Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] – Details)
[ad_1] Perfect for a health snack. Time to be happy, lovely & healthy. Gluten free High in protein Almonds High protein, dietary fiber, no gluten, no GMO, zero transfat, zero cholesterol 100% Real nuts- good for an active lifestyle Lowers harmful cholesterol levels Rich source of omega-3, anti oxidants & vitamins, calcium, iron & magnesium Hearts best friend, improves cardiovascular system Lowers harmful cholesterol levels;100 percent real nuts- good for an active life style Hearts best friend, improves cardiovascular system Lowers BP, maintains healthy skin and improves memory. Maximum Shelf Life 12 Months; Low glycemic Index – perfect choice for diabetics Allergen Information: Tree Nuts material_features:vegetarian allergen_information:tree_nuts flavor_name:whole natural
The tenor of Newsom’s statement is likely a preview of what could end up as an ugly fight if, as expected, DeSantis tries to wrest the mantle of the GOP away from Trump — with California and its 5.2 million Republican voters representing a major battleground.
A March 2024 vote and an open GOP field offer California’s beleaguered conservatives a chance to step off the statewide sidelines and into the fray of a national fight.
“I don’t remember the last time we mattered,” said Carl DeMaio, a Republican activist and former San Diego council member. “It’s an immense opportunity.”
The contours are already taking shape. DeSantis will be in California over the weekend to speak at the Reagan Presidential library and then collect cash, both opportunities to make inroads with the state’s GOP base. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Vice President Mike Pence have both stopped by the Reagan library — an indispensable proving ground for Republican hopefuls — in recent months. None of them have officially entered the 2024 presidential race but all are expected to.
Lanhee Chen, who ran for state controller in 2022 and has worked for multiple GOP presidential candidates, recounted a Republican campaign official recently seeking his input on how to navigate California’s sprawling geography and media markets.
“California is a different beast,” Chen said. “A lot of the campaigns are trying to wrap their heads around how they should think about it.”
It could feel like a sea change for California Republicans, who have been locked out of statewide office for a generation and are outnumbered two-to-one by registered Democrats. National Republicans swing through California’s red precincts to vacuum up dollars but rarely do any actual campaigning. This cycle could be different.
“There are lots of opportunities for each of these candidates to rack up delegates in California,” said California Republican Party Chair Jessica Millan Patterson, “and I think you’re going to see them coming through the state, not just to raise money but to meet people, get the vote out and make their case.”
By the time the 2016 GOP nominating contest rolled into California, former President Donald Trump had already vanquished his rivals. In early 2023, polling gives DeSantis a substantial lead over the former president. Republican candidates seeking an edge could be compelled to campaign and advertise in a solidly blue state, and not just in the typical conservative strongholds: Delegates will be available deep in the belly of the beast.
“I don’t think Republican voters are even cognizant that this is coming, because it’s just never happened before,” said Matt Shupe, a Republican political consultant. “I’ve been pretty fired up talking about this because this is going to affect the party, from the lowest levels to the highest levels, until March.”
Part of the calculus will involve California’s decentralized nominating process. Most of the state’s delegates are allocated by House district, with the top vote-getter in each district receiving three. California Republican Party officials intentionally made the change many cycles ago to open up a statewide formula that had helped catapult favorite son Ronald Reagan into the White House.
“When we were changing the party rules back in the year 2000, hoping that we might someday play a role like this — it’s certainly surreal that day has arrived,” said Jon Fleischman, who was the party’s executive director at the time. “It only took 23 years.”
That means candidates have 52 separate chances — one for each congressional seat — to pick up votes. Winning a solidly red San Diego seat will be just as valuable as carrying a plurality of San Francisco’s 29,000 Republicans.
“It creates a dynamic where a candidate could say ‘you know what, I’m going to campaign in the Central Valley and hire grassroots people in the Central Valley and just do that,’” Fleischman said.
Republican voters in California run the gamut from Orange County denizens with beachfront views to residents of northern rural counties who hope to create their own state. But Chen said the Republicans he interacted with on the trail had similar views to Republicans in other states. He said he observed bigger contrasts within California.
California Republicans have resoundingly supported Trump, voting for him in record numbers. Supporting him was a prerequisite for leadership in the state party.
But that support is wavering. A recent statewide poll found DeSantis bested Trump by double digits in a head-to-head matchup and scored markedly higher favorability ratings. Republicans around the state described a fluid situation in which some voters unflinchingly back Trump, others are ready to move on, and many are still weighing their options as the field develops.
“It varies so widely. Some people still love Trump and he’s the only one, and a lot of other people are like: ‘absolutely not, DeSantis is our person,’” said Fresno County Republican Party Chair Elizabeth Kolstad.
State Sen. Melissa Melendez was a steadfast Trump supporter who traveled to the White House to discuss immigration in 2018 and represents the Republican stronghold of Riverside County. In a recent interview, Melendez declined to commit to Trump. “Some people have their favorites already decided, but a lot of it is going to come down to what their policies are,” Melendez said, citing stances on China and immigration.
The donor class is also unlikely to unite behind the former president. Gerald Marcil, a fixture of the California Republican donor circuit, said he admired Trump’s record and voted for his re-election. But he is not backing Trump this time around. He likes DeSantis, an impression that was solidified after dining together.
“I think we have to go with Ron DeSantis on this one,” Marcil said, adding he feared a crowded field would hand the nomination to Trump because he begins with an unwavering base. “We’ve got to coalesce and get down to one or two other possibilities.”
Similarly, Orrin Heatlie — a core organizer of the failed 2021 effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom — said the grassroots Republicans he speaks with are “swinging heavily towards Ron DeSantis.”
“He has a clear message and basically aligns with their beliefs and their politics,” Heatlie said. “I think Donald Trump is a distraction.”
Some Republicans are balancing genuine admiration for Trump with other political considerations. Republican Assemblymember Devon Mathis, who is vociferously advocating for former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, said he believed Trump had done a good job but wanted someone who could serve out two terms. Mathis also warned of the down-ballot ripples.
“A lot of people want to stay loyal to the former president, and there’s a lot of people who feel like he got robbed,” Mathis said, but “as much as some people don’t like to admit it, Trump was pretty toxic for our delegation. Every single ad was tying Republicans to Trump, in every target seat in California.”
Despite those reservations, the former president is still a formidable candidate who can count on a solid foundation. Republicans are quick to point out how swiftly the contest could change.
“DeSantis starts with an advantage because he’s more well known,” Fleischman said. “But if our governor starts picking his fights with Trump instead of picking his fights with DeSantis, maybe that changes.”
Lara Korte contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
#Republican #presidential #nomination #run #California #California
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New York: Indian-American Sonya Christian has been named the 11th permanent Chancellor of the California Community College system, the largest and most diverse system of public higher education in the US.
With her appointment, Christian, a Kerala University graduate, becomes the first woman and the first person of South Asian origin to lead the college system that serves 1.8 million students every year.
“Dr. Christian is one of our nation’s most dynamic college leaders, with a demonstrated record of collaboration and results in the Central Valley,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
“She understands what is needed to deliver on record levels of higher education investment to make real improvements to the lived reality of our students. I look forward to continuing to partner with Dr. Christian to ensure our community colleges are engines of equity and opportunity.”
Christian, who is Kern Community College District Chancellor, will step into her new role on June 1, 2023. She replaces Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley, who stepped down in August after leading the community college system for nearly six years.
For more than 30 years, Christian has actively engaged in policies and practices related to state and national completion, quality and equity agendas.
“I am honoured to be selected to lead the most important system of higher education in the country and grateful to the Board of Governors for their confidence,” Christian said.
“We continue to face many challenges, but I truly believe our greatest challenges enable us to do our greatest work. We are called to design the most vibrant, resilient, and effective learning environment ever. We are called to do this work at scale, not eventually, but now. And we will work with a shared vision that keeps students first.”
In July 2021, Christian was named the sixth chancellor of the Kern Community College District, where she implemented a call to action with a focus on advancing student success and closing achievement and equity gaps.
She also spearheaded a statewide coalition in 2015 that led to securing philanthropic funding for the 20-college Guided Pathways demonstration project in California, leading to a $150 million state investment in Guided Pathways and broad adoption of the framework throughout the college system, according to a press statement.
The distinguished educationist started her career in higher education as a mathematics faculty and later as division chair, then Dean of science, engineering, allied health and mathematics at Bakersfield College.
She served as an administrator at Lane Community College in Oregon for several years before returning home to Kern Community College District in 2013 after being selected as the 10th president of Bakersfield College.
Christian earned her Bachelor of Science degree from University of Kerala; her Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from University of Southern California; and her doctorate from University of California, Los Angeles.
“I do believe this race is going to be probably one of the most expensive Senate races ever,” said Ann Ravel, who chaired both the Federal Elections Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission, and “each Super PAC is going to want to assure that their candidate is the one who has enough money.”
Candidates and political operatives have spent months preparing for a Senate race under the presumption Feinstein’s retirement was imminent. That has intensified the competition for top political staffers.
“Schiff was very aggressive,” said an opposition researcher who asked to remain anonymous because they may be working in the race. “He’s trying to lock up all the talent.”
Among those running the pro-Schiff committee are partners at Bearstar Strategies, a blue-chip California consulting firm whose roster has included Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Alex Padilla — and, in 2018, Porter. The Orange County Democrat and the firm parted ways after the 2020 cycle, when Porter endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — her political mentor — over then-Bearstar client Kamala Harris.
“They are going to be very familiar with all her vulnerabilities, and that’s usually the job of a super PAC, is to negatively define an opponent,” said Rob Stutzman, a California-based Republican political consultant.
It is exorbitantly expensive to run a statewide race in California, where candidates must introduce themselves to millions of voters across several media markets. Independent expenditure committees can bolster those efforts by pulling in big-dollar donations
That could be especially critical for Lee as the East Bay Democrat races to make up a cash-on-hand deficit relative to Schiff and Porter, who are both prolific fundraisers with millions in the bank compared to the $54,000 Lee reported at the end of 2022.
“That is clearly the advantage they have,” said Nathan Barankin, who is overseeing the committee. “She has a long list of non-financial advantages they can never overcome, but for her purposes there’s a unique benefit to having a Super PAC.”
The consultants running Lee’s committee hint at where that money may come from. Several of them have worked for progressive prosecutor candidates in California, who benefit from a network of deep-pocketed criminal justice reform supporters. Barankin was chief of staff to Harris, whom Lee supported in the 2020 presidential race.
“I do think there is substantial overlap between many of the people who have been longtime supporters of the vice president over a number of years with those who will be supportive of Barbara Lee, not just in California but around the country,” Barankin said.
While Porter, like Warren, has focused on the corrupting influence of money in politics, she does not intend to decline outside support as Warren sought to do. Warren was caught in a bind in 2020 when she initially pledged to reject PAC support but ultimately received it. The Massachusetts senator argued it would make little sense to operate at a disadvantage to other Democrats who benefited from ubiquitous outside spending.
“You can’t control outside money, which was the thing with Elizabeth Warren,” said Karin Johanson, who helped run a pro-Warren Super PAC in 2020, but “I don’t think anyone’s going to spend money on Katie Porter that Katie Porter doesn’t agree with.”
Porter already navigated a barrage of outside spending in fiercely contested House races that saw groups spend well over $10 million for or against her, illustrating how that kind of cash has become indispensable in tough contests. That network could activate again on Porter’s behalf, although donors who helped her flip and defend a frontline House seat against Republicans will not necessarily support her against fellow Democrats. Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) endorsement of Schiff could give him access to her formidable fundraising network.
The challenge for Democrats in resolutely blue California is how to stand out to voters without alienating them by assailing other Democrats. That’s where Super PACs could be instrumental.
“It’s unlikely the candidate campaigns are going to go negative, but it’s possible the IE’s will feel freer to do things that more specifically contrast candidates,” said Ludovic Blain, who runs the progressive California Donor Table.
None of that will alter the balance of power in a narrowly divided Senate. But funders are keenly interested in shaping who represents America’s most populous state — particularly given the possibility that Feinstein’s successor, like Feinstein, serves for decades.
“Dianne Feinstein’s presence as the senator from California for 30 years was significant in the Senate,” Ravel said, “and so who gets elected to that position is something that a lot of outside interests throughout the country are going to be concerned about.”
[ad_2]
#PACs #poised #supercharge #California #Senate #campaign
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
California’s 5.2 million registered Republican voters could play an outsize role in the Republican presidential primary when they select a presidential candidate next March. The primary offers a prime moment of influence for voters who are often sidelined in the politics of the heavily Democratic state.
DeSantis will travel to California next week for a sold-out event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. After that talk, the governor is scheduled to headline a fundraiser for the Republican Party of Orange County. The county is a former Republican stronghold that has shifted purple in recent years and will host multiple frontline House races in 2024.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has relentlessly attacked DeSantis, using the Florida governor as a foil for California progressivism — a focus that underscores DeSantis’ position at the center of national Republican politics.
Harris could face a tough path to the presidency if Biden does not seek another term. The poll found a majority of California voters are unenthusiastic about the notion of Harris running in 2024 should Biden bow out — an increasingly unlikely scenario, with First Lady Jill Biden telling the Associated Press on Friday that the president had “pretty much” decided to run again. The vice president showed more strength among Democratic voters, a majority of whom said they were enthusiastic about a possible Harris campaign.
Those California headwinds echo Harris’s humbling 2020 campaign. After an ebullient campaign launch in Oakland, Harris slid behind non-Californian candidates in polls that indicated an inability to consolidate support in her home state. She dropped out before California voted.
[ad_2]
#DeSantis #leads #Trump #California #matchup
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“In our pursuit to address gasoline prices, we must ensure our actions that we take first [do] no harm to consumers,” Bradford said.
It was the first public sign of trouble for a key Newsom initiative as he pursues a higher national profile and a possible future run for the presidency. He announced the proposal to cap industry profits and called a special session of the Legislature last summer as gas prices spiked and national anxiety about inflation overall was at a peak.
But the idea of penalizing the industry is facing close scrutiny in a Legislature dominated by Democrats and Newsom allies.
“There is clearly a belief out there among many people that oil companies were profiting off the backs of Californians,” said Sen.Dave Min (D-Irvine). “At the same time, we don’t really have a smoking gun as far as I can see, that shows intentional collusion.”
Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) put it most forcefully: “What I try to look for are what the hell are the unintended consequences, the possible unintended consequences that could hurt those people to a greater extent?”
Several experts testifying before the Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee said the proposal may focus on the wrong part of the supply chain by targeting refineries because downstream market players, including gas stations, may play a larger role in prices.
“Policies intended to affect refineries are not going to get at most of the reasons Californians are paying a higher price for gasoline,” said Severin Borenstein, a Newsom appointee on the state’s power grid operator and a UC Berkeley professor.
Borenstein has characterized part of the gap between California gas prices and the national average as a “mystery gasoline surcharge.”
The surcharge, according to the Energy Commission, is the extra profits oil companies earn in California above and beyond a margin that can be attributed to the state’s higher taxes and more stringent fuel standards. That margin increased after a 2015 refinery outage and grew during recent spikes.
One thing Borenstein, other experts and even Republicans on the committee agreed on: California regulators need more information on how the complex markets work, including contracts between refiners and retailers, sales prices and other details, to understand how prices in California have soared so much higher than in other states.
“There’s something going on downstream that I think this committee should get some answers to,” said Sen. Brian Dahle (R-Bieber).
In the electricity and natural gas markets, many of those details are already available, experts noted.
Newsom’s proposal, introduced by Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), would enable the state Energy Commission to obtain some of the additional information the experts said is needed.
It would also place a to-be-determined cap on oil refiners’ profits, setting a penalty through which the state would collect some of the above-limits earnings and distribute the money to residents.
The penalty is meant to act as a deterrent, said Nicolas Maduros, director of the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
“This isn’t a tax, it’s not meant to raise revenue; it’s meant to change behavior,” Maduros said.
Maduros said the proposal would be the first of its kind in the world, differing from windfall taxes in Europe and efforts of the past due to its structure as a penalty and its focus only on profits above a set cap, rather than all earnings.
Industry representatives and some analysts have made much of the unintended consequences lawmakers asked about, saying a profit margin cap could reduce supply in the state by encouraging companies to transport more oil to markets in neighboring states and overseas rather than selling it in California, particularly as the state weans itself off oil under long-term state mandates.
“We are concerned the fuel refineries will shutter before the transition is complete, leaving the market dependent,” said David Hackett, chair of the board of consultant Stillwater Associates.
Skinner pushed back on that assertion, noting that many gas-powered vehicles will still be on the road in California even if the state meets a goal of expanding electric vehicle sales to 100 percent of new car sales by 2035.
“I still can’t see where it wouldn’t be in refineries’ interest to stop selling gasoline or refining gasoline in California,” she said.
[ad_2]
#Newsoms #proposal #cap #oil #profits #California #meets #skepticism #public #hearing
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Murphy plans to start New Jersey on the path pioneered by California with a requirement that all new cars sold in the state have zero emissions by 2035.
The governor is also directing the state Board of Public Utilities to open a proceeding on “the future of the natural gas utility.” It would be similar to other states looking for an orderly way to reduce the burning of natural gas.
“These bold targets and carefully crafted initiatives signal our unequivocal commitment to swift and concrete climate action today,” Murphy will say, according to prepared remarks of the speech. “We’ve turned our vision for a greener tomorrow into a responsible and actionable roadmap to guide us, and it’s through that pragmatic, evidence-based approach that we will ultimately arrive at our destination.”
The governor will also:
— Set a target to electrify 400,000 residential buildings and 20,000 commercial buildings by 2030, which generally means retrofitting them to switch from natural gas to electric heat.
— Spend $70 million from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to help companies and local governments buy electric medium and heavy duty trucks, a category that includes school buses, semi-trucks and heavy duty loaders.
— Move forward on the next phase of climate changed-related rules, particularly ones related to flooding known as the “resilient environments and landscapes” or REAL.
The governor’s new 100 percent clean energy by 2035 plan is similar to a bill from Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), chair of the state Senate Environment and Energy Committee, that began circulating widely a few weeks ago. While the governor can set his own target without legislation, the administration plans to keep working with Smith on the bill.
A clean energy law might ultimately have more staying power in a state where the governor’s office tends to go back and forth between Republicans and Democrats.
Many of the goals that were once nearly unthinkable and are now fast approaching. But they also stretch well beyond the time that Murphy, a two-term governor, has left in office.
Whether the announcements will be enough to revive the governor’s flagging reputation among environmentalists remains to be seen. In 2017, he campaigned on a 100 percent clean energy by 2050 goal. In the years since, environmental activists in the state have questioned his commitment and, last month, one prominent group said they no longer considered him America’s “greenest governor.”
Just a few weeks ago, the state changed its timeline for redoing its Clean Energy Master Plan, delaying it until 2024 because of the time needed for a more robust planning process. Now, though, Murphy is moving ahead on more aggressive targets, like those outlined by Smith’s bill.
Even though success of the 2035 goals will can’t be measured for years, the administration has compared energy policy to a moving ship. If someone doesn’t put the state on a clean energy course, it may never get there.
[ad_2]
#Jersey #governor #set #leading #clean #power #target #follow #California #ban #gaspowered #cars
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
In fact, most of the anticipated dominoes had already fallen before Feinstein played her last piece. Feinstein’s retirement had been so widely expected that California Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter were already running to succeed her. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), had told her colleagues and supporters she planned to run, while former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had publicly endorsed Schiff based on the expectation Feinstein would retire.
What Feinstein’s Tuesday announcement did do was eliminate the conditional nature of that endorsement. It also allowed candidates and their supporters to quit the awkward dance. And “if there was any [hesitation] on the throttle, for any of the campaigns, it’s gone,” said Doug Herman, a Southern California-based Democratic strategist.
Any misgivings over pushing out the longest-serving woman senator seemed mostly nonexistent, anyway. Her official retirement won’t do much to fundamentally alter the dynamics of the campaign.
“Not a lick,” Herman said. “Look, Schiff and Porter had kickoff rallies already. If there’s anything they’re holding back, tell me where. Nobody expected that she was running, anyway.”
In her retirement announcement, Feinstein asserted that she will serve out her full term, preventing another appointment courtesy of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. He had vowed to select a Black woman if he got another chance, after picking Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) to fill then-Sen. Kamala Harris’ seat. The expectation within Democratic circles is he would have chosen Lee.
If Feinstein holds to her timeline, it will guarantee the kind of open race that ambitious California Democrats have eagerly awaited.
The field may still expand. California has no shortage of Democrats in statewide elected office, plus members of Congress and independently wealthy Democrats who could self-fund a campaign. Lee, in a statement praising Feinstein’s “historic Senate career,” said, “While I hope we will keep the focus in these coming days on celebrating the Senator and her historic tenure in the Senate, I know there are questions about the Senate race in 2024, which I will address soon.”
Each candidate — and Lee, who is expected to formally announce in the coming days — has dealt with the unease around Feinstein differently.
Porter, the youngest of the group and new to Congress by comparison, did express some initial hesitation about leaping into the race with Feinstein’s retirement still unclear. Some Porter supporters worried that it could appear like she was trampling on the long sendoff of a woman who many in the state regard as an icon.
But Porter, who hemorrhaged cash to retain her purple Orange County congressional seat, ultimately pushed through with the earliest launch. There was little in the way of backlash within the party. In fact, the outrage from most of the rival camps related to the announcement occurring just as disastrous storms were hitting California.
Schiff, who is widely expected to win Feinstein’s support for her seat, was far more calculating in his approach — initially taking care to defer to the senator’s eventual retirement decision. But he wasn’t willing to wait completely, unwilling to cede a state of 40 million people for weeks on end to a rival for no good reason. Then the endorsement of Pelosi represented a major coup, especially in a race thus far populated by two Southern Californians who are fighting for Bay Area inroads.
Lee’s whole game — at least for months — was hoping to win Newsom’s appointment if Feinstein stepped down early. Colleagues and aides to the California Democrat have shared uncomfortable stories about Feinstein’s ability to continue the job, including an instance over two years ago when she stepped aside from the top spot on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee.
Absent an appointment, Lee would have an uphill climb. Her lack of resources as she enters the race all but assures that she would have to rely on a torrent of outside spending to boost her — advisers and analysts expect the low-end down-payment for TV advertising heading into next year’s competitive primary would be $25 million to $30 million.
Ultimately, Feinstein’s endorsement may not be as valuable as that of sitting senators in some other states. Her approval rating had fallen underwater in California as her moderate politics fell out of step with the state’s activist base. For a Democrat courting moderates or older Democrats, said Rose Kapolczynski, a Democratic strategist, Feinstein’s endorsement may be beneficial, though not determinative in California.
“In most campaigns for an open seat, everyone wants the endorsement of the retiring incumbent, but that’s not the case here,” said Kapolczynski, who helped guide former Sen. Barbara Boxer’s political career. “Feinstein now is more moderate than the Democratic primary electorate, so her endorsement is not as sought after as you might imagine the incumbent’s endorsement would be.”
[ad_2]
#California #Feinsteins #retirement #happened
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Deep underneath the sodden soils and the berms of snow that now coat California, fuels for fire are waiting to sprout. Grasses and other quick-growing vegetation, spurred by the downpours that saturated the state at the start of the year, quickly turn to kindling as the weather warms.
“When that rain comes – and it came last month – that results in significant fuel load increases,” said Isaac Sanchez, a CalFire battalion chief. “[Plants] are going to grow, they are going to die, and then they are going to become flammable fuel as the year grinds on.”
While experts say it’s still too early to predict what’s in store for the months ahead and if weather conditions will align to help infernos ignite, it’s clear the rains that hammered California this winter came as a mixed blessing, delivering badly needed relief while posing new risks. Along with seeding the tinder of tomorrow, the inclement weather hampered efforts to perform essential landscape treatments needed to mitigate the risks of catastrophic fire.
“That is now the reality of the environment in the state that we live in,” Sanchez, added. “We are constantly facing a double-edged sword.”
Reservoirs are more robust than they have been in years. The snowpack, which will slowly release moisture into thirsty landscapes through the spring and summer, is 134% of its average for April, giving the state an important head start. The rains also bumped California out of the most extreme categories of drought, according to the latest analysis from the US Drought Monitor.
But the storms also left behind a dangerous mess.
Strong winds ripped trees from their roots and tore down branches, littering ignition opportunities throughout high-risk areas. Through the slopes and mountainsides, saturated earth crumbled, chewing gaps through roads and highways and hindering access. If these issues linger into the summer and autumn months, they could augment fire dangers.
A tree which toppled during recent storms sits next to the road on 11 January, in Santa Cruz, California. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
The deluges also washed out winter plans for prescribed burning – which are often years in the making.
“Those big rains effectively shut down our ability to broadcast burning across the landscape,” said Scott Witt, deputy chief of pre fire planning at CalFire, a division that focuses on mitigation. Adding controlled fire to landscapes is a proven strategy that both creates healthier, more resilient forests and also reduces fuels that can escalate fire severity, but conditions have to be right before they are set.
Landscapes that are too wet won’t burn and high moisture levels can also increase smoke output during a burn, putting the plan at odds with air quality control. Stormy conditions – especially wind – can make them too hard to control.
Other types of treatments, including those that use machines to clear vegetation from overgrown landscapes, were less affected but the storms caused issues with access, Witt said. “We have had areas that have been damaged to the point where roads were washed out, so roadwork needs to be done prior to us bringing resources in,” he said. “The heavy rains do have the potential of limiting or adjusting where we do our treatments.”
Data from the agency, published on Friday, shows the number of treatments conducted by the state and its affiliates in December and January is roughly 50% lower than it was the year prior.
There may still be time to amp up the work if conditions are favorable through the spring, and the state was able to do more work than expected during a dry fall. But there is a lot of ground to cover and the state is already playing catch-up after more than a century of fire suppression left forests overgrown and primed to burn.
One of the many rockslides on highway 154 after the storms that shut down the highway between Santa Barbara and Solvang/Santa Ynez. Photograph: Amy Katz/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
Now, the climate crisis turned up the dial. Spiking temperatures now pull more moisture out of plants, landscapes and the atmosphere, setting the stage for once-healthy ignitions to turn into infernos. The sisyphean task of treating and retreating the lands is a daunting one, especially now that there’s even more fuel on the ground after the storms – and time is running short.
It takes just days for smaller plants to dry after the rain stops, Witt said, “and dead grasses will start to dry out within an hour or two”. It’s not yet clear whether California will get much more of a dousing before spring. The heavy snowpack could help delay the onset of risks but “if we continue to stay in a dry pattern – even though we had a really strong beginning of winter,” Witt said, “we could easily have an early fire season”.
Noting the urgency, Adrienne Freeman, a spokesperson with the United States Forest Service who is based in California, said the outlook was not as grim as it might appear. There was still a lot that could happen before the onset of high-risk weather.
The cold, rainy conditions also helped forests recover from the drought, which will make them more burn-resistant. Water tables are looking far better and bug species that wreak havoc on vulnerable trees are being better kept at bay. “There is a lot of good news ecologically and we can’t separate that,” she said, noting that the boost may not go as far as it might have in a world without climate change.
“And as far as getting the work done, we just have to remember it is a long-term process,” she added, emphasizing that the effects of landscape treatments must be measured across decades, not years. “It took 150 years to happen, and it is not going to be fixed in a season.”
The 132,000-acre Rancho San Fernando Rey, 100 miles north of Los Angeles, now has a lush and abundant river running through it, thanks to the rains that filled the usually dry valley. Photograph: Amy Katz/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
Acknowledging that the storms affected the agency’s ability to conduct landscape treatments this winter, she said there’s still a lot of work being done. “It doesn’t really have any bearing on what we will be able to do in the spring or how fire season will look in the summer and fall,” she said. “It is way too early for us to anticipate how this is going to affect fire season.”
What will have greater bearing on fire risks this year is the conditions that align come summer and fall – and those are harder to predict.
“There’s a lot left to luck,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council, echoing Freeman. Last year, when risks were high and the winter was dry, timing fell in California’s favor. Fewer catastrophic fires erupted and, while there were high-severity burns that were deadly and destructive, the acreage scorched by the end of the year was only a fraction of what it was in years past.
This year the conditions are very different. Going into spring with more snow, and wetter soils, different kinds of risks remain. “It speaks to our need to continually think about fire,” Quinn-Davidson said. While the weather will do what it will, more than can be done to prepare for the worst. That includes building on the growing momentum to perform more prescribed burns and other treatments, to champion fire-ready communities, and listen to and learn from Indigenous leaders who performed cultural burns for centuries before white colonizers disrupted essential and natural cycles on the lands.
With harder-to-predict weather patterns, agencies and organizations charged with this work will have to be nimble. “We really need to be ready when the windows present themselves to take advantage of them,” she said, adding that this is where community-based fire management groups – which are sprouting up all over the state – shine.
That’s what gives her hope. Even if some conditions can be left up to chance, there is a lot that can be done. “We have a lot of power and ownership,” she said, noting that landscapes are shaped by people. It will be up to people and communities to ensure the tools are in place to prevent the worst kinds of fires from erupting “We just have to have our hearts in the right place.”
[ad_2]
#Doubleedged #sword #badly #needed #rains #California #fuel #catastrophic #fires
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
With overdoses near record highs because of the prevalence of fentanyl, Gov. Gavin Newsom called in his recent budget proposal for $3.5 million to supply middle and high schools with naloxone — even as a potential deficit looms and some programs face cuts.
“This is a top priority,” the Democratic governor said last month. “There’s not a parent out there that doesn’t understand the significance of this fentanyl crisis.”
The second-largest school district in the country isn’t waiting.
Los Angeles Unified placed naloxone in each of its schools last fall. And Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced this week that the district will allow students to carry the overdose antidote to stem the “devastating epidemic” brought on by fentanyl.
“We remain committed to expanding access, education and training for this life-saving emergency medication,” Carvalho wrote in a memo to parents Tuesday.
Fentanyl — which is about 50 times stronger than heroin — is almost entirely responsible for a spike in youth overdose deaths in California, where such incidents were once rarer than in the rest of the country.
Some young people buy pills from dealers over social media thinking they’re pure oxycodone, Xanax or Adderall, but they’re increasingly laced with fentanyl. Others knowingly ingest the drug, a risk when just 2 milligrams can end a person’s life.
“It’s not that more teens are using drugs. It’s that the drug supply has gotten more deadly,” said Chelsea Shover, a UCLA epidemiologist.
But even the strongest advocates of supplying schools with naloxone acknowledge the limits of this approach to saving teenagers on the brink of death, especially if the drug consumption happens off campus.
California, like Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Washington — which require public high schools to keep naloxone on hand — will likely be able to save some overdosing teenagers. But not most, CDC cause of death data shows.
“Truthfully, I think having Narcan in schools is a Band-Aid,” said Assemblymember Joe Patterson, a Republican from a suburban district near Sacramento who’s authoring legislation requiring schools to stock the drug. “It’s really just a treatment to save lives when kids are poisoned. But we need to stop kids from being poisoned in the first place.”
Schools can get naloxone for free through California Department of Public Health grants, and some have already administered it several times this school year: 12 times in Los Angeles, at least once in Santa Clara County and once in Sacramento, according to school district spokespeople.
“If you have free, ready access to something like this, why not put it in those spaces where you could save a life?” asked Flores.
But many districts don’t carry it in the absence of a state mandate. And despite Newsom’s support for more naloxone funding, he has not said whether he backs legislation that would require schools to keep the antidote drug on site.
Keeping a couple doses in a central location within a school is only the “bare minimum thing that we should do,” said Shover.
Teenagers are more likely than school nurses to see their peers overdosing in time to do something about it, and those whose friends might be at risk should carry doses, the epidemiologist said. That reasoning, and the urging of the county department of public health, prompted LAUSD’s new policy.
California lawmakers are also considering legislation that would require stadiums, amusement parks, concert venues and universities to have naloxone on hand. The medication is available in a nasal spray and comes without risk to people who take it in, even if they aren’t overdosing.
Other legislators have proposed new regulations for social media companies in an effort to curb online trafficking of “fentapills” to young adults. And Republicans have introduced bills that would lengthen prison sentences for fentanyl traffickers and sellers — a tough political sell for the statehouse’s Democratic supermajority, which has been working to reduce incarceration rates after the decades-long war on drugs.
Changes to health education for students are noticeably absent from the batch of legislation. California doesn’t require schools to offer dedicated health classes, let alone instruction on fentanyl.
A bill from state Sen. Dave Cortese would require schools to address opioid overdoses in their safety plans and have the state provide overdose training and prevention materials to districts, replicating steps that schools have taken in Santa Clara County, where he lives.
His legislation would, however, stop short of requiring schools to teach students about the drug or train teachers to administer naloxone, even though he said he supports both. Fights to change curricula or impose teacher training requirements have historically proven difficult and time-consuming in Sacramento.
“I think the bill takes a little bit of a step forward — short of mandated training, which would be the ideal, frankly,” Cortese (D-San Jose), said of his legislation.
Even if other fentanyl proposals are politically tenuous, getting naloxone into schools has drawn the backing of both parties, making the requirement likely to clear the Legislature.
“Ideally,” Shover said, “we should have done it a while ago.”
[ad_2]
#Teen #overdose #deaths #lead #California #schools #stock #reversal #drug
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
