WSSNEWS Bloggers

Residents are advised to stay cool, stay hydrated, and stay informed

San Bernardino: County Health Officer, Maxwell Ohikhuare, M.D. has issued an extreme heat alert for San Bernardino County, due to high temperature forecasts for the inland and desert regions. Residents are urged to take precautions that will prevent heat-related illness.

Extremely high or unusually hot temperatures can affect your health. Most vulnerable are the elderly, those who work or exercise outdoors, infants and children, the homeless or poor, and people with a chronic medical condition.

Take the necessary precautions to prevent serious health effects such as heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Stay cool

• Stay in air-conditioned buildings.
• Find an air-conditioned Cooling Center open to the public by dialing the United Way’s toll-free resource telephone line at 2-1-1, or online at www.coolingsb.org.
• Do not rely on a fan as your primary cooling device.
• Limit outdoor activity, especially midday when it is the hottest part of the day, and avoid direct sunlight.
• Wear loose, lightweight, light-colored clothing.
• Take cool showers or baths to lower your body temperature.
• Check on at-risk friends, family and neighbors at least twice a day.

Stay hydrated

• Drink more than usual and don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink.
• Drink from two to four cups of water every hour while working or exercising outside
• Avoid alcohol or liquids containing high amounts of sugar.
• Make sure your family, friends and neighbors are drinking enough water.

Stay informed

• Check your local news for extreme heat warnings and safety tips.
• Visit http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat to find information and tips for preventing heat sickness.
• Sign up for free weather alerts to your phone or e-mail from websites such as www.weather.com/mobile. .
• Keep your friends, family and neighbors aware of weather and heat safety information.

  Additionally, the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health encourages all residents to learn the signs and first aid response for heat-related illness. Warning signs and symptoms vary but may include:

   

  
  

  Heat Exhaustion

  Symptoms

  • Heavy sweating
  • Weakness
  • Skin cold, pale, and clammy
  • Weak pulse
  • Fainting and vomiting

   

   

   

• Heat Stroke

  Symptoms

  • High body temperature (above103°F)
  • Hot, red, dry or moist skin
  • Rapid and strong pulse
  • Possible unconsciousness

Today, the U.S. Department of Education updated its College Affordability and Transparency Lists as part of the Administration’s ongoing effort to increase transparency around the cost of college. The updated lists highlight institutions with the highest tuition prices, highest net prices, and institutions whose costs are rising at the fastest rates.

“With so much information out there, it’s important that students and their families are equipped with the tools they need to make informed decisions about where to go to college,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “Everyone has a role to play in keeping college affordable, and these lists help consumers compare the costs of higher education institutions.”

The lists, available at the College Affordability and Transparency Center, are required by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 and released by the Department to make the costs of college more transparent for students and their families.

In 2011, the Department published the first set of College Affordability and Transparency Lists. Last year, the Department updated the lists to include newer information. Similar to previous releases, three of this year’s lists focus on tuition and fees, and three others look at the institution’s average net price, which is the average price of attendance that is paid by full-time, first-time students after grants and scholarships are taken into account. Those colleges and universities where prices are rising the fastest will report why costs have gone up and how the institution will address rising prices, and the Department will summarize these reports into a document that it will post online.

Of the approximately 7,500 Title IV participating institutions of higher education, there are 1,498 institutions included on these lists, and schools are allowed to appear on more than one of the lists.

In addition to the College Affordability and Transparency Lists, the Administration has also released other tools to help families as they pursue higher education. The College Scorecard and Financial Aid Shopping Sheet are two of the Administration’s latest resources that provide consumers with easy-to-understand information about institutions and affordability. These tools are all part of the Administration’s continued efforts to hold colleges accountable for cost, value, and quality so that students choose a students choose a schools that is well-suited to meet their needs, priced affordable, and is consistent with their education and career goals.

In response to several requests from consumers last year for more comparison data, the Department provided tuition and net price information for all institutions, broken out by sector in order to allow students to compare costs at similar types of schools. The comprehensive lists are provided this year as well.

Lists
Highest tuition and fees (top 5 percent)
Highest average net price (top 5 percent)
Lowest tuition and fees (bottom 10 percent)
Lowest average net price (bottom 10 percent)
Highest percentage increases in tuition and fees (top 5 percent)
Highest percentage increases in average net price (top 5 percent)
 

Sectors
4-year public
4-year private nonprofit
4-year private for-profit
2-year public
2-year private nonprofit
2-year private for-profit
Less-than-2-year public
Less-than-2-year private nonprofit
Less than-2-year private for-profit

Institutions report data on their tuition and fees and net price annually through the Department’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Additional updated data on individual schools is available on the Department’s College Navigator site. To view the lists, visit: http://collegecost.ed.gov/catc/Default.aspx.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California Department of Boating and Waterways (DBW) reminds boaters to use caution on the water this Fourth of July. DBW’s boating accident data shows that more boating accidents occur during this holiday than any other. Waterways are crowded and people boat in groups or with many people aboard their vessels. Distractions are numerous.

“Operator inattention is the number one cause of boating accidents,” said DBW’s Acting Director Sylvia Ortega Hunter. “Designating another person on board to act as an additional lookout for other boats, obstacles, or people in the water, can give the operator more reaction time to avoid an accident.”

The following are other tips that can greatly decrease the chances of a boater being involved in a boating accident:

• Avoid alcohol. Everyone who drinks alcohol on board–not just the operator–is at risk.  Intoxicated passengers can easily fall overboard, swim near the propeller, or cause the vessel to capsize.
• Wear a life jacket. There must be a properly-fitted life jacket on the vessel for each person. Children under the age of 13, all personal watercraft riders, paddle-boarders, and anyone being towed behind a boat are required by law to wear a lifejacket.
• Know some basic rules of the road.  Steer to the right when approaching another vessel head on, and remember that in a crossing situation involving two power-driven boats, the boater on the right has the right-of-way.
• Operate your boat at a reasonable speed. Boats do not have brakes. Operators need to allow for adequate stopping distances to avoid accidents.
• Properly use water ski flags when skiers, wakeboarders or tubers are down. Improper use of flags can be dangerous not only to the person in the water, but to passing boats as well. A ski line entangled in the propeller of a passing boat can result in a deadly accident.

For more safety tips or to view California’s boating laws, please visit www.BoatResponsibly.com. Remember, “If it’s your boat, it’s your responsibility”.

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Reporting a Boating Accident in California
State law requires boaters involved in accidents to file a written report with DBW when a person dies, disappears or requires medical attention beyond first aid. A report is also required when an accident results in damage to a vessel or other property exceeding $500 or there is a complete loss of a vessel. Boating Accident Report Form.

About DBW
DBW promotes on-the-water safety and helps develop convenient public access to the waterways through programs funded by vessel registration fees, boating fuel tax dollars and boating facility construction loan payments.

Effective July 1, 2013, the Department of Boating and Waterways will become a Division under the Department of Parks and Recreation. The merger is part of Governor Brown’s Reorganization Plan to consolidate and simplify the State’s organizational structure.

Click here for more information.

Rancho Cucamonga, CA June 28, 2013 – Inland Fair Housing and Mediation Board (IFHMB), Inland Counties Legal Services (ICLS), and Fair Housing Council of Riverside County (FHCRC) are pleased to announce the Consumer Affairs Project of the Inland Counties (CAPIC) a collaboration of the three Inland Empire non-profits serving the regions of San Bernardino, Riverside, and Imperial Counties.  CAPIC is the recipient of a $850,000 grant award from the Attorney General, Kamala D. Harris, through California’s National Mortgage Settlement Grant Program. The CAPIC partners will be joining their resources along with the County of San Bernardino and other collaborative agencies to help consumers with housing needs.

The Attorney General’s office has awarded $9.4 million to 21 organizations in order to assist Californians affected by the state’s foreclosure crisis as renters, homeownership seekers and/or current and past homeowners. “The foreclosure crisis has inflicted wide-ranging and deep harm to California homeowners and communities,” said Attorney General Harris. “These grants will give homeowners and families the financial and legal tools they need to recover.”

The grants will benefit many of the state’s disadvantaged home seekers and homeowners and families by providing or expanding access to free legal assistance, foreclosure intervention aid, homeowner education and financial literacy clinics, blight remediation services, fraud prevention education and employment support services.

Through the CAPIC Partnership of IFHMB, ICLS, and FHCRC and in collaboration with the County of San Bernardino, resources and have been gathered to launch the new comprehensive Personalized Approach to Housing Stability (PATHS) Program. PATHS, is a program to help achieve personalized housing stability by helping consumers identify impediments and work toward removing these barriers to obtain financial success.

For more information please call 1-800-321-0911 ext. 189 or visit www.ifhmb.com to learn more.

Consumer Affairs Project of the Inland Counties was made possible by a grant from the Office of the Attorney General of California, from the National Mortgage Fraud Settlement, to assist California consumers.

About Inland Fair Housing and Mediation Board

Inland Fair Housing and Mediation Board (IFHMB) is a private, non-profit, HUD Approved Housing Counseling Agency that has served the Inland Empire for more than 30 years. IFHMB provides counseling, receives and responds to consumer complaints, educates consumers in the areas of fair housing, mobile home, senior-related needs, first-time home purchase, and default and foreclosure, as well as provides landlord and tenant, alternative dispute resolution, and pre-litigation mediation services. The organization’s main office is located in Rancho Cucamonga, with satellite offices in San Bernardino, Barstow, Victorville, Indio, and El Centro. Services are available in both English and Spanish. For more information on IFHMB call 1-800-321-0911, email info@ifhmb.com, or visit www.ifhmb.com.

About Inland Counties Legal Services

Inland Counties Legal Services(ICLS) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation founded in 1958, serving Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, providing a full range of legal services in civil cases including Housing, Landlord/Tenant, Foreclosure Prevention, Consumer Legal Issues, Public Benefits, Family Law, Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking.  ICLS, pursues justice and equality for low income people through counsel, advice, advocacy and community education, treating all with dignity and respect.  ICLS has branch offices in Riverside, Indio, Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino and Victorville and operates the Housing Law Services Center which serves both counties. Funds from the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), are sub-granted to Riverside Legal Aid, Legal Aid Society of San Bernardino and Inland Empire Latino Lawyers Association who in-turn provide pro-bono civil legal services using a network of local volunteer attorneys in their respective portions of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.  For more information call (951) 368-2583 or visit www.inlandlegal.org.

About Fair Housing Council of Riverside County, Inc.

Fair Housing Council of Riverside County, Inc. (FHCRC) formed in 1986 and incorporated in 1993 is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that fights to protect the fair housing rights & needs of all individuals throughout Riverside County.  This HUD approved counseling Agency, works alongside federal, state, and local offices to ensure Fair Housing laws are upheld. For more than 26 years, under the strategic direction of a Board of Directors and Staff, FHCRC provides fair housing (anti-discrimination) education, outreach, identification, counseling and referrals, landlord/tenant mediation, foreclosure prevention/loss mitigation workshops, first time homebuyer education and shelter diversion counseling/services.

The Agency’s main office is located in Riverside, California with satellite offices in the cities of Moreno Valley, Palm Springs, and Corona (Thursdays only). Services are available in both English and Spanish. For more information on FHCRC call 1-800-655-1812, email: fhcrc@fairhousing.net, or visit www.fairhousing.net.