Man arrested for attempted murder of niece
A man was indicted by a state judge for the attempted murder of his niece, the state Attorney General’s Office said.
Authorities said Jaime Eduardo “Doe” was indicted for the Jan. 20 assault of his niece in a residence in Ejido Durango.
He was charged with domestic violence, injuries and attempted homicide.
The AG’s Office said the suspect arrived at the residence and for unknown reasons took the 1-year-old by the neck to kill her. He then allegedly struck the girl against the wall.
The suspect was stopped by his sister and the child’s father.
The suspect then assaulted his relatives.
The judge decided to keep the suspect in prison during trial and gave prosecutors two months to close the investigation.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — As consecutive years of catastrophic wildfires in California drive up the cost of insuring homes, state regulators on Monday announced a step toward creating incentives for retrofitting older homes to make them more resilient to fires.
Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said his office will work with four state agencies charged with wildfire response and prevention to establish statewide standards for home hardening — from replacing single to dual-paned windows to creating fire-resistant landscaping — that he hopes will reduce wildfire risks and make insurance more affordable and available in California.
“I want to see companies reward efforts by putting money back into (homeowners’) pockets,” Lara said Monday.
The move comes as insurance providers increasingly drop coverage in fire-prone regions of the state due to heavy losses incurred from some of the most destructive wildfires in the state’s history. According to the most recent data collected by Lara’s office, between 2018 and 2019 insurers dropped residential policies statewide by 31%.
Meanwhile, enrollments in the FAIR Plan, the state’s bare-bones fire insurance plan of last resort, jumped by 225%.
For homeowners such as Chris Swarbrick, enrollment in the plan means paying four times the rate he paid seven years ago for his house in the Sierra Nevada community of Pollock Pines. And just last month, the plan increased rates for rural homeowners like him by an average of 15.6%.
“My taxes and insurance equal to my monthly mortgage,” the Sacramento fire captain said. “If my house burns, I’ll take my money and leave because I can’t afford to live in my own house.”
He said he replaced wood sidings with cement boards, cleared brush and added a fire hydrant and water pump to his property, but no insurance agent will agree to verify the work he has done to better protect his home against fires.
Lara has been advocating for incentivizing home hardening as a solution to the growing crisis, noting that when car owners demonstrate they’re safe drivers, insurance companies usually give them a discounted rate.
A few insurance companies, including the FAIR Plan, offer discounts for homeowners who make improvements to better protect their homes against fires. But Lara wants to see broader discount programs and thinks a uniform set of standards, based on scientific research, will give homeowners, communities and insurance companies a shared strategy for reducing wildfire risks.
He called the convening of fire safety, disaster and insurance experts to determine the mitigation standards “long overdue.”
The participating agencies include the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the California Public Utilities Commission, and Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.
“Both consumers and industry should embrace mitigation because we are at a crossroads, where we all realize that we have to reduce the overall fire risk and unfortunately, fires are not going to go away anytime soon,” Lara said.
Insurers cautioned that more research is needed to gauge the mitigation measures.
“Unlike hurricane and earthquake mitigation, the science of wildfire mitigation is far more complex and still developing.
While we understand what steps need to be taken, we do not yet have a quantifiable understanding of the impact these risk reduction efforts will have,” said Mark Sektnan, vice president of state government relations at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association,
Insurers paid over $26 billion in claims for the 2017 and 2018 wildfires, and an estimated $7 billion for last year’s wildfires, according to the association.
Researchers working to provide insurance companies a quantifiable figure on the risk reduction measures say they’re making progress but they still have a ways to go.
“But I can see a path to progressively bend down the risk curve and limit the extent of wildfire damages,” said Roy Wright, the head of the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.
It’s been the topic of discussion around here for weeks. Where can I get a COVID vaccine shot? We know that vaccination clinics have taken place in Imperial County some more successful than others.
There’s a rumor that some seniors have established long- term camps at the Imperial Valley Mall in hope that another vax clinic will come there, and they will be established as first in line. In the meantime they are bringing badly needed business to JCPenney, Dillard’s, and Fortune Garden.
I received a text from a friend last week that a mass vaccination clinic would be taking place at IVC. Several frantic texts informed me to sign up at the Imperial County Public Health site. First come, first served. Since I’m a late riser, and even before I went online, a texter informed me that all reservations had been taken within a half hour. It was sold out faster than a Selena concert back in the day.
This has been the trend. An announcement is made, who knows where, that vaccines are available. People are poised to go online and make a reservation. Slots are filled within minutes.
A group of people get vaccinated and the rest are wondering how to get onto a reservation list. Generally, there is no reservation list. Frustration sets in especially for those who don’t even have a computer. Mass vaccination centers operating 24/ 7 are an answer, and we are seeing these in big cities.
If we step back for a moment and take a look at the big picture we might understand what’s happening. County Public Health announces a vaccination clinic when they receive vaccines. The same is true for the local hospitals and at least one pharmacy, Desert Pharmacy in El Centro. There is little advance notice about the vaccines being shipped by the federal government.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have to be kept at subzero temperatures so they require special shipping and storage. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine may be available later this month if it receives emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration. It requires only one shot.
Statewide and nationwide, there appears to be a shortage of personnel who can actually administer a vaccine. So the Pentagon has announced the assignment of 1,100 active duty personnel to help staff vaccination centers to improve the daily rate of vaccinations. Getting shots into peoples’ arms is the goal of the feds and the state. Recent reports make it clear that more strains of the COVID virus will mutate. It’s imperative for the states to open more mass vaccination centers.
The other part of this equation is to have more vaccines produced and available. Following this, President Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act to, among other things, have Pfizer produce 200 million doses by May. Help is on the way.
I recently checked the LA Times map of vaccines distributed in California. Surprisingly, Imperial County has had 12,057 doses administered. However, this comes to 6,690.3 doses per 100,000 population. San Diego by contrast has received 14,268.3 doses per 100,000 population. By no means is our county swimming in vaccines.
So we’ve been signing up where we can. Register on the state’s web site, myturn. ca. gov. However, Imperial County is not yet linked into this site. It should be in the future, and the hope is we’d be informed by email when a reservation is available. Also, register with Clinicas.
Call them.
I received a surprise email from my former employer, SDSU, instructing me to register with Health Services. I did and was able to reserve an appointment today for a Moderna vaccine in San Diego. Dang, I’d walk there if I had to.
Be persistent and as more vaccines become available you will get yours. Do vaccinate. The health of the entire population and all of our nanas and tatas depend on your being vaccinated.