When Sophie Szew first downloaded Instagram at her 10th birthday party, she was exposed to a flurry of information that “promoted eating disorders,” she told California lawmakers. By 15, she said, she was following “every starvation regimen recommended” by Instagram’s “explore” page. Szew, now 20, spoke in Sacramento at a Senate hearing in April in […]
Medical / Health
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NCJ Preview: CPH’s Fire Fight, Police Shooting, Spiked Drinks and Oyster Fest Beer
This week’s cover story dives into the tug of war over wildfire training degrees and whether Cal Poly Humboldt has the right to call dibs on them. We’re updating on the police shooting in Eureka stemming from an alleged armed robbery and assault, and a high-speed chase, as well. We’ve got what you need to […]
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Father, Son Identified as Those Killed in Fortuna Murder-Suicide
The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office has identified the two people found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Fortuna on Sunday as Wendell Bott IV, 48, and his son, Wendell Bott V, 20. Fortuna Police Chief Casey Day said police were alerted to the possible murder of Wendell Bott V by a family member who came […]
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California Bills to Expand State Tax Credits Could send $1 Billion to Low-income Families
When Reyna Bonilla lost her job cleaning hotel rooms in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, she used tax credits and other pandemic relief to chip away at past-due rent so she and her two children could stay in their Koreatown apartment in Los Angeles. This year things are different. Bonilla cleans homes a […]
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Looming DEA Rule Change Brings Concerns of Limited Rx Access
The DEA plans to reinstate federal requirements that patients see a doctor in person before receiving prescriptions for Schedule III drugs. During the declared COVID-19 public health emergency, the DEA had waived the requirement, but with the Biden Administration announcing it will end the public health emergency May 11, the DEA plans to end the […]
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The California Mask Mandate is Gone. Now Some Patients Fear for Their Health.
For months California disability and labor advocates have been attempting to preserve statewide masking requirements in health care settings. But with the sunset of one of the last remaining COVID-19 mandates, they say people who are the most vulnerable to severe illness now have to make an “impossible choice” — risk getting the virus at […]
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What Can California Do About Abortion Pill Ruling? Not Much
California’s Democratic lawmakers have spent the past year enacting legislation to protect abortion rights in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s reversal, but an April 7 ruling by a Texas federal judge is one thing they can’t touch. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk suspended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone more than […]
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What Stands Between You and a Four-day Week
It’s Thursday evening. You pack up your things at work and hit the road. Maybe you’re thinking about a lunch plan you’ve got with a friend or a show you plan to binge. But you’re not thinking about clocking in tomorrow: You’ve got a three-day weekend. All your weekends, in fact, are three-day weekends. It’s […]
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CalPERS to Pay $800 Million Settlement Over Claims It Misled Retirees on Costs of Long-term Care Insurance
CalPERS is preparing to pay out roughly $800 million to settle claims that it misled retirees when it began offering long-term care insurance in the late 1990s and pledged it wouldn’t substantially raise rates on certain plans. The nation’s largest public pension fund in the 1990s and early 2000s sold long-term care insurance with so-called […]
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No California Salmon: Fishery to be Shut Down This Year
Most summer mornings at first light, Jared Davis is a few miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, motoring his charter fishing boat Salty Lady over the Pacific Ocean. His eyes sweep the horizon, looking for diving birds, but mostly he watches the screen of his dashboard fish-finder for schools of anchovies — a sure […]
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Time to Spring Forward on Sunday
It’s time to spring the clocks forward an hour, with daylight saving time arriving at 2 a.m. Sunday, which means darker mornings and losing an hour of sleep. And, once again, Congress is taking up whether to end what many see as an antiquated practice of changing back and forth each fall and spring that results […]
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After a Pandemic Pause, State to Restart Checking Medi-Cal Eligibility
California will soon restart its annual eligibility review for people enrolled in Medi-Cal, a process that has been suspended since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that starting in mid-April, residents enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s insurance program for low-income people, will start to receive renewal notices in the mail. The process will […]