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Continued education for older people helps keep their brains healthy, but also is a way to make new friends.
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A program designed as a source of continuing education for older Idahoans has a new function during the pandemic: combatting social isolation.
New Knowledge Adventures is in its sixth year of offering classes to people age 50 and over. Because of COVID-19, its classes have moved online, said Carol Hourcade, who chairs the outreach committee for the organization. If you take a class on a certain subject, another class member is in that class because you share some commonalities, she said. And so, there have been some very strong friendships that have formed among people who take the classes also.
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Millions of birds migrate each year and many take a path that leads them through Utah. Because these cross-continental journeys take so much energy, challenges like extreme weather, food shortages, or light pollution, are often fatal for birds.
Just after Labor Day, a storm with hurricane-strength winds and extreme temperature drops hit Utah. Trees were ripped up across the state and many residents were without power for days. The storm came right in the middle of fall migration, which means visiting migratory birds were faced with a cold front they couldn’t escape.
Derek Brown, the chair of the Utah GOP, announced on Tuesday that he will not seek reelection. In a statement, Brown wrote that while he had been encouraged by many people to run for another term, he and his wife Emilie decided the best way to meet their family’s needs was for him to conclude his service.
In the statement, Brown identified several of what he considered to be the most significant party achievements that happened during his service, including lifting the party out of crushing debt and holding a virtual convention during the pandemic.
Brown wrote that he plans to extend the same support he has received to whoever is the next party chair.
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The latest COVID-19 relief package makes massive investments in child well-being.
We have not seen funding levels that are included in this bill for the community-based child abuse prevention programs in the entire history of that program, which is over 30 years old, Jim McKay said.
McKay, with the Children s Trust Fund Alliance, says the programs provide resources for families, helping to prevent abuse and neglect. And it s been a long time coming.
McKay, who is speaking at an Idaho-based conference on child abuse prevention this week, says the bill also invests in other provisions that prevent abuse and neglect, including 24 billion dollars to stabilize the child-care industry and 15 billion dollars in child-care subsidies.