As wildfire season continued to unfold today with a string of blazes across California, the state Assembly approved legislation from Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, that would enhance wildfire prevention through implementation of a $20 million prescribed fire claims fund.
“Clearing our forests of tinder-dry brush and weeds has proven to be a cost-effective way to minimize the intensity and scope of wildfires,” Sen. Dodd said. “It’s why I wrote the law last year to encourage more prescribed fires. Now we can enhance our use of this time-tested technique by establishing guidelines for a fund to cover some costs borne by prescribed fire professionals. The Assembly’s approval today takes us a step closer to achieving our goal.”
Prescribed fire, also known as controlled burning, has been used for centuries to clear dead trees and brush that are known to fuel runaway wildfires.
Rarely do prescribed fires escape their bounds and cause damage to neighboring properties. Yet affordable insurance is difficult to secure, preventing property owners from treating their land.
Sen. Dodd’s bill, Senate Bill 926, would create standards for a fund to help cover costs.
It is a followup to Senate Bill 332, also written by Sen. Dodd and signed into law last year, which protects landowners and prescribed fire managers from having to pay fire suppression expenses unless they have acted with gross negligence.
SB 926 is sponsored by The Nature Conservancy.
It passed the Assembly on Thursday and heads next to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature following a concurrence vote in the Senate.
“If we are going to restore our forests at a pace and scale, we need to reduce barriers to prescribed burning — our most effective long-term landscape fire management tool,” said Jay Ziegler, director of policy and external affairs at The Nature Conservancy. “Science shows prescribed fire is critical to curbing catastrophic megafires in California. SB 926 will help us do more of it. We appreciate Sen. Dodd’s leadership on establishing a prescribed fire claims fund.”
Dodd represents the Third Senate District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Solano, Yolo, Sonoma, Contra Costa and Sacramento counties.
COBB, Calif. — Cobb resident Larry Allen has thrown his hat into the ring to run for Middletown Unified School District Board of Trustees in the upcoming Nov. 8 election.
Currently serving on the MUSD School Board as president, Allen hopes to be reelected for an additional two-year term.
Allen is a longtime Cobb resident, a retired MUSD teacher of 35 years, and an involved community member.
He coached football and wrestling at the high school for several years. Additionally, he served on the California Teachers Association’s Board of Directors — which served nine counties in Northern California, including Lake County — for 11 years.
“My experiences in the classrooms, in the athletic arenas, and as a teacher advocate give me a unique perspective of the workings and priorities of schools,” Allen said. “It’s a given that the highest priority is to best serve our students, but let’s remember those in the trenches day in and day out. If we forget our educators, or put them on the ‘back burner’ we might lose them to other districts. To recruit and retain the best and brightest we have to place them above ‘stuff’.”
Allen raised his family on Cobb, and his children attended Middletown schools from kindergarten through their graduation from Middletown High School.
“I believe my kids got a wonderful, well-rounded education here, and I believe that we are on track to deliver the best education Lake County has to offer,” Allen said.
Listening to all parents is paramount to being able to make the wisest decisions as a board member, Allen said.
“MUSD has had its share of turmoil, and now we’ve found our groove,” Allen said. “Our current board is experienced, thoughtful and wise. I am honored to serve on the current board, and I support the reelection bids of my fellow incumbents, Chris Ochs and Allison Berlogar. Additionally, I think that candidate Annette Lee — currently serving as the dean of Woodland Community College — will be an excellent addition to the board. I look forward to continuing our ongoing work of supporting our schools and striving to be as inclusive, as enriching, and as academically excellent as possible.”
The heat index is a measure of how hot it feels and rises with increasing humidity, even as the temperature remains the same. If the index rises above 125-130, heat stroke is considered likely. Graphic by Climate Central. BERKELEY, Calif. — If you looked at the heat index during this summer’s sticky heat waves and thought, “It sure feels hotter!,” you may be right.
An analysis by climate scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, finds that the apparent temperature, or heat index, calculated by meteorologists and the National Weather Service, or NWS, to indicate how hot it feels — taking into account the humidity — underestimates the perceived temperature for the most sweltering days we’re now experiencing, sometimes by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
The finding has implications for those who suffer through these heat waves, since the heat index is a measure of how the body deals with heat when the humidity is high, and sweating becomes less effective at cooling us down.
Sweating and flushing, where blood is diverted to capillaries close to the skin to dissipate heat, plus shedding clothes, are the main ways humans adapt to hot temperatures.
A higher heat index means that the human body is more stressed during these heat waves than public health officials may realize, the researchers say. The NWS currently considers a heat index above 103 to be dangerous, and above 125 to be extremely dangerous.
“Most of the time, the heat index that the National Weather Service is giving you is just the right value. It's only in these extreme cases where they're getting the wrong number,” said David Romps, UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science. “Where it matters is when you start to map the heat index back onto physiological states and you realize, oh, these people are being stressed to a condition of very elevated skin blood flow where the body is coming close to running out of tricks for compensating for this kind of heat and humidity. So, we're closer to that edge than we thought we were before.”
Romps and graduate student Yi-Chuan Lu detailed their analysis in a paper accepted by the journal Environmental Research Letters and posted online Aug. 12.
The heat index was devised in 1979 by a textile physicist, Robert Steadman, who created simple equations to calculate what he called the relative “sultriness” of warm and humid, as well as hot and arid, conditions during the summer. He saw it as a complement to the wind chill factor commonly used in the winter to estimate how cold it feels.
His model took into account how humans regulate their internal temperature to achieve thermal comfort under different external conditions of temperature and humidity — by consciously changing the thickness of clothing or unconsciously adjusting respiration, perspiration and blood flow from the body’s core to the skin.
In his model, the apparent temperature under ideal conditions — an average-sized person in the shade with unlimited water — is how hot someone would feel if the relative humidity were at a comfortable level, which Steadman took to be a vapor pressure of 1,600 pascals.
For example, at 70% relative humidity and 68 F — which is often taken as average humidity and temperature — a person would feel like it’s 68 F. But at the same humidity and 86 F, it would feel like 94 F.
The heat index has since been adopted widely in the United States, including by the NWS, as a useful indicator of people’s comfort. But Steadman left the index undefined for many conditions that are now becoming increasingly common.
For example, for a relative humidity of 80%, the heat index is not defined for temperatures above 88 F or below 59 F. Today, temperatures routinely rise above 90 F for weeks at a time in some areas, including the Midwest and Southeast.
To account for these gaps in Steadman’s chart, meteorologists extrapolated into these areas to get numbers that, Romps said, are correct most of the time, but not based on any understanding of human physiology.
“There's no scientific basis for these numbers,” Romps said.
He and Lu set out to extend Steadman’s work so that the heat index is accurate at all temperatures and all humidities between zero and 100%.
“The original table had a very short range of temperature and humidity and then a blank region where Steadman said the human model failed,” Lu said. “Steadman had the right physics. Our aim was to extend it to all temperatures so that we have a more accurate formula.”
One condition under which Steadman’s model breaks down is when people perspire so much that sweat pools on the skin. At that point, his model incorrectly had the relative humidity at the skin surface exceeding 100%, which is physically impossible.
“It was at that point where this model seems to break, but it's just the model telling him, hey, let sweat drip off the skin. That's all it was,” Romps said. “Just let the sweat drop off the skin.”
That and a few other tweaks to Steadman’s equations yielded an extended heat index that agrees with the old heat index 99.99% of the time, Romps said, but also accurately represents the apparent temperature for regimes outside those Steadman originally calculated. When he originally published his apparent temperature scale, he considered these regimes too rare to worry about, but high temperatures and humidities are becoming increasingly common because of climate change.
Romps and Lu published the revised heat index equation earlier this year. In the most recent paper, they apply the extended heat index to the top 100 heat waves that occurred between 1984 and 2020. The researchers find mostly minor disagreements with what the NWS reported at the time, but also some extreme situations where the NWS heat index was way off.
One surprise was that seven of the 10 most physiologically stressful heat waves over that time period were in the Midwest — mostly in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri — not the Southeast, as meteorologists assumed. The largest discrepancies between the NWS heat index and the extended heat index were seen in a wide swath, from the Great Lakes south to Louisiana.
During the July 1995 heat wave in Chicago, for example, which killed at least 465 people, the maximum heat index reported by the NWS was 135 F, when it actually felt like 154 F. The revised heat index at Midway Airport, 141 F, implies that people in the shade would have experienced blood flow to the skin that was 170% above normal.
The heat index reported at the time, 124 F, implied only a 90% increase in skin blood flow. At some places during the heat wave, the extended heat index implies that people would have experienced an increase of 820% above normal skin blood flow.
“I'm no physiologist, but a lot of things happen to the body when it gets really hot,” Romps said. “Diverting blood to the skin stresses the system because you're pulling blood that would otherwise be sent to internal organs and sending it to the skin to try to bring up the skin's temperature. The approximate calculation used by the NWS, and widely adopted, inadvertently downplays the health risks of severe heat waves.”
Physiologically, the body starts going haywire when the skin temperature rises to equal the body’s core temperature, typically taken as 98.6 F. After that, the core temperature begins to increase. The maximum sustainable core temperature is thought to be 107 F — the threshold for heat death. For the healthiest of individuals, that threshold is reached at a heat index of 200 F.
Luckily, humidity tends to decrease as temperature increases, so Earth is unlikely to reach those conditions in the next few decades. Less extreme, though still deadly, conditions are nevertheless becoming common around the globe.
“A 200 F heat index is an upper bound of what is survivable,” Romps said. “But now that we've got this model of human thermoregulation that works out at these conditions, what does it actually mean for the future habitability of the United States and the planet as a whole? There are some frightening things we are looking at.”
The work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric System Research program through the Office of Science's Biological and Environmental Research program (DE-AC02-05CH11231).
Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has many great dogs waiting to be adopted by new families.
The City of Clearlake Animal Association also is seeking fosters for the animals waiting to be adopted.
Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
The following dogs are available for adoption. The newest additions are at the top.
“Andy.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Andy’
“Andy” is a male American pit bull mix with a short gray and white coat.
He is dog No. 48995415.
“Bear.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Bear’
“Bear” is a male Labrador retriever-American pit bull mix with a short charcoal and fawn coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 48443153.
“Betsy.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Betsy’
“Betsy” is a female American pit bull mix with a short white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 50236145.
“Bluey.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Bluey’
“Bluey” is a male retriever mix with a short black coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50552999.
“Big Phil.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Big Phil’
“Big Phil” is a 13-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a blue coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49951647.
“Colt.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Colt’
“Colt” is a male Rhodesian Ridgeback mix with a short rust and black coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49812106.
“Groucho.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Groucho’
“Groucho” is a male Chihuahua-miniature pinscher mix with a short tricolor coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49651597.
“Hakuna.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Hakuna’
“Hakuna” is a male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
“Kubota.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Kubota’
“Kubota” is a male German shepherd mix with a short tan and black coat.
He has been neutered.
Kubota is dog No. 50184421.
“Luna.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Luna’
“Luna” is an 8-month-old Labrador retriever-terrier mix with a black and white coat.
She is dog No. 50339254.
“Mamba.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Mamba’
“Mamba” is a male Siberian husky mix with a gray and cream-colored coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49520569.
“Matata.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Matata’
“Matata” is male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
“Newman.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Newman’
“Newman” is a 1-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a black and white coat.
He has been neutered.
Newman is dog No. 49057809.
“Sadie.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Sadie’
“Sadie” is a female German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49802563.
“Sparkles.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Sparkles’
“Sparkles” is a female terrier mix with a short brindle coat.
Shehas been spayed.
She is dog No. 50592729.
“Terry.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Terry’
“Terry” is a handsome male shepherd mix with a short brindle coat.
He gets along with other dogs, including small ones, and enjoys toys. He also likes water, playing fetch and keep away.
Staff said he is now getting some training to help him build confidence.
He is dog No. 48443693.
“Tiramisu.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Tiramisu’
“Tiramisu” is a female Alaskan husky mix with a short brown and cream coat.
She is dog No. 49652833.
“Willie.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Willie’
“Willie” is a male German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50596003.
“Ziggy.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Ziggy’
“Ziggy” is a male American pit bull terrier mix with a short gray and white coat.
He has been neutered.
Ziggy is dog No. 50146247
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Gov. Gavin Newsom unveils the new plan to transform children’s mental health at McLane High School in Fresno, California, on Thursday, August 18, 2022. Photo courtesy of the Governor’s Office.
With children across California headed back to school, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday unveiled California’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health to ensure all California kids, parents and communities have increased access to mental health and substance use services.
Nationally, children are reporting symptoms of depression and anxiety at record rates and are considering or attempting suicide at historic levels.
Here in California, about one-third of seventh and ninth graders and half of 11th graders experienced chronic sadness in the 2020-2021 school year and it’s estimated that 1 in 10 kids between the ages of 12 and 17 suffered from at least one major depressive episode in the last year. Suicide rates for California youth ages 10 to 18 increased by 20% from 2019 to 2020.
California is taking urgent action to address this crisis. For kids and families needing help now, some elements of the governor’s plan are already available to all California kids, including the Children’s Mental Health Resources Hub, which offers kids and parents a central hub for a variety of resources, including several support hotlines, CalHOPE and informational guides on suicide and depression warning signs.
The governor unveiled the plan at McLane High School in Fresno, which provides social emotional support services for students with a dedicated social emotional support staff made up of psychologists, social workers, and welfare specialists.
Over the past decade, the Fresno Unified School District has increased mental health staffing from around 50 to more than 200 professionals.
The Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health provides funding to schools across the state to offer the same kind of resources McLane and Fresno Unified does.
“Mental and behavioral health is one of the greatest challenges of our time. As other states take away resources to support kids’ mental health, California is doubling down with the most significant overhaul of our mental health system in state history,” Governor Newsom said. “We’re investing billions of dollars to ensure every California child has better access to comprehensive mental health and substance use services. The Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health is premised on a very simple belief: every single kid deserves to have their mental health supported. That’s the California Way – putting our kids first.”
The governor also signed AB 2508 by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton) to better define the role of school counselors that recognizes the importance of access to mental health.
Over the last three years, California has launched an historic overhaul of the state’s mental health system – investing $4.7 billion to boost coverage options and public awareness so all children and youth are routinely screened, supported, and served. The funding creates new virtual platforms and establishes a new pipeline for the mental health workforce, adding 40,000 new mental health workers in the state.
Other investments include:
• $4.1 billion on a community schools strategy to connect kids and families to essential services including health screenings, meals and more.
• $5 billion on a Medi-Cal initiative, CalAIM, to better integrate health and behavioral health services for low-income kids.
• $1.4 billion to build a more diverse healthcare workforce that expands our capacity to meet the health needs of Californians, including children and families.
“As a parent, there’s nothing worse than seeing your child in pain and feeling powerless to help. And that’s the case for far too many families around the country with children struggling with serious issues such as depression and anxiety without access to the care they need,” said First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. “In California, we take the mental health and wellbeing of our children seriously, and we’re tackling this problem head-on with significant investments in the infrastructure of the state’s mental health system. And for those looking for support today, California’s mental health resource hub for youth is connecting parents, caregivers, educators, and children with the resources and support kids need to improve their mental health and build healthy wellness habits and practices that will help them thrive.”
“I truly believe every student would benefit from a connection with a mental health counselor and I am hopeful we will continue to see a positive change from investments in social emotional support for our students and I know Governor Gavin Newsom can provide students with the much needed resources to successfully navigate life,” said Aliyah Barajas, a senior at McLane High School.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announces California’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health at McLane High School in Fresno, California, on Thursday, August 18, 2022. Photo courtesy of the Governor’s Office.
The Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health outlines action across three key pillars:
Healthy Minds for California Kids
• Provide Medi-Cal coverage for parent-child services
• Make it easier for schools to provide prevention and treatment
• De-stigmatize mental health support for kids
• Offer additional resources for parents
Rebuilding California’s Mental Health Systems
• Create new virtual platforms
• Expand early interventions
• More school counselors
• Expand clinic and treatment slots
• Develop a suicide prevention program
Developing a Mental Health Workforce
• Hire, train, and engage 40,000 new mental health workers
• Expand remote access to services
• Training for teachers
The plan announced today will make it easier than ever before for kids to access critical mental health and substance use services – in their schools, in their homes and in their communities. Read the full Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health here.
If you or a friend or loved one is having suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: call or text 988 or chat at www.988lifeline.org/.
Kathy Knickmeyer won a Kindle Fire tablet in the 2022 Summer Reading program. Photo by Brandon Mach. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Library’s 2022 Summer Reading program concluded on Aug. 6.
The library reported that 430 children, teens and adults signed up for Summer Reading with Your Library.
Participants logged their reading with the library and could choose to earn 1 point per page read or they could earn 40 points per book read.
Altogether participants earned 479,664 points. That's the equivalent of reading “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien over 1,500 times.
The most popular book read by kids was “Unicorns are the Worst!” by Alex Willan, which tells the tale of a goblin annoyed by his new unicorn neighbors.
Also popular were “The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine” by Mark Twain and Philip C. Stead, “Hair Love” by Matthew A. Cherry and “Put Me in the Zoo” by Robert Lopshire.
Reading is fun all on its own but participants also won prizes. The library gave away over 700 prizes, including stickers, sticky hands and book totes. Also given away were coupons for free gifts donated by local businesses.
Adults and teens had a chance to win an Amazon Fire tablet, gift cards to local businesses or a gift basket filled with books.
To celebrate the end of Summer Reading, the Lake County Library hosted a Summer Carnival at the Redbud Library in Clearlake on Aug. 6. Over 80 people attended and kids had a great time playing games to win small prizes
Everyone who earned 1,000 points also had a book donated in their name to the Lake County Library, and got to be the first person to check that book out. All the prizes were donated by the Friends of the Lake County Library, a local nonprofit that supports the library system.
Summer Reading is held every year by the Lake County Library and challenges County residents to read more during the summer months.
Artist’s concept of Kepler-186f, an Earth-size exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star in the constellation Cygnus. Credits: NASA/Tim Pyle. Imagine you go to a theme park with your family and you ask a park employee to take a group photo.
A celebrity walks by in the background and waves at the camera, stealing the focus of the photo. Surprisingly, this concept of “photobombing” is relevant to astronomers looking for habitable planets, too.
When scientists point a telescope at an exoplanet, the light the telescope receives could effectively be “contaminated” by light from other planets in the same star system, according to a new NASA study. The research, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on Aug. 11, modeled how this “photobombing” effect would impact an advanced space telescope designed to observe potentially habitable exoplanets and suggested potential ways to overcome this challenge.
“If you looked at Earth sitting next to Mars or Venus from a distant vantage point, then depending on when you observed them, you might think they’re both the same object,” explained Dr. Prabal Saxena, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who led the research.
Saxena uses our own solar system as an analog to explain this photobombing effect.
“For example, depending on the observation, an exo-Earth could be hiding in [light from] what we mistakenly believe is a large exo-Venus,” said Dr. Saxena. Earth’s neighbor Venus is generally thought to be hostile to habitability, with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead – so this mixing could lead scientists to miss out on a potentially habitable planet.
Astronomers use telescopes to analyze light from distant worlds to gather information that may reveal whether they could support life. One light-year, the distance light travels in a year, is almost six trillion miles (over nine trillion kilometers), and there are about 30 stars similar to our Sun within roughly 30 light-years of our solar system.
This photobombing phenomenon, in which observations of one planet are contaminated by light from other planets in a system, stems from the “point-spread function” (PSF) of the target planet. The PSF is an image created due to diffraction of light (the bending or spreading of light waves around an opening) coming from a source and is larger than the source for something very far away (such as an exoplanet).
The size of the PSF of an object depends on the size of the telescope aperture (the light-collecting area) and wavelength at which the observation is taken. For worlds around a distant star, a PSF may resolve in such a way that two nearby planets or a planet and a moon could seem to morph into one.
If that is the case, the data that scientists can gather about such an Earth analog would be skewed or affected by whatever world or worlds were photobombing the planet in question, which could complicate or outright prevent the detection and confirmation of an exo-Earth, a potential planet like Earth beyond our solar system.
Saxena examined an analogous scenario in which otherworldly astronomers might be looking at Earth from more than 30 light-years away, using a telescope similar to that recommended in the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey.
“We found that such a telescope would sometimes see potential exo-Earths beyond 30 light-years distance blended with additional planets in their systems, including those that are outside of the habitable zone, for a range of different wavelengths of interest,” Saxena said.
The habitable zone is that region of space around a star where the amount of starlight would allow liquid water on a planet’s surface, which may enable the existence of life.
There are multiple strategies to deal with the photobombing problem. These include developing new methods of processing data gathered by telescopes to mitigate the potential that photobombing will skew the results of a study.
Another method would be to study systems over time, to avoid the possibility that planets with close orbits would appear in each other’s PSFs. Saxena’s study also discusses how using observations from multiple telescopes or increasing the size of the telescope could reduce the photobombing effect at similar distances.
Discovering exoplanets and determining if any can support life is part of NASA’s mission to explore and understand the unknown, to inspire and benefit humanity.
The research was funded by NASA under award number 80GSFC21M0002 and was also funded in part by the Goddard Sellers Exoplanet Environments Collaboration.
Nick Oakes writes for NASA.
This is a cartoon illustrating the planetary photobombing concept. Photobombers like Mars and the Moon could sneak into a picture of Earth, if you tried to observe it in a way similar to how scientists will try to find and understand potentially habitable worlds outside our solar system. Credits: NASA/Jay Friedlander/Prabal Saxena.
Vehicle fatalities have risen to their highest number in the first quarter of a year in two decades, according to a new federal report.
On Thursday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, released its early estimates of traffic fatalities for the first quarter of 2022.
NHTSA estimates that 9,560 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in the first quarter of 2022.
This is an increase of about 7% as compared to the 8,935 fatalities projected for the same quarter in 2021.
This would be the highest number of first-quarter fatalities since 2002.
That estimated 9,560 vehicle crash fatalities between January and March of this year included 944 in California.
According to NHTSA’s early estimates, the fatality rate for the first quarter of 2022 increased to 1.27 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, up from the projected rate of 1.25 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles in the first quarter of 2021.
NHTSA recently began breaking out fatality trends by state for these quarterly estimates. While fatalities increased nationwide, 19 states and Puerto Rico saw traffic deaths decline during this period.
NHTSA will continue to monitor state-by-state numbers to make it easier for state practitioners, researchers and advocates to see if there is a trend and if there are activities these states are undertaking that are contributing to this decline.
“The overall numbers are still moving in the wrong direction. Now is the time for all states to double down on traffic safety. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, there are more resources than ever for research, interventions and effective messaging and programs that can reverse the deadly trend and save lives,” said Dr. Steven Cliff, NHTSA’s administrator.
California Office of Traffic Safety Director Barbara Rooney responded to the report, noting, “There is no doubt we are experiencing a crisis on our roads. The early estimates from NHTSA show a surge in roadway deaths throughout the country during the first three months of the year — the likes of which we have not seen in two decades — and that one-in-every-10 traffic deaths happen in California.”
Rooney added, “We are addressing this crisis with the urgency it warrants and doing everything possible to deliver new approaches that will reverse this terrible trend. It will take every tool at our disposal – behavioral changes, enforcement against the most dangerous driving behaviors, safer road design with safer speeds – to provide multiple layers of protection for everyone on the road. The goal is zero deaths, and we will not stop working toward that goal until we reach a point where zero deaths are a permanent way of life.”
NHTSA said ending traffic fatalities across the country is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Transportation and the entire Biden-Harris Administration.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, makes significant investments in highway safety.
In January, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the National Roadway Safety Strategy, which includes a special focus on reducing traffic fatalities. The long-term plan aims to save lives by focusing on safer people, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds, and post-crash care.
As part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Roadway Safety Strategy to prevent traffic deaths, NHTSA launched a public education campaign last month to address one of America’s most dangerous driving behaviors — speeding.
NHTSA’s Speeding Wrecks Lives campaign aims to change general attitudes toward speeding and remind drivers of the deadly consequences. In addition to education campaigns, NHTSA regional offices are working closely with states to assist them in directing NHTSA formula grant funds to address risky driving behaviors such as speeding and driving while impaired, protect vulnerable road users, and reach over-represented and underserved populations using a broad array of programs and countermeasures.
NHTSA has also launched its annual Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over Labor Day high-visibility enforcement campaign, which focuses on preventing impaired driving and improving safety for all road users.
Florida’s median age in 2021 was 42.7, higher than the national median of 38.8 and that of neighboring Georgia (37.5).
But even within Florida, the age structure varies widely, from 32.1 in Leon County to 68.3 in Sumter County — the highest median age of any county in the nation.
A new U.S. Census Bureau interactive visualization shows the broad variations in age structure by state and county.
The June release of population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin for 2020 and 2021 provides the most recent county-level estimates by demographic characteristics.
In California, the new information shows that the median age in Lake County is 43.9 years.
The state’s youngest county by media age is Merced, at 31.7, versus the oldest, Sierra County, at 53.2 years.
Hovering over a county on the map below will give you the county’s population and its median age — the midpoint at which one-half the population is older and one-half is younger. Clicking on a county gives you more details of the county’s age and sex structure, and population by race and ethnicity (race alone or in combination and by Hispanic origin).
Population characteristics at the county level reveal unique population attributes and varied demographic compositions within each state.
For example, variations in age distribution within a state are common:
• In South Dakota, county median ages in 2021 ranged from 23.0 in Todd County to 56.3 in Custer County. The median age for the state was 37.7. • Virginia, Washington, Texas, Georgia, New Mexico and Idaho also show wide-ranging median age. Virginia had the widest range in county median age, from 22.2 in Lexington city to 59.3 in Highland County, a difference of 37.1 years.
Population pyramid
Median age is one way to represent an area's age distribution. Another way is using population pyramids providing the age and sex structure.
Population pyramids in the data visualization below are commonly used in demographic research because they provide a condensed but powerful illustration of a population’s age distribution by sex.
A population pyramid is essentially two bar charts, one for the male population on the left and the other for the female population on the right. The base of the pyramid, or bottom of the chart, has the youngest population (ages 0-4) and the top has the oldest (ages 85 and older).
The pyramid can reveal differences in age structure between two counties that have the same median age. For example, the median age in both Leon County, Florida, and Davis County, Utah, was 32.1 years in 2021. Their population pyramids, however, show differences in their age structures.
The relatively low median age in Leon County, Florida, was primarily due to a large population between the ages of 20 and 24, while in Davis County, Utah, the largest age group was the population ages 10 to 14.
Similarly in California, Orange County and Santa Cruz County both had a median age of 39.1 in 2021, but the underlying age structure in each county was different.
Orange County had comparably sized age groups that become smaller at older ages with the largest segment of the county’s population in ages 30 to 34. In contrast, Santa Cruz County had the largest share of its population in the younger age group of 20 to 24.
The visualization provides estimates for July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021. The panel on the bottom-right shows the selected county’s population by race and Hispanic origin. The race groups shown are for race alone or in combination.
Because some people identify as multiracial and indicate more than one race on their census form, the race numbers add up to more than the total population for the county. The visualization also shows estimates for the Hispanic population that can be of any race.
When considering data by race, it is important to note that the race categories used for the Population Estimates Program differ from the decennial census.
The 2020 Census included the category “Some Other Race,” but the input data used to produce the population estimates do not have that category.
Responses of “Some Other Race” from the decennial census are reclassified into the five racial categories included in the 1997 Office of Management and Budget’s standards, either alone or in combination with another race category. This process produces a “Modified Race” file that allows data users to connect the two.
In addition, the race and Hispanic origin distributions in the “blended base” used for the Vintage 2021 estimates were developed using data from the Vintage 2020 estimates. Vintage 2020 used the 2010 Census as the estimates base.
Improvements in how the Census Bureau collected and processed race information for the 2020 Census led to notable differences in the racial and ethnic composition of the population compared to what was measured in the 2010 Census.
The 2020 Census results revealed our country is much more multiracial and much more diverse than in previous decades. This also contributes to differences between the population estimates for specific race categories shown and those published from the 2020 Census.
For these reasons, comparisons between the estimates by race released today and the results of the 2020 Census by race will not be valid. For insight into the complex racial and ethnic diversity and composition of the U.S. population we advise using the 2020 Census race and ethnicity statistics.
Work is underway to develop a “modified race” variable for the 2020 Census data. This will allow us to use race and Hispanic origin information from the 2020 Census to produce the population estimates and will also enable us to make meaningful comparisons between the two sources. In the meantime, for more information see Using Demographic Benchmarks to Help Evaluate 2020 Census Results.
Kristie Wilder is a demographer in the Population Estimates Branch. Jack Byerly is a demographer in the Coordination, Dissemination, and Outreach Branch.
From left, Bill Ward, Assistant Fire Chief Paul Duncan, Battalion Chief Brian York and Walt Dorn following the delivery of the new HeloPods at the Middletown Fire Station in Middletown, California, on Thursday, August 18, 2022. Photo courtesy of Cal Fire. MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — A generous donation from the South Lake Fire Sirens Auxiliary Group has allowed South Lake County Fire Protection District to order two new generation portable dip tanks known as HeloPods.
The HeloPod is a groundbreaking product manufactured in Simi Valley, California, designed and built as a mobile Helicopter Dip Tank and Cistern for large helicopters.
This game changing tool helps get a water dip site set up quickly during an incident. With the quick set-up, firefighters will only need to connect the hoses to the hydrant, then helicopters are ready to start pulling water from it, while still hovering, greatly reducing turnaround times.
South Lake County Fire joins San Diego County Fire and Riverside County Fire deploying these HeloPods in their areas.
Other departments include but are not limited to Los Angeles County Fire, Santa Barbara County Fire and Orange County Fire.
Soon to follow is another leader in Northern California, the Northern Sonoma County Fire District.
With the new CAL FIREHAWK, while much more fire capable, water sources can be more challenging to find.
The HeloPod builds on the broader goal for the South Lake Fire Protection District to improve our community's fire readiness and capabilities.
This first started with "Operation Force Multiplier,” a region-first program that has put firefighting tools and extinguishers in the hands of our residents.
The second was the purchase of Engine 6061, South Lake County Fire's new Type 6 wildland firefighting engine. Engine 6061 is smaller, lighter, faster, and more capable for off-road use.
Regarding the HeloPod, Assistant Fire Chief Paul Duncan said, "Our Team here at South Lake County Fire has been researching this new type of resource for a few years. When the opportunity presented itself, our research was already done. And with a special thanks to the South Lake Fire Sirens, we were able to do the right thing, increasing the safety of our communities."
Two HeloPods were delivered on Thursday morning. One will be placed within the Middletown area, and the other in the Cobb area.
South Lake County Fire is collaborating with the Cobb Water District and the Callayomi County Water District to supply water to the tanks and local property owners for the locations to place them.
These locations have been chosen for the first locations to help spread water availability throughout the fire district. The Hidden Valley Lake area already has the community lake as a water source.
“It is our group's passion and drive to support our firefighters. We are just thrilled to be able to fund this critical purchase to support the communities in our fire district,” said Carol Olsen, who runs the thrift shop for the Fire Sirens.
South Lake Fire Protection District as well as the Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit is excited to have these game changing tools located within our responsibility areas.
For more information about the HeloPods, see the video below or contact South Lake County Fire Protection District.
Don’t expect the Inflation Reduction Act to bring down prices all that much. AP Photo/David Zalubowski
The U.S. is about to spend US$490 billion over 10 years on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving health care and reducing the federal deficit. Where’s all that money coming from?
We asked University of Michigan economist Nirupama Rao to examine how the new law will raise enough revenue to pay for clean energy tax credits, Affordable Care Act subsidies and incentives for manufacturers to use cleaner technologies, among other initiatives. We also wanted to know, given its name, will the Inflation Reduction Act actually bring down inflation?
What are the main revenue components in the bill?
The new law funds itself primarily through a mixture of tax-related measures and health care savings. In fact, the revenue it’s projected to raise more than pays for the new spending, reducing the deficit by roughly a quarter of a trillion dollars over 10 years.
The biggest source of revenue, projected by the Joint Committee on Taxation at about $222 billion, comes from a new 15% minimum corporate tax rate. Another $124 billion in net revenue is expected as a result of stepped-up tax enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service. The committee expects two other tax measures – including a 1% tax on corporate stock buybacks – would raise about $126 billion.
The corporate minimum tax is aimed at raising revenue from companies that report large profits to their shareholders but pay minimal taxes.
Though businesses can, of course, owe no tax because of perfectly legitimate uses of the tax code, seeing headlines about successful companies paying little to no tax has been galling to many Americans and can potentially undermine the public’s faith in the tax system.
In addition, government revenue from companies has plunged in recent years as a result of the 2017 corporate tax cut and other measures. Corporate tax revenue fell by nearly half as a share of gross domestic product from 2015 to 2020.
To be subject to the minimum tax, U.S. corporations must earn an average of at least $1 billion in adjusted book income – the earnings they report to shareholders less some adjustments – over the previous three years. It hits foreign companies too, though they need only report $100 million in U.S. income.
Basically, companies subject to the minimum will have to calculate their tax liability twice – once under regular corporate income tax rules and again by multiplying their adjusted book income by 15%. Their tax is whichever is greater. Theoretically, this ensures they at least pay the minimum.
A few important adjustments included in the bill’s final language will limit how much companies pay under the minimum tax. To prevent manufacturers from facing high minimum tax bills, for example, companies will be able to employ some of the same credits and deductions they use to reduce their regular corporate tax bills to lower the minimum tax they’ll pay as well.
While an earlier vision of the bill would have subjected private equity funds to the minimum tax, intense lobbying of Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema helped the industry get an exemption, along with retaining the carried interest loophole that the bill initially closed.
The IRS gets a big boost in funding from the new law, which should help it beef up enforcement and bring in more revenue.AP Photo/J. David Ake
How will IRS enforcement generate so much revenue?
The law allots $80 billion in new funding for the Internal Revenue Service. The Joint Committee on Taxation expects the investment to garner $204 billion in revenue over 10 years, or $124 billion once you subtract the increased spending.
The main target of this spending is the so-called tax gap, which is currently estimated at about $600 billion a year. The tax gap is the difference between how much corporate or individual taxpayers owe the IRS and how much the agency is able to collect.
The new revenue is expected to come from increased auditing, mostly targeting high-income taxpayers. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig have both pledged that the investments will not lift audit rates on small businesses and households earning less than $400,000 a year.
Many Democrats, along with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, believe this investment in the IRS will raise a lot more money than estimated because of better compliance among taxpayers who want to avoid being audited.
While an $80 billion investment that returns $204 billion already sounds pretty impressive, it may be possible that it’s a conservative estimate.
Will the law reduce inflation, as the name implies?
Probably not much.
Several measures in the law, such as narrowing the deficit, lowering drug prices and making the U.S. less vulnerable to energy price spikes, should all help reduce inflation somewhat.
Though monetary policy is the main tool for fighting inflation, it’s also possible that the new law will convince people that Congress is functional and willing to take steps to address inflation, and that feeling could lead to lower expectations for future inflation, which can be a self-fulfilling prophesy.
However, the magnitude of the direct impact on inflation, despite the bill’s name, will likely be slight. The Penn-Wharton Budget Model, which publishes economic analysis on the fiscal impact of public policy, suggests that the reduction in inflation of the Inflation Reduction Act “will be statistically indistinguishable from zero.”
That’s an economist’s way of saying, when it comes to the bill’s impact on inflation, don’t get your hopes up too much.
On Wednesday, state senators approved a proposal to encourage local schools to create task forces of area educators and tribal representatives to share local tribal history and culture, discuss issues of mutual concern and develop curriculum and classroom materials.
The measure, AB 1703, the California Indian Education Act, introduced by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland), was approved on a bipartisan vote of 37-0. Ramos is the first and only California Native American serving in the state’s legislature.
“I’m excited that this bill is one step closer to the governor. Now it’s important for Indian country to send letters urging him to sign the bill,” Ramos said. “It’s critical that we teach all students about the diversity of California’s more than 100 tribes. Our state’s tribes each have different languages, customs, culture, and history. Without this interaction, we cannot develop the more complete and high quality curriculum we seek, and we will continue to see incidents like that involving the Riverside math teacher. AB 1703 also provides teachers with more instructional tools and forges understanding among students and between local tribal families and their children’s campuses.”
“I am proud to join Assemblymember Ramos as a coauthor on AB 1703, which celebrates and encourages the accurate teaching of the history, culture, and government of local tribes,” said Sen. Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara). “This bill will help to shine a light on the true contributions of Native American people to our state and help preserve their rich history. I look forward to the end product that will benefit all students by providing a curriculum that ensures students are academically engaged, contribute to an increase in performance on academic tests, and improve graduation rates.”
Ramos noted that presenters at an October 2021 informational hearing by the Select Committee on Native American Affairs and the Education Committee also stressed the importance for local educators to collaborate with their tribes to bring Native American history and culture into the classroom.
AB 1703 calls for curriculum and instructional materials developed by the California Indian Education Task Forces to be shared with the California Department of Education so as to assist in sharing that knowledge statewide.
The education department is one of two sponsors of the bill, along with the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.
Johnny Hernández Jr, vice chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and chair of that tribe’s education board testified, “From a young age, we find ourselves balancing between two worlds: the world of our tribe and our ancestors, and the world we come to know through school, work, and our peers.”
He cited a movement in San Bernardino County that began in 1998 with four young fathers, Ramos among them, to collaborate with San Bernardino County area schools and California State University, San Bernardino.
The group organized large-scale week-long trips of students and teachers to teach them about California Indian culture in honor of the state’s Native American Day.
Hernández added, “I am pleased to say that this model has reached tens of thousands of students, teachers, and parents in 20-plus years. It has proven so successful that we believe now is the time for tribes and the state to take the next step together to introduce this concept to all Californians.”
In addition to encouraging local engagement between tribes and schools, AB 1703 would require that local districts identify the extent of the achievement gap between Native American students and their non-Native peers and come up with strategies to close them. These findings would be submitted to the Assembly and Senate Education committees.
Legislative co-authors include Assemblymembers Lisa Calderon (D-Whittier), Steve Bennett (D-Ventura), Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), Sabrina Cervantes (D-Corona), Cristina Garcia Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella), Mike Gipson (D-Carson); Alex Lee (D-San Jose); Devon Mathis (R-Visalia), Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton), Eloise Reyes (D-San Bernardino); Carlos Villapudua (D-Stockton) and Senators Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) and Monique Limon (D-Santa Barbara).
AB 1703 is sponsored by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians and California Department of Education.
Supporters include the California Teachers Association, California Association for Bilingual Education, California Calls, California Charter Schools Association, California Native Vote Project, California State Parent Teacher Association, Californians Together, Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians, Tachi Yokut Tribe, Tule River Tribe, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Redlands Unified School District and Riverside Unified School District.
