FREMONT, Calif. - Eight California communities have won grants to complete projects that improve livability -- part of the 2020 AARP Community Challenge.

Nationally, 184 communities will receive a combined $2.4 million to improve open spaces, make cities more walkable and increase affordable housing.

Jennifer Berdugo, AARP California associate director of community, said they're also looking to fund new types of projects, including some that help with coronavirus response.

"This year," she said, "we added a new category seeking projects that would help increase civic engagement and demonstrate the tangible value of smart cities."

The grants will support many initiatives, including a program in San Diego to educate the Iraqi refugee community about public transportation, a new public space along San Leandro Creek, a film center in Echo Park, COVID measures at the pool and farmer's market in Hayfork, new green space to be managed by the Chinatown Health Initiative along the Los Angeles River, and affordable housing in Monterey County.

AARP California also is funding two additional projects, said Donna Deutchman, chief executive of the nonprofit Home 4 Families, which is building a housing community for veterans in Palmdale.

"AARP has provided benches and floral features," she said, "allowing our older veterans to see their neighbors, to see the children play in the playground."

Suzanne Shenfil, human services director for the city of Fremont, said the Community Challenge grant will go toward a garden at its new "Age Well Center", which opens in January next to a senior living complex.

"We'll have a chance to invite them to come and work in the garden," she said, "and hopefully it will begin to cut down on some of the isolation that we've had during COVID."

The fruits and vegetable raised will then be used to make healthy meals at the center.

Information about the Community Challenge is online at aarp.org/communitychallenge.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, senior centers in Virginia are welcoming back their participants, and one in particular has shifted some of its focus to the environment.

A National Council on Aging survey found senior centers provide a sense of connectedness for older people who might otherwise face barriers to making friends and being part of their community.

Charlottesville's Center at Belvedere offers myriad services and programs, but has taken a keen focus on environmental wellness.

Peter Thompson, executive director of the Center at Belvedere, said the programs have become a staple of the center's activities.

"Environmental wellness is a part of our mission," Thompson explained. "It's part of our program model that environmental wellness is important, just as spiritual, emotional, physical, intellectual, etc. It's long been a part of our history."

The Center has partnered with the Piedmont Master Gardeners to develop a horticulture club. The club helps people become better home gardeners and help work on a pollinator garden. Other programs in the same vein include bird watching.

Thompson pointed out reaction to the programs has been favorable. He noted the Center's mission is to ensure people have access to information, and then trust they will do the best they can with it. He describes how people have taken this information into their own lives.

"Our participants approach us and say, 'I want to learn more about this,'" Thompson observed. "They trust us to be a neutral source of, you know, 'Here's the information.'"

He added the Center itself is also working to become more environmentally conscious. In partnership with the Community Climate Collaborative's Green Business Alliance, they have established their own climate goals. They are working to reduce operating costs by "greening" their energy use and using solar and other renewable forms of power.

On Wednesday, Xcel Energy customers will have a chance to tell the Colorado Public Utilities Commission what they think about the company's request - to raise base electricity rates 8.2%, and bring in $312 million more in revenue.

Bill Levis is a former director of the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel and AARP Colorado volunteer.

He said this is the fifth request to raise rates in as many years - and low and fixed-income Coloradans who are already spending up to 30% of their budget on utility bills, can't afford another hike.

The PUC is also considering alternative rate proposals.

"The Utility Consumer Advocate has determined that Xcel should actually reduce its proposed net increase by $26.6 million," said Levis. "So instead of an increase, there would be a decrease."

To join the virtual hearing at 4 p.m. Wednesday, visit 'PUC.colorado.gov,' or call 303-869-3490 to leave a comment in English or Spanish.

Xcel is also asking the commission to bump up their authorized profits to just over 10%. The company has argued that increased revenue is needed to transition to clean energy, and that base electricity rates in Colorado are lower than the national average.

Levis said 10% is a big payout, considering anyone who has money in a savings account earns 0.5% to maybe 1%.

He added that the company's rate claims are largely based on the fact that Colorado uses less energy on average than states like Arizona, where air conditioners run many more months of the year.

"Well if you look at what's happened in the last five years, those rates have creeped up," said Levis. "AARP is very concerned that the rate creep is something that consumers on fixed incomes just can't absorb."

Levis said he believes public engagement can make a difference, pointing to the uproar over last winter's high utility bills.

Colorado lawmakers recently passed Senate Bill 291, which prohibits Xcel from passing certain costs on to its customers, including advertising and lobbying.

Levis said that's significant because Xcel currently boasts the largest lobbying force in the state.

"I think that's a big win," said Levis, "because in the last couple of legislative sessions, the General Assembly passed bills that actually benefited the company to the detriment of consumers."

Phone scammers are now using artificial intelligence to steal money from victims with realistic-sounding facsimiles of loved ones.

Scammers take existing recordings uploaded to social media and use AI to create a dynamic version of the voice that can read a script, and is then used to trick others out of cash. Seniors are often targeted, and when AI voice cloning is coupled with phone "spoofing," which falsifies the caller ID to appear as a familiar and trusted phone number, these calls become very convincing frauds.

Katie Shilton, associate professor of information science at the University of Maryland, said raising awareness is currently the best defense.

"People should know that this is a growing kind of crime and should be a little bit suspicious of frantic, threatening phone calls," Shilton advised. "One of the best countermeasures right now is to try to call the person back on their number."

Phone spoofing can also be used to mimic the phone number of a government agency or reputable organization. The Federal Trade Commission reports scammers may use an intermediary posing as an authority figure such as a fake lawyer or police officer.

Scammers will often ask victims to pay or send money in ways making it difficult to recover, including wire transfers, buying gift cards and sending them the number and PIN, or cryptocurrency. If you encounter a scam, you can report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Shilton said the AI enabling scammers was originally developed for beneficial purposes.

"AI-powered phone scams are powered by a form of AI development that was meant for prosocial purposes," Shilton explained. "Originally, the voice mimicking was for art or for film; a lot of this work has been about accessibility to create voice assistants. Some of this work was to create voice assistants for business purposes."

The National Science Foundation has established an institute for Trustworthy A.I. in Law and Society. The institute is a partnership between the University of Maryland, George Washington University and Morgan State University, and seeks to develop mechanisms to ensure AI trustworthiness via both technological and public policy responses.

Shilton pointed out one area of innovation for researchers is the concept of watermarking AI output.

"Watermarking is a really promising area of research for generative AI in general, including voice mimicking technologies," Shilton emphasized. "The idea that we should have some sort of way for people to tell when something has been generated by AI as opposed to naturalistic recordings of people or something like that. "

Shilton noted one approach the institute is using to improve public trust in AI is including stakeholder communities in the design process.

"We have participatory design projects with the teachers union in Baltimore, to talk about tools for the classroom," Shilton said. "These are frequently designed outside of classrooms. Could we design them with teachers and parents and teenagers? Or we have accessibility design projects with blind communities to do object recognition."


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