Ka‘ū News Briefs Saturday, December 16, 2017

Geologist examines spatter and ash deposits within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park along Kīlauea's southwest rift zone. New understanding of the age of the ash deposits, based on years of careful research, has prompted revision of ages of these surface lava flows. See story below. USGS photograph by Tim Orr, Nov. 6, 2015

FUNDING FOR THE BAY CLINIC is one of the year end goals taken to the U.S. Senate floor this week by Sen. Mazie Hirono. She named protecting DREAMers, reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program and funding Community Health Centers.
     Regarding the Children's Health Insurance Program, Hirono said that 6,000 children in Hawai‘i depend on CHIP for care they receive for complex medical conditions. Some 30,000 children in Hawai‘i are at risk of losing health care access through CHIP. Hawai‘i's federal funding for CHIP will run out as early as February, she said. The state would have to help out, putting funding for other critical programs at risk, said Hirono.

Bay Clinic's Ka‘ū Family Health Center, which opened in 2013, is at risk  without federal Community Health Center funding. Photo by Joe Febo

     Hirono said Community Health Centers could be forced to shut their doors. She said they are the only health care provided in much of rural Hawai‘i. She named Bay Clinic, with its Nā‘ālehu venue, as among Community Health Centers at risk. If not funded, she said, the clinics across Hawai‘i would have to lay off staff and dramatically cut services. She noted that recent improvements in clinics include services that help save the cost and time of patients traveling long distances, in particular, to Honolulu. She said thousands of Hawai‘i families and more than 20 million people across the country would be at risk without Community Health Centers.
      Hirono also called for parity in funding between defense and non-defense spending in the federal budget. She said the current plan is for a $54 billion increase in defense spending and $34 billion increase in all non-defense spending. Hirono said that as a member of the Armed Services Committee, she understands the need for more resources for defense, but "not at the expense of funding critical domestic programs." She said that the military also sees the need to fund the domestic programs.

Sen. Mazie Hirono listed the Dream Act, funding Childrens Health Insurance and Community Health Centers like the Bay Clinic as year end goals. Image from Sen. Mazie Hirono

     Regarding those young people who grew up in the U.S. after being brought here by relatives without permission from the government, Hirono said she wants to help those who are good citizens to stay under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, with a legal path to citizenship.
     "Every day that we don't pass the Dream Act, 122 Dreamers ....are losing their DACA status (exposing them to deportation). These are extraordinary young people with aspirations most of us take for granted. They just want to live, work, study and give back to the only country they know as home. We need to keep the promises that our government made to them by passing the DREAM Act by the end of this year."
     View the presentation by Hirono and other members of Congress on year end legislation.
 
To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. See our online calendars and our latest print edition at kaucalendar.com.

PROGRESS IN UNDERSTANDING VOLCANOES CAN BE SLOW BUT ADDS UP, say U.S.G.S. scientists writing this week's Volcano Watch at Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory:

Thomas and Isabel Jaggar. Thomas Jaggar once thought Kīlauea was an older Volcano than Mauna Loa.