Climate Change Roundup: connecting to the grid; CA farmers need help; climate migration has begun

Wind and Solar Energy Projects Risk Overwhelming America’s Antiquated Electrical Grids    - The New York Times  (subscription maybe required)  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/climate/renewable-energy-us-electrical-grid.html

‘Help us fight’: California farmers ask for more aid after deadly storms | California | The Guardian   (subscription maybe required)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/23/california-farm-workers-disaster-relief

The American climate migration has already begun | Jake Bittle | The Guardian   (subscription maybe required) 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/23/us-climate-crisis-housing-migration-natural-disasters 

'The effects will be different in every place, but almost everywhere safe shelter will get scarcer and more expensive, loosening people’s grip on the stability that comes with a permanent home.’ Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

challenges to democracy round up

Former Proud Boy Says Group Prepared for ‘All-Out Revolution’ on Jan. 6 - The New York Times   (subscription maybe required)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/us/politics/proud-boys-jan-6-trial.html

‘Incredibly damning:’ Fox News documents stun some legal experts

The disclosure of behind-the-scenes emails and texts greatly increased the chances that Dominion will win its $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox, experts say.  (subscription maybe required) 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/02/23/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-legal-analysis/

Opinion  Kevin McCarthy’s Jan. 6 footage stunt demands a real response   (subscription maybe required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/23/mccarthy-jan-6-footage-tucker-carlson-propaganda/

A grave mistake’: Schumer slams McCarthy for giving Tucker Carlson Jan. 6 surveillance footage   (subscription maybe required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/23/nation/schumer-slams-mccarthy-for-giving-jan-6-footage-to-tucker-carlson/

   

Libraries Are Meeting the Needs of Their Communities With More Than Books - The New York Times

"A Love Letter to Libraries, Long Overdue

The New York Times sent photographers to seven states to document the thrum and buzz in buildings once known for silence. "

"Just as reading has changed (from paper to pixel to audio) and tools for research have streamlined (sorry, World Book), so have the places that house the goods. Silence is no longer a requirement; versatility is.

It’s easy to romanticize libraries. But, the fact is, they’re not “just” about the written word. Were they ever? As local safety nets shriveled, the library roof magically expanded from umbrella to tarp to circus tent to airplane hangar. The modern library keeps its citizens warm, safe, healthy, entertained, educated, hydrated and, above all, connected"

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/14/books/review/library-public-local.html

And while we are talking about libraries and their services, The New York Times is a subscription available through the Franklin Library with your library card.

Check this page, then scroll down to find the Times link

At the Northtown branch of the Chicago Public Library, a young reader curled up with a picture book.Credit...Todd Heisler/The New York Times

New York Times: "For Older Americans, the Pandemic Is Not Over"

Seniors are increasingly left to protect themselves as the rest of the country abandons precautions: “Americans do not agree about the duty to protect others.”

In early December, Aldo Caretti developed a cough and, despite all his precautions, came up positive for Covid on a home test. It took his family a couple of days to persuade Mr. Caretti, never fond of doctors, to go to the emergency room. There, he was sent directly to the intensive care unit.

Mr. Caretti and his wife, Consiglia, both 85, lived quietly in a condo in Plano, Texas. “He liked to read and learn, in English and Italian,” said his son Vic Caretti, 49. “He absolutely adored his three grandchildren.”

Aldo Caretti had encountered some health setbacks last year, including a mild stroke and a serious bout of shingles, but “he recuperated from all that.”

COVID was different. Even on a ventilator, Mr. Caretti struggled to breathe. After 10 days, “he wasn’t getting better,” said Vic Caretti, who flew in from Salt Lake City. “His organs were starting to break down. They said, ‘He’s not going to make it.’”

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/11/health/covid-pandemic-seniors.html

Eleanor Bravo of Corrales, N.M., lost her sister to Covid early in the pandemic, and two years passed before the family could gather for a memorial. “I had this inordinate fear that if I got Covid, I would die too,” she said.Credit...Adria Malcolm for The New York Times

New York Times: "What's Homelessness Really Like?"

Susan Shain (@susan_shain) tweeted:

"Can't believe this piece is finally out in the world. Thank you to the entire Headway team for all of their work putting it together — and thank you to each and every one of these people for trusting us with their stories." 

Read the stories -> https://t.co/OshPhknzpD

Note: This is very interactive, follow a person and read their story, or follow a question and see the answers. Powerful...

Shared from Twitter -> https://twitter.com/susan_shain/status/1624485183767314433

New York Times: "What's Homelessness Really Like?"

 follow a person's story

choose a person

What is an "accessory dwelling unit", or ADU?

"Forty-five years ago, Betty Szudy and her wife, Maggie Roth, both 70, bought a Craftsman bungalow in Oakland, Calif. In 2017, at the same time their son and his wife were fruitlessly searching for an affordable apartment in the neighborhood, California was liberalizing its housing laws to encourage so-called accessory dwelling units, or A.D.U.s.

So, the family looked into building one. The parents now live in the main house and the adult children in the A.D.U. — in this case, a once-decrepit garage transformed into a 400-square-foot studio with a kitchen and bath.

The arrangement makes it simple to share meals, planned or spontaneous, and to pick up items for the other household at Trader Joe’s. “I love having them around,” Ms. Szudy said.

“It made total sense,” she said. “The idea of having a family compound, being close but having separate spaces.”

Continue reading the article at the New York Times (subscription maybe required)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/29/health/elderly-housing-adu.html

Vona da Silva, left, lives in an accessory dwelling unit, or A.D.U., next to a house occupied by her daughter, Pia da Silva, right, in Portland, Ore. Credit...Tojo Andrianarivo for The New York Times

New York Times: "How Restaurant Workers Help Pay for Lobbying to Keep Their Wages Low"

More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) tweeted  on Tue, Jan 17, 2023:

"NEW: The NY Times reveals that low-wage restaurant workers have been unknowingly funding the industry's powerful lobbying arm, the National Restaurant Association, as it worked to kill minimum wage increases around the country.

Here's how the scheme works: "   https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1615379667825065986

"In 2007, the restaurant lobby (sometimes called "the other NRA") bought ServSafe, an online food safety training company.

It then lobbied states to require restaurant workers to take those trainings, producing a reliable stream of paying customers."  

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1615379959824134145

"Since 2010, 3.6 million workers have paid for ServSave courses, providing $25 million to the NRA—enough to fund all of its lobbying costs, the Times found. 

The funding extracted from everyday workers dwarfs the amount that some of the NRA's large corporate donors provide."   https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1615382543385202688

 

New York Times: "How Restaurant Workers Help Pay for Lobbying to Keep Their Wages Low"

You can read the full article at the New York Times ->

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/17/us/politics/restaurant-workers-wages-lobbying.html

"significantly fewer people support requirements that children be vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella than did just two years ago"

"Vaccine disinformationists have cherry-picked data to support their claims, failing to note that genetic connective tissue disorders are important risk factors for ascending aortic aneurysms (and in my husband’s case the most likely risk factor, as early genetic test results suggest).

When disinformation profiteers leverage tragedies like Grant’s and Mr. Hamlin’s for their personal gain, they re-traumatize families, compromising our ability to interpret information and distinguish truth from lies and putting all of us at risk. The results of allowing this to continue will be disastrous. Merchants of disinformation argue that vaccines killed my husband, but they’re also at least in part responsible for the return of polio to the United States and the fact that so many children in Ohio are suffering from measles right now. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that while most of the public still supports routine childhood vaccinations, significantly fewer people support requirements that children be vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella than did just two years ago. In December, Congress repealed a Covid vaccine mandate for troops even though doing so threatens military readiness and puts our nation’s security at risk."

Continue reading the article online - (gifted article hence long URL)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/opinion/grant-wahl-celine-gounder-vaccine.html?unlocked_article_code=m2-kre8YItxU0muS6_jLsN-NNQqZ8ozQdQKP0IDPtam6WwTGfNzKAjkQn7_E7zIZ_1XruxpG7LghYON1oeYx3RqzJq02SpQwTEPUI-PEDxc7In7363SFTNpG4vI9jf2RQfQvNL7M0gx844SGh8Pul_sbljZw1Cp2cjsLOZbV-0fsYUwId34fLPtzYrOsNW5EjOwXJEfgP7s2cyCr2_tbMEeIM1FQsJv0A8f88hSIvjYnEfJzzuKVTMQu5AwzkDei7aGzWxganIwjxUj7rhPEMWV3lzbA6IN_M18GDBkBdlsoXqflP7iU5w86ZytvejhNCQcfPlMWyYAEea0xo2MOyup0-4yK4F3Xl-kh&smid=tw-share

Céline  Gounder & Grant Wahl (via Céline Gounder)

Follow up on Supreme Court report "What Went Unsaid in the Chief Justice’s Report on the Judiciary"

 

“A judicial system cannot and should not live in fear,” Chief Justice Roberts added as he thanked Congress for passing a law last year to protect judges. The new law was named in honor of Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas of the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, who was murdered in 2020 in an assault meant for the judge at her home. The law screens from the public the personal information of federal judges and their families, including identifiers such as license plate numbers and addresses. Leaders like the chief justice deserve praise when they highlight the dangers all public officials now face.

Focusing on the Brown decision was nonetheless surprising. After all, the court appears poised to reverse a decision upholding affirmative action in school admissions, one of the very remedies that the Brown decision spawned, and which all nine members of the court stood squarely behind in 1954 and reaffirmed in a subsequent case in 1958.

In past years, the chief justice sometimes used his year-end report to describe substantive reforms in the federal courts, like the task force created in 2018 in response to allegations that federal judges had harassed their staffs sexually and in other ways. Not so in his latest report, which was four pages long with a five-page appendix. Chief Justice Roberts did not mention any of the many issues that made the news about the court last year — the lack of an effective recusal requirement for justices whose actions or those of family members raise questions about impartiality, the leak of a draft of the court’s decision overturning abortion rights, the insufficiency of financial disclosure and questions about fund-raising for the Supreme Court Historical Society."

Continue reading the article in the New York Times (subscription may be required)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/opinion/supreme-court-chief-justice-report.html

The original article linking to the report itself ->

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2023/01/chief-justices-year-end-reports-on.html

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

Polling strategy study by New York Times: "partisan polls tend to be more inaccurate"

"Not for the first time, a warped understanding of the contours of a national election had come to dominate the views of political operatives, donors, journalists and, in some cases, the candidates themselves.

The misleading polls of 2022 did not just needlessly spook some worried candidates into spending more money than they may have needed to on their own races. They also led some candidates — in both parties — who had a fighting chance of winning to lose out on money that could have made it possible for them to do so, as those controlling the purse strings believed polls that inaccurately indicated they had no chance at all.

In the election’s immediate aftermath, the polling failures appeared to be in keeping with misfires in 2016 and 2020, when the strength of Donald J. Trump’s support was widely underestimated, and with the continuing struggles of an industry that arose with the corded home telephone to adapt to the mass migration to cellphones and text messaging. Indeed, some of the same Republican-leaning pollsters who erred in 2022 had built credibility with their contrarian, but accurate, polling triumphs in recent elections.

But a New York Times review of the forces driving the narrative of a coming red wave, and of that narrative’s impact, found new factors at play."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/31/us/politics/polling-election-2022-red-wave.html

    

Source: New York Times analysis of Washington Senate race polls aggregated by FiveThirtyEight

Notes: Trends are calculated with a 14-day average. Polling groups considered Republican-aligned include those identified by The New York Times and FiveThirtyEight. Polling groups considered nonpartisan are those not known to be aligned with or funded by a political party.

By Jason Kao

New York Times: "Epidemics That Weren’t: How Countries Shut Down Recent Outbreaks"

Benjy Renton (@bhrenton) tweeted Thu, Dec 29, 2022:

It is important to acknowledge the instances globally in which the public health system worked as it was designed — outbreaks that were mitigated and prevented through community trust, rapid vaccine deployment and an effective public health workforce.   https://t.co/JVADQ0hJhe

"While cutting-edge vaccine technology and genomic sequencing have received lots of attention in the COVID years, the interventions that helped prevent these six pandemics were steadfastly unglamorous: building the trust of communities in the local health system. Training local staff in how to report a suspected problem effectively. Making sure funds are available to dispense swiftly, to deploy contact tracers or vaccinate a village against rabies. Increasing lab capacity in areas far from the main urban centers. Priming everyone to move fast at the first sign of potential calamity."

Shared from Twitter -> https://twitter.com/bhrenton/status/1608640248464166914

Volunteers received training on how to conduct safe and dignified burials for Ebola victims in Mubende, Uganda, in  October.Credit...Luke Dray/Getty Images

COVID-19 Misinformation & New variants

"Nearly three years into the pandemic, Covid-19 remains stubbornly persistent. So, too, does misinformation about the virus.

As Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths rise in parts of the country, myths and misleading narratives continue to evolve and spread, exasperating overburdened doctors and evading content moderators.

What began in 2020 as rumors that cast doubt on the existence or seriousness of Covid quickly evolved into often outlandish claims about dangerous technology lurking in masks and the supposed miracle cures from unproven drugs, like ivermectin. Last year’s vaccine rollout fueled another wave of unfounded alarm. Now, in addition to all the claims still being bandied about, there are conspiracy theories about the long-term effects of the treatments, researchers say."

Continue reading the New York Times article online -> (subscription may be required)   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/28/technology/covid-misinformation-online.html

"A new coronavirus variant named XBB has swiftly become the dominant form of COVID-19 spreading in the Northeast, jumping from about 35 percent of cases during the week ending Dec. 17 to just over half last week, according to CDC data.

The rapid spread indicates that the XBB variant is more adept than its predecessors at evading the immunity that comes from vaccines and infections.

“It looks like it’s just going to blow the other ones away in a very short period,” said Dr. Jeremy Luban, professor of molecular medicine, biochemistry, and molecular biotechnology at UMass Chan Medical School. “The most likely explanation is that it’s more transmissible.”

But significantly, Luban said, there is no reason to think that XBB causes more severe disease than other variants."

Continue reading the Boston Globe article online ->  (subscription may be required)  https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/12/28/metro/new-coronavirus-variant-more-adept-evading-immunity-now-dominates-northeast/

Jay Gates, a music teacher at the Samuel Adams Elementary School in East Boston got a COVID-19 booster shot in the school gym in early December. JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF

IRS: delay announced for implementation of $600 reporting threshold for third-party payment platforms

"The Internal Revenue Service said on Friday that it was delaying by one year a new tax policy that will require users of digital wallets and e-commerce platforms to start reporting small transactions to the tax collection agency.

The delay followed bipartisan backlash from lawmakers and an uproar from small-business owners, who only recently became aware of the tax change.

The I.R.S. said the delay was intended to provide a smooth transition period for taxpayers to comply with the policy, which was part of the American Rescue Plan of 2021 and was supposed to take effect this year. Many users of services such as Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, Cash App, StubHub and Etsy only recently became aware that they would be receiving I.R.S. tax forms associated with their transactions, sowing fears of surprise tax bills."

Continue reading the article online ->

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/23/business/irs-venmo-digital-wallets.html

Read the announcement from the IRS on their page ->    https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-delay-for-implementation-of-600-reporting-threshold-for-third-party-payment-platforms-forms-1099-k

The Boston Globe also has coverage of this delay ->

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/12/23/business/irs-delays-600-tax-reporting-rule-for-venmo-etsy-sellers/

The Etsy Inc. website on a laptop computer arranged in Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands on Feb. 19, 2021.GABBY JONES/BLOOMBERG

"voters roundly rejected extreme partisans who promised to restrict voting and overhaul the electoral process"

"Every election denier who sought to become the top election official in a critical battleground state lost at the polls this year, as voters roundly rejected extreme partisans who promised to restrict voting and overhaul the electoral process.

The national repudiation of this coalition reached its apex on Saturday, when Cisco Aguilar, the Democratic candidate for secretary of state in Nevada, defeated Jim Marchant, according to The Associated Press. Mr. Marchant, the Republican nominee, had helped organize a national right-wing slate of candidates under the name “America First.”

With Mr. Marchant’s loss to Mr. Aguilar, all but one of those “America First” candidates were defeated. Only Diego Morales, a Republican in deep-red Indiana, was successful, while candidates in Michigan, Arizona and New Mexico were defeated."

Continue reading the article in the NY Times (subscription maybe required) ->

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/12/us/politics/jim-marchant-nevada.html

 

Voting stickers in San Francisco on Election Day on Tuesday. Politics watchers have recently turned their eyes to California, where the battle for House control will probably be decided.Credit... John G Mabanglo/EPA, via Shutterstock

New York Times: "Retirees are expected to get the biggest Social Security cost-of-living increase in decades"

"Social Security will soon announce the largest inflation adjustment to benefits in four decades — a welcome development for millions of older Americans struggling to keep up with fast-rising living costs.

The cost-of-living adjustment for 2023 is likely to be around 8.7 percent, based on the latest government inflation figures. The final COLA, as the adjustment is known, will be released Thursday, when the federal government announces inflation figures for September. Medicare enrollees can anticipate some additional good news: The standard Part B premium, which is typically deducted from Social Security benefits, will decline next year.

The COLA, one of Social Security’s most valuable features, will give a significant boost to more than 70 million Americans next year. While retirement comes to mind when most people think about Social Security‌, the program plays a much broader role in providing economic security."

Continue reading the article online -> (subscription maybe required) 

https://www.nytimes.com/explain/2022/10/09/business/social-security-cola

New York Times: "Retirees are expected to get the biggest Social Security cost-of-living increase in decades"

"a housing market with no slack can’t absorb shocks like a pandemic-driven frenzy"

"Massachusetts needs another 108,000 housing units to meet the demand, according to a new national study, which ranks Massachusetts 11th among states in its housing underproduction.

Up for Growth, a Washington, DC-based housing nonprofit whose members include housing developers and economic development organizations, released a report Thursday that examines housing underproduction nationwide.

The problem is national. The New York Times highlighted the report’s finding that housing underproduction is no longer a coastal phenomenon but is spreading across middle America."

Continue reading the CommonWealth Magazine article ->

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/the-download/report-massachusetts-needs-another-108000-homes-2/

The New York Times article -> (subscription may be required)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/upshot/housing-shortage-us.html

The study referred to in both articles ->

https://www.freddiemac.com/research/insight/20210507-housing-supply

The main driver of the housing shortfall has been the long-term decline in the construction of single-family homes

“As citizens we have many rights, but we also have obligations"

Via the NY Times: 

The tiny New Hampshire town of Croydon fits the New England of the imagination, with its cozy general store, one-room schoolhouse and local museum open by appointment. The only thing missing is supposed to be missing: a stoplight.

But it’s not just the Rockwellian setting that makes this community of 800 seem quintessentially American. People here have just experienced a fractious come-to-Jefferson moment that has left many with a renewed appreciation for something they had taken for granted: democracy.

“Showing up. That’s the big lesson,” said Chris Prost, 37, a Croydon resident who runs a small brewery from a barn at the back of his house. “And not just showing up, but also knowing what’s going on.”

Hope Damon, 65, a dietitian who is pursuing a new career as a result of her town’s recent crisis, agreed. What happened here, she said, “could happen most anywhere.” 

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/10/us/croydon-free-state-politics.html

 

A Croydon town meeting in March that began as fairly routine. It didn’t end that way. Credit...James M. Patterson/Valley News

NY Times: "As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, Utah Faces An ‘Environmental Nuclear Bomb’"

If the Great Salt Lake, which has already shrunk by two-thirds, continues to dry up, here’s what’s in store: 

The lake’s flies and brine shrimp would die off — scientists warn it could start as soon as this summer — threatening the 10 million migratory birds that stop at the lake annually to feed on the tiny creatures. Ski conditions at the resorts above Salt Lake City, a vital source of revenue, would deteriorate. The lucrative extraction of magnesium and other minerals from the lake could stop. 

Most alarming, the air surrounding Salt Lake City would occasionally turn poisonous. The lake bed contains high levels of arsenic and as more of it becomes exposed, wind storms carry that arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents, who make up three-quarters of Utah’s population. 

“We have this potential environmental nuclear bomb that’s going to go off if we don’t take some pretty dramatic action,” said Joel Ferry, a Republican state lawmaker and rancher who lives on the north side of the lake."

Continue reading the NY Times article online (subscription may be required) ->

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/climate/salt-lake-city-climate-disaster.html

 

Left: A satellite view of the Great Salt Lake captured in September 1987.Credit...EROS Center, U.S.G.S. - Right: The Great Salt Lake in May 2021.Credit...EROS Center, U.S.G.S.

Reminder: New set of COVID at home tests can be ordered

"The White House said on Tuesday (5/17/22) that Americans were now eligible for a third order of free, at-home coronavirus tests shipped through the Postal Service. The move doubled to 16 the total number of tests the program has made available to each household.

The tests, authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and available on the federal website covidtests.gov, extend a pledge President Biden made during the brunt of the winter Omicron wave, when Americans faced scarce supplies of tests, empty shelves and long lines."

Continue reading the article online

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/us/politics/free-covid-tests-usps-biden.html

White House press release

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/05/17/fact-sheet-the-biden-administration-announces-americans-can-order-additional-free-at-home-rapid-covid-19-tests-at-covidtests-gov/

Use this order form  COVID.GOV   

Frequently Asked Questions answered here -> https://www.covid.gov/tests/faq

Reminder: New set of COVID at home tests can be ordered

"In January 2022, more people ages 15 and older died of COVID-19 than of cancer"

"COVID shouldn't even be in the top 10 causes of death in the US if we consistently used all the tools available. Yet we're still now losing the lives of 500 Americans each day. "

Shared from Twitter ->   https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1516066189914501124 

COVID still among top cause of death in US

"The chart above combines data on COVID-19 mortality rates from KFF’s tracker with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on weekly counts of death by jurisdiction and cause of death and monthly provisional counts of deaths by select causes. Looking at average daily deaths for each month, deaths from some non-COVID causes—for example, heart disease deaths—sometimes increased with surges in COVID-19 deaths. This could be in part directly or indirectly related to COVID. "

Source of data -> https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/covid-19-leading-cause-of-death-ranking/

 

"To rank COVID-19 among other leading causes of death by age groups, we looked at COVID-19 deaths for each age group and the most recent available data for other “rankable” age-specific leading causes. The number of deaths caused by COVID-19 are available for recent months, but the number of deaths from other causes in the most recent months are incomplete. Therefore, for each age group, we assume the number of deaths that arose from non-COVID-19 leading causes were an average of the first half of 2021 (or the most recent data year available). We do not include children under age 5 in age-specific COVID ranking because there are relatively few deaths from any cause, meaning that the rankings of leading causes in each month can be influenced by even a small change in the number of deaths from a given cause."

Source of data -> https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/covid-19-leading-cause-of-death-ranking/