Jeremy T. Ringfield's Blog, page 454

Why Gavin Newsom’s gun control constitutional amendment hasn’t gone beyond California

One year after Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed changing the U.S. Constitution to place new restrictions on gun ownership, no other states have joined his campaign for a 28th amendment.

Even as Newsom continues to tout the effort — largely through social media advertisements that encourage people to sign a “petition” and donate to his political action committee — it appears to have gained little traction outside of California. Legislative leaders in several other large states controlled by Democrats told CalMatters that calling for a constitutional convention to adopt the amendment has not come up for discussion among their caucuses.

Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click said the governor’s team focused this past year on laying the groundwork for the campaign, which they plan to reinvigorate in 2025, when most states will begin new legislative sessions. That has primarily involved getting the public invested through the online petition, which is effectively a way to expand the political action committee’s mailing list, and by training volunteers.

“We’re under no illusions of how hard it is to pass a constitutional amendment, so that’s why we’ve focused on building this grassroots army to help these legislators,” Click said. “It’s not just a bill introduction. It’s a bill introduction, and people on the ground who are willing to fight.”

But the lack of progress so far raises questions about whether Newsom is seriously pursuing the constitutional amendment, which he has acknowledged faces overwhelming hurdles to becoming law, or whether it’s merely savvy political messaging.

As California’s extensive gun control framework is increasingly dismantled in the courts following a key ruling two years ago, critics say the proposed amendment is Newsom’s attempt to refashion a losing issue into something supporters can rally behind while also keeping him on the national stage in case he runs for president one day.

“They’ve come out of the closet. They’ve showed their true intent. They want to eradicate the 2nd Amendment, period,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, which has repeatedly sued to overturn gun restrictions in California. “He’s staking out this territory for Democratic primaries for running for the White House in the future. He’s trying to take that mantle so that other candidates can’t claim to be the most anti-gun candidate.”

Putting gun control back ‘on the map’

California’s firearms laws are among the most stringent in the country and they’ve only gotten stricter under Newsom, a longtime champion of gun control policies who has signed dozens of bills regulating the sale, ownership and manufacturing of weapons since taking office in 2019.

But the Bruen decision by the Supreme Court in 2022, which overturned New York’s tough standard for who could carry a concealed gun in public and established a new historical basis for reviewing firearms laws, upended that entire system.

Following a barrage of litigation from gun rights groups, judges in the past two years have ruled unconstitutional California laws that require safety features on handguns sold in the state, limit the number of bullets in magazines, ban assault weapons, prohibit guns in certain sensitive places, allow lawsuits against manufacturers of “abnormally dangerous” guns and prohibit buying more than one gun every 30 days. Most of those decisions, some of which reversed previous rulings upholding the same laws, are being appealed by the state.

So on June 8, 2023, Newsom announced a plan to work around the courts. His idea was to get the states to call a convention to add to the U.S. Constitution four firearms restrictions that are broadly popular in public polling: universal background checks for gun purchases, raising the federal minimum age for all buyers to 21, requiring an unspecified minimum waiting period between purchasing and taking possession of a gun, and banning the sale of assault weapons.

“Governor Newsom isn’t sitting idly by while rightwing judges dismantle our gun safety laws,” Click said in a statement. “He’s taking aggressive actions — defending our state’s first-in-class gun safety laws from judicial attacks while simultaneously fighting to pass a constitutional amendment to enshrine gun safety nationwide.”

It’s a route that might be even more challenging than getting a bill through Congress these days. Two-thirds of state legislatures — 34 out of 50 — must agree to convene the constitutional convention and then whatever text is proposed must be ratified by at least three-fourths of states, or 38, either through legislation or conventions. The last successful constitutional amendment was decades ago.

Despite concerns even from some Democratic allies of the governor that calling a constitutional convention could open the door for Republican-led states to propose amendments with unrelated conservative priorities, the California Legislature dutifully got the ball rolling with a resolution at the end of session last year.

“This was supposed to put it on the map and keep it on the map,” said Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Los Angeles Democrat who shepherded the resolution through the Assembly.

Democratic states not rushing to join California

Yet no other states have followed suit in the year since, including 19 where Democrats control both houses of the legislature.

Click noted that many of those states have part-time legislatures that will not reconvene until next year, after this November’s election. He said Newsom’s team has been working with legislators in other states to introduce resolutions in 2025, though he declined to provide any specifics.

“Given the nature, we’re not trying to tip off the opposition,” he said.

Democratic-controlled states such as New York, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts and Hawaii did have sessions this year, however, without calling for a constitutional convention on gun control.

CalMatters contacted the offices of legislative leaders in those five states to ask whether their caucuses had considered Newsom’s plan. Many did not respond to numerous inquiries, but representatives for New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, Illinois House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch and Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate said it had not come up for discussion and they were not aware of any outreach from Newsom’s team.

Recent developments in New York and Pennsylvania also illustrate the political challenges of pursuing the constitutional convention strategy — from both the left, where there is a longstanding distrust of the system, and the right, where most gun control policies are anathema to Republicans.

In March, the New York Legislature actually voted to rescind several historic resolutions calling for constitutional conventions, going back as far as 1789, reflecting fears from progressive activists that such a process could be used by conservatives to undermine democratic rights. Dozens of Republican-led states have previously passed resolutions seeking a constitutional convention to adopt a balanced budget amendment.

In Pennsylvania, the only state with divided partisan control of its legislature, a spokesperson for Democratic House Speaker Joanna McClinton said their caucus has prioritized gun safety legislation.

“Unfortunately, our efforts have been blocked by the Republican-led state Senate, where two bipartisan gun safety bills have been stalled for over a year,” Nicole Reigelman wrote in an email, “so any consideration of a constitutional convention here would likely face a similar opposition from the Senate Republican majority.”

Newsom continues to advertise his plan

National gun control advocacy groups have not jumped in to boost Newsom’s effort and appear to be maintaining their distance from the idea.

Despite often cheering the governor’s support for new gun control legislation and attending his signing ceremonies, none was quoted in a press release touting praise for the proposal, published by his office days after the campaign launched last year. Everytown for Gun Safety and Brady: United Against Gun Violence declined or did not respond to interview requests about how it fits into their strategy.

Newsom has nevertheless continued to encourage his followers to get involved with the campaign.

“If Congress and the courts will not take action to help make our communities safer from gun violence, then we — the people — must do it ourselves,” he said in one recent social media advertisement directing people to sign his petition. “It’s a small gesture that can have a big impact when lots and lots of us do it together.”

More than a million people have signed up in the past year, Click said, and the campaign has trained more than 1,500 of them on how they can help in their states. They plan to train 10,000 volunteers by early 2025 when resolution introductions begin.

Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation said Newsom’s proposal has accomplished more for opponents, who have used its a fundraising tool to mobilize gun owners, than it has for gun safety.

He was unsurprised that the call for a constitutional convention has not gained traction outside of California, especially in an election year, arguing that gun control is not as popular as other Democratic priorities such as abortion rights, particularly in rural areas and battleground states.

“I don’t think the gun control issue plays well for Democrats, but they just can’t let go of it,” he said. “They’re like a dog with a bone in their mouth.”

Horoscopes June 9, 2024: Natalie Portman, hope for the best

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Natalie Portman, 43; Johnny Depp, 61; Aaron Sorkin, 63; Michael J. Fox, 63.

Happy Birthday: Expand your mind, interests and expectations. How you engage with others and what you learn will map out your journey for the upcoming year. Look at the possibilities, but recognize that you can put all your eggs in one basket or spread yourself thin. Take on opportunities that interest you, and hope for the best. Test the waters and your energy levels, and follow your heart. Your numbers are 3, 12, 18, 29, 31, 38, 42.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Share your ideas with someone who can offer positive suggestions and warnings. Common sense will be necessary to avoid financial loss. Focus on self-improvement, keeping in shape and putting your best foot forward. A domestic change will turn out better than you anticipate. 2 stars

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You can pick up speed, but first, you must put everything in place. Accuracy, detail and precision will play roles in the outcome and determine your success. An unexpected change will keep you on your toes but also motivate you to fine-tune whatever you pursue. 4 stars

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): What you absorb will trigger your imagination and give you a reason to toss around possibilities. Don’t let negativity set in or anyone discourage you. Surround yourself with a support system eager to see you thrive. Build momentum and see where it leads. 3 stars

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Take a moment to think before you react. Impulsive acts can lead to financial or emotional loss. Clear your head and put energy into building opportunities. Be bold and take a unique approach to using your skills and protecting your position and reputation. 3 stars

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Rethink your objective and set new goals. Update your skills or find an additional source of income or pleasure that makes life exciting and meaningful. A chance to make financial gains or improve your position will ease stress and inspire you to do more. 3 stars

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Take the initiative and participate in an event or conference that enhances your knowledge and broadens your connections. Be careful not to exaggerate or make promises that can limit you. Your goal is to further your interests, not to be someone’s minion. 4 stars

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Live, learn and adopt changes that will make your life simpler and your mindset happier. Open discussions with someone you trust to give you the lowdown and make suggestions you can implement. A lifestyle change that includes a friend or lover looks promising. 2 stars

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You’ll be eager to bolt when you need to reflect. Consider your options and where each leads. Don’t let pressure push you to make a premature decision. Feel free to try something unusual. The key to success is giving everything you’ve got and more. 2 stars

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Don’t make promises you cannot keep or buy into something you can’t afford. Impulsive action will come back to haunt you and upset someone close to you. Think twice before you agree and get the go-ahead from anyone your actions will affect. Choose love over discord. 5 stars

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Travel, a change of scenery or doing something unique will build momentum and confidence and offer insight into new possibilities. Don’t expect everyone to approve of what you do; remember that it’s up to you to take responsibility for your happiness. 3 stars

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Stick close to home and loved ones. Don’t take on additional expenses or projects that weigh on you emotionally or financially. Clear a space for something that will help you relax or that enhances something you enjoy doing. Love and romance, along with physical improvements, are favored. 3 stars

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Monitor what’s happening around you. Do your best to dodge being dragged into someone’s drama. Be a good listener, but avoid getting involved or offering to solve someone else’s problems. Spend time replenishing your energy and doing something that lifts your spirits. 5 stars

Birthday Baby: You are chatty, playful and contributory. You are engaging and changeable.

1 star: Avoid conflicts; work behind the scenes. 2 stars: You can accomplish, but don’t rely on others. 3 stars: Focus and you’ll reach your goals. 4 stars: Aim high; start new projects. 5 stars: Nothing can stop you; go for gold.

Visit Eugenialast.com, or join Eugenia on Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn.

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Slater, Ramos give SF Giants 1-2 punch they’ve been seeking in win over Rangers

ARLINGTON, Texas — Since losing Jung Hoo Lee and LaMonte Wade Jr., Bob Melvin has been on a quest to find the right combination at the top of the Giants’ lineup, cycling 10 different players through the first two spots just in their past 10 games.

Teaming up Saturday to manufacture all three of the Giants’ runs, Heliot Ramos and Austin Slater might have some staying power.

The contributions from the top of the order led the way to a 3-1 victory over the Rangers, securing at least a series win in the building Bruce Bochy now calls home. The Giants will go for their first series sweep away from Oracle Park and attempt to even their record back to .500 in Sunday’s finale, with Keaton Winn set to make his return.

“You can be a tone-setter at the top and hopefully bring a lot of energy,” said Slater, who made his second start since returning from a concussion. “Especially with quick turnarounds (such as Saturday’s matinee after Friday night’s win), that’s the job. When you do it well, it can really boost the energy in the dugout and for the team.”

Leading off against the lefty Andrew Heaney, Slater reached safely each of his first two times to the plate and didn’t spend much time on the bases. Both times, he was promptly driven in by Ramos, who laced a 106-mph double into left field in his first at-bat and launched his sixth home run of the season his second time up.

It’s the same combination that started things in the Giants’ 9-3 win Wednesday in Arizona, their best offensive output in two weeks.

“He gets a walk right away and all of a sudden we have a lead,” Melvin said. “It ended up being a good combination there for a while. What do you say about Ramos? It’s pretty incredible what he’s doing.”

With two more knocks, Ramos recorded his 12th multi-hit game since being called up on May 8, raising his OPS to .973. The only players who have taken at least 100 at-bats with a better mark make up some of the game’s most-feared hitters: Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, and Marcell Ozuna (and David Fry of the Guardians).

His six home runs are tied for fifth on the team, despite playing in 15 fewer games than anybody even or ahead of him. Three have come in the first five games of this road trip, during which he is 9-for-17 and has driven in seven runs.

In his short time, Ramos has made a strong case to return to this ballpark next month when it hosts the All-Star Game. In the National League, there have been only four outfielders more valuable this season than Ramos, who gave the others a six-week head start.

“It’s just get on base,” Slater said of the mindset hitting in front of the red-hot Ramos. “If he keeps this up, I think I’ll be getting a lot more fastballs.”

It’s been a different story for Slater, who has received his fair share of scorn from the fan base to start the season. Before missing 19 games with a concussion, Slater was batting .128 with a .434 OPS. But he has recorded hits in his first two games back, reaching base twice Saturday for only the second time in 26 games.

“I know the numbers don’t look good for Slates this year, but he’s got a history of doing some pretty good things leading off and against left-handed pitching,” Melvin said. “That’s what Slates does. You hit him anywhere else, and it’s probably a little uncomfortable for him. The first at-bat is 0-2 to a walk. That’s kind of hard to do. No panic in him. Knows who’s hitting behind him. Wants to get on to lead off a game.”

Melvin put his faith in that track record and penciled Slater into the leadoff spot as soon as he was activated from the injured list.

“It means a lot, coming from BoMel, a lot of trust,” Slater said. “I haven’t performed the way I know I’m capable of this year, so for him to stick with me there, in a spot that typically has a little more pressure and a little more importance in the lineup is (great).”

After the first two spots, the rest of the Giants lineup combined for three hits and 10 strikeouts in 26 at-bats, with a pair of walks.

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The offensive effort from the top of the lineup supported a third consecutive strong showing from Spencer Howard — but his first this season as a starter. Rebounding from issuing walks to the first two batters he faced, Howard limited the Rangers to one run over 4⅔ innings, coming one out shy of earning his fourth career win.

In three appearances for the Giants, Howard has yet to allow more than two runs and has a 2.03 ERA. Making his success even sweeter, it has come against two teams — the Phillies and now the Rangers — that cast him aside, allowing the Giants to scoop him up as a minor-league free agent last September.

That was hardly even highlight of the past couple weeks for the 27-year-old from San Luis Obispo. He and his wife recently learned that they are expecting a son, and on Friday, he was presented with his reward for the three games he appeared in for the Rangers last year, a 2023 World Series ring.

“Cool couple weeks, man,” Howard said. “Cool couple weeks.”

Up next

RHP Keaton Winn (2-2, 6.17) returns from a three-week absence with forearm tightness to face RHP Nathan Eovaldi (2-2, 2.70) in the series finale, with first pitch scheduled for 10:05 a.m. PT, airing exclusively on The Roku Channel.

Why SF Giants aren’t on NBCSBA this Sunday, and how to watch their game vs. Texas Rangers

ARLINGTON, Texas — A cable package will do no good for Giants fans hoping to tune into their series finale Sunday against the Texas Rangers.

The game will air on The Roku Channel instead of NBC Sports Bay Area, which means an earlier-than-normal first pitch, too.

Roku, the San Jose-based streaming company, picked up the exclusive rights previously held by NBC Universal’s streaming service, Peacock, to air 18 games this season on Sunday mornings. Dubbed “MLB Sunday Leadoff,” the timeslot is the first of the day, so set your alarms.

Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi will throw the first pitch at 12:05 p.m. PT, two hours earlier in the Bay Area, matching the Giants’ earliest local start time of the season. They previously played at 12:05 p.m. ET on getaway day in Miami and will also play at 12:05 p.m. at home on the final day of the season, when all games start at the same time.

They have one more game on Roku, Aug. 4 in Cincinnati, which is also set for a 12:05 p.m. local first pitch.

Keaton Winn will oppose Eovaldi in his return to the rotation following a three-week absence with forearm tightness.

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Good news: It doesn’t cost anything to watch, but it may require some additional steps to set up on your television or streaming device.

It’s easiest for owners of Roku devices, where the channel is accesible from the home screen. But the Roku Channel is also available on therokuchannel.com, via Amazon Fire devices, Samsung TVs, or Google TVs.

Otherwise, the game is available, blackout-free, on MLB.tv.

While it may not quite be Kruk and Kuip, the broadcast will feature at least one familiar face with Hunter Pence providing color commentary. He’ll be joined in the booth by Rangers play-by-play man Dave Raymond, with Emily Jones, the Rangers’ sideline reporter, on the field.

Logan Webb is tentatively scheduled to be interviewed in the dugout during the game.

Stevenson School elects board chair committed to financial aid accessibility

In 1979, a young Cynthia Chapman and her mother set out on a work trip to Carmel from Kansas. An artist, her mother was working with a family in Carmel while Chapman attended Stevenson School with the client’s daughter.

Coming from an all girl’s school in Kansas, Chapman was enthralled by Stevenson and unbeknownst to her mother, applied to the school. Her father had died unexpectedly when Chapman was 8, leaving her mother to care for three kids under the age of 14. Stevenson saw her merit, and accepted Chapman to the school with a scholarship to help her family with the costs.

As the newly appointed chair of the board of trustees for the school, Chapman aims to make more financial aid available to give more students like she was the opportunity to attend Stevenson.

“I don’t think I’d be where I am today but for my Stevenson education. I’m quite sure of that, in fact,” said Chapman.

An independent school, Stevenson serves about 750 students. Pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students are at its Carmel campus, with high school students attending the Pebble Beach campus. The high school also serves about 100 international students.

Following her graduation from the school, Chapman went on to receive an undergraduate degree in art history from UC San Diego and graduated from UC San Diego’s School of Law in 1992.

After 16 years serving on Stevenson School’s Board of Trustees, Cynthia Chapman has been appointed chair of the board effective July 1. (Courtesy of Stevenson School)

Chapman and her husband Mike Caddell’s law firm has played a role in multiple high-profile cases, including the Branch Davidian raid in Waco, Texas in 1993. Chapman also took on Rodriguez v. Salant, a case in which she represented Mexican families whose children died in a bus fire on the way to a clothes manufacturing factory.

Chapman has served on the board of trustees since 2008 and had two children graduate from the school in recent years. Chapman and her son had quite similar experiences when deciding to attend Stevenson.

In 1979, Chapman convinced her mom and siblings to make the move to Carmel after falling in love with the school. In 2013, her son, aptly named Chapman, did the same. The family had taken a week-long trip to Monterey where Chapman showed her son her “old stomping grounds,” and he then begged to attend Stevenson, according to Chapman.

“I know it sounds a bit crazy, but we literally picked up and moved to the Monterey Peninsula … he had the same experience I had in that it allowed him to be everything he could be, everything he wanted to be,” said Chapman. “It was a very special experience for him and really altered his perspective on what he wanted to do with his life.”

During her tenure, Chapman plans to focus on enriching students’ lives directly. “As part of our capital campaign, (the board is) focused on something that’s very near and dear to my heart, which is financial aid,” she said.

Chapman says that through financial aid, “we bring in kids who would otherwise not be able to attend the school, and that further diversifies our student body in terms of experience, background and interests and really creates a much more vibrant student body and atmosphere overall.”

Tuition at Stevenson ranges from $20,000 for pre-kindergarten students to around $78,000 for residential high school students.

Through donations and grants, Stevenson offers around $7.6 million of need-based financial aid to 35% of students and families at the school. Many of those donations come from alumni like Chapman, who specify they want their donation to be used for financial aid.

“I think that more people would step up and donate to financial aid if they knew the kind of impact it really has … because I think what you’re doing is you’re not just improving one person’s life, but you’re improving everyone’s life on that campus by letting that person be part of the community.”

She also plans to build on Stevenson’s legacy of prioritizing student success, both academically and personally. Stevenson President Dan Griffiths says the school focuses on developing good people, not just good students.

“We prioritize helping students to develop a joyful life,” said Griffiths. “We strongly believe that achievement and success and striving for excellence and joy are not mutually exclusive. If you do it right, you can have both.”

Alongside her goal of expanding financial aid resources, Chapman is focused on advancements in the school’s curriculum. The board’s capital campaign is also focused on fundraising for the school’s new math, science and engineering center that is set to break ground in the fall. “It will be transformational for our campus to have that kind of resource for both faculty and students,” said Chapman.

According to Chapman, the trustees work to “quiet the noise around these kids (so) that they can focus on being kids and they can enjoy that pure experience of learning, the social and emotional growth, the athletic and physical growth.”

“Stevenson’s a community of invitation, and we want to be able to invite kids to bring their whole self,” said Griffiths. “So we want kids to quickly feel that sense of belonging, that they feel like this is their school, no matter where they’re coming from, across the Peninsula, (or) across the world.”

Liza Horvath, Senior Advocate: Sharing your inheritance with a heartless opportunist

Question: I am fortunate to be receiving an inheritance from my aunt and her estate is going through probate. I am astonished by the number of solicitations I’ve received from “probate loan” companies. They are offering to give me money now and then, once the probate is done, I can pay them back. While I don’t necessarily need the money right away, it would be convenient to have the money now and not wait a year for the probate to be completed. My nephew also got the same solicitations. Is there a downside to getting our money now and then paying the probate lender back when we finally get our funds?

Answer: The major downside is the cost of the money and I strongly recommend you think carefully before you say yes to these lenders. These loans go by the names like “probate advance lenders” or “my inheritance cash” and are considered hard money loans. There are basically two options when it comes to borrowing against your future inheritance in a probate situation: a probate loan or a probate advance.

With a probate loan, you must qualify as you would for a bank loan. The lender asks for details of your personal finances and income, a credit check is performed and it is common to be charged loan underwriting fees. There may also be further upfront costs in the form of points and the lender requires that you make monthly payments of principal and interest on the amount borrowed. Finally, the loan will be cross collateralized against your personal assets. In this way, if your distribution from the probate falls short of full repayment of the probate loan, the lender can go after your personal assets to recoup their money.

A probate advance may not require monthly payments and qualification is not required – so no credit check or cross collateralization of your assets. The lender does not quote an interest rate, in the traditional sense. Instead, the lender of a probate advance gives you funds now and, when the exact amount you will be receiving is determined, they calculate the “interest” by using the difference between what they advanced and the amount you will actually receive from the probate.

According to a study published in The Yale Law Journal in October 2016, California ranks among the highest states in the use of probate loans. Whether you receive a loan or an advance, you will pay hefty fees on the money and these inheritance-purchasing companies are condemned in the legal communities and the courts as predatory lenders. These loans are big business and the effective interest in all the cases reviewed in the Yale study found the interest rates to be usurious.

You state that you don’t necessarily need the money right now, but it would be convenient. Consider this: It is assumed you did not know when your aunt would die, and you may not have even known that you would be a beneficiary of her estate. It can be further assumed you did not enter any financial obligations based on receiving this inheritance now – or even a year from now, so why give up so much to have the money now rather than wait for the probate to distribute?

Beneficiaries of probates should know that an executor can make a preliminary distribution in a probate if there is good reason to do so. This means that if an urgent financial need came up for you or your nephew, you could ask the executor to make a preliminary distribution from the probate. The executor would need to agree and court approval would be sought, but it can be done.

Your aunt, most likely, worked hard, saved money and envisioned her estate coming to you and your nephew. She wanted the funds to benefit you, not some random money lender. Be patient. Yes, probates normally take a year or so to settle, but at least you will receive all that your aunt left to you. She did not, most likely, intend that you share her loving bequest with heartless opportunists.

Liza Horvath has more than 30 years of experience in the estate planning and trust fields and is the president of Monterey Trust Management, a financial and trust management company. This is not intended to be legal or tax advice. Questions? Email liza@montereytrust.com or call (831)646-5262

Letters to the editor: June 8, 2024

Student letters

Thanks to The Monterey Herald for publishing student letters and to Shelley Grahl for her inspiring teaching. In the letter about human trafficking, Chase Ford’s last sentence about not leaving “a broken and chained world for the future” hit a nerve.  Human trafficking as well as pollution, genocide, etc. have already broken us (sorry Chase), but it is comforting to know that a smart, new generation is willing to face these big issues head on. Thank you.

— Donna Foote, Pacific Grove

No to the MST/TAMC Surfway

The proposed Surfway bus lane is an ill-conceived pork barrel project, with a budget of $55-95 million, most of which is federal money.  Rider fares only account for 10% of MST’s budget.  Take a look inside all those large MST buses wandering the streets.  Many are empty, and many more have just one or two riders.

How about a proof of concept trial first?  The highway between Marina and Seaside is six lanes.  For a period of two years, designate the outside lanes as HOV from 7-9 a.m. southbound and 4-6 p.m. northbound, as those are the only times we really have a “rush hour.”  If MST/TAMC can prove buses under this trial period are at least 50% full, only then consider more expensive options.

Preserve the old railroad right-of-way for the future.  Perhaps as a feeder link to a high-speed rail in the Central Valley a few decades from now.

— David Blaskovich, Pacific Grove

A helping hand

A Memorial Day had passed, and mine had also, without a drum roll. Along with 30 other religious communities my Unitarian Church opens its doors once a month to homeless women and also men, but not co-ed. The program is known as I-Help and congregation volunteers donate food, overnight sanctuary and generally four hours of warm interaction.

At my recent evening, nine diverse women of all ages and experiences gathered for dinner and hopefully conversation. They are an affable group, but do not physically reach out to us. One mid-60s, toothless, smiling woman I recognized from last month, takes me in a strong-wordless embrace, then heads toward the kitchen.

At the buffet, we five volunteers have provided an attractive and healthy menu. The women move around the buffet choices filling china plates, picking up silverware and cloth napkins, our warm gesture to the worthiness of those used to paper and plastic.

Conversation, mainly by the volunteers, is rare and mostly about food choices. Small take-out cartons are available for those who want a later snack. After dinner, the women quickly begin to store the remaining food, clean up the tableware and return clean items to their well-labeled places.

I leave as some are staking out their sleeping spots. The petite Asian woman I recognized from last month because of her pristine, vogue-worthy colorful jacket and unique hat, takes my hand and whispers “Thank you, be safe.”

I leave this other world knowing I have received so much more than I have given.

— Nellie Ryder, Pacific Grove

Pure Water Monterey expansion

In recent Herald articles that discuss water supply and demand issues pending before the CPUC, a glaring, but camouflaged, issue has not received appropriate attention. Cal Am’s motion to strike desal from CPUC hearing briefs exposes this truth.

Cal Am does not want its regulator, the CPUC, to realize that no matter its decision on water supply and demand forecasts, Cal Am’s desalination project cannot succeed. Why? Because Cal Am’s desal water source, the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin, is under Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act supervision to ensure its critically over-drafted aquifers are rehabilitated from seawater intrusion by 2040. This means Cal Am, without water rights, intends, as explicitly stated in its CPUC Certified Environmental Impact Report, to take its desalination project source water from the SVGB aquifers – not the ocean. No person with a moral conscience would accept stealing Marina’s potable water.

To justify its desal project, and invalidate accurate water supply assessments, Cal Am inflated water demand estimates to mislead the CPUC. To illegitimately extract SVGB aquifer water and transport it, at great cost to ratepayers, to the Monterey Peninsula is one of the most
despicable underhanded business transactions ever perpetrated on us. Depleting Marina’s potable water supply, while not providing a single drop of water to Marina citizens is criminal.

Water is critical for survival, not a monopolistic for-profit commodity!

— Margaret-Anne Coppernoll, Marina

Ten memorable high school sports moments

Stevenson girls water polo: Uncharted waters a year earlier left the Pirates unfulfilled after falling in the Northern California Division III finals.

It wasn’t so much redemption as it was unfinished business as the Pirates defended their CCS DIII title, then went on the assault in the NorCal tournament, beating El Capitan of Merced, CCS power Mitty and Buhach Colony of Atwater in the title game.

Emmerson Ferriera and Miranda Salinger both produced over 100 goals on the season, while goalie Anna Mitchell closing her career with 285 saves between the pipes.

Stevenson’s historic season included a school record 25 wins.

Summer books 2024: It’s summertime and the reading’s easy. Or epic. Choose your own adventure.

One strategy for summer reading — and yes, there are strategies — is to begin a project.

Dabble in short punchy books, but devote the season to an epic. You get three months.

I read “The Lord of the Rings” this way, one installment a summer, for years. Now I’m picking through Robert Caro’s (still unfinished) Lyndon Johnson biography this way. Another strategy: Give yourself a quasi-degree in something very specific. Read the complete short stories of the late Alice Munro. The crime novels of Stephen King. Or underrated Penguin Classics: This summer offers a couple of fresh contenders — Harry Crews’ “The Knockout Artist” (about a boxer with a talent for knocking himself out), and “A Last Supper of Queer Apostles,” unclassifiable writing about being gay under a dictatorship, by Chilean legend Pedro Lemebel.

You’ll clip right along.

Same goes for an excellent new edition of a monster: The Folio Society’s wonderful “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,” Susanna Clarke’s contemporary classic about magicians in 19th century England. As a single adventure, it was an 800-plus page cinderblock in 2004. Folio divides all of that into a much brisker trilogy, as it should have been, ideal for devouring in adult-size chunks that you can pass along to a precocious child or spouse, while continuing yourself.

As for the rest of you who just want a new mystery or history for the backyard, this summer is overstocked, even more so than the coming fall season. Yes, I read all of these; now get started.

No-guilt beach reads: One of the great American mystery series continues with “Farewell, Amethystine,” Walter Mosley’s 16th novel about Los Angeles detective Easy Rawlins. This one finds him in 1970, tracking an ex-husband, navigating gender upheaval. “The Sicilian Inheritance,” by airport favorite Jo Piazza, nails a clever twist on a contemporary cliche: Newly single American woman moves to Italy, discovers herself. The twist — she’s pulled into ugly family business — plays like a Palermo breeze.

You got the top pulled down and radio on, baby: “Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell” (June 11) is the best kind of summer bio. It’s too critical and wandering to read like hero worship. NPR’s Ann Powers, among the smartest of music critics, captures the restlessness of a Mitchell album, walking through her catalog with eyes and ears open for both unease and transcendence. “Hip-Hop is History” (June 11) nails a similar feeling: It’s less like a timeline than a long hang with the Roots’ Questlove, who digs through the classics, offering reminiscence and discernment.

Family time: ‘Tis the season for other people’s problems. “Same as It Ever Was” (June 18), by Oak Park native Claire Lombardo (“The Most Fun We Ever Had”), and “Long Island Compromise” (July 9) by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (“Fleishman Is in Trouble”), check a lot of boxes — relatable but never dull, reliably bonkers family, funny. But they’re also breezy satires of privilege without sacrificing gravitas. Lombardo hems with modesty to the way minor breaks in routine spiral into epic crisis. Brodesser-Akner, who twists her knife with more relish, begins with actual crisis (a mysterious kidnapping and release), then leaps to the surprising ways it stamps fear into each member of the wealthy family. For austerity: “This Strange Eventful History,” Claire Messud’s somewhat autobiographical saga about several generations of a French family, severed from each other during World War II, and the way time and distance become inevitable.

Tales of future past: “What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean” (July 16), by Helen Scales, a marine biologist who doesn’t write like one. Here is a clear-eyed survey of what ails ocean life, shaped by Scales’s own experience and a bracing look at what’s being done. For something completely different: “The Book of Elsewhere” (July 23) is not quite science fiction, or fantasy, but as hard to pin down as you might expect a book authored by British surrealist China Miéville and Keanu Reeves. It’s also fun, a novel-length continuation of Reeves’s hot comic book, “BRZRKR,” a kind of Conan the Barbarian tale with black helicopters.

“Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History” by Anthony E. Kaye and Gregory P. Downs, “The Work of Art” by Adam Moss, “Circle of Hope” by Eliza Griswold, photographed in Barrington. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Rebel yells: “Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History” (Aug. 13) begins with what you (might) know: In 1831, an enslaved preacher named Nat Turner led an uprising that was inevitably quashed, yet promised more to come. The late historian Anthony E. Kaye, with Gregory P. Downs, retells this in a fascinating new way, centering Turner’s conviction that he was a vessel of God. “Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People” (June 18), by National Book Award-winner Tiya Miles, takes a similar approach to a more familiar American hero: It focuses on Tubman as a spiritual leader and self-taught ecologist. It’s the lyrical biography we’ll need before Tubman — already more myth than person — begins gracing the $20 bill, starting in 2030.

Cruel summer: Personally, it’s not summer unless I stretch out with a new Stephen King, and if that sounds familiar: “You Like It Darker,” his latest collection of stories, is among his smartest, yet tipping toward crime tales and the slightly paranormal. The centerpiece, “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,” is a stealth, 140-page mystery novel tucked beside a “Cujo” postscript and the gorgeous “Answer Man,” a late-career classic. For best results: Follow with Harlan Ellison’s “Greatest Hits,” a new compilation of vintage tales that shaped sci-fi and horror, inspiring King and Neil Gaiman (who writes the forward). Sentient AI, dystopias, alien copulation, evil twins …

Two absorbing sports books that aren’t actually about sports: Joseph O’Neill’s “Godwin” — like his celebrated 2008 novel “Netherland” — defies quick description. It reads like a fable, opening with the corporate chill of a Pittsburgh office then travels to suburbs of London and soccer fields of Africa. It follows the story of a soccer agent who talks his estranged brother into finding a soccer phenom. “Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball,” by former Chicago journalist Keith O’Brien, would make a nice double-header: It’s not biography but taxonomy, a pungent epic about hubris and, in the figure of the disgraced Cincinnati Red, moral vacancy.

Summer book recommendations include “Night Flyer” by Tiya Miles, “Hip-Hop is History” by Questlove, “Charlie Hustle” by Keith O’Brien, “You Like It Darker” by Stephen King, “Same as it Ever Was” by Claire Lombardo and “A Last Supper of Queer Apostles” by Pedro Lemebel. Photographed at South Boulevard Beach on June 3, 2024, in Evanston. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

It’s not the heat; it’s the brimstone: “Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil” (June 18), by Chicago-based Ananda Lima has an eye-catching premise — you’re reading a collection of stories by the author following a one-night stand with Satan — so clever, it’s a relief to report that’s merely the hook for a substantive first book of major confidence, and belly laughs. Speak of the devil: Randall Sullivan’s “The Devil’s Best Trick: How the Face of Evil Disappeared” and Ed Simon’s “Devil’s Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain” (July 9) are ideal histories for the warmest weeks, cultural spelunkings into our centuries-old need to portray unencumbered immorality, from Nathaniel Hawthorne to the ‘80s Satanic Panic.

One lit life: “Norman Maclean: A Life of Letters and Rivers” is part author bio, part literary memoir, told by Rebecca McCarthy, a former student of Maclean who kept a lifelong friendship with the Hyde Park legend, a beloved professor at University of Chicago who — famously, very late in life — wrote “A River Runs Through It.”

Just a dream and the wind to carry me: It’s hard to relay how exhilarating, and unsettling, being a speck on the ocean is, with no other specks in sight, horizon to horizon. “Sailing Alone: A Surprising History of Isolation and Survival at Sea,” by maritime historian Richard J. King, gathers dizzying case studies of what drives people to do this, improvising steering systems for sleeping, talking to dolphins out of lonliness. Consider the complicated hero at the heart of Hampton Sides’ excellent best-seller, “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook.” Cook represented the best of global exploration. Until he represented the worst. As forward-thinking as he was with native cultures, he died on a beach in Hawaii, stoned by its people. Sides’s compulsively readable 16th-century history is about the gulf between decency and a boss’s orders.

“The Age of Grievance” by Frank Bruni, “Fire Exit” by Morgan Talty, “Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums” by Bob Eckstein, “Horror Movie” by Paul Tremblay and “Parade” by Rachel Cusk, photographed in Barrington. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Summer ennui: If you have read Rachel Cusk — and if you haven’t, there’s your summer reading list — you’re safe to assume her latest novel about creative life, “Parade” (June 18), starts with a darkly funny come-on (an artist paints a portrait of his wife, makes it ugly and it sells), only to end up very far afield. “Fire Exit,” the lacerating debut novel by Morgan Talty, whose story set “Night of the Living Rez” was a 2022 critical smash, delves again into the families in a Native American community, for a tale of a man haunted by descendants present and just out of reach. Speaking of haunting: “We Burn Daylight” (July 30), by the underrated novelist Bret Anthony Johnston (“Remember Me Like This”) delivers another thriller less visceral than traumatic: The story of a cult in Waco, Texas, about to be taken by law enforcement, and the drama that unfolds inside and out. (Any similarities to Branch Davidians are purely intentional.)

Rethinking summer programming: “Something authentic, buried beneath something fake.” That’s how New Yorker TV writer Emily Nussbaum perfectly explains the allure of both “The Bachelor” and “Candid Camera” in “Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV” (June 25). She works magic, walking on that wavering line between fandom and disgust but never scolding. “The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982” (July 30), by “Caddyshack” historian Chris Nashawaty, begins with the maxim “Film critics get it wrong all the time,” then proves it. This is Gen-X catnip, a backstage rewind through a momentous movie summer that delivered us “Blade Runner,” “The Thing,” “E.T.,” “The Road Warrior” and far more.

Summertime sadness: “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space,” by Adam Higginbotham — whose remarkable “Midnight in Chernobyl” established him as the go-to narrator of tragedies — reads like a backward mystery, starting with the Space Shuttle explosion in 1986, then unwinding through institutional arrogance and the queasy assumption of “acceptable risk” that dooms even the best intentions. Eliza Griswold’s equally immersive “Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power and Justice in an American Church” (Aug. 6) documents the conflicts and frayed idealism that pulled a Philadelphia church apart over 30 years, but Griswold — whose “Amity and Prosperity” won the nonfiction Pulitzer in 2019 — grounds much of the story in old-fashioned fly-on-the-wall reporting, tagging along until she’s invisible.

“The Knockout Artist” by Harry Crews, “Farewell, Amethystine” by Walter Mosley and “Sailing Alone” by Richard J. King. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Summer Art Fare: At some point this summer, you may duck into the cool marble halls of a museum. “Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums,” by New Yorker cartoonist Bob Eckstein, is a lovely wish list of American options, dreamily illustrated, full of histories of the classics (the Art Institute of Chicago), but also battleship museums, Kentucky’s Noah’s Ark, the Rothko Chapel in Texas … “The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing,” by former New York magazine editor Adam Moss, should get you through the rest of summer. Here is a brick of insight into that creative purgatory called the process, featuring notebook scribbles, sketches and chats with Sofia Coppola, Gay Talese, Suzan-Lori Parks and many more artists in far-flung fields. “Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party” (Aug. 6) could be an engrossing anecdote from those books, the story of why history museums are now occupied by creatures none of us have seen. It follows the accidental discoveries that led to piecing together the first dinosaur skeletons, and what that meant for naturalists and clergy alike.

Election-year reading that isn’t a chore: What ails us, Frank Bruni writes in “The Age of Grievance,” isn’t grievance — this is a nation, of course, founded on the stuff. But rather, “a manner of individualism often indistinguishable from narcissism,” fostering “a violent rupture of our national psyche.” It’s an illuminating rant about humility, and one that echoes throughout “The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy and the Making of a Culture War,” by James Shapiro. Here, the history is the birth and death of the New Deal’s Federal Theatre Project, and the question of whether a country so fractious can sustain a national theater. Each chapter, often centered on loathsome political hearings, is part rousing, part enraging.

Dipping into the deep end: One of the year’s best books is “I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays” by Nell Irvin Painter, a digressive, accessible summer course on visual aesthetics (Black Power art), Southern history, Black figures both well-known (Sojourner Truth) and obscure (Alma Thomas), but primarily, the art of writing a pointed essay. “The Art of Dying: Writings 2019-2022” collects the final 46 stories by late New Yorker critic Peter Schjeldahl, from his 2019 essay about learning he had advanced lung cancer to his final piece on German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans. It’s another art course in a book (with a bonus introduction by Schjeldahl pal Steve Martin). For a decidedly more fun essay: “Any Person Is the Only Self” (June 11), by Elisa Gabbert, which collects her thoughts on Sylvia Plath, Motley Crue, “Point Break,” Proust …

“Rebel Girl” by Kathleen Hanna and “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook” by Hampton Sides. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

I know what you read this summer: Gabino Iglesias, whose “The Devil Takes You Home” was one of the best books of 2022, summons similar darkness for “House of Bone and Rain” (Aug. 6), returning the author to his native Puerto Rico for more gangs, bad weather and traditions that slowly draw in creepy crawlies. Iglesias is where Paul Tremblay (“Cabin at the End of the World”) was a few years ago. “Horror Movie” (June 11), Tremblay’s latest, is a new jewel, the story of a cursed film, alternating between the screenplay and “the unreality of the entertainment ecosystem” that worships it. (Read before the inevitable horror movie of “Horror Movie.”)

Summer sleepers: “The Swans of Harlem” tells a vibrant, lovingly researched group biography of the 152nd Street Black Ballet Legacy Council, the five Black ballerinas who, at the peak of the civil rights movement, brought new urgency to a segregated art form. “When Women Ran Fifth Avenue” is another unheralded history, a fascinating excavation of the midcentury women — including two Chicagoans, Dorothy Shaver and Geraldine Stutz — whose designs and ideas reinvented American department stores and consumer fashion. In each of these books, a set of women is assembling a world they want. Bringing that history into today: In “Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk,” Kathleen Hanna of Le Tigre and Bikini Kil writes about the grassroots Riot Grrrl movement and her fidelity to a low-fi, DIY independent music scene with bluntness, stumbling through the ‘90s, loaded with exclusionary politics and hope.

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com

 

Safety-net health clinics cut services and staff amid Medicaid ‘unwinding’

Katheryn Houghton | (TNS) KFF Health News

One of Montana’s largest health clinics that serves people in poverty has cut back services and laid off workers. The retrenchment mirrors similar cuts around the country as safety-net health centers feel the effects of states purging their Medicaid rolls.

Billings-based RiverStone Health is eliminating 42 jobs this spring, cutting nearly 10% of its workforce. The cuts have shuttered an inpatient hospice facility, will close a center for patients managing high blood pressure, and removed a nurse who worked within rural schools. It also reduced the size of the clinic’s behavioral health care team and the number of staffers focused on serving people without housing.

RiverStone Health CEO Jon Forte said clinic staffers had anticipated a shortfall as the cost of business climbed in recent years. But a $3.2 million loss in revenue, which he largely attributed to Montana officials disenrolling a high number of patients from Medicaid, pushed RiverStone’s deficit much further into the red than anticipated.

“That has just put us in a hole that we could not overcome,” Forte said.

RiverStone is one of nearly 1,400 federally funded clinics in the U.S. that adjust their fees based on what individuals can pay. They’re designed to reach people who face disproportionate barriers to care. Some are in rural communities, where offering primary care can come at a financial loss. Others concentrate on vulnerable populations falling through cracks in urban hubs. Altogether, these clinics serve more than 30 million people.

The health centers’ lifeblood is revenue received from Medicaid, the state-federal subsidized health coverage for people with low incomes or disabilities. Because they serve a higher proportion of low-income people, the federally funded centers tend to have a larger share of patients on the program and rely on those reimbursements.

But Medicaid enrollment is undergoing a seismic shift as states reevaluate who is eligible for it, a process known as the Medicaid “unwinding.” It follows a two-year freeze on disenrollments that protected people’s access to care during the covid public health emergency.

As of May 23, more than 22 million people had lost coverage, including about 134,000 in Montana — 12% of the state’s population. Some no longer met income eligibility requirements, but the vast majority were booted because of paperwork problems, such as people missing the deadline, state documents going to outdated addresses, or system errors.

That means health centers increasingly offer care without pay. Some have seen patient volumes drop, which also means less money. When providers like RiverStone cut services, vulnerable patients have fewer care options.

Jon Ebelt, communications director of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, said the agency isn’t responsible for individual organizations’ business decisions. He said the state is focused on maintaining safety-net systems while protecting Medicaid from being misused.

Nationwide, health centers face a similar problem: a perfect financial storm created by a sharp rise in the cost of care, a tight workforce, and now fewer insured patients. In recent months, clinics in California and Colorado have also announced cuts.

“It’s happening in all corners of the country,” said Amanda Pears Kelly, CEO of Advocates for Community Health, a national advocacy group representing federally qualified health centers.

Nearly a quarter of community health center patients who rely on Medicaid were cut from the program, according to a joint survey from George Washington University and the National Association of Community Health Centers. On average, each center lost about $600,000.

One in 10 centers either reduced staff or services, or limited appointments.

“Health centers across the board try to make sure that the patients know they’re still there,” said Joe Dunn, senior vice president for public policy and advocacy at the National Association of Community Health Centers.

Most centers operate on shoestring budgets, and some started reporting losses as the workforce tightened and the cost of business spiked.

Meanwhile, federal assistance — money designed to cover the cost of people who can’t afford care —remained largely flat. Congress increased those funds in March to roughly $7 billion over 15 months, though health center advocates said that still doesn’t cover the tab.

Until recently, RiverStone in Montana had been financially stable. Before the pandemic, the organization was making money, according to financial audits.

In summer 2019, a $10 million expansion was starting to pay off. RiverStone was serving more patients through its clinic and pharmacy, a revenue increase that more than offset increases in operating costs, according to documents.

But in 2021, at the height of the pandemic, those growing expenses — staff pay, building upkeep, the price of medicine, and medical gear — outpaced the cash coming in. By last summer, the company had an operational loss of about $1.7 million. With the Medicaid redetermination underway, RiverStone’s pool of covered patients shrank, eroding its financial buffer.

Forte said the health center plans to ask state officials to increase its Medicaid reimbursement rates, saying existing rates don’t cover the continuum of care. That’s a tricky request after the state raised its rates slightly last year following much debate around which services needed more money.

Some health center cuts represent a return to pre-pandemic staffing, after temporary federal pandemic funding dried up. But others are rolling back long-standing programs as budgets went from stretched to operating in the red.

California’s Petaluma Health Center in March laid off 32 people hired during the pandemic, The Press Democrat reported, or about 5% of its workforce. It’s one of the largest primary care providers in Sonoma County, where life expectancy varies based on where people live and poverty is more prevalent in largely Hispanic neighborhoods.

Clinica Family Health, which has clinics throughout Colorado’s Front Range, laid off 46 people, or about 8% of its staff, in October. It has consolidated its dental program from three clinics to two, closed a walk-in clinic meant to help people avoid the emergency room, and ended a home-visit program for patients recently discharged from the hospital.

Clinica said 37% of its patients on Medicaid before the unwinding began lost their coverage and are now on Clinica’s discount program. This means the clinic now receives between $5 and $25 for medical visits that used to bring in $220-$230.

“If it’s a game of musical chairs, we’re the ones with the last chair. And if we have to pull it away, then people hit the ground,” said CEO Simon Smith.

Stephanie Brooks, policy director of the Colorado Community Health Network, which represents Colorado health centers, said some centers are considering consolidating or closing clinics.

Colorado and Montana have among the nation’s highest percentages of enrollment declines. Officials in both states have defended their Medicaid redetermination process, saying most people dropped from coverage likely no longer qualify, and they point to low unemployment rates as a factor.

In many states, health providers and patients alike have provided examples in which people cut from coverage still qualified and had to spend months entangled in system issues to regain access.

Forte, with RiverStone, said reducing services on the heels of a pandemic adds insult to injury, both for health care workers who stayed in hard jobs and for patients who lost trust that they’ll be able to access care.

“This is so counterproductive and counterintuitive to what we’re trying to do to meet the health care needs of our community,” Forte said.

____

KFF Health News correspondent Rae Ellen Bichell in Longmont, Colorado, contributed to this report.

(KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.