California Fire Officials Request $100 Million to Fix Mutual-Aid System

(TNS) - California fire officials asked lawmakers Tuesday for $100 million to improve the state’s strained mutual-aid system, which is designed to quickly rally first responders in an emergency, such as the deadly fires that ravaged the North Bay last year.

At a legislative hearing in Sacramento, fire chiefs and emergency officials said wildfires across the state last year exposed shortcomings in the 60-year-old system.

Report: Number of Qualified Medical Evaluators in California Workers’ Comp Fell

The number of qualified medical evaluators resolve disputes over California workers’ compensation claim issues fell 20 percent between January 2012 and September 2017, according to a new California Workers’ Compensation Institute study.

However, the CWCI study shows that the impact on QME accessibility was partially offset by an increase in the median number of office locations per QME, which doubled over the same period.

Does workers’ comp cover on-the-job injury caused by spider nightmare?

Injuries to workers can occur in many ways, but few employers expect such injuries to come out of an employee's nightmare. When that happens, is the injury covered by workers' compensation? According to the Court of Appeals of Arkansas, the answer is no. But why?

In November 2015, Shawn Hansen was employed by the City of Siloam Springs, Ark., as a firefighter and an EMT. Hansen worked 24-hour shifts. During his shifts, he was required to stay on premises unless he was performing a work-related errand or activity. Because of the 24-hour scheduling scheme, the city provided sleeping arrangements and encouraged the employees to sleep during nighttime hours.

As a High-Tech Quake Alert System Takes Shape, There’s a Lower-Tech Way to Save Lives

Friday’s magnitude 7.2 earthquake in the Mexican state of Oaxaca was another opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of an earthquake early-warning system, which in some seismic events, can send an alert ahead to cities before damaging waves can reach them. That means that in a place like Mexico City, which is built atop the weak soils of a former lakebed, people there had an approximately 1-minute warning to move outdoors and away from buildings or take shelter in a sturdy location before the shaking started.

Californians can go home but told to keep watch on wildfire

BISHOP, Calif. (AP) —
A wind-driven wildfire in rural central California threatened hundreds of buildings Monday, including a historic railroad station, but officials said they made some gains after the flames exploded in size.

The blaze scorched 3½ square miles of chaparral bush and shrub oak in the small town of Bishop on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada that is popular for hiking, fishing, climbing and hunting.

Officials ended most evacuations that were ordered near the town but warned that strong winds were expected in the area and urged residents to remain vigilant.

Developing a Cyberattack Response Plan

Right now, somewhere in the United States, a cyberattack is happening. In fact, many cyberattacks are likely happening—which is why cybercrime damage costs are estimated to hit $6 trillion annually by 2021. Risk management professionals and executives are not only challenged by the volume of cyberthreats, but by their growing complexity as well.

Ransomware attacks, for example, were predicted to exceed $5 billion in 2017—up more than fifteen-fold from 2015—as organizations grapple with how to not only prevent these attacks but mitigate the financial losses and downtime they cause. Yet despite the trends, more than half (52%) of organizations that suffered successful cyberattacks in 2016 indicated in a Cybersecurity Ventures report that they would not make any changes to their security in 2017. And even for those that do update their cybersecurity plans, cyberattacks have become an inevitability for most organizations. As a result, developing a complete response plan for cyberattacks is essential to protecting your business and customers.

Schools Field Security Questions Following Florida Shooting

(TNS) - As flags were being lowered to half-staff after Wednesday’s Parkland, Florida, school shooting, school administrators here were fielding telephone calls from concerned parents.

“I’m fed up with school shootings,” said Carl Murphy, an Eastmont parent who called The Wenatchee World after talking to his child’s school principal. “I want to know why anyone can walk into a school and cause whatever harm they choose.”

Similar calls and emails from parents worried about school security in the wake of the shooting that killed 17, prompted both Wenatchee and Eastmont superintendents to post letters of assurance to community and staff members.

Cyber hacks cost up to $109 billion in 2016, U.S. estimates

(Bloomberg) --Malicious cyber activity cost the U.S. economy between $57 billion and $109 billion in 2016, the White House said Friday.

The estimate comes in a Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) report on the impact of cyber attacks on U.S. government and industry. The report details the range of threats that U.S. entities face from actors, including corporations and countries such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

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