Warriors to Host to Host Sweetie, 105-year-old Warriors Fan at NBA Finals Game 1

By Doug Oakley

dooglas96822@yahoo.com

HAYWARD -- Rank has its privileges. If you're nearing your 106th birthday and you're a Warriors fan, rank means a free ticket in a suite Thursday at Oracle Arena for the first game of the NBA Finals matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

After word got out last week that the Warriors had a 105-year old fan named Sweetie who can talk sports just as well as any other fanatic, the team ponied up. 

"Well, they heard what I asked for," said Sweetie, whose daughter Lily Toney of Oakland asked this paper not to reveal Sweetie's real name or address because she lives alone. 

Sweetie, who was born in Ennis, Texas, and moved to the Bay Area in 1936, will turn 106 on June 12. 

Toney, 75, said a team representative called her shortly after this newspaper printed an online article Friday about Sweetie's age and decades-long love for the Warriors. 

"She's excited, and I get to be her press secretary," Toney said. "It's all fun. The Warriors are stressing it's a big thing for them too, but they want to make sure she enjoys the game and doesn't have a lot of distractions." 

That will probably mean whisking her from her VIP parking spot up to her suite and out of the way of prying media hordes, Toney said. 

Warriors coach Steve Kerr gave a shout-out to Sweetie after last Wednesday's conference title-clinching playoff game against the Houston Rockets. After practice on Monday, Kerr had more to say about his team's eldest fan. 

"What a great story ... 105 years old, following the Warriors for all these years," Kerr said. "I loved her message: 'Don't get the swell head.' That's always our message to the guys, but Sweetie had a better way of putting it than I did. "From what I gather, we're going to have her at Game 1, which I'm really excited about." 

Interviewed Friday, Sweetie said she enjoyed the final game of the Western Conference finals, and like many fans she was filled with angst. 

"Oh, I did like that last game," Sweetie said. "I loved it, but it made me kind of angry because I wanted to slap them boys for playing so sloppy in the first half," Sweetie said. "I enjoyed every bit of it." 

105-Year-Old Warriors Fan on the Edge of Her Seat

By Doug Oakley

dooglas96822@yahoo.com

Age and experience are one thing, but youthful energy is the real stuff. 

Just ask Sweetie, a 105-year-old Golden State Warriors fan who believes the team has the key ingredients needed to beat LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for the NBA championship starting Thursday in Oakland. 

"It's going to be a tight fight because Cleveland is older and they know a lot of tricks these Warriors don't know because they haven't gotten to that stage yet," said Sweetie, whose daughter Lily Toney of Oakland asked this paper not to reveal her full name or city because she lives alone. "But the Warriors are going to win because they have more energy than those older guys. I can't hardly wait to see it." 

A young team like the Warriors probably doesn't get paid as much as an older, more experienced bunch, but that will be a part of the Cavaliers' downfall too, she predicted. 

"Money is the root of all evil and it gives you the swell head," Sweetie said. "They think nobody can do nothing to them because they have all this money. The Warriors are just starting to get the money, so they are a bit more eager to please the public than they would be later on." 

Sweetie has been a fan a long time. When the Warriors won their last championship in 1975, she was a young woman of 65 and still had her husband. He died in 1999 at age 89. 

Sweetie played forward on her high school team in Ennis, Texas, in the mid-1920s and she's been a basketball fan ever since. She's also been a teacher, raised a family with three children and now has four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. 

Ask Sweetie for her perspective on living such a long time and she's happy to oblige. Exercise was never her thing, and she believes longevity is due to luck. 

But it's basketball she really wants to talk about. 

Wednesday night's final game for the Western Conference title against the Houston Rockets had her on the edge of her seat. 

"Ooooooh, that first half was touchy," Sweetie said. "You didn't know which way they were going. However, I have been watching the Warriors long enough. They play hard in the last half and they played some ball (Wednesday) night. When they won, I was so happy to know my dream was coming through. I was just dumb with it." 

In the postgame news conference, Warriors coach Steve Kerr gave a shout out to Sweetie, saying "she's been following the Warriors forever and loves the Warriors. I'm happy for all the fans and especially Sweetie, so congrats." 

Asked if she would go to one of the championship games if someone -- say a head coach -- could get her a ticket, Sweetie didn't waste any time in answering. 

"I would love to see that game in person," she said. 

Supreme Court: Big Pharma Must Pay for Prescription Drug Disposal

By Doug Oakley

dooglas96822@yahoo.com

OAKLAND -- A groundbreaking law that forces the pharmaceutical industry to pay for collection and disposal of unused drugs passed its final test at the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday.

And Alameda County officials who wrote the law predict the concept will spread across the country. 

Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the industry's challenge of Alameda County's law, which is intended to keep drugs out of the bay, the groundwater basin and the hands of abusers. A federal appeals court had earlier upheld the ordinance. 

"This was the pharmaceutical industry really trying to put the genie back in the bottle," said Art Shartsis, an outside attorney who defended a lawsuit filed by the pharmaceutical industry against Alameda County. "This is an innovative ordinance where a county required a particular industry to take responsibility of a post-consumer use that is dangerous to dispose of. I don't think there was another program like this in the country." 

Shartsis and Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, who authored the law, said similar programs are expected soon in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties and in King County in Washington state. 

The pharmaceutical industry estimated it will have to pay $1.2 million a year in Alameda County alone to follow the law. The county estimated the cost at about $330,000 a year. 

"But the cost is really insignificant," Shartsis said. "It will cost one penny for every $10 in drugs they sell in the county. It's about as minimal as you can get." 

The plaintiffs in the case, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association and the Biotechnology Industry Organization, argued that the law interfered with the free flow of goods guaranteed in the Constitution's Interstate Commerce Clause. 

But they weren't able to find a court to go along. "We won at every stage," said Alameda County Counsel Donna Ziegler, who added that legal fees were over $500,000. "We're ecstatic, and we are looking forward as additional jurisdictions follow the lead of Alameda County." 

Ziegler said two plans already have been submitted by pharmaceutical industry groups to collect and destroy the drugs. Those plans are being reviewed by the county department of environmental health, which will oversee the program. 

The program run by the pharmaceutical industry in Alameda County will be rolled out over three years, and officials estimate there will be 110 sites for drug collection at police stations, pharmacies and hospitals, funded by the pharmaceutical industry. There are currently 30 drug take-back sites run by the county. For a list of the existing sites, go to http:// . 

Miley said he wrote the law at the urging of a now defunct organization that focused on drug abuse. The law also is designed to prevent contamination of the environment when pills and elixirs are flushed down the drain or thrown into garbage cans whose contents end up in landfills. It was modeled on legislation governing the safe disposal of tires, batteries and other potentially harmful goods. It prohibits drug companies from charging fees to pass the costs to local consumers. 

"People hold on to drugs and they don't know what to do with them," Miley said. The responsibility to dispose of them should be on business, he said. "Taxpayers should not have to pay for this." 

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said the need in the county is great. In September, her office participated in a drug take-back event and collected 799 pounds of pills in one day. 

"I have talked to mothers and fathers of children who have become addicted to prescription drugs," O'Malley said, "and when they run out, they turn to street drugs, and many of those children have died." 

The plaintiffs in the case issued a joint statement Tuesday that said the industry would "continue to actively work to educate consumers on the appropriate use of medicines, including providing information about safeguarding medicines in the home and promoting safe, secure and effective methods for disposal."