Contributed

Assembly Bill 939, the Denim Day Act of 2021, was co-authored by Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes and signed by Governor Newsom on Oct. 5. Cervantes district includes the cities of Corona, Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, and the west side of Riverside. In my 11-minute interview with the assemblymember, she spoke of her motivations to write the bill and shared other bills she authored that Governor Newsom signed.

The COVID-19 pandemic created mental health struggles in people who previously never faced them like kids. The State says 1-in-3 high school students felt sad or hopeless nearly every day and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital says they saw double the amount of suicide attempts in children.

On Monday, 24,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and health care workers in the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) voted by 96 percent to authorize strike action. Voter turnout was high at 86 percent, an indication of the determination of health care professionals to fight against dangerously low staffing ratios.

Delta pounds rural communities COVID-19 is moving to the country. While cases were highest in urban areas as the pandemic began, the pattern flipped as summer drew to a close, according to a new report from the Rural Policy Research Institute. Now rural case rates outnumber those in cities, and rural dwellers are at more than twice the risk of death as urbanites.

The number of Californians 65 and older living with Alzheimer’s disease is projected to more than double by the year 2040, according to new data released by the California Department of Public Health in conjunction with the Alzheimer’s Association.