The suit filed in U.S. District Court alleges that Upland-based Garrett J. Gentry General Engineering Inc. and its owner, Garrett J. Gentry, were negligent by starting the non-injury South Fire and failing to prevent it from spreading. As a result, they are liable for damages incurred by the federal government, according to the lawsuit.

The U.S. Forest Service sustained fire suppression costs of more than $2.2 million, the complaint states.

“Defendants are liable for all damages to the United States resulting from the South Fire, including its fire suppression costs and the United States’ administrative, investigative, accounting, and collection costs,” according to the complaint.

“Investigators determined that the fire started when the steel treads of the excavator, operated by Gentry Engineering and Gentry, contacted rocks, causing ignition of fuel, such as dry vegetation,” the complaint continues. “Gentry Engineering and Gentry were aware of the danger of a rock strike by the excavator and failed to take action to prevent a fire.”

The South Fire broke out Aug. 25, 2021, and burned more than 680 acres, including 450 acres in the San Bernardino National Forest.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, nine structures — residential and commercial — were destroyed and 28 others were damaged.

The fire was contained Sept. 2, 2021.

The post Devastating Inland Empire Brush Fire Sparks Federal Lawsuit appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Several key public health occupations are lacking a Standard Occupational Classification code (SOC), including disease intervention specialist, public health nurse, policy analyst, and program manager, and without valid SOC matches and detailed data on local and state government health departments, the U.S. Department of Labor’s data cannot be used to count the number of public health workers serving as our nation’s frontline biodefense. Without that basic information, our nation will be challenged to know just how short-staffed our public health departments truly are, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
 
Until now there was little evidence-based mapping between SOC codes and public health titles, and occupations and codes did not match well with several public health occupations, creating challenges in researching the workforce. The findings are published in the American Journal of Public Health.(link is external and opens in a new window)
 
The local, state, and Tribal government public health workforce is the backbone of the U.S. public health infrastructure, providing services crucial to health, safety, and national biosecurity. The workforce serves as frontline responders to public health emergencies, ensures clean water and air, controls infectious disease outbreaks, prevents chronic disease and injury, and maintains vital statistics such as birth and death certificates.
 
“We note the critical importance of having basic headcount data to know whether the workforce can provide needed services,” said Heather Krasna, PhD, EdM, MS, associate dean at Columbia Public Health.  “Building and maintaining this workforce is an essential public health service and critical for providing foundational public health services. Without basic information on how many individuals are in this workforce, what they do, how much they get paid, and what training they have, researchers, policymakers, and the public cannot determine whether there are workforce or funding shortages.”
 
Using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Industry and Occupation Computerized Coding, System (NIOCCS), the researchers sought to determine which public health job titles clearly match to a SOC code and where there are gaps between SOC codes and public health occupations.
 
Krasna and colleagues reviewed past attempts at SOC matching for public health occupations and then matched the actual job titles for 26,516 respondents to the 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) with SOC codes, grouped by respondents’ choice of job category in PH WINS. They further assessed the accuracy of the NIOCCS matches and excluded those with insufficient information and or excessive inconsistency of SOC matches per PH WINS job category. Krasna and team manually also assessed the validity of the NIOCCS matches for the 200 most common civil service job titles, coding the matches as correct or incorrect.
 
“From our analyses, it is clear that although certain public health occupations have a classification match, many important public health occupations do not.  In fact, as far back as 1997, a report, ‘The Public Health Workforce: An Agenda for the 21st Century,’ recommended the development of a standard taxonomy to characterize the public health workforce, specifically one linked to SOC codes. However, it has been noted repeatedly that this standardization did not come about.”
 
“In addition, our data review allowed us to identify which occupations within health departments were well matched to SOCs, and which were poorly matched. The key role of disease intervention specialist, in particular, had insufficient information as the most frequent match result.”
 
The authors note that an important, related challenge to public health workforce research is the lack of specificity in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. The data from the U.S. Department of Labor does not list occupational information for local or state health departments, instead using the broad category of “local government” and “state government.” This is especially problematic for public health leadership and program management roles, most of which match vague “manager” SOC codes, but lack accuracy for public health–specific SOC codes. Without this accuracy, occupational and salary information by NAICS industry for many detailed industries will continue to be lacking.
 
“With the deficiencies we have outlined in the research, the U.S. Department of Labor does not have the data to enumerate the entire public health workforce, leaving the crucial task of public health workforce enumeration primarily to professional associations or philanthropically funded efforts,” observes Krasna.
 
She continues, “without clear SOC codes, the public health workforce—the backbone of our nation’s biodefense—will lack data on workforce shortages and recruitment challenges, and our nation—and our nation’s public health systems—will be less healthy as a result.”
 
Co-authors are Malvika Venkataraman, Moriah Robins, Isabella Patino, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health; and Jonathon Leider, University of Minnesota.
 
The study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration (awards U81HP47167 and UR2HP47371). The de Beaumont Foundation and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials developed PH WINS to understand the interests and needs of the state and local governmental public health workforce in the United States.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Key Health Department Jobs Don’t Exist, according to the Federal Government appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Several key public health occupations are lacking a Standard Occupational Classification code (SOC), including disease intervention specialist, public health nurse, policy analyst, and program manager, and without valid SOC matches and detailed data on local and state government health departments, the U.S. Department of Labor’s data cannot be used to count the number of public health workers serving as our nation’s frontline biodefense. Without that basic information, our nation will be challenged to know just how short-staffed our public health departments truly are, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
 
Until now there was little evidence-based mapping between SOC codes and public health titles, and occupations and codes did not match well with several public health occupations, creating challenges in researching the workforce. The findings are published in the American Journal of Public Health.(link is external and opens in a new window)
 
The local, state, and Tribal government public health workforce is the backbone of the U.S. public health infrastructure, providing services crucial to health, safety, and national biosecurity. The workforce serves as frontline responders to public health emergencies, ensures clean water and air, controls infectious disease outbreaks, prevents chronic disease and injury, and maintains vital statistics such as birth and death certificates.
 
“We note the critical importance of having basic headcount data to know whether the workforce can provide needed services,” said Heather Krasna, PhD, EdM, MS, associate dean at Columbia Public Health.  “Building and maintaining this workforce is an essential public health service and critical for providing foundational public health services. Without basic information on how many individuals are in this workforce, what they do, how much they get paid, and what training they have, researchers, policymakers, and the public cannot determine whether there are workforce or funding shortages.”
 
Using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Industry and Occupation Computerized Coding, System (NIOCCS), the researchers sought to determine which public health job titles clearly match to a SOC code and where there are gaps between SOC codes and public health occupations.
 
Krasna and colleagues reviewed past attempts at SOC matching for public health occupations and then matched the actual job titles for 26,516 respondents to the 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) with SOC codes, grouped by respondents’ choice of job category in PH WINS. They further assessed the accuracy of the NIOCCS matches and excluded those with insufficient information and or excessive inconsistency of SOC matches per PH WINS job category. Krasna and team manually also assessed the validity of the NIOCCS matches for the 200 most common civil service job titles, coding the matches as correct or incorrect.
 
“From our analyses, it is clear that although certain public health occupations have a classification match, many important public health occupations do not.  In fact, as far back as 1997, a report, ‘The Public Health Workforce: An Agenda for the 21st Century,’ recommended the development of a standard taxonomy to characterize the public health workforce, specifically one linked to SOC codes. However, it has been noted repeatedly that this standardization did not come about.”
 
“In addition, our data review allowed us to identify which occupations within health departments were well matched to SOCs, and which were poorly matched. The key role of disease intervention specialist, in particular, had insufficient information as the most frequent match result.”
 
The authors note that an important, related challenge to public health workforce research is the lack of specificity in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. The data from the U.S. Department of Labor does not list occupational information for local or state health departments, instead using the broad category of “local government” and “state government.” This is especially problematic for public health leadership and program management roles, most of which match vague “manager” SOC codes, but lack accuracy for public health–specific SOC codes. Without this accuracy, occupational and salary information by NAICS industry for many detailed industries will continue to be lacking.
 
“With the deficiencies we have outlined in the research, the U.S. Department of Labor does not have the data to enumerate the entire public health workforce, leaving the crucial task of public health workforce enumeration primarily to professional associations or philanthropically funded efforts,” observes Krasna.
 
She continues, “without clear SOC codes, the public health workforce—the backbone of our nation’s biodefense—will lack data on workforce shortages and recruitment challenges, and our nation—and our nation’s public health systems—will be less healthy as a result.”
 
Co-authors are Malvika Venkataraman, Moriah Robins, Isabella Patino, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health; and Jonathon Leider, University of Minnesota.
 
The study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration (awards U81HP47167 and UR2HP47371). The de Beaumont Foundation and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials developed PH WINS to understand the interests and needs of the state and local governmental public health workforce in the United States.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Key Health Department Jobs Don’t Exist, according to the Federal Government appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

While some government entities will be exempt — Social Security checks, for example, will still go out — other functions will be severely curtailed. Federal agencies will stop all actions deemed non-essential, and millions of federal employees, including members of the military, won’t receive paychecks.

A look at what’s ahead if the government shuts down on Oct. 1.

WHAT IS A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?

A shutdown happens when Congress fails to pass some type of funding legislation that is signed into law by the president. Lawmakers are supposed to pass 12 different spending bills to fund agencies across the government, but the process is time-consuming. They often resort to passing a temporary extension, called a continuing resolution or CR, to allow the government to keep operating.

When no funding legislation is enacted, federal agencies have to stop all nonessential work and will not send paychecks as long as the shutdown lasts.

Although employees deemed essential such as air traffic controllers and law enforcement officers still have to report to work, other federal employees are furloughed. Under a 2019 law, those same workers are slated to receive backpay once the funding impasse is resolved.

WHEN WOULD A SHUTDOWN BEGIN AND HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?

Government funding expires Oct. 1, the start of the federal budget year. A shutdown will effectively begin at 12:01 a.m. if Congress is not able to pass a funding plan that the president signs into law.

It is impossible to predict how long a shutdown would last. With Congress divided between a Democratic-controlled Senate and Republican-led House, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s hard-right conservatives looking to use the shutdown as leverage for spending cuts, many are bracing for a stoppage that could last weeks.

WHO DOES A SHUTDOWN AFFECT?

Millions of federal workers face delayed paychecks when the government shuts down, including many of the roughly 2 million military personnel and more than 2 million civilian workers across the nation.

Nearly 60% of federal workers are stationed in the department of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security.

Federal workers are stationed in all 50 states and have direct interaction with taxpayers — from Transportation Security Administration agents who operate security at airports to Postal Service workers who deliver mail.

Some federal offices will also have to close or face shortened hours during a shutdown.

Beyond federal workers, a shutdown could have far-reaching effects on government services. People applying for government services like clinical trials, firearm permits and passports could see delays.

Businesses closely connected to the federal government, such as federal contractors or tourist services around national parks, could see disruptions and downturns. The travel sector could lose $140 million daily in a shutdown, according to the U.S. Travel Industry Association.

Lawmakers also warn that a shutdown could rattle financial markets. Goldman Sachs has estimated that a shutdown would reduce economic growth by 0.2% every week it lasted, but growth would then bounce back after the government reopens.

Others say the disruption in government services has far-reaching impacts because it shakes confidence in the government to fulfill its basic duties. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned, “A well-functioning economy requires a functioning government.”

WHAT ABOUT COURT CASES, THE WORK OF CONGRESS AND PRESIDENTIAL PAY?

The president and members of Congress will continue to work and get paid. However, any members of their staff who are not deemed essential will be furloughed.

The judiciary will be able to continue to operate for a limited time using funds derived from court filings and other fees, as well as other approved funding.

Notably, funding for the three special counsels appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland would not be affected by a government shutdown because they are paid for through a permanent, indefinite appropriation, an area that’s been exempted from shutdowns in the past.

That means the two federal cases against Donald Trump, the former president, as well as the case against Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, would not be interrupted. Trump has demanded that Republicans defund the prosecutions against him as a condition of funding the government, declaring it their “last chance” to act.

HAS THIS HAPPENED BEFORE?

Prior to the 1980s, lapses in government funding did not result in government operations significantly shuttering. But then-U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, in a series of legal opinions in 1980 and 1981, argued that government agencies cannot legally operate during a funding gap.

Federal officials have since operated under an understanding they can make exemptions for functions that are “essential” for public safety and constitutional duties.

Since 1976, there have been 22 funding gaps, with 10 of them leading to workers being furloughed. But most of the significant shutdowns have taken place since Bill Clinton’s presidency, when then-Speaker Newt Gingrich and his conservative House majority demanded budget cuts.

The longest government shutdown happened between 2018 and 2019 when then-President Trump and congressional Democrats entered a standoff over his demand for funding for a border wall. The disruption lasted 35 days, through the holiday season, but was also only a partial government shutdown because Congress had passed some appropriations bills to fund parts of the government.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO END A SHUTDOWN?

It’s the responsibility of Congress to fund the government. The House and Senate have to agree to fund the government in some way, and the president has to sign the legislation into law.

Congress often relies on a so-called continuing resolution, or CR, to provide stopgap money to open government offices at current levels as budget talks are underway. Money for pressing national priorities, such as emergency assistance for victims of natural disasters, is often attached to a short-term bill.

But hardline Republicans say any temporary bill is a non-starter for them. They are pushing to keep the government shut down until Congress negotiates all 12 bills that fund the government, which is historically a laborious undertaking that isn’t resolved until December, at the earliest.

Trump, who is Biden’s top rival heading into the 2024 election, is urging on the Republican hardliners.

If they are successful, the shutdown could last weeks, perhaps even longer.

__

Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein, Lindsay Whitehurst, Josh Boak and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

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