As Memorial Day kicks off summer across Indiana, Hoosiers will flock to lakes, rivers and pools, and safety should be on everyone's mind.

William Ramos, associate professor in the School of Public Health at Indiana University in Bloomington, said water safety depends on layers of protection, including attentive supervision, knowing CPR, using life jackets -- not inflatables -- and securing barriers like fences or locked doors around home pools.

Ramos encouraged families to assign one person to watch the water.

"One that we like to mention is designating a 'water-watcher,'" Ramos recommended. "This is a person almost to the level of a lifeguard who has no other duty than to watch the water and has the skills and knowledge to act if necessary."

He pointed out the highest risk for unintentional drowning is among children between the ages of one and four and teen boys and adults. He added safety around home pools should be treated as seriously as public water parks by planning, staying alert and making sure everyone leaves the area together.

Ramos noted alcohol is another major safety concern especially on boats and at parties near water. He warned drinking can impair judgment and reaction time, increasing the risk of drowning.

"It's an interesting situation in the United States, somewhere in our history, we've tied alcohol use and boating together and it's actually farthest from the truth," Ramos cautioned. "They really don't go together at all, so make sure you have somebody who isn't engaging, especially, the person who might be driving or operating the vehicle."

He urged boaters to assign a sober driver and keep alcohol away from anyone expected to supervise swimmers or operate watercraft.

As Congress reviews budget slashes to health care in President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," a new evaluation from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects 16 million Americans, including 1.8 million Medicaid and Healthy Indiana Plan recipients, would go without health insurance.

If the bill passes as is, said Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, health providers would see a sharp increase in what is known as uncompensated care, when people without coverage get sick but are unable to pay.

"And it means hospitals and doctors no longer receive that income stream from Medicaid payments," he said. "And lots of them are going to be forced out of business, and there's going to be closures of hospitals, especially in rural counties."

Republicans question the Congressional Budget Office projections, believing that cutting $715 billion from Medicaid eliminates fraud. They want to add specific work mandates for healthy working-age adults. The GOP bill aims to fund Trump administration priorities, including more immigration raids and border wall construction, and extending tax cuts passed in 2017.

According to the research site KFF, nearly 569,000 Hoosiers are enrolled through the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion.

Bivens said he fears that if the bill becomes law, he sees the measure as a transfer of income from vulnerable families to already wealthy Americans. He noted that the average cuts to Medicaid, which would take effect after the 2026 midterm elections, would be more than $70 billion per year.

"And then if you look at the tax cuts that will be received by just people making over $1 million per year, those are $70 billion as well," he said. "We're going to take $70 billion away from poor families on Medicaid, and we're going to give it to families who are making more than $1 million per year."

Six Nobel laureate economists have signed an open letter opposing cuts to safety-net programs in the budget reconciliation bill, warning the measure would add $5 trillion to the national debt.


get more stories like this via email

As Congress considers cuts to safety net programs in what Republicans are calling the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," a new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates 16 million Americans, including 140,000 in Colorado, would lose Medicaid health insurance.

Josh Bivens, chief economist at nonpartisan think tank the Economic Policy Institute, said if the bill passes as-is, health providers would see a steep increase in what is known as uncompensated care, when people without coverage get sick but cannot afford to pay their medical bill.

"It means hospitals and doctors no longer receive that income stream from Medicaid payments," Bivens pointed out. "Lots of them are going to be forced out of business and there's going to be closures of hospitals, especially in rural counties."

Republicans have cast doubt on the Congressional Budget Office projections and claimed cutting $715 billion from Medicaid by eliminating fraud and adding work requirements for adults would not reduce coverage. The GOP bill aims to fund Trump administration priorities, including more immigration raids and border wall construction, and extending tax cuts passed in 2017.

Bivens stressed if the bill becomes law, it would result in what he describes as the direct transfer of income from vulnerable families to the richest Americans. He noted the average cuts to Medicaid, which would kick in after the 2026 midterm elections, would be more than $70 billion a year.

"Then if you look at the tax cuts that will be received by just people making over $1 million per year, those are $70 billion as well," Bivens explained. "We're going to take $70 billion away from poor families on Medicaid, and we're going to give it to families who are making more than $1 million per year."

Six Nobel laureate economists have signed an open letter opposing cuts to safety net programs in the budget reconciliation bill, warning the measure would add $5 trillion to the national debt.

While headlines about the latest Trump-Musk feud may catch more people's attention, Bivens added the bill will have the biggest effects on Coloradans.

"I think the fact that six Nobel Prize winners said, 'This is important enough for me to try to draw attention to the implications of this bill,' should make people realize the stakes are really large," Bivens emphasized.


get more stories like this via email

A New Mexico coalition is stressing an urgent need for the state to adopt the strongest possible heat risk standards for indoor and outdoor workers.

New Mexico is the sixth-fastest-warming state in the nation, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, fueled by climate change which makes heat waves more common.

Carlos Matutes, community advocate for the environmental group GreenLatinos, said 80% of those working in agriculture are Latino, as are 64% of those working in the building trades. He added Latino workers are overrepresented in oil and gas production and need to be protected.

"Depriving them of paid rest periods, of shade, of water during the summer months is unconscionable," Matutes asserted. "We're trying to make sure New Mexico Environment Department establishes these rules as quickly as possible."

Two states, Texas and Florida, have passed laws limiting local governments' ability to require employers to provide water breaks to outdoor workers. In contrast, California adopted protections in 2006. Matutes noted the Environmental Department has already announced the process to consider a heat-protection rule has been delayed and will not take effect before workers endure this summer's heat.

It is not just workers who suffer from extreme heat but also kids in school classrooms.

Whitney Holland, president of the American Federation of Teachers-New Mexico, said the days of putting a box fan in a classroom window on hot days are long past and the number of sweltering days increases each year.

"Thinking through a student's day, from the time they get on the bus, with buses that don't have air conditioning, in the cafeteria, in the library, all of those places," Holland outlined. "If they don't have proper ventilation and good air quality, research shows students feel fatigued, they are unable to focus, all of those things."

As might be expected, Holland added late afternoon, following the lunch break, is when students are most miserable, which disrupts the learning environment. This summer's forecast calls for hotter-than-normal temperatures from coast to coast, according to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.


get more stories like this via email