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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This encore rebroadcast includes some updates since the story first aired in October 2021. This summer, Foster Farms was sold to a Connecticut-based private equity firm, Atlas Holdings. The company’s new chair and CEO, Donnie Smith, is the former head of Tyson Foods, one of the world’s biggest meat and poultry producers and processors. The California Report reached out to Atlas Holdings with questions, including whether there were any lessons learned from how the company’s previous owners handled the COVID-19 outbreaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Smith responded: “There are many lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, for federal and state government, public health officials, and the private sector. The delivery of timely data to public health officials was and remains essential to efforts to combat disease and is something that Foster Farms is irrevocably committed to ensuring. More broadly, since June, my team and I have focused squarely on creating a workplace culture that is second to none — a culture that nobody wants to walk away from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith also noted that the company recently increased pay for workers at Foster Farms’ processing facility in Livingston, Merced County, by 25%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the challenges the families of workers who died face is the complicated and slow process of receiving death benefits. Since this story first aired, some family members have finally begun to receive financial compensation. Rosa Velasquez, for example, whose husband, Gregorio Velasquez, died in January of 2021 after working at a Foster Farms plant in Fresno for about 20 years, began receiving benefits in May, about a year after she first applied for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Velasquez is still waiting to find out what amount her children and grandchildren will receive. Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez, the widow of another employee, Eufracio Caballero, also began receiving benefits earlier this year, according to her attorney. The amount their children will receive is also still being determined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a spokesperson from California’s Department of Industrial Relations, Foster Farms is still appealing \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/covid19citations.asp\">multiple citations Cal/OSHA issued against the company in 2021\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In 2020, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. Sixteen people died, and at least 20 others were hospitalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">Hall’s investigation\u003c/a> shows that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, or even died, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators and their own employees. We meet families who lost loved ones who worked at Foster Farms — families who are grieving, struggling financially, and trying to make sense of what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since this episode originally aired in October 2021, some of the families Hall spoke with are still waiting to hear whether they will receive death benefits — nearly a year and a half after their loved ones died. Meanwhile, three of the temp agencies Foster Farms used to hire workers have successfully argued to get their Cal/OSHA penalties reduced. Foster Farms is still appealing the state’s citations against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In 2020, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. Sixteen people died, and at least 20 others were hospitalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">Hall’s investigation\u003c/a> shows that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, or even died, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators and their own employees. We meet families who lost loved ones who worked at Foster Farms — families who are grieving, struggling financially, and trying to make sense of what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since this episode originally aired in October 2021, some of the families Hall spoke with are still waiting to hear whether they will receive death benefits — nearly a year and a half after their loved ones died. Meanwhile, three of the temp agencies Foster Farms used to hire workers have successfully argued to get their Cal/OSHA penalties reduced. Foster Farms is still appealing the state’s citations against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>If any of us hoped that 2021 would somehow be less eventful than the year that came before it, we didn’t get our wish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the pandemic continued into its second full year, our Bay Area communities also grappled with a rise in hate crime against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, rose up against sexual harassment and assault in schools, and tried to mobilize to aid refugees from Afghanistan — all of which KQED photographer Beth LaBerge endeavored to capture in still images.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Telling these stories requires words both written and spoken, yes, but sometimes photos have a unique ability to let people tell their own stories, to show you their own plights, and bring the audience face-to-face with an issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here, LaBerge has chosen the images she captured in 2021 that help do exactly that — that paint a portrait of a complex, challenging year, but also one with frequent moments of joy and community togetherness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899779\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899779 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021-800x533.jpg\" alt='A woman stands in the foreground in a purple sweatshirt with the words \"Class of 21\" with trees and sky in the background.' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shavonne Hines-Foster, a Lowell High School senior and student delegate for the district, stands outside of her school in San Francisco on Jan. 29, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This year, a new reckoning in the #MeToo movement emerged from within San Francisco’s prestigious Lowell High School. The effort empowered current and former students to call for systemic change while curating and promoting allegations on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shavonne Hines-Foster, a former Lowell student, pictured here, said that movement helped the floodgates open for current San Francisco students to speak out on Twitter and Instagram. “That served as a catalyst for everything else,” she said. “Students came forward about their experiences with racism, sexual assault, harassment and mental health at Lowell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859164/lowell-students-say-metoo-sexual-abuse-allegations-spark-reckoning-at-sf-high-school\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lowell Students Say #MeToo. Sexual Abuse Allegations Spark Reckoning at SF High\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859164/lowell-students-say-metoo-sexual-abuse-allegations-spark-reckoning-at-sf-high-school\"> School\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899781\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899781 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A girl with a mask in the bottom left of the frame flies a kite with the background of buildings in San Francisco \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cliff Lee and Joao Lee Ramirez, 12, fly a kite on Portsmouth Square Bridge in San Francisco on March 20, 2021, during a vigil and rally in support of the AAPI community on March 20, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hundreds gathered in San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square in March to mourn the lives of eight people shot and killed in Atlanta, including six Asian women. Those at the rally also called for an end to anti-AAPI violence, which had risen throughout the pandemic. Organizers supplied markers for signs and kite-making kits for the community to express their grief and create joy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of us, including women and low-wage workers, deserve to be safe,” said Shaw San Liu, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11865791/bay-area-vigils-remember-atlanta-shooting-victims-challenge-white-supremacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Area Vigils Remember Atlanta Shooting Victims, Challenge White Supremacy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899675\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899675 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An image from above. A child sits in a red chair at a blue table with a book open at a computer. The reflection can be seen in a mirror in the bottom of the frame.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Onyx attends school at home with his parents in Oakland on April 14, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As districts across California have grappled with difficult conversations around reopening, Ryan Austin, an artist-educator, said she’s been troubled by a certain aspect of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11858457/as-battle-over-reopening-san-francisco-schools-turns-ugly-equity-emerges-as-fault-line\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">school reopening conversation\u003c/a>: Organizations and advocates — both for and against reopening the Bay Area’s schools — have both cited the needs and experiences of Black and brown parents to support their viewpoints\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their community, however, is not a monolith, Austin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this photo, Austin, helps her son Onyx with school through Zoom at their home in Oakland on April 14, 2021. According to Austin, Onyx has thrived during distance learning because the family can actively engage in his learning. However, Austin is quick to point out that this is only possible due to the fact that both she and her husband, Michael, work from home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11869776/were-not-a-monolith-some-black-and-brown-parents-in-oakland-feel-conflicted-as-in-person-learning-returns\">‘\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11869776/were-not-a-monolith-some-black-and-brown-parents-in-oakland-feel-conflicted-as-in-person-learning-returns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">We’re Not a Monolith’: Some Black and Brown Parents in Oakland Feel Conflicted as In-Person Learning Returns\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870699\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11870699 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut.jpg\" alt='A woman wearing a black sweatshirt and a mask places a candle at an altar above the words \"Justice 4 Mario G.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A woman places a candle at a memorial for Mario Gonzalez during a vigil on April 21, 2021. Gonzalez died in Alameda police custody Monday. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>26-year-old Oakland Mario Gonzalez died in Alameda police custody this year after what the Alameda Police Department termed a “scuffle” with officers in a small park near the city’s Park Street corridor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a vigil in April in Alameda, community members and activists demanded answers in Gonzalez’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11870691/we-need-justice-mourners-demand-alameda-police-provide-answers-in-death-of-mario-gonzalez\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘We Need Justice’: Mourners Demand Alameda Police Provide Answers in Death of Mario Gonzalez\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11875061\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11875061 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"The silhouette of a person against the blue-sky of sunrise.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Bell, a Vietnam veteran and a Cahto tribe member, stands in a circle during the Bloody Island Sunrise Ceremony near Upper Lake, California, on May 15, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over 170 years ago, the small island of Bonopoti in Lake County was still a haven for the people who had lived there for centuries: the Pomo. On May 15, 1850, a U.S Army regiment arrived on the island and killed every Pomo man, woman and child they could find.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From then on, Bonopoti became known as Bloody Island. And for two decades, the island has hosted a Sunrise Ceremony of Forgiveness every May: A space where people from different Indigenous tribes gather to honor those ancestors claimed in the massacre, and to look to the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11874585/we-always-have-our-ancestors-within-us-scenes-from-bloody-islands-sunrise-ceremony\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘We Always Have Our Ancestors Within Us’: Scenes From Bloody Island’s Sunrise Ceremony\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899818\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899818 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A young girl is hoisted onto a horse in front of a Black Panther Party mural honoring the women of the Black Panther Party\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donnell McAlister gives kids a chance to sit on top of his horse JJ, named after Jesse James, during a Juneteenth block party to celebrate the opening of the Black Panther Party Mini Museum in West Oakland on June 19, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In celebration of Juneteenth this year, The West Oakland Mural Project opened a small museum to highlight Black Panther Party history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the block party held to celebrate, Donnell McAlister gave kids a chance to sit on top of his horse, JJ, named after Jesse James.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878694/this-is-american-history-oakland-mini-museum-on-the-black-panther-party-opens-juneteenth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘This Is American History’: Oakland Mini Museum on the Black Panther Party Opens on Juneteenth\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899762\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899762 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A colorful scene with a large banner in the foreground and many people in the background waving rainbow flags and signs.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hundreds march head down Polk Street towards City Hall during the People’s March and Rally in San Francisco on June 27, 2021, during Pride weekend in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The absence of an official San Francisco Pride Parade made room for things to get a lot weirder, more political, and more D.I.Y. this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of corporate-sponsored floats with rainbow advertisements, a People’s March organized by artists and activists took over the streets on Sunday, June 27, connecting the celebration back to its radical roots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13899473/photos-lgbtq-pride-lights-up-the-bay-area-in-all-its-rainbow-glory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">PHOTOS: LGBTQ+ Pride Lights Up the Bay Area In All Its Rainbow Glory\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899764\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11899764\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edward Wooley, known as Chef Smelly, prepares garlic noodles at Smelly’s Creole and Soul Food pop-up on Broadway in Oakland on August 7, 2021. Garlic noodles are one of the most popular dishes at the pop-up. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Steam rises off of a fresh batch of chef Edward Wooley’s garlic noodles at his Oakland restaurant, Smelly’s Creole and Soul Food. Here in the Bay Area, Asian Americans love garlic noodles. Black and Latino folks love garlic noodles. Indeed, once you start looking for garlic noodles, it seems, you find them everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My business is soul fusion,” Wooley says. “I take my Black seasonings and style, and mix it with the Asian cuisine. It’s a blend of everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900855/garlic-noodles-sf-bay-area-iconic-foods-thanh-long-smellys\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How Garlic Noodles Became one of the Bay Area’s Most Iconic Foods\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899820\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899820 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a cowboy hat stands next to a tractor with the background of a field behind him. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chris Borba and his son Joseph repair a broken irrigation line on their family-owned farm in Porterville, California, on August 10, 2021. Record droughts in California’s Central Valley, the country’s most lucrative agricultural area, have made life difficult for growers in the region. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Record droughts in California’s Central Valley, the country’s most lucrative agricultural area, have made life difficult for growers in the region. The lack of rain, over-pumping of aquifers, and the rising temperatures from climate change, which dry out the soil, have contributed to many farmers removing crops that they’ve grown for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As seen above, Chris Borba and his family have farmed in the Central Valley for several generations, but he worries that their farm might not survive if there is another year as dry as 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976510/central-valley-farmers-weigh-in-on-californias-historic-drought\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Central Valley Farmers Weigh in on California’s Historic Drought\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899766\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11899766\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jatinderpal Singh sits at his home in Fresno on August 11, 2021. Singh is a former employee of the Foster Farms’ Cherry facility. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jatinderpal Singh, 71, a former line worker at Foster Farms’ Cherry plant, equated the loss of his cousin, Baljinder Dhillon, 65, a mechanic at the plant, to losing an arm. Dhillon tested positive for COVID-19 in December of 2020 during an outbreak at Foster Farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My legs still shake,” Singh said in an interview on Aug. 11, speaking in Punjabi through an interpreter. “I still feel it, even today. Sometimes I feel weakness in my legs when I think about him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>‘\u003c/strong>There Is Anger. He Should Be Alive.’ An Investigation Into Deadly COVID-19 Outbreaks at Foster Farms\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899767\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11899767\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Herrera and Gonzalez hold hands in their yard on Aug. 23, 2021. Along with their three children, the couple fled Mexico and are seeking asylum in the U.S. But their case has dragged on for six years in immigration court. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2015 a man named Herrera fled to the U.S. with his family after he says he became the target of political violence in his hometown in central Mexico. When they reached the San Francisco Bay Area, he applied for asylum. But security still feels elusive: His case in immigration court has dragged on for six years, and it involves grueling cross-examinations that he says rekindle the terror he experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t want to remember the kidnapping or anything else because it’s really ugly,” said Herrera, now 50 and a construction worker in San José. “But I have to keep opening up the trunk and pulling out those memories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11886227/like-living-through-it-all-over-again-new-biden-plan-could-ease-impact-on-asylum-seekers-asked-to-recount-their-trauma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>‘\u003c/strong>Like Living Through It All Over Again’: New Biden Plan Could Ease Impact on Asylum Seekers Asked to Recount Their Trauma\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899768\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899768 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Redwood trees, smoke and a firefighter pointing his hose at a blazing fire.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Storey County Fire District crew battles the Caldor Fire off of Highway 50 near South Lake Tahoe on Aug. 31, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state is in a dangerous place. Scorching summers coupled with tinderbox dry forests render fire containment ineffective — especially when it’s hot, windy, or a combination of the two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Caldor Fire burned into the Tahoe Basin, it looked like this city, a center of gravity for culture in this part of the Sierra, could (and many thought, \u003cem>would\u003c/em>) burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it did not, thanks to the 3,500 firefighters, a timely shift in the winds and years of fire preparations by a myriad of players.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1977037/wildfire-torched-the-sierra-all-summer-evading-containment-heres-how-tahoe-protected-itself\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wildfire Torched the Sierra All Summer, Evading Containment. Here’s How Tahoe Protected Itself\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899830\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899830 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits at a computer in the background of a home, while a man plays with two kids in the foreground.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">While Nazia Gabar teaches English classes to women from Afghanistan who have resettled in the United States, her husband Hassam plays with their two children at their home in San Leandro on Sept. 8, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nazia Gabar arrived from Afghanistan and landed in the Bay Area in 2017 with her husband and baby. “At first it’s very difficult to adapt to a new culture, a new environment, new people,” she said. “At that time when we came, we were very stressful about everything because there was no home and no jobs. We didn’t have any money, and the rent was very high.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They had friends who had come earlier who helped them transition, and now they both do the same to help newly arrived Afghan refugees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890467/i-know-exactly-what-you-feel-bay-area-afghans-work-overtime-to-welcome-new-refugees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘I Know Exactly What You Feel’: Bay Area Afghans Work Overtime to Welcome New Refugees\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899769\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899769 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"An older woman with glasses and a slight stands in the sunlight.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mardonia Galeana poses for a portrait at her home in San Jose on Oct. 7, 2021. During the 1990s, she ran an informal restaurant out of her apartment. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In The Bay Area’s Great Immigrant Food City, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring San Jose’s wonderfully diverse immigrant food scene, we meet Mardonia Galeana, also known as Abuela, through the eyes of her grandson, Yosimar Reyes. In the early 1990s, Abuela started an informal business selling home-cooked meals and offered them at a reduced price to the immigrant community in their neighborhood. Her clientele grew, and for several nights a week, men crowded into their apartment, sharing laughs and hardships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For those men, the camaraderie of sitting around Abuela’s table helped make being in this country feel less lonely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904861/abuela-mexican-kitchen-undocumented-workers-san-jose\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">My Abuela’s East San Jose Kitchen Fed Dozens of Undocumented Workers Every Week\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899770\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899770 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Five people stand in different brightly colored dresses and face paint against a backdrop of a mural in the Mission.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The group Eveyln’s Whisper perform a tribute to Evelyn Hernandez during a community healing vigil and living ofrenda celebration on 24th and Capp streets in San Francisco on Nov. 2, 2021, part of the neighborhood’s Día de Los Muertos festivities. The event honored the memory of womxn, QTPOC, and children lost to violence. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of residents filled the streets of the Mission District in San Francisco on the evening of November 2 to honor and celebrate the dead on Día de los Muertos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sidewalks of 24th Street, from Mission Street to Potrero Avenue, were packed with families, some holding candles, others wearing delicately crafted dresses, face paint, and hair arrangements made out of cempasúchil, or marigolds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894929/to-also-celebrate-the-living-dia-de-los-muertos-returns-to-the-mission\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘To Also Celebrate the Living’: Día de los Muertos Returns to the Mission\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899771\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899771 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A kid sits in a chair receiving a bandaid from a nurse while a woman holds his hand.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Registered Nurse Elia Moreno administers a COVID-19 vaccine to Fergus, 10, while his mother, Kyre Osburn, holds his hand at the United in Health vaccine site in San Francisco’s Mission District on Nov. 9, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On November 2, kids aged 5-11 became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in California. Families filled the United in Health vaccine site in San Francisco’s Mission District, including Fergus, who wore a tuxedo shirt to celebrate the long-awaited day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894546/pfizer-covid-vaccine-kids-5-11-near-me\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Where Can I Get a Pfizer COVID Vaccine for Kids Age 5-11 Near Me?\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899772\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899772 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A young woman stands with arms outstretched in a beautifully outfit lit by the window.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Genesis Rosales dances with family at the 52nd Anniversary of the Alcatraz Occupation on Alcatraz Island on Nov. 20, 2021, during a visit to Alcatraz by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>2021 marked 52 years since Native American activists occupied Alcatraz Island to bring attention to past and ongoing injustices against Native peoples — and it’s a day that brought promises for more inclusion from the Biden administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The anniversary also was marked by a visit and speech from U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/03/15/977558590/deb-haaland-confirmed-as-first-native-american-interior-secretary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the nation’s first Native American cabinet secretary\u003c/a>. “The occupation of Alcatraz Island by Indigenous people in 1969 was more than a call for action. It was a cry for a sense of community and the life ways that were stolen from us,” she said. “We’re in a new era, an era in which we can embrace our identities as Indigenous people and be proud of how much we have accomplished.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11897041/were-in-a-new-era-on-52nd-anniversary-of-alcatraz-occupation-biden-administration-commits-to-native-american-inclusion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘We’re in a New Era’: On 52nd Anniversary of Alcatraz Occupation, Biden Administration Commits to Native American Inclusion\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "From wildfires to refugee crises to a jubilant Juneteenth, photos from Northern California's turbulent and uplifting 2021 chosen by KQED photographer Beth LaBerge.",
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"title": "A Look at the Bay Area's Perseverance in 2021 Through Photos | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>If any of us hoped that 2021 would somehow be less eventful than the year that came before it, we didn’t get our wish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the pandemic continued into its second full year, our Bay Area communities also grappled with a rise in hate crime against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, rose up against sexual harassment and assault in schools, and tried to mobilize to aid refugees from Afghanistan — all of which KQED photographer Beth LaBerge endeavored to capture in still images.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Telling these stories requires words both written and spoken, yes, but sometimes photos have a unique ability to let people tell their own stories, to show you their own plights, and bring the audience face-to-face with an issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here, LaBerge has chosen the images she captured in 2021 that help do exactly that — that paint a portrait of a complex, challenging year, but also one with frequent moments of joy and community togetherness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899779\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899779 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021-800x533.jpg\" alt='A woman stands in the foreground in a purple sweatshirt with the words \"Class of 21\" with trees and sky in the background.' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/010_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_Shavonne_01292021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shavonne Hines-Foster, a Lowell High School senior and student delegate for the district, stands outside of her school in San Francisco on Jan. 29, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This year, a new reckoning in the #MeToo movement emerged from within San Francisco’s prestigious Lowell High School. The effort empowered current and former students to call for systemic change while curating and promoting allegations on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shavonne Hines-Foster, a former Lowell student, pictured here, said that movement helped the floodgates open for current San Francisco students to speak out on Twitter and Instagram. “That served as a catalyst for everything else,” she said. “Students came forward about their experiences with racism, sexual assault, harassment and mental health at Lowell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859164/lowell-students-say-metoo-sexual-abuse-allegations-spark-reckoning-at-sf-high-school\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lowell Students Say #MeToo. Sexual Abuse Allegations Spark Reckoning at SF High\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859164/lowell-students-say-metoo-sexual-abuse-allegations-spark-reckoning-at-sf-high-school\"> School\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899781\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899781 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A girl with a mask in the bottom left of the frame flies a kite with the background of buildings in San Francisco \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/030_SanFrancisco_StopAAPIHateRally_0320201.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cliff Lee and Joao Lee Ramirez, 12, fly a kite on Portsmouth Square Bridge in San Francisco on March 20, 2021, during a vigil and rally in support of the AAPI community on March 20, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hundreds gathered in San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square in March to mourn the lives of eight people shot and killed in Atlanta, including six Asian women. Those at the rally also called for an end to anti-AAPI violence, which had risen throughout the pandemic. Organizers supplied markers for signs and kite-making kits for the community to express their grief and create joy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of us, including women and low-wage workers, deserve to be safe,” said Shaw San Liu, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11865791/bay-area-vigils-remember-atlanta-shooting-victims-challenge-white-supremacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Area Vigils Remember Atlanta Shooting Victims, Challenge White Supremacy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899675\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899675 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An image from above. A child sits in a red chair at a blue table with a book open at a computer. The reflection can be seen in a mirror in the bottom of the frame.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS48652_043_Oakland_AustinFamily_04142021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Onyx attends school at home with his parents in Oakland on April 14, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As districts across California have grappled with difficult conversations around reopening, Ryan Austin, an artist-educator, said she’s been troubled by a certain aspect of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11858457/as-battle-over-reopening-san-francisco-schools-turns-ugly-equity-emerges-as-fault-line\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">school reopening conversation\u003c/a>: Organizations and advocates — both for and against reopening the Bay Area’s schools — have both cited the needs and experiences of Black and brown parents to support their viewpoints\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their community, however, is not a monolith, Austin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this photo, Austin, helps her son Onyx with school through Zoom at their home in Oakland on April 14, 2021. According to Austin, Onyx has thrived during distance learning because the family can actively engage in his learning. However, Austin is quick to point out that this is only possible due to the fact that both she and her husband, Michael, work from home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11869776/were-not-a-monolith-some-black-and-brown-parents-in-oakland-feel-conflicted-as-in-person-learning-returns\">‘\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11869776/were-not-a-monolith-some-black-and-brown-parents-in-oakland-feel-conflicted-as-in-person-learning-returns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">We’re Not a Monolith’: Some Black and Brown Parents in Oakland Feel Conflicted as In-Person Learning Returns\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870699\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11870699 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut.jpg\" alt='A woman wearing a black sweatshirt and a mask places a candle at an altar above the words \"Justice 4 Mario G.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS48713_026_Alameda_MarioGonzalezVigil_04212021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A woman places a candle at a memorial for Mario Gonzalez during a vigil on April 21, 2021. Gonzalez died in Alameda police custody Monday. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>26-year-old Oakland Mario Gonzalez died in Alameda police custody this year after what the Alameda Police Department termed a “scuffle” with officers in a small park near the city’s Park Street corridor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a vigil in April in Alameda, community members and activists demanded answers in Gonzalez’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11870691/we-need-justice-mourners-demand-alameda-police-provide-answers-in-death-of-mario-gonzalez\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘We Need Justice’: Mourners Demand Alameda Police Provide Answers in Death of Mario Gonzalez\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11875061\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11875061 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"The silhouette of a person against the blue-sky of sunrise.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/RS49144_007_UpperLake_BloodyIslandSunriseCeremony_05152021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Bell, a Vietnam veteran and a Cahto tribe member, stands in a circle during the Bloody Island Sunrise Ceremony near Upper Lake, California, on May 15, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over 170 years ago, the small island of Bonopoti in Lake County was still a haven for the people who had lived there for centuries: the Pomo. On May 15, 1850, a U.S Army regiment arrived on the island and killed every Pomo man, woman and child they could find.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From then on, Bonopoti became known as Bloody Island. And for two decades, the island has hosted a Sunrise Ceremony of Forgiveness every May: A space where people from different Indigenous tribes gather to honor those ancestors claimed in the massacre, and to look to the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11874585/we-always-have-our-ancestors-within-us-scenes-from-bloody-islands-sunrise-ceremony\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘We Always Have Our Ancestors Within Us’: Scenes From Bloody Island’s Sunrise Ceremony\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899818\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899818 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A young girl is hoisted onto a horse in front of a Black Panther Party mural honoring the women of the Black Panther Party\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/016_Oakland_JuneteenthBBPMiniMuseum_06192021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donnell McAlister gives kids a chance to sit on top of his horse JJ, named after Jesse James, during a Juneteenth block party to celebrate the opening of the Black Panther Party Mini Museum in West Oakland on June 19, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In celebration of Juneteenth this year, The West Oakland Mural Project opened a small museum to highlight Black Panther Party history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the block party held to celebrate, Donnell McAlister gave kids a chance to sit on top of his horse, JJ, named after Jesse James.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878694/this-is-american-history-oakland-mini-museum-on-the-black-panther-party-opens-juneteenth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘This Is American History’: Oakland Mini Museum on the Black Panther Party Opens on Juneteenth\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899762\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899762 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A colorful scene with a large banner in the foreground and many people in the background waving rainbow flags and signs.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/017_SanFrancisco_PeoplesMarch_06272021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hundreds march head down Polk Street towards City Hall during the People’s March and Rally in San Francisco on June 27, 2021, during Pride weekend in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The absence of an official San Francisco Pride Parade made room for things to get a lot weirder, more political, and more D.I.Y. this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of corporate-sponsored floats with rainbow advertisements, a People’s March organized by artists and activists took over the streets on Sunday, June 27, connecting the celebration back to its radical roots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13899473/photos-lgbtq-pride-lights-up-the-bay-area-in-all-its-rainbow-glory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">PHOTOS: LGBTQ+ Pride Lights Up the Bay Area In All Its Rainbow Glory\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899764\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11899764\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/022_Oakland_ChefSmellys_08072021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edward Wooley, known as Chef Smelly, prepares garlic noodles at Smelly’s Creole and Soul Food pop-up on Broadway in Oakland on August 7, 2021. Garlic noodles are one of the most popular dishes at the pop-up. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Steam rises off of a fresh batch of chef Edward Wooley’s garlic noodles at his Oakland restaurant, Smelly’s Creole and Soul Food. Here in the Bay Area, Asian Americans love garlic noodles. Black and Latino folks love garlic noodles. Indeed, once you start looking for garlic noodles, it seems, you find them everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My business is soul fusion,” Wooley says. “I take my Black seasonings and style, and mix it with the Asian cuisine. It’s a blend of everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900855/garlic-noodles-sf-bay-area-iconic-foods-thanh-long-smellys\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How Garlic Noodles Became one of the Bay Area’s Most Iconic Foods\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899820\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899820 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a cowboy hat stands next to a tractor with the background of a field behind him. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/046_Porterville_Farm_08102021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chris Borba and his son Joseph repair a broken irrigation line on their family-owned farm in Porterville, California, on August 10, 2021. Record droughts in California’s Central Valley, the country’s most lucrative agricultural area, have made life difficult for growers in the region. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Record droughts in California’s Central Valley, the country’s most lucrative agricultural area, have made life difficult for growers in the region. The lack of rain, over-pumping of aquifers, and the rising temperatures from climate change, which dry out the soil, have contributed to many farmers removing crops that they’ve grown for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As seen above, Chris Borba and his family have farmed in the Central Valley for several generations, but he worries that their farm might not survive if there is another year as dry as 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976510/central-valley-farmers-weigh-in-on-californias-historic-drought\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Central Valley Farmers Weigh in on California’s Historic Drought\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899766\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11899766\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jatinderpal Singh sits at his home in Fresno on August 11, 2021. Singh is a former employee of the Foster Farms’ Cherry facility. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jatinderpal Singh, 71, a former line worker at Foster Farms’ Cherry plant, equated the loss of his cousin, Baljinder Dhillon, 65, a mechanic at the plant, to losing an arm. Dhillon tested positive for COVID-19 in December of 2020 during an outbreak at Foster Farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My legs still shake,” Singh said in an interview on Aug. 11, speaking in Punjabi through an interpreter. “I still feel it, even today. Sometimes I feel weakness in my legs when I think about him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>‘\u003c/strong>There Is Anger. He Should Be Alive.’ An Investigation Into Deadly COVID-19 Outbreaks at Foster Farms\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899767\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11899767\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/026_SanJose_Immigration_08232021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Herrera and Gonzalez hold hands in their yard on Aug. 23, 2021. Along with their three children, the couple fled Mexico and are seeking asylum in the U.S. But their case has dragged on for six years in immigration court. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2015 a man named Herrera fled to the U.S. with his family after he says he became the target of political violence in his hometown in central Mexico. When they reached the San Francisco Bay Area, he applied for asylum. But security still feels elusive: His case in immigration court has dragged on for six years, and it involves grueling cross-examinations that he says rekindle the terror he experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t want to remember the kidnapping or anything else because it’s really ugly,” said Herrera, now 50 and a construction worker in San José. “But I have to keep opening up the trunk and pulling out those memories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11886227/like-living-through-it-all-over-again-new-biden-plan-could-ease-impact-on-asylum-seekers-asked-to-recount-their-trauma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>‘\u003c/strong>Like Living Through It All Over Again’: New Biden Plan Could Ease Impact on Asylum Seekers Asked to Recount Their Trauma\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899768\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899768 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Redwood trees, smoke and a firefighter pointing his hose at a blazing fire.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/038_CaldorFire_08312021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Storey County Fire District crew battles the Caldor Fire off of Highway 50 near South Lake Tahoe on Aug. 31, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state is in a dangerous place. Scorching summers coupled with tinderbox dry forests render fire containment ineffective — especially when it’s hot, windy, or a combination of the two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Caldor Fire burned into the Tahoe Basin, it looked like this city, a center of gravity for culture in this part of the Sierra, could (and many thought, \u003cem>would\u003c/em>) burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it did not, thanks to the 3,500 firefighters, a timely shift in the winds and years of fire preparations by a myriad of players.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1977037/wildfire-torched-the-sierra-all-summer-evading-containment-heres-how-tahoe-protected-itself\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wildfire Torched the Sierra All Summer, Evading Containment. Here’s How Tahoe Protected Itself\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899830\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899830 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits at a computer in the background of a home, while a man plays with two kids in the foreground.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/024_SanLeandro_GabarFamily_09082021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">While Nazia Gabar teaches English classes to women from Afghanistan who have resettled in the United States, her husband Hassam plays with their two children at their home in San Leandro on Sept. 8, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nazia Gabar arrived from Afghanistan and landed in the Bay Area in 2017 with her husband and baby. “At first it’s very difficult to adapt to a new culture, a new environment, new people,” she said. “At that time when we came, we were very stressful about everything because there was no home and no jobs. We didn’t have any money, and the rent was very high.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They had friends who had come earlier who helped them transition, and now they both do the same to help newly arrived Afghan refugees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890467/i-know-exactly-what-you-feel-bay-area-afghans-work-overtime-to-welcome-new-refugees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘I Know Exactly What You Feel’: Bay Area Afghans Work Overtime to Welcome New Refugees\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899769\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899769 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"An older woman with glasses and a slight stands in the sunlight.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/031_SanJose_MardoniaGaleana_10072021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mardonia Galeana poses for a portrait at her home in San Jose on Oct. 7, 2021. During the 1990s, she ran an informal restaurant out of her apartment. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In The Bay Area’s Great Immigrant Food City, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring San Jose’s wonderfully diverse immigrant food scene, we meet Mardonia Galeana, also known as Abuela, through the eyes of her grandson, Yosimar Reyes. In the early 1990s, Abuela started an informal business selling home-cooked meals and offered them at a reduced price to the immigrant community in their neighborhood. Her clientele grew, and for several nights a week, men crowded into their apartment, sharing laughs and hardships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For those men, the camaraderie of sitting around Abuela’s table helped make being in this country feel less lonely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904861/abuela-mexican-kitchen-undocumented-workers-san-jose\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">My Abuela’s East San Jose Kitchen Fed Dozens of Undocumented Workers Every Week\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899770\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899770 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Five people stand in different brightly colored dresses and face paint against a backdrop of a mural in the Mission.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/033_SanFrancisco_DiadelosMuertos_11022021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The group Eveyln’s Whisper perform a tribute to Evelyn Hernandez during a community healing vigil and living ofrenda celebration on 24th and Capp streets in San Francisco on Nov. 2, 2021, part of the neighborhood’s Día de Los Muertos festivities. The event honored the memory of womxn, QTPOC, and children lost to violence. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of residents filled the streets of the Mission District in San Francisco on the evening of November 2 to honor and celebrate the dead on Día de los Muertos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sidewalks of 24th Street, from Mission Street to Potrero Avenue, were packed with families, some holding candles, others wearing delicately crafted dresses, face paint, and hair arrangements made out of cempasúchil, or marigolds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894929/to-also-celebrate-the-living-dia-de-los-muertos-returns-to-the-mission\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘To Also Celebrate the Living’: Día de los Muertos Returns to the Mission\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899771\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899771 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A kid sits in a chair receiving a bandaid from a nurse while a woman holds his hand.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/008_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Registered Nurse Elia Moreno administers a COVID-19 vaccine to Fergus, 10, while his mother, Kyre Osburn, holds his hand at the United in Health vaccine site in San Francisco’s Mission District on Nov. 9, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On November 2, kids aged 5-11 became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in California. Families filled the United in Health vaccine site in San Francisco’s Mission District, including Fergus, who wore a tuxedo shirt to celebrate the long-awaited day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894546/pfizer-covid-vaccine-kids-5-11-near-me\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Where Can I Get a Pfizer COVID Vaccine for Kids Age 5-11 Near Me?\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899772\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11899772 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A young woman stands with arms outstretched in a beautifully outfit lit by the window.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/078_Alcatraz_InteriorSecretaryDebHaaland_11202021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Genesis Rosales dances with family at the 52nd Anniversary of the Alcatraz Occupation on Alcatraz Island on Nov. 20, 2021, during a visit to Alcatraz by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>2021 marked 52 years since Native American activists occupied Alcatraz Island to bring attention to past and ongoing injustices against Native peoples — and it’s a day that brought promises for more inclusion from the Biden administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The anniversary also was marked by a visit and speech from U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/03/15/977558590/deb-haaland-confirmed-as-first-native-american-interior-secretary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the nation’s first Native American cabinet secretary\u003c/a>. “The occupation of Alcatraz Island by Indigenous people in 1969 was more than a call for action. It was a cry for a sense of community and the life ways that were stolen from us,” she said. “We’re in a new era, an era in which we can embrace our identities as Indigenous people and be proud of how much we have accomplished.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Read the full story: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11897041/were-in-a-new-era-on-52nd-anniversary-of-alcatraz-occupation-biden-administration-commits-to-native-american-inclusion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">‘We’re in a New Era’: On 52nd Anniversary of Alcatraz Occupation, Biden Administration Commits to Native American Inclusion\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "got-covid-19-at-your-job-and-applying-for-workers-comp-in-california-heres-how-it-works",
"title": "Got COVID-19 at Your Job and Applying for Workers' Comp in California? Here's How It Works",
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"headTitle": "Got COVID-19 at Your Job and Applying for Workers’ Comp in California? Here’s How It Works | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">recent KQED investigation\u003c/a> found that Foster Farms provided delayed or incomplete information to health officials, the public and its own employees about the scope and seriousness of COVID-19 outbreaks at its plants in California’s Central Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the start of the pandemic, 16 people have died due to complications from the coronavirus, at least 20 were hospitalized and hundreds of workers at the company’s California facilities have been infected. According to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">Cal/OSHA inspection file obtained by KQED\u003c/a>, Foster Farms “could have known and should have known of the continuing COVID-19 hazards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11892838\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/50872_transform-1020x679.jpg\"]What happened at Foster Farms is only a piece of a larger issue across California: Essential and front-line workers have been hit hardest by workplace outbreaks — and those already struggling with the financial impacts of the pandemic are hit hardest by the incurred costs of dealing with an infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you get coronavirus at work, your employer is \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/WorkersCompensationBenefits.htm\">required by law to cover the costs\u003c/a> of medical care, lost income while you’re out sick and even transportation expenses. These benefits all are part of workers’ compensation, and since April 2020, a \u003ca href=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2020/upload/nr036NoticeWorkCompCOVID04062020.pdf\">COVID-19 infection is included as a workplace injury\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if an employee dies from a work-related COVID-19 infection, their dependents could be eligible for death benefits and burial expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, just because these benefits are available doesn’t mean they’re easy to get. Some employees who’ve survived COVID-19 have had their claims contested by their employers and workers’ comp insurance companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going through a bureaucratic maze could seem daunting — especially after surviving a case of COVID-19. But it can also open up a financial lifeline for some. Workers \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/employer.htm\">can’t sue their employers for a workplace infection\u003c/a>. However, they are entitled to medical treatment covered by their employer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED spoke with both experienced workers’ comp attorneys and state officials to better understand what it’s like to go through this process and ways to make it less complicated. Don’t have time to read the whole guide? Here’s a quick breakdown. Click on the links below to skip to a specific section:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#start\">\u003cstrong>What is workers’ comp? How do you start a claim?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#provide\">\u003cstrong>What does workers’ comp provide?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#denied\">\u003cstrong>My claim was denied. What happens now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#additional\">\u003cstrong>Some additional things to keep in mind.\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"start\">\u003c/a>What is workers’ comp? How do you start a claim?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>According to attorneys who’ve been managing workers’ comp cases for years, the hardest step in the process can be the first: filing a workers’ comp claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people just aren’t aware that they can even bring these claims to begin with,” said Ricardo Agustín Pérez, a personal injury lawyer based in Southern California who currently represents Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez, surviving spouse of a former Foster Farms employee \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">who lost his life due to COVID-19 complications\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also file a claim even if you weren’t hospitalized for COVID-19. Cheryl Wallach, a workers’ comp attorney and board member of Worksafe, a worker advocacy group, says that a claim should show that the infection is an industrial injury, meaning it happened at the workplace during the course of employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894175\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52024_IMG_7733-scaled-e1635448154660.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11894175 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52024_IMG_7733-scaled-e1635448154660.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holds a pamphlet open as a second hand holds it by the other end.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jakara Movement organizer Navdeep Kaur speaks with Punjabi families at a Sikh gurdwara in Fresno about COVID-19 and workers’ compensation. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You just have to show that the employee had an increased risk compared to the general population,” she said. “If you’re in the food service industry or you’re working side by side with other workers or … you’re not working at home, do you have an increased risk compared to other people?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any worker in California, regardless of immigration status or industry, can file a claim. And you don’t need a lawyer to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first step is to talk to your employer, whether that’s your supervisor or the owner of the business you’re working for, and let them know you tested positive for COVID-19 and that you believe you contracted the virus at your workplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once you let your employer know, they have 24 hours to give you a DWC 1 — a workers’ compensation claim form. You’ll fill out the employee section, which includes sections to describe the injury and when it occurred. Remember, the injury in this case is a COVID-19 infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your employer doesn’t have a DWC 1 or claims to not know what that is, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/dwcform1.pdf\">you can find a DWC 1 online\u003c/a>. After you fill out your part, give it to your employer, who must provide a copy to their insurer and to the worker within one working day of receiving the form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No matter what your employer may tell you, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/employer.htm\">every business in California is required to have a workers’ comp insurance policy\u003c/a> — even if they only have one employee. If you take a look at the DWC 1, you may notice the term “claims administrator.” That’s the term for your employer’s insurance company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wallach encourages employees to be proactive when talking to their employers, especially if the employers are unaware of existing regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t take no for an answer just because they don’t understand the law or because they don’t think it’s work related,” she said. “They have to provide [the claim form] to their insurance company.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case that your employer refuses to fill out their part of the DWC 1 or fails to send it over to their insurer, you can contact the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2021/10/28/the-lady-of-stow-lake-a-haunted-tale-of-tragedy-in-golden-gate-park/\">Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) at the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR)\u003c/a> for assistance. In a statement, the DIR affirmed that “the employer’s failure to complete the form does not affect the worker’s eligibility for benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894218\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11894218 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Three women wearing masks gathers inside a cafe. One hands another a set of face masks while the third records the scene on their phone.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Officials from the San Mateo County Office of Community Affairs hand out protective face masks to customers at the Top of the Hill Cafe on Sept. 17, 2020, in Daly City. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"provide\">\u003c/a>What does workers’ comp provide?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Once your employer has sent out the DWC 1 to their insurer, you should receive information from the insurance company on where to receive medical attention — all of which should be billed to your employer. If you need emergency care due to the infection and the insurance company hasn’t reached out, you can see your health care provider immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t have a health care provider, DIR \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/InjuredWorkerGuidebook/Chapter3.pdf\">recommends finding a clinic or hospital\u003c/a> that can provide care without immediate payment, as long as they request a reimbursement from your employer’s insurer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In most instances, the insurance company will connect you with a physician that’s part of a medical provider network (MPN), a group of doctors chosen by the insurance company that are familiar with the workers’ comp process. The MPN doctor \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/medicalunit/qme_page.html\">will perform an examination\u003c/a> to gauge what type of care you need and what benefits you may qualify for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you’re feeling unhappy or unsatisfied with what the physician assigned to you is recommending, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/InjuredWorkerGuidebook/Chapter3.pdf\">you can switch over to another doctor\u003c/a> within the MPN.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Cheryl Wallach, workers' comp attorney\"]‘No workers’ compensation case is worth losing your job over. The goal is to get better and get back to work.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ricardo Agustín Pérez, the personal injury lawyer, said that many of his clients are not informed about this by their employers. “I think a lot of employers are not educated on that either, because it’s really not in the insurance carrier’s interest to tell their insured,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, if the insurer decides that your injury qualifies for workers’ comp — yes, it’s the insurance company that decides — they’ll let you know by mail what medical care will be covered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the insurer accepts your claim, you may also be eligible for several more benefits, including temporary or permanent disability benefits, payments to make up for lost wages while you were sick or reimbursement for transportation costs to and from treatment for COVID-19 care. \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/WorkersCompensationBenefits.htm\">Here’s a more detailed list on what benefits are available and how they’re calculated.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s important to mention that the scope of these benefits is limited, and disability benefits only cover a fraction of your regular wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody gets rich off workers’ comp,” Wallach said. “No workers’ compensation case is worth losing your job over. The goal is to get better and get back to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894172\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11894172 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50871_068_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-scaled-e1635447963301.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a plastic hairnet and a T-shirt walks toward a concrete building and a forklift beneath a Foster Farms logo.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Foster Farms employee enters the facility on W. Belgravia Ave. in Fresno, California, on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"denied\">\u003c/a>My claim was denied. What happens now?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In some cases, your employer’s insurance company may decide it won’t cover your claim. This could happen for a variety of reasons, including that they believe you did not contract COVID-19 at your workplace rather than somewhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this happens, you can challenge this decision \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/MyClaimWasDenied.htm\">by filing a case with the Division of Workers’ Compensation\u003c/a>. A judge will hear your case and decide whether you qualify for benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Cheryl Wallach, workers' comp attorney\"]‘The more documentation we have … is going to be helpful in showing that it’s a work-related injury.’[/pullquote]This may be a good time to look for legal aid to help you navigate this part of the process. DIR recommends reaching out to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calbar.ca.gov\">State Bar of California\u003c/a> or the \u003ca href=\"http://www.caaa.org\">California Applicants’ Attorneys Association\u003c/a> to learn which workers’ comp attorneys are closest to you. If you are a member of a union, they can also provide you with a list of experienced attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lawyer can help you build a timeline of events to demonstrate that you did catch the coronavirus at work. Wallach, the workers’ comp attorney, points out that it’s especially helpful when an employee has kept a record of their infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As soon as you first start noticing symptoms that you think you have COVID, go a few days out, you know, four or five days backwards and look and see what you’ve done,” she said. “Who were you around? Where did you go outside of work?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These details can become especially relevant if the insurance company claims that you got COVID-19 outside of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more documentation we have … is going to be helpful in showing that it’s a work-related injury,” Wallach explained. “Showing that other people in your family either contracted it after you started having symptoms or didn’t contract it at all will also help tie in that increased risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Something else that could be important is knowing how many other employees at your workplace got COVID-19. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/Covid-19/FAQ-SB-1159.html\">state law\u003c/a>, if at least 4% of the workforce tests positive within a period of 14 days, that’s considered an outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If an outbreak took place at your workplace, that could be considered a “rebuttable presumption,” and that, in some instances, could make it easier for you to qualify for workers’ comp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894217\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11894217 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A worker wears a helmet and a face mask as they carry a heavy cardboard box through a factory.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Employees work with garlic on the production line at Christopher Ranch in Gilroy, California, on May, 30, 2019. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"additional\">\u003c/a>Some additional things to keep in mind\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you’re thinking of going ahead with the workers’ comp process but feel that your English is a bit limited, you can request an interpreter who can provide assistance in the language you feel most comfortable with during visits to the physician or during the arbitration process. The\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/t8/9795_3.html\"> interpreter would be covered by your employer’s insurance company\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As an attorney also fluent in Spanish, Ricardo Agustín Pérez understands the important role that interpreters play in proceedings but also offers a few suggestions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='labor-rights']“It’s a very difficult job to be an interpreter,” he explained. “Please be conscious of the fact that this interpreter is translating everything that you say. And if you say a really long sentence, [they have] to remember everything and translate it perfectly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people think that the workers’ comp system is designed to compensate you for your lost wages,” he explained, pointing out that some clients have come to him thinking they can get a big compensation after hearing rumors about somebody else’s workers’ comp process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re only entitled to two years of temporary disability, and it’s about two-thirds of your average weekly earnings,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>For specific assistance, including extra guidance on the death benefits process, you can contact the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/IandA.html#IandAoffices\">DWC’s Information & Assistance Unit\u003c/a>. The primary number is (800) 736-7401.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You can also contact the DWC Bay Area office that’s closest to you:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>San Francisco: (415) 703-5020\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Oakland: (510) 622-2861\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>San José: (408) 277-1292\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Santa Rosa: (707) 576-2452\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/IandA.html#IandAoffices\">\u003cstrong>Get the contact information of all other field offices in the state.\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You can also review the guide from DIR: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/InjuredWorkerGuidebook/InjuredWorkerGuidebook.html\">Workers’ Compensation in California: A Guidebook for Injured Workers\u003c/a>.”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from KQED’s Alex Hall.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">recent KQED investigation\u003c/a> found that Foster Farms provided delayed or incomplete information to health officials, the public and its own employees about the scope and seriousness of COVID-19 outbreaks at its plants in California’s Central Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the start of the pandemic, 16 people have died due to complications from the coronavirus, at least 20 were hospitalized and hundreds of workers at the company’s California facilities have been infected. According to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">Cal/OSHA inspection file obtained by KQED\u003c/a>, Foster Farms “could have known and should have known of the continuing COVID-19 hazards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>What happened at Foster Farms is only a piece of a larger issue across California: Essential and front-line workers have been hit hardest by workplace outbreaks — and those already struggling with the financial impacts of the pandemic are hit hardest by the incurred costs of dealing with an infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you get coronavirus at work, your employer is \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/WorkersCompensationBenefits.htm\">required by law to cover the costs\u003c/a> of medical care, lost income while you’re out sick and even transportation expenses. These benefits all are part of workers’ compensation, and since April 2020, a \u003ca href=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2020/upload/nr036NoticeWorkCompCOVID04062020.pdf\">COVID-19 infection is included as a workplace injury\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if an employee dies from a work-related COVID-19 infection, their dependents could be eligible for death benefits and burial expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, just because these benefits are available doesn’t mean they’re easy to get. Some employees who’ve survived COVID-19 have had their claims contested by their employers and workers’ comp insurance companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going through a bureaucratic maze could seem daunting — especially after surviving a case of COVID-19. But it can also open up a financial lifeline for some. Workers \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/employer.htm\">can’t sue their employers for a workplace infection\u003c/a>. However, they are entitled to medical treatment covered by their employer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED spoke with both experienced workers’ comp attorneys and state officials to better understand what it’s like to go through this process and ways to make it less complicated. Don’t have time to read the whole guide? Here’s a quick breakdown. Click on the links below to skip to a specific section:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#start\">\u003cstrong>What is workers’ comp? How do you start a claim?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#provide\">\u003cstrong>What does workers’ comp provide?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#denied\">\u003cstrong>My claim was denied. What happens now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#additional\">\u003cstrong>Some additional things to keep in mind.\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"start\">\u003c/a>What is workers’ comp? How do you start a claim?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>According to attorneys who’ve been managing workers’ comp cases for years, the hardest step in the process can be the first: filing a workers’ comp claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people just aren’t aware that they can even bring these claims to begin with,” said Ricardo Agustín Pérez, a personal injury lawyer based in Southern California who currently represents Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez, surviving spouse of a former Foster Farms employee \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">who lost his life due to COVID-19 complications\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also file a claim even if you weren’t hospitalized for COVID-19. Cheryl Wallach, a workers’ comp attorney and board member of Worksafe, a worker advocacy group, says that a claim should show that the infection is an industrial injury, meaning it happened at the workplace during the course of employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894175\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52024_IMG_7733-scaled-e1635448154660.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11894175 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52024_IMG_7733-scaled-e1635448154660.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holds a pamphlet open as a second hand holds it by the other end.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jakara Movement organizer Navdeep Kaur speaks with Punjabi families at a Sikh gurdwara in Fresno about COVID-19 and workers’ compensation. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You just have to show that the employee had an increased risk compared to the general population,” she said. “If you’re in the food service industry or you’re working side by side with other workers or … you’re not working at home, do you have an increased risk compared to other people?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any worker in California, regardless of immigration status or industry, can file a claim. And you don’t need a lawyer to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first step is to talk to your employer, whether that’s your supervisor or the owner of the business you’re working for, and let them know you tested positive for COVID-19 and that you believe you contracted the virus at your workplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once you let your employer know, they have 24 hours to give you a DWC 1 — a workers’ compensation claim form. You’ll fill out the employee section, which includes sections to describe the injury and when it occurred. Remember, the injury in this case is a COVID-19 infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your employer doesn’t have a DWC 1 or claims to not know what that is, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/dwcform1.pdf\">you can find a DWC 1 online\u003c/a>. After you fill out your part, give it to your employer, who must provide a copy to their insurer and to the worker within one working day of receiving the form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No matter what your employer may tell you, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/employer.htm\">every business in California is required to have a workers’ comp insurance policy\u003c/a> — even if they only have one employee. If you take a look at the DWC 1, you may notice the term “claims administrator.” That’s the term for your employer’s insurance company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wallach encourages employees to be proactive when talking to their employers, especially if the employers are unaware of existing regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t take no for an answer just because they don’t understand the law or because they don’t think it’s work related,” she said. “They have to provide [the claim form] to their insurance company.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case that your employer refuses to fill out their part of the DWC 1 or fails to send it over to their insurer, you can contact the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2021/10/28/the-lady-of-stow-lake-a-haunted-tale-of-tragedy-in-golden-gate-park/\">Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) at the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR)\u003c/a> for assistance. In a statement, the DIR affirmed that “the employer’s failure to complete the form does not affect the worker’s eligibility for benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894218\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11894218 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Three women wearing masks gathers inside a cafe. One hands another a set of face masks while the third records the scene on their phone.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1273198581-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Officials from the San Mateo County Office of Community Affairs hand out protective face masks to customers at the Top of the Hill Cafe on Sept. 17, 2020, in Daly City. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"provide\">\u003c/a>What does workers’ comp provide?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Once your employer has sent out the DWC 1 to their insurer, you should receive information from the insurance company on where to receive medical attention — all of which should be billed to your employer. If you need emergency care due to the infection and the insurance company hasn’t reached out, you can see your health care provider immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t have a health care provider, DIR \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/InjuredWorkerGuidebook/Chapter3.pdf\">recommends finding a clinic or hospital\u003c/a> that can provide care without immediate payment, as long as they request a reimbursement from your employer’s insurer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In most instances, the insurance company will connect you with a physician that’s part of a medical provider network (MPN), a group of doctors chosen by the insurance company that are familiar with the workers’ comp process. The MPN doctor \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/medicalunit/qme_page.html\">will perform an examination\u003c/a> to gauge what type of care you need and what benefits you may qualify for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you’re feeling unhappy or unsatisfied with what the physician assigned to you is recommending, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/InjuredWorkerGuidebook/Chapter3.pdf\">you can switch over to another doctor\u003c/a> within the MPN.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘No workers’ compensation case is worth losing your job over. The goal is to get better and get back to work.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ricardo Agustín Pérez, the personal injury lawyer, said that many of his clients are not informed about this by their employers. “I think a lot of employers are not educated on that either, because it’s really not in the insurance carrier’s interest to tell their insured,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, if the insurer decides that your injury qualifies for workers’ comp — yes, it’s the insurance company that decides — they’ll let you know by mail what medical care will be covered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the insurer accepts your claim, you may also be eligible for several more benefits, including temporary or permanent disability benefits, payments to make up for lost wages while you were sick or reimbursement for transportation costs to and from treatment for COVID-19 care. \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/WorkersCompensationBenefits.htm\">Here’s a more detailed list on what benefits are available and how they’re calculated.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s important to mention that the scope of these benefits is limited, and disability benefits only cover a fraction of your regular wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody gets rich off workers’ comp,” Wallach said. “No workers’ compensation case is worth losing your job over. The goal is to get better and get back to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894172\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11894172 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50871_068_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-scaled-e1635447963301.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a plastic hairnet and a T-shirt walks toward a concrete building and a forklift beneath a Foster Farms logo.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Foster Farms employee enters the facility on W. Belgravia Ave. in Fresno, California, on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"denied\">\u003c/a>My claim was denied. What happens now?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In some cases, your employer’s insurance company may decide it won’t cover your claim. This could happen for a variety of reasons, including that they believe you did not contract COVID-19 at your workplace rather than somewhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this happens, you can challenge this decision \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/MyClaimWasDenied.htm\">by filing a case with the Division of Workers’ Compensation\u003c/a>. A judge will hear your case and decide whether you qualify for benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The more documentation we have … is going to be helpful in showing that it’s a work-related injury.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This may be a good time to look for legal aid to help you navigate this part of the process. DIR recommends reaching out to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calbar.ca.gov\">State Bar of California\u003c/a> or the \u003ca href=\"http://www.caaa.org\">California Applicants’ Attorneys Association\u003c/a> to learn which workers’ comp attorneys are closest to you. If you are a member of a union, they can also provide you with a list of experienced attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lawyer can help you build a timeline of events to demonstrate that you did catch the coronavirus at work. Wallach, the workers’ comp attorney, points out that it’s especially helpful when an employee has kept a record of their infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As soon as you first start noticing symptoms that you think you have COVID, go a few days out, you know, four or five days backwards and look and see what you’ve done,” she said. “Who were you around? Where did you go outside of work?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These details can become especially relevant if the insurance company claims that you got COVID-19 outside of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more documentation we have … is going to be helpful in showing that it’s a work-related injury,” Wallach explained. “Showing that other people in your family either contracted it after you started having symptoms or didn’t contract it at all will also help tie in that increased risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Something else that could be important is knowing how many other employees at your workplace got COVID-19. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/Covid-19/FAQ-SB-1159.html\">state law\u003c/a>, if at least 4% of the workforce tests positive within a period of 14 days, that’s considered an outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If an outbreak took place at your workplace, that could be considered a “rebuttable presumption,” and that, in some instances, could make it easier for you to qualify for workers’ comp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11894217\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11894217 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A worker wears a helmet and a face mask as they carry a heavy cardboard box through a factory.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1148081334-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Employees work with garlic on the production line at Christopher Ranch in Gilroy, California, on May, 30, 2019. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"additional\">\u003c/a>Some additional things to keep in mind\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you’re thinking of going ahead with the workers’ comp process but feel that your English is a bit limited, you can request an interpreter who can provide assistance in the language you feel most comfortable with during visits to the physician or during the arbitration process. The\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/t8/9795_3.html\"> interpreter would be covered by your employer’s insurance company\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As an attorney also fluent in Spanish, Ricardo Agustín Pérez understands the important role that interpreters play in proceedings but also offers a few suggestions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s a very difficult job to be an interpreter,” he explained. “Please be conscious of the fact that this interpreter is translating everything that you say. And if you say a really long sentence, [they have] to remember everything and translate it perfectly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people think that the workers’ comp system is designed to compensate you for your lost wages,” he explained, pointing out that some clients have come to him thinking they can get a big compensation after hearing rumors about somebody else’s workers’ comp process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re only entitled to two years of temporary disability, and it’s about two-thirds of your average weekly earnings,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>For specific assistance, including extra guidance on the death benefits process, you can contact the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/IandA.html#IandAoffices\">DWC’s Information & Assistance Unit\u003c/a>. The primary number is (800) 736-7401.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You can also contact the DWC Bay Area office that’s closest to you:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>San Francisco: (415) 703-5020\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Oakland: (510) 622-2861\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>San José: (408) 277-1292\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Santa Rosa: (707) 576-2452\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/IandA.html#IandAoffices\">\u003cstrong>Get the contact information of all other field offices in the state.\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You can also review the guide from DIR: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/InjuredWorkerGuidebook/InjuredWorkerGuidebook.html\">Workers’ Compensation in California: A Guidebook for Injured Workers\u003c/a>.”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from KQED’s Alex Hall.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "'There Is Anger. He Should Be Alive.' An Investigation Into Deadly COVID-19 Outbreaks at Foster Farms",
"title": "'There Is Anger. He Should Be Alive.' An Investigation Into Deadly COVID-19 Outbreaks at Foster Farms",
"headTitle": "The California Report Magazine | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>The last time Eufracio Caballero was tested for COVID-19 at his job was the same day his employer, Foster Farms, sent out a statement with information about an outbreak at the plant where he worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dec. 4 press release said Foster Farms’ testing had identified 193 asymptomatic cases over the previous two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the press release didn’t tell the whole story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company did not immediately report that two employees had recently been hospitalized, a California Division of Occupational Safety and Health investigation later found. Another employee had died from complications of the virus just days earlier.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez, widow of former Foster Farms employee Eufracio Caballero\"]'He was scared something like this was going to happen. And it did.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dec. 4 press release is just one example of delayed or incomplete information Foster Farms communicated to health officials, state regulators, the public and its own employees about the scope and seriousness of outbreaks at its Central Valley plants, an investigation by KQED and The California Report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, 16 people have died and at least 20 more have been hospitalized in connection with the company’s facilities in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The employer could have known and should have known of the continuing COVID-19 hazards,” at a plant in Fresno, according to a Cal/OSHA inspection file recently obtained by KQED. “These deficiencies posed a realistic possibility of causing serious illness or death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms did not respond to a detailed list of questions seeking comment for this story. The company has previously said the health and safety of its workers is its highest priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892873\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892873 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A hand in a lap holds up a photo of a smiling couple, holding hands, in casual dress in front of a round wall hanging of twigs and blooms.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez holds a photo of her late husband, Eufracio Caballero, and herself on their wedding day while sitting in her home in Sanger, Fresno County, on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>By late last year, Foster Farms had installed Plexiglas barriers on at least some production lines, required employees to wear masks and touted its COVID-19 screening and testing efforts at their facilities in the Central Valley. But employees kept getting sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County health officials forced \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11835677/foster-farms-ordered-to-shut-down-covid-stricken-central-valley-poultry-plant\">Foster Farms to shut down its sprawling headquarters in Livingston for six days\u003c/a> in early September 2020 after roughly 400 people were infected and nine employees ultimately died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was one of the deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant in the country at that time, according to data from the nonprofit news organization \u003ca href=\"https://thefern.org/2020/04/mapping-covid-19-in-meat-and-food-processing-plants/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Food and Environment Reporting Network\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three months later, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11850332/covid-19-again-sweeps-through-foster-farms-plants-in-central-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">it happened again\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got bad news,” Caballero wrote in a message to his doctor on Dec. 6. He said he’d been regularly tested for COVID 19. “I did it again and now I am positive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caballero was one of 285 employees who tested positive for COVID-19 at the company’s S. Cherry Avenue plant in south Fresno in early December, according to emails between the company and county health officials obtained through a public records request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was awful to accept,” Caballero’s wife, Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez, said in a recent interview. “He was scared something like this was going to happen. And it did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A little more than two weeks later, Caballero, 58, was admitted to the hospital. Medical records show he was taken off a ventilator and died on Feb. 9.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caballero had been a Foster Farms employee for 30 years. He processed paperwork for deliveries in an office where truck drivers shuttled in and out throughout the day, Hernández and her attorney, Ricardo Agustín Pérez, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He got it at Foster Farms,” Hernández said. “He had told me a coworker always had a mask, but didn’t keep it on. He told me after they tested the employees, the man didn’t come back to work. Two weeks later, they tested the workers again, and that’s when he came back positive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a year after the outbreaks, the families of the workers who died are angry at how the company and officials charged with protecting workers responded to the pandemic. In addition to mourning their lost loved ones, some are struggling financially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some have applied for state benefits. Others have launched GoFundMe campaigns or leaned on relatives for help with medical bills, the cost of a funeral or living expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Oct. 22, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cwci.org/CV19claims.html\">1,163 worker deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported\u003c/a> through California’s workers' compensation system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893143\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11893143 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A person in a bright orange T-shirt, plastic hair net, jeans and boots pulls a wheeled pallet by a handle with one hand.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An employee works at the Foster Farms Cherry facility in Fresno on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California workers are entitled to compensation if they suffer a work-related injury or illness. A worker who got sick with COVID-19 on the job and was hospitalized, but recovered, might file a claim for workers' compensation to pay for medical care.[aside tag=\"foster-farms\" label=\"COVID-19 at Foster Farms\" heroLink=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/foster-farms\" target=\"_blank\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If an employee died from complications of a work-related COVID-19 infection, their children, spouse and other dependents could be eligible for death benefits, one form of workers' compensation that pays a lump sum to the surviving dependents of a worker, depending on how many full or partial dependents they had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/workerscompensationbenefits.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">death benefit\u003c/a> pays $250,000 to $320,000, plus $10,000 for burial expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Data obtained by KQED shows that at least 11 COVID-related workers' compensation claims have been filed by Foster Farms employees or their dependents. At least two have been settled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Hernández’s case, a family member put her in touch with a workers' compensation attorney, who is now representing her in a death benefit case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There must be tons of people who have no idea that they could even file a workers' comp claim, or they might not know definitely whether their family member got COVID at work,” Hernández’s attorney Pérez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1KexavFMAGICXedREwk-f25j5viPC49A7gxJmZjh_HIM&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650\" width=\"100%\" height=\"650\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>With few advocacy groups specializing in workers' compensation outreach and education, advocates and attorneys said it’s likely some surviving dependents of workers who died have not pursued claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wish there was more information,” said Cheryl Wallach, a workers' comp attorney and board member of \u003ca href=\"https://worksafe.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Worksafe\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that advocates for the occupational health and safety of low-wage workers. “They may say, ‘Well, I don't know if I got it from work or not, so I guess I can't file a claim,' or 'I'm not going to be able to prove it's work-related.’ So I think that makes it even harder.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>'We are angry and confused'\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On a recent morning at her home in Sanger, about a 20-minute drive east of Fresno, Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez went through her husband’s belongings, removing items one by one from the large, blue plastic tubs where they are now stored in a corner of the living room. Most were tools and building materials she hopes to sell to make money to pay her bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s difficult for me to accept that he’s gone,” Hernández said. “To rely on my family and try not to spend what I have so I can keep going. And, well, I’m alone, and he’s not here anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Eufracio Caballero's death, Hernández and her sister tore apart the couple’s home, searching for any scrap of paper that might indicate savings he left behind or the details of a financial plan made before his death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My sister relied on him for everything, and he’s gone,” Hernández’s sister Eva Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892875\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892875 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A masked woman pulls a backpack from a large, blue-plastic tub, next to a picture window with white gauzy curtains and heavier red curtains pulled to both sides.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez goes through a box of items that belonged to her husband Eufracio Caballero at her home in Sanger, Fresno County, on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Caballero was one of \u003ca href=\"https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=1495041.015\">six workers known to have died from COVID-19\u003c/a> infections in late 2020 and early 2021 related to Foster Farms' Cherry plant in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those employees became ill at work and notified a supervisor she wasn’t feeling well, but was told to finish her shift, according to an inspection case file obtained by KQED. She died on Nov. 25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another employee of the company’s W. Belgravia Avenue plant also died late last year, according to the company. Nine employees died after the earlier outbreak at Foster Farms’ Livingston complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, 16 employees who worked at Foster Farms plants in Fresno, Merced, Tulare and Stanislaus counties died due to COVID-19 and at least 20 others were hospitalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fresno County Department of Public Health, which conducted its own investigation and contact tracing, found 455 positive COVID-19 cases linked to the Cherry plant over a seven-month period spanning late last year and early this year.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jatinderpal Singh, former employee of Foster Farms' Cherry facility\"]'If our life is not safe, what are we going to do with the money? They continuously call me to come back, but I told them I am not going to work there anymore.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Cal/OSHA cited the company and four staffing agencies for alleged violations at its plants throughout the Central Valley, including failure to immediately report 10 hospitalizations and seven deaths due to COVID-19 among its workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Coronavirus/Citations/05.28.2021-Foster-Poultry-Farms-Inc_1495041.pdf\">Additional citations\u003c/a> alleged Foster Farms failed to effectively communicate about COVID-19 infections, outbreaks and deaths of employees to all workers who were potentially exposed, or to the company’s own management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company is now appealing those citations, the penalties for which total more than $450,000 and could be used as evidence to show the company knowingly put workers in harm’s way, exposing Foster Farms to further liability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893204\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 520px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11893204 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ezgif-3-770e433caffe.jpg\" alt=\"A young woman in ornate traditional dress, including a tall narrow cap with small mirrors and red, yellow and green poofs, and a black dress with a pink skirt and embroidered white sleeves, cuffs and sash.\" width=\"520\" height=\"749\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ezgif-3-770e433caffe.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ezgif-3-770e433caffe-160x230.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An earlier photo of Mang Lee, one of the employees who died from complications of COVID-19 in January 2021. This photo, taken at a refugee camp in Thailand when Lee was 23 years old, is one of several her family published online to remember her.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://ourmothermang.wixsite.com/memorial\">personal website created by the family of longtime Foster Farms employee Mang Lee\u003c/a>, who worked at the Cherry plant for 20 years and died in January, raised questions about the company's conduct during the December outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While our family is grieving the death of our mother, we are angry and confused,” the website says. “We wonder if Foster Farms did enough to protect our mom from contracting such a deadly virus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why did they allow overtime when it increased the duration of exposure for employees? Were workers provided with adequate personal protective equipment, and did the company have protocols in place to ensure workers were being safe?” the website says. “Were there any attempts to decrease the number of workers per shift to reduce the risk of transmission?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An attorney representing the family in a death benefits case declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11851959/lawsuit-foster-farms-plant-operating-in-naked-disregard-of-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lawsuit\u003c/a> filed by the United Farm Workers union late last year alleged Foster Farms failed to provide workers with masks or ensure proper social distancing in its Livingston plant. A Merced County judge issued an injunction on Dec. 23 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11852681/judge-orders-foster-farms-to-comply-with-covid-19-safety-rules\">ordering the company to comply with a county health directive\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms responded in court filings that the lawsuit offered “allegations based primarily on anecdotal declarations and news articles that grossly misrepresent the substantial safety measures that Foster Poultry has implemented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jatinderpal Singh, 71, a former line worker at Foster Farms’ Cherry plant, equated the loss of his cousin, Baljinder Dhillon, 65, a mechanic at the plant, to losing an arm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My legs still shake,” Singh said in an interview on Aug. 11, speaking in Punjabi through an interpreter. “I still feel it, even today. Sometimes I feel weakness in my legs when I think about him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892911\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892911 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man with a white beard wearing a black turban sits in a dining room chair, one hand in the other on the table before him.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jatinderpal Singh sits at his home in Fresno on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like Caballero, both Singh and Dhillon tested positive for COVID-19 in early December. While Singh said he experienced minor symptoms, Dhillon was hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia. He was put on a ventilator and died several days short of his planned retirement at the end of 2020, a family member said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Dhillon’s death, Singh quit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If our life is not safe, what are we going to do with the money? They continuously call me to come back, but I told them I am not going to work there anymore,” Singh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>'Fighting tooth and nail'\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB1159\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Senate Bill 1159\u003c/a>, signed into law last fall, workers who got sick during an outbreak at their workplace are presumed to have contracted the virus at work. But insurance companies and self-insured employers can dispute that presumption by showing evidence a worker could have been infected outside of work — for instance, through a member of their household or at a social gathering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COVID-related workers' compensation claims in California have been denied, on average, at more than three times the rate of non-COVID claims since the start of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893381\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11893381 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Call-back-pink-original-cropped-800x929.jpg\" alt='A pink \"Important Message\" note with lines filled in, including \"For: Dennis,\" \"Day: 12/28/20,\" \"Time: 9:32 A.M.,\" \"M: Jay Baxter,\" \"Phone: Foster Farms,\" and a box for \"Please call\" checked.' width=\"800\" height=\"929\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Call-back-pink-original-cropped-800x929.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Call-back-pink-original-cropped-1020x1184.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Call-back-pink-original-cropped-160x186.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Call-back-pink-original-cropped.jpg 1231w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A phone message reads 'Update for Baljnder [sic] Dhillon' the morning after the employee died from complications of COVID-19. The note was included in a Cal/OSHA case file obtained by KQED.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Roughly 35% of COVID-related workers' compensation claims filed from January 2020 to the present have been denied, according to data from the state Department of Industrial Relations. Just over 11% of claims unrelated to COVID-19 were denied during the same period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These insurance companies are just fighting tooth and nail,” Hernández’s attorney Pérez said. “They want to make you prove that you actually contracted this virus at work, even if by reasonable medical probability it’s more likely than not that the person contracted it there — prove something that really is, in many ways, impossible to prove definitively.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having an attorney is especially crucial in a death benefits case, attorney Jennifer Scotto said. Scotto is a workers' compensation attorney representing the family of a former employee who worked at the Livingston plant and died from complications of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you don't have an attorney, I would liken it to being stranded in the middle of the ocean without a life raft,\" Scotto said. “You will really get bogged down in the system without legal counsel and you will not get the kind of settlement you’re entitled to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many Foster Farms employees are Punjabi immigrants. The Jakara Movement, a Fresno-based group that advocates for the Punjabi community, has been doing worker outreach and education at flea markets, food drives and Sikh gurdwaras throughout the San Joaquin Valley since April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Navdeep Kaur, a labor organizer with the group, said many people she encounters are unfamiliar with workers' compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of these workers don’t know that this is an option, or their families don’t know,” Kaur said. “Especially since they’re immigrant families, they’re monolingual and ... at least within the Punjabi community, they’re elderly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892913\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892913 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a purple headscarf and ochre, floral salwar kameez speaks to three other women in similar dress in a parking lot, at a table with boxes of masks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jakara Movement organizer Navdeep Kaur speaks with Punjabi families at a Sikh gurdwara about COVID-19 and workers' compensation, in Fresno on Sept. 4, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kaur said some are afraid to file for workers' compensation benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have other friends and family working at the same place,” she said. “If one person filed something against these companies, then they’re afraid for the rest of the family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she is concerned the one-year deadline for filing a claim will pass before families have a chance to apply.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Foster Farms consultant: 'No evidence' of 'significant spread'\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>One evening last December, Jatinderpal Singh was at home with his family eating dinner. Then a call came from Foster Farms, the family said. He had tested positive for COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family panicked. He, his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren immediately quarantined in separate rooms, but nearly everyone later tested positive. Singh’s wife, Joginder Kaur, also was hospitalized, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892915\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892915 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Mr. Singh is reflected in a mirror on a wall; the wall a poster with an image of a bearded man with a turban are in soft focus.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jatinderpal Singh sits at his home in Fresno on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Fresno County health officials asked Foster Farms management for their theories in early December about what caused the Cherry plant outbreak, public records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, company officials pointed to a number of factors — including workers’ ethnicity — that could have played a part. They did not address the possibility that workplace conditions might in any part be responsible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among factors that could have played a part, Foster Farms said, were a health insurance enrollment event in which 1,000 workers used the same phones over a two-week period and a sexual harassment training where employees gathered in groups of 35. The company also pointed out that it had recently been Thanksgiving and Diwali, a festival of lights celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was reported that 24.8% of company employees have self-identified as Asian/East Indian,” the email says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six days later, Foster Farms sent a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21076506-tag-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">letter from The Acheson Group\u003c/a>, a food safety consulting firm with close ties to the company, to the Fresno County Department of Public Health, explaining that a review of testing data from the plant showed employees who tested positive had worked while having symptoms and did not follow company guidelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite well over 200 workers at the Cherry plant testing positive for COVID-19, Dr. David Acheson, then-chairman of Foster Farms’ Food Safety Advisory Board, wrote that there was “no evidence” of “significant spread in the Cherry facility of SARS-CoV-2 in early December.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He recommended that Foster Farms increase training for employees and warn them against attending large gatherings or other high-risk activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA’s investigation completed five months later came to far different conclusions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“COVID-19 hazards continued to exist due to the employer not effectively evaluating the hazards, and effectively protecting employees from changing conditions due to COVID-19,” the investigation of the Cherry plant outbreak found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Coronavirus/Citations/05.28.2021-Foster-Poultry-Farms-Inc_1495041.pdf\">Cal/OSHA’s citations\u003c/a> allege Foster Farms did not provide or enforce the consistent use of face coverings and that in some areas of the plants, employees were stationed closer than 6 feet from each other or not separated by barriers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893161\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11893161 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt='A yellow plaster sign with red and black writing hangs on a chain link fence beneath barbed wire. It has a Foster Farms logo, and the top line reads, \"Estamos Contratando.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign written in Spanish announces job openings at the Foster Farms facility on W. Belgravia Avenue in Fresno on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA citations and any other signs the company acted with disregard for worker safety could be used as evidence the company acted with serious and willful misconduct, attorneys representing workers’ families said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If accepted, a petition for benefits for serious and willful misconduct adds an additional 50% in penalties on top of workers' compensation benefits. Under state regulations, those added penalty amounts cannot be covered by insurance, meaning employers must pay out of pocket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It definitely would apply to the Foster Farms situation,” said Diane Worley, executive director of the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association. “A violation of a Cal/OSHA order is by definition a serious and willful claim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, in general, employers are always going to try to fight those citations that they knowingly put workers in harm's way,” said Jennifer Scotto, the workers' compensation attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scotto filed a serious and willful misconduct claim on behalf of the family of a former Foster Farms employee who died from COVID-19. The claim alleges the company failed to provide face coverings to employees and that workers were not socially distanced, among other claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They knew that these people were sick and there was no notification given to the other workers, so the workers were coming to work like a normal day, having no idea that they were being exposed to COVID,” Scotto said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892919\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892919 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"A woman holds a heavy crystal plaque encasing a circle and with writing etched on it, beyond a plate-glass window with white gauzy and heavier red curtains.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez holds a plaque from Foster Farms given to her husband, Eufracio Caballero, at her home in Sanger, Fresno County, on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Hernández’s attorney, Ricardo Agustín Pérez, said he was also considering filing a serious and willful misconduct claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s true what our client’s family is telling us, that this employer knew that there were a lot of other people who got COVID around this time, then their responsibility would have been to take whatever measures necessary to make sure that the rest of their employees don’t contract COVID as well,” Pérez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The company is appealing citations from state regulators alleging it failed to communicate with workers about COVID-19 infections, outbreaks and deaths, among other violations, at a Foster Farms' plant in Fresno. A Cal/OSHA investigation found employees who died or were hospitalized likely were exposed to the coronavirus at work.",
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"description": "The company is appealing citations from state regulators alleging it failed to communicate with workers about COVID-19 infections, outbreaks and deaths, among other violations, at a Foster Farms' plant in Fresno. A Cal/OSHA investigation found employees who died or were hospitalized likely were exposed to the coronavirus at work.",
"title": "'There Is Anger. He Should Be Alive.' An Investigation Into Deadly COVID-19 Outbreaks at Foster Farms | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The last time Eufracio Caballero was tested for COVID-19 at his job was the same day his employer, Foster Farms, sent out a statement with information about an outbreak at the plant where he worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dec. 4 press release said Foster Farms’ testing had identified 193 asymptomatic cases over the previous two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the press release didn’t tell the whole story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company did not immediately report that two employees had recently been hospitalized, a California Division of Occupational Safety and Health investigation later found. Another employee had died from complications of the virus just days earlier.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dec. 4 press release is just one example of delayed or incomplete information Foster Farms communicated to health officials, state regulators, the public and its own employees about the scope and seriousness of outbreaks at its Central Valley plants, an investigation by KQED and The California Report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, 16 people have died and at least 20 more have been hospitalized in connection with the company’s facilities in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The employer could have known and should have known of the continuing COVID-19 hazards,” at a plant in Fresno, according to a Cal/OSHA inspection file recently obtained by KQED. “These deficiencies posed a realistic possibility of causing serious illness or death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms did not respond to a detailed list of questions seeking comment for this story. The company has previously said the health and safety of its workers is its highest priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892873\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892873 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A hand in a lap holds up a photo of a smiling couple, holding hands, in casual dress in front of a round wall hanging of twigs and blooms.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50829_025_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez holds a photo of her late husband, Eufracio Caballero, and herself on their wedding day while sitting in her home in Sanger, Fresno County, on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>By late last year, Foster Farms had installed Plexiglas barriers on at least some production lines, required employees to wear masks and touted its COVID-19 screening and testing efforts at their facilities in the Central Valley. But employees kept getting sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County health officials forced \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11835677/foster-farms-ordered-to-shut-down-covid-stricken-central-valley-poultry-plant\">Foster Farms to shut down its sprawling headquarters in Livingston for six days\u003c/a> in early September 2020 after roughly 400 people were infected and nine employees ultimately died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was one of the deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant in the country at that time, according to data from the nonprofit news organization \u003ca href=\"https://thefern.org/2020/04/mapping-covid-19-in-meat-and-food-processing-plants/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Food and Environment Reporting Network\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three months later, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11850332/covid-19-again-sweeps-through-foster-farms-plants-in-central-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">it happened again\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got bad news,” Caballero wrote in a message to his doctor on Dec. 6. He said he’d been regularly tested for COVID 19. “I did it again and now I am positive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caballero was one of 285 employees who tested positive for COVID-19 at the company’s S. Cherry Avenue plant in south Fresno in early December, according to emails between the company and county health officials obtained through a public records request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was awful to accept,” Caballero’s wife, Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez, said in a recent interview. “He was scared something like this was going to happen. And it did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A little more than two weeks later, Caballero, 58, was admitted to the hospital. Medical records show he was taken off a ventilator and died on Feb. 9.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caballero had been a Foster Farms employee for 30 years. He processed paperwork for deliveries in an office where truck drivers shuttled in and out throughout the day, Hernández and her attorney, Ricardo Agustín Pérez, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He got it at Foster Farms,” Hernández said. “He had told me a coworker always had a mask, but didn’t keep it on. He told me after they tested the employees, the man didn’t come back to work. Two weeks later, they tested the workers again, and that’s when he came back positive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a year after the outbreaks, the families of the workers who died are angry at how the company and officials charged with protecting workers responded to the pandemic. In addition to mourning their lost loved ones, some are struggling financially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some have applied for state benefits. Others have launched GoFundMe campaigns or leaned on relatives for help with medical bills, the cost of a funeral or living expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Oct. 22, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cwci.org/CV19claims.html\">1,163 worker deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported\u003c/a> through California’s workers' compensation system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893143\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11893143 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A person in a bright orange T-shirt, plastic hair net, jeans and boots pulls a wheeled pallet by a handle with one hand.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50842_039_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An employee works at the Foster Farms Cherry facility in Fresno on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California workers are entitled to compensation if they suffer a work-related injury or illness. A worker who got sick with COVID-19 on the job and was hospitalized, but recovered, might file a claim for workers' compensation to pay for medical care.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If an employee died from complications of a work-related COVID-19 infection, their children, spouse and other dependents could be eligible for death benefits, one form of workers' compensation that pays a lump sum to the surviving dependents of a worker, depending on how many full or partial dependents they had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/workerscompensationbenefits.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">death benefit\u003c/a> pays $250,000 to $320,000, plus $10,000 for burial expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Data obtained by KQED shows that at least 11 COVID-related workers' compensation claims have been filed by Foster Farms employees or their dependents. At least two have been settled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Hernández’s case, a family member put her in touch with a workers' compensation attorney, who is now representing her in a death benefit case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There must be tons of people who have no idea that they could even file a workers' comp claim, or they might not know definitely whether their family member got COVID at work,” Hernández’s attorney Pérez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1KexavFMAGICXedREwk-f25j5viPC49A7gxJmZjh_HIM&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650\" width=\"100%\" height=\"650\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>With few advocacy groups specializing in workers' compensation outreach and education, advocates and attorneys said it’s likely some surviving dependents of workers who died have not pursued claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wish there was more information,” said Cheryl Wallach, a workers' comp attorney and board member of \u003ca href=\"https://worksafe.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Worksafe\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that advocates for the occupational health and safety of low-wage workers. “They may say, ‘Well, I don't know if I got it from work or not, so I guess I can't file a claim,' or 'I'm not going to be able to prove it's work-related.’ So I think that makes it even harder.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>'We are angry and confused'\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On a recent morning at her home in Sanger, about a 20-minute drive east of Fresno, Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez went through her husband’s belongings, removing items one by one from the large, blue plastic tubs where they are now stored in a corner of the living room. Most were tools and building materials she hopes to sell to make money to pay her bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s difficult for me to accept that he’s gone,” Hernández said. “To rely on my family and try not to spend what I have so I can keep going. And, well, I’m alone, and he’s not here anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Eufracio Caballero's death, Hernández and her sister tore apart the couple’s home, searching for any scrap of paper that might indicate savings he left behind or the details of a financial plan made before his death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My sister relied on him for everything, and he’s gone,” Hernández’s sister Eva Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892875\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892875 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A masked woman pulls a backpack from a large, blue-plastic tub, next to a picture window with white gauzy curtains and heavier red curtains pulled to both sides.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50810_007_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez goes through a box of items that belonged to her husband Eufracio Caballero at her home in Sanger, Fresno County, on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Caballero was one of \u003ca href=\"https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=1495041.015\">six workers known to have died from COVID-19\u003c/a> infections in late 2020 and early 2021 related to Foster Farms' Cherry plant in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those employees became ill at work and notified a supervisor she wasn’t feeling well, but was told to finish her shift, according to an inspection case file obtained by KQED. She died on Nov. 25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another employee of the company’s W. Belgravia Avenue plant also died late last year, according to the company. Nine employees died after the earlier outbreak at Foster Farms’ Livingston complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, 16 employees who worked at Foster Farms plants in Fresno, Merced, Tulare and Stanislaus counties died due to COVID-19 and at least 20 others were hospitalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fresno County Department of Public Health, which conducted its own investigation and contact tracing, found 455 positive COVID-19 cases linked to the Cherry plant over a seven-month period spanning late last year and early this year.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "'If our life is not safe, what are we going to do with the money? They continuously call me to come back, but I told them I am not going to work there anymore.'",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Cal/OSHA cited the company and four staffing agencies for alleged violations at its plants throughout the Central Valley, including failure to immediately report 10 hospitalizations and seven deaths due to COVID-19 among its workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Coronavirus/Citations/05.28.2021-Foster-Poultry-Farms-Inc_1495041.pdf\">Additional citations\u003c/a> alleged Foster Farms failed to effectively communicate about COVID-19 infections, outbreaks and deaths of employees to all workers who were potentially exposed, or to the company’s own management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company is now appealing those citations, the penalties for which total more than $450,000 and could be used as evidence to show the company knowingly put workers in harm’s way, exposing Foster Farms to further liability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893204\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 520px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11893204 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ezgif-3-770e433caffe.jpg\" alt=\"A young woman in ornate traditional dress, including a tall narrow cap with small mirrors and red, yellow and green poofs, and a black dress with a pink skirt and embroidered white sleeves, cuffs and sash.\" width=\"520\" height=\"749\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ezgif-3-770e433caffe.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/ezgif-3-770e433caffe-160x230.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An earlier photo of Mang Lee, one of the employees who died from complications of COVID-19 in January 2021. This photo, taken at a refugee camp in Thailand when Lee was 23 years old, is one of several her family published online to remember her.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://ourmothermang.wixsite.com/memorial\">personal website created by the family of longtime Foster Farms employee Mang Lee\u003c/a>, who worked at the Cherry plant for 20 years and died in January, raised questions about the company's conduct during the December outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While our family is grieving the death of our mother, we are angry and confused,” the website says. “We wonder if Foster Farms did enough to protect our mom from contracting such a deadly virus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why did they allow overtime when it increased the duration of exposure for employees? Were workers provided with adequate personal protective equipment, and did the company have protocols in place to ensure workers were being safe?” the website says. “Were there any attempts to decrease the number of workers per shift to reduce the risk of transmission?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An attorney representing the family in a death benefits case declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11851959/lawsuit-foster-farms-plant-operating-in-naked-disregard-of-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lawsuit\u003c/a> filed by the United Farm Workers union late last year alleged Foster Farms failed to provide workers with masks or ensure proper social distancing in its Livingston plant. A Merced County judge issued an injunction on Dec. 23 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11852681/judge-orders-foster-farms-to-comply-with-covid-19-safety-rules\">ordering the company to comply with a county health directive\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms responded in court filings that the lawsuit offered “allegations based primarily on anecdotal declarations and news articles that grossly misrepresent the substantial safety measures that Foster Poultry has implemented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jatinderpal Singh, 71, a former line worker at Foster Farms’ Cherry plant, equated the loss of his cousin, Baljinder Dhillon, 65, a mechanic at the plant, to losing an arm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My legs still shake,” Singh said in an interview on Aug. 11, speaking in Punjabi through an interpreter. “I still feel it, even today. Sometimes I feel weakness in my legs when I think about him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892911\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892911 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man with a white beard wearing a black turban sits in a dining room chair, one hand in the other on the table before him.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50892_093_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jatinderpal Singh sits at his home in Fresno on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like Caballero, both Singh and Dhillon tested positive for COVID-19 in early December. While Singh said he experienced minor symptoms, Dhillon was hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia. He was put on a ventilator and died several days short of his planned retirement at the end of 2020, a family member said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Dhillon’s death, Singh quit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If our life is not safe, what are we going to do with the money? They continuously call me to come back, but I told them I am not going to work there anymore,” Singh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>'Fighting tooth and nail'\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB1159\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Senate Bill 1159\u003c/a>, signed into law last fall, workers who got sick during an outbreak at their workplace are presumed to have contracted the virus at work. But insurance companies and self-insured employers can dispute that presumption by showing evidence a worker could have been infected outside of work — for instance, through a member of their household or at a social gathering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COVID-related workers' compensation claims in California have been denied, on average, at more than three times the rate of non-COVID claims since the start of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893381\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11893381 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Call-back-pink-original-cropped-800x929.jpg\" alt='A pink \"Important Message\" note with lines filled in, including \"For: Dennis,\" \"Day: 12/28/20,\" \"Time: 9:32 A.M.,\" \"M: Jay Baxter,\" \"Phone: Foster Farms,\" and a box for \"Please call\" checked.' width=\"800\" height=\"929\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Call-back-pink-original-cropped-800x929.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Call-back-pink-original-cropped-1020x1184.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Call-back-pink-original-cropped-160x186.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Call-back-pink-original-cropped.jpg 1231w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A phone message reads 'Update for Baljnder [sic] Dhillon' the morning after the employee died from complications of COVID-19. The note was included in a Cal/OSHA case file obtained by KQED.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Roughly 35% of COVID-related workers' compensation claims filed from January 2020 to the present have been denied, according to data from the state Department of Industrial Relations. Just over 11% of claims unrelated to COVID-19 were denied during the same period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These insurance companies are just fighting tooth and nail,” Hernández’s attorney Pérez said. “They want to make you prove that you actually contracted this virus at work, even if by reasonable medical probability it’s more likely than not that the person contracted it there — prove something that really is, in many ways, impossible to prove definitively.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having an attorney is especially crucial in a death benefits case, attorney Jennifer Scotto said. Scotto is a workers' compensation attorney representing the family of a former employee who worked at the Livingston plant and died from complications of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you don't have an attorney, I would liken it to being stranded in the middle of the ocean without a life raft,\" Scotto said. “You will really get bogged down in the system without legal counsel and you will not get the kind of settlement you’re entitled to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many Foster Farms employees are Punjabi immigrants. The Jakara Movement, a Fresno-based group that advocates for the Punjabi community, has been doing worker outreach and education at flea markets, food drives and Sikh gurdwaras throughout the San Joaquin Valley since April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Navdeep Kaur, a labor organizer with the group, said many people she encounters are unfamiliar with workers' compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of these workers don’t know that this is an option, or their families don’t know,” Kaur said. “Especially since they’re immigrant families, they’re monolingual and ... at least within the Punjabi community, they’re elderly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892913\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892913 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a purple headscarf and ochre, floral salwar kameez speaks to three other women in similar dress in a parking lot, at a table with boxes of masks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52005_IMG_7695-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jakara Movement organizer Navdeep Kaur speaks with Punjabi families at a Sikh gurdwara about COVID-19 and workers' compensation, in Fresno on Sept. 4, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kaur said some are afraid to file for workers' compensation benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have other friends and family working at the same place,” she said. “If one person filed something against these companies, then they’re afraid for the rest of the family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she is concerned the one-year deadline for filing a claim will pass before families have a chance to apply.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Foster Farms consultant: 'No evidence' of 'significant spread'\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>One evening last December, Jatinderpal Singh was at home with his family eating dinner. Then a call came from Foster Farms, the family said. He had tested positive for COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family panicked. He, his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren immediately quarantined in separate rooms, but nearly everyone later tested positive. Singh’s wife, Joginder Kaur, also was hospitalized, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892915\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892915 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Mr. Singh is reflected in a mirror on a wall; the wall a poster with an image of a bearded man with a turban are in soft focus.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50896_098_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jatinderpal Singh sits at his home in Fresno on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Fresno County health officials asked Foster Farms management for their theories in early December about what caused the Cherry plant outbreak, public records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, company officials pointed to a number of factors — including workers’ ethnicity — that could have played a part. They did not address the possibility that workplace conditions might in any part be responsible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among factors that could have played a part, Foster Farms said, were a health insurance enrollment event in which 1,000 workers used the same phones over a two-week period and a sexual harassment training where employees gathered in groups of 35. The company also pointed out that it had recently been Thanksgiving and Diwali, a festival of lights celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was reported that 24.8% of company employees have self-identified as Asian/East Indian,” the email says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six days later, Foster Farms sent a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21076506-tag-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">letter from The Acheson Group\u003c/a>, a food safety consulting firm with close ties to the company, to the Fresno County Department of Public Health, explaining that a review of testing data from the plant showed employees who tested positive had worked while having symptoms and did not follow company guidelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite well over 200 workers at the Cherry plant testing positive for COVID-19, Dr. David Acheson, then-chairman of Foster Farms’ Food Safety Advisory Board, wrote that there was “no evidence” of “significant spread in the Cherry facility of SARS-CoV-2 in early December.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He recommended that Foster Farms increase training for employees and warn them against attending large gatherings or other high-risk activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA’s investigation completed five months later came to far different conclusions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“COVID-19 hazards continued to exist due to the employer not effectively evaluating the hazards, and effectively protecting employees from changing conditions due to COVID-19,” the investigation of the Cherry plant outbreak found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Coronavirus/Citations/05.28.2021-Foster-Poultry-Farms-Inc_1495041.pdf\">Cal/OSHA’s citations\u003c/a> allege Foster Farms did not provide or enforce the consistent use of face coverings and that in some areas of the plants, employees were stationed closer than 6 feet from each other or not separated by barriers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893161\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11893161 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg\" alt='A yellow plaster sign with red and black writing hangs on a chain link fence beneath barbed wire. It has a Foster Farms logo, and the top line reads, \"Estamos Contratando.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/RS50860_057_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign written in Spanish announces job openings at the Foster Farms facility on W. Belgravia Avenue in Fresno on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA citations and any other signs the company acted with disregard for worker safety could be used as evidence the company acted with serious and willful misconduct, attorneys representing workers’ families said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If accepted, a petition for benefits for serious and willful misconduct adds an additional 50% in penalties on top of workers' compensation benefits. Under state regulations, those added penalty amounts cannot be covered by insurance, meaning employers must pay out of pocket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It definitely would apply to the Foster Farms situation,” said Diane Worley, executive director of the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association. “A violation of a Cal/OSHA order is by definition a serious and willful claim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, in general, employers are always going to try to fight those citations that they knowingly put workers in harm's way,” said Jennifer Scotto, the workers' compensation attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scotto filed a serious and willful misconduct claim on behalf of the family of a former Foster Farms employee who died from COVID-19. The claim alleges the company failed to provide face coverings to employees and that workers were not socially distanced, among other claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They knew that these people were sick and there was no notification given to the other workers, so the workers were coming to work like a normal day, having no idea that they were being exposed to COVID,” Scotto said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892919\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11892919 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"A woman holds a heavy crystal plaque encasing a circle and with writing etched on it, beyond a plate-glass window with white gauzy and heavier red curtains.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS50806_003_Fresno_FosterFarmsCOVID_08112021-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez holds a plaque from Foster Farms given to her husband, Eufracio Caballero, at her home in Sanger, Fresno County, on Aug. 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Hernández’s attorney, Ricardo Agustín Pérez, said he was also considering filing a serious and willful misconduct claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s true what our client’s family is telling us, that this employer knew that there were a lot of other people who got COVID around this time, then their responsibility would have been to take whatever measures necessary to make sure that the rest of their employees don’t contract COVID as well,” Pérez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "‘These Numbers Seem Suspect’: Officials Didn’t Trust Foster Farms’ COVID-19 Data During Plant Outbreak, Emails Show",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]B[/dropcap]y the time Merced County public health officials were able to track down accurate information about a COVID-19 outbreak at a local Foster Farms plant last year, seven workers were already dead, and more would die in the following weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In mid-August, when the California Department of Public Health requested the number of positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths that were tied to the growing outbreak at the company’s plant in Livingston, Merced County’s supervising epidemiologist Kristynn Sullivan passed along the data, with the disclaimer that officials had just learned of five previously unreported deaths on Aug. 14.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They [Foster Farms] did not inform us of any hospitalizations prior to 8/14, and as you know they did not inform the additional five fatalities until 8/14,” Sullivan wrote in an \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471636-sullivan-additional-five\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aug. 20 email\u003c/a>.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Dr. Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp, Merced County public health director\"]‘This is one of the largest occupational fatalities experienced during COVID-19 in the state of California.’[/pullquote]Minutes later, Dr. Salvador Sandoval, the county’s health officer, sent a \u003ca class=\"c-link\" href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471634-sandoval-eight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471634-sandoval-eight\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">follow-up \u003c/a>email saying he’d just been informed by a union representative that another worker at the plant had died the night before: “Foster Farms hasn’t let us know about him. So now we have 8 deaths.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In newly released emails from that time period, Merced County health officials repeatedly expressed skepticism about the outbreak information they were receiving from the poultry company, saying they believed the company hadn’t tested its entire workforce and was not providing reliable data. Ultimately, nearly 400 workers were sickened in connection to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833224/3-deaths-more-than-200-infections-in-coronavirus-outbreak-at-foster-farms-plant-livingston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Livingston outbreak, \u003c/a>nine of whom died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The information comes to light as Foster Farms argues, in an\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11852681/judge-orders-foster-farms-to-comply-with-covid-19-safety-rules\"> ongoing court case,\u003c/a> that further oversight of the company’s efforts to protect its workers from COVID-19 is unwarranted. It also arises amid recently confirmed reports of another major outbreak at one of the company’s plants in Fresno, where at least 193 workers were infected late last year. Two of those workers died from complications related to COVID-19 in January, according to a California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) spokesperson, raising that facility’s COVID-19 death toll to at least five.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company argues it has aggressively implemented safety and testing protocols, and says it recently began administering the Moderna vaccine to 1,000 workers at the Fresno plant in partnership with the county’s public health department and Vons Pharmacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms did not respond to questions about the emails. An earlier statement from the company said it is committed to the health and welfare of its employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emails, obtained by KQED through public records requests, show a county health department struggling to coerce Foster Farms to fulfill its obligations under California law and report the deaths of its employees to Cal/OSHA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one of the obtained emails, sent in July, a county health official urged the company to report a recent fatality to the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have been trying to reach out to you about this matter. It is required that this information be shared with Cal OSHA within 24 hours of the death,” county Epidemiologist Sydney Loewen \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471631-first-death\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote in an email to the company\u003c/a> on July 22. “Please reach out to us ASAP. If we do not hear from you we will need to report the death ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two weeks later, on Aug. 5, a Merced County Department of Public Health \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20469518-aug-5-directive-split\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">directive\u003c/a> instructed Foster Farms to implement a new COVID-19 testing protocol and report any hospitalizations to the county. The following week, after consulting state health officials, it asked the company to also report any known deaths. A day later, on Aug. 14, the company reported five more deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records show that prior to Aug. 14, county health officials had been made aware of some deaths tied to the outbreak, but not all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County Public Health Director Dr. Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp later \u003ca href=\"https://mercedcountyca.new.swagit.com/videos/75731\">told the county Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> that the number of known COVID-19 deaths connected to the Livingston plant more than tripled that day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"foster-farms\"]“This is one of the largest occupational fatalities experienced during COVID-19 in the state of California,” she said at the mid-September meeting. “This is not \u003cem>not\u003c/em> a big deal. This is a significantly large deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear if, or when, the company reported the deaths and hospitalizations of its employees to Cal/OSHA. The agency provided the number of deaths and hospitalizations reported last year in connection to Foster Farms’ facilities in the region. KQED has requested and is waiting for clarification on which reports are specific to the Livingston plant. Failure to immediately report a workplace fatality, serious injury or illness to Cal/OSHA is punishable by a fine of at least $5,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has recently come under fire from labor advocates and state legislators who say California’s system, which relies on employers self-reporting COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations to regulators, has led to severe undercounting and inadequate data about outbreaks tied to workplaces. In an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article248847034.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Sacramento Bee\u003c/a> this week, a Foster Farms spokesman defended the company’s record, insisting it had reported to the state at least 21 COVID-19 deaths tied to its California facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA has multiple open inspections at Foster Farms’ California facilities and has yet to issue any violations or penalties in connection with the outbreaks at the plants in Livingston or Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth] “The emails demonstrate that it was a challenge to get accurate workplace data from the employer,” Ana Padilla, executive director of UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center, said. “We can’t wait for there to already be a massive workplace outbreak before any reporting happens. Workers deserve to know if their lives are at risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap] preliminary injunction issued by a Merced County judge on Jan. 29 requires Foster Farms to continue complying with 20 COVID-19 workplace safety rules, the latest development in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11851959/lawsuit-foster-farms-plant-operating-in-naked-disregard-of-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lawsuit\u003c/a> filed against the company in December by the United Farm Workers union and two Livingston plant employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>Foster Farms’ attorneys have argued the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11852681/judge-orders-foster-farms-to-comply-with-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">court order\u003c/a> is an unnecessary overstep because Merced County’s health department and Cal/OSHA already exercise oversight of the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But emails exchanged between late July and August show county health officials repeatedly expressed distrust of the information Foster Farms has reported about worker fatalities and infections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and county health officials involved in the July and August email exchanges did not respond to requests for comment. A CDPH spokesperson said the agency communicated at the time with local public health officials in all other counties where there are Foster Farms plants, “to offer technical assistance for workers protection and current or future outbreaks at other facilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Merced County spokesperson said the health department did not have anyone available to provide a response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that these documents show pretty clearly that the county itself is concerned about their lack of transparency and the full truth of what they’re hearing, and the fact that they didn’t bother to report these deaths, is astonishing,” said Monique Alonso, one of the attorneys representing UFW in the civil suit against the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of this week, 560 workers at the plant who were represented by the UFW voted to decertify the union. Elizabeth Strater, a UFW spokeswoman, said its civil case against the poultry company “will proceed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11858934\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11858934\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A truck rolls into Foster Farms’ S. Cherry Avenue facility in Fresno on Dec. 9, 2020. A major outbreak at the plant late last year infected at least 193 people. A Cal/OSHA spokesman recently confirmed two more employees of the facility have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Aug. 21, the day after county health officials learned of the eight total deaths, Foster Farms sent an email reporting that five workers at its Livingston plant had so far tested positive, of the 1,449 employees that it tested. But it said over a third of those test results were still pending. Robert O’Connor, the company’s veterinarian and senior vice president of technical operations, wrote to county health officials that “the prevalence detected is quite low.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several days later, Dr. Sandoval, Merced County’s health officer, \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471629-suspect-chart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote\u003c/a> to colleagues, “These numbers seem suspect. I will try to find out if they are only checking regular employees, and not temporary workers, which I suspect.” He added, “The positivity rate is also way below our testing positivity rate of 12.1% overall in the county.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms has argued in court filings that, despite outbreaks tied to its workplaces, the testing positivity rate of its workers has been lower than the surrounding community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That same day, while relaying to state officials the number of hospitalizations that Foster Farms had reported during a two-week period, Sullivan, the county’s epidemiologist, \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471637-sullivan-trust-the-least\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote\u003c/a>, “These are the numbers I trust the least. Because I don’t believe they have a consistent way of gathering this information.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emails show California’s public health department discussed reaching out to other local health departments where Foster Farms operates since it seemed to be difficult for county health officials to get information directly from the company.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Stephen Knight, executive director of Worksafe\"]‘This is pretty basic. We are trying to manage an infectious disease epidemic and the state public health department and the counties need good information to do that.’[/pullquote]“We’re thinking about putting out some messaging from CDPH to counties that have a FF facility in or around them to have them ask about employment at FF during case interviews,” Dr. Christina Armatas, a CDPH public health officer, wrote to county health officials on Aug. 22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is darkly remarkable to see health officials discussing screening the public for Foster Farms employment as a risk factor in case interviews,” UFW spokeswoman Strater said. “This also shows that no outbreak is purely just a worksite issue — an outbreak is a public health issue that affects all of us. Workers and their communities deserve better. Essential should not mean sacrificial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County personnel also requested that Foster Farms apply the more thorough testing efforts now being administered in Livingston to the company’s other plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are creating a Statewide standard for managing COVID-19 outbreaks in food processing facilities,” Merced County Environmental Health Division Director Vicki Jones wrote to the company on Aug. 13. “It would be very beneficial and appreciated if you could share these protocols with the other Foster Farms processing facilities in California, as I understand they are now beginning to deal with similar challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new law, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB685\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AB 685\u003c/a>, which went into effect on Jan. 1, requires California employers to notify local health departments of COVID-19 outbreaks, positive cases and fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We learned more and more, the longer that we were involved in that bill, the need for a clear, statewide reporting standard and a clear, publicly available database of where outbreaks were occurring. And we didn’t have either one of those,” said Mitch Steiger, legislative advocate with the California Labor Federation, which co-sponsored and helped develop the legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law also requires local health departments to send the state all employer-reported COVID-19 outbreak data. To date, CDHP has \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/COVID-19-Outbreak-Data.aspx\">not posted any on its site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The obligation to report to local health departments began recently and we will be providing information soon,” a CDPH spokesperson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is pretty basic. We are trying to manage an infectious disease epidemic and the state public health department and the counties need good information to do that,” said Stephen Knight, executive director of Worksafe, an advocacy group. “This data needs to be collected and reported properly. It’s increasingly clear and very concerning that that’s not happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Newly released records show public health officials doubted the information the poultry company provided during a COVID-19 outbreak last year that resulted in close to 400 infections and nine deaths.",
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"title": "‘These Numbers Seem Suspect’: Officials Didn’t Trust Foster Farms’ COVID-19 Data During Plant Outbreak, Emails Show | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">B\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>y the time Merced County public health officials were able to track down accurate information about a COVID-19 outbreak at a local Foster Farms plant last year, seven workers were already dead, and more would die in the following weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In mid-August, when the California Department of Public Health requested the number of positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths that were tied to the growing outbreak at the company’s plant in Livingston, Merced County’s supervising epidemiologist Kristynn Sullivan passed along the data, with the disclaimer that officials had just learned of five previously unreported deaths on Aug. 14.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They [Foster Farms] did not inform us of any hospitalizations prior to 8/14, and as you know they did not inform the additional five fatalities until 8/14,” Sullivan wrote in an \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471636-sullivan-additional-five\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aug. 20 email\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘This is one of the largest occupational fatalities experienced during COVID-19 in the state of California.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Minutes later, Dr. Salvador Sandoval, the county’s health officer, sent a \u003ca class=\"c-link\" href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471634-sandoval-eight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471634-sandoval-eight\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">follow-up \u003c/a>email saying he’d just been informed by a union representative that another worker at the plant had died the night before: “Foster Farms hasn’t let us know about him. So now we have 8 deaths.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In newly released emails from that time period, Merced County health officials repeatedly expressed skepticism about the outbreak information they were receiving from the poultry company, saying they believed the company hadn’t tested its entire workforce and was not providing reliable data. Ultimately, nearly 400 workers were sickened in connection to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833224/3-deaths-more-than-200-infections-in-coronavirus-outbreak-at-foster-farms-plant-livingston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Livingston outbreak, \u003c/a>nine of whom died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The information comes to light as Foster Farms argues, in an\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11852681/judge-orders-foster-farms-to-comply-with-covid-19-safety-rules\"> ongoing court case,\u003c/a> that further oversight of the company’s efforts to protect its workers from COVID-19 is unwarranted. It also arises amid recently confirmed reports of another major outbreak at one of the company’s plants in Fresno, where at least 193 workers were infected late last year. Two of those workers died from complications related to COVID-19 in January, according to a California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) spokesperson, raising that facility’s COVID-19 death toll to at least five.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company argues it has aggressively implemented safety and testing protocols, and says it recently began administering the Moderna vaccine to 1,000 workers at the Fresno plant in partnership with the county’s public health department and Vons Pharmacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms did not respond to questions about the emails. An earlier statement from the company said it is committed to the health and welfare of its employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emails, obtained by KQED through public records requests, show a county health department struggling to coerce Foster Farms to fulfill its obligations under California law and report the deaths of its employees to Cal/OSHA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one of the obtained emails, sent in July, a county health official urged the company to report a recent fatality to the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have been trying to reach out to you about this matter. It is required that this information be shared with Cal OSHA within 24 hours of the death,” county Epidemiologist Sydney Loewen \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471631-first-death\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote in an email to the company\u003c/a> on July 22. “Please reach out to us ASAP. If we do not hear from you we will need to report the death ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two weeks later, on Aug. 5, a Merced County Department of Public Health \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20469518-aug-5-directive-split\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">directive\u003c/a> instructed Foster Farms to implement a new COVID-19 testing protocol and report any hospitalizations to the county. The following week, after consulting state health officials, it asked the company to also report any known deaths. A day later, on Aug. 14, the company reported five more deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records show that prior to Aug. 14, county health officials had been made aware of some deaths tied to the outbreak, but not all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County Public Health Director Dr. Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp later \u003ca href=\"https://mercedcountyca.new.swagit.com/videos/75731\">told the county Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> that the number of known COVID-19 deaths connected to the Livingston plant more than tripled that day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This is one of the largest occupational fatalities experienced during COVID-19 in the state of California,” she said at the mid-September meeting. “This is not \u003cem>not\u003c/em> a big deal. This is a significantly large deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear if, or when, the company reported the deaths and hospitalizations of its employees to Cal/OSHA. The agency provided the number of deaths and hospitalizations reported last year in connection to Foster Farms’ facilities in the region. KQED has requested and is waiting for clarification on which reports are specific to the Livingston plant. Failure to immediately report a workplace fatality, serious injury or illness to Cal/OSHA is punishable by a fine of at least $5,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has recently come under fire from labor advocates and state legislators who say California’s system, which relies on employers self-reporting COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations to regulators, has led to severe undercounting and inadequate data about outbreaks tied to workplaces. In an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article248847034.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Sacramento Bee\u003c/a> this week, a Foster Farms spokesman defended the company’s record, insisting it had reported to the state at least 21 COVID-19 deaths tied to its California facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA has multiple open inspections at Foster Farms’ California facilities and has yet to issue any violations or penalties in connection with the outbreaks at the plants in Livingston or Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> “The emails demonstrate that it was a challenge to get accurate workplace data from the employer,” Ana Padilla, executive director of UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center, said. “We can’t wait for there to already be a massive workplace outbreak before any reporting happens. Workers deserve to know if their lives are at risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp> preliminary injunction issued by a Merced County judge on Jan. 29 requires Foster Farms to continue complying with 20 COVID-19 workplace safety rules, the latest development in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11851959/lawsuit-foster-farms-plant-operating-in-naked-disregard-of-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lawsuit\u003c/a> filed against the company in December by the United Farm Workers union and two Livingston plant employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>Foster Farms’ attorneys have argued the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11852681/judge-orders-foster-farms-to-comply-with-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">court order\u003c/a> is an unnecessary overstep because Merced County’s health department and Cal/OSHA already exercise oversight of the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But emails exchanged between late July and August show county health officials repeatedly expressed distrust of the information Foster Farms has reported about worker fatalities and infections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and county health officials involved in the July and August email exchanges did not respond to requests for comment. A CDPH spokesperson said the agency communicated at the time with local public health officials in all other counties where there are Foster Farms plants, “to offer technical assistance for workers protection and current or future outbreaks at other facilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Merced County spokesperson said the health department did not have anyone available to provide a response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that these documents show pretty clearly that the county itself is concerned about their lack of transparency and the full truth of what they’re hearing, and the fact that they didn’t bother to report these deaths, is astonishing,” said Monique Alonso, one of the attorneys representing UFW in the civil suit against the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of this week, 560 workers at the plant who were represented by the UFW voted to decertify the union. Elizabeth Strater, a UFW spokeswoman, said its civil case against the poultry company “will proceed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11858934\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11858934\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A truck rolls into Foster Farms’ S. Cherry Avenue facility in Fresno on Dec. 9, 2020. A major outbreak at the plant late last year infected at least 193 people. A Cal/OSHA spokesman recently confirmed two more employees of the facility have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Aug. 21, the day after county health officials learned of the eight total deaths, Foster Farms sent an email reporting that five workers at its Livingston plant had so far tested positive, of the 1,449 employees that it tested. But it said over a third of those test results were still pending. Robert O’Connor, the company’s veterinarian and senior vice president of technical operations, wrote to county health officials that “the prevalence detected is quite low.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several days later, Dr. Sandoval, Merced County’s health officer, \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471629-suspect-chart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote\u003c/a> to colleagues, “These numbers seem suspect. I will try to find out if they are only checking regular employees, and not temporary workers, which I suspect.” He added, “The positivity rate is also way below our testing positivity rate of 12.1% overall in the county.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms has argued in court filings that, despite outbreaks tied to its workplaces, the testing positivity rate of its workers has been lower than the surrounding community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That same day, while relaying to state officials the number of hospitalizations that Foster Farms had reported during a two-week period, Sullivan, the county’s epidemiologist, \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471637-sullivan-trust-the-least\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote\u003c/a>, “These are the numbers I trust the least. Because I don’t believe they have a consistent way of gathering this information.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emails show California’s public health department discussed reaching out to other local health departments where Foster Farms operates since it seemed to be difficult for county health officials to get information directly from the company.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘This is pretty basic. We are trying to manage an infectious disease epidemic and the state public health department and the counties need good information to do that.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We’re thinking about putting out some messaging from CDPH to counties that have a FF facility in or around them to have them ask about employment at FF during case interviews,” Dr. Christina Armatas, a CDPH public health officer, wrote to county health officials on Aug. 22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is darkly remarkable to see health officials discussing screening the public for Foster Farms employment as a risk factor in case interviews,” UFW spokeswoman Strater said. “This also shows that no outbreak is purely just a worksite issue — an outbreak is a public health issue that affects all of us. Workers and their communities deserve better. Essential should not mean sacrificial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County personnel also requested that Foster Farms apply the more thorough testing efforts now being administered in Livingston to the company’s other plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are creating a Statewide standard for managing COVID-19 outbreaks in food processing facilities,” Merced County Environmental Health Division Director Vicki Jones wrote to the company on Aug. 13. “It would be very beneficial and appreciated if you could share these protocols with the other Foster Farms processing facilities in California, as I understand they are now beginning to deal with similar challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new law, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB685\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AB 685\u003c/a>, which went into effect on Jan. 1, requires California employers to notify local health departments of COVID-19 outbreaks, positive cases and fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We learned more and more, the longer that we were involved in that bill, the need for a clear, statewide reporting standard and a clear, publicly available database of where outbreaks were occurring. And we didn’t have either one of those,” said Mitch Steiger, legislative advocate with the California Labor Federation, which co-sponsored and helped develop the legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law also requires local health departments to send the state all employer-reported COVID-19 outbreak data. To date, CDHP has \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/COVID-19-Outbreak-Data.aspx\">not posted any on its site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The obligation to report to local health departments began recently and we will be providing information soon,” a CDPH spokesperson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is pretty basic. We are trying to manage an infectious disease epidemic and the state public health department and the counties need good information to do that,” said Stephen Knight, executive director of Worksafe, an advocacy group. “This data needs to be collected and reported properly. It’s increasingly clear and very concerning that that’s not happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Another Foster Farms employee in the Central Valley has died due to complications from COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fresno plant worker’s death was confirmed by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health in an email to KQED Wednesday. Cal/OSHA was notified of the death on Dec. 28, at which point they began the process of inspecting the Foster Farms facility on S. Cherry Avenue in Fresno. There is now a total of three COVID-related deaths at that facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Foster Farms plant in Livingston was shut down for six days in September after an outbreak resulted in at least 392 workers testing positive for coronavirus, with nine dying from complications from COVID-19, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11850332/covid-19-again-sweeps-through-foster-farms-plants-in-central-valley\">KQED previously reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are saddened by the death at our Cherry Street plant and, out of respect for the family and loved ones, can provide no further details,” the company said through a spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The death follows an outbreak of at least 193 COVID-19 infections at the same poultry plant which was confirmed to KQED by the Fresno County Department of Public Health in early December, though it is not immediately clear if the death is related to that outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three separate Foster Farms facilities in the Central Valley reported outbreaks, including the S. Cherry Avenue plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Dec. 23, a Merced County judge ordered Foster Farms to comply with health orders, after finding the company may have engaged in unfair business practices by failing to comply with an Aug. 28 health order issued by the Merced County Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling — which went into effect Monday — requires Foster Farms to provide face masks, stagger employee meal and start times, investigate close contacts of workers who test positive, to ensure infected employees do not come to work, and inform all employees of testing requirements and any outbreaks that occur, among other requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers of America and two employees of a Foster Farms poultry processing plant in the Central Valley filed a lawsuit against the company on Dec. 17, arguing the company is operating in “naked disregard of both national and local guidelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those orders stem from a lawsuit aiming to compel Foster Farms to improve safety protocols.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint filed by the United Farm Workers and Foster Farms workers argues its workers are spaced “substantially less than six feet apart from each other for prolonged periods of time with no plastic divider or similar protection between them,” and that the company fails to “rigorously or effectively enforce social distancing or even to supply masks,” among other allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint also alleges Foster Farms “continues to ignore baseline workplace safety protocols, inexorably leading to further spread and infection in the Plant and community at large.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For its part, Foster Farms defended its practices by saying it had already agreed to institute those changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the most recent worker’s death, a Foster Farms spokesperson says “our positivity rate at the plant since mid-December continues to decline,” and the company is testing all of its employees twice a week. The spokesperson says Foster Farms employees have a positivity rate lower than the overall positivity rate in Fresno County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED reporter Alexandra Hall contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Another Foster Farms employee in the Central Valley has died due to complications from COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fresno plant worker’s death was confirmed by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health in an email to KQED Wednesday. Cal/OSHA was notified of the death on Dec. 28, at which point they began the process of inspecting the Foster Farms facility on S. Cherry Avenue in Fresno. There is now a total of three COVID-related deaths at that facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Foster Farms plant in Livingston was shut down for six days in September after an outbreak resulted in at least 392 workers testing positive for coronavirus, with nine dying from complications from COVID-19, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11850332/covid-19-again-sweeps-through-foster-farms-plants-in-central-valley\">KQED previously reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are saddened by the death at our Cherry Street plant and, out of respect for the family and loved ones, can provide no further details,” the company said through a spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The death follows an outbreak of at least 193 COVID-19 infections at the same poultry plant which was confirmed to KQED by the Fresno County Department of Public Health in early December, though it is not immediately clear if the death is related to that outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three separate Foster Farms facilities in the Central Valley reported outbreaks, including the S. Cherry Avenue plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Dec. 23, a Merced County judge ordered Foster Farms to comply with health orders, after finding the company may have engaged in unfair business practices by failing to comply with an Aug. 28 health order issued by the Merced County Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling — which went into effect Monday — requires Foster Farms to provide face masks, stagger employee meal and start times, investigate close contacts of workers who test positive, to ensure infected employees do not come to work, and inform all employees of testing requirements and any outbreaks that occur, among other requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers of America and two employees of a Foster Farms poultry processing plant in the Central Valley filed a lawsuit against the company on Dec. 17, arguing the company is operating in “naked disregard of both national and local guidelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those orders stem from a lawsuit aiming to compel Foster Farms to improve safety protocols.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint filed by the United Farm Workers and Foster Farms workers argues its workers are spaced “substantially less than six feet apart from each other for prolonged periods of time with no plastic divider or similar protection between them,” and that the company fails to “rigorously or effectively enforce social distancing or even to supply masks,” among other allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint also alleges Foster Farms “continues to ignore baseline workplace safety protocols, inexorably leading to further spread and infection in the Plant and community at large.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For its part, Foster Farms defended its practices by saying it had already agreed to institute those changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the most recent worker’s death, a Foster Farms spokesperson says “our positivity rate at the plant since mid-December continues to decline,” and the company is testing all of its employees twice a week. The spokesperson says Foster Farms employees have a positivity rate lower than the overall positivity rate in Fresno County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED reporter Alexandra Hall contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A Merced County judge is ordering Foster Farms to follow local, state and federal COVID-19 safety rules, finding Wednesday that Livingston plant workers and their union are likely to succeed on claims that the company engaged in unlawful business practices by failing to consistently comply with a county health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Livingston plant recently saw its second COVID-19 outbreak, with at least 48 employees testing positive as of early December. The plant was previously shut down for six days in September after 392 workers tested positive and nine died.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Merced County Superior Court Judge Donald Proietti\"]'Perhaps Foster Farms is not complying, or is unable to comply, or unwilling to comply or turning a blind eye.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Farm Workers of America and two employees \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11851959/lawsuit-foster-farms-plant-operating-in-naked-disregard-of-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">argued in a Dec. 17\u003c/a> request for an emergency restraining order that Foster Farms has been operating in “naked disregard of both national and local guidelines” on COVID-19 safety by requiring people to work within 6 feet of each other, failing to supply masks and keeping workers in the dark about positive cases at the plant, safety rules and sick pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a hearing Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Donald Proietti said the plaintiffs “have set forth sufficient evidence for the court to be concerned that perhaps Foster Farms is not complying, or is unable to comply, or unwilling to comply or turning a blind eye.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proietti ruled against the union and workers’ allegation that Foster Farms created a public nuisance by increasing the coronavirus spread in the broader community — acknowledging the company’s argument that the prevalence of COVID-19 at the Livingston plant is lower than that of Merced County’s general population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the judge ruled against Foster Farms on another claim, finding that the company may have engaged in unfair business practices by failing to comply with an Aug. 28 health order issued by the Merced County Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436841-united-farm-workers-of-america-et-al-vs-foster-poultry-farms-201223-adopted-tentative-ruling-tro-osc-preliminary-injunction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The ruling\u003c/a> lists 20 requirements the poultry company must comply with at its Livingston plant, including: providing face masks, staggering employee meal and start times, investigating close contacts of workers who test positive, ensuring infected employees do not come to work and informing all employees of testing requirements and any outbreaks that occur, and safety training in English, Spanish and Punjabi, among other requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order goes into effect in five days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plaintiff's attorneys said the ruling is likely the first court injunction in the U.S. against a meat processing plant over coronavirus safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The court recognized that being an essential worker does not mean that your employer may put your life and health at unnecessary risk,\" attorney Monique Alonso said in a written statement. The plaintiffs plan to argue for mandatory 6-feet distancing between workers on production lines, which is not required under the court's Wednesday order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proietti said that while he believed the last thing Foster Farms wants is for the company’s employees to get sick, he was concerned for the health and safety of workers at the plant.[aside postID=\"news_11851959,news_11850332,news_11835677,news_11833224\" label=\"Outbreaks at Foster Farms\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the court’s ruling is “not imposing upon Foster Farms anything in addition to what it’s already agreed to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge referenced direction on COVID-19 safety in meat and poultry plants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms’ attorney argued the Merced County Department of Public Health and state and federal agencies are the primary authority on workplace safety issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is, your honor, they’re asking you to kind of insert yourself into this process,” said Christian Rowley, Foster Farms’ attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is going to open a huge can of worms for the court in terms of determining what is going to happen with regard to operation of the plant. Is there a violation? Is there not a violation? But you can see where the lack of technical expertise in this area with respect to the court is becoming even more problematic,” Rowley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Proietti wrote in his ruling that guidance from regulatory agencies does not preclude a court from enforcing those rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the hearing, Proietti said Foster Farms would have to actively monitor employees and supervisors to ensure they are following the guidelines in the court’s order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That means you have to resupply the masks, that means you have to discipline workers who refuse to follow the guidelines,” the judge said. “That’s something the employer has to take into consideration to make sure that their environment remains safe for the workplace and the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Foster Farms said the company “does not comment on active litigation in detail but believes that further adjudication will demonstrate that the company is already in compliance with required protective measures for its workforce and that the United Farm Workers lawsuit is without merit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statement also said Foster Farms is working with state and county health authorities to ensure that its workforce receives priority for the COVID-19 vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[documentcloud url=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436841-united-farm-workers-of-america-et-al-vs-foster-poultry-farms-201223-adopted-tentative-ruling-tro-osc-preliminary-injunction\" responsive=true text=false]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Farm Workers of America and two employees \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11851959/lawsuit-foster-farms-plant-operating-in-naked-disregard-of-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">argued in a Dec. 17\u003c/a> request for an emergency restraining order that Foster Farms has been operating in “naked disregard of both national and local guidelines” on COVID-19 safety by requiring people to work within 6 feet of each other, failing to supply masks and keeping workers in the dark about positive cases at the plant, safety rules and sick pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a hearing Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Donald Proietti said the plaintiffs “have set forth sufficient evidence for the court to be concerned that perhaps Foster Farms is not complying, or is unable to comply, or unwilling to comply or turning a blind eye.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proietti ruled against the union and workers’ allegation that Foster Farms created a public nuisance by increasing the coronavirus spread in the broader community — acknowledging the company’s argument that the prevalence of COVID-19 at the Livingston plant is lower than that of Merced County’s general population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the judge ruled against Foster Farms on another claim, finding that the company may have engaged in unfair business practices by failing to comply with an Aug. 28 health order issued by the Merced County Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436841-united-farm-workers-of-america-et-al-vs-foster-poultry-farms-201223-adopted-tentative-ruling-tro-osc-preliminary-injunction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The ruling\u003c/a> lists 20 requirements the poultry company must comply with at its Livingston plant, including: providing face masks, staggering employee meal and start times, investigating close contacts of workers who test positive, ensuring infected employees do not come to work and informing all employees of testing requirements and any outbreaks that occur, and safety training in English, Spanish and Punjabi, among other requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order goes into effect in five days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plaintiff's attorneys said the ruling is likely the first court injunction in the U.S. against a meat processing plant over coronavirus safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The court recognized that being an essential worker does not mean that your employer may put your life and health at unnecessary risk,\" attorney Monique Alonso said in a written statement. The plaintiffs plan to argue for mandatory 6-feet distancing between workers on production lines, which is not required under the court's Wednesday order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proietti said that while he believed the last thing Foster Farms wants is for the company’s employees to get sick, he was concerned for the health and safety of workers at the plant.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the court’s ruling is “not imposing upon Foster Farms anything in addition to what it’s already agreed to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge referenced direction on COVID-19 safety in meat and poultry plants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms’ attorney argued the Merced County Department of Public Health and state and federal agencies are the primary authority on workplace safety issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is, your honor, they’re asking you to kind of insert yourself into this process,” said Christian Rowley, Foster Farms’ attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is going to open a huge can of worms for the court in terms of determining what is going to happen with regard to operation of the plant. Is there a violation? Is there not a violation? But you can see where the lack of technical expertise in this area with respect to the court is becoming even more problematic,” Rowley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Proietti wrote in his ruling that guidance from regulatory agencies does not preclude a court from enforcing those rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the hearing, Proietti said Foster Farms would have to actively monitor employees and supervisors to ensure they are following the guidelines in the court’s order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That means you have to resupply the masks, that means you have to discipline workers who refuse to follow the guidelines,” the judge said. “That’s something the employer has to take into consideration to make sure that their environment remains safe for the workplace and the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Foster Farms said the company “does not comment on active litigation in detail but believes that further adjudication will demonstrate that the company is already in compliance with required protective measures for its workforce and that the United Farm Workers lawsuit is without merit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statement also said Foster Farms is working with state and county health authorities to ensure that its workforce receives priority for the COVID-19 vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>United Farm Workers of America and two employees of a Foster Farms poultry processing plant in the Central Valley have filed a lawsuit against the company, seeking an emergency court order to force Foster Farms to improve safety protocols at its Livingston complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a complaint filed in Merced County Superior Court Thursday, attorneys for the union and Livingston plant employees argue Foster Farms puts workers at the plant at an increased risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19, accusing the company of operating in “naked disregard of both national and local guidelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Foster Farms requires employees to work substantially less than six feet apart from each other for prolonged periods of time with no plastic divider or similar protection between them, fails to rigorously or effectively enforce social distancing or even to supply masks, and fails to keep its workforce adequately informed of safety and sick leave protocol, including access to COVID leave pay,” the complaint says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit asks the court to immediately force Foster Farms to operate its Livingston complex in accordance with a Merced County health order issued in August and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11848307/california-approves-new-emergency-covid-19-workplace-protections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency rules\u003c/a> recently enacted by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA). [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Plaintiffs Attorney Monique Alonso\"]'Their compliance has been incomplete, it’s been inconsistent, and they obviously need something a little stronger than the county of Merced saying you need to do this.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It does not ask that the plant be closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit also argues that Foster Farms’ operation of the Livingston facility constitutes an “unfair and unlawful business practice that gives it a competitive edge at the expense of its employees’ safety,” and a public nuisance that impacts the greater community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms “continues to ignore baseline workplace safety protocols, inexorably leading to further spread and infection in the Plant and community at large,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County Superior Court Judge Donald Proietti declined to make an emergency ruling on Friday, instead opting to schedule a second hearing for Dec. 23.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are very significant issues that the court needs to look at before I make any type of emergency rulings,” Proietti said, “in light of what are federal emergency orders, statewide emergency orders, and with regard to a private commercial business operation, which is under operation as an essential industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms responded in court filings Friday that the lawsuit offers “allegations based primarily on anecdotal declarations and news articles that grossly misrepresent the substantial safety measures that Foster Poultry has implemented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company also argues that regulatory agencies, including Cal/OSHA and the county health department, have primary responsibility to oversee operations at its plants, and the court shouldn’t intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Foster Farms does not comment on active litigation in detail,\" the company said in a written statement Friday. \"We believe the current United Farm Workers lawsuit is without merit and have confidence that judicial review will find accordingly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said it screens employees for symptoms, and follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, including mandatory mask wearing and workstation partitions. The plant is continuously cleaned, according to the company, and employee breaks are staggered. It is also installing portable air filters. Employees are also tested for COVID-19 continuously, according to Foster Farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ira Brill, the company’s vice president of communications, said the positivity rates at the Livingston plant and two other facilities in Fresno have dropped in recent weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to test all workers twice weekly at the Livingston plant and the positivity continues to be less than 1%,” Brill said Thursday through a public relations representative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monique Alonso, one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs in the case, said Foster Farms has not complied with the Aug. 28 Merced County health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their compliance has been incomplete, it’s been inconsistent, and they obviously need something a little stronger than the county of Merced saying you need to do this,” Alonso said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alonso’s co-counsel, UFW General Counsel Mario Martinez, called the lawsuit “a last resort and about protecting workers’ lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Livingston Plant Facing New Outbreak\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>By early December, Merced County health officials added the Livingston facility to its list of outbreaks in the county for a second time. The plant was shut down for six days in September after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833224/3-deaths-more-than-200-infections-in-coronavirus-outbreak-at-foster-farms-plant-livingston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an outbreak\u003c/a> resulted in at least 392 workers testing positive for the coronavirus. Nine people infected in that first major outbreak died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Dec. 10, at least 48 workers had tested positive in connection to the more recent outbreak, according to a Foster Farms email obtained by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since reopening the plant in September, attorneys write in the lawsuit, Foster Farms has not fully complied with the Merced County health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While the company made certain alterations following the September shutdown, its compliance has been irregular, ineffective, inconsistent or nonexistent — all emblematic of a basic disregard of worker health and safety,” attorneys wrote in the suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit also includes eight declarations from plant employees, who describe working within 2 or 3 feet of one another, sometimes separated by plastic dividers or curtains, other times not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One employee said in a declaration that she went to work during the temporary shutdown, despite the health order requiring her area of the plant to be closed. [aside postID=\"news_11850332,news_11835677,news_11833224\" label=\"Outbreaks at Foster Farms\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employees also say they have often been responsible for supplying their own masks, although some say they were provided face shields. Cal/OSHA \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/oshsb/documents/COVID-19-Prevention-Emergency-apprvdtxt.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency regulations\u003c/a> that went into effect Nov. 30 require employers to provide employees with face coverings and ensure they are worn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Before the Company gave the workers the plastic shields, I recall my foreperson handing out a flyer to us workers that had instructions about how to make our own masks with a piece of cloth or bandana to bring to work,” employee Maria Trinidad Madrigal said in a declaration. “Shortly after this, I recall that some workers received yellow face bandanas, but I did not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One employee described feeling ill and discovering she was COVID-19-positive at the same time as her brother and another co-worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After two months in the hospital with COVID, my brother Arnulfo passed away,” Maria Delgado, a 17-year employee of the plant, said in a declaration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People come and go in the hallway while people are punching in and out. There are a lot of people in a small area and there is no social distancing or being 6 feet apart,” Delgado said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delgado and other workers claim they have never received training about what to do if they are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, and that a lack of information has created fear among employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has been no information-spreading, meetings, or training from supervision with regards to COVID, either before or after the shutdown,” Delgado said. “The workers just talk amongst themselves about people getting sick. I have read information in a flyer and have seen paperwork on bulletin boards in the hallway at the company that says the number of people that have tested positive but do not know how often it is updated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Outbreaks Span Multiple Central Valley Facilities\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There are two \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11850332/covid-19-again-sweeps-through-foster-farms-plants-in-central-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">other active outbreaks\u003c/a> at Foster Farms facilities in the Central Valley in addition to the one in Merced County. Three employees at the company’s plants in Fresno have died from complications related to COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least 193 workers had tested positive at the company’s Cherry facility as of Dec. 8, according to Fresno County health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11851990\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11851990 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A truck rolls into Foster Farms' S. Cherry Avenue facility in Fresno on Dec. 9. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An unknown number of workers have tested positive at the Belgravia plant, although Fresno County's director of public health, Dave Pomaville, said the number was substantially lower at that facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA spokesman Frank Polizzi confirmed the agency has been notified of two workers who have died in connection to the company’s Cherry plant. Polizzi said Cal/OSHA was notified of one death on Sept. 20 and another on Nov. 25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA has five open inspections at the Livingston plant, and four at the plants in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms spokesman Brill confirmed on Dec. 11 that a worker at the company’s Belgravia plant had died since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths at the company’s facilities in Fresno to three. But neither Foster Farms nor county health officials have confirmed the date of that death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms and Fresno County health officials have reported that fewer workers have tested positive at the company’s plants in Fresno in recent days. [ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Dec. 15, Fresno County Interim Health Officer Dr. Rais Vohra said in an email the positivity rate among asymptomatic individuals tested at the Cherry plant had dropped from 22% to 6% from Dec. 1 to Dec. 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“COVID-19 represents an unprecedented challenge to all who live and work in California,” the company said in a statement. “Foster Farms is committed to this task and to the ongoing protection of its workforce.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, a nonprofit that works within the Sikh Punjabi community and advocates for Foster Farms employees, said the lawsuit’s allegations are not surprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After reading the lawsuit, we’re disappointed but not surprised that continuous complaints from workers and community organizations at the Livingston plant and other Foster Farms plants have not been resolved despite months of bringing attention to these safety matters, and months of Mr. Brill’s denials, sidesteps, pussyfooting and evasions,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>United Farm Workers of America and two employees of a Foster Farms poultry processing plant in the Central Valley have filed a lawsuit against the company, seeking an emergency court order to force Foster Farms to improve safety protocols at its Livingston complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a complaint filed in Merced County Superior Court Thursday, attorneys for the union and Livingston plant employees argue Foster Farms puts workers at the plant at an increased risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19, accusing the company of operating in “naked disregard of both national and local guidelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Foster Farms requires employees to work substantially less than six feet apart from each other for prolonged periods of time with no plastic divider or similar protection between them, fails to rigorously or effectively enforce social distancing or even to supply masks, and fails to keep its workforce adequately informed of safety and sick leave protocol, including access to COVID leave pay,” the complaint says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit asks the court to immediately force Foster Farms to operate its Livingston complex in accordance with a Merced County health order issued in August and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11848307/california-approves-new-emergency-covid-19-workplace-protections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency rules\u003c/a> recently enacted by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA). \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It does not ask that the plant be closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit also argues that Foster Farms’ operation of the Livingston facility constitutes an “unfair and unlawful business practice that gives it a competitive edge at the expense of its employees’ safety,” and a public nuisance that impacts the greater community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms “continues to ignore baseline workplace safety protocols, inexorably leading to further spread and infection in the Plant and community at large,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County Superior Court Judge Donald Proietti declined to make an emergency ruling on Friday, instead opting to schedule a second hearing for Dec. 23.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are very significant issues that the court needs to look at before I make any type of emergency rulings,” Proietti said, “in light of what are federal emergency orders, statewide emergency orders, and with regard to a private commercial business operation, which is under operation as an essential industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms responded in court filings Friday that the lawsuit offers “allegations based primarily on anecdotal declarations and news articles that grossly misrepresent the substantial safety measures that Foster Poultry has implemented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company also argues that regulatory agencies, including Cal/OSHA and the county health department, have primary responsibility to oversee operations at its plants, and the court shouldn’t intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Foster Farms does not comment on active litigation in detail,\" the company said in a written statement Friday. \"We believe the current United Farm Workers lawsuit is without merit and have confidence that judicial review will find accordingly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said it screens employees for symptoms, and follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, including mandatory mask wearing and workstation partitions. The plant is continuously cleaned, according to the company, and employee breaks are staggered. It is also installing portable air filters. Employees are also tested for COVID-19 continuously, according to Foster Farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ira Brill, the company’s vice president of communications, said the positivity rates at the Livingston plant and two other facilities in Fresno have dropped in recent weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to test all workers twice weekly at the Livingston plant and the positivity continues to be less than 1%,” Brill said Thursday through a public relations representative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monique Alonso, one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs in the case, said Foster Farms has not complied with the Aug. 28 Merced County health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their compliance has been incomplete, it’s been inconsistent, and they obviously need something a little stronger than the county of Merced saying you need to do this,” Alonso said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alonso’s co-counsel, UFW General Counsel Mario Martinez, called the lawsuit “a last resort and about protecting workers’ lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Livingston Plant Facing New Outbreak\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>By early December, Merced County health officials added the Livingston facility to its list of outbreaks in the county for a second time. The plant was shut down for six days in September after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833224/3-deaths-more-than-200-infections-in-coronavirus-outbreak-at-foster-farms-plant-livingston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an outbreak\u003c/a> resulted in at least 392 workers testing positive for the coronavirus. Nine people infected in that first major outbreak died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Dec. 10, at least 48 workers had tested positive in connection to the more recent outbreak, according to a Foster Farms email obtained by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since reopening the plant in September, attorneys write in the lawsuit, Foster Farms has not fully complied with the Merced County health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While the company made certain alterations following the September shutdown, its compliance has been irregular, ineffective, inconsistent or nonexistent — all emblematic of a basic disregard of worker health and safety,” attorneys wrote in the suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit also includes eight declarations from plant employees, who describe working within 2 or 3 feet of one another, sometimes separated by plastic dividers or curtains, other times not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One employee said in a declaration that she went to work during the temporary shutdown, despite the health order requiring her area of the plant to be closed. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employees also say they have often been responsible for supplying their own masks, although some say they were provided face shields. Cal/OSHA \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/oshsb/documents/COVID-19-Prevention-Emergency-apprvdtxt.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency regulations\u003c/a> that went into effect Nov. 30 require employers to provide employees with face coverings and ensure they are worn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Before the Company gave the workers the plastic shields, I recall my foreperson handing out a flyer to us workers that had instructions about how to make our own masks with a piece of cloth or bandana to bring to work,” employee Maria Trinidad Madrigal said in a declaration. “Shortly after this, I recall that some workers received yellow face bandanas, but I did not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One employee described feeling ill and discovering she was COVID-19-positive at the same time as her brother and another co-worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After two months in the hospital with COVID, my brother Arnulfo passed away,” Maria Delgado, a 17-year employee of the plant, said in a declaration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People come and go in the hallway while people are punching in and out. There are a lot of people in a small area and there is no social distancing or being 6 feet apart,” Delgado said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delgado and other workers claim they have never received training about what to do if they are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, and that a lack of information has created fear among employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has been no information-spreading, meetings, or training from supervision with regards to COVID, either before or after the shutdown,” Delgado said. “The workers just talk amongst themselves about people getting sick. I have read information in a flyer and have seen paperwork on bulletin boards in the hallway at the company that says the number of people that have tested positive but do not know how often it is updated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Outbreaks Span Multiple Central Valley Facilities\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There are two \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11850332/covid-19-again-sweeps-through-foster-farms-plants-in-central-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">other active outbreaks\u003c/a> at Foster Farms facilities in the Central Valley in addition to the one in Merced County. Three employees at the company’s plants in Fresno have died from complications related to COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least 193 workers had tested positive at the company’s Cherry facility as of Dec. 8, according to Fresno County health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11851990\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11851990 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A truck rolls into Foster Farms' S. Cherry Avenue facility in Fresno on Dec. 9. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An unknown number of workers have tested positive at the Belgravia plant, although Fresno County's director of public health, Dave Pomaville, said the number was substantially lower at that facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA spokesman Frank Polizzi confirmed the agency has been notified of two workers who have died in connection to the company’s Cherry plant. Polizzi said Cal/OSHA was notified of one death on Sept. 20 and another on Nov. 25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA has five open inspections at the Livingston plant, and four at the plants in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms spokesman Brill confirmed on Dec. 11 that a worker at the company’s Belgravia plant had died since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths at the company’s facilities in Fresno to three. But neither Foster Farms nor county health officials have confirmed the date of that death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms and Fresno County health officials have reported that fewer workers have tested positive at the company’s plants in Fresno in recent days. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Dec. 15, Fresno County Interim Health Officer Dr. Rais Vohra said in an email the positivity rate among asymptomatic individuals tested at the Cherry plant had dropped from 22% to 6% from Dec. 1 to Dec. 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“COVID-19 represents an unprecedented challenge to all who live and work in California,” the company said in a statement. “Foster Farms is committed to this task and to the ongoing protection of its workforce.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, a nonprofit that works within the Sikh Punjabi community and advocates for Foster Farms employees, said the lawsuit’s allegations are not surprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After reading the lawsuit, we’re disappointed but not surprised that continuous complaints from workers and community organizations at the Livingston plant and other Foster Farms plants have not been resolved despite months of bringing attention to these safety matters, and months of Mr. Brill’s denials, sidesteps, pussyfooting and evasions,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Foster Farms is grappling with multiple COVID-19 outbreaks at three of its plants in the Central Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the facilities, a sprawling poultry processing complex in Livingston, was cleared from outbreak status in September after an earlier surge of the coronavirus infected nearly 400 people working at the plant. Nine people died. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Ana Padilla, executive director of UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center\"]“Why there’s a new outbreak after apparently getting things under control is something that is of concern.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of the company’s plants in Fresno are also now facing outbreaks. One of those plants, a facility on S. Cherry Avenue in south Fresno, is experiencing a major outbreak, according to Dr. Rais Vohra, interim health officer for the Fresno County Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re actively seeking information,” Dr. Vohra said at a briefing Tuesday afternoon. “There’s an investigation ongoing. We’re still trying to learn about exactly how this outbreak came to manifest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dave Pomaville, director of Fresno County’s Department of Public Health, said in an interview Monday that the most recent cases at Foster Farms were detected during the week leading up to Thanksgiving. The company then began testing more workers, and a “significant number” came back positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, health officials in Fresno said they have been notified of 193 employees who have tested positive at the S. Cherry Avenue plant. Pomaville said the positive cases at the company’s W. Belgravia Avenue facility were significantly lower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They just triggered their testing protocols and went in and got a whole bunch of people tested,” Pomaville said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County health officials said that they were working with Foster Farms to verify the exact number of COVID-19 cases affiliated with the company’s facilities, and that the company was testing employees twice a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal here is to identify as quickly as we can the positive cases,” Pomaville said. “Out of an abundance of caution, any positive tests we treat as if they are infectious and then they are isolated for 10 days and then screened for symptoms the last 24 hours before they can return to work.”[aside tag=\"foster-farms\" label=\"Outbreaks at Foster Farms\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms spokespeople have ignored repeated inquiries from KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ira Brill, Foster Farms vice president of communications, replied to all recipients of an email with questions about outbreaks at the company’s Central Valley facilities Tuesday afternoon with three words: “Continue to ignore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County health officials plan to monitor the case counts and conduct other surveillance of the plants this week to verify practices are being implemented to identify infections early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one thing to have the manual on the shelf that says what you’re going to do, and it’s another thing to implement it,” Pomaville said. “We need to see that the practices are being implemented, and that’s where we have our staff periodically go to facilities and ground truth or validate that things are actually happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late last week, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/coronavirus/article247620925.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fresno Bee reported\u003c/a> that the company planned to close its S. 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The Livingston facility was the site of a major COVID-19 outbreak over the summer in which at least 392 workers were infected and nine died from complications due to COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833224/3-deaths-more-than-200-infections-in-coronavirus-outbreak-at-foster-farms-plant-livingston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">earlier outbreak\u003c/a> prompted Merced County health officials, backed by the state, to close the plant temporarily. An \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/7048004-Foster-Farms-Health-Order-FINAL-8-26-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">initial health order\u003c/a> issued on Aug. 26 mandated the company close its Livingston complex until it was safe to reopen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state defines an outbreak in a congregate employment setting as three or more confirmed cases of COVID-19 that are not linked to exposure outside of the workplace, according to the Merced County health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, Merced County health officials said the number of known cases in the outbreak were largely based on employees choosing to test and voluntarily reporting to Foster Farms, and that “the true spread of COVID-19 in the Foster Farms Livingston facility remains unknown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Merced County Department of Public Health issued a \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/7048004-Foster-Farms-Health-Order-FINAL-8-26-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">revised health order\u003c/a> on Aug. 28 closing certain areas of the facility for six days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plant was cleared from outbreak status shortly thereafter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ana Padilla, executive director of UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center, said it’s unclear what changes Foster Farms made after that outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why there’s a new outbreak after apparently getting things under control is something that is of concern,” Padilla said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
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"order": 1
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"order": 9
},
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
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