For more than a decade, independent pharmacist Jay Patel has built a close and enduring relationship with his customers, who come to him for help in sickness and in health.

But now there are interlopers: Drug middlemen, companies known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) that influence which medicines can be bought, where to buy them and at what cost.

Patel and other independent pharmacists say their businesses are threatened by the growing influence of these companies, tied to huge health care conglomerates. In a system that is opaque and complex, patients are steered to affiliated pharmacies, such as CVS and mail-order pharmacies, they say. Pharmacists face high fees and low reimbursement rates, so are unable to cover their costs.

That could put Patel — and other locally-owned pharmacists — out of business.

“I want to do what matters to the community. But how long can I sustain this?” said Patel, 48, who owns Savco Pharmacy in San Jose’s West San Carlos neighborhood. “We are at their mercy.”

The PBMs respond that critics base their conclusions on incomplete evidence. According to the trade organization Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, they protect consumers from high drug prices by negotiating for discounts, called rebates, from drug companies.

The disappearance of independent pharmacies could limit consumer choice and health care access — especially in low-income or rural communities.

On Oakland’s Telegraph Avenue, Selam Pharmacy owner Michael Gebru called PBMs “a big black box.” He said “They bill me whatever they want, and can reclaim it. That’s pretty scary. It’s a Wild West.”

In the coastal village of Point Reyes Station, tiny West Marin Pharmacy recently lost its contract with PBM company Express Scripts, used by insurer Cigna and others. Now residents covered by Cigna must get their prescriptions by mail or make a 20-mile drive to find another pharmacy.

“If any of us, our children and families are ill, suffering from fevers, vomiting, diarrhea or worse, we may be forced to drive an hour or more to San Rafael, Novato or Petaluma just to get a prescription filled,” worried pharmacy customer Christine Cordaro of Inverness Park.

PBMs were created in the 1960s as a way to process prescription drug claims. They are responsible for paying pharmacies on behalf of insurance companies, employers and the government. The three largest companies are run by CVS Health, Cigna and UnitedHealth Group, which oversee prescriptions for more than 200 million Americans.

In 2012, the year San Jose pharmacist Patel bought his modest shop, PBMs processed fewer than 50% of prescriptions.

A series of mergers in 2018 created the current system, where health care conglomerates are vertically integrated — owning the insurer, the PBM and pharmacy. The giant health insurer Aetna combined with drug retailer CVS. Another large insurer, Cigna, bought Express Scripts. UnitedHealth built its own PBM.  All three companies operate mail-order pharmacies.

“It’s like they’re taking the money from one pocket, and putting it into the other,” said Zsuzsanna Biran, pharmacist owner of West Marin Pharmacy.

Despite consumer opposition, the FTC approved the mergers.  But now there are concerns about PBMs’ economic leverage. The smaller, locally owned pharmacies feel muscled out of the market.

CVS calls the plight of independent pharmacies “overblown.”

“Contrary to much of the independent pharmacy lobby’s rhetoric, there is no crisis facing independent pharmacies,” CVS said in a statement.

“What the independent pharmacy lobby has long coveted is a world without managed pricing or the competitive pressure from PBM negotiations on behalf of payer clients and consumers,” CVS said.

According to Express Scripts, “If we didn’t provide significant value for our thousands of partners, we wouldn’t exist.”

The PBMs work by negotiating rebates on the “sticker price” of medicines. Some of these savings are shared with insurers and employers.  But a slice is kept by the PBMs. This is enormously profitable.

There is evidence of anticompetitive behavior that illegally distorts the market, hurting consumers and threatening the survival of independent pharmacies, according to new reports by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability investigation.

PBMs steer patients toward pricier drugs, with “formularies” of preferred medicines that discourage use of lower-priced alternatives, according to the reports, released last month. Because these high-priced drugs command a greater rebate, there’s more profit.

They also sometimes restrict patients’ access to mail-order deliveries, which they own. This cuts out the role of the local pharmacy.

Independent pharmacies say they’re saddled with unnecessary extra fees. When he started his business in 2012, Patel paid $15,000 to $20,000 in PBM fees; this year, his fees could surpass $110,000.

High fees and low reimbursement may discourage pharmacists from filling a prescription. If he loses money on a prescription, “I have two options,” said Patel. “Take the loss, or tell the patient that I cannot fill it.”

“With lower prescription reimbursements in one corner and higher back-end fees in the other, many community pharmacists are thinking about throwing in the towel,”  according to the National Community Pharmacists Association, which represents more than 19,400 independent U.S. pharmacies.

Nearly one-third of independent pharmacy owners may close their stores this year, it predicted.

But in Sacramento and other state capitals, lawmakers are taking a tougher look.

State Sen. Scott Wiener has authored legislation, Senate Bill 966, that would impose new rules on PBMs, better regulating the companies. It would require PBMs to be licensed with the California State Board of Pharmacy and to pass down drug rebates to consumers.

Meanwhile, Patel takes joy in things that don’t cost money — recognizing customers’ names and faces, making birthday phone calls and reminding them to be immunized. Once he provided a cane, for free, to a customer with a gimpy leg.

And there are rewards that are priceless, such as the gifts of fruit, chocolate and home-baked cookies from grateful customers.

“He’s the best,” said customer Rob Souza, picking up a prescription for an ailing wife. “He’s like a small-town pharmacist, always working things out.”

Anna Jones, the best-selling London cookbook author behind “One: Pot, Pan, Planet, A Modern Way to Eat,” has a new cookbook coming out in mid-September — “Easy Wins” (Fourth Estate, $35).

Among the temptations in its pages are focaccia sandwiches filled with tomatoes, peaches and tahini and this simple recipe for roasted potatoes with brown butter, topped with a tangy, bright lime tartar sauce. It’s straightforward but elegant, especially when topped with fennel or dill fronds.

Brown Butter Potatoes with Lime Tartar Sauce

Serves 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS

1 kg (2.2 pounds) small floury or new potatoes, scrubbed clean

100 g (1/2 cup) salted butter (or 100 ml olive oil)

6 tablespoons capers, plus 2 tablespoons caper brine

1 large free-range egg yolk

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

150 ml (2/3 cup) olive oil

100 g (about 1/2 cup) sour cream

Zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lime

1 small bunch dill or fennel fronds, to serve

DIRECTIONS

Parboil the potatoes: Bring a large pan of salted water to boil, add the potatoes, then bring back to a boil and simmer for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes, until they are just cooked. Drain and leave the potatoes to steam dry in a colander.

Brown the butter: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the potato pan back on the stove and add the salted butter. Cook over medium heat until it turns nutty brown and smells toasty. If you are vegan, use a good olive oil in place of the butter and skip the browning stage. It will still be delicious, and you could add a toasty note with some smoked salt.

Roast the potatoes: Take the butter pan off the heat, put the potatoes in a roasting tray and pour over the brown butter. Season generously with salt and pepper and toss everything in the tray. Roast for 25 minutes.

Take the potatoes out of the oven and use a potato masher to crush the potatoes into the base of the pan, making a flat surface for crisping up. Scatter 4 tablespoons of the capers and bake for another 25 minutes until golden and crisp.

Make the lime tartar sauce: Meanwhile, make your tartar sauce. Put egg yolk and Dijon mustard in a bowl and mix well. Gradually whisk in olive oil. Loosen with caper brine and sour cream. Finely chop 2 tablespoons capers and add to the sauce along with the lime zest and juice. Serve the crispy brown butter potatoes with the tartare sauce and with dill or fennel fronds torn over.

— Anna Jones, “Easy Wins” (Fourth Estate, $35, out Sept. 17) 

Miriam Fauzia | The Dallas Morning News (TNS)

A fentanyl vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Houston is expected to head to clinical trials sometime in the middle of next year, with the hope of being a groundbreaking solution to a deadly crisis.

The vaccine, which has shown success in animal studies, is designed to stop the highly addictive opioid from entering the brain and causing an overdose. Biopharmaceutical startup Ovax acquired the license to produce and test the vaccine in November 2023 and raised over $10 million toward that effort by June.

“We’re all incredibly excited,” said Collin Gage, the start-up’s co-founder and chief executive officer. He added that his company is starting at “ground zero,” but he is confident it will one day have a fentanyl vaccine available to the public.

That day may be a long time from now. While public health emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic, can accelerate a vaccine’s development, testing a new vaccine can take anywhere from five to 10 years — sometimes longer.

Meanwhile, fentanyl overdose deaths have been on the rise in Texas, from less than 80 in 2014 to nearly 2,300 in 2023, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The synthetic opioid — made illegally but also available by prescription — is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, making it the deadliest drug in the opioid crisis.

For fentanyl vaccines, adjuvants are key

The idea of creating an opioid vaccine has drawn scientific attention since the 1970s. Unlike bacteria or viruses, opioids aren’t recognized by our immune systems as foreign invaders. But the immune system can be trained to make antibodies in response to an opioid like fentanyl through a vaccine that links bits of the drug to noninfectious bits of bacteria and uses substances called adjuvants.

Adjuvants are designed to enhance immune response, and are particularly important in vaccines targeting substance use disorders. Past attempts to make these vaccines have been unsuccessful in part because the adjuvants weren’t effective enough, said Jay Evans, director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the University of Montana. Evans is also the chief scientific and strategy officer of Inimmune, a Montana-based biotech company developing and testing a variety of vaccines including ones targeting fentanyl and heroin addiction.

The adjuvant in the University of Houston’s fentanyl vaccine is an enterotoxin, a chemical produced by the bacteria Escherichia coli and modified to be noninfectious. It was first developed at Tulane University in Louisiana in the early 2000s and has been used in a variety of vaccines, said Colin Haile, a research associate professor of psychology at the University of Houston who led its fentanyl vaccine development. Haile is also an Ovax co-founder and adviser.

“It has been in 15 human clinical trials in combination with other vaccines,” he said, referring to the adjuvant used in his team’s vaccine. “There have been studies in infants where the results have been fantastic, nearly no side effects.”

Other researchers such as David Dowling and Dr. Ofer Levy, both Ovax co-founders, are using adjuvants that haven’t been tested in humans but appear to effectively enhance the immune response to vaccines targeting substance use disorders, at least based on animal studies, Dowling said.

Clinical trials littered with challenges

Phase 1 clinical trials for the University of Houston vaccine are planned to begin in the second quarter of 2025. Ovax is also in licensing negotiations with Boston Children’s Hospital for a fentanyl vaccine developed by Dowling and Levy. If those negotiations are successful, phase 1 clinical trials could begin in early 2026.

These trials will aim to establish the vaccine’s safety level, potential side effects and optimal dosage. Finding people to take part in them will be a challenge, Evans said.

“Compared to a normal infectious disease clinical trial, it will be more difficult. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is pretty adamant that you’re not going to test this vaccine in healthy individuals that don’t already have some sort of opioid addiction,” he said. “So we need to target patients in phase 1 who have a history of opioid use disorder, and that’s a harder population to try to recruit. It’s going to take longer; the patient population will have more adverse events because they’re drug users and they will be harder to track.”

Evans added that the stigma around addiction and drug use might make people reluctant to disclose their condition and participate in a clinical trial.

Ovax has yet to decide where it plans to run its phase 1 clinical trials, Gage said, but it has been looking at sites in Australia and the Netherlands.

“We’re also looking in the United States,” he said, “but it’s difficult to find the right patient population.”

Future clinical trials would need to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine, who would benefit the most and how long immunity would last.

Vaccines as part of the solution

Some critics of fentanyl vaccines say they pull resources from existing treatments for opioid addiction such as buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone. Some have questioned whether people would seek out the vaccine.

“People have to say they want to be injected, and they have to choose to keep coming back for each injection or infusion,” Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, told The Washington Post in 2023. “The vaccines do nothing to reduce craving or withdrawal or to motivate anyone to return for more care.”

For Haile, a fentanyl vaccine is not the sole solution but another weapon in the fight against the opioid crisis. He and his colleagues at the University of Houston have conducted animal studies investigating how the vaccine affects treatment with buprenorphine, a medication commonly prescribed to manage withdrawals and drug cravings. The findings have yet to be published but are “quite impressive,” Haile said, noting fentanyl vaccines could improve the effectiveness of existing treatments.

“The most important thing to keep in mind is that we’re moving as fast as we can go. … We need to get something to market as quickly as possible to address this terrible problem,” Haile said. “The ultimate goal is to protect people and save lives.”

©2024 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Tommy Tindall | NerdWallet

Is driving for Uber worth the money? I put this side hustle to the test and nervously drove strangers around northern Maryland for a couple days to find out.

Here’s what I earned:

• I made $143.73 over the course of three Uber “shifts” that totaled roughly 10 hours of active driving.
• I completed 10 trips, put 305 miles on my economical Uber rental and spent $38.80 on one tank of gas.
• Subtract the gas cost from $143.73, and I earned $104.93, or $10.49 an hour.
• Only $3 of my earnings were tips, which I found surprising — because I’m nice!

If you’re wondering, the minimum wage in Maryland handily beats my earnings at $15.00 per hour.

Uber wasn’t a lucrative side hustle for me, but it was an interesting experiment. Here are four things to keep in mind if you’re thinking about trying Uber. And if you want to watch all the ups and downs of this side hustle stress test, here’s a video of my experience.

Give yourself the flexibility to roam

During each of my three Uber “shifts,” I had the idea that I’d do rides relatively close to where I live. But the reality of living in a less populated area is that short, local trips can be few and far between. I found that to be the case even on a Friday evening in my suburban town, located roughly 50 minutes north of Baltimore.

I learned that to earn higher fares, you need to be open to where the Uber trip takes you. I left a lot of money on the table by skipping trips that would end too far from my home base. Uber works by matching riders with nearby drivers. As a driver, you have just a few seconds to accept a ride request when it comes in. I often took too long to decide when considering distance.

Toward the end of that Friday, I caved and accepted a 30-mile trip with a fare of $30.42. But when it was over, it was after 9 p.m. and I was a long way from home.

If I had put in 8-hour shifts and left myself to the mercy of the Uber Driver app, I’d have done better. But if I’m going to be driving all over creation for hours, is Uber a side hustle, or is it a main hustle?

Your car is a taxi cab and your primary tool

All that driving means you need a car that’s up to the task — something affordable, reliable and efficient. My personal vehicle is a gas-guzzler so I used Uber’s car rental service to rent a more appropriate vehicle and make this test more realistic.

But what I realized is a lot of people rent their Uber rides on the regular. If you go this route, you must rent from one of Uber’s approved rental company partners. The rental office I used, a local Hertz that partners with Uber, was packed, and I found the experience to be super hectic. It took three hours to get my car, and the one they gave me was a downgrade from what I reserved in advance.

Because of my experience, I don’t recommend renting if you can avoid it. Uber rentals cost $260 or more per week, so the recurring cost will eat heavily into earnings.

Finding your own affordable used car would likely cost less in the long run, even in cases where you get a car loan with bad credit. For example, let’s say you finance a $20,000 used car for 60 months with a high 19% interest rate. The $518 monthly payment costs less than the $260 a week rate for a rental car.

You will need to factor in insurance (which can include rideshare insurance), maintenance and repairs when comparing costs. You can turn to the Nerds for resources on how to build credit and finance a vehicle you can afford.

Consider a “slush fund” for car costs

I had the pleasure of meeting and riding home with a true Uber pro after I returned my rental car. His name is Greg Hiteshew, and Uber is his post-retirement hustle. He drives most days, says he earns between $1,000 and $1,500 in a typical week and is disciplined about saving money for car costs.

Hiteshew says he sets aside $40 at the end of every day and has done so for years without fail. He says it’s a daily habit that ensures he has enough to cover maintenance and repairs for his current car, and helps him save for the next car.

Consider putting your daily $40 (or whatever you can swing) in a high-yield savings account for the added bonus of interest on top.

Embrace the human side of rideshare

While we chatted on my ride home, Hiteshew opened up about how driving for Uber helped him cope with the loss of his wife. She passed away from cancer 12 years ago, and in the years after, he found himself in a pretty dark and lonely rut. Then one day a friend had a suggestion for a side hustle that would change his life.

“He said, ‘I want you to Uber,’” says Hiteshew, talking about meeting with his friend. The friend hoped it would give him something to keep his mind occupied. Hiteshew thought about it and decided to give it a try a week later.

“It worked,” he says. “Turns out I love it. I really enjoy doing it. I’ve met a lot of nice, nice people.”

I get what he’s talking about. I’ve been working from home for years, and trying Uber put me back into the world. I interacted with different people, visited parts of my area I hadn’t been to and realized how critical a service like Uber is for those who may not be able to afford a car. It reminded me how important it is to communicate with others, strangers even.

Turns out that part of the experience was more valuable than the money. And if I drive for Uber again, I think I learned enough to do better than $10.49 an hour.

Tommy Tindall writes for NerdWallet. Email: ttindall@nerdwallet.com.

The article How Much Does an Uber Driver Make? I Drove for Uber to Find Out originally appeared on NerdWallet.

Barron Trump has finally revealed his college choice — New York University — by turning up at the downtown Manhattan campus Wednesday morning for his first day of classes.

The 18-year-old son of Donald and Melania Trump sported a white polo shirt, Adidas sneakers and black Swiss Gear backpack, casually slung over his shoulder, as he was seen heading into the dean’s office building, followed by Secret Service agents, the New York Post reported. The Secret Service agents are there to guard him as his father, the former president, is running to return to the White House.

The sighting of Trump’s 6-foot-7-inch son ends months of speculation about his college choice, according to the Daily Beast, which first reported that NYU was his top choice. Barron is enrolled at NYU’s Stern Undergraduate College.

NYU is No. 35 overall on the U.S. News & World Report ranking of best colleges and No. 5 for its business programs. By choosing NYU, Barron is breaking with Trump family tradition. His father has boasted of his Ivy League education at University of Pennsylvania, which is ranked No. 6 by U.S. News and World Report. His older half-siblings, Don Jr., Ivanka and Tiffany, also graduated from Penn, while Eric Trump graduated from Georgetown University.

But NYU has the advantage of being Barron’s hometown university. NYU is kind of down the road — Fifth Avenue — from where Barron spent his childhood, raised by his mother in his father’s gilded penthouse in Trump Tower. It wasn’t clear, though, Wednesday, whether Barron will live on campus or will live with his mother at Trump Tower.

The fact that Melania Trump was seen arriving at Trump Tower last week fueled speculation that Barron would attend college in New York City. One way that Trump World sources have explained her absence from her husband’s campaign has been by saying that she sees herself as a “hands-on” mother, whose first priority is her son, Page Six previously reported. Some people have taken the “hands-on” mother description to mean that she would reside close to wherever he is attending college.

Donald Trump recently told the Daily Mail that while the family had considered other colleges, but Barron ultimately liked NYU the best.

“It’s a very high quality place. He liked it. He liked the school,” Trump told the Daily Mail. “I went to Wharton, and that was certainly one that we were considering. We didn’t do that … We went for Stern.”

“He’s a very high aptitude child, but he’s no longer a child. He’s just passed into something beyond child-dom.”

Nardine Saad | (TNS) Los Angeles Times

Adele says she’s making good on a promise to take a break from music after she completes her residency in Las Vegas.

The “Hello” and “Rolling in the Deep” singer confirmed during her Saturday show in Germany — her last in a 10-show run abroad — that she plans to “rest” when she wraps her three-year gig in Sin City this November.

“I’m not the most comfortable performer, I know that, but I am very f— good at it. And I have really enjoyed performing for nearly three years now, which is the longest I’ve ever done and probably the longest I will ever do,” the 15-time Grammy Award winner said onstage in Munich, according to fan footage posted on TikTok.

Adele has 10 shows left in her “Weekends With Adele” residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The shows will span five weekends this fall after she had to postpone them in February due to illness.

“After that, I will not see you for an incredibly long time and I will hold you dear in my heart for that whole length of my break,” she said, adding that she will “fantasize” about her time onstage. “It has been amazing. I just need a rest.”

“I have spent the last seven years building a new life for myself and I want to live it now,” the 36-year-old said through tears. “I want to live my life that I’ve been building and I will miss you terribly.”

On Tuesday, Adele took Instagram to reflect on her “bespoke” gig in Munich, which launched Aug. 2.

“Wow! Wow! Wow! Munich you were incredible! What a phenomenal experience. I am truly touched by the genuine outpouring of love and good will I felt from every single person who came to every single show,” she wrote, captioning a highlight reel from the shows. She also thanked the fans who attended and her team for making it happen.

“There truly is no feeling like standing in front of people you’ve never met, belting out a bunch of songs that changed your life that in ways somehow changed theirs too. It’s truly remarkable and an extraordinary story to be able to tell. I’ve been sobbing watching this beautiful video! Danke Munchen!,” she wrote.

In July, the superstar told German broadcaster ZDF that her “tank is quite empty” and that she doesn’t have plans for new music “at all.”

“I want a big break after all this and I think I want to do other creative things just for a little while,” the hitmaker said. “You know, I don’t even sing at home at all. How strange is that?”

Likewise, before her Las Vegas residency began, the Oscar winning “Skyfall” singer said she planned to take a break from music and perhaps pursue a degree in English literature or an acting career. However, during a January show, she said she might be open to touring again after completing a follow-up to her award-winning 2021 album “30.” But, as she told a fan in the audience, she wasn’t in any rush to do either of those things yet.

Instead of touring to promote “30,” she took up residence at the Colosseum. She was initially set to launch her residency in January 2022, but unexpectedly shut it down a day before it was meant to open. She blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and issues with the supply chain at the time, then explained later that the postponement was because her “artistic needs” were not being met. She said the show had “no soul in it” and that it “lacked intimacy” inside the 4,000-person theater.

The “Easy on Me” singer ultimately launched “Weekends With Adele” in November 2022 and extended the run twice.

Earlier this month, the British balladeer confirmed during another Munich show that she and sports agent Rich Paul were engaged after repeatedly referring to Paul as her fiance — and sometimes her “husband” — for months. (The two went public with their romance in 2021.) The singer, who shares 11-year-old son Angelo with ex-husband Simon Konecki, has also been vocal about wanting to expand their blended family.

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Ryan Seacrest may be breathing new life into “Wheel of Fortune,” but he’s promising longtime fans that things will pretty much stay the same.

After successful stints commandeering “American Idol,” “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” and “Live with Kelly & Ryan,” the radio and TV personality will officially take over the mantle of the long-running game show when it returns for its 42nd season on Sept. 9.

Not trying to shake things up, he plans on following the same successful formula he’s used in the past: “Don’t make any changes, don’t touch it,” Seacrest said in a GMA interview on Tuesday.

“This show works,” he added. “All I need to do is keep it moving. All we need to do is have fun every night. And I think if that’s what happens, this show continues for a long time.”

In June 2023, the 49-year-old was announced as Pat Sajak’s replacement — weeks after the 77-year-old host revealed “the time has come” for him to resign from the position he’d held for more than four decades.

Seacrest shared Tuesday that Sajak and his longtime co-host Vanna White told him that “the best part is you’re gonna meet three new people every night, and they walk away with cash.”

However, White said the new season will add another update alongside the new host. The revamped set will include a new board where the legendary letter-turner said she won’t “even have to touch the letter anymore.”

For his final spin at the wheel, Sajak will return to the airwaves for “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” on Oct. 7.

Emma Hall | The Sacramento Bee (TNS)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Pit River Tribe elder Theodore Martinez knows more of death than anyone should.

“I want to acknowledge some of the people that have been murdered from my tribe,” Martinez said. “These are all my people.”

Martinez’s family, close friends and members of his tribe are among the more than 150 documented cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis in California. The state has the fifth most unsolved cases involving Native people in the country, and tribal leaders have urged for the crisis to be declared a state emergency.

Earlier this year as he stood on the west Capitol steps, Martinez, with anguish in his eyes, recalled each person he’s lost in his lifetime.

There was Little George Montgomery, who was like a brother to Martinez. He was killed decades ago, with the tribe finding his body dismembered, Martinez said. All they had left to bury was his skull.

There was his own brother, Victor, who Martinez said was killed in 1992.

There was his cousin who lived on the Fort Bidwell Reservation in Modoc County. Martinez said she was found dead, face down in the water of the tribe’s hot springs.

There was Dewey McGarva. At 36, he went missing for more than a year. When his tribe found him, there wasn’t much left, Martinez said.

And then, there was Milton “Yogi” McGarva, who identified as Two-Spirit, a third gender identity for Indigenous people. McGarva was stabbed and fatally wounded in 2020.

“These are things that have gone on historically, throughout my territory,” Martinez said. “None of these things have been investigated. Nothing has been done.”

As Martinez looked upon a crowd of Native Californians, he knew he wasn’t the only one who had lost relatives.

The deaths and disappearances of his relatives have gone unsolved by law enforcement for decades, Martinez said. It’s a pain many families relate to: the feeling of being let down and left without closure.

“We as Native people, we need to help each other. We need to support this movement,” Martinez said. “Because without that support, it’s not going to go very far.”

After feeling neglected by law enforcement, these families have taken matters into their own hands. They offer monetary rewards for anyone with knowledge of their relatives’ whereabouts, carrying posters with their loved one’s faces and names.

They haven’t given up. They all want justice.

Families of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People seek justice

Toni Espinoza, a member of Wilton Rancheria, is the sister of Angel Baby Espinoza, who died on Nov. 18, 2001. Her family believes she was killed.

Toni Espinoza said her sister died following a hit and run on Norwood Avenue in North Sacramento. Her family believes Angel Baby was pushed in front of the car by an ex-partner.

“We want justice. I want to be able to tell her kids who did this to their mom,” Toni Espinoza said, her voice beginning to break. “We have a right to know, everybody has the right to justice.”

Toni Espinoza said she worked with a police detective and allegedly found an eye witness. But the case was deemed manslaughter after three years and not pursued as a murder investigation.

To this day, her family, including Angel Baby’s own five children,still mourn her death. They are left with no answers.

“This is why we do what we can,” Toni Espinoza said. “To spread the word, to say her name, to do marches and hold protests in front of the Capitol so somebody will care.”

Over in Mendocino County, 81-year-old Ronnie Hostler and his family have been searching for his beloved granddaughter, Khadijah Britton, 23, who has been missing for the past seven years. Britton belongs to the Wailaki Round Valley Indian tribes.

Britton was last seen in Covelo, California, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, with an ex-boyfriend forcing her into a car at gunpoint.

While the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office was involved in the case, Hostler is unsatisfied. He said Britton’s disappearance wasn’t investigated until two weeks after her family reported her missing. Today, Britton has been deemed a cold case.

Britton’s family is still trying to find herbut at this point, they are looking for her body to bury in the family cemetery.

“We want to find her, wherever she may be, and we want to take care of her,” Hostler said. “That’s what we want right now, and we’re not getting it.”

Tribes face issues with law enforcement

The Sacramento Bee has spoken to, or heard from, 46 families, tribal leaders and experts in Indian Country affected by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis. They identified obstacles preventing cases from getting solved.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases reflect disproportionate rates of violence against Native communities nationwide. Native people are 2.5 times more likely to experience a violent crime, according to the Association on American Indian Affairs.

When cases are reported, there is sometimes no response, little follow through or poor coordination with criminal investigations, said Keely Linton, the operations director for the Strong Hearted Native Women’s Coalition, a nonprofit that supports families with Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases.

Local law enforcement can be slow to respond to calls of crime and are “less attentive to the interests of tribes,” according to the UCLA American Indian Studies Center. Tribal communities also struggle to trust law enforcement.

Erik Apperson, the former Del Norte County sheriff, saw this dynamic firsthand when working on Yurok and Tolowa Dee-ni’ tribal lands. Now retired, he recalled meeting a shocked and grieving mother whose young son was killed by another boy on tribal lands.

Despite the tragedy of a young boy dying that night, the need to bring an offender to justice did not outweigh the absence of ability and desire to pursue the case, Apperson said.

“I believe in my heart that it was a homicide, even if negligence played a part in it,” he said.

Why do Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases go cold?

Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis cases are seven times less likely to be solved than any other ethnic group statewide, according to Sovereign Bodies Institute. As a result, most cases go cold, said Linton, who is Íipay and Cupeno.

Families will often feel stigmatized by law enforcement and are often faced with skepticism due to racist stereotypes. They feel law enforcement is uncaring or that their loved one’s disappearance is minimized.

Racism against Native people can prevent cases from being pursued or taken seriously, said Linton. Officers are not always understanding or trauma-informed about the tribal communities they serve.

As a result, some harbor stereotypical beliefs and prejudices. It’s an issue Greg O’Rourke, the Yurok tribal police chief, faced when he handled a sexual abuse case with his non-Native partner in the his local sheriff’s department.

“I remember very specifically my partner saying ‘do the people on the reservation have kids just so they can molest them?’” said O’Rourke during a hearing on Public Law 280 in March. “This person was a good man, a good cop. But that was the response. How can you provide accurate and humane services when that is the first thing that comes to mind?”

Barriers are also deeply rooted in California’s colonial origins and laws today.

What is Public Law 280?

Enacted in 1953, Public Law 280 requires tribal law enforcement to share criminal jurisdiction with state police agencies, causing overlap and confusion. It’s a law that impeded on Britton’s case being pursued, Hostler said.

“The piece of colonization is still here, embedded with all these laws, all these laws that have moved forward in the state of California,” said Assemblyman James Ramos, D-San Bernardino. “It’s now, recently, that we’re layering back those laws and trying to insert the California Indian voice into it.”

Because of Public Law 280, tribal law enforcement are unable to prosecute non-Native people on tribal land. Tribal police can only arrest and detain non-Natives for “delivery to state and federal authorities,” according to the Department of Justice.

In regards to Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases, it’s often non-Native people perpetrating sexual violence against Native women. Between 86% to 96% of abuse against Native women comes from non-Native offenders, who are rarely punished, the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University found.

How California legislation could help

Tribal police know their communities best, yet they lack the authority of a state officer to investigate murders, said O’Rourke.

This is where Assembly Bill 2138 could provide a solution. This bill, authored by Ramos, would launch a pilot program to grant state peace officer status to tribal police in selected tribal communities from 2025 until 2028.

If passed, this program would go into effect under the Department of Justice. By no later than 2027, the DOJ would submit a report about case clearance rates, including those for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases.

As another way to combat Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases, California passed the Feather Alert in 2022, an emergency notification system similar to the Amber Alert.

But the alert has run into obstacles.

In December, The Bee found that the California Highway Patrol only sent out one Feather Alert. CHP has a history of not issuing alerts tribes requested, either because it did not meet their criteria or for undisclosed reasons. Since then, about 60% of Feather Alert requests have been rejected, according to the Press Democrat.

New amendments have been implemented for the Feather Alert. Law enforcement agencies are now required to respond to requests within 48 hours. If an alert is denied, law enforcement must provide written notice to a government agency or tribe that explains why.

“We’re starting to address and make the alert system stronger,” said Ramos, who is Cahuilla and Serrano.

Tribal leaders have urged more funding toward investigations. In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom awarded almost $20 million in grants to 18 tribes to fund prevention efforts for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases.

Families, meanwhile, called for the convictions of the perpetrators who enact violence against their loved ones. Justice has not been swift for most families, but McGarva’s family did have their call answered. Jarrett Bleu Rucker, the man who killed McGarva, one of Martinez’s relatives, was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison earlier this year.

“The victory and justice for Yogi was not easily won,” said Morning Star Gali, the founder of Indigenous Justice, who assisted McGarva’s family in the criminal justice process. “It was a difficult four years in the making, with his family not knowing when they would be able to breathe a sigh of relief.”

The road to support starts with visibility, priority and mutual respect for California’s first people, Ramos said.

“It’s time that our voices be heard,” Ramos said. “It’s time that our voices and what’s affecting our people doesn’t go in silence.”

The Strong Hearts Native Helpline provides culturally-specific resources for Native Americans experiencing domestic and sexual violence through a helpline 1-844-7NATIVE (762-8483).

©2024 The Sacramento Bee. Visit at sacbee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 3, the 247th day of 2024. There are 119 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 3, 1935, Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first person to drive an automobile more than 300 miles-per-hour, speeding across the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Also on this date:

In 1861, during the Civil War, Confederate forces invaded the border state of Kentucky, which had declared its neutrality in the conflict.

In 1894, the United States celebrated the first federal Labor Day holiday.

In 1783, representatives of the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War and recognized U.S. sovereignty.

In 1939, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland; in a radio address, Britain’s King George VI said, “With God’s help, we shall prevail.”

In 1943, Allied forces invaded Italy during World War II, the same day Italian officials signed a secret armistice with the Allies.

In 1976, America’s Viking 2 lander touched down on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the red planet’s surface.

In 1999, a French judge closed a two-year inquiry into the car crash that killed Princess Diana, dismissing all charges against nine photographers and a press motorcyclist, and concluding the accident was caused by an inebriated driver.

In 2019, Walmart said it would stop selling ammunition for handguns and short-barrel rifles, and the store chain requested that customers not openly carry firearms in its stores; the announcement followed a shooting at a Walmart store in Texas that left 22 people dead.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Singer-musician Al Jardine (The Beach Boys) is 81.
• Actor Valerie Perrine is 81.
• Filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet is 71.
• Rock guitarist Steve Jones (The Sex Pistols) is 69.
• Actor Steve Schirripa (TV: “The Sopranos”) is 66.
• Author Malcolm Gladwell is 61.
• Actor Charlie Sheen is 59.
• Filmmaker Noah Baumbach is 55.
• Dance-rock musician Redfoo (LMFAO) is 49.
• Actor Garrett Hedlund is 40.
• Olympic gold medal snowboarder Shaun White is 38.
• Model-actor Kaia Gerber is 23.
• Actor Jack Dylan Grazer is 21.

By René Bennett, Bankrate.com

Many of us have given in to the temptation to buy something we don’t need.

Maybe you were passively scrolling through your social media feed when a sponsored post came up, showcasing the latest tech gadget with glowing reviews. Unable to resist, you clicked the “buy” button for fear of missing out, only to find the excitement faded not long after, leaving you with regret and a dent in your bank account.

What is impulse buying?

Impulse buying is the act of making unplanned purchases on a whim without considering long-term goals and needs. From flashy tech to trendy fashion items, impulse purchases can quickly drain your bank account and hinder your long-term financial goals.

The temptation is further fueled by social media — 48% of social media users have made an impulse purchase, according to Bankrate’s Social Media Survey. And 68% of those said they regretted an impulse purchase they made on social media.

Coupled with the current high-inflation environment, succumbing to impulse purchases can have even more detrimental effects on our savings than usual. But there are ways you can curb impulsive spending habits and focus on more long-term financial goals.

Strategies to stop impulse buying

1. Reflect before purchasing

Getting into the habit of slowing down and reflecting before making an impulse buy can be a big money-saver.

Some questions you should ask yourself:

• Is this item a want or a need?
• Can I afford it without sacrificing something more important?
• Will this bring long-term value and satisfaction?

2. Stick to a shopping list

Before heading to the store or browsing online, make a shopping list of items that you genuinely need. A shopping list provides a clear plan for your shopping trip, eliminating ambiguity and reducing the chances of being swayed by impulses. It also acts as a reminder of your goals and priorities.

You could try using a shopping list app which can help you organize your shopping lists and even share them with friends or family members to streamline your shopping process.

3. Implement the 24-hour rule

When you come across something you’re tempted to buy immediately, give yourself a cooling-off period of 24 hours. Why? The purpose of the 24-hour rule is to create a space between the initial impulse and the actual purchase — often, the initial excitement and compulsion to buy can fade after that time period. By waiting, you give yourself a chance to reconsider the purchase in a more neutral state of mind.

During those 24 hours, you can take the time to research the item’s features, read reviews, compare prices and consider if it aligns with your needs and budget.

4. Unfollow accounts that fuel your temptation

The constant stream of captivating images, flashy ads and influencers promoting products on social media can make it incredibly tempting to click that “buy now” button without a second thought. With just a swipe or a scroll, we’re exposed to a never-ending array of products and services, each promising to improve our lives in some way. But that promise can be deceiving and succumbing to the temptation can lead to financial stress and instability.

One big step you can take to help resist the siren call of impulse buys is to carefully curate your social media feed to prevent yourself from seeing those items in the first place. Unfollow brands and promoters that consistently tempt you. You might even want to remove certain shopping apps from your phone or set time limits for those that have the strongest pull on you. Even a few changes to your social media feed can reduce the constant exposure to shopping triggers and help you save money.

5. Prioritize clear financial goals for long-term gratification

Envision your ideal financial future, and set clear goals. Instead of simply saying you want to save money, set a specific target, such as saving $5,000 within the next year. Once you’ve established goals, you can fit them into your budget to align your spending with what you want to achieve in the long term.

It’s easy to give in to temporary pleasures when we’re surrounded by lures to buy stuff all the time, but reminding yourself of your financial goals and learning to wait can help you find long-term fulfillment. As you achieve smaller milestones toward your goals, reward yourself (within reason) to maintain a positive mindset and reinforce your commitment to the larger goals.

6. Pay with cash

Take the time to budget exactly how much you can spend on your purchases and withdraw cash to spend on those purchases. By using cash, you avoid overspending and impulse purchases.

If you’re used to paying with a card to rack up credit card points or cashback rewards, you’ll lose out on these benefits when you pay with cash. But once you start to gain more discipline by paying with cash, you might be able to transition back to responsible credit card use.

Be aware of signs of impulsive spending habits

The thrill of impulsive buying might not show up right away, but there are some signs to look out for, including:

• You’re spending beyond your means or more than you intended during your purchase.
• You hide purchases from family members or a partner.
• You’re unable to pay bills or save as much as you’d like because of high spending elsewhere.
• You feel guilty or regretful about spending.

Bottom line

By establishing clear financial goals and prioritizing your long-term needs over short-term impulse purchases, you can regain control of your finances and make decisions that support future aspirations. Keep track of how much you’ve saved from cutting back on impulse buying — those savings can go toward a specific savings fund or be invested in a high-yielding certificate of deposit (CD) to earn money back in the form of interest.

Key takeaways

• Impulse buying means purchasing items you did not plan to buy.
• Impulse buying can result in more spending which can lead to less savings and even an increase in debt.
• There are steps you can take to reduce impulse buying, such as prioritizing financial goals and sticking to a shopping list.

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Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com.

©2024 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Today is Monday, Sept. 2, the 246th day of 2024. There are 120 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 2, 2013, on her fifth attempt, U.S. endurance swimmer Diana Nyad became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the help of a shark cage.

Also on this date:

In 1666, the Great Fire of London began, which would destroy more than 13,000 homes and hundreds of additional structures, including St Paul’s Cathedral, over the ensuing three days.

In 1789, the United States Treasury Department was established.

In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces occupied Atlanta.

In 1935, a Category 5 hurricane slammed into the Florida Keys on Labor Day, claiming more than 400 lives.

In 1945, Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II.

In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act, which provided aid to public and private education to promote learning in such fields as math and science.

In 1963, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace prevented the integration of Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers.

In 1969, in what some regard as the birth of the Internet, two connected computers at the University of California, Los Angeles, passed test data through a 15-foot cable.

In 1998, a Swissair MD-11 jetliner crashed off Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people aboard.

In 2005, a National Guard convoy packed with food, water and medicine rolled into New Orleans four days after Hurricane Katrina.

In 2018, a huge fire engulfed Brazil’s 200-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, as firefighters and museum workers raced to save historical relics.

In 2019, a fire swept a boat carrying recreational scuba divers that was anchored near an island off the Southern California coast; the captain and four other crew members were able to escape the flames, but 34 people who were trapped below died.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Former Sen. Alan K. Simpson, R-Wyo., is 93.
• Horse trainer D. Wayne Lukas is 89.
• Former United States Olympic Committee Chairman and former Major League Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth is 87.
• Football Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw is 76.
• Basketball Hall of Famer Nate Archibald is 76.
• Actor Mark Harmon is 73.
• Tennis Hall of Famer Jimmy Connors is 72.
• Football Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson is 64.
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is 62.
• Actor Keanu Reeves is 60.
• Boxing Hall of Famer Lennox Lewis is 59.
• Actor Salma Hayek is 58.
• R&B singer K-Ci is 55.
• Electronic music DJ/producer Zedd is 35.

Today is Sunday, Sept. 1, the 245th day of 2024. There are 121 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 1, 1985, a U.S.-French expedition located the wreckage of the Titanic on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean roughly 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

Also on this date:

In 1715, following a reign of 72 years, King Louis XIV of France died four days before his 77th birthday; he was succeeded by his five year-old great-grandson, Louis XV.

In 1897, the first section of Boston’s new subway was opened, creating the first underground rapid transit system in North America.

In 1914, the passenger pigeon, once one of the most abundant bird species on earth, went extinct as the last known example, named Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.

In 1923, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives.

In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, an event regarded as the start of World War II.

In 1964, pitcher Masanori Murakami of the San Francisco Giants became the first Japanese baseball player to play in a Major League Baseball game.

In 1969, a coup in Libya brought Moammar Gadhafi to power.

In 1972, American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, as Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union resigned before the resumption of their 21st and final game.

In 1983, 269 people were killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace.

In 2004, Islamic terrorists took more than a thousand people hostage in a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia; the siege would end three days later in gunfire and explosions, leaving 334 people dead — more than half of them children.

In 2015, invoking “God’s authority,” Rowan County, Kentucky, Clerk Kim Davis denied marriage licenses to gay couples again in direct defiance of the federal courts and vowed not to resign, even under the pressure of steep fines or jail. (Davis would spend five days in jail as a result, and is currently appealing a ruling ordering her to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in related legal fees.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz is 86.
• Comedian-actor Lily Tomlin is 85.
• Singer Barry Gibb is 78.
• Talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw is 74.
• Singer Gloria Estefan is 67.
• TV host-author Padma Lakshmi is 54.
• Actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira is 53.
• Fashion designer Rachel Zoe is 53.
• Actor Scott Speedman is 49.
• Composer-producer Ludwig Göransson is 40.
• Actor-singer Zendaya is 28.

Chris Hewitt | The Minnesota Star Tribune (TNS)

Summer is the season for blockbuster movies, but autumn is when the publishing world unleashes one title after another from some of the biggest, and biggest selling, authors.

We’ll see new books from “The Overstory” writer Richard Powers and “Leave the World Behind” novelist Rumaan Alam, for instance. Here are five others we can’t wait to dive into, all due in September:

Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner

Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist Kushner’s latest is about a woman who is lying to everyone about everything. Sadie (not her real name, of course) is a secret agent, sent to France to infiltrate a group of anarchists. She has a lover, whom she’s surveilling, and friends, whom she’s using, and everything works well until she becomes fascinated by a man who may be even more duplicitous than she is.

Sept. 3, Simon & Schuster, $29.99.

Devils Kill Devils, Johnny Compton

Guardian angels are supposed to be a good thing, but Sarita isn’t so sure when, on her wedding night, her angel, Angelo, who has repeatedly saved her from disaster, kills her husband. Compton’s followup to last year’s “The Spite House” is said to be a super-violent tale of horror that casts vampires in a whole new light.

Sept. 10, Macmillan, $28.99.

Final Cut, Charles Burns

This graphic novel (very graphic — it’s definitely not for kids) is a tale of romantic obsession that’s also about identity and nostalgia. Brian and Jimmy, who used to make goofy science-fiction short films when they were in middle school, reunite as adults to create a more ambitious feature film. Inspired by their beloved “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” it drives them and their collaborators, including muse and lead actor Laura, into a remote forest where things take a dark turn.

Sept. 24, Pantheon, $34.

The Siege, Ben Macintyre

The prolific British writer’s nonfiction accounts of spycraft — including “Agent Zigzag,” “Colditz” and “Operation Mincemeat” — generally take him to World War II and the heroes who worked in the shadows to bring it to a close. But the events of “The Siege” happened in 1980, during America’s Iran Hostage Crisis. It’s a minute-by-minute account of the six days after armed gunmen stormed the Iranian embassy in London, taking 26 hostages.

Sept. 10, Crown, $32.

The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon

Duluth-based social media influencer, podcaster and “America’s government teacher” McMahon— whose popularity has zoomed as the country has become more divided and confusing — unveils 12 witty portraits of average Americans who made enormous contributions but didn’t get into the history books, like the guy who was at Alexander Hamilton’s deathbed and who wrote the preamble to the Constitution.

Sept. 24, Thesis, $32.

©2024 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Deborah Vankin | Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES — She was 63.

I was 33.

We shared cocktails at a rooftop bar overlooking Sunset Boulevard during golden hour. And the connection was palpable.

No, this isn’t the start to an “L.A. Affairs” romance column. But it is about a love affair of sorts. My best girlfriend of the last two decades is 30 years older than me.

I met Loraine in 2001. I was newly married and working as an associate arts editor at L.A. Weekly, where I was writing book reviews and covering the arts. A friend introduced us at a literary salon one evening. It was a brief business exchange. We were sitting on the floor of the now-shuttered French-Vietnamese restaurant Le Colonial, cross-legged on silk pillows awaiting the start of the readings. Loraine leaned over and gave me her card, mentioning she had just published a debut novel.

“It’s about marriage, adultery and regular church attendance,” she whispered, clearly pleased with her pithy elevator pitch. I stuffed the card in my purse.

A few weeks later Loraine convinced me to meet her for apple martinis at a rooftop restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. I had been hesitant to spend a free evening with a relative stranger who was a generation-plus older than I and with whom I assumed I had little in common. My friends at the time were all raucous creative types in their 20s and early 30s. Clichés raced through my head: Would she be stuffy or old-fashioned? Would we have anything to talk about? I’d have to watch my manners.

“I’ll be home within the hour,” I told my husband, determined to keep the meeting quick and cordial, a professional nicety.

But our conversation stretched on and on. I learned Loraine had grown up in a small town just north of New Orleans, one of the only Jewish families there at the time. She’d studied art in Paris during college — and she regaled me with stories of ill-fated romances she’d had there — before breaking into Hollywood as a TV writer in the 1970s. She penned what many consider the single most iconic TV show in pop culture history in 1980, the “Who Shot J.R.?” episode of “Dallas.”

“Then I made a pivotal mistake in my career,” she told me.

“What?!” I was rapt.

“I turned 50. That was it. Hollywood stopped calling,” she said, shrugging matter-of-factly. “So I turned to writing novels instead.”

“The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc” would go on to become a national bestseller.

It was one of those mysterious, pivotal nights. Seemingly benign at the time, it proved to be life-changing in hindsight. Loraine’s resilience and joie de vivre was inspiring. I didn’t for a minute notice the age gap — and haven’t to this day.

Sure, Loraine has curly, silver hair and oversized glasses and, at 86, now walks a tad more gingerly than she used to. But I don’t see an older woman when I look at her; I see the essence of a person, timeless and ageless, housed in a corporeal shell (one that’s in pretty darn good shape, I should add). I see a teenage girl, still ever-curious about the world around her. I see a 20-something women, still evolving through new creative pursuits, most recently poetry writing. I see an accomplished power player in midlife at the peak of a highly successful TV writing career, self-satisfied and oozing with agency. I see a woman, late in life, struggling to unearth new pathways toward creative and intellectual relevance — and succeeding.

Suffice to say: My editor ended up passing on the book review, but Loraine got me instead.

As our friendship blossomed I learned that Loraine was all kinds of fabulous. She was part New York intellectual, part West Coast hippie, part Hollywood elite. Her closet was stuffed with expensive designer clothes, which she often passed over for unassuming yogawear. She drank Prosecco and swam naked in her cobalt-tiled pool. She once convinced me to spend the entire afternoon lying on our backs, in the dirt, beneath an old and glorious oak tree in Franklin Canyon Park, the sun glimmering through the leaves.

She knew so much about art, an interest we bonded over and which would become a throughline of our friendship. When I began covering art for The Times, she became one of my go-to plus-ones for museum and gallery openings. We’ve taken that interest abroad too, touring art studios in Cuba, visiting museums in Vienna and, most recently, journeying to Japan’s art island, Naoshima.

I suppose this is where I relay how the three-decade age gap has provided illuminating pearls of wisdom during divorce, career changes and aging woes. But honestly? That’s not been the case. Loraine is there for me in an emergency, but she isn’t the motherly, advice-dispensing type.

Rather, Loraine teaches by example. She’s living proof that fabulousness is about attitude, not age. And that vitality has less to do with hip mobility than it does a sustaining lust for life and unrelenting curiosity about the world. I wonder: Had I not met Loraine, would I be aging, now, with as much ease and universality? Would I be more susceptible to the rigid and relentless stereotypes with which society brands women of a certain age? Loraine is, above all else, a writer. And the narrative she’s crafted for herself — a feminist art scholar turned advertising copywriter and single mother turned happily remarried TV writer turned novelist turned poet — bucks society’s expectations. I hope to continue writing it.

“Oh, it’s so nice you have a surrogate mother in L.A.,” my own mother would often say of Loraine when she visited from the East Coast. Loraine is older than my mom and the fact that I had a “kind of aunt-like person” living nearby brought her comfort.

Loraine would bite her lip whenever my mom said that; but afterward, we’d marvel at the mischaracterization of our friendship. Our conversations are devoid of motherly energy; instead they range from our romantic lives to clothes to books and contemporary art. Our recent Japan trip included several nights at a yurt camp by the sea (which we abandoned due to mold).

Last July Fourth we climbed atop an Echo Park hillside, took edibles and watched the fireworks melting across the sky.

“Really, where do you think we go when we die?” I asked in a haze.

“Beats me,” she said, chuckling. “Pass the nuts, will you?”

Then we burst out laughing.

The beginning of the 2020 pandemic was the first time I ever felt our age gap. Our experiences sheltering in place were very different. I was batch-cooking soup and binge-watching FX’s “Better Things,” relishing what felt like a rare solitude. Loraine became low-level depressed and, as the months of the pandemic turned to years, tinged with bitterness. It was a rare mood for the typically happy-go-lucky Loraine.

“It’s like being robbed of the last years you have left,” she’d say on the phone. “I’m withering here at home.”

Recently, Loraine’s taken to repeating herself, as is the case with almost anyone her age.

“So what are you up to this weekend?” she’ll ask me on the phone, minutes after I answered the question already.

I just politely repeat myself, resigned to a sort of linguistic meditation, learning to enjoy the same conversation threads over and over again.

When we broached the issue recently, she told me, sighing: “I suffer from CRS.”

I braced myself for what that meant.

“Can’t Remember Shit,” she said, laughing — one of her long, loose chuckles that trails off with a cheery whine, as if she were a flapper wielding a cigarette holder in the air, head tossed back in the wind. “It is what it is.”

I’ve found myself using that phrase a lot lately: It is what it is. Loraine may not overtly mentor me in life, but her open embrace of whatever life offers reminds me to be present, to live in the moment.

Thinking about our friendship, I see a supercut of us: the time Loraine and I danced on a cafe rooftop in Cuba to live music; when we sailed through the air on trampolines on my 45th birthday with ’80s music playing over the loudspeaker; the New Year’s Eve we posed for selfies in wigs at a friend’s house; Loraine chasing a flying cockroach around our Miami hotel room as I squealed from atop the bed; her pure, unabashed joy when we rounded a corner in a Naoshima museum recently and she found a Cy Twombly work on display.

We were, in all those moments, 16 and 35 and 86. We meet somewhere in the middle, in the universal mind meld that is true friendship. And I’m grateful for every year of it.

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — On a bench near the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market in July, Peggy Cheng recalled the time a television writer pitched her a wacky sitcom centered around the unlikely scenario of a young woman who had befriended her elderly neighbors.

Cheng, who was working in TV development at the time, wasn’t impressed.

“She thought it was so unique and I was like, ‘Hmm,’ ” said the 40-year-old Brentwood resident, laughing.

After all, the writer could have been describing Cheng’s life. Her best friend, Karen Letzkian, lives in the unit above hers and is 24 years her senior. They even had a meet-cute: A leaky toilet brought them together. But their difference in age has not stopped the two from being active participants in each other’s lives. Cheng spent months helping Letzkian plan her wedding. Letzkian picked Cheng up from the hospital after surgery. And they’re both always up for a last-minute trip to the local Ralph’s.

“I share everything with her,” Cheng said. “She’s one of the few friends who knows every facet of my life.”

Letzkian, a retired IT consultant, says the feeling is mutual. “Life is more fun when we’re together. I think that sums it up.”

As it turns out, age-gap friendships like Cheng and Letzkian’s may be more common than many of us think. A 2019 AARP survey found that nearly four in 10 adults have a close friend who is at least 15 years older or younger than they are. Even more are interested in cultivating these types of friendships. Nearly eight in 10 adults want to spend more time with people outside their age groups, according to a report from the Washington, D.C.-based organization Generations United.

Although research on the benefits of intergenerational friendships is nascent, several studies suggest that older adults who regularly interact with younger people experience less anxiety, depression and reduced cognitive decline than their more age-siloed peers. For younger folks, having friends outside their generation may help reduce both internal and external ageism, and address feelings of isolation and loneliness.

“From both sides there are individual level benefits that have the potential to improve health and well-being,” said Lauren Dunning, director of future of aging at the Milken Institute.

But ask those who are in age-gap friendships what they like about it, and chances are they’ll simply tell you they are in it for the enjoyment and pleasure of spending time with someone who “gets” them.

“There’s this exchange of ideas and knowledge, and this recognition that having fun is just as much a part of later life as it is for younger life,” said Catherine Elliott O’Dare, a professor in social policy at Trinity College in Dublin who studies the benefits of intergenerational friendships.

We spoke to six intergenerational friend groups in L.A. about how they met, what they do together and the benefits of their age difference.

Justin Beverly, 26, student. Jose Bautista, 73, retail worker. Nicholas Baraban, 33, retail worker

How did you meet?

Bautista: “We all used to work at the Hobby Lobby and these guys used to have beers after work. One day I invited myself along, but on one condition — we have to play [music].”

Favorite activities:

Playing music, going to the batting cage, open mic nights, barbecues.

What makes the friendship special?

Baraban: “I had a best friend who passed away — a bandmate. Jose helped me start playing with other people again. He was the first person I opened up to about playing out again.”

Bautista: “We’ve become best friends. I can rely on these guys for anything and I know they’ll come through. And me too. They can count on me for anything.”

Best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

Beverly: “Getting everyone’s perspective and point of view. People have more stories to tell from different times. It gives an interesting dynamic.”

Bautista: “I don’t feel an age difference with them. I don’t know how a 73-year-old is supposed to act.”

Baraban: “I don’t feel an age difference so much.”

Jeannine Bell, 69, retired high school teacher. Antoine Cason, 38, former NFL quarterback for the San Diego Chargers, recent college football referee

How did you meet?

Bell: “My son Josh was a waterboy for the football team at Los Alamitos High. Antoine walked past us before school one morning and says, ‘Hey J-Dub. How are you doing?’ I said, ‘Who was that?’ and he said, ‘That’s the nicest guy on the football team.”

Cason: “Then I took your photography class senior year and after I went to college I’d come back and see everyone and it just grew from there.”

Favorite activities:

Football activities, going to dinner, and spending time with mutual friends and each other’s families.

What makes the friendship special?

Bell: “He inspires me every time I see him. He lifts up people around him, his personality obviously, but also he cares about people. He gives back.”

Cason: “Every time I’m around her I feel the genuine love and care. She really cares. Sometimes you don’t feel that way around people. And my family loves her too.”

Best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

Bell: “I want to stay relevant for every day of my life. He helps me do that. And it’s not just the age difference. He is a different color than I am, a different culture. I love understanding that better. I can’t say I understand it totally but hopefully it makes me communicate better with everyone as a result of that.”

Cason: “For me — especially where I’ve been, what I’ve done — I feel safe with her. I like to stay as private as I can because everything I’ve done has been in the public. And I just feel safe. That’s very important.”

Flora Grewe, 4 ½, student. Mary Ota, 105, retired medical office worker

How did you meet?

Ota: “Flora and her family lived at the end of the street where I used to go for a walk. I would sit on my walker and rest before turning around and she would come and bring me flowers. Then she started coming over and we just became friends. Now we get together a lot.”

Favorite activities:

Doing puzzles, getting matching manicures, giving presents.

What makes the friendship special?

Ota: “She is a sweet little girl, always smiling and just adorable. At first she was quite shy, but what was adorable is she would write notes and bring them to me. She would always smile when she brought me things, and even if they were just weeds, I would put them in water.”

Grewe: “I don’t even know! I just like her!”

Best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

Ota: “A friend like Flora keeps things lively. Young people are so full of life. And connecting with young people makes you recall when you were young and your children were young.”

Grewe: “She let me have two cupcakes at her birthday party. She’s nice.”

patricia smith 73, retired faculty support at UCLA, yoga teacher. Adam Fowler, 43, consultant

How did you meet?

Fowler: “I took a position in Global Economics and Management at UCLA while I was applying to PhD programs. The first day the person I was replacing warned me about the woman down the hall. I hadn’t been in Los Angeles terribly long and I was like, ‘Oh, God, I hope this isn’t a nightmare.’ But we just hit it off.”

smith: “He endeared me to him with the ‘Yes, ma’am.’ It reminded me of the way I was brought up. And his Southern accent was the cutest thing in the world.”

Favorite activities:

Picnics at the Hollywood Bowl, movie nights at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, talking on the phone, fixing up smith’s apartment.

What makes the friendship special?

Fowler: “She made it comfortable to grow as a human. I was from the boonies of Arkansas, trying to figure out who I was in terms of coming out as gay, pursuing a PhD from a family where I was already the first generation of college students, and this was a person who was so secure in who she was and kind and generous.”

smith: “He was always so freaking smart, but he was smart without being arrogant. That was one of the more endearing qualities I recognized in him right away.”

Best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

smith: “He helps me to stay young. He turns me onto stuff. When I don’t know what’s going on, I just call him and he sets me straight. He helps me to pay attention — not to mention that he does [stuff] for me. That’s priceless.”

Fowler: “It’s such a source of context and wisdom. Whenever you get spun up on something small in your own life, patricia can either help you laugh about it or put it in some broader context. And just everything she’s done, moving here from Chicago, things she’s been through, all of that is so very interesting. I’d say it’s the resilience for me.”

Marlo Wamsganz, 54, designer. Norma Hench, 83, retired teacher

How did you meet?

Wamsganz: “We were both living in Vermont and I was dating her partner Glenn’s son. The first time we met we were already walking around her gardens. Then I moved on from that relationship and Glenn passed away. We lost touch, not because we didn’t love each other, but because life goes on. “

Hench: “It took me a full year to get my act together after Glenn died and move to L.A. where my son lives. I flew from Vermont to JFK and, lo and behold, there’s Marlo!”

Wamsganz: “We were both relocating to L.A. and when we got on the plane I believe we were in the same row. I thought, ‘This is wild.’ “

Favorite activities:

Visiting botanic gardens, trying new foods, hiking in Malibu, visiting museums and swapping books.

What makes the friendship special?

Wamsganz: “Norma loves to learn new things, she’s up for anything, she’ll taste anything, and she also likes to dig deep into things. I love how positive she is and she speaks her mind. She’s very fair and believes in rights for all people. And she’s a great conversationalist.”

Hench: “I want to tell a story: We were crossing Ventura Boulevard — this big multi lane street, and right in the middle of the crosswalk there was a praying mantis. And without missing a beat, didn’t Marlo reach down and pick up this praying mantis and carry it with her across to the other side of the street and put it on the lawn? Now, doesn’t that speak volumes?”

Best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

Hench: “I never think about an age difference. I’m not even aware of that. Maybe I’m in denial.”

Wamsganz: “I don’t either. Although I do ask her some things. Like, how long do hot flashes go on?”

Peggy Cheng, 40, entrepreneur. Karen Lektzian, 64, retired IT consultant

How did you meet?

Cheng: “Her master toilet flooded my unit, and it was easier to go through my unit to fix it. I was working really long hours at that time, so I was just like, ‘Yup! OK! Bye!’ She was like, ‘Can I get you any gift cards or a dinner?’ and I was just like, ‘No! I don’t really expect to interact with you.’ “

Lektzian: “The remediation took three weeks, and over the course of those three weeks we had quite a few interactions, so we got to know each other a little bit. I invited her to dinner and with the proximity we started to run into each other more often and it was so easy to just say, ‘Want to pop up for a drink? Or, do you want to cook dinner tonight?’ “

Favorite activities?

Traveling, cooking, eating out, running errands.

What makes the friendship special?

Lektzian: “We just have so much fun together. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing. And we have so many common interests. It’s just so natural. Life is more fun with her.”

Cheng: “I like that I can share everything with her. She’s one of the few friends who knows every facet of my life. I can go to her for advice and if it’s serious she will just switch into that mode and then immediately we will have the giggles.”

What is the best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

Lektzian: “I don’t really notice when I’m with my friends my own age versus Peggy.”

Cheng: “I don’t feel it either. She’s equally energetic and way more fit than I am!”

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©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Michele Brosius

Whether your summer is still going strong or your kids are gearing up for the first day of school, chances are you’re trying to hold on to those summer vibes while you can. Well, you’re in luck because National Eat Outside Day falls on Saturday, Aug. 31, making it the perfect day to join others for a celebration and find that ideal outdoor spot to enjoy. Here are 11 fun and unique ways to celebrate and embrace the great outdoors.

Enjoy an early bird breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and what better way to start your day than by heading outside with all of your breakfast favorites for a morning meal in the great outdoors? You can make it as simple or as complex as you wish; either with an easy continental-style breakfast with muffins, bagels and coffee or warmed breakfast burritos prepared the night before.

Affordable backyard fun

If your family prefers to sleep in a bit, an outdoor picnic lunch or charcuterie spread are perfect al fresco dining options. And you don’t even have to make everything yourself; have some subs delivered, add chips and soda, and spend the afternoon in the backyard eating, playing yard games and enjoying the late summer weather.

Book a special dining event

If you want to go all out for National Eat Outside Day, consider booking a personal dining experience at your home. Local chefs can be hired to prepare hibachi, clambake or other personal dining experiences; you simply supply the seating and guest list and sit back and enjoy a full professional dining experience customized to your preferences.

Potluck party time

A more affordable option is to invite your friends and family over, ask them to bring a meal for the potluck and a board game or two and enjoy a budget-friendly get-together with your besties. You could even center the potluck around a particular theme or game, like Clue or an escape room-themed mystery dinner.

Go on a food truck crawl

Finding a food truck festival these days is quite easy. Gather a group of friends and head out to one to sample a variety of foods. These events are often held in public parks with ample space to spread out and enjoy a meal, making it an ideal way to celebrate National Eat Outside Day.

Plan a dark-sky picnic

If you’re fortunate enough to live in a dark-sky area – think the Grand Canyon or the Great Smoky Mountains – consider planning an evening dark-sky picnic. Without the glare of nearby light pollution, stargazing takes on a whole meaning. For details on dark-sky locations nearby, visit the Dark-Sky website. It’s the ideal resource to start planning your evening stargazing picnic right away.

Host a cozy campfire

Nothing says summertime like s’mores and hot dogs over an open campfire. A backyard campfire is quintessential outdoor living and the perfect way to celebrate National Eat Outside Day. Make it a potluck and invite friends and family to bring items to cook over the fire, and you’ve got a budget-friendly party with food everyone can enjoy.

Neighborhood block party

Plan a back-to-school neighborhood block party for the parents and kids, complete with potluck items, games, prizes, and maybe even a bounce house and face painting for the kids. This is a great way to get outside and meet your neighbors, especially if you’re new to the area or your kids are starting at a new school. A neighborhood block party is the perfect icebreaker at a time when families mostly keep to themselves.

Backyard pizza party

With an outdoor pizza oven or your everyday grill, you can transform your backyard into the best pizza party spot in town. Let your guests create custom pizzas with their choice of toppings and enjoy a steaming hot slice outdoors with sodas or adult beverages to keep the party going.

Enjoy a Lowcountry boil

This southern staple blends boiled corn, shrimp, potatoes and sausage in a big pot with your favorite classic seasonings, like Old Bay or Zatarain’s for the ultimate in Lowcountry cuisine. Also known as Frogmore stew in the Beaufort, South Carolina, area, the Lowcountry boil is typically served outdoors; simply boil and spread the feast out on newspaper at the picnic table so everyone can dig in family style.

Dinner and an outdoor movie

All you need to pull off a dinner and a movie outdoors is your favorite streaming service, a laptop, a projector and a movie screen and you’re good to go. Add your favorite family-friendly meal, don’t forget the popcorn and candy and you’ve got a National Eat Outside Day activity to remember for years.

Just enjoy the day

National Eat Outside Day is the perfect excuse to break from the norm and enjoy a meal out in the fresh air. Whether you plan a backyard barbeque, your favorite movie screening or prefer to indulge a bit with a personal chef, you’re sure to make this special day a yearly tradition for your family.

Michele Brosius is the creator of Midlife Healthy Living where she expertly combines her love for cooking with budget-conscious nutrition strategies. Through her blog, she encourages women to embrace a healthier lifestyle with simple recipes and wellness tips.

With most states reliably red or blue, the path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency runs through seven states where the contest is expected to be narrowly decided.

Those are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All together, they are home to only 18.3% of the country’s population.

The Associated Press has been tracking the campaign appearances of the Democratic and Republican tickets since March.

Since then, Pennsylvania has been getting the most love from both campaigns, with a total of 21 visits, including one planned this coming weekend. Wisconsin and Michigan are close behind with 17 and 16, respectively.

Most states haven’t been visited at all, and a handful with clusters of wealth, such as California, get attention not for their voters but when the campaigns want to tap the wallets of the rich.

Fred Clasen-Kelly, Renuka Rayasam | KFF Health News (TNS)

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Blocks from where tourists stroll along the cobblestoned riverfront in this racially divided city, Detraya Gilliard made her way down the dark, ruptured sidewalks of Yamacraw Village, looking for her missing 15-year-old daughter.

Like most other people living in one of the nation’s oldest public housing projects, Gilliard endured the boarded-up buildings and mold-filled apartments because it was the only place she could afford.

Without working streetlights in parts of Yamacraw, Gilliard relied on the crescent moon’s glow to search for her daughter Desaray in May 2022. She passed yards dotted with clotheslines and power lines, and a broken-down playground littered with juice boxes and red Solo cups.

“I happened to look down, and I knew it was her by her feet, by the shoes she had on,” Gilliard said. She was “barely hanging on and she was covered in blood.”

The year before Desaray died, President Joe Biden called for the federal government to spend tens of billions of dollars to fix dilapidated public housing that he said posed “critical life-safety concerns.” The repairs, Biden said, would mostly help people of color, single mothers like Gilliard who work in low-income jobs, and people with disabilities.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that $115 billion is needed to fund a backlog of public housing repairs. But, two years ago, money to fund those repairs became a casualty of negotiations between the Biden administration and congressional lawmakers over the Inflation Reduction Act. Republicans also have blocked efforts to lift 25-year-old legislation that effectively prohibits the construction of additional public housing, despite the catastrophic public health consequences.

Tenants living in derelict housing face conditions that contribute to higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, asthma, violence, and other life-threatening risks.

The federal government has a long history of discriminatory practices in public housing. In cities across the country after World War II, Black families were barred from many public housing complexes even as the government induced white people to leave them by offering single-family homes in the suburbs subsidized by the Federal Housing Administration. Starting with the Nixon administration, lawmakers slowed investing in new public housing as more Black families and other people of color became tenants.

Today “residents are facing really terrible choices, or terrible options about their future,” said Sarah Saadian, senior vice president of policy for the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “We got here from Congress really failing to live up to its responsibilities of ensuring that people have access to an affordable, stable home.”

In 2022, an art deco luxury apartment building opened down the street. But little has changed in Yamacraw, which is filled with Black families.

Current and former tenants say the Housing Authority of Savannah, the agency that oversees Yamacraw, has ignored the mold, rats, and roaches that infest the units and sicken residents, and the bullet holes in windows and gunshots that ring through the night. Now they fear the city is using the poor state of Yamacraw as justification to push residents out.

In April, an inspection of Yamacraw apartments conducted by HUD, which oversees taxpayer-supported public housing nationwide, found 29 “life-threatening” deficiencies that pose a high risk of death to residents, according to a preliminary report.

The inspection cited 28 deficiencies it called “severe,” meaning they present a high risk of permanent disability, serious injury, or illness. An additional 195 deficiencies were cited as “moderate” because they could cause temporary harm or prompt a visit to a doctor.

Research links structural racism and disinvestment to chronic gun violence, which has taken a heavy toll on Black neighborhoods and kids such as Desaray. A study of gun injuries in four large cities at the height of the covid-19 pandemic found that Black children were 100 times as likely as white youths to suffer a firearm assault.

Study co-author Jonathan Jay, an assistant professor of community health sciences at Boston University, said most of the country’s gun violence stems from disputes in neighborhoods that lack investment in housing and other public services

“This is about white privilege,” Jay said. “The result is driven by racist policymaking.”

Desaray Gilliard was a high school freshman when she was killed. She loved clothes, music, dancing, and the color pink, her mother said. She planned to go to Italy with her art class. She was excited about learning to drive and getting a job. Desaray had her sights set on attending Ohio State University.

They’d lived in Yamacraw for seven years. The teen’s shooting death remains unsolved.

Gilliard has struggled with thoughts of self-harm, she said. She maintains a memorial with pictures, stuffed animals, and flowers near the spot where she found Desaray’s body.

“I have to remember this is for her,” she said of her middle child’s death, “because nobody else is doing these things for her to keep her memory alive.”

A Broken Promise?

Federally funded public housing must be kept in “decent, safe and sanitary” condition, according to HUD. In 2013, the agency’s then secretary, Shaun Donovan, visited Savannah to announce a program that could give the local housing authority millions of dollars to rehab four public housing complexes, including Yamacraw, which has been among the lowest-rated public housing complexes in Georgia.

The Rental Assistance Demonstration program touted by Donovan did not provide new public money. Instead, it loosened rules to allow local officials to work with private lenders and developers to pay for repairs, transforming public housing complexes into mixed-income developments with Section 8 project-based rental assistance.

Last year, a consultants’ report found a host of problems in Yamacraw, including water leaks and faulty wiring. “The Remaining Useful Life of the Property is estimated to be 0 years,” the consultants wrote. The housing authority wants to demolish Yamacraw and replace it with homes that are “healthier, more energy efficient and accessible,” the report said.

Yamacraw never saw the windfall Donovan promised, current and former tenants said. Even with a housing assistance waitlist of more than 3,000 families in Savannah, records show most of the 315 apartments in Yamacraw sit empty, many with boarded-up doors and windows. Some other public housing developments in the area have been repaired or rebuilt, but except for new roofing added in 2019, Yamacraw has not had a significant renovation in years, according to the consultants’ report.

Rather than repair the units, local officials started a process to tear down the complex, threatening to displace residents who have nowhere else to go in a city where the average two-bedroom apartment rents for more than $1,600 monthly.

Congress has provided less money than was needed over the past 20 years to fix Yamacraw and other public housing complexes nationwide, leaving local agencies in a tough spot, said Earline Davis, executive director of the Housing Authority of Savannah.

The housing authority still plans to demolish Yamacraw and redevelop the property with new affordable housing, she said. Residents fear that they will be pushed out, and that because of its prime location, the redevelopment plans would prioritize apartments that attract people who can afford higher rents.

“Anytime you want to do something to make money — go destroy the historic Black community,” said Georgia Benton, who grew up in Yamacraw. “But ain’t nobody hollerin’ ‘Stop.’”

She and her son LaRay Benton have been fighting the housing authority’s redevelopment plans, which they say could also disrupt the two-century-old First Bryan Baptist Church. Rev. Andrew Bryan, a former enslaved person and ordained minister, founded the church in 1788. He later bought his freedom.

The Bentons and three City Council members went door to door observing the condition of residents’ units. They said plumbing issues caused sewage overflows and leaky faucets, mold tracked across the ceilings, and there were insect and rodent infestations.

Many families said they developed respiratory problems, such as bronchitis and asthma, after they moved in. “It is an unhealthy situation,” LaRay Benton said.

About seven years ago, after his previous Savannah landlord raised the rent, Paris Snead, his wife, and two children found themselves homeless. A nonprofit helped them get into Yamacraw, where rent was $750 a month.

It’s been years since they left. Snead said he still takes a daily allergy pill because he believes he was exposed to mold in his unit, which caused allergy-like symptoms.

“The walls sweat like working men,” Snead said of his former apartment. “The walls will, literally, from the top to the bottom, leak water.”

“When you’re homeless, and you want to be able to have a place for your kids, I mean, you’ll make a home wherever you can,” he said.

Snead said he showed Yamacraw’s management the leaking walls, but they didn’t act.

“The management team there did more to evict people and cause problems than they did to help families and ensure they had a place to stay,” Snead said.

HUD, which conducts periodic inspections at public housing complexes, declined an interview request. The agency referred questions to the Housing Authority of Savannah.

The housing authority’s redevelopment plans have been delayed by HUD’s lengthy approval process, said Savannah Mayor Van R. Johnson II, who appoints people to a five-member board of commissioners that helps oversee the city’s public housing.

He said he met with HUD acting Secretary Adrianne Todman and other HUD officials about housing issues in Savannah.

“People don’t deserve to live like that,” Johnson said.

If Yamacraw is demolished and rebuilt, he said, current tenants will have a chance to return because the homes will be affordable to people with low incomes.

Nobody else is doing these things for her to keep her memory alive.

‘The Worst Experience of My Life’

Yamacraw’s struggles are rooted in century-old policies that have made it difficult for many Black neighborhoods to thrive.

In the 1930s, the federal government’s Home Owners’ Loan Corp. made color-coded maps for Savannah and 238 other cities and labeled redlined areas — usually places where Black people, Jews, immigrants, and Catholics lived — as undesirable for investment.

“The houses are occupied by the lowest class negro tenants,” a government surveyor wrote.

Yamacraw was opened in 1941 as segregated public housing for Black people. Today a health clinic occupies the original administrative building, designed to look like a plantation house.

Despite its problems, Johnson said, some of the city’s most prominent doctors, lawyers, and ministers grew up in Yamacraw.

Former and current tenants said the apartments slowly descended into disrepair.

Each year more than 10,000 public housing apartments across the U.S. become uninhabitable.

Some lawmakers have used the poor state of public housing as justification to refuse lifting a moratorium passed during the Clinton administration that prohibits the construction of additional units, even as the nation’s rental prices — and evictions — soar.

The argument that public housing “doesn’t work” is disingenuous, said Saadian, with the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

“The federal government really failed to invest in public housing, to keep it in good condition, and to keep those communities thriving,” Saadian said, “and in many cases, actively contributed to those communities declining.”

Instead of repairing public housing and building more high-quality units, federal lawmakers promised to provide housing vouchers, commonly known as Section 8, which helps people with low incomes rent privately owned homes. But most people who qualify for vouchers never receive them. Those who do often struggle to find landlords who will accept them, rendering them sometimes worthless.

Three years ago, LaTonya Atterbury was living in hotels north of Atlanta when she was offered a unit in Yamacraw for $511 a month. In August 2021, she moved in with her niece, now 29, and her niece’s son, now 8, relieved to have more stable housing.

But within the first week, she said, a neighbor’s son broke her window and the housing authority charged her $60 to fix it. She said her bathroom is covered in mold and mildew. One day, months after she moved in, Atterbury noticed a hole in her second-story window and saw a bullet on the floor, and realized there had been a shooting overnight. No one was injured, she said, but the bullet hole was only recently fixed — about 2½ years after the incident.

“It’s been the worst experience of my life,” Atterbury said. “Sitting here will make you very depressed.”

Atterbury said she and other residents remain in Yamacraw at least in part because the housing authority has promised vouchers to move elsewhere. Three years later, she is still waiting.

Demolishing and rebuilding Yamacraw could take years.

Davis, the housing authority’s executive director, said her agency has repeatedly told tenants they would be relocated to other public housing complexes or given a Section 8 voucher during construction if they have no lease violations. But residents say they routinely receive lease violations for harmless acts such as broken blinds. LaRay Benton said one resident was cited and fined $75 for leaving a stroller on her front porch while she took her baby inside.

A Mother’s Search

Researchers said that the presence of abandoned buildings can contribute to violent crime by making people feel unsafe and creating a sense of disorder. Studies suggest that razing abandoned buildings and improving green space can reduce it.

“No gun policy is going to work if we don’t fix social infrastructure,” said Jonathan Metzl, director of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University. “We need investments to make sure communities feel safe. This is not just a public health problem. This is a race problem. This is a democracy problem.”

In recent years, shooting victims or their relatives, including Desaray’s mother, have filed at least three lawsuits against the Housing Authority of Savannah. Those ongoing lawsuits allege the agency failed to take added security measures in its public housing complexes — some of which had fallen into disrepair — despite gun violence and other crimes.

“I don’t know how we can prevent shootings,” Davis said.

Davis declined to comment on the lawsuits. She would say only that her agency has installed cameras in Yamacraw, worked with police, and asked residents to report crime. The actions came after Desaray’s death.

Johnson, Savannah’s mayor, said police have investigated the Desaray Gilliard case, but there are people “who know what happened” and will not talk to officers.

Around 9 p.m. on a Friday night two years ago, Gilliard went looking for her daughter for the second time that night. Desaray missed an 8 p.m. curfew and wasn’t answering her phone.

Gilliard waited for about 30 minutes at a bench near a park in the middle of the complex, hoping Desaray would find her. Then she started to retrace her steps.

Gilliard called 911 after she saw her daughter’s body.

When the police arrived, they made their way through the darkened complex with flashlights, Gilliard said. An officer pulled up Desaray’s shirt and saw a bullet hole in her chest. Gilliard said she later learned from a funeral director that her daughter had been shot three times. She has yet to receive an autopsy report from the police.

Gilliard said “nothing has changed before, since, or after” her daughter’s death.

“It’s been very difficult,” she said. “Sometimes I wanted to give up. I even thought about committing suicide.”

About a month after Desaray died, Gilliard said someone tried to break into her apartment. A couple of weeks later, her request to move to a new complex was finally granted and Gilliard left Yamacraw.

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

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

Today is Saturday, Aug. 31, the 244th day of 2024. There are 122 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed as the car she was riding in crashed on the Pont de l’Alma bridge in Paris; her partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul (who was found to have been intoxicated at the time of the accident) also died.

Also on this date:

In 1881, the first U.S. tennis championships (for men only) began in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1886, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of up to 7.3 devastated Charleston, South Carolina, killing at least 60 people.

In 1962, the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago became independent of British colonial rule.

In 1980, Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk (guh-DANSK’) that ended a 17-day-old strike.

In 1992, white separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending an 11-day siege by federal agents that had claimed the lives of Weaver’s wife, son and a deputy U.S. marshal.

In 1994, Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after half a century.

In 2006, Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” was recovered by Norwegian authorities after being stolen nine days earlier.

In 2010, President Barack Obama announced the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed and telling those divided over the war in his country and around the world: “it’s time to turn the page.”

In 2019, a gunman carried out a shooting rampage that stretched ten miles between the Texas communities of Midland and Odessa, leaving seven people dead before police killed the gunman outside a movie theater in Odessa.

Today’s Birthdays:

• World Golf Hall of Famer Isao Aoki is 82.
• Violinist Itzhak Perlman is 79.
• Singer Van Morrison is 79.
• Rock musician Rudolf Schenker (The Scorpions) is 76.
• Actor Richard Gere is 75.
• Actor Stephen McKinley Henderson is 75.
• Attorney and author Marcia Clark is 71.
• Olympic gold medal hurdler Edwin Moses is 69.
• Rock singer Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze) is 67.
• Rock musician Gina Schock (The Go-Go’s) is 67.
• Singer-composer Deborah Gibson is 54.
• Queen Rania of Jordan is 54.
• Golfer Padraig (PAH’-drig) Harrington is 53.
• Actor Chris Tucker is 53.
• Actor Sara Ramirez is 49.
• Former NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is 41.
• NBA All-Star Jalen Brunson is 28.