Daily Archives: May 4, 2021

MCLEAN, VA Terry McAuliffe today released his bold newBuilding a Flourishing Rural Economyplan to prioritize rural communities in Virginia as he rebuilds a stronger, more equitable post-COVID economy. As governor, Terry will bring economic opportunity to rural communities across the Commonwealth and get every Virginian online by the end of his term. He will also partner with President Bidens administration to create Virginias first intentional rural economic development hub through a new pilot project, driving long-term, sustainable economic growth in critical areas of the Commonwealth. Terry will also establish Virginias rural communities as energy innovation capitals of the East Coast, invest in crumbling school infrastructure and support Virginia farmers.

Rural Virginias natural resources, environment, and over one million residents, are vital to the Commonwealth and its economy. They are home to Virginiaslargest industryagriculture and forestry providing 440,000 jobs and over $90 billion a year in economic impacts. Unfortunately, the once-flourishing manufacturing and industrial hubs in Virginias rural communities have been hit hard over the past several decades as manufacturing industries have left and the Great Recession eliminated jobs that have never returned. Virginians living in rural communities experience lower wages and a lack of infrastructure like broadband that people need to pursue economic opportunity. Virginias rural health care infrastructure is chronically underfunded, and only 8% of Virginias physicians practice in rural areas. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these inequities, reversing progress made on fighting the opioid epidemic that had already disproportionately impacted rural Virginians.

As governor, Terry will ensure that rural communities are key to Virginias equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Terrys plan for rural economic development includes building Virginias first-ever intentional economic development hub, deploying high-impact investments to spans of up to 4 neighboring localities in a region. Local voices, as part of a regional public-private consortium, will steer funding to revitalize local main streets, facilitate business development or expansion, and support affordable childcare and workforce needs. The initiative will attract new industries, anchor regional development, create tourism, and generate jobs and sustainable economic growth.

Farmers, especially small, family farmers, are at the center of Terrys new plan. One of Terrys first acts as governor in 2014 was to sign a law creating more economic opportunities and cutting red tape for family farms. He boosted consumer access to locally produced food and gave farmers access to new markets, ushering in cooperative sales partnerships between small farms and enabling much more agritourism. Terrys ambitious new plan would cut even more red tape for small farmers, support farmers investments in smart farming technology, and partner with community colleges on farming technology training. Terry will also fight to end rural food insecurity through his food security plan,Ensuring that Virginians Have Access to Regular, Nutritious Meals.

In rural Virginia, when we talk about broadband, education, health care, and the economy all these issues are interconnected. Nowadays its nearly impossible to get a job or an education without internet access, which is why we need a holistic approach in our post-COVID recovery that is big and bold, saidTerry McAuliffe. As governor, were going to have rural Virginia lead the way on universal broadband, clean energy jobs, and 21st century farming technologies. But thats still not enough. We need to make rural health care and education equitable by reinvesting in those systems alongside telehealth, virtual education, and career training. Its time to take Virginias rural economy to the next level, and we will get it done.

Terry will be able to get this done because he has the record of achievements for rural Virginia. As Virginias 72nd Governor, Terry worked to expand health care access and rural opportunities. He paved the way for Medicaid expansion and prioritized bringing good-paying jobs in these regions, and hell do it again as Virginias next governor. Terry made agriculture and forestryVirginias top private sector industrieskey components of his economic development plan. This focus on agriculture and forestry substantially grew exports of agricultural and forestry products to over $3 billion for the first time in Virginias history. And despite inheriting a record budget deficit and facing the effects of the Great Recession and sequestration, Terry created 200,000 good paying jobs, reduced unemployment from 5.7% to 3.3%, and raised personal income by 14% during his administration.

Terry has also proposed more than a dozen bold plans to create a more equitable post-COVID Virginia. Terrys plans will strengthenVirginiaseducation systemand dramatically increase teacher pay, help secure Virginias economicrecovery from COVID-19,reform our criminal justice systemto create a more equitable Virginia,ensure Virginians have accessto regular nutritious meals, address thebroken, predatory system of prescription drug pricing,boldly confront the gun violence epidemic,make Virginia the best state in the nation for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Healthcare (STEM-H)and computer science education,tackle the housing crisisin the Commonwealth andinvest in Virginias workforce to create a more equitable post-COVID economy, ensure Virginians have access tohigh-quality, affordable health carewill build a more equitable Commonwealth, andtackle climate change and secure Virginias clean energyfuture by 2035,lift up Black Virginiansas the Commonwealth rebuilds equitably from the COVID-19 pandemic,further advanceLGBTQ+ rights.

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Terry McAuliffe Releases Building A Flourishing Rural Economy Plan to Get Every Virginian Online and Make Historic Investments in Rural Jobs,...

As chief of the Division of General Obstetrics and Gynecology for Penn Medicine, Dr. Florencia Greer Polite has spent many satisfying work days delivering babies and taking care of her female patients. But it was something out of her regular routine that recently became a defining moment in her career.

When the COVID-19 vaccine rollout began at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Polite was worried about the lack of compliance, especially among minority staffers. As a Black woman, she understood vaccine hesitancy; as a physician, she felt compelled to do something about it.

What was literally keeping me up at night were these issues of hesitancy, Polite said. I made the personal decision to get vaccinated on the first day at Penn Medicine, despite my own personal hesitancy. Im not an early adopter of anything, but I felt like this was an opportunity for me to get vaccinated, to be public about what that experience was like, and to hopefully educate my family, my friends, and my community and my patients.

Polite took her advocacy a step further, helping to create Operation CAVEAT at the hospital an acronym that stands for Covid Acceptance Vaccine Education and Adoption Taskforce. She spoke recently to Wharton management professors Stephanie Creary and Aline Gatignon about the initiative and the broader issue of equity in COVID-19 testing and vaccine distribution. David Casey, chief diversity officer and senior vice president of workforce strategies at CVS Health, also joined the conversation, which was part of Crearys Leading Diversity@Work podcast series. (Listen to the podcast above.)

Part of Caseys job includes figuring out how his company can reach minority populations to help them get access to health care, including COVID-19 testing and vaccines. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, numerous studies have documented the disproportionate toll that it is taking on Black, Hispanic and Native American communities.

What was literally keeping me up at night were these issues of hesitancy. Dr. Florencia Greer Polite

Weve all heard the saying that your ZIP code matters more than your genetic code when it comes to health care, Casey said. You can literally go less than a mile, and the health care experiences of the individuals in that part of the community can be vastly different than they are just a mile down the road.

Polite agreed, noting that health care disparities are about racism not race. Theres nothing inherently different about a Black or Latinx patient that makes them more likely to die of COVID, but there are a number of systemic factors that affect that mortality or that death rate, she said.

A Three-headed Beast

Polite said she thinks about COVID-19 as a three-headed beast for communities of color. First, there is the increased mortality of minority populations due to COVID-19. Many working-class Black and Hispanic people have jobs with high exposure to the public and no personal protective equipment, and they may live in multigenerational homes all factors that increase the risk of contracting and dying from the disease.

The second head is vaccine access. Broadly, thats about how states are getting the doses to cities, towns, villages, and hamlets. More specifically, how are authorities and health care leaders making sure that the most vulnerable people get the injections with as few barriers as possible?

The third head of the beast is vaccine hesitancy, which Polite pinpointed as a problem stemming from Americas legacy of systemic racism and inequality.

We got [to this point] over 400 years. Were not going to turn around in two weeks or a month, she said. Its going to take a lot of very intentional small steps over a long time. But we have many, many, many people to bring along who, quite frankly, are often in leadership positions, which might make this a more challenging burden to overcome.

Through Operation CAVEAT, Polite and her colleagues tackled these issues in three steps:

These steps, along with others designed to give employees easy, on-site access to the vaccines, helped the hospital make a measurable improvement in vaccine compliance, Polite said.

Trusted Faces and Trusted Places

The hospitals experience in reaching minority employees was a microcosm of the work Casey does to reach out to minority communities across the U.S. Even with 10,000 stores, Casey said that CVS Health knew it couldnt get the job done alone. Thats why the company has continuing partnerships with nonprofits, community centers, free and charitable clinics, faith-based organizations, civic leaders just about anyone that can help spread the health care message to those who need it most.

Borrowing a phrase he heard from local partners, Casey said that to deliver vaccines effectively into Black and brown communities, You have to have trusted faces and trusted places.

Weve all heard the saying that your ZIP code matters more than your genetic code when it comes to health care. David Casey

Where are the places people typically go, that theyre used to going, that they may still be going to during COVID? he said. Is it a community free clinic? Is it their church? Is it the grocery store? Where is it that people are going, and how can we offer vaccines there, as opposed to our store? We wanted to take health care to the community, not just where people live, but how they live.

Casey and Polite urged others who are in leadership positions to find and evaluate the racial disparities within their organizations, create a collaborative plan with realistic solutions, deploy the plan, then measure the outcomes. Recognize the difference between equity and equality, and never stop talking about it even when it makes people uncomfortable.

Casey recalled posting some numbers on his LinkedIn page early in the pandemic that documented the disproportionately high death rate among Blacks and Hispanics. He immediately got push-back from a few people who criticized him for talking about race. Yet no one challenged the conversation when data showed how the disease was ravaging the elderly.

As soon as we saw dataon the Black and African American community, then part of the narrative became, Well, why are we talking about race? Where did that hesitation come from? Where did that push-back come from? Casey said. Making sure that equity is being thought about at the outset, not as an afterthought, is a challenge. It was a challenge for us in the beginning, and its a challenge for all of us involved in health care to think about going forward.

Food for My Soul

Through the Mercy/Penn Medicine & The Community Vaccine Collaborative, Polite volunteered to administer COVID-19 vaccines. She remembers vaccinating 80 people in one day, and 70 of them were Black. The experience was gratifying in ways she did not expect, even for a doctor used to helping people. Hesitancy and advocacy work is exhausting, she said, but this was icing on the cake.

At the end of the day, it was like food for my soul, she said. It was one of the best days. I came home, and my kids were like, You were super tired when you went, and you look way less tired now.

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Creating Equity in COVID-19 Testing and Vaccine Distribution - Knowledge@Wharton - Knowledge@Wharton

The rush to get the COVID-19 vaccine has slowed, leading some to worry if Minnesota can reach herd immunity at this rate. Obstacles to broader distribution of the vaccine remain, and some people are hesitant to receive it in the first place. Inequities in vaccination across different communities have also persisted.

How are public health experts working to reach underserved groups of people and geographies with the COVID-19 vaccine? What are their strategies for making vaccines more accessible? What conversations are they having with people who are reluctant to get the vaccine?

We saw a really rapid increase in vaccinations for the last month or so, and now were seeing a slowing of that increase, and that gives me some concern, Carrie Henning-Smith, the deputy director of the Rural Health Research Center at the University of Minnesota, told MPR News host Angela Davis.

That slowing may be the result of structural issues like access to vaccine sites and transportation, conflicts with work and scheduling complications. Henning-Smith said public health officials are working to answer the question: What can we do to alleviate those barriers for people so that everyone can become fully vaccinated?

Nneka Sederstrom, the chief health equity officer for Hennepin Healthcare, said that to overcome such barriers, theres value in proceeding with a sense of purpose: We have moved from focusing so much on speed to now being more intentional with equity.

Sederstroms outreach work has not only made the COVID-19 vaccine more available to underserved communities but also helped convince some reluctant people to get their shots.

Weve seen a lot of hesitancy fall away, actually, when weve been really deliberate and intentional in partnering with specific community organizations or community leaders, Sederstrom said.

Ultimately, according to Henning-Smith and Sederstrom, to protect everyone from COVID-19, its essential to connect with everyone who is hesitant to receive the vaccine.

We have a lot of work to do to ensure that everyone sees their role in helping us move toward herd immunity, and that everyone sees this as a collective responsibility, Henning-Smith said.

MPR News senior reporter Catharine Richert also stopped by the show to provide an update on the latest COVID-19 headlines, including new concerns around an increase in infections among children.

The bottom line when it comes to COVID-19 in Minnesota? It is still here, Richert said.

Guests:

Carrie Henning-Smith is the deputy director of the Rural Health Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

Nneka Sederstrom is the chief health equity officer for Hennepin Healthcare.

Catharine Richert is a senior reporter with MPR News and has been covering COVID-19.

Use the audio player above to listen to the program.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Correction (April 28, 2021): An earlier version of this post misidentified Carrie Henning-Smith's professional title. The post has been updated.

You make MPR News possible. Individual donations are behind the clarity in coverage from our reporters across the state, stories that connect us, and conversations that provide perspectives. Help ensure MPR remains a resource that brings Minnesotans together.

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Where does Minnesota stand in the hunt for herd immunity? - Minnesota Public Radio News

Mari Katsumura leads an ambitious Michelin-starred restaurant, Ygen, in Chicagos culinary mecca of the West Loop. Kazuki Tanaka bakes reliably homespun Japanese pastries at the three-decade stalwart Bakery Crescent in northwest suburban Arlington Heights. Pink-haired Anna Wu sells cupcakes out of her A.Sweets Girl truck and has vied for success on TV food competition shows.

Despite their vastly different careers, locations, price points, and baking styles, all three will share their pastries together with fifteen other Asian American pastry chefs based in Chicagoland in gorgeous Bakers Boxes that are available for pre-order online on Tock beginning 11:00 am on May 5. Two different boxes containing nine unique pastries each are available. Pick up is on Saturday, May 29 at another completely different food establishment: the pizzeria Paulie Gees Logan Square, which will contribute its own treat to the boxes.

Chicago is the third iteration of the Bakers Box, following New York and Los Angeles, with plans to continue in Boston in June, Philadelphia in July, and a new city each successive month. Its a project by With Warm Welcome, a community organization founded in 2019 that seeks to amplify Asian American faces and voices in the culinary community by telling their stories through podcasts, events, and ideas like the Bakers Box.

I noticed that there was this upcoming next generation of Asian Americans who were taking the cuisine that they grew up with and finding a way to express it in a contemporary voice, says With Warm Welcomes founder Arnold Byun, who has worked at some of New York Citys most esteemed fine dining restaurantsmostly under white head chefs. At the time, I felt that there wasnt a platform or community that celebrated that, and thats why I started With Warm Welcome.

The Bakers Box was in part an attempt to spotlight some chefs whom Byun felt received even less recognition than their peers: Asian American women pastry chefs. Pastry teams are always honestly overlooked, under-appreciated, under-represented in fine dining restaurants, he explained in a recent podcast. Pastry chefs who are Asian women receive even less attention, he contends, so he and a pastry student, Stephanie Loo, decided to organize a bake sale in New York City that would highlight Asian American womens talents during Womens History Month in March.

As they quickly put together the first Bakers Box, there was a spate of high-profile hate crimes against Asian Americans in the United States. We felt we should do something about it, and we felt that doing something with pastry and sweets, especially in times like this, would bring so much more positivity to the world and to our communities, says Byun.

(Other chefs also lent their talents to address Asian American hate crimes: Beverly Kim of Chicagos Parachute led a campaign in April called #DoughSomething that raised funds for Asian Americans Advancing Justice. It included several chefs who are taking part in the Chicago Bakers Box.)

To that end, the Bakers Box also includes a charitable component. Ten percent of the proceeds from the Chicago sales will go to One Book One World, which is seeking to raise money during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May to bring more books about Asian American history to Chicago area schools.

One of the Los Angeles Bakers Boxes. Photo: Ben Hon

That mission of bringing Asian American stories to more people fits in perfectly with the ethos of With Warm Welcome and the Bakers Box, which is really about the person behind that pastry, Byun explained in the podcast. Storytelling is really the genesis, he says. While each box comes with a stylishly illustrated card listing all the pastries and the chefs who made them, their establishment or shop is noticeably absent. That information can be found alongside ingredient lists and profiles of each chef by scanning a QR code.

Quite honestly, I want people to do a little bit of homework, Byun says, laughing. The whole reasoning behind the work we do is to create more awareness and curiosity about places, like, Why is this place named this? Whats the story here? Who are the owners?

The pastries are meant to tell a personal story about the chef who made them, whether its through a favorite ingredient or a signature item that made their name. In the Chicago Bakers Box the Vietnamese Canadian chef Jeanette Tran-Deanwho most recently ran a pop-up that explored the commonalities between Vietnamese and Guatemalan foodis contributing a Nanaimo bar, a Canadian dessert, but flavoring it with ube, a purple yam that is ubiquitous in Filipino treats. Nikita Dhingra, who offers Indian meals on Instagram under the name Plattered by Niki, is making a dessert typically eaten during the South Asian holidays of Diwali and Holi.

I was very intentional in building this box, says Anna Desai, who chose the participants for the Chicago Bakers Box, which broadened to include a few male bakers as well. I wanted to make sure that there was representation thats reflective of our city, so that we had East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, as well as being reflective of all of the offerings that we have here in the city as well as the suburbs. I also wanted to have a breadth of emerging talent to established talent.

So Chinatowns Chiu Quon, the oldest Chinese bakery in Chicago, is included, as is Kasama, a newish Filipino restaurant that has quickly earned a reputation for its pastries. Theres Northern Thai (Pink Salt) and Malaysian (Kedai Tapao), as well as a Japanese-inspired confectioner (Sugoi Sweets) and a granola company (Stellar Granola).

I think whats so special about the Bakers Box is that were highlighting the people, Desai says. We want to celebrate them and their work, because when you walk into any bakery or restaurant, the focus is always on the food and not necessarily the people.

And theres always a story behind the food.

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Spotlighting Asian American Bakers and Their Stories Through a Unique Box of Pastries - WTTW News

I recently appeared in a video made by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The video, where I talk about climate science communication, is part of a series on Countering Science Misinformation. While recording it, I realized that, while misinformation is the most common type of falsehood in science around us, disinformation is also a common presence, and unlike misinformation, it can have much more serious and deliberate consequences.

Misinformation is false information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead. Whereas a lot of misinformation is intentional, in many instances it may be accidental, because the person or channel relaying the information may actually believe it to be true.

According to the Univ. of Southern California, people may misunderstand what they are reading or watching, even when its from legitimate sources. People not only seek information according to their own biases (based on their values, beliefs, environment, political inclination) but they also misunderstand what they read when they scan news on social media. They state that the spread of fake news and misinformationincluding the misunderstanding of real newsacross social media communities is a big problem.

A 2019 paper found that, as people scan news to choose what to read (and do not know the accuracy of the news they are offered), in an effort to reduce their uncertainty about a subject they tend to choose those that align with their beliefs. The more choices they are offered, the stronger the polarization and the slower the actual learning. The authors actually conclude that, to combat misinformation, it is better to reduce the amount of information to which people are exposed at a time than to censor content. Of course, the underlying conclusion is that there is such a thing as too much information on many platforms, and the overabundance of it contributes to the spread of misinformation.

While looking for information that aligns with their beliefs, people also come across disinformation. Disinformation is deliberately misleading or biased information; manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda. The Oxford Reference defines disinformation as A form of propaganda involving the dissemination of false information with the deliberate intent to deceive or mislead. So, propagandaand specifically inaccurate information supplied by governmentsis part of the definition of disinformation. Its main difference from misinformation is that it is known to be untrue by the person or group conveying it.

A lot of what we see today from special interest groups (such as oil companies) and many elected officials is disinformation, many times in the form of organized campaigns. In the regulatory sphere, some companies and trade associations use tactics such as actively burying scientific evidence, manipulating facts, playing up uncertainty, and obscuring the facts in an effort to shirk regulatory scrutiny on products or activities that are found to be harmful, simply because the facts do not serve somebodys interests, values, or bottom line.

Another recent example is from the media, which knowingly carried falsehoods relating to meat consumption, only because it did appeal to their viewerships values so, disinformation can be used both ways. In contrast, misinformation is often unknowingly spread by the general public, and even some elected officials, because they believe their sources of information.

UCS has been bringing to light and actively fighting against these disinformation campaigns. Our Disinformation Playbook is a helpful resource for starting to recognize the tactics being used by special interest groups. We also work with various other organizations such as the Citizens Platform on Climate Change, a partnership with UNESCO. One of its goals is to fight disinformation globally, and I also talk about disinformation dangers, practices and tactics there.

The main channels through which fossil fuel companies, political special interests and other bad actors purvey misinformation and disinformation are news outlets and social media. They must do more to prevent the viral spread of false content on the internet. Further, according to the Brookings Institution, there should be initiatives to encourage news literacy. People need to learn how to evaluate digital news sources rather than assume everything on social media or digital news sites is true. Many people do not read a whole article but just see the headlines, which can be misleading also. There are some useful resources to help people recognize misinformation online, such as this one.

The news outlets people seek are generally the ones that are used by their peers, by people with whom they share values and beliefs. That is a well-known concept in social sciences, called confirmation bias when people seek information that confirms their pre-existing ideas or beliefs. This bias is pervasive and comes in many forms. People look for news that plays to their biases, but they can also misunderstand real, good quality, unbiased information, scientists say.

Misinformation and disinformation are definitely a major problem, especially when it comes to the communication of scientific results. Science is behind a lot of things that keep us safe and healthy in our everyday lives, and to get it wrong, or deliberately say wrong things, is incredibly irresponsible, particularly for policymakers. Misleading data or commentary related to science can have serious negative impacts for people, the economy, society, and government.

The spread of mis- and disinformation related to COVID-19 resulted in people refusing to take preventative measures to protect themselves, and in some cases, treating their symptoms using unsafe and even deadly methods. Brookings says that the spread of disinformation is dangerous because of its ability to affect public opinion and electoral discourse based on falsehoods, as we regularly saw in U.S. presidential elections and in the storming of the Capitol on January 6th. Disinformation in the electoral process is a critical concern both in the U.S. and abroad.

Government decisions in particular should always be informed by the best available data and analyses, not by special interests and related disinformation. The wellbeing of people should be the guiding principle. Unfortunately, we have seen a lot of disinformation and dismissal of science in decision making in the United States and other countries. Attacks on science were not uncommon during the last administration, and we at the Union of Concerned Scientists have actively engaged in bringing science to its rightful place in policymaking and social justice.

Disinformation and misinformation are an ethical and moral issue, and one of justice. By misleading people or plainly not giving them the actual information, industry actors and politicians deny them the most basic right, which is the right to the truth, and to live healthy lives.

Add to it the inequities of climate change impacts, where disadvantaged and disenfranchised communities bear most of the burden, and the situation is concerning. We all need to actively work to stop the spread of disinformation in our networks. Click here to learn more about how to stop the disinformation playbook.

Posted in: Science Communication, Scientific Integrity Tags: attacks on science, climate-change, disinformation, science-based decision making

Support from UCS members make work like this possible. Will you join us? Help UCS advance independent science for a healthy environment and a safer world.

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Don't Let Them Fool You: Disinformation Is Not an Accident. - Union of Concerned Scientists

The electrification of transportation, heating and other end uses necessary for the United States to meet its decarbonizationgoals will require the country to double its electricity load by 2050,panelists said Thursday at a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission technical conference. With that additional load will come opportunities, responsibilities and challenges, they said.

The panelists frequently acknowledged the need to consider issues of equity, affordability and environmental justice throughout the energy transition. "If we don't address those issues, what are we doing? We're not accomplishing anything," said FERCChairman Richard Glick.

They also raised cybersecurity concerns. It will be a constant battle to secure the grid, said Carlos Casablanca, managing director of distribution planning and analysis at American Electric Power Service Corp. But he added that AEP"does not believe that these risks are brought upon by electrification efforts alone, as these risks already exist in our industry and we actively manage them."

With the United States now aiming to eliminate economywide carbon emissions within 30 years, federal regulators announced the technical conference as a chance to initiate a dialogue "on how to prepare for an increasingly electrified future."

Commissioners also took the opportunity to voice some of their own concerns.

Commissioner Neil Chatterjee acknowledged that FERC is "not really in the driver's seat on electrification,"but the commission has to understand how it will impact the wholesale markets it does oversee. State and federal policymakers are unleashing new electricity demand, and "we must make sure at every turn we send clear and consistent signals to the industry and investment community," he said.

"Mixed signals will delay the development at a time when we should be looking toward the grid of the future," Chatterjee said. But he added that reliability and the creation of efficiency through competition must remain FERC's focus.

Commissioner Allison Clements said she is focused on ensuring customer benefits do not get lost in the cracks between different regulatory jurisdictions. She wants regulators to consider "how we should think about costs and benefits of new investment across the systems," she said, from transmission development to utility meters.

"Our regulatory structures don't easily provide for optimization of benefits that all of those investments bring and the related savings for customers," said Clements. "Without that optimization, customers are left in less than optimal positions."

Just how much electricity load will increase between now and 2050 is uncertain, but many estimates indicate doubling is possible.

Jeff Dennis, managing director and general counsel of Advanced Energy Economy,pointed to a Brattle Group study which found that New England loads were likely to double across that time.

"Electrification will result in significant increases in electricity demand and the generation capacity needed to meet that demand," Dennis said, though "the pace of electrification and amount of energy required for building heating and other uses may vary by region."

Washington will need to "roughly double its electricity supplies," said Glenn Blackmon, manager of the Energy Policy Office in that state's Department of Commerce.

"Our hope is to draw those resources from multiple locations and energy sources across the West, capturing the advantages that different areas of our country have in producing electricity from renewable energy," Blackmon said. "This approach will not only minimize costs but also improve the reliability of our electricity portfolio."

The Electrification Futures Study, developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other research partners,concluded that "meeting electrified loads requires a doubling of generation capacity in all regions by 2050,"Ella Zhou, senior modeling engineer at the lab, told the FERC conference.

The study shows that electrification has the potential to change how utilities operate,Zhou said. Most utilities now see peak electricity demand in the summer, for cooling, but that could shift as more heating loads are powered by the grid. "Participation in the planning and operations of the power system is crucial," she said.

As more energy loads are shifted to electricity, it is "incredibly important" to remember that low-income groups spend a greater portion of their income on energy and have a higher "energy burden," said Rob Chapman, senior vice president of energy delivery and customer solutions at the Electric Power Research Institute.

"Obviously electrification has the opportunity from an air quality and health perspective to help support those communities," Chapman said. "The flip of that is, we have to consciously think about the affordability aspect and realize many disadvantaged communities are not going to have the capital to invest in emerging technologies."

Energy efficiency efforts can help address some the energy burden inequities, Chapman said. And environmental justice efforts must also look at the impact of transit corridors and public transit on disadvantaged communities, he said.

"As we seek to ensure that underserved communities have access to clean energy, we must be intentional and specific in identifying solutions and programs and involve communities in determining their path forward," said Katherine Hamilton, co-chair of the World Economic Forums Global Future Council on Clean Electrification.

Hamilton said the solution to "transition these communities that have been harmed by fossil fuels" includes reducing barriers to entry for energy technologies and markets. That could mean making resource interconnections cheaper, allowing aggregation of resources and co-optimization of efficiency efforts, such as installing heat pumps at the same time other upgrades are made.

All of these efforts include "making sure we lower the barriers to entry and make sure cost-effective, cheaper and more resilient solutions are available to customers who normally couldn't afford them,"Hamilton said.

The electrification of demand and the growing interconnectedness of the grid has created new opportunities for disruption by hackers, the panelists acknowledged. But the industry remains confident this is a risk it can manage.

"As more electric systems 'go digital'or some non-electric products become electric, it is expected that the internet of things will only continue to grow, increasing the potential number of points for cyber intrusion," Casablanca said. "Continued cyber security technology development, collaboration, education and investment across all sectors of industry will be required to continuously mitigate this known risk."

But Casablanca also said the industry is already managing the risk daily,so electrification does not change the fundamental issue.

The industry must address cyber risks in a proactive and forward-looking way, said Chapman, because bad actors are only getting more sophisticated.

"I would suggest right now we have very good efforts underway, in terms of managing cybersecurity, but of course the bad actors always seem to be one step ahead of where we are going as an industry,"Chapman said. "That risk only increases, from a resiliency and reliability perspective, as we drive more of our consumers to use electricity as an end use fuel of choice."

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Equity, security and load: FERC conference considers the challenges and potential of electrification - Utility Dive

If retirement is on your mind, you may be pondering a relocation, and if so, you may be yearning for decisive information on where to go, such as weather, co-housing, activity availability and more. We asked retirees what they love about their chosen spots. Heres what they said.

The sunny days also have an uplifting effect on your attitude, as opposed to the gloomy overcast days typical of Michigan, says Vince, a retired automotive engineer who left Auburn Hills, Michigan, in 2019. We enjoy the outdoors 12 months a year. We take walks, hikes, and bike rides and enjoy outdoor dining and happy hours. Even in the heat of the summer, we can get out earlier in the day. We eliminated snow and ice concerns, which have caused slips, falls, dangerous driving, et cetera, forcing us inside for months.

Related: Make a Happy Plan: 5 American Towns That Retirees Love

ShantiNiketan is tailor-made for people of Indian origin, says Hari, a retired math professor. Before finding ShantiNiketan, a 55-plus active-adult community that focuses on Indian culture and food, in 2015, the couple split time between Northern California, where their children live, and Chennai, India. In addition to Floridas warmth and cost of living, he says, all the residents here share a mutual orientation to life.

Rather than leaving our friends and family, we decided to downsize in a way that would free up additional funds so that we could travel more often to cooler climates as a break from the Iowa summers, says Sue, a former health care worker. When their youngest child, Ella, began a job with a nonprofit, they decided to find a townhome near their former home in Ankeny with a separate space for her, so both generations could cut costs. Toms favorite (winter) part: The outdoor maintenance from the HOA [home owners association] means no running the snow blower!

Oakland is central, and has a diverse population and lots of ethnic restaurants, says Michael, a former engineer. We both grew up in the Bay Area but spent the past 37 years in L.A., where the traffic was beyond belief, adds William, a retired real estate agent. Theyre renovating a 1956 modern house that has a downstairs suite where a future caregiver could live. Itll last us til were ready to go out in boxes, Michael says.

It was Dianas idea to find a place that was on the ground floor, no stoops or steps and handicap accessible, Alan says. Theyd begun to dislike the stairs in their two-story townhouse when a small condo opened up a block away in the Silver Sage Village, one of the first senior co-housing communities in the U.S. (It has 16 units and shared spaces for meals and socializing.) I was on my deathbed in 2013 and experienced the importance of neighborliness, Alan says. Its by definition a hedge against isolation and loneliness.

Besides the amazing natural beauty, the island gives us many opportunities that wouldnt be possible in a larger area, says Martha, a former art teacher. Twenty years ago on a vacation from their Alexandria, Virginia, home, the native Wisconsinites took a day trip to the island, off the tip of Door County. At the grocery store, they saw an ad for an affordable cottage with a ceramics studioand made a $1,000 down payment on the spot. The owner wrote a receipt from her pottery sales book. Theyve since restored a small group of cottages on Lake Michigan, called West Wind Resort, where they now live. Bob, a retired physicist, has acted in a local theater group, sings in the choir and is a member of the school board. Martha has played clarinet in an island bandand she makes lots of art.

We love the beauty and peace of the jungle withina close-knit community, and its only 20 minutes from some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, says Diana of their move from Philadelphia in 2014. Being in a premier tourist destination also means incredible restaurants and great shopping. The weather is perfect, and the cost of livingthough higher here than other parts of Mexicois so much lower than in the U.S. that we have luxuries we couldnt afford there. We have the best doctors weve ever had and friends from all over the world. Life is slower here but ultimately better.

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage [a sustainability-focused intentional community of private homes and communal spaces on 280 acres in northeast Missouri] is a place where various parts of myself have been able to reside and flourish in a more unified wholea nonviolent, sustainable approach to living on this planet. I love the intergenerational aspect and the closeness to the land. I love that fun and laughter are valued, says Dorothy, a widowed nurse who moved here from Kansas in 2016 after learning about it from the Tiny House Blog.

We spend up to two months every winter volunteering at the YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch [outside Rocky Mountain National Park near Winter Park, Colorado], a campus that includes more than 5,000 acres for activities, says Christine, who teaches yoga and water exercise while Jack works for the grounds department. We love being in the mountains enjoying cross country skiing, snowshoeing and other winter activitiesand the camaraderie weve developed with other volunteers from all over the world. In 2019, they relocated from a large home near Peoria, Illinois, to an 800-square-foot condo in downtown Fort Collins, a college town an hour outside the park. They spend the other 10 months of the year there.

We moved north from Dearborn into a home thats large for the two of us in order to accommodate family, friends and visitors, says Ron. Scenic, peaceful Oxford Lake has rave sunsets. The smaller town reminds of our youth and we love our beautiful St. Joseph Church congregation a mile away.

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'Why I Retired Here': Retirees Reveal What They Love About Their Locations - Parade

Every once and a while, Streetsblog USA will get a tweet like this from a reader:

Or a comment like this:

Or an email like this (yep, this ones real):

Traffic violence? SMH. You really are a ridiculous [redacted].

Of all the words in the street safety advocates vernacular, perhaps the term traffic violence provokes the most powerful emotions. For many, that emotion is simple gratitude, that the tens of thousands of preventable deaths that occur in the traffic realm every year have been recognized, in this small way, for the violence that it is. For others, its confusion about the connotation of intentional harm that creeps in when we remove the word accident from our vocabulary or even rage that it provokes in people who say we are not presuming innocence of every driver involved in all car crashes by default.

Since at least 2013, Streetsblog has been using the term traffic violence to describe the epidemic of death and serious injuries that has raged on our roadways since the advent of the automobile. (The comment above is from one of former Streetsblog USA edtior Angie Schmitts articles, which is the first instance of the term we could find, though she said she did not coin it.) But the broader street safety advocacy community didnt seize upon the phrase until around 2016, and even today, its not in widespread usage beyond a few wonky corners of Twitter. If you google what is traffic violence, the top hits will include one fantastic but locally focused article from the LAist, an advertorial from a personal injury law firm, and some guys private blog post, which questions whether the term is unnecessarily divisive:

Take this case of aSan Francisco bus driverwho had 35 years of experience and a clean toxicology report. Did he intentionally get behind the wheel that day to kill a jogger? Are we to have no empathy for the driver? This is one of the things I find so pernicious about this terminology. Under the phenomenon known as an accident, we can empathize sympathy for both sides. When we shift the language from accident to violence it makes it much more difficult to empathize with the perpetrator of such violence.

The ideas of empathy and intention are common to most criticisms of the phrase traffic violence. When we hear the story of the long-serving bus driver who unintentionally killed a jogger, virtually anyone who has ever piloted an automobile and if you live in America, you probably have does feel compelled, at least for a moment, to put themselves in that drivers seat and imagine how it would feel to realize that a human being has sprinted into your blind spot, and in a single, sickening moment, you have ended his life.

And indeed, reports of that San Francisco crash didreflect a cautious driver with a spotless safety record who felt badly shaken by what hed done. To get through the day, we have to believe that most people in our communities would react in this way after theyd killed a pedestrian or at least, that very few people in this world have it in them to intentionally murder a stranger.

No one in his right mind wakes up in the morning intending to commit traffic violence (except for those who commit premeditated vehicle ramming attacks and there are a lot more of those than you might think, and state laws are increasingly making it easier for drivers to commit these disturbing crimes without accountability). Even drivers who choose to drive recklessly, or tailgate a cyclist in a fit of rage, or who simply let their attention flag for a few moments behind the wheel and all of these are choices, even if sometimes they are thoughtlessly made usually did not put their key in the ignition that day with the intention of snuffing out another human being.

The San Francisco bus driver may well have been giving his full attention to the road when he struck and killed a jogger; considering that most riding a bus is about 60 times safer than driving a car, its likely he was.But he did so at an intersection that has six lanes for drivers in one direction and no curb bump out to shorten the crossing distance for people on foot. A confluence of roadway engineers and city planners and the broad consensus of the community as a whole made a collective choice to design this road this way, despite the fact that these sorts of design choices have proven, again and again, to invite collisions between vulnerable road users and drivers. That single engineer or planner may not face accountability for the negligence, but his or her choices did contribute to that joggers death as did the choices of the council that wrote the manual used by that engineer as he or she finalized the plans, and the leaders at all levels of government who decided to prioritize the speed of drivers over the safety of walkers, and even the person who designed the bus.

And that list is not exhaustive.

Violent systems do not come into existence by accident, and they certainly do not persist by accident. America has collectively chosen, every day, to perpetuate a violent transportation landscape that results in roughly 38,000 preventable deaths every single year.

Violence that occurs in the traffic realm is, by definition, traffic violence. A car crash is always a car crash, even if the driver is ultimately found not guilty of criminal negligence. And when we feel a sense of unease saying these words, it is because we have been raised in a culture that has systematically and deliberately worked to shift the blame for that violence onto victims, down to the subtlest workings of the language in the news reports we read.

Families for Safe Streets has the term traffic violence in our mission statement and we selected it intentionally, said Amy Cohen, co-founder of the New York-based non-profit that is working not only to end car crash deaths in America. [Crashes] are not accidents but a preventable andviolentpublic health crisis. While we will not end this crisis with words, they do matter. The first step to putting in place the systematic solutions to end this epidemic is to recognize that we have a problem that we can fix.

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What is 'Traffic Violence' and Why Do We Need To Talk About It? - Streetsblog New York

Utility vegetation management and wildfire mitigation efforts go hand in hand. Effectively controlling woody material such as trees, shrubs and bushes helps vegetation management teams eliminate key components that aid the spread of wildfires. Employing an effective brush control strategy provides three primary benefits to utility vegetation management programs working to effectively mitigate the threat of wildfire:

1. Ignition Prevention

Trees and other tall-growing plant species are the biggest threat to electrical transmission reliability. When these forms of tall vegetation grow or fall into transmission lines, it can often result in:

Considering these unfortunate outcomes, brush control continues to be a primary goal for most utility vegetation management programs across the country. Controlling problematic trees and brush species eliminates potential sources of wildfire ignition and helps to ensure the safe, reliable delivery of electrical service to utility customers.

2. Fuel Source Management

Utility infrastructure is just one of many sources of ignition for wildfires. From automotive accidents and deserted campfires to discarded cigarettes and intentional acts of arson, multiple sources of ignition are out of a vegetation managers control. But regardless of the source that caused a wildfire to occur, woody material trimmed from various brush species represent abundant sources of fuel that can expedite their spread and the same can be said for tall grasses.

Luckily, certain brush control strategies can be used to control problematic plant species and promote the development of low-growing plant communities that enhance wildfire mitigation efforts and ensure electrical transmission reliability.

3. Offsetting the Elements

Understanding weather factors that increase the threat of wildfire can keep utility vegetation management teams prepared for the worst. Here are a few factors to consider when assessing the risk of wildfires in your respective area:

Climate change has led to warmer temperatures and extended drought-like conditions in regions across the country. As incompatible vegetation dries out, it becomes increasingly flammable. That is why it is important to control trees and tall-growing brush so that low-growing plant communities can flourish and safeguard surrounding communities from wildfires.

The Best Solution

Abiding by clearance requirements enforced by regulatory agencies is a primary goal of most utility vegetation management teams. However, different treatment strategies yield varying results. Mechanized mowing is effective but insufficient on its own. When used as a chief control method, mowing can actually stimulate regrowth and support the distribution of viable seeds. Failing to mow regularly can facilitate the growth of incompatible vegetation and increase incompatible stem densities. As stem densities increase, so do maintenance costs, lapses in utility service and the potential threat of wildfires.

While mechanized mowing provides short-term control of targeted vegetation, many Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) programs apply selective herbicides to targeted vegetation to break the balance of biochemical processes in incompatible plant species, which effectively controls them and prevents their future development. With fewer hazards to manage, utility companies can enhance wildfire mitigation, prevent service interruptions and lower the cost of annual maintenance.

Using an IVM-based approach also helps vegetation managers convert the border zone (all land within 10 feet of a right-of-ways edge) and wire zone (all land below wires and conductors as well as 10 feet beyond their outer edge) to include low-growing grasses and forbs, which effectively prevent the development of trees and tall-growing brush that pose a threat to fall or grow into utility infrastructure. Selective herbicide applications also leave desirable native plant species unharmed unlike mowing practices.

Why is this important? As targeted species are effectively controlled, low-growing grasses and forbs develop to form a natural barrier against the future development of incompatible vegetation like trees and tall-growing brush species, providing multiple benefits to utility vegetation managers:

Vegetation management and wildfire mitigation efforts are year-round responsibilities for utility companies particularly those located in western regions of the United States. While IVM strategies are effective in controlling incompatible vegetation and reducing the risk of wildfires, delaying or terminating IVM treatments can have adverse effects for utility vegetation management programs.

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2021 Trees & Utilities Conference Moved to October - Transmission & Distribution World

Desegregate Connecticut

The Zoning Atlas developed by Desegregate Connecticut identifies the extent to which communities limit housing choices.

President Barack Obama once said, a childs course in life should be determined not by the zip code shes born in, but by the strength of her work ethic and the scope of her dreams. Yet we know where a child is born, and grows up, affects their future education, finances, and health. However, changing ones zip code is not always easy. From the availability of affordable housing to systemic policies hindering mobility, there are a myriad of factors limiting families mobility. Now is the time to urge state lawmakers to support legislation to dismantle discriminatory practices and advance fair housing in Connecticut.

The U.S. is facing an affordable housing crisis. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates a shortage of 6.8 million affordable and available rental homes for low- income renters. Nationally, only 37 out of every 100 extremely low-income families have access to available affordable housing. In Connecticut, only 11.6% of rental units are affordable for low-income families. The majority of these properties are located in areas with limited access to high performing schools and employment.

In Connecticut, 85% of government-subsidized units are located in moderate, low, or very low opportunity areas. This shortage disproportionately affects people of color: 73% of Black and Latino families live in low opportunity areas compared to 26% of white families, according to the Open Communities Alliance Out of Balance report. This limited availability of affordable, quality rental properties is compounded by historic and systemic policies hindering mobility in Connecticut.

Redlining began in the 1930s and its resultant disinvestment in minority neighborhoods continues to have effects today. While overt discriminatory practices were outlawed following the Fair Housing Act of 1968, more subtle, and often deliberate, policies and practices were enacted that continued to disadvantage inner city neighborhoods. Out of the 11.6% of rental units in Connecticut that are affordable to low income families statewide, 39.3% of those units are in the city of Hartford compared to 7.9% in the bordering town of West Hartford and 4.1% in the nearby suburb of Avon. We must work together to provide opportunity for all families and diversify housing options in our communities.

There are many benefits to housing diversity. From economics to education to health, we understand diverse communities are important, particularly for children. This is something Ive experience firsthand. I was deeply embarrassed by where I lived as a child. I can still vividly recall the feeling of dread when called upon to recite my address in middle school Spanish class. It was not the vocabulary that left me hesitant; rather, it was telling my peers that I lived in a low-income apartment complex funded by Section 8 that left me ashamed. I was embarrassed that my family needed government assistance to meet our basic needs, from housing to food to even clothing.

Only in hindsight did I realize these resources allowed my single mother to save money, obtain a better job, and ultimately build a better life for us. I was afforded the opportunity to attend high achieving schools, which ultimately allowed me to pursue a career as a physician. Now in my work, I often see myself reflected in the patients and families I work with. Many struggle with providing basic needs but all hope to build a better life for their children. With all of the inequalities they already face, how can they also strive against the systemic policies and practices in place?

Fortunately, when intentional inequalities and deliberate discriminatory policies are in place, they can be consciously dismantled. There are a variety of recommendations to improve this problem, from investing in segregated communities to increasing homeownership opportunities for minority families to advocating for housing diversity.

Desegregate Connecticut, a coalition of community members and nonprofit organizations that educates and advocates for housing reform, recommends a variety of interventions through zoning reform. Diversifying housing stock through multifamily homes, accessory dwelling units, and encouraging Connecticut cities and towns to incorporate more affordable housing units will increase the availability of affordable housing and diversify our communities.

These recommendations are laid out in Connecticut Senate Bill 1024, which I urge you to support. This issue is complex, but the facts remain that children growing up in poverty-stricken areas are far more disadvantaged and moving to better neighborhoods changes lives. Please visit Desegregate Connecticut to learn more about why and how you can help. Then ask your state legislators to vote in favor of Senate Bill 1024 to bring about a more equitable and diverse Connecticut.

Jing Marrero is a pediatric resident from South Windsor.

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Opinion It's time to truly embrace fair housing in Connecticut - The CT Mirror