PI's Weekly Media Digest: Milwaukee's protests of Syville Smith’s death; CA Assembly approves smoking/vaping ban bill; and more
Welcome to our media digest for the week of August 19, 2016! Below you’ll find summaries of news coverage on the issues of preventing violence, trauma, nutrition, health equity, mental health, and more. The views expressed in these articles do not reflect those of Prevention Institute.
Violence Prevention and Unintentional Injury
Systemic inequities underlie Milwaukee protests of Syville Smith’s death
Protests erupted on Milwaukee's north side following the killing of Sylville Smith by a Milwaukee police officer, resulting in burnt buildings, smashed police cars, and clashes between police officers and protesters. For many Black residents in the city, large racial disparities in police shootings, lack of public video of the actual shooting, and longstanding inequities triggered anger and protests. Vox details some of the systemic inequities underlying the protest. Wisconsin’s rate of incarceration for black men is nearly double the national average (12.8 percent compared with 6.7 percent), and the highest in the country. But in Milwaukee County, which is under the police chief’s jurisdiction, the incarceration rates are at "epidemic levels”; more than half of Black men in their 30s and 40s have been incarcerated at some point in their lives. Milwaukee’s Black children also face steep inequities. In 2014, four out of five Black kids in the state lived in poverty compared with three in 10 white kids. In 2013, the state had the widest achievement gap in the country. In the fall of 2014, reports showed that Milwaukee Public Schools, one of the most underfunded school systems in the state, failed to meet state expectations. By contrast, all nine districts that exceeded expectations were in higher-income Milwaukee suburbs. As AlterNet notes, Milwaukee -- the most segregated urban area in America -- hasn’t given Black people any real opportunity to succeed. The city’s marginalized populations have been silenced for over a half-century while subjected to economic, social and political disenfranchisement and disinvestment.
Untold stories of siblings grieving siblings killed by guns
When children are killed by bullets, grieving parents are often the focus. Yet there are other vulnerable survivors: the young brothers and sisters left behind. This CNN piece offers a unique perspective and spotlights siblings' untold stories. (via BMSG)
Health Equity
Pregnancy-related deaths double in Texas after shut-down of family-planning clinics
A new study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology finds that pregnancy-related deaths doubled in Texas after the passage of legislation that shuttered 82 family-planning clinics in the state, cutting women off from needed reproductive health care, preventive services, and abortion, and forcing low-income women who live in remote parts of the state to go without care or attempt to induce their own abortions.
Obama declares public health emergency to free funds for Zika aid in Puerto Rico
The public health emergency declared last Friday by the Obama administration will free up federal Zika funds that will help keep the Puerto Rican government afloat and trying to mitigate the dangers of the disease. New aid will enable Puerto Rico to hire people during the crisis and address its 11.2% jobless rate, which is more than twice the national average. More than 60% of the people in just one service area live in extreme poverty -- on less than $7,200 for a family of four and currently more than 10,000 people, including 1,035 pregnant women, in Puerto Rico now have Zika.
Number of female incarcerations today is 14 times higher than it was in the 1970’s
The New York Times covers a report released Wednesday finding that the number of women in local jails in the US is almost 14 times what it was in the 1970s. The vast majority of women are serving sentences for low-level offenses, such as shoplifting or violating parole; "[a]s the focus on these smaller crimes has increased, women have been swept up into the system to an even greater extent than men," said Elizabeth Swavola, co-author of the report. The report also found that the majority of women in prison are African-American or Latin, poor, and have children. Even with summer temperatures past 100 degrees in many parts of the country, most jails and prisons have no air conditioning. Prison reform activists have encountered deep resistance in fighting for 'cooler' jails.
DOJ to stop contracting with private prisons due to poor safety and oversight
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it will stop contracting with private prisons. The decision comes a week after the DOJ inspector general released a damning report on the safety, security, and oversight of private prisons, which incarcerate 12 percent of federal inmates (22,600). The news of the DOJ's decision prompted a quick downturn in stock prices for the two largest private prison companies.
Education is a social determinant of health
The Nation’s Health argues that education is a social determinant of health, noting “it can affect our lifespan, our income, where we live and what happens to our children. And it is something that public health advocates can work to make better for kids and adults in the U.S.”
African-American woman wining Olympic gold in swimming sheds light on the legacy of inequities behind the sport
Last week in Rio, the first African-American woman ever won an individual swimming medal (gold) at the Olympics. According to USA Swimming, 70 percent of black people can’t swim at all, and as a result, African-American children drown at a rate three times higher than their white peers. ThinkProgress notes some of the reasons for these disparities, including a long history of communities barring Black people from accessing public pools, and as Fusion notes, public pools would often turn private just to avoid integration during the civil rights movement.
NAACP passes resolution calling for moratorium on charter schools
In July, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on charter schools. The resolution stated that charter schools have contributed to segregation, have used disproportionately high levels of exclusionary discipline, and pledged that the NAACP will seek to promote stronger investigative bodies to oversee charter school fraud. (via BMSG)
California
CA law grants authorities powers to investigate wage theft allegations
A new California law grants city and county authorities subpoena powers to investigate wage theft allegations. Rewire reports that wage theft currently robs an estimated 650,000 Los Angeles County workers of more than $26.2 million per week. Employees who are most likely to be victims of wage theft are low-wage workers of color (an estimated three-quarters of people in LA County who have lost wages are Latinx, 17.9% Asian, 6.3% Black), many of whom were born outside of the US.
CA Assembly approves smoking and vaping ban bill
A bill to ban smoking and vaping within 250 feet of all youth sporting events, introduced by Senator Richard Pan, a pediatrician, was approved by the Assembly this week.
CA Assembly removes limits on prosecuting rape and other felony sex crimes
The California Assembly voted unanimously this week to remove time limits on prosecuting rape and other felony sex crimes. The bill now heads back to the Senate, where it was previously passed unanimously, and is expected to reach Governor Brown’s desk before the end of the session.
Despite drought, most districts no longer need comply with conservation standards
Despite an ongoing drought, the Water Resources Board announced this week that 379 of the state’s 411 water districts will no longer need to comply with state-imposed water conservation standards. In many of these districts, water conservation standards are set at zero.
Mental Health
Communities can reduce effects of adverse childhood experiences
A study on initiatives underway in several rural counties in Washington state shows community-based efforts can help reduce some effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences, including school drop-out rates, smoking/alcohol use among expectant mothers, and teen drinking.
Profile: FOCUS Pittsburgh’s Trauma Informed Community Development
Next City profiles FOCUS Pittsburgh’s Trauma Informed Community Development, a community-led development program that starts with recognizing and healing the trauma that can result from experiences such as “chronic underemployment, unstable housing, involvement in the criminal justice system, periodic homelessness, drug addiction or even a mold issue in one’s home.”
26 deaths in 5 hours underscore drug abuse crisis in West Virginia
The Los Angeles Times looks at the drug abuse crisis in West Virginia, which has the country’s highest overdose rate. The story focuses on a spike of fatal overdoses in Huntington—26 people dead in five hours—that officials suspect was linked to a bad batch of heroin.
The opioid epidemic takes a toll on babies
Mother Jones examines the toll of the opioid epidemic on babies. The number of babies born addicted has quadrupled in the last 15 years, with huge disparities by state, and West Virginia, Vermont, and Maine showing the highest rates.
$17 million Obama grant to intervene in drug trafficking
The Obama administration committing $17 million to intervene in the trafficking of fentanyl, heroin, and prescription opioids. Among other efforts, the grant will fund the expansion of a heroin response strategy to Michigan, Ohio, and Atlanta. That program provides law enforcement with naloxone, a drug that counteracts the effects of a drug overdose, trains officers to keep track of individuals who’ve experienced more than one overdose and refer them for treatment, and creates a new position at the CDC.
Community environments
Food commercials influence childrens’ brain activity
A study soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics found that watching food commercials changes children's brain activity and influences their food preferences.
American Beverage Association pours money into campaign to defeat soda tax
The East Bay Express reports that the American Beverage Association has already poured more than $747,267 into its campaign to defeat the Oakland soda tax proposal. Supporters of the tax have spent 3% of that amount to promote the tax, $23,297.
People who live in food deserts have higher rates of early heart disease
A new study finds that people who live in neighborhoods where fresh produce is hard to access have higher rates of developing early heart disease.
Health Systems Transformation
Aetna to significantly scale back its exchange business
In Affordable Care Act (ACA) news, on Wednesday Aetna announced plans to significantly scale back its exchange business because the DOJ pursued legal action to block the company’s proposed merger with Humana. In response, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Aetna's decision to offer exchange plans in just four states shows a need for the U.S. to adopt a public health option. The Hill reports that more young, healthy U.S. residents have enrolled in exchange plans, which has helped to balance out health insurance risk pools, according to a CMS report released last week. The article notes however, that “the scope of the new report is limited: It covers only the enrollment periods ending in 2014 and 2015, when healthier people were already expected to sign up in greater numbers.” And Community Catalyst argues that we may be seeing the last gasp of GOP “repeal and replace” efforts, noting “For the first election cycle since passage, the anti-ACA dog is barely barking… And…Secretary Clinton has opened up a substantial lead in the polls at a point in the campaign when polls begin to matter.” The author also points to important state efforts to improve on the ACA, with California proposing to reduce the amount some state programs have to pay for prescription drugs and Colorado seeking to create a single-payer system.
Were health insurance co-ops set up for failure under the ACA?
Trudy Lieberman, Contributing Editor to the Center for Health Journalism, argues that health insurance co-ops were set up to fail under the ACA. The article notes, “Likely competitors with a distaste for competition and old political opponents of the public option in Congress…threw up roadblocks from the beginning. So the next time you hear those laments about the lack of competition among insurance providers, just remember the sad tale of the Obamacare co-ops and how the government starved the beast.”