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Orange County Register

How Ben Caldwell and Robeson Taj Frazier’s ‘KAOS Theory’ project came to be

October 10, 2023

Ben Caldwell and Robeson Taj Frazier met through a mutual friend while working on a collaborative project between USC Annenberg and Caldwell’s Leimert Park studio Kaos Network.

They’d gone to eat at a Jamaican restaurant down the street from the studio, and from there they became friends and collaborators. The result of their work together has just been published by Angel City Press. “KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell” is a hybrid biography and artist’s monograph authored by Frazier that delves deep into Caldwell’s art and personal history.

“It didn’t start off as a book,” says Frazier, associate professor of communication at USC and director of the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at USC Annenberg, when we meet at KAOS Network to discuss the project. “It started off with Ben and I having conversations. Ben showing me slides. Ben showing me the physical versions of the photographs that you see.”

Eventually, the two realized that there was a book to be made. Frazier received funding from USC, which allowed him to pursue the research. Caldwell suggested that they travel to his hometown, Deming, New Mexico. Out on the road in 2018, the components of the book began to take shape as they drove from El Paso to Las Cruces and on to Deming.

An image from “KAOS Theory.” (Courtesy of “KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell by Robeson Taj Frazier with Ben Caldwell, published by Angel City Press)

In this image from “KAOS Theory,” an image of Ben Caldwell from the Deming High School Yearbook, 1964. (Courtesy of “KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell by Robeson Taj Frazier with Ben Caldwell, published by Angel City Press)

The I-Fresh Ladies in an image from “KAOS Theory.” (Courtesy of “KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell by Robeson Taj Frazier with Ben Caldwell, published by Angel City Press)

Ben Caldwell in an image from “KAOS Theory.” (Courtesy of “KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell by Robeson Taj Frazier with Ben Caldwell, published by Angel City Press)

In this image from “KAOS Theory,” Robeson Taj Frazier. (Courtesy of “KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell by Robeson Taj Frazier with Ben Caldwell, published by Angel City Press)

“KAOS Theory” is by Ben Caldwell (center) with Robeson Taj Frazier (right). (Courtesy of “KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell by Robeson Taj Frazier with Ben Caldwell, published by Angel City Press)

Expand

Creating KAOS

Nearly 40 years ago, Caldwell, a multimedia artist, set up his studio and community art space in Leimert Park Village. It was an ideal spot located near multiple bus stops. “I earned a grant to work with youth in this neighborhood,” he explains. “I thought it would be good to be in a place where they would not always have to have their parents taking them.”

Plus, he’d be working in a neighborhood with a history of championing Black art and culture in Los Angeles. “I was part of a legacy,” says Caldwell, adding that he liked the idea of being “a steward of the arts.” KAOS Network, initially known as VIDEO 3333, became a hub of multimedia arts and communication projects. One of the space’s claims to fame was being part of the 1990s underground hip-hop scene via the Project Blowed events held here.

The convergence of visual art, music and technology is still very much a part of KAOS Network. Today, collaborators work on projects that incorporate gaming tech, virtual reality, augmented reality and even autonomous vehicles.

“A lot of the work that I ended up doing is matching up the old school with the new school to marry the two in a way that doesn’t get rid of the past in a way that tends to happen in the United States, the kind of ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ concept,” says Caldwell. “We started going through the bathwater and picked out the good things that are still there and repurposed them using the open source structure of Linux as a way to break through that.”

And while tech may change the workflow, the creative juice remains the same regardless of changing technology, says Caldwell.

“An updated tool, you still have to learn how to use it. Then you find out its textures, its feelings,” he adds. “That’s the way that I look at each of them – they’re storytelling tools.”

Making connections

As for Caldwell’s own story, it goes far beyond the confines of the KAOS Network space. What makes “KAOS Theory” so intriguing is that it’s the story of one artist and the many people and events that shaped his life and his work.

“I see ‘KAOS Theory’ as kind of a human internet,” says Caldwell, explaining the many intersections that are part of the story that Caldwell and Frazier hope to highlight for book tour events.

Similarly, “KAOS Theory” is more than a story about Leimert Park or Los Angeles. It’s a journey across the U.S., primarily through the Southwest. “I think that’s the thing that often gets missed in the sense of our cultural vibrations as African Americans,” says Caldwell, noting how the stories of Black Americans in the Southwest are often overlooked.

“California is a state that’s been made up in a lot of ways by migrants and different migration patterns, so we didn’t want to abide by the conventions of what constitutes California, what constitutes Leimert Park,” says Frazier. “These are spaces that migrants in many ways have been compelled to cultivate community and compelled to cultivate ways of imagining what the future can be and cultivating a present.”

As for the collaboration between Caldwell and Frazier, there may also be more further down the road.

“I just think it would be fun to continue this relationship with Taj and the work that we’ve done,” says Caldwell. “We’ve talked about other projects. With the way this book is rolling, it’s teaching me a lot and I’m learning and watching and I think it would be fun to see what our next steps with building out these book concepts.”

What might those steps be? Caldwell hopes to expand the KAOS space to allow more projects, archives and artists’ residencies.

“I try to dream 50 years into the future,” he says.

“KAOS THEORY” Book events

When: 7 p.m. Oct. 11

Where: Philosophical Research Society Auditorium, 3910 Los Feliz Blvd, Los Angeles

Information: www.prs.org/events.html

• • •

When: 6 p.m. Oct. 12

Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf, 1365 North Hill Ave., Pasadena

Information: www.octaviasbookshelf.com/events/author-talk-legendary-ben-caldwell-and-robeson-taj-frazier

• • •

When: 7 p.m. Oct. 26

Where: Reparations Club, 3054 S. Victoria Ave., L.A.

Information: https://rep.club/products/event-kaos-theory

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Orange County Register

Kaiser Permanente workers warn of potential second strike

October 10, 2023

By Samantha Delouya | CNN

A coalition of unions representing thousands of Kaiser Permanente health care workers warned they will walk off the job again next month if a deal is not reached with their employer.

Facilities across California, Washington, Oregon, Virginia and Washington DC have threatened to strike for a second time if a new labor contract is not agreed before Nov. 1, after a contract for 3,000 more Kaiser employees in Seattle expires on Oct. 31.

The second planned strike would involve more employees and it would be longer than the first, running from November 1 through November 8, according to a statement by the coalition.

“For months, Kaiser executives failed to listen to the feedback from frontline healthcare workers about the need for executives to follow the law in negotiations and about the impacts that the Kaiser short staffing is having on patients,” Caroline Lucas, the executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, said in a statement.

The first strike began on October 4 and ended on Oct. 7 after an employment contract for 75,000 Kaiser workers expired without a new agreement.

Spanning multiple states, it was the first national strike effort at Kaiser Permanente and the largest health care worker strike in US history. Patients told CNN they were unable to make appointments or had care postponed in light of the October strike.

The coalition has argued that Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest nonprofit health care providers in the United States, has not gone far enough in its promises to address a shortage of staffing, which the coalition has called “unsafe.”

Kaiser has said it promised union representatives that it would aggressively hire new employees. Kaiser said it has already hired 10,000 workers for union-represented roles so far in 2023.

The coalition also said outsourcing had emerged as a major sticking point in negotiations.

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Kaiser executives have “refused to agree to common sense limitations on subcontracting and outsourcing, which keep experienced healthcare workers in jobs and provide strong continuity of care for patients,” the coalition said.

In a statement, Vincent Staupe, a spokesperson for Kaiser Permanente, said the health care organization has received notice from the unions of the potential strike.

“We are scheduled to return to the bargaining table on October 12 and Kaiser Permanente remains committed to reaching an agreement that is good for our employees, our members, and our organization, and we will continue to bargain in good faith with the Coalition,” Staupe said.

Orange County Register

Economic uncertainty prompts more Newsom vetoes as California tax deadline nears

October 10, 2023

This is a week of waiting and watching for legislators, lobbyists, journalists, bureaucrats and other denizens in and around the state Capitol.

Mostly, they are waiting to see how Gov. Gavin Newsom handles hundreds of bills still awaiting his signature or rejection in the few remaining days he has to act.

Newsom appears to be rejecting an unusually large percentage of the bills passed by the Legislature this year – nearly 20% according to lobbyist Chris Micheli, who tracks legislative data as a sideline.

Many of Newsom’s veto messages contain the same language, lamenting that after the state dealt with a $30 billion budget deficit, the Legislature sent him measures that “would add nearly $19 billion of unaccounted costs in the budget.”

“With our state facing continuing economic risk and revenue uncertainty, it is important to remain disciplined in considering bills with significant fiscal implications, such as this measure,” his boilerplate veto message concludes.

That cautionary message underscores the other thing that those in and around the Capitol are watching this week: how much tax revenue the state realizes in personal and corporate income taxes from the Oct. 16 filing deadline. It was moved back from the traditional April 15 cutoff for tax payments because of last winter’s heavy storms.

Jason Sisney, the state Assembly’s chief budget watcher, noted in a recent email that the 2023-24 state budget assumes the state will receive $52.3 billion in taxes in October, about 80% of them income taxes, which are by far the budget’s most important revenue source.

With the state’s economy showing signs of both growth and downturn, the budget’s assumption is an educated guess and the reality could be many billions of dollars higher or lower.

Whatever happens this month vis-à-vis revenues sets the stage for the next budget cycle, particularly the current expectation that the state faces another multibillion-dollar deficit in 2024-25.

After disposing of the remaining bills from the 2023 session, Newsom must make a series of decisions within about six weeks over framing the 2024-25 budget that he will present to the Legislature in January. Those decisions will, in large measure, hinge on the expectations of the state’s economy over the ensuing 18 months.

Last week, the Legislature’s budget analyst, Gabe Petek, issued a flurry of reports indicating that the state is experiencing an economic downturn, and perhaps even a mild recession. He cites uptick in unemployment and a downward trend in investment.

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“Over the last year, there have been a number of signs that the state’s economy may be slowing,” Petek said. “State tax collections have weakened. Investment in young and growing technology firms has dried up. Housing market activity has dropped off. A number of regional banks have failed. And yet, the extent to which these factors are tied to a widespread slowdown of California’s economy has been unclear.

“The apparent start of a recession in California last fall helps explain why the state faced a revenue shortfall in its most recent budget,” Petek explained. “How much the economy will continue to dampen the state’s fiscal picture moving forward is unclear. However, the threat that the recent slowdown could persist will be a significant risk for the foreseeable future.”

The state will consult a collection of economists who specialize in the California economy before Newsom and his advisors settle on a forecast and then extrapolate from that how much the state can expect in revenues. That estimate, in turn, will reveal whether it can balance its next budget or must contend with another deficit.

The current semi-official expectation is there will be a $15 billion deficit for 2024-25.

Dan Walters is a CalMatters columnist.

Orange County Register

The Compost: Sustainable homes, jobs, wine and more at free event

October 10, 2023

Welcome to The Compost, a weekly newsletter on key environmental news impacting Southern California. Subscribe now to get it in your inbox! In today’s edition…

Would you live in a hexagon-shaped home if it was climate-friendly?

What about a dome?

Those are some of the designs chosen by student homebuilders from across Southern California and beyond who are competing in the inaugural Orange County Sustainability Decathlon at the OC Fair & Event Center. I talked to some of those students about their homes, and I spoke with event founders about how this all came to be, for a recent story. The free event is now halfway over, but there’s plenty of time to catch the second half!

During the first half of the decathlon, which ran Oct. 5 through Oct. 8, visitors got student-guided tours of the homes built by teams from UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, Cal Poly Pomona, UC Riverside and more. They could also watch a fashion show with thrifted clothing, a falconry presentation with live birds, a symphony performance and more. If you missed it, you can watch the opening ceremonies and speakers from the first half of the event on the OCSD23 YouTube channel. Or hop over to Instagram to see highlights, including interviews with many of the student teams.

Here’s a smattering of online feedback from visitors who’ve made it out so far:

“The students did such an amazing job. The future is bright!”
“Good stuff!”
“So neat to have this in Costa Mesa!”
“Great job everyone! You make your schools proud!”

Now the volunteer crew behind the festival is getting ready for the second half, which kicks off Wednesday and runs through Sunday evening. Some key events for the second half of the festival include:

Guided model home tours from 3-9 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
An awards ceremony from 2-3 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday to recognize different elements of these sustainable student homes
A job and school fair focused on careers in sustainability from 3-6 p.m. Friday
A sustainable beer and wine garden open 3-6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and noon to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
A presentation on building homes using concrete made from hemp from 4-5 p.m. Thursday
A demonstration of technology that can extract water from air from 6-7 p.m. Friday

The event is free to attend. But if you visit OCSD23.com and register to attend, you’ll get access to download a free app, which has details about events each day.

— By Brooke Staggs, environment reporter

PROTECT

Santa Susana site sparks new concerns: A watchdog group is raising concerns about possible water contamination from Santa Susana, a hilltop site between the Simi and San Fernando valleys that suffered a partial nuclear meltdown decades ago. Local officials tell our Olga Grigoryants that the water is safe and they’re working to address the pollution. …READ MORE…

Meat processing plant is a smelly neighbor: Vernon residents who live near a plant that processes meat parts have complained about putrid smells for years, until air quality officials finally shut the facility down. But a deeply reported series by Julia Barajas with LAist reveals the company has partially reopened the plant and is suing air regulators in hopes of getting back to full-scale operations. …READ MORE…

Edison sued over wildfires: Orange County is suing Southern California Edison and T-Mobile, claiming that the companies’ failure to maintain equipment caused the 2020 Silverado Fire and the 2022 Coastal Fire. Our Sean Emery reports county agencies want to recoup their costs for dealing with the two wildfires, though no price has been given. …READ MORE…

Background: The state forestry department also sued Southern California Edison and T-Mobile last year over the Silverado Fire.

Weigh in on creek project: Since the 1980s, federal authorities have discussed replacing trees and other greenery surrounding the Santiago Creek bed in Santa Ana with a flood control channel. The goal is to prevent flooding in the area during heavy rains. But area residents are now pushing back against the idea of ripping out the natural habitat to send more rainwater out to the ocean, our Destiny Torres reports, with comments on the proposal accepted through Nov. 14. …READ MORE…

BREATHE

Remembering our smoggy past: It’s sometimes tough to make younger folks and Southern California transplants grasp just how severe our smog problem was before key environmental protections started to kick in half a century ago. Just point them to this new column from the L.A. Times’ always great Patt Morrison to get them up to speed. …READ MORE…

TRANSPORT

Train ride gets even cleaner: Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner passenger trains, which run through Southern California, are now operating on renewable diesel. Annika Bahnsen reports the change will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 63% throughout a train’s lifecycle. …READ MORE…

Get a roundup of the best climate and environment news delivered to your inbox each week by signing up for The Compost.

REGULATE

Wild burros prompt new law: Wild burros in the Inland Empire — and problems they cause — are the focus of a new state law that Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed, which lets counties work with nonprofit groups to care for, remove and relocate burros. Jeff Horseman reports an area that runs roughly from Colton to Moreno Valley is home to the largest undomesticated burro population in California. …READ MORE…

Debate over solar payments pivots to apartments: On Thursday, Ben Christopher with CalMatters reports the California Public Utilities Commission is expected to vote on whether to reduce payments that owners of solar panel-equipped apartment buildings get for electricity generated on their rooftops. It’s similar to a controversial change the commission approved in December for single-family homes. Environmentalists say both policies will hurt California’s climate goals. …READ MORE…

Dive deeper: Sammy Roth, who’s now the first climate columnist for the Los Angeles Times, says California needs to get its act together on rooftop solar.

New limits on port emissions debated: Local air quality regulators are considering new rules that would require companies to reduce emissions at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which contribute to higher rates of asthma and other illnesses for nearby residents. But our Donna Littlejohn reports business groups are pushing back, warning the rules will hurt jobs, the local economy and the nation’s supply chain. …READ MORE…

CELEBRATE

The beach is back: A stretch of Capistrano Beach is usable again, after crews moved enough sand to fill 13 Olympic size swimming pools from the Santa Ana River to the coast to replace eroded sediment. Locals say it’s cause for celebration, though our Laylan Connelly also has words of caution about the need for ongoing sand replenishment. …READ MORE…

Miracle water year: California ended its water year on Saturday with enough rain and snow to fill the state’s reservoirs to 128% of their historical average, Adam Beam with the Associated Press reports. That makes the past water year, which runs through Sept. 30, among the wettest in recorded state history. …READ MORE…

A ladder along Annie’s Canyon Trail, which goes through a sandstone canyon in Solana Beach. (Photo by Brooke Staggs, Orange County Register/SCNG)

EXPLORE

Easy ladder hike with bonus wetlands: Want a short hike that takes you by bird-filled wetlands, through a narrow slot canyon and has views of the ocean? Annie’s Canyon Trail in Solana Beach is just 1.5 miles if you start from the Rios trailhead like we did. But it packs so much in! This trail has been on my list since I first read a couple years ago about how a local woman named Annie bought this land. Apparently the canyon was long known to locals as the Mushroom Caves, with walls covered in graffiti. After Annie bought it to preserve as a public trail, volunteers marked the path and cleaned the graffiti to reveal these golden sandstone surfaces. The short canyon gets very narrow at times. There are some big steps up and one fun ladder to navigate, but it’s otherwise an easy trail. Just make sure that when the path forks, you follow the sign to the “hard” portion through the canyon so you’ll be going up the one-way path!

PITCH IN

Get paid to rip out grass: For this week’s tip on how Southern Californians can help the environment… Single-family homeowners in Los Angeles’ disadvantaged communities will soon be able to apply for rebates for replacing their lawns with water-efficient landscapes. The Department of Water and Power just got $14.9 million in state grants to help fund the rebates. Residents are encouraged to watch their water bills for details, which are coming soon. …READ MORE…

Thanks for reading, Composters! And don’t forget to sign up to get The Compost delivered to your inbox.

Orange County Register

More schools stock overdose reversal meds, but others worry about stigma

October 10, 2023

Rae Ellen Bichell, Virginia Garcia Pivik | (TNS) KFF Health News

Last year, a student fell unconscious after walking out of a bathroom at Central High School in Pueblo, Colorado. When Jessica Foster, the school district’s lead nurse, heard the girl’s distraught friends mention drugs, she knew she had to act fast.

Emergency responders were just four minutes away. “But still four minutes — if they are completely not breathing, it’s four minutes too long,” Foster said.

Foster said she got a dose of naloxone, a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose, and gave it to the student. The girl revived.

Forty-five miles away in Colorado Springs, Mitchell High School officials didn’t have naloxone on hand when a 15-year-old student overdosed in class in December 2021 after snorting a fentanyl-laced pill in a school bathroom. That student died.

Colorado Springs’ school district has since joined Pueblo and dozens of other districts in the state in supplying middle and high schools with the lifesaving medication, often known by one of its brand names, Narcan. Since passage of a 2019 state law, Colorado has had a program that allows schools to obtain the medicine, typically in nasal spray form, for free or at a reduced cost.

Not all schools are on board with the idea, though. Though more districts have signed on since last year, only about a third of Colorado districts had enrolled in the state’s giveaway program at the start of this school year. And within the dozen counties with the highest drug overdose death rates in the state, many school districts had not signed up in the face of ongoing stigma around the need for the overdose reversal medication.

The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recommends that schools, including elementary schools, keep naloxone on hand as fatal opioid overdoses rise, particularly from the potent drug fentanyl. And 33 states have laws that expressly allow schools or school employees to carry, store, or administer naloxone, according to Jon Woodruff, managing attorney at the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association, which tracks naloxone policies across the country.

Among those, about nine states require at least some K-12 schools to store naloxone on-site, including Illinois, whose requirement goes into effect in January. Some states, such as Maine, also require that public schools offer training to students in how to administer naloxone in nasal spray form.

Rhode Island requires all K-12 schools, both public and private, to stock naloxone. Joseph Wendelken, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Health, said in the past four years naloxone was administered nine times to people ages 10 to 18 in educational settings.

In early September, the medication also became available over the counter nationally, though the $45 price tag per two-dose package has some addiction specialists worried it will be out of reach for those who need it most.

But the medicine still isn’t as publicly widespread as automated external defibrillators or fire extinguishers. Kate King, president of the National Association of School Nurses, said reluctance to stock it in schools can stem from officials being afraid to provide a medical service or the ongoing cost of resupplying the naloxone and training people to use it. But the main hang-up she’s heard is that schools are afraid they’ll be stigmatized as a “bad school” that has a drug problem or as a school that condones bad choices.

“School districts are very careful regarding their image,” said Yunuen Cisneros, community outreach and inclusion manager at the Public Education & Business Coalition, which serves most of the state’s school districts. “Many of them don’t want to accept this program, because to accept it is to accept a drug addiction problem.”

That’s the wrong way to think about it, King said. “We really equate it to our stock albuterol for asthma attacks, our stock epinephrine for anaphylactic reactions,” she said.

Colorado health officials could not say how often naloxone had been used on school grounds in the state. So far this year, at least 15 children ages 10 to 18 have died of fentanyl overdoses but not necessarily in schools. And in 2022, 34 children in that age group died, according to the state Department of Public Health and Environment. That included 13-year-old José Hernández, who died in August 2022 from a fentanyl overdose at home just days after starting eighth grade at Aurora Hills Middle School. His grandmother found his body over the bathroom sink in the early morning.

With the arrival of this new school year, supplies of naloxone are on hand for kids in more Colorado schools. Last year, state lawmakers appropriated $19.7 million in federal aid to the Naloxone Bulk Purchase Fund, which is accessible to school districts, jails, first responders, and community service organizations, among others.

“It’s the most we’ve ever had,” said Andrés Guerrero, manager of the state health department’s overdose prevention program.

According to data provided by Colorado’s health department, 65 school districts were enrolled in the state program to receive naloxone at low or no cost at the start of the school year. Another 16 had reached out to the state for information but hadn’t finalized orders as of mid-August. The remaining 97 school districts either didn’t stock naloxone at their schools or sourced it from elsewhere.

Guerrero said the districts decide whom to train to administer the medicine. “In some cases, it’s just the school nurses. In some cases, it’s school nurses and the teachers,” he said. “And in some cases, we have the students as well.”

In Durango, the 2021 death of a high schooler galvanized students to push for the right to carry naloxone with them to school with parental permission — and to administer it if need be — without fear of punishment.

It took picketing outside a school board meeting to get permission, said Hays Stritikus, who graduated this spring from Durango High School. He’s now involved in drafting legislation that would expressly allow students across the state to carry and distribute Narcan on school grounds.

“The ultimate goal is a world where Narcan is not necessary,” he said. “But that’s just not where we live.”

Some health experts disagree that all schools should stock naloxone. Lauren Cipriano, a health economist at Western University in Canada, has studied the cost-effectiveness of naloxone in secondary schools there. While opioid poisonings have occurred on school grounds, she said, high schools tend to be really low-risk settings.

More effective strategies for combating the opioid epidemic are needle exchange sites, supervised drug consumption sites, and medication-assisted treatment that reduces cravings or mutes highs, Cipriano said. But those approaches can be expensive compared with naloxone distribution.

“When the state makes a big, free program like this, it looks like they’re doing something about the opioid epidemic,” she said. “It’s cheap and it looks like you’re doing something, and that’s, like, political gold.”

Denver Public Schools, the largest school district in Colorado, started stocking naloxone in 2022, said Jade Williamson, manager of the district’s healthy schools program.

“We know some of the students are on the forefront of these things before older generations,” Williamson said. “To know where to find it, and to access it when needed through these adults who’ve trained, whether that’s a school nurse or a school administrator, I think it brings them some sense of relief.”

The state’s seven largest districts, with more than 25,000 students each, all participate in the state program. By contrast, a KFF Health News analysis found, only 21% of districts with up to 1,200 students have signed up for it — even though many of those small districts are in areas with drug overdose death rates higher than the state average.

Some school districts figured out a path to getting naloxone outside of the state program. That includes Pueblo School District 60, where lead nurse Foster gave naloxone to a student last year.

The Pueblo school district gets naloxone at no cost from a local nonprofit called the Southern Colorado Harm Reduction Association. Foster said she tried signing up for the state program but encountered difficulties. So she decided to stick with what was already working.

Moffat County School District RE-1 in Craig, Colorado, gets its naloxone from a local addiction treatment center, according to district nurse Myranda Lyons. She said she trains school staffers on how to administer it when she teaches them CPR.

Christopher deKay, superintendent of Ignacio School District 11Jt, said its school resource officers already carry naloxone but that the district enrolled in the state program, too, so that schools could stock the medication in the nursing office in case a resource officer isn’t around.

“It’s like everything — like training for fire safety. You don’t know what’s going to happen in your school,” said deKay. “If the unthinkable happens, we want to be able to respond in the best way possible.”

This story was produced with reporting assistance from El Comercio de Colorado .

—-

(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

Orange County Register

What can I do if I am the victim of identity theft? Ask the Lawyer

October 10, 2023

Q: Never thought this would happen to me. Someone somehow got my Social Security number, obtained a credit card and charged items on it. I found out when the bill came. Now what?

A.S., Torrance

Ron Sokol

A: If an identity thief steals your SSN, he or she may use it to apply for a credit card or loan, and also seek to receive medical, disability and other benefits.

There are a number of steps you can take, not the least of which is reporting the matter to law enforcement right away, and to the Federal Trade Commission (with regard to the FTC, see the information at the end of this column).

In addition, place a fraud alert (freeze your credit) and get your credit reports; see if anything else is happening as a result of the theft of your SSN. You will no doubt want to replace your Social Security card (online you can read about this at ssa.gov/number-card/replace-card).

Be proactive!

Q: Is there insurance for identity theft?

J.V., Irvine

A: There is insurance for identity theft. Research indicates the typical policy provides certain financial protection if your identity is stolen, and may also provide you with alerts about suspicious activity. Such a policy usually will cover the costs of restoring your identity, and in some cases may reimburse you for money lost as a result of the unauthorized transactions.

Bottom line, if you have a trusted insurance agent, go over carefully with him or her what is available in the way of identity theft insurance. If you “do it yourself,” make sure you know what you are getting, and not getting, along with your options.

FTC

The Federal Trade Commission has a helpful online link if you are the victim of identity theft. Go to identitytheft.gov/#/. Among other steps, there is a form you should promptly fill out and submit to the FTC.

Ron Sokol has been a practicing attorney for over 40 years, and has also served many times as a judge pro tem, mediator, and arbitrator. It is important to keep in mind that this column presents a summary of the law, and is not to be treated or considered legal advice, let alone a substitute for actual consultation with a qualified professional.

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Orange County Register

Schools chief Thurmond urges statewide paid internships program

October 10, 2023

By JOSE HERRERA, City News Service

LOS ANGELES — As part of a summit focused on preparing students for the future, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond on Tuesday, Oct. 10, called for the development of a statewide paid internship program to help teens and young adults work and learn about career pathways.

The two-day summit held at the California Department of Education headquarters in Sacramento and broadcast online is aimed at connecting partners such as school districts, workforce agencies, public housing agencies and government agencies, among others, to develop the internship program and help prevent youth from engaging in crime, according to Thurmond’s office.

The paid internship program will also be designed to connect participants with career advisers to “ensure they have a secure role in the global economy in the years ahead.”

During a news conference to begin the summit, Thurmond said there are thousands of students who are homeless across the state and many more who are on their own, stressing that students are in need of housing, mental health support and career advising.

“That’s what this summit is about — building together with partners from every sector,” Thurmond said. “We will be designing today for the next hour or two, a strategy for how to launch a statewide youth strategy for paid internships.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass joined the news conference virtually from L.A. City Hall. She noted that Los Angeles, like other California cities, have become expensive to live in.

Bass added that while for some individuals, who come from middle- and upper-class families that may support them, a long-term unpaid internship is feasible, but for the majority of young people, that’s not the reality.

“I have had interns with me for the last 20 to 30 years as I’ve done this type of work. There’s always been interns, but because I have focused on kids from challenging circumstances, we’ve always needed to provide some financial support,” Bass said.

FILE | Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)

Bass highlighted $53 million the city received from CalVolunteers, a state office aimed at bolstering volunteering and civic action. The $53 million will help connect 4,000 young people to jobs and provide them training by May 1, 2024. More than 1,300 young people participated in the CalVolunteers-funded programs, such as Angelenos Corps and Student 2 Student, she said.

Internships can often be a “life changing experience” for young people, exposing them to careers that might not be accessible in their communities, Bass said.

According to Thurmond’s office, the summit will explore ways to design paid training and career coaching programs and examine other programs that may help, such as mentoring, mental health and housing programs. The program will be designed to connect for youth ages 13 to 24.

The summit will focus on how to launch programs and pilots in Oakland as a start and examine ways to expand to other cities such as San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles and San Diego.

In 2022, Thurmond sponsored Assembly Bill 2088 to fund paid internships for youth and he has signaled that will support a similar measure in the 2024 legislative cycle. Thurmond and partners will be contacting foundations, corporations, donors, nonprofits and businesses to help fund pilot programs until a legislative allocation can be pursued in 2024.

Those interested in participating in the summit or in supporting the paid internships program can contact [email protected].

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