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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The National Weather Service in Sacramento issued a special weather statement Friday afternoon for areas of Northern California, including Lake County, explaining that extended forecast charts showed the possibility that rain and even snow could result from a change in the current dry weather pattern.
The agency said that a low pressure system coming from the Gulf of Alaska that's expected to pass over Northern California’s mountains Sunday and Monday will bring a light amount of precipitation.
That first system is forecast to be followed by a heavier weather pattern expected to bring rainstorms to interior Northern California next Wednesday through Friday, as well as snow to higher elevations, the National Weather Service reported.
While the signs of impending rain are promising, the National Weather Service warned that there is still the possibility that the second storm could pass by Northern California.
The forecast for Lake County during this three-day weekend calls for mostly sunny conditions during the daytime, with some nighttime cloud cover.
Chances of rain are predicted to begin next Wednesday, Jan. 18, with rain likely on Thursday, Jan. 19, and Friday, Jan. 20, according to the forecast. Temperatures are expected to be in the high 50s.
The Farmers Almanac is predicting wet weather for California Jan. 16-19 and again the last week of this month, with rain also expected in the middle and later parts of February.
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- Written by: Dr. Tony Phillips
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
"Though state governments and private actors have taken important and innovative steps to expand access to health care and to restrain the growth of health care costs, no remedy can be fully effective without action on a national level. The Commerce Clause empowers Congress to take such action, and Congress properly employed that power in addressing the nation's healthcare crisis through the reforms enacted in the Affordable Care Act," the amicus brief states.
In August 2011, a divided United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's minimum coverage provision, which requires that individuals maintain adequate health insurance, is unconstitutional.
The United States government appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments in the matter in March 2012.
Attorney General Harris, joined by 12 other attorneys general, argued in a brief filed Friday in the U.S. Supreme Court that the Constitution gives Congress broad powers to regulate interstate commerce, including individual conduct that substantially affects interstate commerce.
The failure of millions of Americans to purchase health insurance has a substantial negative impact on interstate commerce, as well as state economies and budgets, Harris’ office reported.
In 2009, the health care economy accounted for 17.6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, Harris’ office reported. In 2008, the cost of uncompensated health care – health care provided to those who lacked insurance or some other ability pay – was $43 billion nationally.
As a result, providers shift a significant portion of those costs onto insurance companies and other payers. Each American family, on average, pays $1,000 more than necessary in health insurance premiums as a result of the shifting of those costs, Harris reported.
"Health care is one of the fastest growing expenditures in the federal budget, California's state budget, and the budgets of families across America," Attorney General Harris said. "Federal health care reform is not only essential to improving access to quality health care in California, it also is central to the long-term health of our economy, as well as state and local budgets."
Proponents of the health care reform law will reduce the need to shift the cost of uncompensated care of the uninsured or underinsured and will reduce the expenses absorbed by the states and by individuals with health insurance. They also hold that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is an indispensable aid to the states in their own efforts to tackle the health care problems their residents face.
Other states joining California in this brief are Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Vermont. The brief also is joined by the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.
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“Our commercial personnel have the training, equipment, and capability of locating items that may threaten the safety of public safety,” said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow. “This equipment and training is essential in accomplishing our mission of providing safety, service and security.”
The items were detected during a routine commercial vehicle inspection and ultimately determined to be constructed from contaminated metal containing Cobalt-60.
The CHP notified the California Department of Health Services, which lead to a nationwide product recall.
The CHP has the largest commercial vehicle inspection program in the nation, conducting more than 600,000 inspections annually.
The department operates 51 Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Facilities in 37 locations throughout the state, plus 73 mini-sites. Sixteen of these facilities are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Through an ongoing effort, the CHP strives to improve commercial motor vehicle safety on California’s highway transportation system through enforcement, training, education, and new technologies,” said Farrow.
Although highway safety is the primary purpose of commercial vehicle inspections, the CHP’s inspection program commonly results in locating narcotics, illegal contraband and other potential hazards.
The commercial enforcement program is just one facet of a more comprehensive homeland security effort by the CHP.
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