#Contra Costa Board of Supervisors

[bethestaryouareradio]

Be the Star You Are!® Wins 2024 Nonprofit of the Year!

MIRACLE MOMENT®

“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already.”~ J.K. Rowling

A MESSAGE from Founder/Executive Director, CYNTHIA BRIAN

As a steward of our beautiful earth and a gregarious gardener, April is a favorite month because it signals a time of awareness of the need to care for our planet. Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 and in 2022, two of our youth poets, Sharanya Roy, Ruhani Chhabra and I were chosen to participate in a global celebration that included the soon-to-be crowned King Charles! (Check out the videos at www.youtube.com/Bethestaryouare) That was thrilling.

This April, Be the Star You Are!® once again was surprised with an award. What exciting news it was to be notified by Katie Bidstrup, Executive Director of the Moraga Chamber of Commerce that out of 80 nominations, Be the Star You Are!® was the winner of the 2024 NonProfit of the Year and the Child Day School was the winner of Business of the Year. How marvelous that both entities empower excellence in youth! Thank you, Katie!

At the awards reception on Saturday, April 13, volunteers, donors, supporters, friends, and family were honored by the Chamber Board, Mayor, Council Members, and County Supervisors. Teen volunteers introduced themselves and the programs that they were involved in. Two of our Express Yourself!® Teen Radio Hosts, Julia Howe and Sharanya Roy, gave heartfelt, emotional speeches about the profound and powerful impact that volunteering with Be the Star You Are!® had on their lives. I was so personally touched, that I was in tears.

People in attendance were also deeply moved. The positive comments about the teens were profuse and well-deserved. The Town Council stated, “Your selection as Moraga's 2024 Nonprofit of the Year is a very positive reflection on your critical positive contribution to our community.” 

Read Vera Kochan’s great article about the Business and Nonprofit of the Year: https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1804/Moragas-Business-and-Nonprofit-of-the-Year.html

As one supporter kindly wrote “Cynthia, it was a real pleasure to visit with your outstanding group. As we said to your crew on the way out, “we feel much better about the future of the United States.” You have a wonderful program.”  Yes, kudos to our well-spoken and amazing youth!

The future is bright because teens express themselves. Tune in to our teen radio broadcasts where teens talk and the world listens. 

We extend our thanks to the Moraga Chamber of Commerce, the Town Council of Moraga, and the Board of Supervisors of Contra Costa County for bestowing Be the Star You Are!® with this tribute. Our appreciation to everyone who has donated and supported us over the years. After 25 years of service to our community, county, country, and world, we are pleased to be making a positive difference.

Most of all, I personally salute our volunteers who have the magic to transform the world. They do carry the power within! BRAVO!!!

We will continue to be conscientious caretakers of our Earth.

With gratitude to all for your support and love.

Cynthia Brian

Founder/Executive Director

Be the Star You Are!®

PO Box 376

Moraga, California 94556

In the photo L to R:  Keerthi Eranivan, Sharanya Roy, Julia Howe, Sean Kwok, Ella Kalpakjian, Cynthia Brian, Saanvi Phaneendra. Not pictured: Charvi Saxena

DONATE: https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1504

WELCOME TO OUR TEEN VIDEOGRAPHER

Eleventh grader, Sean Kwok, volunteers as a videographer for Be The Star You Are!®, and has chosen the organization because it gives other youth like him a belief in positive media and literacy. His favorite pastimes are running track, doing sound for theatrical tech, and Youth & Government. He also loves filmmaking and hopes to pursue it as a major in college. He encourages others to take a look at the BTSYA website and look through all the great ways people can find the great messages and programs that Be the Star You Are!® has created!

Check out the videos Sean has created for BTSYA with more to come.

About Books:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8vZsv5bl_g

About Radio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkXbSdyQ1hw&t=3s

BE KIND TO OUR ENVIRONMENT

by Karen Kitchel

We all have a role to play in preserving our environment for future generations.  While many corporations are dealing with long-term sustainability, there are simple things we can do that will have an impact on everyone’s tomorrow.  Pick one of the following to do today to be kind to our environment.

Alternatives to Driving

·       Walk or ride a bike·       Carpool or use public transportation·       Save gas by watching your speed (Note:  speeding reduces mileage by up to 33%)·       Combine errands to make fewer trips

Home Energy Savers

·       Turn off lights when you leave the room·       Reduce drafts with caulk, insulation, or weather stripping·       Look for energy-efficient appliances when replacing old ones

Other Ways To Save Our Planet

·       Eat locally-produced food·       Recycle items you no longer use·       Use cloth napkins at home instead of paperReduce paper consumption by using technology with less printing of documents or using both.

Karen Kitchel is the Kindness Coordinator volunteer with BTSYA. She purchased the book, No Barnyard Bullies, as a gift for every kindergarten student where she is a volunteer teacher. www.scatteringkindness.com

PRESALES FOR NEW CHILDREN’S BOOK

The third book in the children’s picture book series Stella Bella’s Barnyard Adventure is Books in the Barnyard: Oh Deer!, a delightful tale based on the true story of a baby fawn who is rescued by children and shares a secret superpower. Proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit Be the Star You Are!® charity.  While the book is being published, presale orders are discounted through May 20th. The regular price is $14.95 but the presale price is only $11.95. Buy your copies now, ask for autographs,  and reap the extra rewards. Visit https://www.CynthiaBrian.com/online-store.

INSPIRING BOOK PACKAGES

Are you looking for first-edition book packages as keepsakes or gifts?  Be the Star You Are!® offers our special book package containing six books in our most popular two series for adults, teens, and children.

The total donation is $125 for the six books including tax and shipping. Visit https://www.bethestaryouare.org/book-gift for order information.

Looking for other great books, CDs, or movies by your favorite authors? Check out BTSYA’s Amazon Store: http://www.amazon.com/shops/be_the_star_you_are_charity

FREE DEBATE PROGRAM FOR K-12 WITH ELOQUENCE ACADEMY

Be the Star You Are!® is excited to announce a new program in collaboration with the Eloquence Academy for a FREE debate program for students. Keerthi Eranivan, our talented debate volunteer, is the BTSYA chairperson, who will spearhead our partnership in this new program.  Eloquence is sustained by a strong belief in our mission and the power of speech and debate. Otherwise known as forensics, debate is a popular extracurricular activity in MS and HS nationwide, as well as in undergraduate, graduate, and other post-secondary organizations. Beyond the technical aspects of competition, debaters are known to enter the workforce with edges over others: increased communication skills, increased confidence, higher SAT scores (both on the math and reading section of the standardized tests), a higher GPA, and a better chance of attending and graduating from college. This program collaboration aims to offer debate programs to students aged K-12  providing the opportunity to experience the activity and supplement their academic and developmental growth. For information visit https://www.bethestaryouare.org/programs

For more information about Eloquence Academy visit www.eloquenceacademy.org and Instagram: @eloquenceacadem

Keerthi chairs the Eloquence Debate Partnership with Be the Star You Are!®

SPRING SHIFT

by Britney Phan

I shift and the environment shifts with me. The beginning of spring signals new opportunities for growth as I look for ways to reinvent myself. The changing of the leaves and the blossoming of the flowers; animals, once hibernating, emerging from their caves—all these serve to remind me of the fact that, not unlike the perpetual shift of the seasons, personal growth is also a cyclical and continuous process.

If we are products of our environment, then it stands to reason we should also protect it. Our environment plays a direct role in the shaping of our identities. I have personally experienced the calming effects of nature myself while taking a stroll through the park after a particularly dreary day; in that sense, taking care of the environment is an act of gratitude for all the ways the Earth has helped and shaped us. If not for us, then our responsibility to the environment should come from the need to take care of it for future generations: after all, how can our children appreciate the beauty of sitting beneath a tree if there are no trees left for them to enjoy?

Britney Phan with her family above is a volunteer writer with BTSYA and an undergraduate student at Fordham University, where she intends to major in English. Her interests include writing, reading, and spending time with her sister.

TWENTY FIVE YEARS OF POSITIVE RESULTS

With no paid staff and all volunteers, since receiving our 501c3 status in 1999, Be the Star You Are! has:

*Served 558,927 individuals and families 

*Donated to 118 organizations 

*Logged 770,999 volunteer hours and growing

*Distributed $2.1 million plus in resources

*Collected and donated 1575 pairs of shoes to women in poverty around the globe.

*Broadcast 2700 unique hours of positive programming through radio broadcasts.

*Published 7 signature award-winning books, Be the Star You Are!® 99 Gifts, Be the Star You Are!® for Teens, Be the Star You Are!® Millennials to Boomers, No Barnyard Bullies, Family Forever, Books in the Barnyard: Oh Deer!, and Miracle Moments®,

*Written and published over 2530 book reviews in collaboration with The Reading Tub and Express Yourself!™ Creative Community.

*Interviewed over 2500 authors, experts, and celebrities.

*Honored by the California Assembly at 20 years of community service. 

*Nominated for the California Governor’s and First Lady’s Service Awards

*2024 Nonprofit of the Year awarded by Moraga Chamber of Commerce out of 80 nominations.

*Honored with five-star ratings as a Top Rated Non-Profit by GuideStar and Great Non Profits for the Women’s Empowerment, Arts and Culture, and the Arts Appreciation Campaigns since 2010.

“Dignity is not built on possessing honors, but on the awareness that you deserve them.”~ Aristotle

Be the Star You Are!® encourages and supports its volunteers to GROW people.

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[levinletlive]

I'd like to say that we're not in danger at our jobs, but some of us actually are. I'm lucky enough to work in a mailroom where I won't see any clients, but receptionists and intake aren't so lucky. My sister got hit with a phone by a client, and just a week or so ago somebody tried to attack a clerk through the window at the Delta Fair office and the CO pepper-sprayed her, and they had to close down the whole lobby. Dealing with stressed, desperate, and occasionally mentally ill people is dangerous work.

What makes it even more dangerous is the fact that most of our county employees are either older or straight up elderly, and many have immune system problems that put them in particular danger during this outbreak. They're still coming to work to help those in poverty get their benefits, even though they could get sick and die doing it. At the very least, they should be getting hazard pay, because the alternative is going home indefinitely without pay and straining an already underfunded, understaffed system.

Contra Costa County voters, keep this situation in mind when you vote for your Board of Supervisors.

#localgovernment #localbusiness #cococounty #contracosta #contracostacounty #ehsd #localelections #boardofsupervisors #countyemployees #hazardpay #unions #seiu1700 #local1021 #coronavirus #covid19 #levin_socpol

[feelingbluepolitics]

"Coronavirus cases in California are often listed by county, generally with very little additional information — such as gender, city of residence or age — provided.

"Critics of the threadbare public reporting say it is striking that even in Silicon Valley, which is home to leading technology companies that thrive off the collection of data, residents are given very little information about the movement and dynamics of the virus.

..."Health departments in the Bay Area make the case that releasing more granular data could heighten discrimination against certain communities where there might be clusters. The first cases in the Bay Area were among ethnic Chinese residents returning from trips to China.

"'Pandemics increase paranoia and stigma,' said Dr. Rohan Radhakrishna, the deputy health officer of Contra Costa County, across the Bay from San Francisco, which provides only the total number of cases in the county on its website. 'We must be extra cautious in protecting individuals and the community.'

"In Santa Clara, health officials say they cannot disclose how many cases are found in each city because of the nation’s strict medical privacy law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996.

"But that law was designed for the protection of personal data at doctors’ offices and in hospitals and includes provisions for the release of otherwise protected information during emergencies.

"Using the law as a justification for limiting the release of aggregate data about the coronavirus is 'ridiculous,' according to Arthur L. Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the N.Y.U. School of Medicine in New York City.

"Prof. Caplan is among many experts who say the coronavirus is likely to spur a reassessment of medical privacy laws.

..."In a sign of how contested the question of public disclosure is, disagreement exists even within the Santa Clara County government.

"Dr. Jeffrey V. Smith, the county executive, who is both a medical doctor and a lawyer, argues that more precise geographical information about the spread does not help combat the virus because it is already widespread.

"But David Cortese, a member of the county’s board of supervisors, says that the public has the right to know more and that a patient’s identity is unlikely to be revealed by giving a breakdown of cases by city.

"'I think when people can’t get information they freak out, they think something is being hidden from them, conspiracy theories grow, suspicions grow,' he said. 'I think it’s always better to be as truthful, calmly, and transparent with the public as you can be.'

"Frustration over the dearth of data also extends to epidemiologists trying to understand the dynamics of the spread of the virus.

..."To make up for the lack of public data, researchers are scraping information on cases from news outlets and other media accounts... They are mainly relying on data from South Korea, China and Italy to try to predict the spread of the virus.

..."China’s data 'provided incredible detail,' including a patient’s age, sex, travel history and history of chronic disease, as well as where the case was reported, and the dates of the onset of symptoms, hospitalization and confirmation of infection.

..."Prof. Caplan of the N.Y.U. School of Medicine says it is paradoxical that the United States is providing less precise information to its citizens on the outbreak than Singapore, which puts limits on the spread of information through internet controls."

[shirlleycoyle]

HelloFresh Workers Are Unionizing the Booming Meal-Kit Industry

Last year, HelloFresh, the popular food-kit delivery company that advertises technologically innovative and sustainable approaches to cooking, sold 278 million meals to Americans and doubled its U.S. revenue to $2.4 billion. But on HelloFresh's assembly lines, workers were unable to afford rent, suffered serious injuries, and were subjected to timers when they used the bathroom, according to workers interviewed by Motherboard. 

Now 1,300 HelloFresh workers—intent on improving dire circumstances—are unionizing two HelloFresh factory kitchens in Colorado and California.

On Tuesday, UNITE HERE, the national hospitality and service industry union, filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking to authorize a vote by workers at the kitchen factory in Aurora, Colorado. HelloFresh workers at the Richmond, California, facility in the Bay Area are signing up for the union in droves, according to UNITE HERE. 

"We are struggling financially. There are a lot of people who don’t know how to meet income requirements to rent apartments."

If HelloFresh workers vote to unionize, they would be the first in the booming meal-kit industry, which includes Blue Apron, Sun Basket, and Martha & Marley Spoon, to do so. Founded in 2011 in Germany, HelloFresh is now the largest meal-kit company in the United States. The service—which includes user-friendly instruction cards for each meal—is marketed to white-collar professionals, in particular women, short on time for grocery shopping and planning recipes.

"We want to break the cycle that so many of us at HelloFresh are under," Mary Williams, a 26-year-old pack line worker at the Aurora site who earns $15 an hour, told Motherboard. "It's a cycle of low-paying work and having to work back-to-back jobs. We believe that having a union will really change things." 

Williams packs between 600 and 1,000 HelloFresh boxes a day, and says that in recent months, her assembly line, which is supposed to have seven workers, has been expected to meet the same quotas with only four workers, due to staffing difficulties. She feels discouraged from taking water breaks because the burden would fall on her coworkers to pick up the slack. When she uses the bathroom, which involves removing hairnets, jackets, and gloves, her supervisor sets a 10-minute timer. 

"Now that the economy is open and people are getting new jobs, we’re low staffed," said Mary. "We have four people on the line doing double the work."

Williams and her sister, Sarah—who both work on the assembly line stuffing cardboard insulation, ice packs, meat, and prepared food kits into boxes—lost their jobs in the hospitality industry during the pandemic and came to work at HelloFresh in November. But unable to afford rent on their HelloFresh income, they had to move out of a rented studio apartment and live with their parents. 

"We are struggling financially," said Mary. "There are a lot of people who are in similar situations who had to move in with parents during Covid and people who don’t know how to meet income requirements to rent apartments."

Multiple workers at both the Richmond and Aurora facilities have shared with UNITE HERE organizers that they are homeless and cannot afford rent with HelloFresh wages. 

"You’re drowning on these wages when you have a family. I have four kids and I support three of them," said Michael Simon, a heavy lifter on a carrot-processing machine at the Richmond facility. "I sacrifice buying new clothes and I can't fill up my gas tank all the way. It’s frustrating when you can’t take your kid to do simple stuff like go to Chuck E Cheese and Party City."

Lily Vasquez, who works on the “kitting line,” stuffing fresh produce and other ingredients into plastic bags, at the HelloFresh factory in Richmond, said she wants to unionize to increase her pay and address concerns about health and safety at the factory. She suffers chronic pain in her neck, back, and shoulders from repeating the same motions thousands of times.

"Lots of us are excited. We are sure a union is what we want and what we need to have the change we need to make," Vasquez said in Spanish. “I am worried for a lot of the people working at HelloFresh. A lot of us have injured hands and pain in our feet, but we work through the pain because we won’t get paid if we go home. We need this change immediately and I know we are going to achieve it."

HelloFresh workers in Aurora and Richmond say anti-union consultants have visited and held mandatory anti-union meetings in recent days. Workers say Kulture Consulting, an anti-union firm known for spreading right-wing conspiracy theories and fighting union drives at Coca-Cola and AT&T, was present in the Colorado facility earlier this summer. 

"On Monday, we went to one of these meetings, and the consultant that HelloFresh hired goes on to say unions are bad and manipulate and lie to you," said Sarah Williams.

In its 2021 code of ethics, HelloFresh touts its commitment to workers’ rights, sustainability, and universal access to healthy food. "We are aware of our responsibility and the importance of promoting human rights and the rights of workers throughout our operations," the company says. "We support the principles established under the International Bill of Human Rights as well as the International Labor Organization."

On June 16, an unmoored several-hundred-pound pallet full of plastic bins fell approximately 25 feet onto four quality-control workers in Aurora, trapping them and sending two seriously injured workers in ambulances to the hospital for treatment, according to a series of witness statements collected by UNITE HERE. 

Workers say this was the fourth time a pallet had fallen in four months because they weren't secured with brackets or rope.

"There was a meeting that was called after the accident to tell us to stop 'gossiping' about our concerns," said Mary Williams. 

A spokesperson from HelloFresh said it is inaccurate to report that a several-hundred-pound pallet caused the incident. "We took the incident very seriously, but the item that was involved was smaller," the spokesperson said. "Immediately following the incident, we partnered with OSHA and subsequently added enhanced safety measures."

Vasquez, a 48-year-old single mom, earns $18.50 an hour as a line lead after five years at HelloFresh, but says it’s not enough to support her son and mother in the Bay Area. 

"My brother is a big support; he helps me when I need something,'' Vasquez said. "But why should I be asking for help from my brother?"

Last year, at least 171 workers tested positive for COVID-19 at the HelloFresh facility in Richmond, making it the largest COVID-19 outbreak to date in Contra Costa County, according to public records obtained by UNITE HERE. When Vasquez and her son tested positive for COVID, she says she called management repeatedly to inform them but never got a response.   

"Lots of us are excited. We are sure a union is what we want and what we need to have the change we need to make.”

The majority of workers at the HelloFresh facilities in Colorado and California are people of color, according to UNITE HERE—many of them Latinx, African-American, and Pacific Islander. Workers in Aurora say supervisors and managers are predominantly white men. 

"HelloFresh workers came to us and we responded," D Taylor, the president of UNITE HERE, told Motherboard. "A German company has come to the United States and set up factories and made enormous profits—became the pandemic profiteer—and workers came to us because of health and safety issues. ​

"We want to organize workers in our industry who are being exploited and don’t have a say on the job. This is not the first or the last time," Taylor said. "We know that many companies that promote progressive ideas have a problem and will fight workers tooth and nail in order to keep a union out." 

HelloFresh Workers Are Unionizing the Booming Meal-Kit Industry syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[abhayhatia]

COVID: Contra Costa Orders County Workers To Be Vaccinated By October 4 Or Face Possible Termination

COVID: Contra Costa Orders County Workers To Be Vaccinated By October 4 Or Face Possible Termination

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY (BCN) – All Contra Costa County employees must be vaccinated by October 4 or face discipline up to and including termination, a county official said this week. The mandate was set forth in a memo from County Administrator Monica Nino on behalf of the Board of Supervisors dated August 24. “All employees who are not subject to a more stringent vaccination mandate by the…

[hemp-pot]

Hemp growing rules to be discussed by Contra Costa Board of Supervisors - KRON4

Hemp growing rules to be discussed by Contra Costa Board of Supervisors  KRON4 source https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/hemp-growing-rules-to-be-discussed-by-contra-costa-board-of-supervisors/

[levinletlive]

It's over 100°F today and we're 9 unions strong turning up the heat on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.

We are the 4th wealthiest county in California, yet we are one of the worst compensated county workforces in the state! We can't hold onto new hires because we're so understaffed and overworked that they get overwhelmed and leave within a couple of weeks. Our workers go to Solano and San Francisco County to get better pay for the same work.

If you're on public assistance of any kind in California, but especially in Contra Costa County, this is about you too. Our clients' cases get discontinued and benefits get delayed through no fault of their own because we literally don't have enough people to stay in compliance. Tour food stamps could be late this month or next month. Your medi-cal could take weeks to get approved while you sit in the hospital. Even the Public Defenders are understaffed and underpaid, so if you're facing incarceration your representation is at risk. Rent, gas, child care, and medical costs are skyrocketing. Most of us are a paycheck or two from losing our homes.

We have confronted the BoS about this, and their response, verbatim, was "it's not a priority." Not "we can't afford it", not "we can't do it". Fairly staffing and compensating the workforce is not a priority. Therefore, our clients and communities are also not a priority.

Our contracts are up in 9 days. If you are in Contra Costa County or the surrounding area, or even if you just want to give the BoS a piece of your mind, you can contact them here and give them a piece of your mind.

Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors

Federal Glover, Diane Burgis, Candace Andersen, Karen Mitchoff, and John Gioia

1 (925) 655-2350

1025 Escobar Street

Martinez, California 94553

Emails and other info here:

When we fight, we win! Tell Contra Costa County to staff up!

[nj-stone]

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors approved a declaration this week that states that teachers should be considered 'essential workers' and thus among the first people to get COVID-19 vaccinations.

[hemp-pot]

Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors approve moratorium extension on industrial hemp cultivation - thepress.net

Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors approve moratorium extension on industrial hemp cultivation  thepress.net source https://www.thepress.net/news/contra-costa-county-board-of-supervisors-approve-moratorium-extension-on-industrial-hemp-cultivation/article_e60369d2-460b-11eb-80bb-9b5b1a43c2ce.html

[stephenmccull]

California Expands Privacy Protection to Public Health Workers Amid Threats

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — California will allow public health officials to participate in a program to keep their home addresses confidential, a protection previously reserved for victims of violence, abuse and stalking and reproductive health care workers.

The executive order signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom late Wednesday is a response to threats made to health officers across California during the coronavirus pandemic. More than a dozen public health leaders have left their jobs amid such harassment over their role in mask rules and stay-at-home orders.

“Our public health officers have all too often faced targeted harassment and stalking,” wrote Secretary of State Alex Padilla in a statement. This “program can help provide more peace of mind to the public health officials who have been on the frontlines of California’s COVID-19 response.”

A community college instructor accused of stalking and threatening Santa Clara health officer Sara Cody was arrested in late August. The Santa Clara County sheriff said it believes the suspect, Alan Viarengo, has ties to the “Boogaloo” movement, a right-wing, anti-government group that promotes violence and is associated with multiple killings, including the murders of a federal security officer and a sheriff deputy in the Bay Area. Thousands of rounds of ammunition, 138 firearms and explosive materials were found in his home, the sheriff’s office said.

In Santa Cruz County, two top health officials have received death threats, including one allegedly signed by a far-right extremist group.

In May, a member of the public read aloud the home address of former Orange County health officer Nichole Quick at a supervisors’ meeting and called for protesters to go to her home. “You have seen firsthand how people have been forced to exercise their First Amendment. Be wise, and do not force the residents of this county into feeling they have no other choice than to exercise their Second Amendment,” said another attendee. Quick later resigned.

Protesters angry over mask mandates and stay-at-home orders have gone to the homes of health officers in multiple counties, including Orange and Contra Costa.

The executive order would allow health officials to register with the Secretary of State’s Safe at Home program. Those in the program are given an alternative mailing address to use for public records so that their home addresses are not revealed.

Threats of violence have added to the already immense pressure public health officials have experienced since the beginning of the year. Amid chronic underfunding and staffing shortages, they have been working to limit the spread of the coronavirus, while also deflecting political pressure from other officials and anger from the public over business closures and mask mandates.

“California’s local health officers have been working tirelessly since the start of the pandemic, using science to guide policy,” said Kat DeBurgh, the executive director of the Health Officers Association of California. “It is regrettable that this order was necessary — but we are grateful for it nevertheless.”

Nationwide, at least 61 state or local health leaders in 27 states have resigned, retired or been fired since April, according to a review by The Associated Press and KHN, a figure that has doubled since the newsrooms first began tracking the departures in June.

Thirteen of those departures have been in California, including 11 county health officials and the state’s two top public health officials.

Dr. Sonia Angell, former director of the California Department of Public Health and state public health officer, quit in early August after a series of glitches in the state’s infectious disease reporting system caused weeks-long delays in reporting cases of COVID-19.

In Placer County, north of Sacramento, health officer Dr. Aimee Sisson resigned effective Sept. 25 after the county Board of Supervisors voted to end its local COVID-19 health emergency. “It is with a heavy heart that I submit this letter of resignation,” she wrote in her resignation letter. “Today’s action by the Placer County Board of Supervisors made it clear that I can no longer effectively serve in my role.”

Organizations across the state have expressed concern over the treatment of health officials during the pandemic, including the California Medical Association.

“Basic science has become politicized in so many parts of our state, and our country,” wrote California Medical Association president Dr. Peter N. Bretan Jr. in a statement after Sisson’s departure. “Public health officers are public servants who seek to do what their job description states — to protect public health.”

The executive order also directs the state to assess impacts of the pandemic on health care providers and health care service plans, and halts evictions for commercial renters through March 31, 2021, among other pandemic-related matters.

KHN and California Healthline correspondent Angela Hart contributed to this report.

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

California Expands Privacy Protection to Public Health Workers Amid Threats published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[eznews]

Mask and social distancing scofflaws beware: Santa Clara County has started enforcing its coronavirus health orders, and violators could face steep fines.

Since the Board of Supervisors voted to authorize enforcement last week, the county has sent notices of violation to three businesses, according to a county news release. Two of the three non-compliant businesses corrected the issues and will not be penalized. The third business still has time to fix the violation and avoid a fine.

Santa Clara County allows a grace period of 24 to 72 hours before issuing fines of up to $500 for individuals and $5,000 for businesses.

“We are glad to see corrections being made in response to the citations of the Health Officer orders issued by the designated enforcement officers,” Michael Balliet, Santa Clara County director of environmental health, wrote in the news release. “Our goal is to educate and not fine businesses, but fines will be issued if businesses refuse to comply with the laws protecting the public from COVID-19.”

San Mateo, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Napa and Marin counties have authorized similar fines, and the city of Livermore joined the pack last week.

County health orders already allowed law enforcement officers to arrest people who don’t wear masks or comply with social-distancing rules, opening up violators to large fines and potential jail time. But police and sheriff’s deputies have been reluctant to do so. The new civil penalties passed in Santa Clara and other counties — about equivalent to a traffic ticket — are intended to make enforcement easier.

“This ordinance provides an added tool to enforce the Health Officer’s orders and protect the public in Santa Clara County,” County Counsel James Williams wrote. “It is our hope that businesses will use the grace period to make the necessary corrections and avoid fines, but if they fail to do so, the penalties are significant. The vast majority of businesses are playing by the rules and keeping our community’s wellbeing as their priority, but those that are not need to know that our community is serious about enforcement.”

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[deniscollins]

How Much Should the Public Know About Who Has Coronavirus?

Residents are clamoring to see whether the virus has been detected in their neighborhoods so they can take more steps to avoid any contact. American researchers are starved for data, unlike their colleagues in other countries who are harnessing rivers of information from their more centralized medical systems. And local politicians complain that they cannot provide basic information on the spread of the virus to their constituents. If you were a city or town manager, would you: (1) release the names of people with coronavirus so other citizens know who to avoid contact with or (2) not release names to protect the person’s privacy? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

When the first case of the coronavirus in Silicon Valley was discovered in late January, health officials were faced with a barrage of questions: What city did the patient live in? Whom had he come in contact with? Which health clinic had he visited before he knew he was infected?

Dr. Sara Cody, the chief health officer for Santa Clara County, which has a population of two million across 15 cities, declined to give details.

“I can’t give the city,” she said, adding “we are not going to be giving out information about where he sought health care.”

As the coronavirus spreads across the United States the limited disclosure of data by officials would seem to be a footnote to the suffering and economic disruptions that the disease is causing.

But medical experts say that how much the public should know has become a critical question that will help determine how the United States confronts this outbreak and future ones.

Residents are clamoring to see whether the virus has been detected in their neighborhoods so they can take more steps to avoid any contact. American researchers are starved for data, unlike their colleagues in other countries who are harnessing rivers of information from their more centralized medical systems. And local politicians complain that they cannot provide basic information on the spread of the virus to their constituents.

In the perennial tug-of-war between privacy and transparency in the United States, privacy appears to be winning in the coronavirus pandemic.

The bare-minimum approach to public disclosures in places like the San Francisco Bay Area is common across the United States. Armed with emergency powers in many areas, public health officers have vast discretion over what information they want, and do not want, to release to the public. Coronavirus cases in California are often listed by county, generally with very little additional information — such as gender, city of residence or age — provided.

Critics of the threadbare public reporting say it is striking that even in Silicon Valley, which is home to leading technology companies that thrive off the collection of data, residents are given very little information about the movement and dynamics of the virus.

California, which has more than 4,600 cases, is a microcosm for how inconsistent the distribution of information has been during the pandemic. Los Angeles County provides a rough age distribution of patients and breaks down the cases into more than 140 cities and communities. On Friday, for example, the county reported 21 cases in Beverly Hills, 28 in the city of Santa Monica and 49 in the neighborhood of Melrose.

Across the United States there is even less consistency. New York is listing cases by age bracket, gender and borough despite calls for more localized reporting. Connecticut lists data by town. Florida provides its residents with a wealth of data on the pandemic. The state’s Department of Health has a detailed dashboard and reports showing the spread of the virus — rich with data on the cities affected, the number of people tested, the age brackets of patients, whether they are Florida residents, and the number of cases in nursing homes.

Health departments in the Bay Area make the case that releasing more granular data could heighten discrimination against certain communities where there might be clusters. The first cases in the Bay Area were among ethnic Chinese residents returning from trips to China.

“Pandemics increase paranoia and stigma,” said Dr. Rohan Radhakrishna, the deputy health officer of Contra Costa County, across the Bay from San Francisco, which provides only the total number of cases in the county on its website. “We must be extra cautious in protecting individuals and the community.”

In Santa Clara, health officials say they cannot disclose how many cases are found in each city because of the nation’s strict medical privacy law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996.

But that law was designed for the protection of personal data at doctors’ offices and in hospitals and includes provisions for the release of otherwise protected information during emergencies.

Using the law as a justification for limiting the release of aggregate data about the coronavirus is “ridiculous,” according to Arthur L. Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the N.Y.U. School of Medicine in New York City.

Prof. Caplan is among many experts who say the coronavirus is likely to spur a reassessment of medical privacy laws. Already, the Trump Administration waived some provisions of the law this month.

“HIPAA was written for a time when there were paper charts,” Prof. Caplan said. The coronavirus, he said, “will cause us to rethink a lot of things.”

“We will also have to plan for better data exchange and testing,” he said.

The U.S. approach contrasts sharply with that of Singapore and Taiwan, whose fights against the virus have been praised as among the most effective. Both governments make public the suspected linkages of cases, anonymized by numbers. In Singapore the authorities sometimes list neighborhoods where patients lived, their workplaces and churches or mosques that they attended.

I. Glenn Cohen, an expert in bioethics at Harvard Law School, says the guiding principle during this crisis should be sharing more rather than less.

“Public health depends a lot on public trust,” he said. “If the public feels as though they are being misled or misinformed their willingness to make sacrifices — in this case social distancing — is reduced.”

“That’s a strong argument for sharing as much information as you can,” he said.

Experts also point out that it was the government’s suppression of information about the virus in China that allowed it to spread quickly before measures were taken to stem it.

On Friday the health authorities in Santa Clara, which has more than 590 cases and is home to the headquarters of companies like Google and Apple, added a dashboard that charts the number of daily cases and other metrics.

But the county’s public information office says it will not publicly disclose the number of cases in each city because doing so could make individuals more easily identifiable.

In a sign of how contested the question of public disclosure is, disagreement exists even within the Santa Clara County government.

Dr. Jeffrey V. Smith, the county executive, who is both a medical doctor and a lawyer, argues that more precise geographical information about the spread does not help combat the virus because it is already widespread.

“Reporting positive tests with a census tract or a city name provides data that is not helpful,” Dr. Smith said. “In fact, such data has the risk of stigmatizing areas and regions of the country in a way that does not help.”

But David Cortese, a member of the county’s board of supervisors, says that the public has the right to know more and that a patient’s identity is unlikely to be revealed by giving a breakdown of cases by city.

“I think when people can’t get information they freak out, they think something is being hidden from them, conspiracy theories grow, suspicions grow,” he said. “I think it’s always better to be as truthful, calmly, and transparent with the public as you can be.”

As an example, Mr. Cortese says he is alarmed that health officers have not made more information public on the coronavirus-related death of a homeless man in the county. Given the medical vulnerabilities of that population, doctors and advocates of homeless people have called his office demanding to know in which encampment the man lived so that they could advise other homeless people in the area to be more vigilant. The county, which refused to disclose that information, said in a statement that health officials screened 60 members of the “specific community” and tested nine symptomatic individuals for the coronavirus. All nine tests were negative, the county said.

Mr. Cortese says it is obvious to him that more information on the spread of the pandemic should be shared.

“At the height of the information age in Silicon Valley we have stumbled and fallen flat in terms of our ability to use the tools and resources that we have to get necessary information out to the people we serve,” Mr. Cortese said.

Frustration over the dearth of data also extends to epidemiologists trying to understand the dynamics of the spread of the virus.

Joseph Lewnard, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, says researchers are hamstrung in the United States by the lack of specific data on testing and on the symptoms patients show.

To make up for the lack of public data, researchers are scraping information on cases from news outlets and other media accounts, he said. They are mainly relying on data from South Korea, China and Italy to try to predict the spread of the virus.

“We are right now learning and trying to project what is happening here in the United States almost entirely based on observations from these other countries,” Prof. Lewnard said.

Moritz Kraemer, a scholar at Oxford University who is leading a team of researchers in mapping the global spread of the coronavirus, says China’s data “provided incredible detail,” including a patient’s age, sex, travel history and history of chronic disease, as well as where the case was reported, and the dates of the onset of symptoms, hospitalization and confirmation of infection.

The United States, he said, “has been slow in collecting data in a systematic way.”

Dr. C. Jason Wang, a researcher at Stanford University, who has studied how Taiwan handled the coronavirus outbreak, says some of the measures taken in Taiwan would most likely not be accepted in the United States given privacy concerns. The government, for example, merged the airport immigration database with the national medical database so that doctors could immediately see if a patient had traveled out of the country.

But Dr. Wang says the proactive approach that Taiwan took to the virus, including aggressive tracing of cases, has helped keep the total number of confirmed infections — 283 on Saturday — much lower than experts initially expected. By comparison, the borough of Queens in New York City, with one-tenth the population of Taiwan, has 10,000 cases.

Some of the information being released to the public in Taiwan and Singapore would most likely be uncontroversial in the United States, he said. Taiwanese authorities, for example, have pointed out linkages between anonymized cases, including family clusters, in an effort to warn the public how easily the virus is transmitted within households.

Prof. Caplan of the N.Y.U. School of Medicine says it is paradoxical that the United States is providing less precise information to its citizens on the outbreak than Singapore, which puts limits on the spread of information through internet controls.

“Here we expect to get information so we have our choices and we make our decisions,” he said. “Our notion is information is the oxygen for democracy. Wouldn’t we want to receive more information than them?”

[marketprdaily]

Misconduct charges against Contra Costa assessor would be dropped if he wins supervisor election

Misconduct charges against Contra Costa assessor would be dropped if he wins supervisor election

If he’s elected to a seat on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors in March, embattled County Assessor Gus Kramer could celebrate two victories.

Winning the seat would result in charges against him of “willful or corrupt” misconductand creating a hostile work environment being dropped, allowing Kramer to switch from one elected office to the other without missing a single government…

[hub-pub-bub]

Alameda County Library will join other regional libraries in eliminating overdue fines to encourage people to check out materials, according to the library. "Eliminating overdue fines will strengthen our communities by restoring library access to tens of thousands of people, including those who need our services the most," county librarian Cindy Chadwick said in a news release. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted May 7 to approve the library's proposal to get rid of daily fines and all past overdue fines on materials. The change will go into effect July 1. According to the library, studies have shown that library fines create barriers to library access and are not effective in encouraging library members to return borrowed items on time. Alameda County Library joins San Mateo County Library, Contra Costa County Library, Berkeley Public Library, Oakland Public Library and others in recently going fine-free. 

[neptunecreek]

San Francisco: Stop Secret Spy Tech, and Face Surveillance

Government use of many surveillance technologies, and especially face surveillance, can invade privacy and chill free speech. It also disproportionately harms already marginalized communities: it increases the likelihood that they will be entangled with police, ICE, and other agencies with a history of abuse, bias, and unlawful violence.

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors will soon have an opportunity to join several Bay Area communities—and cities across the country—in requiring Board control of whether city departments may acquire new surveillance technologies. Most importantly, the proposal would ensure robust community input, and the opportunity to advocate against new spy tech before its adoption.

Take Action

SUPPORT THE STOP SECRET SURVEILLANCE ORDINANCE

The proposed ordinance would also prohibit government agencies in San Francisco from using an especially pernicious form of spy tech: face surveillance.

On Monday, the Board’s Rules Committee voted in favor of the Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance. The ordinance is expected to come before the full Board of Supervisors on May 14.

Like Oakland’s Surveillance and Community Safety Ordinance, and Berkeley’s Surveillance Technology Use and Community Safety Ordinance, the Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance would require City Departments to acquire Board approval before using or acquiring spy tech, after notice to the public and an opportunity to be heard. If the Board approved a new surveillance technology, the Board would have to ensure the adequacy of privacy policies to protect the public.

Stop Government Face Surveillance

San Francisco’s ordinance would also ban city government’s use of Face Surveillance technology.

Face recognition technology has been shown to have disproportionately high error rates for women, the elderly, and people of color. Making matters worse, law enforcement agencies often rely on images pulled from mugshot databases. This exacerbates historical biases born of, and contributing to, over-policing in Black and Latinx neighborhoods. If such systems are incorporated into street lights or other forms of surveillance cameras, these communities may be unfairly targeted simply because they appeared in another database or were subject to discriminatory policing in the past.

Stop Secret Spy Tech

In addition to meeting with lawmakers to encourage passage of the ordinance through the committee process, EFF joined a support letter submitted by 25 civil society organizations to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The letter cites numerous examples of troubling uses of surveillance technology.

For example, a San Francisco woman was pulled out of her car at gunpoint because an SFPD Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) misidentified her car as stolen. Yet her car had a different plate number than the stolen car and was a different type (a green Lexus as opposed to a gray GMC truck). This is not an isolated incident. Brian Hofer, the Chair of Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission, was recently held at gunpoint after an ALPR system, operated by the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Department, mistakenly identified the rental vehicle he was operating as stolen.

The people of San Francisco deserve an open and democratic process.

Law enforcement’s discriminatory and unaccountable use of surveillance technologies can put people’s lives at risk. The people of San Francisco and their elected representatives deserve an open and democratic process that answers critical questions before City Departments acquire or use surveillance technology. Should it be adopted at all? What are the benefits and the costs? If it is adopted, who will be impacted? Will it actually make us safer?

The Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance provides an opportunity for the public to insist that these questions are answered before spy tech is acquired or utilized. Tell the Board of Supervisors to stop secret surveillance.

from Deeplinks http://bit.ly/2Lv3Bax

[iamfionawalsh]

Mental Health Jails are Coming to Los Angeles

Mental health and jails do not mix according to multiple health experts and studies, which is why many cities including Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco counties have proposed the idea of creating sperate units called, “Mental health jails.” The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors agreed to fund new sheriff’s mental health jail along […]

The post Mental Health Jails are Coming to Los Angeles appeared first on The Recover.

from blogs – The Recover http://bit.ly/2VHtUOu