Stephan: I have published a number of reports on the effect of sea rise on the insurance industry, and people who hold insurance on coastal real estate. To be honest, I hadn't even considered the effect of wildfires on insurance, and I should have because this aspect of climate change is also going to be a major factor in deciding to live in some areas. Here is a report on this, the first I have seen, and perhaps it is relevant to your life.
A firefighter moves a hose while trying to save houses on Mountain Hawk Drive as the Shady Fire burns in the Skyhawk area of Santa Rosa, California, on September 28, 2020. Credit: Scott Strazzante/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty
Last week, California’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, announced that the state would stop insurance companies from dropping customers’ fire coverage in areas hit by 2021’s big wildfire infernos for one year. It builds on a regulatory change the commissioner pushed earlier this year to allow consumers to see their fire insurance “risk scores,” assigned them by insurers, and to force insurers to improve the scores of homeowners who undertake fire mitigation strategies on their properties.
The moratorium will give roughly 325,000 homeowners, spread across fire-hit regions of 22 counties, a temporary reprieve from what has become an annual nightmare in much of California: finding insurers willing to cover property in parts of the state increasingly vulnerable to fires as the region becomes a global epicenter of climate change impacts.
But the moratorium alone, and the risk score regulations, while providing breathing space, won’t fix a near-broken insurance […]
Stephan: I got an email from a reader today who told me that her 35-year-old son has moved back in with her. She said she had two other friends whose adult single kids move back in with them, and she asked me if this was a trend or just an odd coincidence in her life? I did some research and discovered that this is indeed a trend. As America has increasingly become an oligarchic kleptocracy the economics that has produced has changed the country's social structure giving rise to multigenerational households. I am going to start tracking this trend.
Over the past century, the typical American home has been a picture of independence and self-reliance. An emphasis on the nuclear family in the post-war era led to homes that were designed for privacy and seclusion — as opposed to communal living with extended family — which largely represents the housing landscape today. But recent data shows that multigenerational living is on the rise. As the makeup of American households continues to evolve, the housing market must be prepared to evolve with it. Credit: Northwest Bank
The pandemic changed life for everyone, and for some people, that included shacking up with a few familiar faces. Living with multiple generations under one roof is becoming increasingly popular, and it’s influencing what buyers look for in a house. So why is multigenerational living on the rise?
Let’s go back to 1940. During the Great Depression, money was tight in most American households. Seniors who were out of the workforce were often cared for at home by their adult children. At the time, almost a quarter of American houses were home […]
Michael Birnbaum, Climate Change Reporter - The Washington Post
Stephan: Water is Destiny. I have said it over and over. Whether it is too much water or not enough, water is changing American society, and this is one aspect that hasn't gotten much attention. Keep this in mind if you are thinking about moving into and area where water shortages may become an issue.
Waves crash near the Carlsbad Desalination plant in Carlsbad, Calif. The plant, opened more than six years ago, transforms water from the Pacific Ocean into drinking water. Credit: Sandy Huffaker/Corbis/Getty
Anybody with a 5-year-old’s knowledge of geography might come up against this conundrum: There’s a water shortage in the Western United States. Right next door, there’s the Pacific Ocean. Why can’t we take some of that big, blue body of water and move it into the increasingly parched territory that borders it?
The short answer, of course, is that there’s salt in the ocean, which isn’t good for people, plants and many other living creatures. But as shortages mount, there’s increasing interest in the complicated process of desalination, or pulling out salt on a massive scale so that water can be put to use by the thirsty populations who live nearby.
Wells are drying up in California. The Colorado River is thinning to a dribble. The levels of Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the two biggest reservoirs in the United […]
Stephan: I have been telling you, based on the research data I have seen that the Covid pandemic has become a majority unvaccinated Republican disease. I can find no historical precedent for this, but the data cannot be denied. Here it is.
During the early months of Covid-19 vaccinations, several major demographic groups lagged in receiving shots, including Black Americans, Latino Americans and Republican voters.
More recently, the racial gaps — while still existing — have narrowed. The partisan gap, however, continues to be enormous. A Pew Research Center poll last month found that 86 percent of Democratic voters had received at least one shot, compared with 60 percent of Republican voters.
The political divide over vaccinations is so large that almost every reliably blue state now has a higher vaccination rate than almost every reliably red state.
Because the vaccines are so effective at preventing serious illness, Covid deaths are also showing a partisan pattern. Covid is still a national crisis, but the worst forms of it are increasingly concentrated in red America.
As is often the case, state-by-state numbers can understate the true pattern, because every state has both liberal and conservative areas. When you look at the county level, the gap can look even starker.
Below is a set of charts, created by my colleague Ashley Wu, that […]
Stephan: The Republican MAGAt base once again is being played for suckers. The MAGAt leaders are using the pandemic for an enormous grift. To quote this report citing just one aspect of this scam, "The data... reveals that 72,000 people paid at least $6.7 million for Covid-19 consultations promoted by America’s Frontline Doctors and vaccine conspiracist Simone Gold." And then there are the millions of dollars made by these right-wing hucksters, as they solicit dollars via email each day asking MAGAts to send them money so they can defend them against compulsory vaccines, and mask mandates.
A network of health care providers pocketed millions of dollars selling hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and online consultations, according to hacked data provided to The Intercept. The data show that vast sums of money are being extracted from people concerned about or suffering from Covid-19 but resistant to vaccinations or other recommendations of public health authorities.
America’s Frontline Doctors, a right-wing group founded last year to promote pro-Trump doctors during the coronavirus pandemic, is working in tandem with a small network of health care companies to sow distrust in the Covid-19 vaccine, dupe tens of thousands of people into seeking ineffective treatments for the disease, and then sell consultations and millions of dollars’ worth of those medications. The data indicate patients spent at least $15 million — and potentially much more — on consultations and medications combined.
The Intercept has obtained hundreds of thousands of records from two companies, CadenceHealth.us and Ravkoo, revealing just how the lucrative operation works. America’s Frontline Doctors, or AFLDS, has been spreading highly politicized misinformation about Covid-19 since the summer of 2020 and refers its many followers to its telemedicine partner SpeakWithAnMD.com, […]
