Posts Tagged: emergency

Opinion

Did an emergency text message keep our lights on? Yes and no

Wind-driven generators capture and deliver energy. (Photo: VG Foto, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: When Californians received an emergency text alert recently urging them to cut energy use, they probably didn’t know how much they were needed to avoid power outages. Electricity demand almost surpassed supply during a record heat wave worsened by climate change. And yet, unlike August 2020, outages never came.

Opinion

Metal recycling: State tries end run around cities and counties

Metal scrap awaiting recycling. (Photo: TonelsonProductions, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The state is at it again. This time, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is attempting, in an end-run around the normal regulatory process, to impose “emergency” harsh and unjustified new rules on the metal-recycling industry — the one aspect of California’s troubled recycling sector that is still going strong. Why? Because they believe they can, I guess.

News

Stem cell agency OKs $5 million for COVID-19 research

Illustration: Aleksey Novikov, via Shutterstock),

California’s stem cell agency, in an emergency action, has allocated $5 million for research into treatments for Covid-19 and set the deadline for the first applications for one week from today. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) approved the funding Friday during an emergency meeting of its governing board. 

News

A new era — politics and the coronavirus

The state Capitol in Sacramento, late in the day. (Photo: Adonis Villanueva, via Shutterstock)

In offices in and around the state Capitol, politicians, consultants, lobbyists, and the whole array of other political types have one thing on their minds: How do we conduct campaigns and politics in the face of the growing coronavirus pandemic? Will candidates make speeches wearing face masks? Are latex gloves going to be de rigueurat meet-and-greet events with supporters?

News

Brown: New money needed to boost 911 system

A fire truck, a first responder to emergencies, crosses a Los Angeles intersection. (Photo: Walter Cicchetti, via Shutterstock)

The administration plans to modify an existing tax on phone calls to include a flat fee — estimated initially at 34 cents per line — on cellphones, landlines and other devices capable of contacting 911. More than $175 million is expected to generate from this in the first year, with the possibility of growing to $400 million in later years.

News

California flooding, sea-level rise linked

A condominium complex being undermined by rising ocean levels at a Monterey beach. (Photo: Steve Smith)

As officials in Washington try to repair the nation’s flood insurance program, scientists in California are grappling with a looming threat that will complicate flooding hazards in the state: sea-level rise. Creeping ocean waters are already flooding coastal areas more frequently and eroding sea cliffs more rapidly. They’re also worsening damage from extreme weather events like high tides and torrential rains.

News

Drought’s not over for everybody

Localized flooding on the American River near Folsom Dam. (Photo: David Greitzer

Most Californians are – finally – out of the drought, but the record-setting rains have not washed away emergency conditions for all residents. Gov. Jerry Brown’s April 7 executive order lifted the drought state of emergency for 54 of California’s 58 counties.

News

Drought’s back broken — or not?

A man shielded against the rain looks across L.A. from the Hollywood Hills. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Despite the torrential rains of the last few weeks, experts say it’s too early to tell whether California’s interminable drought is really over. It will be necessary to monitor rainfall through at least March to make an assessment.

Opinion

An effort to give ER doctors unfettered power 

The entrance to a hospital emergency room. (Photo: Johnson Photography, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Our California Legislature is considering a bill — AB 1300 by Assemblymember Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles — that would allow emergency room (ER) physicians to release psychiatric patients brought into their ER’s on a psychiatric detention, known as a “5150”, without any input from a psychiatrist. Currently, when a patient in psychiatric crisis is brought to an ER on a “5150”, the hospital discharges the patient to a psychiatric facility where that patient receives a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation.

Opinion

Helping ER physicians help the mentally ill

Photo illustration: Stephen Finn

OPINION: California is long overdue to take steps, large and small, to address its homeless crisis. No other state has a problem of this magnitude; a problem that disproportionately affects the mentally ill. According to the office of Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, California accounts for 22 percent of the nation’s homeless total.

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