This month's cover story features Judge Consuelo M. ("Connie") Callahan, the newest member of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Judge Callahan, formerly a justice of the California Court of Appeal's Third Appellate District, was confirmed by the Senate in May. Not only is this a terrific and well-deserved honor for Judge Callahan, it is an important milestone for Sacramento. Sacramento is the capitol of California as well as the premier city in the Central Valley, the most productive agricultural region on earth, but our city has not had a resident Ninth Circuit judge since Anthony M. Kennedy ascended to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988. This fact may not seem significant until you check the Ninth Circuit's website and discover that smaller and less-influential metropolises such as Boise, Idaho, Billings, Montana, and Fairbanks, Alaska already have resident Ninth Circuit judges. In fact, Boise has two resident judges. The appointment of a federal appellate jurist who maintains her chambers in this city is therefore a long-overdue honor for Sacramento.

Judge Callahan's appointment is also a feather in the cap for the Eastern District of California. According to www.courthistory.org, the website for the Eastern District Historical Society, Judge Callahan is the fourth Ninth Circuit judge, including Justice Kennedy, appointed from the geographical region comprising the Eastern District. Four judges is an incredibly small number of judges when one considers that the first Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit was appointed in 1870 by President Ulysses S. Grant. Thus, the lawyers of the Eastern District as a whole can also take pride in Judge Callahan's achievement. Congratulations, Judge Callahan!

Although Judge Callahan's appointment is the cover story this month, the theme of this issue is health. Not health law, but health itself. In our busy legal careers, good health is something that is easy to take for granted. Our calendars are full of discovery deadlines and trial dates. Telephone and e-mail messages demand our attention. Faced with these demands on our time, it can be hard to focus on health-related matters if you aren't experiencing a problem. Several articles in this issue illustrate the importance of good health. Jim McFetridge has written about three members of our legal community who were stricken with prostate cancer including one, Clarence Brown, who passed away in April. Stacy Boulware Eurie describes family law attorney Eldora Ford's struggle with breast cancer. Noreen Skelly tells the story of John Bachman's amazing survival and recovery from a brain aneurism. These articles discuss different medical conditions, they illustrate the important of paying attention to your health. For prostate and breast cancer, the key to survival is early detection. In the case of John Bachman's brain aneurism, his family realized after the fact that he had a family history of a congenital condition that can lead to aneurism. So perhaps this would be a good time for those of us who haven't been to the doctor in a while to get a check-up. Those telephone messages can wait. Also on the subject of health, this issue also features a thought-provoking essay by Tim Aspinwall of Nossaman, Guthner, Knox, & Elliot that compares ethical regulation of the medical profession to regulation of the legal profession. SCBA President Bion Gregory comments on Aspinwall's essay in his President's Message.

This magazine would never get published without the efforts of many members of our legal community. In addition to the authors listed above, I would like to express my gratitude to the following persons for their contributions to this issue: John Bachman, Tac Craven, Shirley David, Phil Heller, Toso Himel, Vicki Jacobs, Linda Partmann, Ken Rabiroff, Debra Roberts Ries, and Angela Tillotson.