Farm workers get a stab at a vaccine jab, without leaving the fields [Southern California News Group]
… Riverside County’s public health department teamed up with area non-profits and vaccinated about 300 workers from two ranches in eastern Coachella Valley. The clinics are part of an effort to educate and assist farm workers with coronavirus testing and vaccinations throughout Riverside County, which includes nearly 190,000 acres of agricultural land in communities as diverse as Temecula, San Jacinto and Lake Elsinore. … George Tudor, owner of Tudor Ranch in Mecca, where the clinic took place Thursday, said it was a “no brainer” to host the event, which was quickly arranged in two days through the county.
https://www.pe.com/2021/01/21/farm-workers-get-a-stab-at-a-vaccine-jab-without-leaving-the-fields/
California senator calls on Newsom to set up farmworker vaccination strategy [KXTV, Sacramento]
State Senator Anna Caballero (D-12) is calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to help lay down a framework that’ll ensure farmworkers get vaccinated. It’s a move that comes, in part, due to the impact COVID-19 has had on farmworkers, more than 90% of whom are Latino. … Caballero and her fellow members of the legislature joined the call for a pilot project that would possibly launch efforts in Parlier, San Joaquin, Arvin, Los Banos, Soledad, Coachella, Brawley, Calexico, and El Centro. … She said vaccinations could potentially focus on bringing clinics to small rural communities that lack pharmacies and medical services.
America’s Salad Bowl becomes fertile ground for Covid-19 [New York Times]
… Yuma County, which produces the lettuce, broccoli and other leafy greens that Americans consume during the cold months, is known as “America’s salad bowl.” Now it has become a winter hothouse for Covid-19. Over the course of the pandemic, the Yuma area has identified coronavirus cases at a higher rate than any other U.S. region. … While coronavirus cases are starting to flatten across the country, the virus is still raging in many border communities. Three of the six metro areas with the highest rates of known cases since the outbreak began are small cities straddling Mexico: Yuma; Eagle Pass, Texas; and El Centro, Calif.
Biden to bump up food assistance for people ‘hanging by a thread’ [NPR]
President Biden plans to sign an executive order on Friday that would increase food stamp benefits to help people going hungry amid the financial downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, his top economic adviser, Brian Deese, told reporters. … Biden plans to ask the Agriculture Department, which administers the food stamp program, for a 15% bump in the emergency benefits given to families whose kids normally would count on breakfast and lunch from school programs, Deese said.
What dry winter weather in California can tell us [New York Times]
… Scientists at U.C. San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography looked at how much precipitation has fallen and how much is likely to fall in the coming months. At the beginning of January, they found that the odds of California reaching normal precipitation this year were only about 20 percent. … The size and frequency of atmospheric rivers make the difference between what will be a normal season or one filled with catastrophic drought or flooding. … Right now, we are in need of one of these large storms.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/us/california-winter-weather.html
Editorial: Congress has to seize the moment Biden has given it to fix immigration [Los Angeles Times]
… There are, of course, no quick fixes to the broken immigration system, which rivals the tax code in its complexity. The specifics of Biden’s proposed legislation will emerge and be debated in the coming weeks or months, and we fervently hope the reform effort doesn’t get caught up in the same web of resistance that has doomed previous efforts. A Democratic president proposing an immigration overhaul to a Congress in which not even the Democrats are unified means this will be a long slog. But Congress must seize the moment.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-01-21/biden-congress-immigration-reform
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