The Amateur Traveler talks to Bethany of the Nevada Tourism Bureau about Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe is a high elevation alpine lake on the border of California and Nevada. It is surrounded by 18 ski areas so it is a popular winter destination. In the winter it is also a great place for back country hiking, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling. In the Summer, Tahoe is a popular area for hiking, fishing and outdoor activities. But, there is another side to Tahoe which is the casinos, restaurants, and entertainment of Nevada's South Tahoe.

The Amateur Traveler talks to Carrie from cruisebuzz.net about a popular vacation spot just off the coast of California, Catalina Island. 

Hear about travel to Lassen National Park in northern California as the Amateur Traveler talks to Dick Jordan about this spectacular if less visited destination. Lassen is in northeastern California. It is just as easy to get to from San Francisco as Yosemite National Park but with fewer tourists and one more volcano. The park centers around the dormant volcano Mt. Lassen and features other geothermal active areas.

Hear about travel to Santa Barbara, California as the Amateur Traveler talks to Heather Simon from wellplannedtravel.net about the "American Riviera".

Hear about travel to San Diego as the Amateur Traveler talks to Mike from MikesRoadTrip.com about this beautiful city in Southern California.

Hear about travel to California's premier wine region of Napa and Sonoma as the Amateur Traveler talks again to free lance journalist Jill Robinson about this area with more than just wine... but a lot of that

Hear about travel to San Francisco, California as the Amateur Traveler talks to Jill Robinson and Kimberley Levato authors of 100 Things to Do in San Francisco Before You Die.

los ángeles,hollywood,california,southern california,travel

Hear about the best of California's state parks as the Amateur Traveler talks to Jeff Ohlfs who has been to all the parks in the state park system.

An evangelical church network in California will ignore Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive prohibitions this month, opening sanctuary doors for communal worship despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. According to Fox News, California Church United, representing roughly 3,000 churches and 2.5 million congregants statewide, announced Thursday that it will return to conducting in-person services by Pentecost…

The post Huge Group of California Churches Announces Plan To Defy Governor Newsom’s Order appeared first on The Western Journal.

As businesses slowly reopen, experts warn that social distancing may need to be dialed back up: ‘It’s not an on-off switch’ * Coronavirus – latest US updates * Coronavirus – latest global updatesSome California businesses on Friday began opening their doors for business – at least partially.As states and counties across the nation contend with pressure to lift the stay-at-home measures that have destroyed local economies, California is taking an especially cautious approach, walking a fine line between political and economic pressure to reopen and the public health imperative to stop the spread of disease.Public health experts told the Guardian that while no US state was equipped with enough coronavirus testing and surveillance to feel fully confident reopening, California’s slow, piecemeal recovery plan – though far from perfect – seemed like the least risky option. The planSeven weeks after the governor, Gavin Newsom, ordered his 40 million constituents to shelter in place and all non-essential businesses to close, California on Friday entered phase two of its grand reopening plan.Some retail stores, including bookshops, florists, music stores, clothing and sporting goods retailers, can reopen if they organize curbside pickup. Some manufacturing and logistics in the retail supply chain can restart as well, as long as they follow safety and hygiene protocols. And local authorities are allowed to ease regulations further than the state guidelines if they meet certain testing and sanitation requirements.Phase three of the plan – potentially months away – could see salons, gyms, movie theaters and in-person church services resume. Phase four would end all restrictions. The timingFriday’s reopenings come as California has avoided the surge of infections states like New York have seen. And although California has seen more than 61,000 cases and 2,500 deaths, its hospitals have not been overwhelmed.Last week, state officials reported the first week-over-week decline in Covid-19 deaths.The new guidelines also follow small but sustained protests across the state to demand a relaxation of regulations to revive the state’s crippled economy, and some rural counties have partially reopened in defiance of the lockdown measures. The caveatsHowever, California still hasn’t seen the two weeks of declining cases that the White House suggested as a criterion for easing restrictions and that several European countries have used as a benchmark.The state also lacks the robust testing and tracking systems that countries such as Germany and South Korea have used.The state has ramped up its ability to administer and process tests, although for now, its rate of 29,414 tests a day is below the figure required by some analyses.Authorities are working to put a robust contact tracing effort in place to make sure those who test positive get the care they need and are able to isolate themselves until they recover. Although some counties and communities have spearheaded community-wide testing and tracing programs, overall, the state isn’t at the point where its system is as widespread or efficient as a country like Germany’s.Experts say California should also have a system in place to make sure vulnerable, unhoused populations have access to shelter and medical care – to prevent infection flare-ups in homeless shelters and encampments. Progress on those measures heavily varies county by county.And ideally, there would be a treatment or a vaccine before reopening, said Dr Richard Jackson, a professor emeritus at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the former head of the California department of public health. While we await a cure, Jackson cautioned, “no one should feel completely safe as we remove restrictions.” The trade-offsCalifornia’s reopening strategy stands in sharp contrast to the approach of states like Georgia, which suddenly allowed gyms, barber shops, hair salons, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys to welcome customers last week.“What certain places have done, where they’ve just thrown open the doors and said, ‘OK, we don’t have to keep our distance any more,’ is a colossal mistake,” Jackson said. Reopening businesses that put lots of people into close contact and speed the spread of disease will reverse the success of shelter-in-place rules, he noted, and overwhelm hospitals as cases surge. “Doing it very cautiously and carefully does make sense at this point in time,” he said.“I get that governors have to balance the public health goals with the economic goals,” said Dr Robert Tsai, surgeon and health policy researcher at Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. “But this stage of the pandemic is really all about trade-offs,” he noted. The weeks aheadIn the coming weeks, state and local leaders will have to watch closely and prepare to dial the distancing back up if the number of cases surges, said Tsai.“Social distancing isn’t an on-off switch. What it needs to be is a dial, which can be turned up or down depending on what the data show on the ground in terms of how the Covid-19 epidemic is progressing.“Reopening is going to be a very complicated process, and it should be complicated,” he added. “Because this is about making sure that people don’t end up in the hospital or dying.”That California’s plan allows for counties to maintain stricter distancing guidelines or ease up measures could be both a strength and a liability.The flexibility has allowed hotspots like the Bay Area and Los Angeles to take a more cautious approach, but it has also already caused confusion. In San Diego, where curbside shopping has already begun, business owners were unsure what, if anything, would change on Friday. In Bakersfield, restaurants allowed patrons to dine in on Monday and Tuesday, in defiance of the state’s guidelines.A hodgepodge reopening could cause surges in cases; Californians who travel between more lax and more strict counties could spread infections. Moreover, a rush to reopen fast in some areas could be counterproductive to economic recovery, said Alessandro Rebucci, an economist at the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business.“If you reopen when the pandemic is still out there, people and businesses will not just go back to normal,” Rebucci noted. Based on research from China, it seems clear that fear of contracting the illness will keep businesses owners and patrons home until they feel it’s safe enough, he said.

A California 14-year-old who graduated high school at the age of 13 said she has now been accepted into the music programs at eight California universities.

Animal rescuers in California said they reached over the side of a freeway on-ramp to rescue a raccoon seen dangling from a metal beam under the ramp.

Navy leaders and private contractors broke ground this week on what will become the fleet's only dedicated facility to test, fire and evaluate complete laser weapon systems in a maritime environment.

Traveling with purpose is what has led Nevada City, California-based general dentist Dr. Jean Creasey to a rural district in the southwestern region of Uganda over the past 15 years as a member of the Kellermann Foundation, treating and helping educate the villagers on the importance of good oral health as a way to a better future.

Two additional Delta Dental member companies announced details April 27-28 of programs that will provide economic assistance and post-COVID-19 pandemic relief for members of its independent provider networks across 16 states and the District of Columbia.

California, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are among states that are loosening coronavirus restrictions Friday to gradually revive their economies.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed an executive order requiring mail-in ballots be sent to all eligible voters for the November election.

The state leads the nation in poverty and homelessness while it's socialist elites live in absolute luxury. It's like some third world nation the US is obligated to invade on the basis of humanitarianism.

California classrooms could reopen with modifications as soon as late July, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday, bringing a new wave of anxiety for parents, teachers, and students.

Aspiring teachers in California will now be able to major in education as undergraduates, which has been forbidden for more than five decades under an unusual state law.

Policy Analysis for California Education has been a premier ed policy organization for three decades. As Daisy Gonzales writes, it is in the forefront of shaping current reforms and interpreting them for audiences such as 'On California.'

The blessings of season to you all! We will be back in the New Year. Christmas thoughts follow.

Along with winter vegetables, STEM is blooming in Imperial County. Dennis and Daniel Gibbs are growing young scientists by transplanting the scientific method to the second grade.

Teachers unions are scapegoats for low student performance.

What's taking place in California is nothing less than a quiet revolution in education.

California just made school accountability much more complicated. And that's good.

California joins a growing number of cities and states hoping to spotlight which students do and do not have access to high-quality arts education.

Next year's California election will be both a referendum on the massive changes in education finance and testing enacted during Jerry Brown governorship and a test of the political coalition that made those changes possible.

As the number of charter schools continues to grow, voters in California will be forced to examine their largess.

A read of California's news outlets makes clear that the state is not going to accept President-elect Donald Trump's policies without a fight, particularly those on immigration.

State Assembly member Tony Thurmond ultimately prevailed over former charter school executive Marshall Tuck in a contest that drew more than $50 million in outside campaign spending.

Five California educators last week filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the state's top teachers' union from collecting dues through mandatory paycheck deductions.

Democrat Gavin Newsom, who takes office Jan. 7, plans to expand full-day kindergarten and child-care offerings in the state, according to media reports.

This Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.

Lawmakers are considering legislation that would put limits on the state’s charter school sector and give districts broader discretion to deny applications.

The bill would have given public school teachers at least six weeks of paid maternity leave.

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos green-lighted California and Utah's plans to implement the Every Student Succeed Act. That means just one state is still waiting: Florida.

Download the Pac-12 Now app to watch an epic, triple-overtime 2003 battle between USC and California this Saturday at 1:30 p.m. PT/ 2:30 p.m. MT. The game will be available to all fans.

While thousands of students in wildfire-ravaged Northern California resumed classes last week, thousands of others in Alaska stayed home after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Nov. 30.

Rockville, Maryland : National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1977.

Ammunition Depot comments on Judge Roger T. Benitez ruling that Californians may again purchase ammo without a background check and order ammo online.

(PRWeb April 24, 2020)

Read the full story at https://www.prweb.com/releases/gun_rights_california_gun_owners_ammo_dealers_fire_back_against_proposition_63/prweb17075447.htm

Medha Uppala, Mark S. Handcock.

Source: The Annals of Applied Statistics, Volume 14, Number 1, 339--356.

Abstract:
This paper focuses on spatial and temporal modeling of point processes on linear networks. Point processes on linear networks can simply be defined as point events occurring on or near line segment network structures embedded in a certain space. A separable modeling framework is introduced that posits separate formation and dissolution models of point processes on linear networks over time. While the model was inspired by spider web building activity in brick mortar lines, the focus is on modeling wildfire ignition origins near road networks over a span of 14 years. As most wildfires in California have human-related origins, modeling the origin locations with respect to the road network provides insight into how human, vehicular and structural densities affect ignition occurrence. Model results show that roads that traverse different types of regions such as residential, interface and wildland regions have higher ignition intensities compared to roads that only exist in each of the mentioned region types.

Wildfires leave behind a patchwork of forest densities that can give bats more room to fly and hunt