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- Written by: Lake County News reports
The study surveyed American Indians and Alaska Natives across 46 states – representing 318 different tribal affiliations – to gather information ranging from individuals’ willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine to the hurdles they face in accessing healthcare and resources.
“This data will be important to all organizations conducting COVID-19 vaccine education efforts,” said Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of UIHI. “Native communities have unique challenges and needs that usually are not considered in public health campaigns.”
American Indian and Alaska Native people continue to be disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 incidence and mortality rates are 3.5 and 1.8 times that of non-Hispanic Whites, respectively.
While there has been worry about vaccine participation in native communities, 75 percent of study participants claimed they would be willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, higher than the national average according to an Ipsos survey from October 2020, which indicates that 64 percent of the U.S. general population was willing to receive a vaccine.
“Willingness to receive a vaccine and hesitancy are not mutually exclusive,” said Echo-Hawk. “Fear and distrust of government and medical systems still exists in our community, which are hurdles that we have to overcome.”
Echo-Hawk hopes the report can start to create a better understanding of the unique perspectives of native people.
“The data indicates that most native people willing to be vaccinated feel it is their responsibility for the health of their community,” Echo-Hawk said. “This shows what motivates our community when it comes to decision-making.”
The report’s key findings include:
• 75 percent of participants were willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
• 74 percent of participants claimed that getting vaccinated is their responsibility to their community.
• 72 percent of participants wanted evidence that the vaccine is safe right now and in the long term.
• 39 percent of all participants reported difficulty traveling to their clinic for an appointment.
• Two-thirds of participants willing to get vaccinated were confident that COVID-19 vaccines were adequately tested for safety and effectiveness among Native people.
• 75 percent of participants willing to get vaccinated had concerns about potential side effects.
• 25 percent of participants were unwilling to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
• 90 percent of participants unwilling to get vaccinated recognized COVID-19 as a serious disease.
• 89 percent of participants unwilling to get vaccinated had concerns about potential side effects.
Find the full report here.
The Urban Indian Health Institute is a public health authority and one of 12 tribal epidemiology centers in the country. It conducts research and evaluation, collects and analyzes data, and provides disease surveillance and resources to strengthen the health of American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
The EDD has now resolved 99.9 percent of the 1.6 million backlogged claims identified by the EDD Strike Team in mid-September.
A backlogged claim is one that takes more than 21 days to issue first or further payment or disqualification, regardless if the claimant or EDD need to take some type of action.
The EDD said it will continue to provide weekly reports about the number of claims in process, including pending EDD action that delays payment beyond 21 days.
There will always be claims initiated by individuals who do not certify their eligibility for payment and abandon their claim. This agency said this happens for many reasons, including because the claimant returns to work or when the claim is fraudulent.
Additionally, there will always be more complex claims that take longer than 21 days to resolve, which is acknowledged by the U.S Department of Labor in their performance measures for states.
With that in mind, the EDD said it will adjust the data reflected on dashboards to better illustrate how many claims are in the queue awaiting EDD action beyond 21 days.
EDD is working on a new, more user-friendly dashboard and offers this clarification on the updates in the current two separate backlog dashboards.
Approximately 91 percent of the more than 900,000 unique claimants reflected on the two current dashboards come from these two categories: “Waiting for Claimant Certification” category on the current Initial Claims dashboard, and the “Potential Overpayment Non-Fault Queue” which is a subset of the “Resolving Other Eligibility Issues” category on the Continued Claims dashboard.
Changes on reporting this data in the new dashboard will include:
• In alignment with the recommendations from the state auditor, the EDD will remove the data that reflects “waiting for claimants to certify.” The EDD continues outreach to claimants about the requirement for completing a certification of eligibility before the first and any further payment every two weeks can be issued. Beyond that, this data does not constitute EDD work that is preventing payment.
• EDD will also remove the “potential overpayment” data. This work by EDD to assess if individuals may have received more in benefits than they qualify for does not prevent payments from being made.
Most of those remaining 9 percent of data reflected in the two backlog dashboards are associated with EDD’s efforts to implement the newly extended Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits, where new weeks of benefits are being added to older claims.
Status of suspended claims pending verification
The EDD recently suspended a total of 1.4 million claims that were deemed to be potentially fraudulent after applying additional screening. Emails and mailed notices started going out in early January to all individuals associated with these claims with instructions to either validate their identity, or that their eligibility must be determined before payments could resume. To date, only about half of the individuals two whom EDD sent emails have opened those emails.
The current breakdown includes:
• 1.1 million individuals were directed to ID.me for identity verification and have 30 days to respond from the date of their notice. So far, more than 300,000 have validated their identity through ID.me. Once EDD receives that information, if otherwise eligible, the payment barriers associated with the identity verification are lifted. It can take 7-10 days for the process to be completed and payment issued. Until then, claimants are encouraged to continue to certify for benefits in UI Online to prevent delays.
The EDD strongly encourages claimants to review the ID.me step-by-step guidance provided to fully utilize the fast and efficient self-service option for validating identity. This will help claimants avoid the wait times for an ID.me trusted referee via video chat.
Currently, 88 percent of claimants are able to utilize this self-service feature to quickly verify and protect their account.
• Another approximately 100,000 claimants without a UI Online account were mailed paper requests for identity verification. Once EDD receives and processes that information, if the claimant is otherwise eligible similar action is taken to lift the associated payment barriers and process the claim for payment.
The EDD strongly encourages claimants to register for an UI Online account to utilize the document upload feature to quickly verify and protect their account.
• The remaining 200,000 individuals are either receiving requests to validate their eligibility (other than identity), or are receiving a Notice of Determination explaining the reason for disqualification from benefits and their right to appeal.
Guidance for claimants who collected benefits from EDD in 2020
EDD is in the process of issuing a record 7.8 million Form 1099G federal tax forms to individuals who received benefits in 2020, such as unemployment, some types of Disability Insurance, or Paid Family Leave.
The fastest way to retrieve this form and related information is through a personal UI Online account, though forms are arriving by mail for those who did not opt for electronic form only. Information about opening an UI Online account is available on the File for Unemployment Overview Webpage.
Since the annual 1099G process for federal tax purposes may be new to many Californians, individuals are encouraged to visit EDD’s Tax Information webpage for more information, or access other tips and a helpful video through this one-page guide.
EDD staff will also assist by phone:
• Call 1-866-333-4606 if claimants don’t find their 1099G information in their UI Online account or to request a copy sent by mail. This is a self-serve line.
• Call 1-866-401-2849 if claimants don’t agree with the amount noted on their form or received it erroneously and need the issue corrected. This designated call center line is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on state holidays.
Individuals who suspect fraud can also visit EDD’s Help Fight Fraud webpage to learn how to report fraud and find information on protecting yourself from identity theft, and can also report fraud through AskEDD.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Although 2021 has just begun, the start of the new year brings to completion some of the projects the Lake County Land Trust put into motion in 2020, despite the pandemic.
The first, a monolith installed at Rabbit Hill by Marcus Maria Jung in June, was the outcome of the LOCUS grant awarded to the Middletown Art Center from the National Endowment of the Arts, which supported community workshops to install public art.
The Middletown Art Center, or MAC, selected the Lake County Land Trust’s Rabbit Hill because of its location in central Middletown; its juxtaposition with Middletown Trailside Park, the site of the EcoArts trail; and the idea that a sculpture placed at Rabbit Hill could be symbolic of the resilience and rejuvenation of both nature and a community after a devastating wildfire.
Jung’s structure, tentatively entitled “Animate Earth - Gateway to the Sky - 2021,” is now complete with four pine benches placed in consideration of the four directions.
A beckoning entranceway consists of rock found on-site, placed in a cascading fashion along the sides of a set of railroad tie steps nestled into the hillside at the top of Rabbit Hill.
At different intervals, the artist worked alongside Stan Archacki, Denis Sullivan, Glenneth Lampert, Francis Hornback, Lorindra Moonstar and MAC’s LOCUS students and volunteers in placing and securing the structures.
“One of the Lake County Land Trust’s favorite aspects of Rabbit Hill is the community’s enjoyment of the spot, and their sense of ownership of it,” said Melissa Kinsel, development director for the Lake County Land Trust. “They treat it as if it were an extension of their own backyards, walking through it, relaxing, and taking care of it. Rabbit Hill matters to Middletown residents and they take good care of it.”
Jung’s work and his description of it add to the new narrative of Rabbit Hill: “This installation is an invitation to the local community and visitors to come together and gather in a timeless space in the heart and soul of the land around us. The sky opens up as we come to share our prayers and offerings with this site, the land and the greater world. In return we receive the bountiful blessings of nature and the wisdom of the earth in all her beauty.”
Lisa Kaplan, executive and artistic director at MAC added, “The LOCUS project as a whole commemorates place, the resilience of flora and fauna lost to fire, where we are now as a community, and the vision we have for our future.”
Rabbit Hill Preserve is located at 21281 Stewart Street in Middletown, and is open to visitors and their leashed dogs from dawn to dusk.
New boardwalk at Rodman Preserve
A 216-foot-long redwood boardwalk was completed at the Rodman Preserve that will enable the Land Trust to lead its popular guided nature walks at the preserve even during the rainy season.
A portion of the trail is below lake level and gets swamped most years when the rains are heavy. This new elevated walkway will prevent this section from being impassable.
Funds for the new boardwalk came from the Rose Foundation, through its Cal Wildlands grant program.
Lumber and materials were purchased locally, and social-distanced volunteers including Bill Lincoln, Bob Schoenherr, Roberta Lyons, Val Nixon and Erica Lundquist met four times to cut, carry, install and secure the footings, framing and walkway planks.
A crew of 10 AmeriCorps volunteers who were isolating as a team and working on projects at Anderson March and Clear Lake State Park also pitched in to help for a day, completing in a day what would have normally taken three.
“When this is all over, we’ll have to have a toast with our supporters on the new boardwalk. We’re really looking forward to its debut. It’s remarkable what can be accomplished with a few dedicated volunteers even during a pandemic,” said Land Trust President Val Nixon.
Despite COVID-19 restrictions, a limited staff is on hand to open the preserve for self-guided walks on Tuesdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Interested parties are encouraged to call ahead to 707-262-0707 to ensure the gate is unlocked.
The Lake County Land Trust was founded in 1994 with the goal to protect and preserve important natural habitats and wild land areas of Lake County.
The Rodman Preserve, located on Westlake Drive off of the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff, is the organization's flagship property and also features a small nature center. The preserve totals over 200 acres and is home to a variety of flora and fauna. The Land Trust owns four properties in fee title and holds three conservation easements. One of its main efforts is to protect and preserve the remaining natural habitat on the shores of Clear Lake.
For more information about the Land Trust go to www.lakecountylandtrust.org.
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- Written by: Tom Corringham, University of California San Diego
Ask people to name the world’s largest river, and most will probably guess that it’s the Amazon, the Nile or the Mississippi. In fact, some of Earth’s largest rivers are in the sky – and they can produce powerful storms, like the one now soaking California.
Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of moisture in the atmosphere that extend from the tropics to higher latitudes. These rivers in the sky can transport 15 times the volume of the Mississippi River. When that moisture reaches the coast and moves inland, it rises over the mountains, generating rain and snowfall and sometimes causing extreme flooding.
In the past 20 years, as observation networks have improved, scientists have learned more about these important weather phenomena. Atmospheric rivers occur globally, affecting the west coasts of the world’s major land masses, including Portugal, Western Europe, Chile and South Africa. So-called “Pineapple Express” storms that carry moisture from Hawaii to the U.S. West Coast are just one of their many flavors.
My research combines economics and atmospheric science to measure damage from severe weather events. Recently I led a team of researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Army Corps of Engineers in the first systematic analysis of damages from atmospheric rivers due to extreme flooding. We found that while many of these events are benign, the largest of them cause most of the flooding damage in the western U.S. And atmospheric rivers are predicted to grow longer, wetter and wider in a warming climate.
Rivers in the sky
On Feb. 27, 2019, an atmospheric river propelled a plume of water vapor 350 miles wide and 1,600 miles long through the sky from the tropical North Pacific Ocean to the coast of Northern California.
Just north of San Francisco Bay, in Sonoma County’s famed wine country, the storm dumped over 21 inches of rain. The Russian River crested at 45.4 feet – 13.4 feet above flood stage.
For the fifth time in four decades, the town of Guerneville was submerged under the murky brown floodwaters of the lower Russian River. Damages in Sonoma County alone were estimated at over US$100 million.
Events like these have drawn attention in recent years, but atmospheric rivers are not new. They have meandered through the sky for millions of years, transporting water vapor from the equator toward the poles.
In the 1960s meteorologists coined the phrase “Pineapple Express” to describe storm tracks that originated near Hawaii and carried warm water vapor to the coast of North America. By the late 1990s atmospheric scientists had found that over 90% of the world’s moisture from the tropics and subtropics was transported to higher latitudes by similar systems, which they named “atmospheric rivers.”
In dry conditions, atmospheric rivers can replenish water supplies and quench dangerous wildfires. In wet conditions, they can cause damaging floods and debris flows, wreaking havoc on local economies.
Helpful and harmful
Researchers have known for some time that flooding due to atmospheric rivers could cost a lot of money, but until our study no one had quantified these damages. We used a catalog of atmospheric river events compiled by Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, and matched it to 40 years of flood insurance records and 20 years of National Weather Service damage estimates.
We found that atmospheric rivers caused an average of $1.1 billion in flood damages yearly in the western U.S. More than 80% of all flooding damages in the West in the years we studied were associated with atmospheric rivers. In some areas, such as coastal northern California, these systems caused over 99% of damages.
Our data showed that in an average year, about 40 atmospheric rivers made landfall along the Pacific coast somewhere between Baja California and British Columbia. Most of these events were benign: About half caused no insured losses, and these storms replenished the region’s water supply.
But there were a number of exceptions. We used a recently developed atmospheric river classification scale that ranks the storms from 1 to 5, similar to systems for categorizing hurricanes and tornadoes. There was a clear link between these categories and observed damages.
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Atmospheric River category 1 (AR1) and AR2 storms caused estimated damages under $1 million. AR4 and AR5 storms caused median damages in the 10s and 100s of millions of dollars respectively. The most damaging AR4s and AR5s generated impacts of over $1 billion per storm. These billion-dollar storms occurred every three to four years.
A moister atmosphere means worse storms
Our most significant finding was an exponential relationship between the intensity of atmospheric rivers and the flood damages they caused. Each increase in the scale from 1 to 5 was associated with a 10-fold increase in damages.
Several recent studies have modeled how atmospheric rivers will change in the coming decades. The mechanism is simple: Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the planet. This causes more water to evaporate from oceans and lakes, and increased moisture in the air makes storm systems grow stronger.
Like hurricanes, atmospheric rivers are projected to grow longer, wider and wetter in a warming climate. Our finding that damages increase exponentially with intensity suggests that even modest increases in atmospheric river intensity could lead to significantly larger economic impacts.
Better forecasting is critical
I believe that improving atmospheric forecasting systems should be a priority for adapting to a changing climate. Better understanding of atmospheric rivers’ intensity, duration and landfall locations can provide valuable information to residents and emergency responders.
It also is important to discourage new construction in high-risk areas and help people move to safer locations after major disasters, rather than rebuilding in place.
Finally, our study underlines the need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. These storms will keep coming, and they’re getting stronger. In my view, stabilizing the global climate system is the only long-term way to minimize economic damage and risk to vulnerable communities.
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Tom Corringham, Postdoctoral Scholar in Climate, Atmospheric Science and Physical Oceanography, University of California San Diego
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.