LOCAL
Tablets bring learning home
The Bring Learning Home Initiative is expanding to Lake County, providing families around the county with free home access to ABCmouse Early Learning Academy via the library. ABCmouse is the leading educational website and app for children ages 2–8, with more than 10,000 learning activities, including books, games, songs, puzzles, and animations. Beginning September 14 families can “check out” ABCmouse accounts for three weeks at a time from the Lake County Library.
For people who don’t have mobile devices for their children to use at home, each Lake County Library location has five mobile-broadband tablets pre-loaded with the ABCmouse app that library patrons can check out for three weeks at a time. When patrons check out an ABCmouse account from the library, they get full access to the research-validated ABCmouse curriculum, including more than 10,000 Learning Activities (hundreds available in Spanish), several stand-alone mobile apps that can be used without internet connectivity, and digital assessments that help track your child’s progress in key early literacy and math skills over time. The program is designed to increase school readiness and reading proficiency and can be used by up to three children per family.
Bring Learning Home is a nationwide initiative that helps children prepare for and succeed in school by bringing effective early learning resources to families at no cost. According to The Nation’s Report Card, two out of every three children in the U.S. are not proficient in reading by the time they reach fourth grade. Bring Learning Home seeks to change that by partnering with libraries that play a critical role in serving at-risk children and by providing effective educational resources that build on classroom instruction at home.
Children using ABCmouse through this program are averaging significant growth in literacy and math skills after just one month. Research shows that regular weekly usage of ABCmouse helps prevent the “summer slide” in reading and can drive significant gains in early literacy and math skills.
— Jan Cook, Lake County Library
REGION
PG&E flyovers
PG&E will be flying the rest of this week over the areas mentioned below out of the Ukiah airport. Aircraft will be flying intermittently over the next several weeks. According to Deanna Contreras of PG&E, “we’ve ramped up the flights in an effort to get this important safety work done by the end of wildfire season.”
If the PG&E foresters are not in a Bell 407, they’ll be in a Bell 206L3 Long Ranger (all contracted from PJ’s Helicopters out of Red Bluff). On Thursday, aircraft is expected to fly over Upper Lake, Willits and Laytonville.
Beginning Tuesday, September 18, a Bell 407 Long Ranger has been leaving from the Ukiah Municipal Airport at around 8 a.m. and flying until 4 p.m. PG&E is using a helicopter to patrol electric lines in Mendocino and Lake Counties this week as part of vegetation and safety work.
Foresters will be flying low in order to look for vegetation near electric lines in high fire-threat areas along power lines in the following cities on Thursday and after:
- Ukiah
- Redwood Valley
- Calpella
- Potter Valley
- Laytonville
- Willits
- Middletown
- Konocti
- Upper Lake
- Lower Lake
- Cobb
- Kelseyville
This work is part of PG&E’s Community Wildfire Safety Program to further reduce the risk of trees coming into contact with lines.
— Staff Reports
‘Red Flag’ warning
A red flag warning from Cal Fire affects Sonoma, Lake, Napa, Solano, Yolo, Colusa Counties. The National Weather Service in San Francisco has issued a Red Flag Warning, which is in effect from 11 p.m. Wednesday evening to 5 p.m. Thursday, September 20. In response to the Red Flag event, CAL FIRE has implemented a staffing pattern to augment firefighting resources. Locally that will mean a pre-positioned Strike Team of CAL FIRE engines from outside the Unit and all hand crews and bulldozers will be staffed 24 hours a day. Northerly winds will increase this evening through Thursday afternoon, peaking early tomorrow morning reaching approximately 35 miles per hour. The combination of gusty winds, low humidity, and very dry fuels will result in critical fire weather conditions. CAL FIRE Unit Chief Shana Jones asks that outdoor power equipment not be used until the Red Flag event has ended and even then, use as early in the day as possible to avoid the increased burning conditions during the heat of the day. Approximately 11% of the fires in the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit are caused by individuals using equipment in and around dry vegetation.
— Will Powers, Cal Fire
STATE
Legislation: ‘junk’ health insurance
When the Legislature finally gaveled down, it had approved about 900 bills this year. Here’s a look at some of the most interesting or consequential ones heading to Brown’s desk. He has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto all bills—or he could do neither, in which case a bill would become law without his signature.
WHAT THE BILL WOULD DO
The Legislature wants to outlaw so-called junk health insurance—short-term policies that are generally cheaper and offer less coverage than other plans and typically exclude pre-existing conditions. The bill would uphold federal Affordable Care Act standards for basic benefits that include coverage of pre-existing conditions.
The measure bucks the Trump administration’s decision that states can allow insurance that excludes such things as cancer treatment, maternity care, prescription drugs and such pre-existing conditions as allergies, asthma and diabetes. California would be the first state to explicitly put the ban into law, though several other states, including Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, have stated they wouldn’t allow low-cost, short-term junk insurance. Supporters of these policies say they can be a good option for some people.
Under the Affordable Care Act, short-term plans were designed to fill coverage gaps for up to 90 days while people transitioning to new plans waited for them to kick in. The new federal rules allow states to turn those bare-bones, short-term plans into coverage for up to three years.
WHO SUPPORTS A BAN
Health care advocates, medical organizations, employer groups and even some health insurance companies, such as Kaiser Permanente and Blue Shield of California, endorsed the bill.
WHO OPPOSES IT
Three groups have lodged objections to the bill. The California Association of Health Underwriters and TechNet, both trade groups, have expressed concern that eliminating short-term plans could force some consumers into expensive emergency-room care during a gap in coverage. Anthem Blue Cross has said it agrees with the federal change and that short-term plans with limited coverage offer value for some customers.
WHY IT MATTERS
People with short-term insurance still need health care, and if they get sick and find their insurance won’t pay for it, then taxpayers may have to—in the more expensive ER setting. And short-term insurance causes higher premiums for others, according to a studyby the nonprofit Urban Institute. That’s because young, healthy people are the ones who tend to pick inexpensive health insurance with little coverage, which means people with Affordable Care Act-level coverage tend to be comparatively less healthy and require more care. Without limits on short-term insurance, the Urban Institute predicted a 17.8% rise in premium costs for fuller policies.
GOVERNOR’S DECISION
TBD
—David Gorn, CalMatters
