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Tag: risk

  • 7 Steps to De-Risking Big Business Decisions Before They Backfire | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    When the pressure is on — a new market, product launch or high-stakes pivot — it’s easy to rush past the steps that could have saved you from failure. Despite the volumes of books and case studies on how to make better decisions, many leaders still repeat the same mistakes. These seven steps are designed to cut through the noise and help you de-risk big decisions, no matter your industry.

    1. Remove bias before it wrecks your strategy

    Even the most innovative companies make irrational calls because they skip the hard part: eliminating bias. Groupthink, overconfidence and confirmation bias quietly sabotage good ideas — and major decisions get made based on ego instead of insight.

    The only real antidote? Data. And lots of it. Whether you’re restructuring your team or launching a new product, let data challenge your assumptions. Use tools like the AEM-Cube for internal shifts and lean on Design Thinking for customer-facing initiatives. Bias isn’t always obvious — but its costs always are.

    Related: The 5 Step Process To Identify Risk and Improve Decision-Making

    2. Get closer to the right customer with the right research

    Too many decisions are made in boardrooms, far removed from the people they affect. Metrics and dashboards are useful, but they don’t replace real customer insight.

    Most companies think they know their customers. Few actually do. Build detailed personas, map the full customer journey, and invest in ethnographic research. For internal decisions, your “customer” might be your team. If your employees don’t feel heard, seen or aligned with your mission, even the best strategies will collapse under cultural resistance.

    3. Test fast before you go big

    Once you have a strategy, pilot it quickly and learn faster. Build small experiments, run A/B tests, define your offering clearly, and measure everything — from product fit to pricing, UX to delivery.

    Let real customer behavior — not internal assumptions — guide your next steps. Pilots aren’t about proving you’re right. They’re about learning what works.

    4. Tie decisions to real incentives

    Too many change initiatives fail because they ignore human motivation. If you’re not aligning incentives with your new direction, don’t expect people to get on board.

    Start with clear internal communication. Then build in feedback loops, transparent compensation structures and tie your mission to purpose-driven rewards. Change without buy-in creates friction. Buy-in without incentives creates apathy.

    5. Make sure your capacity can keep up

    The right idea in the wrong structure is a guaranteed failure. If your systems, people, or tech can’t handle the growth or change you’re aiming for, capacity will break before the strategy does.

    Run stress tests. Evaluate your infrastructure, team readiness and internal workflows. Ask: Can we execute this at scale, or are we just excited by the concept?

    6. Stick to a customer-centric strategy

    Even great decisions go off the rails without early warning signs and course-correction plans. Identify the signals that indicate a pivot is needed — and stay close to your customers post-launch.

    UX research doesn’t end once the product ships. Keep mapping how real users engage with your offering, and adjust accordingly. Consistency with your core personas is your best safeguard against drift.

    Related: 7 Tips for Making Quality Business Decisions

    7. Disrupt yourself before someone else does

    If your strategy works, expect competitors to follow. They’ll try to copy your product — or poach your people.

    Stay ahead by regularly asking:

    • How would someone disrupt us?
    • What would it take to replicate our edge?
    • Where are we most vulnerable?

    Then take small steps to disrupt yourself before anyone else does. Build a culture of reinvention, not complacency.

    Final thought

    Smart leaders don’t wait for a crisis to think clearly. They build decision-making processes that are bias-proof, customer-led, and test-driven. Whether you’re launching a product or reshaping your org, these seven steps help ensure your bold moves aren’t blind ones.

    When the pressure is on — a new market, product launch or high-stakes pivot — it’s easy to rush past the steps that could have saved you from failure. Despite the volumes of books and case studies on how to make better decisions, many leaders still repeat the same mistakes. These seven steps are designed to cut through the noise and help you de-risk big decisions, no matter your industry.

    1. Remove bias before it wrecks your strategy

    Even the most innovative companies make irrational calls because they skip the hard part: eliminating bias. Groupthink, overconfidence and confirmation bias quietly sabotage good ideas — and major decisions get made based on ego instead of insight.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

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    Adam Horlock

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  • California lawmakers seek flood protection funding amid Hurricane Katrina anniversary

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    As the nation reflects on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, California lawmakers are raising concerns about the state’s flood preparedness and advocating for increased federal funding for essential flood protection projects.The Army Corps of Engineers is actively working along the Sacramento River to double the size of a weir, one of many flood protection projects deemed vital by officials. “The city of Sacramento is one of the most at-risk regions in the entire nation for catastrophic flooding,” said Greg Trible from the Army Corps of Engineers. It’s one of several projects that experts say is part of a large network of flood protection measures in the state. Despite the ongoing work, federal funding for four other projects is at risk.Representative Josh Harder and other Democratic California Representatives are pushing for $126 million to be reinstated in the President’s latest construction budget, warning that without it, construction updates necessary to protect Stockton, Lodi, and Manteca could halt.”We’re going to see hammers stop mid-stroke, we’re going to see money taken away from some of the needed construction updates to keep Stockton and Lodi and Manteca safe,” Harder said, attributing the situation to political games.RELATED | Do you live near an unsafe dam? See interactive mapHarder, along with other members of Congress, signed a letter in June urging the House to increase what they called “seriously insufficient” funding. Among the proposed cuts are repairs to levees in West Sacramento and Natomas, as well as increased flood protection in Watsonville and the San Joaquin River Basin. “San Joaquin County is one of the most densely populated floodplains anywhere in the United States,” Harder said, emphasizing the need for flood protection.Todd Bernardy from the California Department of Water Resources highlighted the state’s perspective, saying, “We need to improve and create better resiliency for our infrastructure.” He noted that 300 miles of levee improvements are needed in the Central Valley, equating to about $12 billion total. Trible stressed the importance of proactive measures. “It’s about protecting our people, our friends, and neighbors here in Sacramento families. That’s why we’re doing the work that we’re doing,” he said. Harder echoed this sentiment. “It’s so much cheaper to build a levee to prevent a flood than to rebuild after a natural disaster,” he said.Bernardy also acknowledged the ongoing risk. “You’re never going to get your risk down to zero,” he said. “There’s always going to be residual risk, and the infrastructure is part of reducing that risk.”The Trump administration’s budget requested approximately $1.5 billion for construction, with the House-passed version adding substantial funding, including for California projects. The Senate has yet to release its version, but the situation continues to be closely monitored.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

    As the nation reflects on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, California lawmakers are raising concerns about the state’s flood preparedness and advocating for increased federal funding for essential flood protection projects.

    The Army Corps of Engineers is actively working along the Sacramento River to double the size of a weir, one of many flood protection projects deemed vital by officials.

    “The city of Sacramento is one of the most at-risk regions in the entire nation for catastrophic flooding,” said Greg Trible from the Army Corps of Engineers.

    It’s one of several projects that experts say is part of a large network of flood protection measures in the state. Despite the ongoing work, federal funding for four other projects is at risk.

    Representative Josh Harder and other Democratic California Representatives are pushing for $126 million to be reinstated in the President’s latest construction budget, warning that without it, construction updates necessary to protect Stockton, Lodi, and Manteca could halt.

    “We’re going to see hammers stop mid-stroke, we’re going to see money taken away from some of the needed construction updates to keep Stockton and Lodi and Manteca safe,” Harder said, attributing the situation to political games.

    RELATED | Do you live near an unsafe dam? See interactive map

    Harder, along with other members of Congress, signed a letter in June urging the House to increase what they called “seriously insufficient” funding. Among the proposed cuts are repairs to levees in West Sacramento and Natomas, as well as increased flood protection in Watsonville and the San Joaquin River Basin.

    “San Joaquin County is one of the most densely populated floodplains anywhere in the United States,” Harder said, emphasizing the need for flood protection.

    Todd Bernardy from the California Department of Water Resources highlighted the state’s perspective, saying, “We need to improve and create better resiliency for our infrastructure.”

    He noted that 300 miles of levee improvements are needed in the Central Valley, equating to about $12 billion total.

    Trible stressed the importance of proactive measures.

    “It’s about protecting our people, our friends, and neighbors here in Sacramento families. That’s why we’re doing the work that we’re doing,” he said.

    Harder echoed this sentiment.

    “It’s so much cheaper to build a levee to prevent a flood than to rebuild after a natural disaster,” he said.

    Bernardy also acknowledged the ongoing risk.

    “You’re never going to get your risk down to zero,” he said. “There’s always going to be residual risk, and the infrastructure is part of reducing that risk.”

    The Trump administration’s budget requested approximately $1.5 billion for construction, with the House-passed version adding substantial funding, including for California projects. The Senate has yet to release its version, but the situation continues to be closely monitored.

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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  • California surgeon general sets goal of reducing maternal mortality by 50%

    California surgeon general sets goal of reducing maternal mortality by 50%

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    California’s surgeon general has unveiled a new initiative to reduce maternal mortality and set a goal of halving the rate of deaths related to pregnancy and birth by December 2026.

    Health officials say that more than 80% of maternal deaths nationwide are preventable. California has achieved a much lower rate of such deaths than the U.S., but maternal mortality resurged in recent years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, state data show.

    “We have the lowest rate in the country. Now we can do better,” California Surgeon General Dr. Diana E. Ramos said in an interview.

    Ramos was joined in announcing the effort Tuesday by First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    In California, leading causes of such deaths include heart disease, bleeding, “behavioral health” issues such as mental illness and substance use, and infection. More than a fifth of pregnancy-related deaths in California occur the day of delivery, but the majority happen in the days, weeks and months that follow, according to state data.

    The crisis has been especially stark among Black women, who have faced a maternal mortality rate more than three times that of white women in California. In Los Angeles County, there has been a public outcry in recent years over the deaths of women like April Valentine, 31, and Bridgette Burks, 32 — Black mothers who left behind devastated families.

    Health researchers have faulted numerous factors for the higher rates of maternal mortality among Black women, including the physical effects on the body of enduring years of racism; higher rates of diabetes and other chronic conditions that increase risk; and inequities in the care received by Black patients.

    California officials said they are also concerned about rising rates of maternal mortality among Latinos and Asian/Pacific Islander communities in the state.

    The “Strong Start & Beyond” initiative, officials said, would help patients understand potential risks before they become pregnant and prompt earlier action to address hazards such as heart disease. It would also alert Californians to doula services and other programs intended to support people before, during and after birth.

    Ramos said California had reached the lowest rate of maternal mortality in the nation through its system of reviewing maternal deaths and other efforts centered on hospitals, physicians and other healthcare professionals. Up until now, “the focus has been primarily on the healthcare setting,” she said.

    But “if we keep on doing the same thing — just focusing on the healthcare team — we’re going to get the same results,” Ramos said. Health officials and experts decided they needed to bolster that work, “and that’s why we’re bringing in the patient.”

    “It seems so simple, but oftentimes, the pregnant person doesn’t feel like they have a voice or they have the information they need to make informed decisions,” Ramos said.

    U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said in a statement accompanying the launch of the new effort that “reducing maternal mortality isn’t a ‘should,’ it’s a ‘must.’ California gets it.”

    The planned strategies outlined in the California Maternal Health Blueprint, released Tuesday, include a new questionnaire that patients can take at home to assess their risk of pregnancy complications and get recommendations for next steps based on their results.

    As an obstetrician-gynecologist, Ramos said she found that it was often at their first prenatal appointment that a patient would first hear, “You’re going to be a high-risk patient.’ And more times than not, patients would say … ‘I wish I would have known that I could have done X, Y or Z to decrease my risk.’”

    California officials also want all medical facilities in the state to use an existing screening tool for gauging the risk levels of pregnant patients.

    Ramos said those results could help guide where patients go for births. Hospitals with limited resources could refer patients with a higher risk of complications — such as someone who “is going to be at risk for hemorrhage, is going to be at risk for ICU admission” — to the medical facilities best equipped to handle them.

    The new effort comes as pregnant patients may face dwindling choices for hospital births: Nationally, roughly 1 in 25 obstetric units closed in 2021 and 2022, according to a March of Dimes report.

    Under “the modern fee-for-service healthcare model … hospitals must fund round-the-clock capacity but are only reimbursed when their facilities and staff are in action,” wrote Dr. Anna Reinert, an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, in a recent op-ed.

    “So if not enough deliveries are happening, expenses outweigh reimbursement. This drives hospitals to get out of the baby delivery business altogether,” Reinert wrote.

    California has faced a wave of such closures in the last decade, including at many hospitals in Los Angeles County. A CalMatters analysis found that such closures had disproportionately affected Black, Latino and low-income communities. Among the latest hospitals to announce it would shut down a labor and delivery unit is USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, which plans to halt maternity care on Nov. 20.

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    Emily Alpert Reyes

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  • A Fan’s Guide To Helping Promote The Secret Of Us

    A Fan’s Guide To Helping Promote The Secret Of Us

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    We’ve got secrets. It’s time to admit that we are deeply in love with Gracie Abrams. Was that really a secret, though? Ever since Gracie dropped her latest project, The Secret Of Us, we’ve been hooked on songs like ‘Blowing Smoke’ and ‘Good Luck Charlie.’ The whole album is a musical masterpiece and our headphones have been working overtime lately.

    If you’re a major Gracie fan and want to support her during the album release, here are six ultimate fangirl tips straight from the hive.

    Record Store Selfie

    If you’ve been following Gracie on Instagram, you would know that a new trend with the cover art is emerging. It’s simple! Head to your nearest local record shop and grab a copy of The Secret Of Us on vinyl. Then, hold it up to your face and get a friend to snap a photo! Gracie’s head on the cover art should be aligned with yours so that it looks like you have a mega-Gracie head. If your stores are anything like ours, then The Secret Of Us is probably already sold out, but the challenge to find it and get that selfie starts now. Happy hunting!

    Dance To ‘Close To You’ Online

    Another re-emerging digital trend that has come from the album release is Video Star. If you grew up in the 2000’s like us you definitely know what the Video Star app is. It was TikTok before TikTok even existed. Using fun colorful filters and video effects, you and your friends could create music videos to your favorite pop songs. The app has been gone for a while, but Gracie is bringing it back! To promote ‘Close To You’ she hopped on Video Star and made a fun music video with a friend. We challenge you to do the same!

    @tehegracietehe

    i wrote Close To You seven years ago and we made a demo that i posted 20 seconds of and you somehow cared about it enough for us to revisit the song seven years later. Close To You was not initially a part of TSOU — it’s from a different time entirely, we had finished the whole record top to bottom, but i heard you loud and clear. consider this one a bonus track pre-deluxe?? with everyone getting their vinyls this week, i got impatient and wanted you all to have it early. or seven years late, actually. CLOSE TO YOU OUT EVERYWHERE THIS FRIDAY AND ONLY 17 DAYS UNTIL THE SECRET OF US 😭💛💛💛💛💛💛💛

    ♬ Close To You – gracie abrams

    Take Gracie’s video as inspiration and get to dancing!

    Attend The Secret Of Us Tour

    One of the best ways to support your favorite artists is by going to see them on tour. Whether you’re in the nosebleeds or front and center on the barricade, your fave will be grateful to see your face in the crowd.

    Starting in September, Gracie will be taking the new album on the road to perform all your favorite tracks. Here is a glance at the stops she’ll be making. Grab your tickets before they sell out completely!

    09/05/24 Portland, OR at Alaska Airlines Theater of the Clouds
    09/06/24 Seattle, WA at WAMU Theater
    09/08/24 Berkeley, CA at The Greek Theatre
    09/09/24 – 09/12/24 Los Angeles, CA at Greek Theatre
    09/15/24-09/16/24 Denver, CO at Fillmore Auditorium
    09/19/24 Irving, TX at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
    09/20/24 Houston, TX at 713 Music Hall 
    09/22/24 Austin, TX at Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park
    09/24/24 Kansas City, MO at Uptown Theater
    09/25/24 Minneapolis, MN at The Armory
    09/27/24 Chicago, IL at Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
    09/29/24 Nashville, TN at Ryman Auditorium
    09/30/24 Atlanta, GA at Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre
    10/02/24 Washington DC at The Anthem
    10/04/24-10/06/24 New York, NY at Radio City Music Hall
    10/08/24 Philadelphia, PA at The Met Philadelphia presented by Highmark
    10/09/24 Boston, MA at MGM Music Hall at Fenway
    10/10/24 Portland, ME at State Theatre

    Find our setlist requests here!

    Buy Your Favorite Merch Items

    Now that you’ve got the vinyl in hand and you are heading out on tour, it’s time to buy your favorite Gracie merch items. On her online store, she’s got everything from hoodies to car bumper stickers so we know you’ll be sure to find something in your style. You get double honey points from us if you wear your new merch on tour!

    We already bought the postcard set, the baseball cap, and the tote bag. What about you??

    Watch Gracie’s Interviews

    One of the best parts about being a fangirl? Interviews. We could spend all day on YouTube streaming Gracie’s interviews, especially during album release week. She recently hit up Apple Music, The TODAY Show, Buzzfeed, and The Tonight Show so don’t worry, you’ve got plenty of watching to get to.

    Once you’re done watching all of those interviews, watch her music videos and start memorizing lyrics for tour!

    Stream The Secret Of Us

    Lastly, we have to tell you to continue streaming The Secret Of Us. If there is one thing that you can do as a fan, it’s to stream your favorite songs day and night. Just keep it on a continuous loop! Whether you are listening on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, or a CD we give you a high-five. Play the album in the car, at work, on your summer girls’ trip, and on your hot girl walks!

    What’s your favorite way to be the ultimate Gracie Abrams fan? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram 🐝

    TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GRACIE ABRAMS:
    FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | TWITTER | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE

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    ableimann

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  • Eggs of grapevine-gobbling insect snagged en route to California. Are vineyards at risk?

    Eggs of grapevine-gobbling insect snagged en route to California. Are vineyards at risk?

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    Eggs of the spotted lanternfly, an invasive species that’s wreaked havoc on crops across more than a dozen states, were recently discovered on a metal art installation that was headed to Sonoma County, one of California’s most esteemed wine regions.

    The discovery of the infamous bug’s eggs represents the first time the insect has been seen in California. The California Assn. of Winegrape Gowers, a statewide nonprofit, warns the invasive plant-hopper native to Asia has the potential to affect the entire winegrape industry in California, potentially pushing up prices if an infestation results in a smaller grape crop.

    “Spotted lanternflies have been found in 18 states and have proven to pose a serious threat to vineyards,” Natalie Collins, president of the growers group, said. “These invasive insects feed on the sap of grapevines, while also leaving behind a sticky honeydew residue on the clusters and leaves.”

    Impacts of the stress on the plant could range from reduced yields — and fewer bottles of wine for consumers — and, if severe and persistent enough, complete vine death and higher wine prices. No adult spotted lanterflies have been reported in the state, Collins said.

    California is responsible for an average of 81% of the total U.S. wine production each year, according to the Wine Institute.

    The association warned that if there are additional egg masses in California from other shipments that haven’t been detected “they may produce adult [spotted lanternflies] in the coming weeks with peak populations expected in late summer or early fall.”

    The California Department of Food and Agriculture last year developed an action plan to try to eradicate the pests if they were to enter the state. State officials have asked the public to look for egg masses outdoors. If a bug is found, they recommend grabbing it and placing it in a container where it can’t escape, snapping a photo and reporting it to the CDFA Pest Hotline at (800) 491-1899

    The metal art installation on which the eggs were found was shipped to California in late March from New York, where the insects have been a persistent problem. After 11 viable egg masses were spotted at the Truckee Border Protection Station, the 30-foot-tall artwork was sent back to Nevada, where officials discovered an additional 30 egg masses. The art was power washed with detergent and then sent on its way again to Truckee, according to the association.

    By the time the installation reached Sonoma County on April 4, the owner agreed to allow officials to open up the hollow beams in the artwork to inspect it further. Inside, they found an additional three egg masses and searched until they were confident no other eggs were present.

    Spotted lanternflies were first discovered in Pennsylvania in 2014 and quickly spread to nearby states, where they became a nuisance. In New York they proved to be such a problem that officials encouraged residents to kill them on sight. The pest has become so notorious that it made an appearance on “Saturday Night Live” in a 2022 skit where one viewer applauded them for capturing “the unbelievable hubris of the lanternfly.”

    While they feed on more than 100 different plant species, they have a particular affinity for grapevines and a tree known as the “tree of heaven.” The adults, which have the ability to fly short distances, are typically 1 inch long. At rest, with its wings folded, the bug is a dull tan-gray color with black spots. During flight, its open wings feature a bright red, black and white pattern.

    The species is often described as a “hitchhiker,” since its egg masses appear similar to cakes of mud and can easily be transported on tractor trailers and semi-trucks. During the first three immature stages of the bug’s life cycle they appear to be black with white spots and later turn red and black with white spots.

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    Hannah Fry

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  • COVID is rising in California. Here’s how to protect yourself from FLiRT subvariants

    COVID is rising in California. Here’s how to protect yourself from FLiRT subvariants

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    There are growing signs of an uptick in COVID-19 in California thanks to the new FLiRT subvariants.

    It’s far too early to know if FLiRT will be a major change in the COVID picture, and so far the impacts have been small.

    But health officials are taking note and are urging Californians — especially those at risk — to be prepared.

    Here’s rundown of what we know and how you can protect yourself.

    What are FLiRT subvariants?

    The FLiRT subvariants — officially known as KP.2, KP.3 and KP.1.1 — have overtaken the dominant winter variant, JN.1. For the two-week period that ended Saturday, they were estimated to account for a combined 50.4% of the nation’s coronavirus infections, up from 20% a month earlier.

    Despite their increased transmissibility, the new mutations don’t appear to result in more severe disease. And the vaccine is expected to continue working well, given the new subvariants are only slightly different from the winter version.

    “It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a new dominant variant in the U.S.,” Dr. David Bronstein, an infectious diseases specialist at Kaiser Permanente Southern California told The Times earlier this month. “With each of these variants that takes over from the one before it, we do see increased transmissibility — it’s easier to spread from person to person. So, that’s really the concern with FLiRT.”

    What are officials seeing?

    Doctors say they are not seeing a dramatic jump in severely ill people, and COVID levels still remain relatively low. But there are signs of a rise in infections that could lead to the summer coronavirus season beginning earlier than expected.

    “COVID-19 concentrations in wastewater have suggested increases in several regions across California since early May. Test positivity for COVID-19 has been slowly increasing since May,” the state Department of Public Health said in a statement to The Times on Friday.

    Over the seven-day period that ended Monday, about 3.8% of COVID-19 tests in California came back positive; in late April, that share was 1.9%. (Last summer’s peak test-positive rate was 12.8%, at the end of August.)

    In San Francisco, infectious disease doctors are noticing more people in the hospital with COVID-caused pneumonia.

    The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has also started to see a very small uptick in cases in recent days. And Kaiser Permanente Southern California is reporting a small increase in outpatient COVID-19 cases.

    How can I protect myself?

    Vaccines

    Doctors urged people to consider getting up to date on their vaccinations — particularly if they are at higher risk of severe complications from COVID-19.

    In California, just 36% of seniors ages 65 and older have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine that first became available in September. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged everyone ages 6 months and older to get one dose of the updated vaccine. A second dose is also recommended for those ages 65 and older, as long as at least four months have passed since their last shot.

    It’s especially important that older people get at least one updated dose. Of the patients he has seen recently who had serious COVID, said UC San Francisco infectious diseases specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, all of them hadn’t gotten an updated vaccine since September, and were older or immunocompromised.

    Behavior

    Avoid sick people. Some sick people might pass off their symptoms as a “cold,” when it could be the start of a COVID-19 illness.

    Testing

    Test if you’re sick, and test daily. It’s sometimes taking longer after the onset of illness for a COVID-19 rapid test to show up as positive. Consider taking a rapid COVID test once a day for three to five consecutive days after the onset of cough-and-cold symptoms, said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. Doing so can help the sickened person take measures to later isolate themselves and limit spread of the illness to others.

    Planning

    Have a plan to ask for Paxlovid if you become ill. Paxlovid is an antiviral drug that, when taken by people at risk for severe COVID-19 who have mild-to-moderate illness, reduces the risk of hospitalization and death.

    Masks are much less common these days but can still be a handy tool to prevent infection. Wearing a mask on a crowded flight where there are coughing people nearby can help reduce the risk of infection.

    How can I protect my family and friends?

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recently eased COVID isolation guidance, given that the health impacts of COVID-19 are lower than they once were, due to the availability of vaccines, anti-COVID medicines such as Paxlovid and increased population immunity.

    There are fewer people getting hospitalized and dying, and fewer reports of complications such as multi-inflammatory syndrome in children.

    Still, doctors say it remains prudent to take common sense steps to avoid illness and spreading the disease to others, given that COVID still causes significant health burdens that remain worse than the flu. Nationally, since the start of October, more than 43,000 people have died of COVID; by contrast, flu has resulted in an estimated 25,000 fatalities over the same time period.

    While the prevalence of long COVID has been going down, long COVID can still be a risk any time someone gets COVID.

    Here’s a guide on what to do if you get COVID-19:

    Stay home and away from others while sick, plus a day after you’ve recovered

    The CDC says people should stay home and away from others in their household until at least 24 hours after their respiratory viral symptoms are getting better overall, and they have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medicine). Previously, the CDC suggested people with COVID isolate for at least five days, and take additional precautions for a few more days.

    In terms of deciding when symptoms are getting better overall, what’s most important is “the overall sense of feeling better and the ability to resume activities,” the CDC says. A lingering cough by itself can last beyond when someone is contagious, the CDC said.

    The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also recommends testing yourself using a rapid test, and getting a negative result, before leaving isolation.

    The agency also suggests staying away from the elderly and immunocompromised people for 10 days after you start to feel sick.

    Take additional precautions after you recover in case you’re still contagious

    People who have recovered from COVID-19 may still be contagious a few days after they have recovered. The CDC suggests taking added precautions for five days after they leave their household and resume spending time with others to keep others safe. They include:

    • Wearing a well-fitting mask;
    • Continuing to test for COVID-19. If positive, it’s likely you’re more likely to infect others, still;
    • Keeping distance from other people;
    • Increasing air circulation by opening windows, turning on air purifiers, gathering outdoors if meeting with people;
    • And sticking with enhanced hygiene: washing and sanitizing hands often, cleaning high-touch surfaces, and covering coughs and sneezes.

    Masking for 10 days to protect others

    The L.A. County Department of Public Health says people with COVID-19 need to wear a well-fitting mask for 10 days after starting to feel sick, even if signs of illness are improving, to reduce the chance that other people could get infected. Masks can be removed sooner if you have two consecutive negative test results at least one day apart, the agency says.

    Be aware of COVID rebound

    COVID rebound can occur when people with COVID-19 feel better, but then start to feel sick two to eight days after they’ve recovered. Some people may also test positive again. COVID rebound can result in you becoming infectious again, capable of infecting those with whom you interact.

    Rebound can happen whether or not you take Paxlovid.

    Officials say if you feel sick again after having recovered from COVID, go back to following the same instructions to stay at home and away from other people during the first phase of the illness.

    If you test positive but have no symptoms

    The CDC says if you never had any symptoms, but test positive, take additional precautions for the next five days, such as masking up, testing, increasing air circulation, keeping distance and washing hands often.

    The L.A. County Department of Public Health recommends wearing a well-fitting mask for 10 days after testing positive for COVID-19, and also avoiding contact with any high-risk people for 10 days after starting to feel sick, such as the elderly and immunocompromised people. You can remove your mask sooner if you have two consecutive negative tests at least one day apart.

    L.A. County health officials recommend close contacts of people who have COVID-19 wear a well-fitting mask around other people for 10 days after their last exposure. They suggest getting tested three to five days after their last exposure.

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    Rong-Gong Lin II

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  • L.A. County investigating reported hepatitis A case at Beverly Hills Whole Foods

    L.A. County investigating reported hepatitis A case at Beverly Hills Whole Foods

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    Los Angeles County health officials are investigating a reported case of hepatitis A in an employee of a Whole Foods supermarket in Beverly Hills and are warning of possible public exposure to the highly contagious liver infection.

    Officials warned that anyone who purchased products from the seafood counter at the grocery store on Crescent Drive between April 20 and May 13 could be affected and urged those not already immune to hepatitis A to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

    The virus has also recently been found among members of the county’s homeless population.

    Hepatitis A is found in the stool and blood of those infected and can spread among people even before they have symptoms, which include fever, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, dark urine and yellowing of the eyes and skin.

    “Receiving vaccination as soon as possible after exposure could help reduce the risk of developing hepatitis A infection,” the county Public Health Department said in a statement. “Residents should contact their local pharmacy or medical provider for the vaccine.”

    Whole Foods said it was working closely with the department.

    “The team member diagnosed is not working, and we are not aware of anyone else becoming ill,” the company said in a statement. “While we have strict food safety processes in place in our stores, we encourage anyone who believes they may have been exposed to follow the guidance of the health department.”

    While no other infections have been reported related to the Whole Foods case, county health officials said this week that they have identified an outbreak of five hepatitis A cases since March among people who are homeless.

    Officials said the risk to the general public is “low” but urged anyone who may have been exposed to check if they have been vaccinated.

    Homeless people are at a higher risk for contracting the virus due to decreased access to hand washing and toilet facilities, officials said.

    California’s last known hepatitis A outbreak occurred between 2016 and 2018, mostly among people experiencing homelessness or using drugs in settings with limited sanitation. In San Diego — which also experienced a hepatitis A outbreak in 2017 — health officials last year reported an uptick in cases among homeless people.

    Times staff writer Ruben Vives contributed to this report.

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    James Queally

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  • Pendulum Launches ElectionIQ: Intelligence Into the 2024 U.S. Elections

    Pendulum Launches ElectionIQ: Intelligence Into the 2024 U.S. Elections

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    ElectionIQ helps organizations navigate the 2024 US elections by providing proactive insights to identify risks, trends, and narratives that directly impact their brands, enabling informed decision-making


    SEATTLE, April 25, 2024 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Pendulum, the intelligence platform for automated discovery, tracking and analysis of risks and opportunities within online narratives, is excited to announce the launch of ElectionIQ, offering organizations an in-depth understanding of how the narratives surrounding the 2024 U.S. election intersect with and impact their interests. ElectionIQ empowers teams to stay ahead of the curve by identifying and addressing issues early that are pivotal to voter behavior and legislative outcomes. 

    With the 2024 U.S. election poised to be one of the most contested and volatile elections in recent history, organizations are facing unprecedented challenges in navigating a highly polarized political landscape. Fast-flowing information across a proliferating number of social media platforms makes it crucial for organizations to stay ahead of the curve. Organizations need new tools and strategies to effectively uncover, track, and respond to evolving narratives and trends that could negatively impact their reputation and policy interests. 

    Built on Pendulum’s award-winning narrative ML technology, ElectionIQ offers automated discovery and analysis capabilities, enabling organizations to proactively understand how candidates, stakeholders, policy influencers, and major election-cycle stories affect their brands and interests. Videos and podcasts are the new town square for key communities and voter groups, and ElectionIQ is the platform that provides the most comprehensive coverage across video, audio, and text platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, BitChute, podcasts, Twitter, Telegram, and many others.  

    “We are thrilled to launch ElectionIQ, a unique offering that redefines how organizations engage with and understand the complexities of the 2024 US elections,” said Mark Listes, CEO at Pendulum. “ElectionIQ empowers companies to ensure they are prepared and best positioned to navigate this unprecedented election year with insight and confidence.”

    Key features of ElectionIQ include:

    • Track and analyze prebuilt, regularly-updated election-related topics and narratives, along with their impact on brand and policy interests
    • Leverage AI-driven automated reporting across multiple platforms and mediums
    • Understand how the direct voices of key candidates, influencers, and officials shape the conversation, public opinion, and likely post-election effects
    • Discover potential risks and opportunities in narratives associated with federal Presidential, House, and Senate races with automated horizon-scanning capabilities 

    Pendulum’s partnership with Hill & Knowlton, the global strategic communications leader for transformation, combines the valuable insights generated by ElectionIQ with the strategic expertise of H&K advisors at scale.

    “ElectionIQ represents a significant advancement in our ability to help clients navigate the speed, complexity and risks of the 2024 US election cycle,” said Grant Toups, Global Chief Technology Officer at Hill & Knowlton. “Our partnership with Pendulum integrates ElectionIQ into H&K’s innovation portfolio, enabling our intelligence teams and communications advisors to provide clients with the solutions they need to protect and enhance reputation during this pivotal political moment.”

    Customers are taking advantage of ElectionIQ to identify intersections between their brands, assets, and executives and key election narratives, ensuring a clear understanding of their exposure within the election information landscape. Learn how your organization can benefit from ElectionIQ by visiting www.pendulumintel.com/electioniq.

    About Pendulum

    Pendulum empowers organizations to convert risks into opportunities by transforming insights into actionable decisions. Pendulum’s horizon scanning capabilities track online communications, allowing organizations to anticipate threats in critical areas such as brand recognition, social issues, and global unrest to make better-informed decisions. Leveraging proprietary AI and machine learning technology, Pendulum provides the most comprehensive coverage across video, audio and text content to enable organizations to respond effectively. Pendulum is designed for ease of use, offering flexibility right from the start.

    Source: Pendulum Intelligence

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  • Upscale Westside L.A. neighborhoods hit hard by State Farm home insurance cancellations

    Upscale Westside L.A. neighborhoods hit hard by State Farm home insurance cancellations

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    Thousands of Californians who won’t see their home insurance renewed by State Farm this summer are homeowners in Los Angeles County, with some upscale Westside neighborhoods hit hard, according to the insurer’s recent filings with the Department of Insurance.

    A majority of the insurer’s customers in neighborhoods in West Los Angeles as well as in or near the Santa Monica Mountains including Bel-Air, Pacific Palisades and Woodland Hills are going to lose their coverage.

    The State Farm move affects some of the county’s toniest neighborhoods — adding another layer of expense and financial risk for homeowners in areas that were already costly and imperiled by wildfires. Older homeowners and those with comparatively lower incomes who bought when housing was much cheaper could be hard hit.

    Last month, State Farm — the largest home insurance provider in California — said it would drop 72,000 property policies across the state amid a home insurance crisis. Of those, about 30,000 are home insurance policies.

    Denise Hardin, president of State Farm, explained the company’s decision in a March 20 letter to Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, stating that rate hikes that were recently approved by the Department of Insurance amid high inflation would be insufficient to restore the company’s financial strength.

    “We must now take action to reduce our overall exposure to be more commensurate with the capital on hand to cover such exposure, as most insurers in California have already done,” she wrote. “We have been reluctant to take this step, recognizing how difficult it will be for impacted policyholders, in addition to our independent contractor agents who are small business owners and employers in their local California communities.

    “A financial failure of [State Farm] will detrimentally impact the entire market,” Hardin added, “an outcome we are all trying to avoid.”

    The letter also included several pages of ZIP Codes and the number of homeowners who would lose their coverage this summer.

    In Pacific Palisades, according to the letter, 69.4% of the 2,342 policyholders — or about 1,600 — will lose coverage. In Brentwood, 61.5% of State Farm’s 2,114 customers there will lose their policies, or about 1,300 non-renewals.

    Of the 1,805 policyholders in Woodland Hills, 60% — or about 1,090 — won’t be renewed, while in Bel-Air, 67% of 987 customers, about 660 customers, will be affected,

    Orinda in Contra Costa County and Los Gatos in Santa Clara County also will see a high number of policyholders lose coverage.

    As part of its assessment, the insurer looked at communities in areas prone to wildfires as well as those at risk of fires following an earthquake, which included communities such as Beverly Hills and Westwood.

    Thelma Waxman, president of the Brentwood Homeowners Assn., whose 1,200 members own about 4,000 properties, said it had been a stressful time for members, and for residents living near high-risk fire zones.

    Losing State Farm coverage “is the No. 1 topic of discussion” among association members, she said. “Everybody is nervous.”

    Last year, the association created its first California Fire Safety Council and worked closely with My Safe L.A., a nonprofit providing fire and safety education, as well as the Los Angeles Fire Department in an attempt to reduce fire risks in the area.

    Waxman said the formation of the safety council was partly in response to insurance companies dropping policyholders in the state.

    “At first we thought we could get a discount,” she said, “but then it became about trying to keep our policies.”

    Waxman said she’d been urging residents who will lose their home insurance with State Farm to start shopping now for a new home insurance policy as it’s difficult to find insurers writing policies in the state.

    State Farm said those losing their policies would be notified between July 3 and Aug. 20.

    State Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks), whose district includes many of the affected neighborhoods, expressed concern but hoped that the state could end the crisis by altering regulations to encourage insurers to “return to the business of writing policies for Californians and their properties.”

    Insurance companies have cited high inflation, catastrophe exposure, the cost of reinsurance (a type of insurance for insurance companies) and the limitations posed by decades-old insurance regulations as reasons for scaling back policies in the state.

    Left with no other choice, a number of Californians have turned to the FAIR Plan as a last resort. Funded by the insurers doing business in California, the Fair Access to Insurance Requirement plan provides more limited coverage as a fallback for property owners unable to find conventional policies they can afford.

    But the enrollment surge is putting a financial strain on the state insurer as it faces a potential loss of $311 billion, up from $50 billion in 2018.

    State officials said the FAIR Plan had a surplus of $200 million and was at risk of insolvency should a catastrophic event occur.

    Lara has proposed a set of new rules that would allow insurers to raise rates to cover reinsurance costs and projected losses from catastrophic fires, but also require that they provide coverage for more homes in California’s canyons and hills.

    The proposals, which aim to move people off the FAIR Plan and slow the increase in premiums, have won support from insurance industry trade groups and some consumer groups, although some consumer advocates, such as Consumer Watchdog, have criticized the proposed rules.

    In the letter to Lara, Hardin said State Farm would continue to cooperate with the state in finding a resolution to the home insurance crisis.

    “We are acutely aware of the political challenges that the actions needed to improve [State Farm’s] financial position pose to broader reform efforts,” she wrote. “Please know that we have an ongoing desire and commitment to collaborate with you and your staff, as well as the Governor’s office, to achieve these reforms as quickly as possible.”

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    Ruben Vives

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  • Venerable Echo Park church dome at risk of collapse

    Venerable Echo Park church dome at risk of collapse

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    When Pastor Frank Wulf thinks about his congregation being unable to worship in their home of 100 years, he is reminded of the Old Testament scripture of the Israelites in exile.

    Wulf’s church, Echo Park United Methodist Church on North Alvarado Street and Reservoir Street in northeast Los Angeles, is not currently safe for occupation. The century-old dome over the church’s bell tower was damaged by the recent atmospheric rivers that pounded California, and structural engineers say it could topple into the church and lead to a snowball effect of collapses that could injure people inside the structure.

    1

    2

    Notices are taped to the doors at Echo Park United Methodist Church, which has been a community beacon for 100 years.

    3

    Rain damaged and moldy walls inside Echo Park United Methodist Church,

    1. Pieces of a collapsed roof lay on the floor below the golden dome that sits atop Echo Park United Methodist Church. 2. Notices are taped to the doors at Echo Park United Methodist Church, which has been a community beacon for 100 years. 3. Rain damaged and moldy walls inside Echo Park United Methodist Church, which has been a community beacon for 100 years. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

    But just as the Israelites did when the Persians let them back into the land of Israel, Wulf says they will rebuild.

    “The church is really not a building but a community of people, a community that’s cared for each other over a long period of time,” Wulf said.

    Wulf’s congregation has been out of its historic home since Feb. 1, the pastor said.

    That came after the first pounding storm of the season led to the partial collapse of the tower, exposing the wood that holds up the golden dome.

    The wood had badly deteriorated: There was dry rot, termites and water damage.

    The first structural engineer who inspected the building told Wulf and his team that the church was not a safe place for groups to congregate.

    The evacuation of the building affects not just the 40 or 45 people who attend Sunday services, but also the others in the community whom the church serves.

    Wulf said services for homeless Angelenos, such as showers outside the building and free food, have had to be paused.

    He also had to inform the 12-step groups for people struggling with alcoholism or other substance use disorders that they could not meet at the church, at least for now.

    A man stands next to a staircase in a wood-paneled room

    Pastor Frank Wulf of Echo Park United Methodist Church in one of the rooms severely damaged by the recent heavy rainfall.

    (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

    The church had been building temporary shelter for migrants bused to Los Angeles from Texas. It was supposed to welcome four families to live in the space in mid-February, but it had to halt that program as well.

    “Our primary commitment is to keep everyone safe,” the church team said in a statement on a GoFundMe page they posted to raise money for the work needed to reopen.

    Wulf has not decided yet if they will repair the century-old building.

    “Would this be the appropriate time to perhaps take the whole building down and start from scratch?” he asked.

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    Noah Goldberg

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  • L.A. County has its first measles case since 2020: What to do if you’re exposed

    L.A. County has its first measles case since 2020: What to do if you’re exposed

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    A recently arrived traveler at Los Angeles International Airport is the source of the first case of measles in L.A. County since 2020.

    Measles is a highly infectious disease, and health experts say the best way to evade infection is immunization.

    The Los Angeles resident was a passenger on a Turkish Airlines flight that arrived at 5 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Tom Bradley International Terminal, Gate 157. Anyone who was at Terminal B from 5 to 9 p.m. may have been exposed and could be at risk of developing measles.

    L.A. public health officials are notifying Turkish Airlines passengers who sat close to this flier about possible measles exposure.

    The measles virus can live in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left the area, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which works with the L.A. Department of Public Health to investigate communicable disease exposure on international flights to the U.S.

    Following the flight, the infected person made a stop at a Northridge Chick-fil-A.

    Patrons who were at the restaurant at 18521 Devonshire St. between 8 and 10:30 p.m. may be at risk of developing measles, county health officials said.

    Additional locations where possible exposures may have occurred are being investigated by the health department.

    “Measles is spread by air and by direct contact,” said Muntu Davis, Los Angeles County health officer, in a news release. “Even before you know it, you have it, and [it] can lead to severe disease.”

    Those who haven’t been immunized against measles, or are not sure whether they’ve had the vaccine, and were at these sites during the date and times listed above are at risk of developing measles. Symptoms appear from seven to 21 days after exposure to the virus. Those who have been free of symptoms for more than 21 days are no longer at risk.

    The CDC reported a recent rise in domestic measles cases. Between Dec. 1 and Jan. 23, the agency was notified of 23 confirmed U.S. cases of measles, including seven direct importations of measles by international travelers and two outbreaks with more than five cases each.

    If you think you were exposed

    Public health officials recommend:

    • Review your immunization and medical records to determine whether you’re protected against measles. People who have not had measles infection or received the measles immunization previously may not be protected from the virus and should talk with a healthcare provider about receiving the measles, mumps and rubella immunization.
    • Contact and notify your healthcare provider as soon as possible about a potential exposure if you’re pregnant, if you have an unvaccinated infant who may have been exposed or if you have a weakened immune system.
    • Monitor yourself for illness: a fever and/or an unexplained rash from seven days to 21 days after exposure.
    • If symptoms develop, stay at home and avoid school, work and any large gatherings. Call a healthcare provider immediately. Do not enter a healthcare facility before calling and making the provider aware of your measles exposure and symptoms.

    Last month, the CDC released an alert for healthcare providers for measles cases after there were 23 confirmed cases throughout the U.S.

    The best way to prevent measles infection is by getting the MMR vaccine, which covers measles, mumps and rubella. Children need two vaccine doses, one when they are 12 to 15 months old and the second between the ages of 4 and 6. Teenagers and adults who have not yet been immunized need one dose.

    How measles can spread

    The virus is highly contagious and lives in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person, according to the CDC. It can spread through coughing and sneezing.

    The CDC says the virus is so contagious that if one person has it, up to 90% of the people who are not immune and are in close proximity to that person will also become infected.

    Measles can also spread when other people breathe the contaminated air or touch an infected surface, then touch their eyes, nose or mouth.

    The infection can be spread four days before symptoms begin or four days after signs of the virus.

    Measles symptoms

    The first symptoms of measles infection will appear in seven to 14 days of contracting the infection.

    We know measles as a rash on the skin, but it can be dangerous especially for babies and young children. Measles typically begins with high fever (which could spike to more than 104 degrees), cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes.

    Two to three days after symptoms begin, tiny white spots may appear inside the mouth.

    In three to five days after having symptoms of measles infection, a rash breaks out. It usually begins as flat red spots that appear on the face and at the hairline, then spreads downward to the back, trunk, arms, legs and feet.

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    Karen Garcia

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  • ‘If it’s COVID, Paxlovid’? For many, it should be easier to get. Here’s what to know about antivirals

    ‘If it’s COVID, Paxlovid’? For many, it should be easier to get. Here’s what to know about antivirals

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    The commercials make it sound so simple: “If it’s COVID, Paxlovid.”

    But the slogan, catchy though it may be, belies a harsher reality that some public health and elected officials have long acknowledged and worked to rectify: For many, getting access to the therapeutic should be much easier than it has been.

    The issue is not one of scarcity, as the antiviral is widely abundant. Nor is pricing a major barrier, as Paxlovid is cheap or even free for many. Nor even is it an issue of how well it works, as studies have shown it to be highly effective.

    The drug’s biggest impediment has been, and remains, the simple fact that a number of doctors are still declining to prescribe it.

    Some healthcare providers hinge their reluctance on outdated arguments, such as the idea of “Paxlovid rebound” — the chance that people who take the drug have a chance of developing COVID symptoms again, generally about two to eight days after they recover.

    As it turns out, anyone who gets COVID-19 has a similar rare chance of rebound.

    COVID “rebound can occur with or without [Paxlovid] treatment,” scientists with the Food and Drug Administration wrote in a study published in December. “Viral RNA rebound was not restricted to [Paxlovid] recipients, and rebound rates were generally similar to those in placebo recipients.”

    When told about one patient who was declined a prescription to Paxlovid because of concern about “Paxlovid rebound,” UC San Francisco infectious-diseases expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong groaned.

    “Oh my God, that’s so, like, bogus,” Chin-Hong said. “Clinicians having this weird idea about rebounds, it’s just dumb.”

    Data indicate that most people don’t get COVID rebound, Chin-Hong said. And while rebound can occur, the possibility should not dissuade people “who might really need it” from taking an antiviral.

    Even if COVID rebound happens, and symptoms do occur, “they tend to be mild and do not require repeating the treatment,” according to the California Department of Public Health.

    Officials at both the federal and state level have implored healthcare providers to properly prescribe Paxlovid and other antivirals when indicated.

    “Antivirals are underused,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement Thursday. “Don’t wait for symptoms to worsen.”

    In its own advisory, the California Department of Public Health said, “Most adults and some children with symptomatic COVID-19 are eligible for treatments … Providers should have a low threshold for prescribing COVID-19 therapeutics.”

    Aside from Paxlovid, one alternative oral antiviral treatment is known as molnupiravir. There’s also remdesivir, which is administered intravenously.

    The CDC says Paxlovid and remdesivir are the preferred treatments for eligible COVID-19 patients.

    “Don’t delay: Treatment must be started within five to seven days of when you first develop symptoms,” the CDC says.

    A reference to Paxlovid and other antivirals is even in a musical radio ad from California health authorities that has been broadcast throughout the state: “Test it. Treat it. You can beat it,” with the ditty later continuing: “Medication is key / To slow the virus in your body.”

    Yet there is wide documentation of the low frequency of prescribing Paxlovid and other antivirals, and that can have significant consequences for higher-risk COVID-19 patients. A report published by the CDC Thursday reviewed 110 COVID-19 patients considered high-risk and found that 80% of them were not offered antiviral treatment.

    A big reason given by the patients’ providers, all of whom were under the Veterans Health Administration, was that their patient’s COVID symptoms were mild.

    But as officials note, that’s exactly what antivirals are for.

    “There is strong scientific evidence that antiviral treatment of persons with mild-to-moderate illness, who are at risk for severe COVID-19, reduces their risk of hospitalization and death,” the CDC says.

    Risk factors for severe COVID-19 include being age 50 and up; not being current on COVID vaccinations; and a wide array of medical conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, kidney disease, heart disease, having anxiety or depression, and being overweight. Other factors that influence health, such as limited access to healthcare and having a low income, can also heighten someone’s risk.

    Another reason providers may cite to not prescribe COVID antivirals, California officials said, is the chance of serious side effects. But that fear is largely erroneous, as “most people have little-to-no side effects,” the California Department of Public Health says. Some of the more common side effects after taking Paxlovid are developing a temporary metallic taste in the mouth, which occurs in about 6% of recipients, and diarrhea (3%).

    However, some people who do take Paxlovid may need to have other medications adjusted, according to the agency.

    The other antiviral pill option, molnupiravir, “has very few side effects, but you cannot take it if you are pregnant,” the state agency said.

    Clinicians may also be reluctant to prescribe Paxlovid for younger adults, “not because it causes harm, but because it in some studies doesn’t show as much benefit,” Chin-Hong said. Younger, healthy people are generally unlikely to die from COVID or become ill enough to require hospitalization even without antiviral treatment.

    But some data do suggest that patients who take Paxlovid clear out coronavirus from their bodies faster.

    “What we’re finding is that people are turning negative very quickly with Paxlovid,” Chin-Hong said.

    And one report, published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, suggests widespread use of Paxlovid “would not only improve outcomes in treated patients but also … reduce risks of onward transmission.”

    So if an initial clinician turns you down for a Paxlovid prescription, and you think you qualify, what other options are there?

    One possibility is reaching out to another healthcare provider who might be either more knowledgeable about Paxlovid and other antiviral medications or more open to prescribing them.

    Los Angeles County residents can call the county’s public health info line, (833) 540-0473, to discuss treatment options with a health provider.

    Californians who don’t have insurance or have a hard time getting anti-COVID-19 medication can schedule a free telehealth appointment by calling (833) 686-5051 or visiting sesamecare.com/covidca. Medication costs may be subject to a copay, depending on your insurance.

    A program funded by the National Institutes of Health, featured at test2treat.org, gives adults who test positive for COVID-19 or flu free access to telehealth care and treatment.

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    Rong-Gong Lin II

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | APA! Announces $24 Pet Adoption Fees

    Austin Pets Alive! | APA! Announces $24 Pet Adoption Fees

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    AUSTIN, TX – Austin Pets Alive!
    is ringing in the new year with an adoption special for the dogs and
    cats in the shelter’s care. Adoption fees are lowered to $24 for the
    first week of January 2024. This includes kittens, puppies, and animals
    in foster homes.

    Austin Pets Alive!
    (APA!) pioneers innovative lifesaving programs designed to save the
    animals most at risk of euthanasia. APA! has helped keep Austin a No
    Kill city since 2011 and has rescued over 120,000 animals.

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  • Five steps to banking cyber resilience | Accenture Banking Blog

    Five steps to banking cyber resilience | Accenture Banking Blog

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    With 2023 in the rearview mirror, we can look back on the year with 20/20 clarity. This year saw banks confronting multiple risks, some foreseeable and others less so. If the year has taught us anything, it’s that banks can do more to guard against the risk they can predict, and risk they may not see coming.

    In 2024, risk will remain one of banking’s greatest challenges. With rising residential and commercial real estate prices, mortgage payments are outpacing wage increases, resulting in default risk. Global economic uncertainty continues to loom large, while cyberattacks continue to pose a significant threat. The rise of gen AI has handed hackers a whole new set of tools, enabling deep fakes, viruses and sophisticated phishing scams.

    How do banking CEOs view cyber risk? A recent survey to understand banking CEOs’ perspectives on cyber resilience produced some noteworthy results.

    Our research, “The Cyber-Resilient CEO,” explores the role of C-suite leaders in handling cybersecurity threats to their organizations. The survey involved 1,000 CEOs of large organizations (those with more than $1 billion revenues) in 15 countries and 19 industries. 53 banking CEOs were represented in our sample.

    The Cyber-Resilient CEO:
    How confident CEOs are taking charge of cybersecurity

    READ MORE

    When we asked banking CEOs about the biggest issue they are currently facing, 41% of them identified an ability to maintain digital trust with end consumer and business clients with the growing risk of fraud. And nearly half of respondents cited modernizing technology (26%) and regulatory compliance (21%) as the key issue. It suggests that banks simply cannot afford to loosen their grip on digital risk and compliance.

    And the rewards of being more cyber resilient are worth having. Our research finds that CEOs who adopt a more cyber-resilient approach than the rest achieve 16% higher incremental revenue growth, 21% more cost reduction improvements and 19% healthier balance sheets. What’s more they detect, contain and remediate threats faster and their breach costs are 2X and 3X lower than others.

    Challenging the status quo

    Unfortunately, the path to gaining such benefits is not always easy. The cyber threat landscape is complex and influenced by increasingly high levels of disruption. The Accenture Global Disruption Index—a composite measure that covers economic, social, geopolitical, climate, consumer and technology disruption—shows that levels of disruption increased by 200% from 2017 to 2022. It may not be banking industry-specific disruption, but the ripple effect is being felt wherever it lands.

    Banking respondents are more aware than the global average of the three key forces creating cyber vulnerabilities:

    Technology innovation: 62% of banking CEOs ranked the accelerated pace of technology innovation as one of the top risks for cyberattacks, 10% more than the global sample—with 89% rating cyber trust and resilience as highly relevant for emerging technologies, like generative AI and quantum computing.

    Supply chain disruption: 36% of banking CEOs rank supply chain as the second highest external risk, far less than the global sample at 51%.

    Environmental vulnerabilities: 92% of banking CEOs acknowledge the link to and vulnerability from environmental changes and initiatives, vs 90% of the global sample.

    It’s not as if banking executives are unaware of the important role of cyber defense: 98% of banking CEOs acknowledge cybersecurity is a key business enabler but only one-third (36%) strongly agree they have deep knowledge of the evolving cyber threat landscape. And two-thirds (66%) are concerned about their organization’s ability to avert or minimize damage to the business from a cyberattack.

    What banking CEOs say

    There are some key characteristics that define the cyber-resilient CEO and it’s good to see that CEOs in the banking industry appear to be making better progress in cyber resilience than the global average.

    Here’s how it plays out:

    Click to view larger

    These findings are supported by our conversations with C-suite banking executives across the world and it’s reassuring to see that banking is slightly better than the global average in terms of including cybersecurity on the agenda; 26% of banking CEOs have dedicated board meetings for discussing cybersecurity issues, against just 15% of global average respondents. 

    Five steps to the cyber-resilient banking CEO 

    Banking CEOs can watch and learn from the core group of cyber-resilient CEOs who assess cybersecurity across their organizations from a broader perspective, including talent, innovation, sustainability and customers; they proactively take the following five actions:  

    1. Embed cyber resilience in the business strategy from the start.
    2. Establish shared cybersecurity accountability across the organization.
    3. Secure the digital core at the heart of the organization.
    4. Extend cyber resilience beyond organizational boundaries and silos.
    5. Embrace ongoing cyber resilience to stay ahead of the curve. 

    Mitigating risk is a huge part of any bank’s remit and will continue to play an important role in the year ahead. Greater cyber resilience will be a high priority for the banking C-suite, especially in the AI era. 

    If you’d like to know more about the practical steps of how to become a cyber-resilient CEO, we encourage you to read our report today or get in touch to continue the conversation.

    What role will risk play in the next year? Watch for our Top 10 Trends for 2024, Banking on AI in January. 

    Disclaimer: This content is provided for general information purposes and is not intended to be used in place of consultation with our professional advisors. Copyright© 2023 Accenture. All rights reserved. Accenture and its logo are registered trademarks of Accenture.

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    Michael Abbott

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  • Here's what's worrying chief risk officers

    Here's what's worrying chief risk officers

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    According to a recent survey of chief risk officers at banks, about 90% of respondents reported plans to upgrade at least one of their treasury risk management capabilities, and two-third reported plans to upgrade five or more.

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    Risks related to this year’s banking failures are taking up more space in the minds of chief risk officers at U.S. banks. 

    Half of chief risk officers saw treasury and asset liability-management risks as a top concern in 2023, according to a survey of 51 chief risk executives conducted by the Risk Management Association, a trade group, and consulting firm Oliver Wyman. Just 16% of executives said the same in 2022.

    The survey results highlight the lasting impact that last spring’s banking crisis has had on U.S. financial institutions. The crisis saw the failure of three large banks and runs at several others. But even banks that made it through the spring with their balance sheets intact began to re-examine their own vulnerabilities after the failures. 

    “It was an important lesson learned: how quickly contagion risk can affect financial institutions,” one survey respondent said.

    The survey drew on responses from chief risk officers at 51 U.S. financial institutions recorded in the summer of 2023. The banks included those with less than $100 billion in assets and those with more than $100 billion in assets.

    About 90% of chief risk officers surveyed reported plans to upgrade at least one of their treasury risk management capabilities, and two-third reported plans to upgrade five or more. Nine in 10 banks reported wanting to improve their liquidity stress testing abilities. The improvements could include changes to the scenarios, models, methodologies or assumptions used for the test.

    Improving approaches to interest-rate risk management also ranked high for the chief risk officers. About 85% of respondents listed revamping this area as a top priority moving forward, according to the survey results.

    “Interest-rate risk and liquidity risk management matter — despite the fact that these areas have received limited supervisory attention in the past decade,” one chief risk officer surveyed said.

    The next three treasury risk capabilities most likely to be targeted for improvement are enhancement to risk management within the securities portfolio (70%), cash flow forecasting (59%) and other liquidity-related initiatives (52%).

    “The banks that have more maturation to do in their [treasury management and liquidity risk] practices probably feel a bit more nervous,” said Michael Duane, a partner in the finance and risk practice at Oliver Wyman. 

    Chief risk officers said they spent more time thinking about financial risks, including the increased focus on treasury risks, in 2023 than last year. In addition to that, bigger financial institutions were likely to spend more time focused on financial risks than their smaller counterparts, the survey found. 

    Additionally, next year is likely to bring risks beyond what was discussed in this survey, primarily with operational risk tied to the ongoing Basel capital debate. Regulators have proposed new capital rules that the banking industry has called “unprecedented.” The proposed rules would require banks with at least $100 billion in assets to boost the amount of capital set aside by an estimated 16%.

    Most CROs said they expect attention from regulators to increase in 2024. About 89% of the executives anticipate an increase in liquidity-related regulatory and supervisory issues at peer banks next year. And 81% of chief risk officers expect a jump in capital-related regulatory findings in 2024.

    “If you look at large regional banks, certainly on a median basis, capital has been built over the course of the year,” said Allen Tischler, senior vice president of the financial institutions group at Moody’s Investor Services.

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    Orla McCaffrey

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  • Bank of England explores risks of AI | Bank Automation News

    Bank of England explores risks of AI | Bank Automation News

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    As AI in the banking industry continues to grow, financial institutions must be confident in the accuracy and security of the technology, according to the Bank of England’s Dec. 5 Financial Stability Report.  “There’s a whole Pandora’s box of risks that we all have to adhere to,” Jonathan Hall, head of digital, commercial and institutions […]

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    Whitney McDonald

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  • Tokenizing assets on blockchain may elevate systemic risks, warns Bank of England

    Tokenizing assets on blockchain may elevate systemic risks, warns Bank of England

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    The Bank of England’s financial stability report highlights the potential risks and increasing interest in asset tokenization within the financial sector, underscoring the need for global regulatory coordination.

    The report notes an increasing positivity among banks towards leveraging crypto technologies, including programmable ledgers and smart contracts, for the tokenization of money and real-world assets.

    Tokenization, defined as issuing a digital asset representation, is rapidly gaining traction in the crypto ecosystem and is projected to evolve into a $10 trillion market by 2030, according to 21.co, an asset management company. This trend is exemplified by moves from major financial players like HSBC venturing into a digital-assets custody service focused on tokenized securities. Societe Generale has recently executed a €10 million sale of tokenized green bonds on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.

    However, this growth trajectory raises concerns. The Bank of England’s report cautions that “increasing size could pose risks for the wider financial environment.” The expansion could “increase the interconnectedness of markets for crypto and traditional financial assets (since they are represented on the same ledger) and create direct exposures for systemic institutions.”

    Acknowledging the current limitations of these risks, the Bank of England underlines the necessity of ongoing vigilance and global regulatory cooperation. The report asserts, “International coordination can reduce the risks of cross-border spillovers, regulatory arbitrage, and market fragmentation,” echoing the sentiments of lawmakers cheering for a coordinated regulatory approach to fund tokenization.


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    Bralon Hill

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  • California examines benefits, risks of using artificial intelligence in state government

    California examines benefits, risks of using artificial intelligence in state government

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    Artificial intelligence that can generate text, images and other content could help improve state programs but also poses risks, according to a report released by the governor’s office on Tuesday.

    Generative AI could help quickly translate government materials into multiple languages, analyze tax claims to detect fraud, summarize public comments and answer questions about state services. Still, deploying the technology, the analysis warned, also comes with concerns around data privacy, misinformation, equity and bias.

    “When used ethically and transparently, GenAI has the potential to dramatically improve service delivery outcomes and increase access to and utilization of government programs,” the report stated.

    The 34-page report, ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom, provides a glimpse into how California could apply the technology to state programs even as lawmakers grapple with how to protect people without hindering innovation.

    Concerns about AI safety have divided tech executives. Leaders such as billionaire Elon Musk have sounded the alarm that the technology could lead to the destruction of civilization, noting that if humans become too dependent on automation they could eventually forget how machines work. Other tech executives have a more optimistic view about AI’s potential to help save humanity by making it easier to fight climate change and diseases.

    At the same time, major tech firms including Google, Facebook and Microsoft-backed OpenAI are competing with one another to develop and release new AI tools that can produce content.

    The report also comes as generative AI is reaching another major turning point. Last week, the board of ChatGPT maker OpenAI fired CEO Sam Altman for not being “consistently candid in his communications with the board,” thrusting the company and AI sector into chaos.

    On Tuesday night, OpenAI said it reached “an agreement in principle” for Altman to return as CEO and the company named members of a new board. The company faced pressure to reinstate Altman from investors, tech executives and employees, who threatened to quit. OpenAI hasn’t provided details publicly about what led to the surprise ousting of Altman, but the company reportedly had disagreements over keeping AI safe while also making money. A nonprofit board controls OpenAI, an unusual governance structure that made it possible to push out the CEO.

    Newsom called the AI report an “important first step” as the state weighs some of the safety concerns that come with AI.

    “We’re taking a nuanced, measured approach — understanding the risks this transformative technology poses while examining how to leverage its benefits,” he said in a statement.

    AI advancements could benefit California’s economy. The state is home to 35 of the world’s 50 top AI companies and data from Pitchfork says the GenAI market could reach $42.6 billion in 2023, the report said.

    Some of the risks outlined in the report include spreading false information, giving consumers dangerous medical advice and enabling the creation of harmful chemicals and nuclear weapons. Data breaches, privacy and bias are also top concerns along with whether AI will take away jobs.

    “Given these risks, the use of GenAI technology should always be evaluated to determine if this tool is necessary and beneficial to solve a problem compared to the status quo,” the report said.

    As the state works on guidelines for the use of generative AI, the report said that in the interim state employees should abide by certain principles to safeguard the data of Californians. For example, state employees shouldn’t provide Californians’ data to generative AI tools such as ChatGPT or Google Bard or use unapproved tools on state devices, the report said.

    AI‘s potential use go beyond state government. Law enforcement agencies such as Los Angeles police are planning to use AI to analyze the tone and word choice of officers in body cam videos.

    California’s efforts to regulate some of the safety concerns such as bias surrounding AI didn’t gain much traction during the last legislative session. But lawmakers have introduced new bills to tackle some of AI’s risks when they return in January such as protecting entertainment workers from being replaced by digital clones.

    Meanwhile, regulators around the world are still figuring out how to protect people from AI’s potential risks. In October, President Biden issued an executive order that outlined standards around safety and security as developers create new AI tools. AI regulation was a major issue of discussion at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in San Francisco last week.

    During a panel discussion with executives from Google and Facebook’s parent company, Meta, Altman said he thought that Biden’s executive order was a “good start” even though there were areas for improvement. Current AI models, he said, are “fine” and “heavy regulation” isn’t needed but he expressed concern about the future.

    “At some point when the model can do the equivalent output of a whole company and then a whole country and then the whole world, like maybe we do want some sort of collective global supervision of that,” he said, a day before he was fired as OpenAI’s CEO.

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    Queenie Wong

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  • Podcast: Approaching AI with a plan | Bank Automation News

    Podcast: Approaching AI with a plan | Bank Automation News

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    Financial institutions are investing in AI and, as they do, they must consider application, talent and regulation.  

    Card issuing fintech Mission Lane has created an internal framework to help implement new technologies, including AI, head of engineering and technology Mike Lempner tells Bank Automation News on this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. 

    Mission Lane has a four-step framework when approaching new technology, he said: 

    Listen as Lempner discusses AI uses at the fintech, monitoring risk and maintaining compliance when implementing new technology throughout a financial institution.  

    The following is a transcript generated by AI technology that has been lightly edited but still contains errors.

    Whitney McDonald 0:02
    Hello and welcome to The Buzz, a bank automation news podcast. My name is Whitney McDonald and I’m the editor of bank automation News. Today is November 7 2023. Joining me is Mike Lempner. He is head of engineering and technology at FinTech mission lane. He’s here to discuss how to use the right type of AI and underwriting and identifying innovation and use cases for AI, all while approaching the technology with compliance at the forefront. He worked as a consultant before moving into the FinTech world and has been with Mission lane for about five years.

    Mike Lempner 0:32
    I’m Mike Lempner, I’m the head of our engineering and technology at mission lane. Been in the role where I’ve been leading our technology group and engineers to help build different technology solutions to support our customers and enable the growth of mission lane. I’ve been in that role for about five years prior to that mission Lane was actually spun off from another fin tech startup, and I was with them for about a year as an employee prior to that as a consultant. And prior to that time, I spent about 28 years in consulting consulting for a variety of different fortune 500 companies, startups, but mostly all in the financial services space.

    Whitney McDonald 1:09
    And maybe you could walk us through mission Lane give us a little background on what you guys do. Sure,

    Mike Lempner 1:16
    Mission lane is a FinTech that provides credit products to customers who are typically denied access to different financial services, largely in part due to their minimal credit history, as well as poor credit history in the past. For the most part, our core product that we offer right now is we have a credit card product that we offer to different customers.

    Whitney McDonald 1:39
    Well, thank you again for being here. And of course, with everything going on in the industry. Right now, we’re going to be talking about a topic that you just can’t seem to get away from, which is AI and more specifically ai ai regulation. Let’s let’s kind of set the scene here. First of all, I’d like to pass it over to you, Mike to first kind of set the scene on where AI regulation stands today and why this is an important conversation for us to have today.

    Mike Lempner 2:08
    Yeah, sounds good. As you mentioned, Whitney AI has been really all the the conversation for about the past year, since Chechi. Beatty, and others kind of came out with their capabilities. And I think as a result, regulators are looking at that and trying to figure out how do we catch up with that? How do we feel good about what what it does? What it provides? How does it change anything that we do currently today? And I think for the most part, you regulations are really stand the test of time, regardless of technology and data. But I think there’s always kind of the lens, okay, where we are today with technology, has anything changed where we are in terms of data sources, and what we’re using to kind of make decisions from a financial services standpoint is that also creating any kind of concerns and you’ve got different regulators who look at it, you’ve got some regulators who are looking at it from a consumer protection standpoint, others who are looking at it from the soundness of the banking industry, others who are looking at it from an antitrust standpoint, privacy is another, you know, big aspect of it and as well as Homeland Security. So there’s there’s different regulators looking at it in different ways and trying to understand and and try to stay as much ahead of it as they possibly can. And so I think a lot of times that they’re looking at things and trying to kind of look at the existing regulations, and understand are there adjustments that need to be made an example of that CFPB, I think recently provided some some comments and feedback related to adverse action notices, and how those are basically being generated in the light of artificial intelligence, as well as like new modeling capabilities, and including, like new data capabilities. So I think there’s there’s some specific things in many ways it doesn’t change the core regulatory need. But I do expect there’s going to be some fine tuning or adjustments that get me to the regulations to kind of put in place more more protections.

    Whitney McDonald 4:10
    Now, for this next question, you did give the example of looking at existing regulation, keeping all the different regulatory bodies in mind what already exists in the space? How else might financial institutions prepare for new AI regulation? What could that preparation look like? And what are you really hearing from your partners on that front?

    Mike Lempner 4:33
    Yeah, I think it’s, it’s not just specific to AI regulations. It’s really all regulations, and just kind of looking at the landscape of what’s happening. You know, where we are. I think the one thing that we know for sure is regulation changes will always happen and the they’re just a part of doing business and financial services. And so that need is not going away. So There are different privacy laws that are being put into place some, in some cases by different states. There’s other things, you know, as I mentioned with AI are emerging and growth, how do regulators feel comfortable with that as well? So I think in terms of preparing, just like you would with any regulatory activities going on, it’s important to have the right people within the organization involved in that in for us, that’s typically our legal team or risk team who are working both internally as well as getting external counsel, who will help us understand like, what are some of the current regulatory ideas that are out there being considered? How might that impact us as a business and we’re staying on top of it. And then as things materialize over time, we work to better understand that regulation, and then what it means for us, and then what do we need to do to be able to support it. So I think that’s a biggest part of it is getting the right people in the organization to stay on top of it know what’s currently happening, what might be happening in the future, leveraging external resources, as I mentioned, is they may have expertise in this area, and just staying on top of it so that you’re not surprised and then really kind of reacting to the situation.

    Whitney McDonald 6:14
    Now, as AI regulation does start coming down the pipeline, there’s definitely not been a a waiting period, when it comes to investing in AI implementing AI and innovating within AI. Maybe you can talk us through how you’re navigating all of those while keeping compliance in mind, ahead of further regulation that does come down. Yeah,

    Mike Lempner 6:39
    absolutely. The, you know, for for us in AI is is a really kind of broad kind of area. So it represents, you know, generative AI like chat GPT. It also involves machine learning and other statistical kinds of algorithms that can be applied. And we operate in a space where we’re taking on risk by giving people credit cards and credit. And so for us, there’s a core part of what we do the underwriting of credit. That is is challenging involves risk. And so for us, it’s important to have really good models that help us understand that risk and help us understand like who we want to give credit to. We’ve been ever since we got started, we’ve been using AI and machine learning quite a bit in our our models. For us, one of the important things is to really look at and where we may have many models that support our business. Some of them are credit underwriting models, some of them are fraud models, some of them may be other models, we have dozens of different models that we have is making sure that we’re applying the right AI technology to meet both the business needs, but also taking into account regulation. So as an example, for credit underwriting, it’s super important for us to be able to explain the outcomes of a given underwriting model to regulators as an example. And so if you’re using something like generative API, AI or chat GPT, where accuracy is not 100%. And there’s the concept of hallucinations. And while hallucinations might have been cool for a small group of people in the 60s, it’s not very cool when you talk about regulators and trying to explain why you made a financial decision to give somebody a credit card or not. So I think it’s really important for us to use the right type of AI and machine learning models for our credit underwriting decisions so that we do have the explainability have it. And we were very precise in terms of the outcome that we’re expecting, versus other types of models. And it could be marketing models, there could be, as I mentioned, fraud models or payments models that we may have as well that support our business. And there, we might be able to use more advanced modeling techniques to support that.

    Whitney McDonald 8:57
    No great examples. And I like what you said about explainability as well. I mean, that’s huge. And that comes up over and over again, when it does come to maintaining compliance while using AI. You can have it in so many different areas of an institution, but you need to explain the decisions it’s making, especially with what you’re doing with with the credit decisioning. I’m moving in to something that you had already mentioned a little bit about, but maybe we can get into this a little bit further. is prepping your team for AI investment implementation. I know that you mentioned having the right teams in place. How can financial institutions look to what you guys have done and maybe take away a best practice here? For really prepping your team? What do you need to have in place? How do you change that culture as AI as the AI ball keeps rolling?

    Mike Lempner 9:52
    Yeah, I think for us, it’s similar to what we do for any new or emerging technology in general. which is, you know, we’ve got a an overall kind of framework or process that we have like one is just identify the opportunity and the use cases. So we’re really understanding like, what are the business outcomes that we have? How can we apply technology like AI or additional data sources to solve for that particular business challenge or outcome. And then so that’s one is just having that inventory of where all the places that we could use it, then to like really looking at it and understanding the risks, as I mentioned, credit risk is one thing. And that we may want to have a certain approach to how we do that, versus marketing or fraud or other activities may have a slightly different risk profile. So understanding those things. And even when we talk about generative AI, for us, using it for internal use cases of engineers writing code and using it to help write the code is one area where it might be lower risk for us, or even in the operations space, where you’ve got customer service, who maybe we can automate a number of different functions. So I think understanding the use cases understanding the risks, then also having a governance model, and that is, I think, a combination of having a team of people that are cross functional to include legal risk, and and other members of the leadership team who can really look at it and say, here’s our plan. And what we would like to do with this technology, do we all feel comfortable moving forward? Do we fully understand the risk? Are we looking at it like holistically, then also, governance? Like for us, we already have model governance that we have for that really identify what are the models we have in place? What types of technology do we use? Do we feel good about that? What other kind of controls do we need to have in place. So I think having a good governance framework is another key piece of it. Investing in training is a another key thing to do. So particularly in the case of emerging generative AI capabilities, it’s fast evolving, it’s really important to kind of make sure that people just aren’t enamored by the technology, but really understanding it, understanding how it works, understanding the implications, there’s a difference to whether we’re going to use a public facing tool and provide data like Chet GPT, or whether we’re going to use internal AI platforms using our internal data, and use it, you know, for more proprietary purposes. So there’s a difference, I think, in many ways, and having people understand some of those differences and what we can do there, it’s important. I think, lastly, the other key thing from an overall approach standpoint, is to really iterate and start small, and get some of the experience on some of those low risk areas. In for us the low risk areas, like we’ve identified a number of different areas that we’ve already built out some solutions around customer service. And engineering, as I mentioned, you can use some of the tools to help write code, and it may not be the finished product, but it’s at least a first draft of code that you can, you can start with that. So you’re not basically starting with a blank sheet of paper.

    Whitney McDonald 13:09
    Yeah, and I mean, thank you for breaking out those those lower risk use cases that you can put in action today. I think we’ve seen a lot of examples lately of AI, that is an action that is able to be launched and used and leveraged today. Speaking of maybe more of a future look, generative AI was one thing that you had mentioned, but even beyond that, would just love to get your perspective on potential future use cases that that you’re excited about within AI, where regulation is headed. But however you want to take that future look, question of what’s coming for AI, whether in the near term, or near term or the long term? Sure.

    Mike Lempner 13:53
    Yeah, it’s I think it’s a very exciting time and insane, exciting space. And to me, it’s remarkable just the capabilities that existed a year ago where you could kind of go and and put in text or audio or video and be able to interact and and get like, you know, interesting content that could help you just more whether it was just personal searches or whatever be productive, and to now where it’s available more internally for different organizations. And even what we’ve seen internally is trying to use the technology six months ago, may have involved eight steps and a lot of what I’ll call data wrangling to kind of get the data in the right format, and to feed it in to now it’s more like there might be four steps involved in so you can very, you can much more easily integrate data and get to the outcomes and so it’s become a lot simpler to implement. And I think that’s going to be the future is that it will continue to get easier, much easier for people to apply it to their use cases and to use it for a variety of different use cases. And I think different vendors We’ll start to understand some patterns where, you know, there might be a call center use case that, you know, always occurs, you know, one example I always think of is, I can’t think of a time in the past 10 plus years where you called customer service and get transferred to an agent, where they don’t say, this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes, with quality assurance of a phone call usually involves people manually listening to it and taking notes and kind of filling out a scorecard. Well, now with you know, AI capabilities that can all be done in a much more automated way. So there’s, there’s lots of different things that like that kind of use case, that pattern that I’m guessing there are gonna be vendors who will now put that type of solution out there and make it very easy for people to consume almost like the AWS approach, where things that AWS did are now kind of exposed as services that other companies can kind of plug into very easily. That’s an example where I think the technology is headed, and you’ll start to see some point solutions that will emerge in that space. from a regulatory standpoint, I think it’s going to be interesting, you know, similar to death and taxes, I think, you know, regulate regulation is always going to be there, particularly in financial services. And it’s to do the things that we talked about before protecting customers protecting the banking system protecting, you know, different areas that are important. So I think that’s, that’s a certainty. And for us, you know, I think it’s, there’s likely to be different, different changes that will occur as a result of the technology and the data that’s available. I don’t see it as being drastic changes to the regulations. But more looking back at some of the existing regulations and saying, given the new technology, given the new data sets that exist out there, are there things we need to change about some of those existing regulations to make sure that they’re, they’re still controlling for the right things?

    Whitney McDonald 16:59
    You’ve been listening to the buzz, a bank automation news podcast, please follow us on LinkedIn. And as a reminder, you can rate this podcast on your platform of choice. Thank you for your time, and be sure to visit us at Bank automation news.com For more automation news,

    Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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    Whitney McDonald

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  • Up to 4 inches of rain expected in parts of Northern California this weekend

    Up to 4 inches of rain expected in parts of Northern California this weekend

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    A weak atmospheric river is expected to dump as much as 3½ inches of rain in the northernmost parts of California starting Friday, while Sacramento and the lower Bay Area will see light precipitation.

    Del Norte County, which is bordered by Oregon and the Pacific Ocean, will likely be the state’s hardest hit area, according to the National Weather Service.

    Roughly 1½ to 3½ inches of rain is expected to fall between Friday at 5 a.m. and Saturday at 5 a.m. That’s up from between a half inch and 1¼ inches expected for the previous 24 hours.

    “It’s a typical fall season storm system that’s passing through the region,” said Jonathan Garner, a weather service meteorologist based out of Eureka. “It’s not a particularly strong atmospheric river but it may impact complex terrains with periods of moderate to local heavy rainfall.”

    The 600-person riverfront town of Gasquet is anticipating 3.43 inches of rain from Friday into Saturday, according to NWS estimates, with Crescent City expected to see 2.72 inches of rain during the same period.

    The weather service issued a flash flood watch for the county’s interior, which has been rocked by recent fires, from Friday evening until Saturday afternoon. The agency said there is a chance of debris flows.

    The soil in the region was scarred by the Smith River Complex Fire from early October, which burned around 95,000 aces, and the “messy, slick mud” could mix with rock and downed timber in a debris flow, Garner said.

    No evacuations were planned as of Thursday afternoon, according to Garner.

    A small craft advisory was issued Thursday as winds gusted from 10 to 20 knots along the coast.

    The National Weather Service bureau in Sacramento is advising residents to clear leaves and debris from storm drains along with house gutters. They should also check and replace worn wiper blades, while locating packed-away umbrellas and rain gear.

    About 3 to 4 inches of rain is expected to fall in Eureka between Thursday and Tuesday, with risks of “ponding” and longer commutes expected in the northern portions of Humboldt County. About 2 to 3 inches of rain is anticipated in Weaverville and Trinity County, along with Blue Canyon and Placer County.

    Larger portions of Butte, Mendocino, Plumas, Shasta, Tehama and Yuba counties are expecting between 1 to 2 inches of rain.

    There’s a minor risk of pooling of water on the roads in Sacramento, San Francisco and the general Bay Area, with larger threats further north.

    The weather service is calling expected rain near the Bay Area “light,” with as much as a half inch anticipated in San Francisco and Half Moon Bay between Saturday and Tuesday. Around a half-inch of rain is predicted in Sacramento while as much as an inch may land in Cloverdale and Sonoma County.

    The snow levels in Northern California are anticipated to reach 9,000 to 10,000 feet in the mountains and will drop to 6,000 to 7,000 feet by the start of the new week.

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    Andrew J. Campa

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