When Denise Williams’ son was 2 months old, she became alarmed by a rattling sound in his lungs and took him to the emergency room. While undergoing treatment, he spiraled into a disabling neurological disorder. Now 2 years old, Markeano is attached to breathing and feeding tubes. He can’t walk or move his arms. “If I want him to sit up, I have to sit him up. If I want him to play with a car, I’ve got to put his hand on the car and move it back and forth,” said Williams, 38, who lives with Markeano, her four other children and her husband, Marcus, in Adelanto, a small city in the High Desert region of San Bernardino County. Markeano is enrolled in the Inland Empire Health Plan, a county-run managed-care insurer that provides coverage under Medi-Cal, California’s version of the federal Medicaid program for people with low incomes or disabilities . He also receives care through California Children’s Services , which covers kids with serious conditions. Advertisement …
Critically ill COVID-19 patients waiting days for ICU beds in Central California
Some hospitals in Central California are still so overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients that some critically ill people are waiting days to be transferred into the intensive care unit from the emergency room, officials said. One Fresno area hospital had nine critically ill patients who were unable to get into the intensive care unit for more than three days, interim health officer Dr. Rais Vohra said at a news conference this week. This forces emergency room staff to treat patients needing ICU care, disrupting the healthcare of other patients with less severe illness. “We’re basically really straining what the emergency department has to do,” Vohra said. “We still anticipate at least a few more weeks of thoroughly impacted operations” in ICUs and emergency rooms. Hospitals in Fresno County are teetering on the need to ration healthcare and implement “crisis standards of care,” Vohra said. In these situations, hospitals conclude that they can no longer provide the same standard of …
California fires: Nine national forests to close through Labor Day
3 The Dixie Fire became the first in California history to burn from the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada across the mountains to the eastern valley floor. Data reveals the details of the Dixie Fire’s staggering growth , and how it differed from other wildfires. The explosive Caldor Fire continued to thwart firefighters who battled rough terrain, heavy smoke and unpredictable winds as explosive growth forced evacuations across a huge swath of El Dorado County. The fast-moving Cache Fire in Lake County forced rapid evacuations, which included several schools. Track wildfires burning across the Bay Area and California with our interactive map , and read answers to key questions on this year’s fire season . Latest updates: Nine national forests to close through Labor Day: The U.S. Forest Service announced Thursday night that nine national forests in California would close to the public, starting late Sunday through Labor Day, …
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Cache Fire destroys structures around Clearlake, hundreds evacuated
5 CLEARLAKE, Lake County — A wind-whipped wildfire destroyed buildings on the edge of Clearlake on Wednesday afternoon and forced more than a thousand people to evacuate, including two schools, before firefighters stopped the spreading flames. The Cache Fire was about 80 acres and 20% contained as of Wednesday evening, but officials said its forward progress had been halted. Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin estimated 50 to 60 structures were lost, while stressing that a precise tally of damages was still to come. Though its size paled in comparison to the much larger blazes raging around Northern California, the Cache Fire stood out for the immediate destruction it caused soon after it ignited, racing though a wooded neighborhood along a tributary of Cache Creek. Officials offered no explanation for how the fire may have started. The fire appears to have sparked near Sixth Avenue and Cache Street in Clearlake. Evacuations were ordered …
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Caldor Fire doubles in size as more than 5,000 El Dorado County residents evacuate
3 GRIZZLY FLATS, El Dorado County — Joseph Lopez soaked the yard surrounding his home with sprinklers for three days before the flames arrived. But like nearly everything else in this small mountain town, only smoldering ashes remained after the Caldor Fire swept through. Lopez was one of the few residents who managed to return to Grizzly Flats on Wednesday, albeit briefly due to road closures, to see the carnage left behind. He said it appeared as if a “hurricane fire” had ripped through. “My house is just dust, only thing left is my chimney,” the 48-year-old contractor said as he stood with neighbors near a roadblock 10 miles west of town. “It was so hot that nothing would stop it. My whole block is gone, every house.” Winds died down momentarily Wednesday, allowing firefighters to take the offensive in their battle to corral the explosive Caldor Fire. But from Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening, the fire more than doubled in size from 30,000 …
US nears plan for widescale expulsions of Haitian migrants
DEL RIO, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration worked Saturday on plans to send many of the thousands of Haitian immigrants who have gathered in a Texas border city back to their Caribbean homeland, in a swift response to the huge influx of people who suddenly crossed the border from Mexico and congregated under and around a bridge. Details were yet to be finalized but would likely involve five to eight flights per day that would begin Sunday, according to an official with direct knowledge of the plans who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. San Antonio, the nearest major city to Del Rio, where the migrants have gathered, could be among the departure cities. The official said Friday that operational capacity and Haiti's willingness would determine the number of flights, but that “good progress” was being made. Another administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity expected two flights …
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New redistricting commissions splinter along partisan lines
3 When voters in some states created new commissions to handle the politically thorny process of redistricting, the hope was that the bipartisan panelists could work together to draw new voting districts free of partisan gerrymandering. Instead, cooperation has proved elusive. In New York, Ohio and Virginia, commissions meeting for the first time this year have splintered into partisan camps to craft competing redistricting maps based on 2020 census data. The divisions have disappointed some activists who supported the reforms and highlighted how difficult it can be to purge politics from the once-a-decade process of realigning boundaries for U.S. House and state legislative seats. As a result, the new state House and Senate districts in Republican-led Ohio will still favor the GOP. Democrats who control New York could still draw maps as they wish. And a potential stalemate in Virginia could eventually kick the process to the courts. “It’s …
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Texas abortion ban puts spotlight on medication abortions
Before 1973, fatal "back-alley" and "coat-hanger" procedures in places where abortion was illegal became emblematic of the impact of abortion bans. But in modern times, those images have become obsolete with the use of medication abortion, advocates say. This has become especially relevant in light of Texas' new abortion law that bans the procedure as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, making it inaccessible for many across the state. "An abortion road trip is a thing of the past," said Elisa Wells, co-founder and co-director of Plan C, an abortion research and pro-abortion rights advocacy group. "We have safe and effective medical technology in the form of abortion pills and online access to care that can deliver it directly to your doorstep. This is the 21st century and everybody deserves the same access to care that we have through mainstream medical channels." In a medication abortion, patients take two pills: mifepristone, which stops the production of …
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Temporary fencing to surround Capitol ahead of September 18 right-wing rally
(CNN) The US Capitol Police board has approved the department's request to reinstall temporary fencing around the Capitol ahead of a planned right-wing rally Saturday, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger told reporters Monday. Manger said the fence will start going up a "day or two" before the event, and if "everything goes well," it will come down "very soon" after. Fencing was erected around the Capitol following the deadly January 6 riot though it was eventually pared back and removed over the summer . Law enforcement officials are bracing for potential clashes and unrest during an upcoming right-wing rally in Washington, DC, on Saturday, as violent rhetoric surrounding the event has increased online and counterprotests are being planned for the same day, according to an internal Capitol Police memo reviewed by CNN last week . Capitol Police and law enforcement are preparing for some of the protesters attending the event to be armed, a source …
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Harper House Floats Onto the Market for $1.96M
There are two homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in tiny St. Joseph, MI (pop. 8,316), but only one has beautiful views and a perch above Lake Michigan. Now, this four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom, L-shaped property sits proudly on the market for the first time in 25 years. Known as the Dr. Ina M. Harper House , the residence is crafted from two of Wright’s beloved building materials: Tidewater Cypress and Chicago Common Brick. It’s available for $1.96 million with Anne Gain of @properties. It was built in 1950—just nine years before Wright’s death—for Harper and her husband, and the sellers have also poured a lot of love, labor, and money into a full restoration. They worked closely with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in Chicago, hiring an approved contractor to carry out Wright’s original intent. “The owners have maintained every aspect meticulously,” says Gain. “It is definitely move-in ready. When you come in and see the design … [you see] they just don’t …
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