Freezing temperatures and snow to hit much of the US this week – National & International News – WED 21Dec2022

Freezing temperatures and snow to hit much of the US this week. White House eyes new strategy to combat homelessness: prevention. Researchers identify 168 new Nazca line glyphs.

NATIONAL NEWS

Freezing temperatures and snow to hit much of the US this week

Much of the country is expecting dangerously low temperatures, ice and snow this week as an Arctic wind tracks behind a cold front. The Northwest, Great Plains, Great Lakes and Southeast regions are all expected to see hazardous conditions. The weather is likely to force flight delays and cancellations as people prepare to travel for the holidays. Yesterday, the Seattle-Tacoma Airport had to cancel nearly 200 flights due to snow, rain and low visibility. More cancelations are likely today. Icey roadies will also create dangerous conditions for drivers. Travelers are urged to check local weather conditions before venturing out.

The Southeast from Texas to Tennessee to Central Florida is also expecting wet weather and freezing temperatures. The conditions will be similar to conditions that created a massive days-long power outage in Texas in February 2021. During that freeze, much of the core power infrastructure failed and hundreds of people died. The state’s grid will be put to the test once again.

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White House eyes new strategy to combat homelessness: prevention

One night a year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) conducts a count of homeless people in the US. Data from this year’s count showed that 582,462 were homeless, which is only slightly more than the last full pre-pandemic count in 2020. This would suggest that the US homeless population has stabilized. But that number should be falling. Government and private outreach organizations help bring hundreds of thousands back from homelessness every year. Unfortunately, a roughly equal number of people are falling into homelessness right behind them.

This week, the Biden administration unveiled its new plan to reduce homelessness by 25% by 2025. The focus of this plan is on preventing homelessness before it happens. The premise is that it is easier and costs less money to keep someone in a home than it is to get an unhoused person into a home. By implementing this plan, the White House hopes to stop the churn into and out of homelessness by interrupting the cycle.

Creative individualized solutions

The White House Plan builds on efforts during COVID to keep people in their homes by offering rental assistance. Biden has requested a $360 million increase in the 2023 budget for HUD. The plan is for HUD to coordinate with local officials and organizations to identify people who are at risk of homelessness and offering individualized assistance that can help keep them in work and in their homes.

Sean Read of the Washington, D.C., nonprofit Friendship Place says its important to find “the creative solutions, like, three steps before the full-blown emergency”. Read gives an example of a person who needs their car to get to work. If the car breaks down, having the money to repair the car could be the difference between that person staying in their home or losing it. “If you can do an $800 car repair that keeps them in work {and] able to pay the $2,000 a month rent, you’ve addressed the issue earlier on at a lower cost,” Read says.

Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, who helped craft the White House plan, says the government must also do a better job of identifying people at risk. For example, individuals transitioning out of rehab, foster care or prison are often at higher risk for homelessness. “At those critical moments of transition,” Olivet says, “we have an opportunity. We know where people are. We could bridge that in-patient, or incarceration, or foster care experience straight into housing. It does not have to result in shelter or living in a tent”.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Researchers identify 168 new Nazca line glyphs

Visitors and archaeologists have long marveled at the famous Nazca lines in the Peruvian desert. These glyphs are excavated from the dry earth in trench-like formations. Some take the form of long straight lines while other have more complicated shapes depicting humans, animals, plants or sacred symbols. They range in size from tens to hundreds of feet across and are anywhere from 1700 to 2100 years old. In the nearly 100 years since they were rediscovered by military and civilian pilots, many have speculated as their purpose, but there remains no universal consensus.

A two-year project by Japanese and Peruvian researchers has discovered an additional 168 previously unrecorded glyphs. That’s in addition to the over 1100 glyphs previously identified. The latest research project involved the use of aerial photography and drones. Further studies using artificial intelligence may help in efforts to identify more glyphs and preserve them. Many of the glyphs are unfortunately under threat from mining activity and other development in the area.

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