All posts by Roger Straw

Editor, owner, publisher of The Benicia Independent
Benicia CA, Benicia Unified School District, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA

Coronavirus updates from Solano County, City of Benicia and Benicia Unified School District

By Roger Straw

UPDATE: See today’s latest information

UPDATE ON FRIDAY, MARCH 15

Solano County

As of today [March 15], Solano County has 7 confirmed positive cases of the Coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID 19).   This number is updated daily at 2 pm on the website of the Solano County Department of Public Health.

Of particular interest: Solano County Fact sheet – Guidance for Vulnerable Populations at High Risk

Also: Solano County Press Releases

The City of Benicia

The City of Benicia has also published an online Coronavirus page.  Of interest: a March 11 press release from Fire Chief Josh Chadwick.  Of interest (excerpt):

…City Hall, Benicia Public Library, Benicia Community Center and Benicia Senior Center remain open and operational with appropriate measures in place to protect the health of staff and the community. In an abundance of caution, the following events are City of Benicia programs which will be postponed or canceled until further notice due to the difficulty in maintaining social distancing:

      • Wednesday, March 11: Family Reading Night for students at Robert Semple and Joe Henderson Elementary Schools
      • Wednesday, March 17: Objective Planning Standards Stakeholder meeting
      • Sunday, March 22: Ramana Vieira and Ensemble at the Library
      • Fridays: Board Game Evenings at the Library
      • Next two weeks: All Storytimes and After School Zone, due to limited space at the Library

The Benicia Unified School District

The BUSD sent the following announcement to parents this afternoon:

March 12, 2020

Dear Families,

Benicia Unified School District (BUSD) continues to monitor the COVID-19 with on-going, regular guidance and communication from Solano County Health Department (SCHD) who works directly with the Center of Disease Control (CDC), the State Department of Health (SDH) and the California Department of Education (CDE).  The health and safety of our students and staff continues to be our number one priority. At this time, BUSD has not been notified of any confirmed cases. As schools are deemed an essential service, schools will remain open unless ordered to close by The Solano County Department of Public Health. If the situation changes, BUSD will follow the COVID-19 school protocols established by the SDH in partnership with the agencies listed above regarding any further measures.

The Health Department continues to recommend and we continue to promote the following:

  • Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer if soap and water are not available
  • Cough into a tissue or your elbow
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth
  • Stay home when you are sick
  • BUSD staff are taking extra measures to deep clean buildings and classrooms each night

In addition, we are implementing social distancing protocols effective through the end of Spring break April 12, 2020, as outlined in new guidelines from SCHD. Therefore we will be:

  • Postponing all events at our facilities outside of the school day, including outside user groups
  • Postponing or canceling all field trips, fundraisers, music events, performances, enrichment activities, school assemblies, and club meetings
  • Having no classroom volunteers on campuses
  • Having no guest speakers or outside group performances
  • Having only Diablo Athletic Leagues (DAL) sanctioned supporting events and practices
  • Having no spectators, including, parents and guardians at sporting events; only those adults needed to manage the event will be allowed at the event

We are working on plans to provide a continuity of learning should the situation change or school(s) need to be closed in the future. As part of our ongoing partnership, we are asking our parents to look ahead and make contingent plans in case things change and we are forced to close schools. If your child has extenuating health circumstances, please contact your health care provider to get additional recommendations.

Please continue to refer to Solano County Public health and the CDC websites for updated information pertaining to the virus.  We will continue to provide updates as information is made available to us. Thank you for your patience and your partnership.

Sincerely,

Dr. Charles Young
Superintendent

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA, Travis Air Force Base

Coronavirus news from Travis Air Force Base

UPDATE: See VIDEO: Quarantined Passengers Critical of Travis Air Force Base ‘Camp Corona’ and First person account of troubled quarantine at Travis Air Force Base

Travis upgrades health protocols amid Covid-19 spread off base

The Fairfield Daily Republic, By Glen Faison

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE — The base implemented an enhanced health alert Wednesday as a result of the new coronavirus situation in communities outside the base and said there were no confirmed cases on base.

The move by Travis officials to implement what they call Health Protection Condition Bravo follows a public health emergency declaration Feb. 27 at the base. Solano County declared a public health emergency the previous day.

“This is a moderate health alert in response to public health risks in the local community,” Tonya A. Racasner, 60th Air Mobility Wing deputy chief of public affairs, said in a prepared statement. “The decision to elevate the HPCON is independent of quarantine operations currently taking place on Travis (Air Force Base), and directly correlates to the evolving situation in the local area.”

Racasner in the statement Wednesday said the base’s action was also taken in response to “the sustained transmission of coronavirus (Covid-19) in the surrounding community.”

The move comes two weeks after a Vacaville women became the first patient-to-patient or community-spread case of Covid-19 in the country that was not attributable to travel or close exposure to someone with the disease.

She arrived Feb. 15 at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville with flu-like symptoms and was transferred Feb. 19 to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento once her condition worsened. She was tested Feb. 23 for the new coronavirus, which causes Covid-19. Test results came back positive Feb. 26.

Testing protocols at the time from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention limited who and under what conditions people could be tested for the novel coronavirus. Only a limited number of test kits were available in California at the time. The CDC has since loosened its protocols for testing and additional test kits have arrived in the state.

Travis has served as a quarantine site for several waves of U.S. residents who repatriated to the U.S. from China and Japan. Hundreds of passengers – all California residents – from the Grand Princess cruise ship have arrived this week to begin 14 days in quarantine at the Westwind Inn.

The California Office of Emergency Services announced Wednesday that up to 120 California passengers from the cruise ship will be housed at a vacant hotel in San Carlos because they are exhibiting mild symptoms that may be from the new coronavirus but do not require hospitalization. Another 24 passengers were previously sent to Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, also because they were not free of symptoms.

None of those passengers have tested positive for Covid-19, Cal OES reports, but because they are symptomatic they cannot serve their 14-day quarantine at Travis Air Force Base.

A total of 149 passengers from the Grand Princess were transported Monday from the cruise ship to Travis for quarantine, Cal OES reports. Another 613 passengers arrived Tuesday at Travis for quarantine.

Racasner said in the statement Wednesday that base officials were monitoring the situation as it relates to the new coronavirus and are “closely engaged” with Solano County Public Health and CDC officials.

Practical implications of the escalation to HPCON Bravo at the base include direction for those on the base to practice social distancing and refrain from physical contact such as shaking hands, fist bumps and similar activities; and cancellation of all gatherings of 100 or more people through April 30 unless they are mission-essential as directed by a unit commander.

“While this measure may seem drastic, it will help to mitigate potential community spreading on base,” Racasner said in the statement.

Military and civilian personnel and dependents on the base are being asked to continue standard anti-virus activities such as washing hands with liquid soap and water and rubbing them for at least 20 seconds; wiping common-use items with disinfectant; covering their mouth and nose with a tissue or their sleeve (not their hands) when coughing or sneezing; staying home if they are sick; and getting a flu shot to protect themselves and others from flu, which has similar symptoms to Covid-19.

On-base child care facilities remain open, Racasner said in the statement. Officials with the Travis School District will make decisions about school operations independent of the base’s actions.

Anyone who develops flu-like symptoms with fever and cough or shortness of breath and may have had contact with a person who has Covid-19 or had recent travel to countries considered high-risk are asked to contact their health care provider before seeking medical care to prevent possible transmission in the health care setting.

People who are normally seen at David Grant Medical Center are asked to first call the TRICARE nurse advice line at 1-800-874-2273 or the David Grant Medical Center appointment line at 707-423-3000 prior to coming to the hospital.

“This is an emerging, rapidly evolving situation,” Racasner said in the statement. “We will continue to partner with local agencies to ensure the safety and welfare of our force and families.”

More information

Climate activists, Keeping Watch on Earth News

Climate activists victorious after using a necessity defense

Landmark Win in ‘Fight for Habitable Future’ as Jury Refuses to Convict Climate Activists Who Presented Necessity Defense

“When citizens are told the truth about the climate crisis—which is the first of Extinction Rebellion’s demands—they take appropriate and responsible action, as our jury did, and we thank them.”
Common Dreams, by Jake Johnson, February 28, 2020
The so-called “Zenith Five” in court. “Zenith Energy Corporation, and the city’s inability to shut it down, is the poster child for what is wrong with our system,” defendant Margaret Butler said in a statement Thursday. (Photo: @RickRappaport2020)

Environmentalists celebrated a landmark victory in the “fight for a habitable future” after a Portland, Oregon jury on Thursday refused to convict five Extinction Rebellion activists—including valve turner Ken Ward—who presented the climate necessity defense at their trial for blockading a train track used by Zenith Energy to transport crude oil.

The activists emphasized that the win was only partial because the criminal trespassing case ended in a mistrial rather than a full acquittal. Just one of six jurors voted to convict the activists while the five others voted to acquit.

But Ward said the jury’s refusal to convict even when presented with video evidence of the trespassing “is a vindication of our call for climate activists to use a climate necessity defense,” which states that it is at times justified to break the law to combat the planetary crisis.

“When citizens are told the truth about the climate crisis—which is the first of Extinction Rebellion’s demands—they take appropriate and responsible action, as our jury did, and we thank them,” said Ward.

The five activists were arrested last April for building a garden on the tracks of Houston-based Zenith Energy’s railroad terminal in Portland to protest expansion of the fossil fuel infrastructure.

“The activists had been protesting the expansion of the oil terminal at a time when they say we should be dismantling fossil fuel infrastructure, not creating more,” the local radio station KOPB-FM reported at the time. “A few small mounds of soil extend onto the rail line—not much, but apparently enough to make it unusable. Activists also sat on the tracks.”

“Zenith Energy Corporation, and the city’s inability to shut it down, is the poster child for what is wrong with our system,” defendant Margaret Butler said in a statement Thursday. “We need to take note of the lessons learned by the labor movement—mass civil disobedience works. The climate crisis is a workers issue, we need to unite to shut down business as usual. Right now.”

Lauren Regan, lead attorney for the group of activists, said it is now up to the Multnomah County district attorney’s office to decide whether to re-prosecute the climate campaigners.

“The jury’s inability to convict the activists,” said Regan, “reflects the prevailing community consciousness which is unlikely to punish climate defenders for acts of nonviolent resistance.”

Big Oil, Keeping Watch on Earth News, Local elections, Oil Industry, Valero Benicia Refinery

We will never back down from Benicia’s Big Oil bullies

By Roger Straw, March 4, 2020

Here in Benicia, Big Oil is already setting aside funds to stack our City Council in November.  See Valero PAC report shows $248,111 on hand to influence Benicia’s 2020 election.

As a followup to yesterday’s post, “Wave of oil money hits local Calif. climate candidates” – I am passing on a rather happy email from the California League of Conservation Voters (below).

Please consider supporting the CLCV.

We took on Big Oil and Won!

 

The results of the California Primary speak loud and clear: Californians chose the environment over Big Oil.

Even though Big Oil spent millions of dollars this primary, California voters rejected their best efforts and 95% of CLCV-endorsed candidates are moving on to the General Election in November!

Click here to join our movement, and support our work in the General Election >>>

If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

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CLCV staff and volunteers walk with Josh Becker in his district

Through our endorsements, our Environmental Scorecard, and joining forces with key partners in spending strategically in priority races, CLCV is on the front-lines, making sure environmental champions are heading to the November General Election.

Heading into the general election, Big Oil will amplify their efforts to stop our progress. We have a tough fight ahead of us in the fall, but we never back down from bullies – even if it means we are outspent by millions of dollars. Can you chip in today to make sure we can be just as effective come November?

In Solidarity,

Mary Creasman
CEO
California League of Conservation Voters