Francisco Medical Center announced in May it would close its kidney transplant program following accusations that patients’ lives were endangered by botched paperwork and administrative errors.

The program is scheduled to close after all its patients are transferred to other transplant centers.

Mary Ann Thode, president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals in the Northern California region, said the designation would not impact the kidney program’s operations.

"Our patients’ ability to get a kidney remains the same,” Thode said.

So far, about 85 percent of its 2,313 kidney transplant patients have been transferred to medical centers at the University of California at San Francisco and the University of California at Davis, Thode said. The remaining 356 patients should be transferred by early next year.

Park polluted with toxic chemicals

SAN JOSE — Parts of Watson Park, built on an old trash dump, are polluted with toxic chemicals at levels 100 times higher than is safe for human health, according to a state environmental study.

The highest levels of toxins, including lead and chemicals known to cause cancer, turned up in the central section of the 40-acre park, the study found. The park’s playground and a neighboring elementary school showed lower, but still notable, levels of contaminants.

The study showed that the northern section of the popular North San Jose park appears to be relatively clean, and a stretch of residential properties alongside the school, treated for lead contamination earlier this year, is now free of any other significant toxic residue.

Two arrested in raid on pot club

HAYWARD — A medical marijuana dispensary was raided and two people were arrested by federal and local authorities following a yearlong investigation.

Shon Matthew Squier, 34, owner of the Local Patients Cooperative, and Valerie Lynn Herschel, 23, the dispensary manager, were being held on suspicion of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and the distribution of marijuana.

Investigators also confiscated $200,000 in cash, as well as another $2.1 million in associated bank accounts, during raids of the dispensary and two residences Tuesday.

Local authorities had planned to close the Local Patients Cooperative at the end of this month for breaking an agreement for allegedly having more than 3 pounds of marijuana on the premises at one time, which violates city regulations.

The dispensary is one of two in Hayward that opened after state voters in 1996 passed Proposition 215, which allows Californians with a doctor’s prescription to obtain marijuana legally.

Squier and Herschel each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.