Posts Tagged: rural

Teledentistry of key importance during pandemic

Photo illustration of using online communication to address health issues. (Photo: PENpics Studio, via Shutterstock)

by MARC ACKERMAN posted 05.13.2020

OPINION: Telehealth is quickly becoming the new norm as the nation fights the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to innovative telemedicine technology, medical professionals are able to treat patients without having to travel to the doctor’s office which reduces costs, saves time, reduces pressure on the healthcare system and helps stop the COVID-19 spread.

A rape crisis detailed, step by step

A traumatized woman alone in her room. (Photo: ChameleonsEye, via Shutterstock)

by SCOTT SORIANO posted 12.23.2019

At 10 p.m., Jane Doe is sexually assaulted in Springville, a small town of 1,100 in Tulare County, forty-five miles west of Visalia, at the edge of Sequoia National Forest. After a night working through shock and trying to process what happened, Jane calls the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, who dispatch an officer from Porterville. It is 10 a.m. The officer arrives 30 minutes later.

‘Digital deserts’ push life to the slow lane

Illustration of online activity at a snail's pace. (mattsabe, Shutterstock)

by Eduardo Gonzalez and Trish Kelly posted 06.07.2017

OPINION: In California — and all across the country — there are “digital deserts,” places where it’s impossible to get high-speed Internet access at home and thus impossible to do homework, apply for jobs and be a full-fledged member of the digital economy. These digital deserts also prevent farmers from using Internet technology to improve efficiencies in growing crops and getting them to markets.

For three counties, vote-by-mail is only option

Vintage Illustration of Mr. ZIP, modified by Tim Foster/Capitol Weekly

by JOHN HOWARD posted 06.24.2016

Increasingly, California voters use the mailbox, not the ballot box. But in three of California’s 58 counties — Plumas, Alpine and Sierra — there was no other choice but mail-in voting. And they like it that way.

Counties, state clash over ‘PILT’

Pfeiffer Beach at the mouth of the Big Sur River in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. View looking upriver from the beach, with Cupressus macrocarpa trees. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

by JOHN HOWARD posted 03.25.2014

Decades ago, California began taking over the management of thousands of acres of rural wildlands in dozens of counties across the state. But over the years a problem arose: With the state in control, some counties were cut out of the money that they otherwise would have collected from property taxes. The state had promised to compensate the counties for the lost revenue by making payments in lieu of taxes.

Rural California getting new trauma centers

In a trauma center ...

by LESLIE GRIFFY posted 02.20.2014

It can take as long as three hours to get the injured to a trauma center, even by air. Access to centers along the north and central coasts and the East Sierra is most limited. Over the past two years, communities long without trauma centers began to fill the void – designating regional hospitals as resources for those suffering from traumatic injuries. (Photo: California Health Report)

The Field Poll, in a survey completed last week, asked a statewide sample of California voters what they thought of these proposals. The results show that only one in four voters (25%) back the idea of having these counties break away from California to form a new state.

Two days after Democrats secured 54 of 80 seats in last November’s election, Assembly GOP Leader Connie Conway was re-elected in a unanimous caucus vote and appeared to be secure in her position.

But whispers of her possible demise as leader surfaced last month as a result of the party’s loss of seats in

As the weather heats up,  a Capitol debate is heating up, too — on the hotly disputed ‘fire tax.’

The $150 annual charge on some 850,000 rural property owners is on the books, despite delays in collections, court action and tens of thousands of complaints from property owners. Republican lawmakers have seized the issue