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- Written by: Lake County News reports
Troops continue to serve around the globe, many in very remote locations, some in harm’s way, and far from family and home.
On Thursday, March 18, 2021, Operation Tango Mike, which translates from military jargon to Operation Thanks Much, will commemorate 18 years of troop support.
The all-volunteer nonprofit has shipped more than 22,000 care packages to deployed military personnel.
When permitted, volunteers gather on the third Thursday of every month, at 6 p.m. at Umpqua Bank, 805 11th St., Lakeport, to prepare care packages for the troops.
The local effort began on behalf of local soldiers deployed to Afghanistan in March 2003. At times, more than 150 monthly care packages have been shipped. Today, 70 to 100, and sometimes more, care packages are sent to troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other countries. Last month included ten countries.
Military families are supported as well. Many volunteers that support Operation Tango Mike have volunteered assistance with home repairs, transportation and more.
With no base or military installation in the local area, folks who support the troops and their families gather via Operation Tango Mike. Military families are welcomed and are provided with emotional support, knowing that they and their loved ones are appreciated.
“Forget politics, support our troops,” is the mantra that has helped ensure that all are welcomed and appreciated at Operation Tango Mike functions. The effort does not involve politics and exists to support our troops and their families.
Troops often express appreciation in thank you messages that are sent to Operation Tango Mike.
Colonel Krische wrote recently, “Please be advised that boxes arrived here last week. Their contents will be made available to the personnel on the base. Thank you for supporting the troops.” He was writing from Afghanistan.
In a previous message, Major Robinson wrote, “I received your packages and gave them all out to the Soldiers and they were very grateful. It is great to still get support long after the bumper stickers have faded.”
Though the public packing parties are not currently allowed, monthly care packages are being prepared and shipped.
This has been very challenging, as fundraising is severely limited during the pandemic, and shipping fees have risen to $20.40 per box. This does not include the cost of goods, such as food and hygiene items.
On Saturday, March 20, Linda’s Gift Gallery and Hallmark in Lakeport will host an event benefiting Operation Tango Mike, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All COVID-19 precautions will be followed.
There will be prizes, raffles and more. Anyone bringing a donation item for care packages will receive a shopping discount, and a portion of the day’s sales will be donated to Operation Tango Mike.
Suggested donation items include nuts, jerky, tuna pouches, individual drink mixes, stick deodorant, foot/body powder and lip balm.
Hallmark owner Linda Banfill is a staunch supporter of Operation Tango Mike, and her sons were care package recipients during their deployments as Marines.
The regular monthly packing parties will resume as soon as it is safe to do so and permitted by the County.
For further information or to add someone to the care package recipient list, please call 707-349-2838, email
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
The town hall will take place beginning at 6:30 p.m.
RSVP today by clicking here. After you RSVP, they will email the call-in number and video livestream link.
McGuire will host Dr. Timothy Brewer, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and Geffen School of Medicine, and Lori Nezhura, deputy director of planning, preparedness and prevention from the State Office of Emergency Services. Nezhura also serves as the co-chair of California's COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.
They will discuss slowing the spread, with a special focus on vaccine distribution.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
This bill reauthorizes crucial legislation to help prevent violence and abuse against women and support survivors as they recover and pursue justice.
It also makes some important improvements to the original Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA, including increased funding to prevent such violence, improvements to services for survivors, provisions to better assist Native American women who are disproportionately targeted, and the closing of the so-called “boyfriend loophole” to prevent violent partners from obtaining firearms.
“Women across our nation deserve to live their lives free from violence and abuse, and survivors of this kind of terrible hate deserve robust protections and services as they recover and seek justice. That’s why today I voted to pass the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act to both reauthorize and expand this critical legislation,” said Thompson. “For nearly three decades, VAWA has transformed the lives of women and survivors of violence and domestic abuse, offering access to safety and justice. We cannot let this legislation go any longer without being reauthorized and I urge the Senate to take up this bill immediately.”
First passed in 1994, the Violence Against Women Act expands protections against abuse for women and gives survivors of such abuse a better social and judicial safety net. The bill expired in 2018 under a Republican-led Congress.
Thompson voted to reauthorize VAWA in 2019 and the bill then died in the Republican-controlled Senate.
This legislation is similar to the bipartisan bill that passed the House in 2019 and can be read here.
Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
Staying active throughout adulthood is linked to lower healthcare costs in later life – new research
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- Written by: Diarmuid Coughlan, Newcastle University
Exercise is good for your health at every age – and you can reap the benefits no matter how late in life you start. But our latest research has shown another benefit of being physically active throughout life. We found that in the US, people who were more physically active as teenagers and throughout adulthood had lower healthcare costs.
These findings are especially relevant to people who live in countries without universal healthcare, such as the US. However, our findings apply indirectly to countries with universal healthcare, such as the UK, as a healthier population could result in lower costs for the healthcare system as a whole.
For our study, we drew on data from the National Cancer Institute’s study on diet and health, which looked at over half a million adults. As part of this study, adults in 1996 who were aged 50-71 were asked how physically active they were during this time in their life. They were also asked to estimate how much exercise they got in late adolescence and early and middle adulthood.
We followed up with participants between 2004-06. During this time, some consented for their study responses to be linked with their Medicare data. Medicare is the major health insurance programme for American adults aged 65 years and older.
To ensure results were accurate, we only looked at respondents who were 65 years of age, as this is the age a person first qualifies for Medicare. We also adjusted our results to take into account other things that could influence the outcome, such as ethnicity, education, marital status, and whether a person smoked. This way we could be fairly certain that we were only looking at the effect of physical activity on healthcare costs.
Based on our data, people were clustered into groups according to their exercise habits throughout adulthood. We identified nine groups, which fell into four main categories: maintainers (36% of the group who maintained moderate to high activity throughout adulthood), decreasers (30.5% of the group who were active in early adulthood but became less active as they aged), and increasers (14.5% of the group who weren’t active in early adulthood but became more active throughout their lives). Around 18.5% of the group were consistently inactive throughout their lifetime.
A lifetime of activity
We found that adults who maintained or increased their physical activity from adolescence throughout adulthood had lower average annual healthcare costs than adults who were consistently inactive over time – between US$824 (£567) and US$1,874 (£1,356) per year. This is around 10% to 22% lower than those who were less active or inactive.
In contrast, adults who were active earlier in life but less active in middle-age (decreasers), did not benefit from lower healthcare costs after age 65, despite being active earlier in life. In fact, their Medicare costs were akin to those who had been consistently inactive all their life.
Although the study’s respondents came from different parts of the US, it’s hard to say whether these results would be true for people in other parts of the world. And, as our study was based on self-reported information obtained from a survey, we can’t say whether activity levels caused lower healthcare costs. Also, we weren’t able to control for all factors that may have affected the results, such as whether a person developed an injury that limited their activity levels.
However, similar findings to ours have also been seen in other research, such as an Australian study which found that middle-aged women who were active throughout their life had 40% lower healthcare costs over the three years that the study took place.
Given that one in four adults worldwide don’t get enough exercise, large-scale efforts to improve physical activity – especially among adolescents and young adults – could help reduce healthcare costs and improve health later in life. Strategies such as working with people one on one, in small groups, or on a community level, to change their physical activity levels are all proven to work.
Diarmuid Coughlan, Research Associate in Health Economics, Newcastle University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.