How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
- Details
- Written by: Lake County News reports
The Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 to 1975, claimed the lives of more than 58,000 U.S. service members, including 5,822 Californians.
In Lake County, there are 2,268 Vietnam, said County Veteran Service Officer Saul Sanabria.
In a proclamation issued on Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the commemoration pays tribute to the brave men and women who selflessly answered our nation’s call.
“Despite their harrowing sacrifices – many suffering for the rest of their lives from the physical and mental wounds of war – our veterans did not receive the support and gratitude owed them upon returning home, a shameful reality we vow to never repeat. California is proud to stand by our veterans and is steadfastly committed to connecting them and their families with the benefits they have earned many times over, through education, advocacy and direct services,” the proclamation said.
It concluded, “Today, we reaffirm one of our most fundamental obligations as citizens of this great country: to honor those who have served and those who continue to serve with the respect, care and gratitude they profoundly deserve.”
- Details
- Written by: Yasmin Anwar
On a more hopeful note, a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that nonjudgmental empathy training helps court-ordered supervision officers feel more emotionally connected to their clients and, arguably, better able to deter them from criminal backsliding.
The findings, published March 29 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show, on average, a 13% decrease in recidivism among the clients of parole and probation officers who participated in the UC Berkeley empathy training experiment.
“If an officer received this empathic training, real-world behavioral outcomes changed for the people they supervised, who, in turn, were less likely to go back to jail,” said study lead and senior author Jason Okonofua, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.
The results are particularly salient in the face of nationwide efforts to reduce prison and jail populations amid a deadly pandemic and other adversities. The U.S. criminal justice system has among the highest rates of recidivism, with approximately two-thirds of incarcerated people rearrested within three years of their release and one-half sent back behind bars.
“The combination of COVID-19 and ongoing criminal justice reforms are diverting more people away from incarceration and toward probation or parole, which is why we need to develop scalable ways to keep pace with this change,” said Okonofua, who has led similar interventions for school teachers to check their biases before disciplining students.
How they conducted the study
At the invitation of a correctional department in a large East Coast city, Okonofua and graduate students in his lab at UC Berkeley sought to find out if a more caring approach on the part of court-appointed supervision officers would reverse trends in recidivism.
Among other duties, parole and probation officers keep track of their clients’ whereabouts, make sure they don’t miss a drug test or court hearing, or otherwise violate the terms of their release, and provide resources to help them stay out of trouble and out of jail.
For the study, the researchers surveyed more than 200 parole and probation officers who oversee more than 20,000 people convicted of crimes ranging from violent crimes to petty theft. Research protocols bar identifying the agency and its location.
Using their own and other scholars’ methodologies, the researchers designed and administered a 30-minute online empathy survey that focused on the officers’ job motivation, biases and views on relationships and responsibilities.
To trigger their sense of purpose and values, and tap into their empathy, the UC Berkeley survey asked what parts of the work they found fulfilling. One respondent talked about how, “When I run across those guys, and they’re doing well, I’m like, ‘Awesome!’” Others reported that being an advocate for people in need was most important to them.
As for addressing biases — including assumptions that certain people are predisposed to a life of crime — the survey cited egregious cases in which probation and parole officers abused their power over those under their supervision.
Survey takers were also asked to rate how much responsibility they bear, as individuals and members of a profession, for their peers’ transgressions. Most answered that they bore no responsibility.
Ten months after administering the training, researchers found a 13% decrease in recidivism among the offenders whose parole and probation officers had completed the empathy survey.
While the study yielded no specifics on what prevented the parolees and people on probation for reoffending in the period following the officers’ empathy training, the results suggest that a change in relationship dynamics played a key role.
“The officer is in a position of power to influence if it’s going to be an empathic or punitive relationship in ways that the person on parole or probation is not,” Okonofua said. “As our study shows, the relationship between probation and parole officers and the people they supervise plays a pivotal role and can lead to positive outcomes, if efforts to be more understanding are taken into consideration.
Co-authors of the study are Kimia Saadatian, Joseph Ocampo, Michael Ruiz and Perfecta Delgado Oxholm, all at UC Berkeley.
Yasmin Anwar writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Since the start of the school year, only two local districts – Upper Lake Unified and Lucerne Elementary – started all grades in the “hybrid” model that allowed for in-person instruction as well as distance learning, as Lake County News has reported.
The Lake County Office of Education reported that its schools also have been open since August for in-person classes, as has the Lake County International Charter School.
The rest of the districts at that point were in the distance learning model, and had been planning to reopen in the winter but had to remain in distance learning due to the county going into the purple, or most restrictive, tier on the blueprint at the end of November.
Even before the tier adjustment, elementary schools were able to open under the governor’s State Safe Schools for All plan, which focused on bringing the younger grades back first and phasing in other grade levels through the spring. The plan’s phased-in approach was based on the understanding that younger children are at a lower risk of contracting and transmitting COVID-19.
Konocti Unified School District opened to in-person hybrid instruction for kindergarten through sixth grades on Feb. 22, with grades seventh through 12th returning to campus on March 22.
Kelseyville Unified School District’s kindergarten through fifth graders returned to school on March 8, and sixth through 12th on March 23.
Lakeport Unified School District reopened on March 8 for in-person classes for K-6 and on March 22 for seventh through 12th grades.
In the Middletown Unified School District, Minnie Cannon and Cobb Elementary School opened to in-person instruction on half-days on March 1, the same date that Coyote Valley opened to in-person hybrid instruction.
Middletown Middle School is open to in-person instruction – no hybrid – and students returned to campus on March 22. All other grade levels at Middletown unified are in the in-person hybrid mode.
All schools are still offering distance only learning to those families that choose it, said Jill Ruzicka of the Lake County Office of Education.
Kelseyville Unified Superintendent Dave McQueen said the district was able to reopen transitional kindergarten through fifth grades while still in the purple tier.
Once Lake County went into the red tier, the district reopened Mountain Vista Middle School and the high school for hybrid instruction, McQueen explained.
“All the sites are open,” he said.
He said half of the district’s students are back on campus and half remain on distance learning because they wanted to stay home.
In the Lakeport Unified School District, Superintendent Jill Falconer said the principals of the middle and high schools, which opened for in-person learning last Monday, “report that things are going well and that students are very happy to be back on campus.”
She added, “Students have been respectful of the new rules and guidelines. We are overall very pleased to have had a smooth transition to Hybrid and it is just awesome to have some of our students back on campus.”
In related news, federal officials reported $28.3 million in assistance from the American Rescue Plan is allocated to help Lake County’s schools.
The breakdown is as follows:
– Kelseyville Unified, $5,054,000;
– Konocti Unified School District, $13,835,000;
– Lakeport Unified School District, $3,239,000;
– Lucerne Elementary School District, $944,000;
– Middletown Unified School District, $2,454,000; and
– Upper Lake Unified School District, $2,848,000.
“We don't have any idea when we will actually see the money,” Falconer said.
She said the district is using its current budget/Local Control and Accountability Plan advisory committee to help gather input from stakeholders and determine the best use of the money.
Special thanks to Jill Ruzicka of the Lake County Office of Education for assistance in confirming the dates of in-person instruction reopening of the county’s school districts.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
The first-of-its-kind national-scale study of private well water, conducted in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that drought may lead to elevated levels of naturally occurring arsenic and that the longer a drought lasts, the higher the probability of arsenic concentrations exceeding U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for drinking water.
Researchers estimate that during drought conditions, 4.1 million people in the lower 48 states who use private domestic wells are potentially exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic. This is an increase of 54% from the estimated 2.7 million people exposed to unhealthy arsenic levels in private wells during normal, non-drought conditions.
Arsenic is a metal that can occur naturally in bedrock and sediments around the world and is commonly reported in drinking-water supply wells.
However, chronic exposure to arsenic from drinking water is associated with an increased risk of several types of cancers, including bladder, lung, prostate and skin cancers. Other adverse effects include developmental impairments, cardiovascular disease, adverse birth outcomes and impacts on the immune and endocrine systems.
The study’s findings can help public health officials and emergency managers notify well owners in areas potentially affected and further refine their strategies for addressing the issue.
The EPA regulates public water supplies, but maintenance, testing and treatment of private water supplies are the responsibility of the homeowner.
Private well owners can work with their local and state officials to determine the best way to test and, if necessary, treat their water supply.
“The population potentially exposed to arsenic levels exceeding the EPA standard during simulated drought conditions amounts to roughly one-tenth of the estimated 37.2 to 43.2 million people in the conterminous U.S. who use domestic wells for household water supply,” said Melissa Lombard, a USGS hydrologist and lead author of this study.
This is the first national-scale study to assess the potential impact of drought on arsenic levels in private domestic wells. It is also the first to estimate the population of private well users who are potentially exposed during droughts to arsenic levels above EPA’s limits, which are intended to protect human health.
The study also estimated that 2.7 million people are exposed to elevated arsenic levels above EPA standards under normal conditions. This is an increase from a 2017 study by the USGS and CDC that estimated 2.1 million people were exposed to elevated arsenic levels. The increase reflects new estimates of well locations and the population reliant on private wells.
The new study, which did not examine private domestic wells in Alaska or Hawaii, includes maps showing where simulated drought conditions are likely to increase the probability of high arsenic levels and the number of people potentially exposed.
The states with the largest populations facing elevated arsenic levels in private domestic well water during the simulated drought conditions are Ohio (approximately 374,000 people), Michigan (320,000 people), Indiana (267,000 people), Texas (200,000 people) and California (196,000 people).
Even without drought conditions, relatively large numbers of people are estimated to be exposed to elevated arsenic levels in private domestic well water. Under normal conditions, the largest populations potentially exposed to high levels of arsenic are in Ohio (approximately 241,000 people), Michigan (226,000 people), Indiana (162,000 people), California (157,000 people) and Maine (121,000 people).
This study is the first to explore the potential large-scale impact of drought on naturally occurring arsenic in private drinking water wells,” said Lombard. “While the results suggest that drought will have a negative impact, the study cannot predict what might happen at an individual well, further highlighting the importance of testing.”
The occurrence of arsenic in groundwater is due to a variety of complex interactions, added Lombard. The reasons for the increase in arsenic during drought and as drought persists could vary depending on changes to groundwater flow, alterations in water chemistry and other factors.
Further exacerbating these challenges, climate models predict increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation in portions of North America during the 21st century. USGS findings suggest that as the duration of drought increases, the probability of arsenic concentrations greater than EPA’s drinking water standard will also increase.
This study used an existing USGS statistical model that predicts the probability for elevated arsenic concentrations in domestic well water. In the new research, scientists used the model to simulate drought conditions by changing precipitation and groundwater levels. The researchers also used data from the drought of 2012, one of the worst on record in the U.S., to investigate how drought duration can impact arsenic levels.
Read the study “Assessing the Impact of Drought on Arsenic Exposure from Private Domestic Wells in the Conterminous United States” published in Environmental Science and Technology at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.9b05835.