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- Written by: UScellular
Global Day of Unplugging is an annual awareness campaign that encourages people to take a break from technology and celebrate human connection over digital engagement.
"Our mission at UScellular is to connect people to what matters most, but there are times when the technology helping create these connections can have unintended consequences in our lives," said Sarah Pearson, area vice president at UScellular. "We encourage everyone to join us on Global Day of Unplugging to take a break and reset their relationship with technology.
It’s well-known that Americans are increasingly dependent on their smartphones for essential daily functions, entertainment, and connection, but data from a December 2023 survey commissioned by UScellular suggests that people may need a break.
According to the survey, 41% shared that they could use some time away from their phone and nearly a third of people want to take an intentional break from their phone.
Additional survey findings reveal:
• 56% of people have experienced “phubbing” or the act of being ignored by someone you are with because they are on their cellphone.
• Nearly 75% of people spend at least an hour on social media every day, with 24% spending 3-4 hours per day.
• More than half of people spend at least one hour texting every day, 63% spend at least an hour web browsing and nearly half spend at least an hour mobile gaming.
For every person who shares their participation at uscellular.com/unplugging, the company will make a donation, up to $50,000, to Unplug Collaborative, the non-profit that organizes the Global Day of Unplugging and works to make tech-free experiences meaningful and accessible to all.
Actress and producer Sarah Michelle Gellar is also lending her voice to the campaign to encourage her social media followers and consumers to participate.
To help people participate, UScellular suggests activities focused on human connection over digital engagement, including going on a hike or walking your dog, volunteering for a local non-profit, or going on a road trip with friends or family.
UScellular launched its “Built For US” campaign in February 2023 to lead the conversation around developing healthier relationships with technology. This includes a variety of programs and tools such as:
• The "Phones Down for 5 Challenge," an invitation for people to take a phone break in a way that works for them.
• US Mode, an effort to help smartphone users better utilize customizable native focus settings on their smartphones.
• In partnership with Screen Sanity, the company introduced the “Smarter Start Toolkit,” a free, downloadable kit for families looking for guidance on building better digital habits.
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- Written by: U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy
Through the Rural and Agricultural Income & Savings from Renewable Energy, or RAISE, initiative, USDA is setting an initial goal of helping 400 individual farmers deploy smaller-scale wind projects using USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP.
This goal is only possible because of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act which provided more than $144 million in grant funding for underutilized technologies through the REAP program.
Additionally, DOE is announcing a total of $4 million in related funding, including $2.5 million to support the testing, certification and commercialization of the latest distributed wind technologies including for the agricultural sector, and $1.5 million to support outreach and the identification and development of new business models for farmers to save money and earn income deploying these technologies.
“Today’s announcement furthers the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to rebuild our nation’s economy from the middle out and bottom up by increasing income and opportunities for the small and mid-sized farmers that keep rural main streets vibrant,” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Monday. “By strengthening our longstanding partnership with DOE through the RAISE initiative, USDA is ensuring farmers and hardworking Americans everywhere have the opportunity to save money and earn income from smaller-scale, distributed renewable energy technologies. These investments will create long-lasting economic benefits for their families, businesses and communities for years to come.”
“There is a huge opportunity to power the American heartland with distributed wind resources, and President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is tapping into that potential so that all Americans can reap the benefits of the clean transition,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “DOE is raising the bar with our partners at USDA — creating jobs, lowering costs and increasing energy independence for farmers and those in rural communities.”
Operating under an existing memorandum of understanding, USDA and DOE have a joint working group overseeing an action plan for the RAISE initiative. DOE has identified advances in certified distributed wind technology that have opened a significant market opportunity, enabling cost-effective investments for farmers and rural communities.
Initial RAISE initiative activities, focused on smaller-scale or distributed wind, are expected to include:
• USDA providing additional technical assistance to support applications for the use of the $144.75 million in grant funding from the Inflation Reduction Act for REAP underutilized technology projects, including but not limited to farmer-owned smaller-scale wind projects, small-scale hydropower, geothermal, biomass-based and other clean energy. DOE also intends to prioritize technical assistance for smaller-scale wind projects through various programs.
• DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office funding $1.5 million for research into and outreach on new business models for collaborations of farmers to earn income from distributed wind, including through farm associations that could administer it with fee-for service models.
• DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office calling for proposals for up to $2.5 million under the Distributed Wind Competitiveness Improvement Project, or CIP, which funds distributed wind technology development, testing, certification, and commercialization. CIP provides support to U.S. component suppliers and manufacturers of small- and medium-sized wind turbines. For the first time, this round of CIP funding includes a specific focus on commercialization of distributed wind turbines for the agricultural sector in support of the RAISE initiative.
• USDA and DOE hosting a joint webinar series to provide information to farmers, rural electric cooperatives, farm associations, and small-scale, distributed wind providers about our programs and how to use them to develop place-based wind projects. The first webinar in the series will launch a new National Distributed Wind Network and Resource Hub on March 14, 2024.
• USDA and DOE developing a farmers guide to distributed wind power that will include technical, economic, and geospatial analysis regarding distributed wind technologies and applications as well as ways to finance smaller-scale wind projects.
There are many small-scale underutilized technologies that farmers and rural communities can benefit from. USDA and DOE are working together through the RAISE initiative to increase education, outreach, research and technical assistance to help small and mid-sized farmers save money and earn income from underutilized technologies.
Distributed wind includes, for example, a single wind turbine to meet a farm’s energy demand and save and stabilize electricity costs. It could also include a few wind turbines across several farms to support a local electricity utility, thereby earning a revenue stream for the hosting farms.
Distributed clean energy projects can create cost savings and income for farmers and rural small businesses. They also support energy independence, local electric grid reliability, and enhance resilience by providing back up power, especially when it is paired with energy storage.
These projects also create jobs and investments in rural economies, with approximately a third of a renewable energy project value usually invested in the local communities through construction jobs and maintenance. These projects also give farmers, rural electric coops, and food companies the opportunity to address climate change.
DOE has worked with industry partners and its national labs to develop a new generation of reliable, high performing and cost-effective distributed wind technologies that are certified to national performance standards and that represent significant improvements over prior generations of distributed wind technology.
DOE works to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. Learn more about DOE’s efforts to advance distributed wind and sign up for the Wind Energy Technologies Office’s newsletter.
USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities, create jobs and improve the quality of life for millions of Americans in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural, tribal and high-poverty areas. Visit the Rural Data Gateway to learn how and where these investments are impacting rural America.
To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.
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- Written by: Lake County Environmental Health
The Lake County Environmental Health department understands the challenge and is here to help.
In response to the need, the Lake County Environmental Health is offering a specialized class and exam session in Lakeport on Tuesday, March 12.
This initiative aims to assist food businesses in meeting the crucial requirement of having a certified kitchen manager.
Participation in this session not only ensures compliance with state regulations but also enhances the ability of food businesses to serve the community safely and effectively.
Don't miss out on this opportunity to advance your food safety practices and fulfill regulatory obligations.
To secure your spot for the food safety exam, call Lake County Environmental Health at 707-263-1164 today.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Some financial institutions charge up to $36 or more for each overdraft. California consumers paid an estimated $200 million in overdraft fees in 2022, with the financial burden disproportionately falling on low-income consumers and consumers of color. Bonta’s letter was sent to banks and credit unions in California with assets under $10 billion.
“Overdraft and returned check fees needlessly strip away money better spent elsewhere and penalize poor consumers. All too often, consumers don’t have a chance to avoid these surprise fees,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The CFPB has already put a stop to the worst practices by the biggest banks and credit unions. Now it is time for everyone else to follow suit: I urge all of California’s banking institutions to comply with federal and state law by eliminating these unfair fees.”
Consumers from poor households are more likely to incur overdraft fees, as are Black and Hispanic consumers.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has found that people who pay more than 10 overdraft fees per year end up paying nearly three-quarters of all overdraft fees. These fees can lead to substantial financial losses for families and turn setbacks into crises.
Meanwhile, financial institutions nationwide generated over $7.7 billion in revenue from overdraft fees and non-sufficient funds fees in 2022.
In the letter, Attorney General Bonta explains how overdraft and returned deposited item fees harm consumers and may violate the UCL and CFPA, which both prohibit unfair acts and practices against consumers. Under the UCL, an act is unfair if the “the gravity of the harm to the alleged victim” outweighs “the utility of the defendant’s conduct.”
The CFPA defines an unfair act as one that “causes or is likely to cause substantial injury to consumers which is not reasonable avoidable by consumers” and is not outweighed by benefits to consumers or competition.
In many cases, overdraft fees cannot be reasonably anticipated by consumers due to the complexity of how transactions are processed by financial institutions and the time lag between when transactions are authorized and when they are ultimately settled.
This technical process makes it difficult for the average consumer to make an informed decision on whether to use overdraft protection or another form of payment for their purchase.
The letter also warns about the use of returned deposited item fees, which are charged to consumers when the consumer deposits a check that is returned due to a problem with the check originator — the check originator has insufficient funds, their account is closed, there is a stop payment order, or the signature or other information on the check is questionable.
The consumer that deposits the check typically has no knowledge of or control over the circumstances that cause the check to be returned. Charging such fees causes substantial harm because a consumer cannot reasonably avoid the injury in most instances.
The individual consumer does not receive any extra service or benefit for the fee — they are simply penalized for unknowingly attempting to deposit a bad check. The practice of charging surprise fees that cannot be reasonably anticipated by a consumer likely is an unfair business practice that violates the UCL and CFPA.
The financial harm imposed on consumers by surprise fees is not outweighed by any utility or benefit to consumers or competition. This “back-end” pricing actually obscures the true cost of banking while making it more difficult for consumers to compare financial products and services.
The letters follow action by the CFPB, which recently issued guidance to large banks regarding similar fees.
The CFPB has also issued guidance indicating that the blanket practice of charging returned deposited item fees for every returned check likely is an unfair practice that violates the CFPA.
Additionally, the CFPB has brought enforcement actions against several banks for charging overdraft fees. Regions Bank agreed in a consent order to pay about $191 million in restitution and penalties for charging overdraft fees, and Wells Fargo agreed to pay $200 million in restitution to affected consumers for surprise overdraft fees.
In April 2022, Attorney General Bonta, as part of a multistate coalition, urged JPMorgan, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo to eliminate overdraft fees.
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