Before an earthquake: How to set up a family plan and make your house safer

• April 5, 2023

These checklists are a good place to start in preparing your family and your house for emergencies including earthquakes, wildfires and flooding.

Assemble your emergency kit. It’s crucial to have a go-bag and other earthquake supplies at the ready. Here are the details on what you’ll need.

Have a family plan. Make sure all members of your household know your strategy.

Pick a place to meet if you are in different places when a disaster strikes.
Determine who will pick up the kids from school, and who will check on the pets and, if necessary, prepare them for evacaution. Know the school’s emergency plan, and keep your kids’ emergency release cards up to date.
Designate a person outside your area (at least 100 miles away) as a message contact. Make sure this number is in everyone’s mobile phone, including the kids’. If local lines are jammed, it’s often easier to get through to somebody farther away.

Know these things about your home:

How to open your garage door and/or security gate if the electricity is off.
Where the utility connections are and how to shut off the gas, electricity and water if necessary; same with propane tanks. Pacific Gas & Electric advises not to turn these off unless you suspect there’s a leak or damaged wires. With gas, it could be a long time until a utility crew can turn it back on.

Make the inside of your home safer.

Move beds away from windows and glass skylights. Remove heavy pictures and shelves from above beds.
Secure tall furniture — bookcases, cabinets — to studs in walls. Make sure heavy hanging objects, such as lights, are attached to ceiling studs.
Put latches on cabinet doors.
Install emergency lights, particularly in halls and stairways.
Strap your water heater to the wall. Most hardware stores sell kits for this purpose for about $30. This is particularly important for preventing gas leaks.
Install safety film on large windows or glass doors.

Make sure your home is structurally safe.

Consult with a structural engineer about foundation bolting, crawl space reinforcement, chimney bracing, flexible gas connections.
The California program Earthquake Brace + Bolt provides $3,000 seismic retrofit grants for homeowners in certain areas. Registration is open for 30 days each year; check the program’s website to see if you’re eligible.

Make sure you have adequate insurance coverage.

Standard homeowners and renters insurance doesn’t cover most earthquake damage. If you have homeowners insurance, the provider is required to offer to sell you an earthquake policy, which is usually from the California Earthquake Authority. If you’re a renter, you can buy additional quake coverage for your possessions and for expenses associated with living elsewhere while your unit is repaired.

Compile a household inventory document and update it every year.

RELATED: Earthquake kits: What to put in a go-bag, plus what supplies to keep at home and in the car

​ Orange County Register 

Perspire Sauna Studio adding 8 Southern California locations

• April 5, 2023

Perspire Sauna Studio is expanding its Southern California footprint, bringing new studios to eight area cities.

Founded in 2010, the Costa Mesa-based sauna franchise operates 12 locations, including Irvine, Huntington Beach and Santa Monica.

The expansion into 2024 will include eight new studios in San Clemente, Irvine, Laguna Woods, Calabasas, Manhattan Beach, Brentwood, West Hollywood and Venice. Three additional locations are coming to Berkeley, Chico and West San Jose.

Most Perspire studios are located in spaces that were previously occupied by other retail tenants.

Perspire founder and CEO Lee Braun said California is the company’s biggest market because of the state’s health-conscious communities.

“If you’re living in California, you generally want to be outdoors exercising and enjoying that kind of lifestyle,” he said. “Our studios offer the opportunity for a bit of recovery.”

Perspire offers infrared and red-light therapy that, unlike traditional saunas that heat up the air around you, heat up the body without warming the air. The company says the infrared waves, which penetrate the skin, muscles, joints and tissues, are designed to improve circulation, oxygen flow and help to detoxify the body, according to Braun.

“It’s really like an improvement on traditional saunas,” he said. “With a traditional sauna, you stay in 15 minutes and your nose is burning and you’re overheating. But our saunas just warm up your core temperature by two to three degrees and you’re able to stay in longer. You have more of a cathartic, overall sweat experience.”

Perspire has 30 locations open with more under development throughout the U.S.

Maria Kirgan operates Perspire Sauna Studios in Dana Point and Laguna Niguel. In February, she opened another one in San Clemente. (Photo courtesy of Perspire Sauna Studio)

Maria Kirgan operates Perspire studios in Dana Point and Laguna Niguel. In February, she opened another one in San Clemente.

“We’re getting about 600 people a week at each location,” the 50-year-old Laguna Nigel entrepreneur said. “In January, we hit about 3,000 sessions in Dana Point.”

Perspire’s studios have individual rooms in which customers can sit or lie down, with 40-minute sessions ranging from $39 to $49, depending on the location.

A $59 monthly membership will give a customer four sessions a month, while a $139 monthly membership fee provides unlimited access.

Launching a Perspire studio requires an investment of $444,067 to $590,667, which includes a $45,000 franchise fee, according to the company’s website.

Patrick Findaro, co-founder of Vetted Biz, an online source that evaluates franchise opportunities, said Perspire franchisees should also be prepared to pay fees of $70,000 to $80,000 every four years for equipment and studio upgrades.

Kirgan, who endured chemotherapy and radiation treatments to successfully treat breast cancer, said she first visited a Perspire Sauna Studio as a customer. The experience prompted her to become a franchisee.

“When I was at the tail end of my treatments it really helped with pain, anxiety and depression … all of that stuff,” she said. “And when I got laid off from my job as an executive in technology I decided I really didn’t want to travel anymore, so I changed my quality of life.”

Expected timeline for the newest Southern California openings:

San Clemente (Early 2023)
Irvine-Orchard Hills (Summer 2023)
Calabasas/Porter Ranch (Summer 2023)
Manhattan Beach (Spring 2024)
Brentwood (Spring 2024)
Laguna Woods (Spring 2024)
West Hollywood/Studio City (Spring 2024)
Venice (Spring 2024)

“We’re growing like crazy,” Braun said. “There is so much demand for people taking wellness into their own hands. Our goal is to have 500 locations nationwide by 2027.”

​ Orange County Register 

Kansas bans transgender athletes from women’s, girls’ sports

• April 5, 2023

By John Hanna

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas is banning transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports from kindergarten through college, the first of several possible new laws restricting the rights of transgender people pushed through by Republican legislators over the wishes of the Democratic governor.

The Legislature on Wednesday overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s third veto in three years of a bill to ban transgender athletes, and came a day after state lawmakers passed a broad bathroom bill. Nineteen other states have imposed restrictions on transgender athletes, most recently Wyoming.

The Kansas law takes effect July 1 and is among several hundred proposals that Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have pursued this year to push back on LGBTQ rights. Kansas lawmakers who back the ban are also pursuing proposals to end gender-affirming care for minors and restrict restroom use.

The measure approved by Kansas lawmakers Tuesday not only would prevent transgender people from using public restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities associated with their gender identities but also bars them from changing their name or gender on their driver’s licenses. Kelly is expected to veto that.

“It’s a scary time to be raising a trans child in Kansas,” said Cat Poland, a lifelong Kansas resident and mother of three who coordinates a Gay-Straight Alliance at her 13-year-old trans son’s school about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Wichita. “We may face the very real threat of having to move, and it’s heartbreaking.”

The ban demonstrates the clout of religious conservatives, reflected in the 2022 platform of the Kansas Republican Party: “We believe God created man and woman,” and echoes many Republicans’ beliefs that their constituents don’t like any cultural shift toward acceptance.

“I wish it was 1960, and, you know, little Johnny’s a boy and Mary’s a girl, and that’s how it is, period,” Republican state Rep. John Eplee, a 70-year-old doctor, said during a committee discussion of the bathroom bill.

LGBTQ-rights advocates say its part of a national campaign from rightwing traditionalists to erase transgender, non-binary, gender-queer and gender-fluid people from American society.

Alex Poland, an eighth-grade cross-country runner who hopes to play baseball next year, said he thinks legislators are pursuing “bills against children” who “haven’t done anything to harm anyone” because they don’t know many trans people.

Alex, who went with his mother to lobby for trans rights at the Statehouse last week, said it’s good for the mental health of trans kids to be allowed to play on teams associated with their gender identities, and that most kids don’t care.

It’s mostly adults who “care so much about what the trans kids are doing,” Alex said.

The first state law on transgender athletes, in Idaho in 2020, came after conservatives retrenched from the national backlash over a short-lived 2016 bathroom law in North Carolina. In Kansas, conservatives’ biggest obstacle has been Kelly, who narrowly won reelection last year after pitching herself as a political centrist.

Conservative Republicans in Kansas fell short of the two-thirds majorities in both legislative chambers needed to override Kelly’s vetoes of the transgender athlete bills in 2021 and 2022. But this year, the House voted 84-40 to override her veto, exactly what supporters needed. The vote was 28-12 in the Senate, one more than a two-thirds majority.

Across the U.S., supporters of such bans argue that they keep competition fair. Track and field last month barred transgender athletes from international competition, adopting the same rules that swimming did last year.

Supporters argue that they’re also making sure cisgendered girls and women don’t lose the scholarships and other opportunities that didn’t exist for them decades ago.

“Over the past 50 years, females have finally been able to celebrate our differences and create a division that enabled us to achieve athletic endeavors similar to our male counterparts,” Caroline Bruce McAndrew, a former Olympic swimmer and member from the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame from Wichita, testified to lawmakers.

LGBTQ-rights advocates acknowledge that arguments about competition resonate outside Republicans’ conservative base because of the longstanding assumption that men and boys are naturally stronger than women and girls.

They’re also frustrated that the debate often focuses on whether transgender athletes have or can win championships.

Hudson Taylor, a three-time All-American collegiate wrestler said youth sports should be about learning discipline, “healthy habits,” and having fun in a supportive environment. He founded and leads the pro-LGBTQ group Athlete Ally.

“There’s been a professionalization of youth sports over the last 40 years,” Taylor said. “So often, the legislators and people who oppose trans-athlete inclusion really go directly to the most elite, top talent, Olympic-hopeful athletes.”

The Kansas measure bans transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ teams starting in kindergarten, even though sports and other extra-curricular activities aren’t overseen by the Kansas State High School Activities Association until the seventh grade.

That’s one reason LGBTQ-rights advocates are skeptical that the true issue is fair competition. Another is the scarcity of transgender female athletes.

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The state association said three transgender girls competed in sports in grades 7-12 this year, two of them seniors. Taylor said transgender athletes in college likely number fewer than 500. The NCAA says about 219,000 women play collegiate sports.

The international track and field ban doesn’t affect a single transgender female athlete.

Cat Poland, the Kansas mother with a trans son, said: “They just keep taking the next, the next step, the next step, until where are trans people supposed to go? Where can they can exist to be safe and live happy and fulfilling lives?”

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​ Orange County Register 

Johns Hopkins surgeons get $21.4 million to study pig-to-human organ transplants

• April 5, 2023

Angela Roberts | (TNS) The Baltimore Sun

BALTIMORE — Two Johns Hopkins Medicine surgeons will receive $21.4 million over the next two years to advance research needed to successfully transplant living cells, tissues and organs from animals to humans.

The scientists, Dr. Kazuhiko Yamada and Dr. Andrew Cameron, will receive the funding under two research agreements with the United Therapeutics Corp., a biotechnology company that focuses on projects meant to expand the availability of transplantable organs, Johns Hopkins Medicine said last week in a news release.

Over the next two years, Yamada and Cameron plan to advance the use of genetically modified pigs in human organ transplants, improving techniques already used in the approach to reduce the risk of organ rejection and failure and to increase the likelihood of a patient’s long-term survival.

The funding will help Yamada and Cameron complete the necessary studies in animals requested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before the first clinical trials of genetically modified pig kidney transplants in humans can begin, the researchers said in the release.

“Then, hopefully, we can finally realize that promise,” Yamada, a surgery professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in the release.

Human clinical trials could lead to xenotransplantation — the transplantation of living cells, tissues and organs from one species to another — becoming a way of alleviating the nation’s organ transplant shortage, said Cameron, surgeon-in-chief and director of the Hopkins medical school’s department of surgery.

The number of usable organs for transplantation remains extremely low in the U.S. According to the federal Health Resources & Services Administration’s organdonor.gov, 17 people die every day because they cannot get a transplantable organ.

Last year, there were about 96,000 people on waiting lists for a kidney, but only about 25,500 transplants were performed, according to the agency’s Organ Transplantation & Donation Network. End-stage kidney disease, which results in kidney failure and death without treatment, can only be remedied with dialysis or a kidney transplant from a deceased or living donor, the release read.

For decades, researchers worldwide have investigated the potential of using pig organs — primarily hearts and kidneys — for xenotransplantation in humans because of similarities between the species in how their organs work. Though the FDA has not yet approved these kinds of transplants for clinical use, the agency has permitted “compassionate use” exceptions on rare occasions, according to the release.

Yamada, who was recruited in August to lead Johns Hopkins Medicine’s xenotransplantation research program, performed the first pig-to-primate kidney transplant in 2003 using genetically modified pig kidneys.

Doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into man in January 2022 to save his life. The man died two months later of heart failure. However, in the weeks after the transplant, the man who had been bedridden was able to get out of bed, begin rehabilitation and spend time with his family.

“It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live,” the man said in a statement before the operation. “I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice.”

To boost the chances of a successful pig-to-human organ transfer, researchers modify swine so that they don’t have the gene that produces alpha-gal sugar — a compound on cell surfaces that stimulates the immune system and is believed to be a trigger of transplant rejections in humans.

Under the new research agreements, Yamada and Cameron will study this technique — called a gene “knockout” — as well as “knocking in,” or adding, human genes to the donated pig organ to make it seem more human.

The researchers also will study an approach meant to teach the human immune system to recognize the donated pig organ as its own ― transplanting a pig kidney concurrently with thymus tissue from the same animal. The thymus gland is a small organ that lies in the upper chest, under the breastbone, that makes white blood cells, which protect the body against infections.

“By transplanting pig thymus tissue along with the donor kidney, the immune response of the recipient is reduced, prolonging the viability of the organ, and with less need for medical immunosuppression,” said Yamada, who pioneered the transplant approach.

©2023 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Ex-VP Pence won’t appeal order compelling testimony on Jan. 6

• April 5, 2023

By Jill Colvin and Eric Tucker

WASHINGTON — A spokesman for Mike Pence said Wednesday that the former vice president will not appeal a judge’s order compelling him to testify in the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The decision sets up a possible appearance by Pence in the coming weeks before a federal grand jury scrutinizing attempts by the former president and supporters before the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to undo Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

Multiple Trump administration officials have testified in that investigation, as well in a separate inquiry examining Trump’s possession of classified documents, but Pence would be the highest-profile witness to answer questions before a grand jury. His closed-door testimony could offer investigators a firsthand account of Trump’s state of mind in the pivotal weeks after he lost to Biden and further expose the rift in their relationship since the end of their administration.

The strain could grown as Pence approaches a likely 2024 run for the presidency and a challenge to Trump, who already is in the race for the Republican nomination.

After Pence was subpoenaed months ago by the Justice Department’s special counsel, lawyers for Trump objected on executive privilege grounds. But a federal judge in Washington last week rejected those arguments, forcing Pence to testify.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg did give Pence a win by accepting arguments from Pence’s lawyers that, for constitutional reasons, he could not be questioned about his actions on Jan. 6. They had argued that because Pence was serving in his capacity as president of the Senate that day, he was protected from being forced to testify under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which is intended to protect members of Congress from questioning about official legislative acts.

“Having vindicated that principle of the Constitution, Vice President Pence will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law,” Pence spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement Wednesday.

The Trump team could still appeal the executive privilege ruling from Boasberg.

The Jan. 6 and classified records investigations are being led by Jack Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor who was named by the Justice Department in November to serve as special counsel. It is not clear when the investigations might end or whether anyone will be charged.

Pence has spoken extensively about Trump’s pressure campaign urging him to reject Biden’s victory in the days leading up to Jan. 6, including in his book, “So Help Me God.” Pence, as vice president, had a ceremonial role overseeing Congress’ counting of the Electoral College vote, but did not have the power to affect the results, despite Trump’s contention otherwise.

Pence has said that Trump endangered his family and everyone else who was at the Capitol that day and history will hold him “accountable.”

“For four years, we had a close working relationship. It did not end well,” Pence wrote, summing up their time in the White House.

Colvin reported from New York.

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​ Orange County Register 

Angels’ Taylor Ward still getting a crash course with the outfield fence

• April 5, 2023

SEATTLE — A day after Taylor Ward made a nice catch just as he crashed into the outfield fence, he said he’s finally over the fear of the wall from last year’s collision.

That’s not such a good thing, though.

The Angels left fielder, whose struggled for three months last season because of a shoulder injury suffered after hitting the wall, said ideally he will have a healthy awareness of where the wall is, without the fear of hitting it.

“It’s getting better,” he said. “Slowly but surely. Still not 100% comfortable. I don’t think I ever will be. That will continue to drive the progression to get better. So far so good. It’s cool to see some of your hard work paying off. That was fun last night.”

The Angels were trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Seattle Mariners catcher Tom Murphy hit a fly ball down the left-field line. Ward raced into foul territory and leaped, making the catch just before hitting the wall.

“I still have that instinct to go get it,” Ward said Wednesday. “I kind of knew I was approaching the wall because everything starts coming into your peripheral vision. I still think I can have a better process while approaching the wall.”

Ward said his goal is to get better at “peeking at the wall” more often, so he knows where he is at all times.

But it’s better than it was last year, when he was too aware of the wall.

“I don’t have nearly as much fear as I had after last year,” he said. “I think that’s gone away. Just trying to get better at peeking.”

It’s understandable that Ward would have some reluctance to hit the wall after the impact the collision had on him last year. Ward was one of the best stories in baseball, with an OPS of 1.194 at the time of the incident May 20.

Ward made the catch but suffered a stinger, which is an irritation of the nerve running from his neck through his shoulder. It wasn’t enough to send him to the injured list, but it sapped him of strength and bat speed. Ward had a .602 OPS over his next 68 games. The strength finally came back at the end of the season, and he finished with a .963 OPS in his final 37 games.

Ward believes if he can stay healthy all season, he can be that player for the entire six months. A few games into the season, he has two homers with an OPS of 1.197.

Manager Phil Nevin has said repeatedly he believes Ward can be an elite player, in the same “category” as Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.

“We’ve talked about this for a long time. I put him right in the category with the two guys behind him, really three guys behind (including Anthony Rendon) him on most days,” Nevin said. “He’s in that conversation. He really is. I think he’s in the bunch of really, really good players, game-changing players in this game, in that MVP conversation with the other two guys behind him.”

READY FOR THE SHOW

Left-hander Patrick Sandoval is excited for his start in the Angels’ home opener Friday.

“It’s the stadium I grew up going to,” said Sandoval, a product of Mission Viejo High. “To be able to pitch the home opener is pretty cool. It’s awesome.”

Sandoval has had a big four-week stretch, including starts for Mexico against the United States and Japan in the World Baseball Classic. He gave up one run in those two starts combined.

“I think it was a good little taste of what this would be, what the postseason would be like,” Sandoval said. “Really good experience overall for my development.”

Sandoval gave up one run on two hits in five innings of his season debut Saturday in Oakland. He threw 86 pitches.

“I didn’t feel my stuff was as sharp as it has been,” Sandoval said. “Definitely more inconsistent with the changeup again, trying to dial that in for this next one. The same with the slider. The shapes were a little inconsistent as well. Other than that, I really liked to how the curveball played. I was happy with both fastballs. I could locate them a little better. The velo was alright. The next one should be a little better.”

NOTES

Left-hander Tucker Davidson has not pitched since Saturday, so if he doesn’t get into a game soon, the Angels will need to do some extra pregame work with him to keep him fresh. Davidson is a candidate to start next Wednesday. Nevin said if Davidson pitches this weekend against the Toronto Blue Jays, he could potentially still start next Wednesday, but with a more limited pitch count. …

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Nevin said he was prepared to use outfielder Brett Phillips to pitch the end of Tuesday’s game if Jaime Barría had gotten into trouble in the bottom of the eighth. Barria ended up getting through the inning with 11 pitches, finishing with 56.

UP NEXT

Angels (LHP Patrick Sandoval, 1-0, 1.80) vs. Blue Jays (TBD), 6:38 p.m. Friday, Angel Stadium, Bally Sports West, 830 AM.

​ Orange County Register 

Irvine woman indicted for allegedly poisoning husband with liquid drain cleaner

• April 5, 2023

An Irvine woman who allegedly poisoned her husband by putting Drano in his drinks last year was indicted by a grand jury on three felony counts of poisoning and one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury, authorities said Wednesday, April 5.

Dr. Yue “Emily” Yu, who works as a dermatologist in Mission Viejo, faces a maximum sentence of more than eight years if convicted as charged, said Kimberly Edds, spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Yu was scheduled to make her first court appearance on the charges on April 18.

Yu’s husband suspected she had been putting something in his drinks after he had noticed a strange taste to his tea beginning in April 2022, Edds said. He installed a pair of video cameras in their kitchen, one of which was placed in a cabinet under the sink.

On three separate occasions in July, cameras captured Yu pulling a bottle of liquid drain cleaner from underneath the sink and pouring the liquid into her husband’s drinks, which were either on the counter or on a nearby kitchen table.

Her husband also collected samples of the drinks and turned them over to the Irvine Police Department, which in turn gave them to the FBI for testing. Agents confirmed the samples contained a substance consistent with the liquid drain cleaner, Edds said.

Yu was arrested by police in August, but was released after posting $30,000 bond, Edds said.

With the indictment, Yu is required to “self-report to the Medical Board of California, which will determine whether she will be allowed to continue to practice medicine,” Edds said.

Following her August arrest, Yu’s husband was granted a temporary restraining order requiring Yu stay away from her husband, the couple’s two children and the home, which was still in effect, according to court documents. Days later, he filed for divorce.

In documents supporting the temporary restraining order, Yu’s husband wrote that a doctor’s visit led to a diagnosis of two stomach ulcers, gastritis and esophagitis.

Following her arrest, Yu’s attorney, David Wohl, said Yu denied ever attempting to poison her husband and claimed the false allegations were made by her husband so he could gain the upper hand in the divorce and custody case.

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​ Orange County Register 

Silver lining: The benefits of retirees returning to the workforce

• April 5, 2023

Debra Duquette of Warren, Michigan, started a career as a licensed practical nurse but quit her job to take care of her elderly parents. Now, years later she finds herself at retirement age and in need of a job.

“I have to go back to work,” said Duquette, 69, who never worked long enough in the health care industry to earn a pension.

She also had surgery on her shoulder so that’s another hurdle for work.

“I can’t drive for six weeks,” Duquette said.

Once she is able to return to the workforce, she will be among hundreds of seniors and retirees considering employment after being out of the workforce for an average of four years.

The good news is there is work for Duquette and others in her age bracket and with her skill set, from nursing homes looking for RNs and LPNs to Information Technology Specialists for the U.S. Army Cyber Command, created by a workforce shortage in a number of industries.

“We’ve had more retirement workers leaving the workforce than younger workers entering it,” said Christopher Reilly, director of Michigan Works! “I’ve been working here for 19 years and that’s a deficit we’ve never dealt with before.”

The numbers

It is estimated about 1 in 6 retired Americans say they are mulling over whether to get a job, according to a recent study from Paychex.com, a human resource services company that works with small and medium-sized businesses.

The top 10 reasons cited by people surveyed for the report were:

• Personal reasons

• Needing more money

• Boredom

• Feeling lonely

• Inflation

• Stock Market Volatility

• Needing health insurance coverage

• Retirement not what I expected

• I enjoy working

• For more social engagement

During the pandemic America’s workforce saw a trend in which older workers, who only had a few years to go before retirement, decided to leave early rather than risk being sick or because of the stress related to it all.

However, while COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption of labor markets was massive, it had only a modest impact on retirement timing, according to recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The big impact to the workforce during the pandemic was the shift to remote locations.

So, it’s no surprise more than half of the retired respondents in the recent study (53%) said they were looking for remote work. Others said they are looking for a hybrid situation (27%), while only 20% would seek an office job.

Of those looking for work, most said they wanted full-time positions (65%) rather than part-time (35%).

This could be due to a need for more money and a concern about inflation  — which was among the top reasons retirees are returning to work.

Then again, boredom was also at the top of the list of reasons for returning to the workforce, since many of these people went from working 40 hours per week to not working at all.

Tapping the resource

Macomb County Office of Senior Services Director Sheila Cote in Michigan said whatever the reason retirees are returning to the workforce it has been good for their office and the community at large.

“We love hiring seniors who are retired,” said Cote.

They have hired retirees as food service aids for the many sites that provide seniors with a place for dining and engagement, as drivers for Meals on Wheels and for clerical duties.

“We also have some advocates who worked in the field for years who are working for us again,” she said. “We strongly believe in hiring individuals who are seniors or newly retired.”

Among the retirees who have been hired by senior services is Richard Philippi, 59 of Clinton Township, Michigan. Having worked for Macomb County Department of Public Works for 30 years he earned an early retirement but it was always his plan to not completely retire.

“I get my full pension because I’ve met the age and longevity of retirement requirements but it was always my plan to continue working part-time,” said Philippi, who was hired for the handyman program that provides seniors in Macomb County with small repairs and household projects they are unable to tackle for themselves.

The service is free and it goes a long way to support seniors’ independence and the ability to remain living in their own homes.

“It works out very well for me because I’m earning a little more income and I get to help people out,” said Philippi. He plans to travel with his wife, Kimberly, who is still working in retail, when they both finally retire.

Here are a few of the top reasons seniors are being hired:

• They don’t have conflicts of family life

• They are reliable

• Their potential to mentor others

• Strong work ethics

• Hiring shortages and a lack of applicants

Still, despite what they bring to the table there are employers concerned about their ability to culturally reintegrate, ignorance of industry trends, possible loss of job skill and motivation level.

Debra Duquette, 69, of Warren, Michigan, left her career as a nurse behind in order to take care of her parents. Now she’s among the retirees looking to return to the workforce. (GINA JOSEPH | THE MACOMB DAILY)

Hard working Americans

For the past few weeks French residents have clashed with police during demonstrations protesting the announcement of President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular retirement reform.

The unrest has calmed slightly.

The country’s Interior Ministry put the number of demonstrators nationwide at 740,000, down from more than 1 million five days ago when protesters showed their rage at Macron’s order to ram the bill raising France’s legal retirement age from 62 to 64 through parliament without a vote.

In the U.S. it was 65 for years. Now its 66 for some and 67 for others.

According to the Social Security guidelines the full retirement age for Americans is 66 if you were born from 1943 to 1954. The full retirement age increases gradually if you were born from 1955 to 1960 until it reaches 67. For anyone born 1960 or later, full retirement benefits are payable at age 67.

Those who do not wish to retire but are looking for work will find a number of programs created to help including the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP).

“This is an income based job training program for unemployed seniors,” said Reilly.

Provided by a workforce grant, the program helps to connect hosting nonprofit agencies with individuals who might not have the skills to find a job.

“We set the individual up with a host agency and pay them a $10.10 stipend that matches minimum wage,” Reilly said.

It’s similar to a volunteer position except that workers are given a stipend for their time and the goal is not so much to earn money but to obtain better and more marketable skills. So, program graduates can obtain employment that pays higher than minimum wage.

Reilly knows of many who went through the program and impressed their host agency so much they were offered permanent employment.

Among the program’s success stories is an individual who was a teenager when he went to jail and a senior when he was released. Having no job skills to speak of, the man entered the SCSEP program and was so successful he was hired permanently for a job and has been rising through the ranks ever since.

“He was the nicest guy. He got himself where he needed to be and the place loved him to death,” Reilly said, noting the program currently has room for 25 more applicants.

His story is one of many successful examples of retirees or seniors who have improved their opportunities for employment through the program, which has been around since 2006. It supports 75 participants but could always use more nonprofits who might be interested in becoming host agencies.

Reilly — who believes inflation has taken its toll on a lot of people — said retirees looking to reenter the workforce can also find work on search engines like Pure Michigan Talent Connect. Unlike other job search sites it is free for Michiganders looking for employment and employers looking for workers.

“I think businesses are really missing out if they don’t consider older candidates,” Cote said. “I think it’s a great way to pass the baton to the next generation of workers.”

​ Orange County Register