DECATUR — A massive systemwide computer and internet systems failure is severely disrupting operations within the Hospital Sisters Health System.

All attempts to contact the hospital system via the internet Thursday were being referred to an update page which said HSHS “became aware of a system outage” on Aug. 27 that has “temporarily taken offline virtually all operating systems.”

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HSHS, which runs St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur, St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital in Effingham, Good Shepherd Hospital in Shelbyville and HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, said it was following emergency procedures to continue to provide in-patient and out-patient care.

“We are following existing protocols for system outages and nearly all HSHS hospital and clinic locations remain open and are caring for patients,” the update page said.

“We recognize how challenging this situation has been for everyone and how hard our colleagues and providers are working to continue caring for our patients … Patient safety and quality remain our top priorities.”

St. Mary’s Hospital spokesman Andrew Dilbeck told the Herald & Review that the update page information was accurate and he could not comment further.

HSHS runs 12 hospitals and care systems in Illinois and six hospitals in Wisconsin and it’s understood the system outage affects all of them.

HSHS has not commented on the source of the disruption.

Rebecca Cramblit, a spokeswoman at the FBI office in Springfield, told the Herald & Review: “The only thing I can tell you is that, per FBI policy, we don’t confirm or deny whether or not we’re involved in an investigation. That is just to protect the integrity of the investigation, the victims, everything around it. So I cannot speak as to whether or not we’re involved.”

The exterior of HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur is shown in this June 2023 file photo. 

JOSEPH RESSLER, HERALD & REVIEW

A section of the HSHS update page, headed “What We Are Doing,” says: “As soon as we became aware of the outage, we mobilized our incident command protocols and downtime procedures and engaged outside experts to support our response and determine what happened.

“We are continuing to follow existing protocols for system outages, including taking steps to minimize disruptions and ensure high quality, safe patient care. Our investigation into this incident is ongoing. We will provide updates on this webpage (https://www.hshsupdates.org/) and at our hospitals and clinics as appropriate.”

As to whether confidential patient information had been breached, HSHS said that aspect of the disruption was still being investigated.

“We are continuing to look into this issue and will provide updates as we are able,” the update page said.

“Our top priority is continuing to provide consistent, quality care to our patients and restoring our systems and applications for our colleagues as quickly as possible.”

But HSHS also says it doesn’t yet know when that is going to happen. “It is unclear at this time when systems will be fully restored,” the update page said.

Photos: Rare blue supermoon dazzles stargazers around the globe

A peacock sits on a chimney as a nearly full moon rises behind it, in Hyderabad, India, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. August 30 will see the month’s second supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position to Earth. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Mahesh Kumar A.

The supermoon rises near the equestrian statue of Damdin Sukhbaatar on Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. August 30 sees the month’s second supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position to Earth. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Ng Han Guan

A Supermoon is seen on the sky as a woman walks on the street, in Vosloorus, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. August 30 sees the month’s second supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position to Earth. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Themba Hadebe

The supermoon rises behind the ancient temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Athens, Greece, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It’s dubbed a supermoon because it’s closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Thanassis Stavrakis

The supermoon rises over the Mediterranean sea as a boat passes at Konnos bay near Ayia Napa and Protaras on the eastern part of the island of Cyprus, on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It’s dubbed a supermoon because it’s closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Petros Karadjias

The supermoon rises behind Ayioi Anargiroi Orthodox church near Ayia Napa and Protaras in the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It is dubbed a supermoon because it is closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Petros Karadjias

The full moon rises behind the Galata tower in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It is dubbed a supermoon because it is closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Khalil Hamra

The supermoon rises in the sky of Gaza City, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It’s dubbed a supermoon because it’s closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Adel Hana

The supermoon rises in the sky over the houses of Gaza City, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It’s dubbed a supermoon because it’s closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Adel Hana

The August Super Blue Moon sets behind a historical building and the St. Basil’s Cathedral, right, as people walk in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rises Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It is dubbed a supermoon because it is closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Alexander Zemlianichenko

The moon known as blue moon rises behind the small village of Ujue, northern Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

Alvaro Barrientos

A supermoon rises over the Colosseum in Rome, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Gregorio Borgia

The supermoon rises behind the Chlemoutsi medival castle in Kyllini, Peloponnese, Greece, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Petros Giannakouris

The full moon rises beyond the Martyrs statue, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. August 30 will see the month’s second supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position to Earth. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Hussein Malla

Akıncı unmanned aerial craft passing in front of the Supermoon during a demonstration flight on the first day of Teknofest technology and aerospace festival in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Emrah Gurel

A supermoon rises over Montevideo, Uruguay, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, also known as a blue moon. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

Matilde Campodonico

People watch a supermoon rise above Lisbon, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. It’s the month’s second supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position to Earth. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Armando Franca

A rare Blue Supermoon rises over Lake Michigan as spectators watch from Chicago’s 31st Street beach Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Charles Rex Arbogast

The supermoon, blue moon, rises behind a thick layer of clouds near a statue of the angel Moroni perched atop The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in Kensington, Md. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It’s dubbed a supermoon because it’s closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Julio Cortez

A super moon rises behind Arthur Ashe Stadium at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center during the second round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in New York. A rare blue supermoon — the closest full moon of the year — dazzled stargazers Wednesday night. It was the second full moon of August, thus the blue label. And it was unusually close to Earth, therefore a supermoon. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Manu Fernandez

A man watches from the upper deck of a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Pittsburgh Pirates as the moon rises in the distance Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. The moon was a rare blue supermoon, named so because it was the second full moon in August, thus the blue label, and it was unusually close to Earth, therefore a supermoon. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Charlie Riedel

The full moon rises beyond a sign in the outfield during a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. The moon was a rare blue supermoon, named so because it was the second full moon in August, thus the blue label, and it was unusually close to Earth, therefore a supermoon. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Charlie Riedel

A blue supermoon rises between the Salesforce Tower and the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Eric Risberg

Contact Tony Reid at (217) 421-7977. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyJReid

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The post Hospital Sisters Well being System faces pc system failure appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Julie Anderson
Omaha World-Herald

Children’s Hospital & Medical Center soon will begin construction on a $46 million, 60,000-square-foot pediatric outpatient center at 204th and Harrison streets.

Kathy English, Children’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said the facility will provide more convenient access for children and families who travel from west Omaha and beyond to the hospital campus near 84th Street and West Dodge Road to see specialists for outpatient care. More than 50% of the children served currently come from outside the greater Omaha area.

The new facility, she said, also will allow Children’s to expand and see more children.

“We’re pretty full here, and we need more space,” English said.

The two-story facility is slated to open in spring 2024. The 10-acre site also has room for a second phase of construction, she said. Children’s eventually anticipates moving the outpatient surgery center now located in the Village Pointe area to the new location.

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Children’s Hospital & Medical Center soon will begin construction on a new 60,000-square-foot pediatric outpatient center at 204th and Harrison Streets.

ALTUS ARCHITECTURAL STUDIOS/CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL & MEDICAL CENTER

“We’re going to try to make this a western hub for us,” English said.

One module of the new outpatient center will house orthopedics and sports medicine. That area will include a glass-enclosed indoor space as well as Children’s first outdoor rehabilitation space.

Children rehabilitate by playing, English said, “so we’re going to have part of the outdoor space with trails and stepping stones that would challenge kids to move.”

Outdoor spaces for sports medicine patients will include areas where youths can run and kick balls, “so we give them space to rehab that would have the kinds of activities they would normally do as kids,” she said.

Cardiac and pulmonary services also will be available, and eight other specialties will rotate through as needed. The center also will house a Children’s Physicians primary care clinic as well as radiology and laboratory services, nutritional care and some behavioral health services.

In addition to the outpatient rehabilitation spaces, English said, the health system is taking lessons learned from COVID-19 in designing the facility. As a result, it will include a drive-thru area where providers could see and treat a child in a car.

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50 icons of Nebraska people, history and heritage

Vise-Grip

Nebraska State Historical Society

These locking pliers, developed by Danish immigrant William Petersen and patented in 1924, took a strong hold on the small town of DeWitt. Petersen began production at his blacksmith shop, but by 1928 the company he founded had more than 600 employees. The metal tools were popular additions to toolboxes because they enabled a craftsman to grab a nut or a bolt and hold onto it, leaving his hands free. In 2002 the company was sold by remaining family members, and it closed its doors in 2008. Vise-Grips, although not made in DeWitt anymore, are still sold in almost every hardware store.

Sandhill cranes

FRANCIS GARDLER/Lincoln Journal Star

Although they don’t call Nebraska home, these fly-by residents have been regular visitors to the central Platte Valley for centuries. The yearly spring migration of 500,000, 4-foot tall, gray-feathered birds with jaunty red caps, who arrive in March and are usually gone by mid-April, has made an impact in both the birds’ numbers and in our response to them. Visitors from around the country come to watch them fly from their roost on the river in the morning and stalk the corn stalks during the day from buses and blinds, and all of that is good for the state. The most recent economic study estimates that crane-related tourism in 2009 generated $8.08 million in direct economic impact by visitors in central Nebraska. And a survey done in 2010 showed that more than 70,000 crane watchers spent an average of 1.3 days in the region (75 percent of those who came to see the cranes were planning on spending at least one night).

And in the past 30 years, groups have worked to protect and maintain this river-side environment, with more than 10,000 acres of habitat set aside.

State capitol

Journal Star file photo

New York architect Bertram Goodhue described his distinctive building as the “tower on the Plains,” made from Indiana limestone and begun in April 1922. It took 10 years to complete the project at a cost of $9.8 million. The Sower, which stands 19½ feet tall on a 12½-foot-tall base of corn and wheat shocks, represents the state’s agricultural background and can be seen for miles. Thousands of Nebraskans came to watch the hulky bronze statue placed on top with a crane when the tower was completed in the third phase of construction. Its interior is as distinctive as the exterior, with floor mosaics depicting a variety of Nebraska motifs, as well as wall murals and the ornate legislative and Supreme Court chambers.

Sebesta family trunk

Nebraska State Historical Society

Ignac and Marie Sebesta came to the United States around 1910, arriving after a long journey across the ocean with whatever they could pack into their wooden trunk. Like other immigrants, the Sebestas began their American life working for farmers, at first in Milligan, then Tobias. Three Nebraska cities were on the list of the top 10 cities in the country where Czech immigrants settled. For those starting life in a new country with only one piece of luggage, these trunks held only the most essential or the most precious things. And many immigrants could not  afford even a wooden trunk for their travels, packing their belongings into a cloth bag. Beyond the obvious items — clothing or shoes — the immigrants may have brought seeds, tools or cloth. If there was room, they might have tucked in a silver thimble and needle and thread, and possibly portraits of family and a Bible.

Kool-Aid

Courtesy photo

In 1927 Edwin Perkins of Hastings put his chemistry skills to work and came up with the powdered, fruit-flavored drink we call Kool-Aid. It came in six flavors — strawberry, cherry, lemon-lime, grape, orange and raspberry, and by 1929 the 10-cent packets were being distributed nationwide to grocery stores.

During the Great Depression, Perkins slashed the price to 5 cents a package and made it affordable, even for children, who often set up their own stands. Even though he moved the operation to Chicago in 1931 and in 1953 sold it to General Foods, which came up with the familiar smiley-faced pitcher, the Perkins family still calls Hastings home, and a Kool-Aid museum is based there.

Dorothy Lynch salad dressing

Courtesy photo

Once you taste this not-quite-French salad dressing made with celery seeds and a hint of both sweet and sour, there is no substitute. From its St. Paul Legion Club origins in the late 1940s, where its namesake (yes, there really was a Dorothy Lynch) served it to veterans on weekends, this dressing became a regional hit.

In 1964, Tasty-Toppings Inc. bought the recipe and began producing it in Columbus and later Duncan. Yes, they have tinkered with it a bit, introducing a fat-free version and changing the familiar glass bottle shape. In fact, it is even gluten-free. Luckily, former Nebraskans can buy it in 35 states, and the company even will ship it directly to your house.

Grover Cleveland Alexander’s cleats

Museum of Nebraska Major League Baseball

Baseball players and writers from Grover Cleveland Alexander’s era referred to him as “the best pitcher to ever put on a pair of shoes.” It’s hard to argue. Nicknamed “Old Pete,” the righty from Elba won 373 games (third all-time) between 1911 and 1930 with the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals. He pitched the Cards to a World Series championship over Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the rest of the New York Yankees in 1926, winning two games and coming in the seventh inning of the decisive seventh game with the bases loaded, two outs and the Cards clinging to a 3-2 lead. He struck out Tony Lazzeri and then held the Yanks scoreless for two more innings to earn the save. In 1938, he became the first Nebraskan inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Swanson’s TV dinner

Courtesy photo

These were made in Omaha by C.A. Swanson and Sons — who may or may not have had the idea first — but the company was the first  to get the dinners into thousands of America’s freezers in 1953. The original effort, officially called a “TV Brand Frozen Dinner,” came in a compartmentalized aluminum tray and included turkey, cornbread stuffing, frozen peas and sweet potatoes, and it was just the right size to fit on a TV tray. If you set your oven at 425 degrees and cooked it for 25 minutes, your 98-cent dinner would be ready.

By 1955, the company was selling 25 million units, and a new chapter in cooking had begun.

American bison

TED KIRK/Lincoln Journal Star

Nebraska is where the buffalo roamed. For centuries the bison was central to the life of Plains Indian tribes. The 2-ton wooly beasts provided food, clothing, shelter and tools during that time. Settlement of that land, beginning in the 1830s, created problems for the bison herds, which were said to number in the millions at one time. Between 1830 and 1880, hunters and fur traders organized bison hunts killing hundreds of bison at a time. As a result, by the 1900s, the American bison was near extinction. Theodore Roosevelt came to its rescue, enacting federal legislation protecting the bison. Wild bison herds are now mostly in national parks, but a small herd can be found on 2,000 acres of the tallgrass prairie on Shoemaker Island in the Platte River.

Cowboy boots

Nebraska State Historical Society

Albert B. Persinger came to the Nebraska Panhandle in 1876 from Alabama, where he started the Hardscrabble Ranch and raised purebred Hereford cattle near Lodgepole. His leather boots were made by O.H. Hyer of Olathe, Kan. Cowboys like Persinger were in their heyday in Nebraska from the 1870s to 1890s during open-range days. But even in the 1870s, the Nebraska Legislature ruled that counties could invoke a herd law, which would would ban cattle roaming at large.

We don’t know much about the thousands of cowboys who were working the Nebraska range during that time. Historians describe them as “footloose laborers on horseback.” But we do know that it wasn’t all happy trails — cowboys worked seven days a week, sunup to sundown for little pay and in all kinds of weather. Lack of pastureland, wire fence and the meatpacking industry adjusting cattle prices all contributed to fewer cowboys riding the range.

Bison scapula hoe

ERIC GREGORY/Lincoln Journal Star

Found in the Medicine Creek Valley near Stockville, this bison shoulder blade hoe was discovered in 1934 at the remains of a Native earth lodge. Tools like this were used by the people of the Central Plains tradition, which is what archaeologists called the village farmers who lived in hamlets along the rivers and streams in Nebraska from 1000 A.D. to 1400 A.D. By the end of this period, groups had started to grow gourds and corn in small-scale gardens. Intensified cultivation of domesticated crops coincided with an increase in prehistoric Indian populations. Although hunting and fishing continued to be very important, a less-nomadic economy developed. Food surpluses, such as corn, were stored in underground storage pits dug into the floors of earth lodges.

Tools like these were the forerunners of plows pulled by oxen and later the giant John Deere equipment that today’s farmers use in their fields.

Unicameral Legislature gavel

Nebraska State Historical Society

Nebraska operated under a bicameral legislature until the early 1930s, when U.S. Sen. George Norris campaigned for reform, saying the two-house system was archaic. In 1934, voters agreed, passing an amendment to make Nebraska the only one-house legislature in the country. The pounding of this gavel began the first unicameral session in 1937, which not only proved to be efficient but inexpensive. The last bicameral session in 1935 with 133 legislators ran 110 days, passed 192 bills and cost $202,593. The first unicameral session two years later with just 43 legislators lasted 92 days, passed 214 bills and cost $103,445.

Johnny Carson coffee mug

Elkhorn Valley Museum

The late, great Johnny Carson chatted up celebrities and sipped from this mug from behind his desk on the set of “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.” Although born in Iowa, Carson called Nebraska home, having grown up in Norfolk and graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before embarking on his entertainment career. He kept audiences in stitches for 30 years (1962-92) on NBC via his monologues, comedy sketches, interviews and those patented deadpan looks of his.

A PBS documentary tabbed Johnny Carson the “King of Late Night” for his 30-year run as host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”

Jeff Kinney’s jersey

Journal Star file photo

The “Game of the Century” that pitted undefeated No. 1-ranked Nebraska against undefeated No. 2-ranked Oklahoma at Owen Field in Norman, Okla., produced a plethora of memorable plays — particularly Johnny Rodgers’ 72-yard first-quarter punt return.

But the most memorable object was the No. 35 jersey worn by Husker tailback Jeff Kinney. Kinney carried the ball 31 times during the game, rushing for 171 yards and four touchdowns.

The tear-away jersey began to rip apart in the first half and was in tatters during his final four rushes. Those carries capped a 12-play, 74-yard drive that saw Kinney follow a block from fullback Maury Damkroger (46) and plunge into the end zone to give Nebraska the clinching touchdown in the greatest game in college football history. Final score: Nebraska 35, Oklahoma 31.

“In the Year 2525” 45 rpm record

Courtesy photo

The biggest hit to come out of Nebraska, Zager and Evans’ “In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)” spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard charts in 1969. It was the most popular song in the country when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon and during the Woodstock Music Festival.

Zager and Evans was a four-piece Lincoln group that was fronted by singer/guitarists Denny Zager and Rick Evans and included drummer Dave Trupp and bassist Mark Dalton.

Written by Evans and recorded for $500 in an Odessa, Texas, studio, the folk-rock tune that portends the end of the human race because of technological innovations was initially released on Truth Records, a local label. After becoming a regional hit, it was picked up by RCA. Dismissed by critics, “In the Year 2525” sold more than 4 million copies by 1970 and now has topped the 10 million mark.

Corn

Lincoln Journal Star file photo

Standing tall and at attention, row after row, acre after acre, corn stalks guard the Great Plains. Native tribes in Nebraska planted corn long before the settlers arrived and had great success with it. Nebraska pioneers found the crop well suited to the state’s variable climate with its whipping winds, drought and harsh winters. These bountiful battalions are Nebraska’s agricultural front line and keepers of the kernels — Nebraska’s gold. An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows, and those kernels add up.

In 2013, the USDA estimate was 1.61 billion bushels, based on 169 bushels per acre. Livestock feeding consumes nearly one-third of the state’s corn harvest. It takes 55 bushels of corn to feed a steer to market weight and 15 bushels to raise a pig.

Spread throughout much of the state, more than 20 ethanol plants have a capacity of nearly 20 billion gallons — making Nebraska the second-largest ethanol-producing state in the country. Combined, these plants use more than 700 million bushels of corn per year.

And since 1901, Cornhuskers has been a nickname for the University of Nebraska  football team, when Lincoln Journal sportswriter Cy Sherman coined the phrase in his sports copy. Although it was shortened to Huskers, fans with cornheads are regulars at Nebraska sports events.

Sod house

Lincoln Journal Star file photo

With a lack of trees or stone on the prairie, homesteaders looked to the land for building materials. Sod, made from thickly rooted prairie grass cut in 2- by 1-foot  chunks, was piled like bricks to make walls for the “soddy.” A simple sod house could be built in about a week for a cost of less than $5. The thick walls provided insulation against the summer temperatures, strong winds and winter cold, but leaky roofs were a problem, and the dirt floors needed to be watered down regularly, making it quite damp. One Fillmore County pioneer in 1873 described the process in letters to his wife: “All we have to do is plow up some sod (which will hang together for a half mile without breaking), cut in lengths to suit and lay up a wall & cover it and you have a house. To one who never seen one of our houses built of Nebraska brick, it would seem as though they were a dirty house, but they are warmer & cleaner than our hosier log cabins ever were.”

Keith Jacobshagen painting

Courtesy photo

Keith Jacobshagen moved to Lincoln to teach at the University of Nebraska in 1968. Now one of the most acclaimed artists in the state, Jacobshagen is the preeminent painter of the Great Plains.

Jacobshagen developed his connections with the flatland and big sky flying with his test pilot father while growing up in Wichita, Kan. Those flights led Jacobshagen to develop his unique perspective: painting as if he is standing yards above the ground, a view that lowers and lengthens the horizon.

Jacobshagen’s landscapes found an audience in the 1970s and can now be found in museums and prominent private and corporate collections. He is represented by several galleries around the country, including Kiechel Fine Art in Lincoln.

William Jennings Bryan campaign memorabilia

Nebraska State Historical Society

William Jennings Bryan was a Nebraska politician who ran for president of the United States as the Democratic Party candidate three times — in 1896, 1900 and 1908 — never winning, but bringing the national political debate closer to home.

Born in 1860 in Illinois, he came to Lincoln in 1887, where he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1890. Known for his oratory skills, Bryan traveled across the country campaigning on Populist issues and issues of the common man. Woodrow Wilson appointed Bryan secretary of state in 1913, during which time he worked to negotiate treaties before World War I broke out. Bryan left Nebraska during that time, moving to Florida, where he lived until his death in 1925.

Charles Starkweather’s rifles

Journal Star file photo

In January 1958, Lincoln garbageman Charles Starkweather killed 10 people on a murder spree that terrified Nebraskans and grabbed national attention.

The first spree killer of the television era, Starkweather and his teenage girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, became the subjects of intense media scrutiny and public interest after they were captured in Wyoming, where they had fled after the killings, nine of which took place in and around Lincoln. Starkweather was executed for the murders in 1959. Fugate served 17 years in prison and was released in 1976.

The story of Starkweather and Fugate continues to reverberate through popular culture. Bruce Springsteen wrote a song from Starkweather’s viewpoint, titled an album “Nebraska” and continues to perform those songs in his concerts. An ABC-TV miniseries, “Murder in the Heartland,” was based on the killing spree, and at least six feature films, including Terrence Malick’s classic “Badlands” and Oliver Stone’s controversial “Natural Born Killers,” were inspired by the story.

Whiteclay empty bottle

Journal Star file photo

Alcohol sales in Whiteclay have dropped during the past four years (2010 to 2013), but 336,217 gallons of alcohol were consumed in the Pine Ridge Reservation border town.

It remains a jarring statistic in a state that ranks high in many alcohol-related surveys. Nebraska ranks eighth nationally in beer consumption per capita, averaging 35.2 gallons per person over 21, according to 2012 figures from the Beer Institute, which represents the beer industry. And the state ranked 15th in craft breweries per capita in 2012, according to the Brewers Association.

Not all the stats shine a good light on Nebraska. Four cities made the Centers for Disease Control’s 2010 report of the top 20 binge drinking U.S. cities — Grand Island (19.4 percent of residents surveyed), Omaha (19.5 percent) Norfolk (20.2 percent) and Lincoln (22.7 percent).

And that list of metropolitan and micropolitan cities doesn’t include Whiteclay, where beverages like this one are sold by the millions.

Sugarbeet workers

Nebraska State Historical Society

The raising of sugar beets in Nebraska began as an experiment in Hall County in the 1880s. The land took to it, and then, for decades, migrants took to the land. Germans from Russia, Mexican immigrant families and others worked the land for five long months a year, with sugar companies hiring people based on the knowledge that their children would join them in the fields, as a 2005 Great Plains Quarterly article by Mary Lyons-Barret detailed.

Eastern Nebraska’s beets were considered too low in sugar, and plants closed in Norfolk in 1905 and Ames in 1906. They thrived in Scottsbluff and Bayard, though, and Great Western Sugar Company and American Sugar Company covered train fare for migrant workers to come there, only to offer many of them old rail cars, empty chicken coops or tents to live in, Lyons-Barret wrote. Investigations into child labor conditions in the sugarbeet industry would directly influence federal child labor laws in the 1930s.

Kawasaki KZ400 motorcycle

Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. U.S.A.

The first shiny KZ400 that rolled off the production line in January of 1975 was presented to then-Gov. Jim Exon by Yoji Hamawaki, president of the United States division of Kawasaki Motors. It was the beginning of an almost 40-year manufacturing alliance between the plant and the Capital City. Over the years the plant has evolved as it followed market trends. First motorcycles, then Jet Skis and later all-terrain vehicles and industrial robots, were made there. In 2000, the company invested $50 million in the plant as it accepted a contract to build light rail cars destined for the East Coast. The plant employs about 1,700 people with the consumer products side that produces personal watercraft and all-terrain vehicles and rail car production. There haven’t been any motorcycles off the line since 2007 when production of the motorbikes moved back to Japan. But the Japanese/Nebraska industrial alliance is going strong.

Carhenge

Courtesy photo

Dedicated on the summer solstice of 1987 by Jim Reinders and about 35 friends and family who didn’t question his sanity and helped him build it, the collection of 38 gray painted cars has at least one thing going for it that its inspiration, Stonehenge, doesn’t — we know why it exists.

Reinders built it as a tribute to his late father, according to Kevin Howard, director of the Alliance Visitors Bureau.

“It took 1,600 years for them to complete Stonehenge, and we did it in six days,” Reinders said on a documentary about the site, which still draws thousands of visitors a year.

The humongous roadside attraction that’s not near a major roadside (it’s about 80 miles north of Interstate 80) got a new owner last year — the city of Alliance.

Archie, the imperial mammoth

ERIC GREGORY/Lincoln Journal Star

Archie is short for Archidiskidon imperator maibeni, and he is one of the star attractions in Elephant Hall at the University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History. The fossil, which roamed the Plains about 30,000 years ago, is one of the biggest and most complete in the country. It measures 25 feet, 7 inches from its long tusks to its tail and weighed about 15 tons. A bronze statue of Archie stands in front of the museum.

Archie and his prehistoric pals were all over Nebraska, and mammoth fossils have been found in every county in the state. They weren’t the only prehistoric relics that Nebraska has produced. At Ashfall Fossil Beds near Royal are fossils from more than 12 million years ago of elephants, camels and rhinos that grazed on the Great Plains.

Bride’s quilt

Nebraska State Historical Society

Martha Allis was born in Bellevue in 1840, daughter of missionaries Samuel and Emeline Allis. When she was set to marry her beloved, William George Hollin, on July 4, 1861, she made a Wreath of Roses pattern quilt to commemorate the event. Believed to be the oldest quilt made by a native Nebraskan, the quilt of red-and-green nine-rose wreaths surrounded by vines made of cotton was typical of other quilts that would be made over the decades by Nebraska women. Originally pieced by hand, and later by machine, the quilts told women’s stories in fabric and became beautifully crafted blankets that would keep families warm on cold nights on the prairie.

Lincoln Highway marker

ERIC GREGORY/Lincoln Journal Star

The 2,436 road markers, 220-pound hulks of rebar and concrete, were placed alongside the country-spanning Lincoln Highway about 15 years after Henry B. Joy first asked for driving directions west of Omaha in 1913. Joy, president of the Packard Motor Car Company and the first president of the Lincoln Highway Association, didn’t have much to go on.

Joy was on a cross-country tour from Detroit to the Pacific to promote better roadways, which, in turn, would promote the growing auto industry. The local Packard dealer told him to drive until he came to a fence, and then another fence, and another. When Joy ran out of fences, he followed two ruts across the prairie, according to a 1985 Smithsonian article.

The winding path taking drivers through Omaha, Elkhorn, Fremont and along the Platte River System to Wyoming became part of the privately funded New York-to-San Francisco Lincoln Highway. When it was decreed that the majority of the pivotal road would be renamed U.S. 30, the Lincoln Highway Association in 1928 arranged for Boy Scouts to place road markers like this one bearing the letter L and a bronze medallion depicting Abraham Lincoln across the countryside.

Explosives from ordnance plants

Smack in the middle of the country, Nebraska was deemed the perfect noncoastal site for bomb making in 1942 when World War II loomed, because it was easily reachable by trains in either direction. At one time there were four plants across the state in Mead, Hastings, Sidney and Grand Island. Mostly women were on the production line and were known as WOWs or Women Ordnance Workers. In Grand Island there were three shifts and more than 4,200 workers at the war’s peak manufacturing bombs up to 2,000 pounds. Although work stopped after the war ended, it began again during the Korean War and in Grand Island during the Vietnam War.

Buffalo coat from Buffalo Soldiers

Nebraska State Historical Society

Given the nickname by Native Americans likely because of their curly hair and buffalo coats worn in the winters, 10 units of the all-black U.S. Army cavalry served at Fort Robinson between 1885 and 1898.

“Lt. John Alexander, the second African-American graduate of West Point, and Henry Plummer, the first black chaplain in the regular Army, served here,” reads the historical marker at Fort Robinson State Park in Dawes County. “So did 10 Buffalo Soldier Medal of Honor men.”

Standing Bear’s headdress

Nebraska State Historical Society

He stood before a federal judge in Omaha in 1879 and testified that, after being forced from Ponca land, watching a third of his tribe die and being arrested following his return to the Niobrara to bury his teenage son’s bones, that he no longer felt like a chief, but rather a poor person.

The U.S. attorney’s position was that Standing Bear, because he was an Indian, was not a person of any sort under federal law. Judge Elmer Dundy sided with Standing Bear, a landmark decision in the continuing struggle for Indian rights.

Ted Kooser’s notebook

TED KIRK/Lincoln Journal Star

Ted Kooser, two-term U.S. poet laureate, helped secure Nebraska’s spot on the literary map when his book “Delights and Shadows” (Copper Canyon Press) won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2005. From his home in rural Garland, Kooser takes pen in hand each morning before dawn and chronicles the nuances of everyday life, from screeching owls to small-town diners. Born in 1939 in Iowa, Kooser spent most of his 9-to-5 life as a life insurance executive, but he was writing poetry during that time, too. He is a Presidential Professor at the University of Nebraska teaching the writing of poetry and essays. His poetry even has been set to music. “Winter Morning Walks” won three Grammy awards for composer Maria Schneider and soprano Dawn Upshaw, who adapted the poems from his collection of the same name for an album.

J. Sterling Morton’s walking stick

ERIC GREGORY/Lincoln Journal Star

Although many think of J. Sterling Morton as Nebraska’s Johnny Appleseed because of his advocacy for tree planting, including heirloom apple trees, his legacy is much more than that. Born in New York and raised in Detroit, he came to Nebraska in 1854 and staked a claim in Nebraska City. Editor of the Nebraska City News, Morton became politically active and also well respected for his agricultural achievements — he was the secretary of agriculture for President Grover Cleveland. Like many men of the time, Morton carried a brass-topped walking stick, and his was inscribed with a Latin verse, which translates to “If you seek a monument, look around.” Morton’s monument — in addition to Arbor Day, the state holiday encouraging tree planting — can be seen in the many trees growing across the state.

SAC red phone

ERIC GREGORY/Lincoln Journal Star file photo

“Well, we all felt that this was in the cards, that unless we were good — if we slipped, if we were not capable of doing our job, that the Russians would eventually move in and take over,” Lt. Gen. James Edmundson, a former director of operations at the facility now known as Stratcom, told a PBS film crew when asked about the reality of a nuclear attack. From bomber pilots flying 24-hour-long training missions to the installation of this red telephone that fortunately never rang, the command center at Offutt Air Force Base prepared as if the unthinkable could happen at any moment at the height of the Cold War.

“It was a tough life,” said Edmundson, who died in the summer of 2001, months before Stratcom’s focus would dramatically shift.

Transcontinental Railroad

Lincoln Journal Star file photo

Building west from Omaha after President Abraham Lincoln approved legislation to build a railroad across the frontier, the Union Pacific railroad laid the first tracks of the Transcontinental Railroad on July 10, 1865. Thousands of workers swung hammers and laid rail ties for four years, and on May 10, 1869, the track was complete in Promontory, Utah.

Cities sprang up across the Plains like those following the ABC Burlington railroad. From Crete westward, towns about eight miles apart were named in alphabetical order — Crete, Dorchester, Exeter, Fairmont, Grafton, Hastings, Inland, Juniata, Kenesaw and Lowell. The Platte River railroad corridor is still chugging along, with Union Pacific, headquartered in Omaha, and BNSF Railway, the Berkshire Hathaway-owned company. Only two states, Texas and Illinois, have more railroad employees than Nebraska.

Willa Cather’s William Dean Howells Medal

Courtesy photo

Although Willa Cather was not a native Nebraskan — born in 1873 in Virginia — we claim the famous author as ours, because many of her novels revolve around her hometown of Red Cloud and the Great Plains. Winning the Pulitzer Prize for “One of Ours” in 1923 and gaining recognition for “O Pioneers!” and “My Antonia,” Cather gained national literary attention with her descriptive prose that captured the spirit of the state’s early inhabitants. Then, in 1930, Cather received the William Dean Howells Medal for her book “Death Comes for the Archbishop.” Before she wrote novels, she wrote reviews for the Lincoln Journal newspaper as a student at the University of Nebraska. Cather moved to Pittsburgh, then New York, shortly after graduating from the University of Nebraska, but she returned to Red Cloud several times before her death in 1947.

Kregel windmill

ERIC GREGORY/Lincoln Journal Star

One thing Nebraska has plenty of is wind, and George F. Kregel found a way to use it. In 1879 Kregel developed a water-pumping windmill that would harness that wind and help pioneer farmers survive on the prairie. At first, the Nebraska City manufacturing company installed the windmills and water supply equipment and helped farmers maintain and repair them. During the 20th century, the company focused mostly on water well maintenance and the pump repair business.

Even though they have not been mass produced since the early 1940s, Kregel Windmill Company Eli-brand windmills are still found in service pumping life-giving water for both humans and livestock. The factory remains intact — exactly as it was after it closed in 1989 — and has been reopened as the Kregel Windmill Factory Museum.

Homestead certificate

A homestead certificate.

Homestead National Monument

Four miles west of Beatrice, the Homestead National Monument is the site of Daniel Freeman’s claim under the Homestead Act of 1862. He is said to have filed it 10 minutes after midnight at the Land Office in Brownville on Jan. 1, 1863, making him one of the first to take advantage of Abraham Lincoln’s legislation. All homesteaders had to be at least 21 years old, got 160 acres of land and had five years to “prove up” by living on the land, building a home and farming for five years. Total filing fee: $18. Freeman and his wife, Agnes, did just that and raised eight children there. About 270 million acres were claimed across the nation under this act.

Runza sandwich

Runza

Courtesy photo

Germans from Russia brought the runza sandwich to Nebraska. A bread pocket filled with meat, cabbage, onions and seasonings goes by different names and comes in different shapes. But only in Nebraska did it give rise to a chain of fast-food restaurants. Ingredients now may vary, but the taste — whether homemade or restaurant-bought — is uniquely Nebraskan.

Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock — near present-day Bayard — was a well-known landmark for pioneers during the western migration.

Nebraska Tourism

Standing almost 300 feet above the surround North Platte River Valley, Chimney Rock in western Nebraska bade farewell from the state as Pioneers headed west on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails. Its image has adorned licenses plates and Nebraska’s state quarter. It’s made of layers of clay, volcanic ash and sandstone.

Warren Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett.

The Associated Press

One of the richest men in world, the Oracle of Omaha is known for his down-to-earth style, common-sense financial philosophy and his philanthropy. As chairman, CEO and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett is considered by many to be the most successful investor of the 20th century, but he’s known equally for his personal frugality.

CliffsNotes

CliffsNotes study guide for “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Courtesy photo

Before the Internet and Wikipedia, the distinctive yellow-and-black covers of CliffsNotes adorned the bookshelves of many a college and high school student. The series of study guides (which are not to be used as a substitute for reading the actual text, OK?) was launched in Lincoln by Cliff Hillegass and his wife Catherine. From the original 16 Shakespeare titles, CliffsNotes has grown to include hundreds of works and has saved many a student.

Giant porch swing

Hebron claims to be the home of the world’s largest porch swing.

City of Hebron

Hebron is home to what was and may still be the world’s largest porch swing. Built from a giant crop irrigator pole, the swing seats between 18 and 24 depending on bun width. It sits in Roosevelt Park downtown, not on an actual front porch. Reportedly a larger porch swing may have been built in 2012 in Canada, but Hebron’s still seems pretty big.

Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium

Visitors check out the jungle exhibit at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.

DAN LITTLE/Lincoln Journal Star

Earlier this year, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium was named by TripAdvisor the world’s best zoo. Marking its 120th year this year, the zoo is home to the Desert Dome, built in 2002, which is both the world’s largest indoor desert and the largest glazed geodesic dome. And the indoor Leid Jungle has been fogging up eyeglasses on cold winter days for 22 years.

Oregon Trail

This boulder/historic marker is on the corner of U.S. 77 and Saltillo Road and notes where the Oregon Trail, California Trail, Fort Kearny Road, Steam Wagon Road and Oregon Trail Cut-Off crossed Lancaster County. A few traces of the trail are still visible on Salt Creek and the surrounding fields to the southeast of the marker.

Courtesy photo

The 2,200-mile Oregon Trail connected the Missouri River to fertile valleys in, you guessed it, Oregon. Following along the Oregon Trail through Nebraska were the California, Mormon and Bozeman trails, which separated from each other after leaving the western edge of Nebraska. Between the 1830s and the 1870s, around 400,000 pioneers used the trail across Nebraska.

College World Series

An NCAA baseball lies in the outfield of TD Ameritrade Park June 13, 2014.

Dave Weaver/The Associated Press

Since 1950 Omaha has hosted the College World Series, where eight teams square off in a double elimination tournament to decide the NCAA Division I baseball champion. Through 2010, games were held at Rosenblatt Stadium. Beginning in 2011, the series moved to TD Ameritrade Park Omaha. The NCAA has signed a contract that will keep the tournament in Omaha through at least 2035.

Arbor Day

Poyuan Yin, 9, of Omaha, gets into the task of apple-picking at Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City.

KAYLEE EVERLY/Lincoln Journal Star

J. Sterling Morton moved to Nebraska from Detroit, Mich., in 1854. Along with his family and furniture, he brought a love to trees, which he felt were sorely needed in his new home territory (Nebraska became a state in 1867), so using the newspaper he owned as a pulpit, he campaigned for the establishment of Arbor Day, a holiday set aside for the planting of trees. On April 10, 1872, more than one million trees were planted in connection with the first Arbor Day. The holiday later expanded nationwide and globally.

Yellow school buses

Yellow school bus

The Associated Press

It’s hard to believe something as ubiquitous as the yellow school bus has its origins in Nebraska, but Franklin-born educator Frank W. Cyr in the 1930s led a group that standardized many features of the nation’s school buses, most prominently their yellow-orange color, which was found to be the most visible at sunrise and late afternoon. Cyr, who eventually left Nebraska, is known as the father of the yellow school bus.

Beef

Cattle graze at Briggs Feed Yard outside of Seward.

Lincoln Journal Star file photo

Nebraska has the top three beef cattle counties in the United States, according to the UNL Beef Team, in Cherry, Custer and Holt counties. Cattle flourish on Nebraska’s grasslands, and the state flourishes, to the tune of $12.1 billion, which is the estimated impact of the beef industry on the state. And this year Nebraska overtook Texas as the top beef-producing state in the U.S.

Ogallala Aquifer

Ogallala Aquifer in 2014.

USGS

Nebraska is home to America’s largest underground lake, or aquifer, which stretches north to South Dakota and south to northern Texas. But in Nebraska the aquifer involves the largest geographic area and is in places more than 1,000 feet deep. It supplies the vast majority of drinking water in Nebraska and provides agriculture with the water needed for irrigation.

North Platte Canteen

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By last Friday, all of the striking nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, were scheduled to lose their employer health care coverage. No new talks are scheduled.

“As of Sept. 1, RWJUH nurses must pay for their health benefits through COBRA,” said RWJ spokeswoman Wendy Gottsegen. “This hardship, in addition to the loss of wages throughout the strike, is very unfortunate. We hope the union considers the impact a prolonged strike is having on our nurses and their families.”

This painful standoff has some of the state’s wealthiest and most politically connected power brokers up against the United Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200, which represents close to 1,700 nurses who weathered a once-in-a-century mass death event that around the country killed thousands of health care workers and disabled many more.

Our health care system in New Jersey and across the nation did not hold up well during COVID. The U.S. has 4% of the world’s population, but at least 12% of its COVID deaths. Multiple peer-reviewed studies have documented the lack of N-95 masks and proper staffing in our health care system helped drive the infection and death rate, particularly in underserved communities of color. 

In a reality that residents of New Jersey and New York know all too well, congregant care facilities where the most vulnerable are housed, became vectors for the disease.

Holding the American health care system accountable for its failure means being prepared to take on some of our nation’s most entrenched interests that have cultivated both major political parties. President Biden’s recent comment that “health care is a right” is a sign that we might see some attention to the health care affordability and access crisis that still grips our nation.

Even before the pandemic that killed 1.1 million Americans and disabled millions more, our health care system, largely based on nonprofits like RWJBarnabas that pay Wall Street wages for leadership, was ranked as the most expensive among peer OECD nations with the worst health care outcomes.

In the big picture, U.S. life expectancy continues to decline as costs go up. Our nation is likely to drop further in that ranking as the corporatization of health care accelerates.

In 2018, CNN reported the U.S. would “take the biggest drop in ranking of all high-income countries, falling from 43rd in 2016 to 64th by 2040, with an average life expectancy of 79.8. The U.S. will be overtaken by China, which rises 29 places to 39th in the table.”

That was before the pandemic.

U.S. life expectancy continues to decline as costs go up. Our nation is likely to drop further in that ranking as the corporatization of health care accelerates.

The RWJBarnabas system is a not-for-profit health care giant with a dozen acute care hospitals and a partnership with Rutgers University. The system has 38,000 employees and $6.6 billion in revenue. It relies on hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-exempt state issued bonds for capital construction.

Yes, it sounds like a public, almost quasi-governmental entity with a vital and noble mission, which, along with its workforce, is executed 24/7 in some of New Jersey’s poorest and most underserved communities.

Yet it also generates vast fortunes for some people on top of the health care pyramid.

The system’s recently-retired CEO and president, Barry Ostrowsky, earned $16 million in the second year of the pandemic, making him the highest paid hospital executive in the New York area, according to Crain’s New York.

He’s now on the board of directors of PSE&G, New Jersey’s largest utility. 

According to RWJBarnabas’ latest available 990 IRS form from fiscal year 2020, Ostrowsky made $5.59 million three years ago. More than a dozen other top executives listed were in the $1 million or more category.

The hospital system’s filing includes links to dozens of “related organizations taxable as partnerships,” identified with nondescript names like Medmerge LLC or Jersey ASC Ventures LLC. There’s a C-corporation called Major Investigations Inc., which is listed as “security” at the same address in West Orange, New Jersey, as the RWJBarnabas Health Foundation.

Any entity that operates on the scale of the RWJBarnabas system needs to have cash on hand and investments that can help it sustain its charitable mission. It’s all a matter of degrees and transparency.

Under Schedule F in the RWJBarnabas IRS filings, which catalogues its financial “activities outside the United States,” listed are “program services” in Central America and the Caribbean described as a “financial vehicle” worth $41.2 million.   

For its PR strategy, the nonprofit’s management is relying on MWW, the powerhouse firm founded by Michael Kempner, who has been described by Politico as a “major Democratic fundraiser who bundled millions of dollars for Barack Obama’s campaigns.”

According to Kempner’s LinkedIn profile, he is “active in progressive politics, having played roles in the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and most recently, Joe Biden.”

For its PR strategy during the strike, the nonprofit relies on MWW, the powerhouse firm founded by Michael Kempner, a “major Democratic fundraiser” who bundled millions in donations for Barack Obama.

The global crisis management firm has a high-powered team that includes Steve Sandberg, a former journalist and former chief spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who currently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In his role as senior vice president for public affairs “at one of the world’s leading public relations agencies,” Sandberg is playing a key role in the RWJBarnabas system’s response to a strike it has consistently asserted it wanted to avoid.

Sandberg, who has been proactive about getting management’s message gets out, did not answer a query from this reporter as to whether MWW is providing its services pro bono.

He responded by asking if I was in the employ of any unions. I responded that I was not, but that I do benefit from a SAG-AFTRA pension and Social Security so I am grateful to the union movement.

Central to the labor-management dispute in this case the question of which side represents the best interests of the hospital’s workforce and the patients, as well as the broader community they serve. 

Three years ago in its IRS filings, RWJBarnabas reported it spent $18.5 million for advertising. In the present media landscape that buys a lot of space.

In one recent release, the nonprofit heralded the success of RWJUH’s heart transplant team, which “successfully performed a transplantation on August 4 within the first 24 hours of the nurse strike implemented by its nursing union.” That patient, a 52-year-old resident of Trenton, was reportedly discharged on Aug. 14 after 10 days in the hospital’s cardiovascular ICU and in-patient unit. 

Last year, Lester J. Owens was named as chair of the RWJBarnabas Health Board of Trustees. Owens “has served as Vice Chair since 2019 and has served on its Audit, Compliance, Compensation, Nominating and Governance, as well as Racism and Social Justice Committees,” according to a press release.

Owens is also senior executive vice president and head of operations for Wells Fargo & Company, where “he oversees a team of more than 70,000 employees and is responsible for building a more unified, integrated approach to Wells Fargo’s business operations functions,” according to the press release announcing his appointment. Before joining Wells Fargo, Owens held prominent positions at BNY Mellon, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Citibank and Bankers Trust.

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Residents of communities like Newark and Irvington know Wells Fargo well.

Earlier this year, Fortune reported on internal documents from the beleaguered banking multinational that privately expressed “increased concern that a years-long effort to unionize the bank’s employees could soon start notching victories” and outlined “plans to spend millions addressing the ‘pain points’ that can fuel organizing efforts.” 

Fortune further reported that Wells Fargo “has seen ‘an increase in organizing activity’ by employees working with the Communications Workers of America, according to an internal PowerPoint presentation. … That comes amid what it called a broader ‘resurgence’ of U.S. union activity.”

An unnamed source in Wells Fargo management told Fortune, “Leaders at the San Francisco-based bank have worried over the trends. … The company has estimated the extra expense of having unionized workers, and drafted plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on staffing improvements.”

In a statement, the bank responded: “Wells Fargo believes our employees are best served by working directly with the company and its leadership – not a third-party group like a union – to address matters of concern. The company is investing in employees through training and education, is boosting minimum pay and health benefits, and now has a Diverse Segments, Representation, and Inclusion leader who reports directly to its chief executive officer.”

Fortune observed that the bank had roughly 193,000 U.S. employees at the end of 2022, none of them unionized.

RWJUH, on the other hand, has had a nurses’ union going back decades. Back in 2005, the United Steelworkers Local 4-200 took up the mantle. As one of America’s legacy unions, it has 1.2 million active and retired members including 50,000 in the health care sector representing titles as varied as physicians and EMTs from New Jersey to California. The union even scored a recent organizing coup in Wyoming.

On day one of the strike, the plumbing in a church rented by the union suffered a “construction accident” that disabled its plumbing, taking out the toilets available for striking workers.

On day one of the job action, the plumbing in the Magyar Reformed Church in New Brunswick, which the union is renting as a strike headquarters, suffered a “construction accident” that disabled its plumbing, taking out the toilets available for striking workers on the picket line. The church sits at the center of the RWJUH complex, which includes the ongoing construction of its $1 billion cancer center.

“We’re nurses, we are resourceful, we do what we have to do, so we rented portable toilets,” Judy Danella, president of United Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200, said. The union has filed several claims of unfair labor practices against the hospital system.

The union says its top priority is to improve nurse-to-patient ratios and to establish an enforcement mechanism to hold hospital management accountable when it falls short of that standard. The hospital counters by saying that it tried to prevent a strike and painting the union as an erratic and unreliable bargaining partner.

“RWJUH did everything it could to avoid a strike. The hospital agreed to and signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on July 13, which included the union’s core staffing proposal and compensation settlement,” according to the hospital. “The union leaders signed it and agreed to recommend the MOA to its membership but did not. It was voted down by the nurses and a notice to strike was presented to the hospital.”

Two days before the strike, the hospital narrative continued, RWJUH “submitted a proposal to the union that went even further than what was in the MOA, and the union never presented that proposal to its membership before they went out on strike.”

RWJUH further asserts that it “offered to enter binding arbitration or participate in a federal mediation and conciliation board of inquiry” and asked the union to “rescind its strike notice and return to the table to continue good faith negotiations,” and that the union refused those offers. The hospital chain also alleges that “during the 10-day window prior to the strike, the hospital made another counteroffer to attempt to avert the strike. The union did not respond to the offer until after the strike. Since the strike, mediation has not been productive; counteroffers from the union have far exceeded all previous asks, including those the union agreed to in the MOA.”

The union has a different narrative, of course. Danella told hundreds of her members on the picket line on Aug. 28 that the hospital was not coming to the table, and that the union had “never refused to bargain” with management. She said the failure to make progress “was not for the lack of the union trying.”

Danella told members she hoped that “somebody would push” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, to become engaged in the almost month-long strike at one of the state’s Level 1 trauma centers. Unlike in a recent strike at Rutgers University, Murphy has stayed on the sidelines so far. He has committed to use the tragic lessons of the pandemic to improve New Jersey’s health care system. That’s no small task. A lot of powerful folks have made a killing from the way New Jersey handles health care. 

“Hospitals have been downsizing their staffs over the years to try and save money at the same time that some of the hospitals are full — so safe staffing is something that nurses not just in New Jersey but all over the country are looking at,” New Jersey AFL-CIO president Charlie Wowkanech told Insider NJ earlier this month. “The issue isn’t just about the nurses, it’s about you and me and our families. Someone gets sick and goes to the hospital and they’ve got one nurse for eight or nine patients, particularly in some of these wards with infants, or in intensive care units where people need pretty much constant attention. That’s really what the fight is all about.”

Local 4-200 nurse and activist Renee Bacany said, “We need to make sure that we can take care of our patients to the best of our ability, and that would mean less patients than we are taking on now on a daily basis. Better staffing reduces infection, reduces patient mortality — that’s what study after study shows.”

Christi Peace, a spokesperson for Gov. Murphy, said that the governor “remains a strong proponent of organized labor and believes employees deserve a seat at the table when negotiating labor matters. The administration encourages both parties to maintain an open dialogue and will continue to remain engaged with them as they work towards a fair and acceptable resolution to these negotiations.”

Last Monday, the striking nurses got a pep talk from state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, a Democrat. He discussed his own daughter-in-law’s experience as a nurse during the COVID pandemic.

“To thank you requires more than a speech, it requires some action,” Coughlin said. “I know what this is about — fundamental fairness. This is about people getting paid what they ought to be paid, being able to provide the care that their patients need each and every day…. This is about patient care and fundamental fairness and that’s why it’s so important that you stand up for yourself today.”

He went on, “It’s time to stand up together and to get a contract. It’s time for all of you to be back inside doing what you love to do, what you care about doing and making the difference that you make each and every day.”

Last weekend, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., also offered support for the striking nurses. “We hailed them as heroes during the pandemic, but when it comes to their compensation, the nursing ratios, we’ve got to make sure they are being treated like heroes, not just in words but in the kind of contract and living circumstances they have,” he said.

Read more

on America’s labor resurgence

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — Brewers shortstop Willy Adames has been hospitalized after he was hit in the dugout by a foul ball from teammate Brian Anderson during Milwaukee’s game against the San Francisco Giants Friday night.

Anderson batted at the end of the second inning when he hit a line drive that hit Adames. Video appeared to show Adames was hit in the head or face. Brewers manager Craig Counsell said after his team’s 15-1 defeat that the tests had revealed no breaks.

“He was alert and responsive when he left, and then we got some pretty good news at the hospital, too,” Counsell said. “Obviously he’s in pain. But I think overall it’s not bad news considering how scary it was.”

Counsell said Adames will remain in hospital overnight “for surveillance purposes only” and will be placed on the injured list.

“I expect he’ll be released tomorrow morning,” Counsell said. “It’s going to be a concussion. It will be an IL.”

The game was suspended for a few minutes to allow Milwaukee’s coaching staff to attend to Adames, who was on the bench. Anderson’s concern was evident on his face as he waited near the batter’s box.

“Initially I thought it hit the padded pad based on the sound,” said Brewers infielder Mike Brosseau, who was on deck at the time. “The way they reacted to that scares you and after they sat on the bench for a few seconds I realized it was a bit more serious. I heard it more than I saw it.

“The chance is one in a million,” Brosseau added. “It’s just scary. I don’t know how hard BA hit the ball, but I do know he came across as hot. To make such a direct contact, yeah, that’s really bad to watch.”

The situation seemed to affect the Brewers emotionally for the rest of the night.

After Brice Turang replaced Adames at shortstop, Milwaukee committed two errors and allowed seven runs early in the third inning as the Giants opened the game. Brewers pitcher Freddy Peralta, who is close friends with Adames, gave up ten runs, the best of his career.

“It’s hard to see someone you love enjoying the moment,” Peralta said.

Adames has been one of the Brewers’ emotional leaders and most popular players since they acquired him from the Tampa Bay Rays in May 2021. He was named the team’s Most Valuable Player by the Milwaukee Division of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for the last two seasons.

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A weekly listing of the major commercial building and facility permits issued and received by the Bureau of Development Services in Portland for the previous week.

Granted building permits:

$508,731
Address: Southwest First Avenue (within the 97201 ZIP Code)
Applicant: Sean Murray and Deb Han of Alliant Systems
Ownership: American Plaza Towers Condominium Owners Association
Contractor: Deb Han (Alliant Systems LLC)

The work includes the attachment of equipment.

$810,000
Address: Wieden & Kennedy, 224 NW 13th Ave.
Applicant: David Hasse of Professional Roof Consultants
Owner: First Portland LLC of San Francisco
Contractor: Greg Stone (Griffith Roofing Co.)

The works include the cladding and fixing of metal wall panels.

$1,038,219
Address: 18225 NE Riverside Parkway
Applicant: Jason Arthur of Toyota Lift NW
Owner: PLDAB LLC of Denver
Contractor: Wize Solutions Inc. of West Valley, Utah

The works include the installation of a pallet racking system in the warehouse.

$724,680
Address: 1701 SE Water Ave.
Applicant: Nathan Arnold of Faster Permits
Owner: Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)
Contractor: Brian Sabom (Turner Construction)

The work includes roof replacement and seismic rehabilitation.

$1,037,276
Address: Emerson School, 428 NW 20th Ave.
Applicant: Earl Carson of Carleton Hart Architecture
Owner: Parish of Beth Israel
Contractor: Bremik Construction

The works include a reconfiguration of the floor plan to add toilets, a fire alarm room and a storage room. The construction of a new barrier-free concrete entrance on the west facade is also planned.

A new Safe Rest Village is planned for 10550 SE Reedway St. (Portland Maps)

UNDER TEST
$600,000
Address: 10550 SE Reedway St.
Applicant: Luis Lopez-Ortiz of Fulcrum Construction & Building Services LLC
Ownership: City of Portland
Contractor: Israel Rodriguez (Fulcrum Construction & Building Services LLC)

Site improvements are planned for a new Safe Rest Village, including the construction of a temporary outdoor shelter with carport structure.

$1,100,000
Address: 4035 SE 82nd Ave.
Applicant: not listed
Owner: not listed
Contractor: Halbert Construction Services of Vancouver, Washington

The works include the renovation of the warehouse for a new tenant. Plans call for partial demolition and construction of new interior walls to create a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, pallet racking up to 12 feet tall, new garage doors, and site improvements.

1820 NE Davis St. (Portland Maps) is a three-story, 20-unit residential building in the works.

$1,800,000
Address: 1820 NE Davis St.
Applicant: not listed
Owner: not listed
Contractor: CB Const Inc. of La Grande

The works include the construction of a three-story, 20-unit residential building and associated site works.

Building Permit Income:

UNDER REVIEW
$619,746
Address: TriMet Garage, 4421 NE Columbia Blvd.
Applicant: Alex Barajas of Raymond Handling Concepts
Owner: TriMet
Contractor: Raymond Handling Concepts Corporation of Fremont, California

The plan is to install lift stations in the existing building.

For Mill City Park at 1912 SE 117th Ave. (Portland Maps) are modernizations in progress.

UNDER REVIEW
$5,200,000
Address: Mill City Park, 1912 SE 117th Ave.
Applicant: Tim Strand of Mayer/Reed
Ownership: School District #40
Contractor: Raimore Construction LLC

Plans include the construction of accessible pathways, a fountain, community garden, playground, seating and fitness area, Portland toilet, landscaping and irrigation.

Plant permits granted:

$648,510
Address: Leatherman Headquarters, 12106 NE Ainsworth Circle
Contractor: Entek Corporation of Longview, Washington

A first and second floor tenant fit-out includes roof modifications, duct work, electrical work, and more.

$1,200,000
Address: Harrison Square, 1800 SW First Ave.
Contractor: Bartel Contracting

A fifth floor tenant fit-out (Suite 500) includes demolition of walls and construction of new walls to create offices, conference rooms, a break room, kitchenette, open office areas, boardroom and more. Changes include ceiling, flooring, finishes, plumbing and electrical installations.

$1,000,000
Address: 5 MLK, 5 SE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.
Contractor: Lease Crutcher Lewis

A tenant fit-out for Parametrix (Suite 400) includes minor demolition and new wall construction to create a reception area, conference rooms, storage rooms, offices, phone rooms, break room, spa room and more. Works also include ceilings, flooring, finishes, plumbing and electrical installations.

$1,600,000
Address: Legacy Emanuel, 2801 N. Gantenbein Ave.
Contractor: MacDonald Miller Facility Solutions LLC of Seattle

Work will include the installation of ducting, grilles, diffusers and more as part of the second floor cardiovascular intensive care unit renovation.

$12,000,000
Address: Legacy Emanuel, 2801 N. Gantenbein Ave.
Contractor: Lease Crutcher Lewis

Changes to the second floor CCU include demolition of walls and construction of new walls to house a vestibule, storage rooms, waiting area, dirty utility rooms, staff lounge, family counseling room, nurses’ rooms, etc. to create pharmacy and more. Works also include ceilings, flooring, finishes, plumbing and electrical installations.

Deposits from plant permits:

None for projects valued at $500,000 or more

Source: Portland Bureau of Development Services. Please note that BDS has changed the way it publishes permit information that includes the applicant and project owner for commercial building permits – but not for facility permits.

See also:

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He visited the facility to observe some of the areas that Laguna Honda needs to bring up to speed in order to be recertified, such as:

Reporters weren’t allowed on the tour, but Becerra said he spoke to nurses and patients, who told him they hoped he’d protect Laguna Honda.

“Most of them were like, ‘Help us keep Laguna Honda open,'” Becerra said. “A facility like this is vital to a community and a facility like this understands that it needs to meet standards so anyone who needs to send their loved ones here can know they are getting the health and safety we would all expect , is guaranteed.”

It has been a year of constant uncertainty and crisis for staff and patients at Laguna Honda. In 2022, federal authorities withdrew the hospital’s certification after it was found to be non-compliant on a number of safety issues, including drug storage, hygiene practices and the use of a lighter near an oxygen tank.

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra during a press conference at HHS headquarters June 28, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Despite objections from hospital and city leaders, regulators ordered the hospital remove as many patients as possible from the hospital while staff work toward regaining certification.

Regulators suspended their initial transfer requirement in July 2022 after some of the 57 patients originally transferred from the hospital reportedly died. In all, the deaths of 12 former patients were confirmed, almost all of whom had been transferred to other qualified care facilities in the past year.

Becerra’s tour comes months after local and national leaders, including Mayor London Breed and Senator Diane Feinstein, called on Becerra to stop the involuntary transfer of patients from the hospital, which previously housed more than 700 patients and is now less than has 600 patients.

Laguna Honda is still a licensed care facility. But losing certification from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which Becerra oversees, would mean removing the 156-year-old hospital from federally-subsidized health plans that the vast majority of Laguna Honda patients rely on.

The hospital is now working toward recertification, and CMS has agreed to continue Medicare and Medi-Cal payments through November. And all involuntary transfers will be suspended until at least May.

Becerra, who previously served as California Attorney General, toured the facility with Mayor London Breed, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Gahlay, San Francisco Attorney David Chiu, San Francisco Department of Health Director Grant Colfax, and interim CEO of Laguna Honda Roland Pickens.

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Six days after Paul Pelosi, spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi’s husband, suffered a fractured skull in a vicious attack, he was released from Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

Mr Pelosi, 82, is resting at home recovering from injuries to his head, arm and hand. He spent most of his time in the hospital in intensive care, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“The Pelosi family is grateful for the wonderful outpouring of love, support and prayers from around the world,” Ms. Pelosi said in a statement. “Paul is grateful to the 911 dispatcher, EMTs, trauma care team, ICU staff and all medical staff at ZSFGH for the excellent and compassionate life-saving treatment he received after the violent attack at our home.”

She added that her husband “remains under medical care as he continues his long process of recovery and convalescence. He is home now surrounded by his family, who are asking for privacy.”

A 42-year-old man, David DePape, has been charged by federal prosecutors with attempting to kidnap Ms. Pelosi and assaulting a relative of a federal agent after he broke into the couple’s San Francisco home on Oct. 28. He also pleaded not guilty to multiple state crime charges Tuesday.

Mr DePape, who has subscribed to far-right conspiracy theories, beat Mr Pelosi with a hammer in front of police, according to prosecutors, telling investigators he wanted to break Ms Pelosi’s kneecaps if she “lied” and saw her as a lesson for other lawmakers ” rolled into Congress”.

His early-morning break-in into the Pelosis’ home in the upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood was described in a filing filed by local prosecutors this week as they argued that Mr. DePape should be detained without bail. On Friday, prosecutors and Mr. DePape’s defense team will appear before a San Francisco judge who will set a date for his preliminary hearing and a bail hearing.

Mr DePape, who brought zip ties and two hammers, smashed down a glass door at the back of the home and confronted Mr Pelosi, who had been sleeping in his bedroom, according to two filings released by state and federal prosecutors this week. The suspect requested to see Ms. Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time, according to authorities.

After some discussion, Mr. DePape allowed Mr. Pelosi to use the bathroom where Mr. Pelosi called 911 and attempted to secretly signal the dispatcher that he was in trouble while Mr. DePape listened to the call, prosecutors said. When police officers got to the house, they saw the two men who had gone downstairs fighting for control of one of the hammers.

Mr. DePape pulled the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi and hit him in the head with it before being attacked and restrained by officers. “Mr. Pelosi was unresponsive for about three minutes and awoke in a pool of his own blood,” according to the local attorney general’s filing.

Mr. DePape later told officers he was there on a “suicide mission” looking for Ms. Pelosi, and that he had other targets as well: a local professor and several state and federal politicians and their families.

“I’m sick of how many lies are coming out of Washington, DC,” Mr. DePape told officials, according to authorities.

Mr. DePape was raised in British Columbia, Canada and moved to California approximately two decades ago. Mr. DePape lived for years in Berkeley, California, where he was intermittently homeless before moving into a garage in nearby Richmond about two years ago.

Mr. DePape was easygoing, calm, and a hard worker, according to Frank Ciccarelli, a carpenter who has employed him for the past six years. But he also began to subscribe to political conspiracy theories and believed the 2020 election was stolen, Mr Ciccarelli said.

A few years ago, Mr. Ciccarelli tried to help Mr. DePape by taking him off the street and into his friend’s garage. But Mr. Ciccarelli believed this gave Mr. DePape greater access to the internet and allowed him to become more isolated and trapped in his darkest thoughts.

Mr. DePape appeared to have written a blog full of tirades about the 2020 election, anti-Semitic beliefs, and QAnon conspiracy theories. “He went down the rabbit hole,” said Mr. Ciccarelli.

On Tuesday, Adam Lipson, Mr DePape’s public defender, signaled that his client’s “vulnerability” to political misinformation and propaganda could be a possible strategy for his legal defense.

“We’ll definitely look into that,” said Mr. Lipson.

Holly Secon contributed coverage.

The post Paul Pelosi Leaves San Francisco Hospital After Assault appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — The city of San Francisco announced Thursday that it is suing the federal government over its decision to stop funding Laguna Honda Hospital and force the nursing home to move all patients out of the facility by September. 13.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday against the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Minister Xavier Becerra. It is alleged that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), operating under HHS, have forced the city to implement an unworkable closure and patient transfer plan that is putting them at risk and denying the city’s due process.

In April, CMS terminated Laguna Honda’s participation in its Medicare/Medicaid programs after the hospital was found to be non-compliant with multiple safety inspections, including finding contraband items such as drug paraphernalia on site and failing to comply with hand hygiene, documentation, and infection prevention protocols.

Laguna Honda Hospital

CBS

As a result of the decertification, the hospital lost federal funds that funded more than two-thirds of its services to nearly 700 patients with complex medical needs and low incomes.

The federal government also ordered the facility to reduce its patient population, and the hospital transferred several dozen patients over 10 weeks. At least four patients reportedly died within days of being relocated, including three who were taken to homeless shelters. A total of nine patients died within days or weeks of being transferred or discharged, according to prosecutor David Chiu.

Laguna Honda last week halted referrals for the remaining 600 patients following the deaths.

The complaint alleges that CMS set an arbitrary deadline for patient transfers to September 13 and is asking that it be closed before the city’s appeals can be decided, which could render the transfers unnecessary.

In a press release, Chiu said a second class action lawsuit against the state of California and the federal government, filed by former prosecutor Louise Renne, alleges the closure and transfer process violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and denies patients and their families a proper due Procedure .

“The federal government has placed Laguna Honda and our city in an impossible situation,” Chiu said in a prepared statement. “As the last safety net for many of our most vulnerable San Franciscans, Laguna Honda serves a need too critical to be shut down by an arbitrary, bureaucratic decision. The city has been forced into an unworkable plan of closure and relocation that has done far more harm than good.”

The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief to overturn the September 13 deadline and extend federal funding to Laguna Honda at least until appeals can be decided and all patients can be safely transferred or discharged.

“We are working hard to address issues that have been raised at Laguna Honda and this important work continues,” Mayor London Breed said in a prepared statement. “But closing this facility and forcing residents and families to endure the trauma of transfers should not be part of this process. This facility provides care and support to some of the most vulnerable people in our city, and that support must continue to keep them healthy and safe.”

“For over 150 years, the San Franciscos have relied on Laguna Honda to provide critical care to our most vulnerable,” Renne said in a prepared statement. “We simply cannot allow Laguna Honda to close. The actions of CMS and the California Department of Health and Human Services are illegal, unnecessary and cruel.

Theresa Rutherford, the President-elect of SEIU 1021 and longtime Board Certified Nursing Assistant at Laguna Honda Hospital, released the following statement in response to the lawsuits announcement:

“Laguna Honda Hospital is more than just a hospital, it is a long-term home for many. Keeping patients at Laguna Honda, where they will have one of the most unique and comprehensive care services in this country, must be a priority for us as a community and for elected officials at all levels. We support patients and families campaigning to stop the closure because we know it will save lives.

We understand how stressful and scary the past few months have been for staff and patients alike. Transfer trauma is a real danger to the people we serve, which is why our union is doing everything it can to get Laguna Honda Hospital recertified. We encourage community members to join us by contacting their elected leaders at all levels and asking them to join us.”

In May, Sen. Dianne Feinstein wrote a letter to Becerra asking that CMS’s decision to end Laguna Honda’s participation in its programs and force the relocation of its vulnerable patients be reversed.

“Unless CMS reverses its decision, these patients would be put at risk again if they were transferred to other facilities,” Feinstein said in a statement last month. “This is of particular concern after reports of some patients being sent to homeless shelters that were ill-equipped to provide the necessary medical services.”

The hospital remains open and licensed as it continues to work to rejoin federal programs.

The post San Francisco sues federal authorities over Laguna Honda hospital closure following affected person deaths appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Six days after Paul Pelosi, spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi’s husband, suffered a fractured skull in a vicious attack, he was released from Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

Mr Pelosi, 82, is resting at home recovering from injuries to his head, arm and hand. He spent most of his time in the hospital in intensive care, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“The Pelosi family is grateful for the wonderful outpouring of love, support and prayers from around the world,” Ms. Pelosi said in a statement. “Paul is grateful to the 911 dispatcher, EMTs, trauma care team, ICU staff and all medical staff at ZSFGH for the excellent and compassionate life-saving treatment he received after the violent attack at our home.”

She added that her husband “remains under medical care as he continues his long process of recovery and convalescence. He is home now surrounded by his family, who are asking for privacy.”

A 42-year-old man, David DePape, has been charged by federal prosecutors with attempting to kidnap Ms. Pelosi and assaulting a relative of a federal agent after he broke into the couple’s San Francisco home on Oct. 28. He also pleaded not guilty to multiple state crime charges Tuesday.

Mr DePape, who has subscribed to far-right conspiracy theories, beat Mr Pelosi with a hammer in front of police, according to prosecutors, telling investigators he wanted to break Ms Pelosi’s kneecaps if she “lied” and saw her as a lesson for other lawmakers ” rolled into Congress”.

His early-morning break-in into the Pelosis’ home in the upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood was described in a filing filed by local prosecutors this week as they argued that Mr. DePape should be detained without bail. On Friday, prosecutors and Mr. DePape’s defense team will appear before a San Francisco judge who will set a date for his preliminary hearing and a bail hearing.

Mr DePape, who brought zip ties and two hammers, smashed down a glass door at the back of the home and confronted Mr Pelosi, who had been sleeping in his bedroom, according to two filings released by state and federal prosecutors this week. The suspect requested to see Ms. Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time, according to authorities.

After some discussion, Mr. DePape allowed Mr. Pelosi to use the bathroom where Mr. Pelosi called 911 and attempted to secretly signal the dispatcher that he was in trouble while Mr. DePape listened to the call, prosecutors said. When police officers got to the house, they saw the two men who had gone downstairs fighting for control of one of the hammers.

Mr. DePape pulled the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi and hit him in the head with it before being attacked and restrained by officers. “Mr. Pelosi was unresponsive for about three minutes and awoke in a pool of his own blood,” according to the local attorney general’s filing.

Mr. DePape later told officers he was there on a “suicide mission” looking for Ms. Pelosi, and that he also had other targets: a local professor and several state and federal politicians and their families.

“I’m sick of how many lies are coming out of Washington, DC,” Mr. DePape told officials, according to authorities.

Mr. DePape was raised in British Columbia, Canada and moved to California approximately two decades ago. Mr. DePape lived for years in Berkeley, California, where he was intermittently homeless before moving into a garage in nearby Richmond about two years ago.

Mr. DePape was easygoing, calm, and a hard worker, according to Frank Ciccarelli, a carpenter who has employed him for the past six years. But he also began to subscribe to political conspiracy theories and believed the 2020 election was stolen, Mr Ciccarelli said.

A few years ago, Mr. Ciccarelli tried to help Mr. DePape by taking him off the street and into his friend’s garage. But Mr. Ciccarelli believed this gave Mr. DePape greater access to the internet and allowed him to become more isolated and trapped in his darkest thoughts.

Mr. DePape appeared to have written a blog full of tirades about the 2020 election, anti-Semitic beliefs, and QAnon conspiracy theories. “He went down the rabbit hole,” said Mr. Ciccarelli.

On Tuesday, Adam Lipson, Mr DePape’s public defender, signaled that his client’s “vulnerability” to political misinformation and propaganda could be a possible strategy for his legal defense.

“We’ll definitely look into that,” said Mr. Lipson.

Holly Secon contributed coverage.

The post Paul Pelosi Leaves San Francisco Hospital After Assault appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday expressed concern and frustration over potential patient discharges happening once again at the Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in light of an agreed-upon grace period coming to a close on Friday.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, Laguna Honda interim CEO Roland Pickens laid out the hospital’s progress in reaching federal and state recertification, two days before the hospital may have to begin discharging its patients once again.

The discussion comes after federal and state regulators cited safety concerns at Laguna Honda last April, stripped it of its Medicare and Medicaid provider agreements and required the hospital to move all 700 patients out of the facility by September. Among the concerns were drug paraphernalia in the facility, a lack of infection prevention and control, and missed doses of medication.

Thanks to a settlement agreement initiated by City Attorney David Chiu in the summerthe US Department of Health and Human Services allowed the hospital to postpone patient discharges until February, and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) agreed to keep funding Laguna Honda, so long as they worked to find solutions to the cited issues .

Days before the no-eviction window closes, city supervisors and health leaders are once again concerned about the dangers of quickly discharging and transferring patients, many of whom have complex medical conditions.

The hospital alleges that of the 57 residents who were transferred into other facilities last summer, at least 12 died within three months.

In response, CMS has issued a dozen citations against Laguna Honda for the deaths, though Pickens alleges that the regulators were partially responsible because of their pressurizing, expedited timeline and lack of guidance.

“We maintain to this day that the best place for those residents [who died] was Laguna, and the best place for the residents at Laguna now is Laguna, which is why we are doing everything we can to ensure that we do not have to resume transfers,” said Pickens.

The organization California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform alleges that Laguna Honda evicted extremely sick patients “known to be at high risk for transfer trauma” to nursing homes outside of the city with “poor track records,” some even being sent to homeless shelters.

CANHR said the series of $3,000 fines were “a mere slap on the wrist for repeated and lethal acts of elder abuse.” They added that federal and state regulators played a “lead role” in the deaths by forcing Laguna Honda to evict patients quickly, without safety in mind.

Patricia McGinnis, CANHR’s executive director, called on the Legislature to investigate the leadership of the California Department of Public Health.

“CDPH must not be allowed to whitewash the deaths of these vulnerable residents and its own role in them,” McGinnis said.

dr Grant Colfax, head of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said the department has issued a letter to CMS seeking out another pause in transfers, and CMS promised to respond before Friday. Concurrently, Laguna Honda is continuing to make improvements to become recertified, Colfax said.

“While we’ve made great progress over the last six months, and while there is more work ahead, I am confident in our direction,” said Colfax. “As we go through this process, we are again unwavering in our dedication to our residents and their families. The health, safety and well-being of our residents remains our top priority.”

Pickens said the hospital has worked closely with quality improvement experts to identify eight key issues that led to Laguna Honda’s decertification based on regulatory surveys from the past 18 months and developed an action plan to address all the concerns.

Some of the actions Laguna Honda plans to make to achieve the 300-plus milestones needed to reach recertification include creating better individualized care plans for its residents, especially those with mental health and substance abuse issues, creating better infrastructure to prevent residents from bringing illicit materials into the facility, and switching to in-person emergency preparedness drills rather than training their staff via online modules.

Laguna Honda has until May 13 to demonstrate progress toward meeting regulatory requirements before it resubmits its certification application.

“We are hopeful that when CMS comes back for their second monitoring survey, that they will see improvements and that the results will be better than they were for the first survey,” Pickens said.

Supervisor Dean Preston said he felt CMS was acting in bad faith for not responding to a request for an extension on the transfer pause.

“I cannot believe after a dozen people are dead as a result of how this has gone down to date, that CMS is not being more responsive and working with us around an extension,” said Preston at Tuesday’s meeting.

Supervisor Rafael Mandelman said he was “struck” by how much harm the oversight agencies have allegedly caused, and called their leadership “unaccountable” and “disconnected.”

“I’m sure they think they’re just following the rules they’re supposed to follow, but the real-life, on-the-ground impacts of the way in which they are proceeding is causing huge distress and stress, and in 12 cases, deaths,” Mandelman said.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen said CMS’s requests are “truly cruel and unbelievable.” She thanked Laguna Honda staff for “trying to accomplish the impossible” in meeting the regulators’ guidelines without much help.

“They don’t seem to take that into account on how much Laguna has bent over backwards to try to be helpful in resolving the crisis on our streets and with mental illness, that certainly the state and the feds don’t seem to provide any funding nor help,” Ronen said. “This whole thing is just mind-boggling.”

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