Despite the joyous reunion, the Boeckmanns say they have “survivor’s guilt.” They can’t stop thinking of the people left behind in Ukraine — especially the surrogate mother who gave birth to Vivian, Lilya, who lives about 150 miles southwest of Kyiv. (Lilya did not want her last name published for security reasons.)

About the same time on Feb. 24 that the Boeckmanns and Vivian left the hospital in Kyiv to start their journey back home, Lilya was discharged from the hospital to an apartment she was sharing with other surrogate mothers.

CALIFORNIA

Costa Mesa couple barely escape Ukraine with days-old newborn

Feb. 28, 2022

That night, a section of her apartment building, several blocks long, was bombed by Russian forces advancing upon the city. Her unit wasn’t hit. She made it out unscathed. By Saturday, she was at home with her two daughters, ages 7 and 14.

Since then, Russian forces have heavily shelled Lilya’s village, said Jessie, who texts with her and others in Ukraine nearly every day.

In an interview last Thursday, Lilya told The Times that food prices were five times higher than usual. If the war doesn’t end soon, she said, she probably will have to tap into her savings to survive.

“How can we help you?” Jessie texted Lilya last week. “Can we help get you and your girls to the U.S.? You can live with us?”

Source: They escaped Ukraine with newborn. What about their surrogate? – Los Angeles Times

Why masks still make sense for young children

Some parents have been eager for masks to become optional, and there are instances in which that can make sense.

It can be prudent to retain mask-wearing policies in situations where kids are too young to be vaccinated, Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, chief of infectious diseases at Stanford University School of Medicine’s pediatrics department, said in an interview.

“Masks, distancing work when you can’t be vaccinated, or when … you’re immunocompromised,” Maldonado said. Because children under 5 aren’t eligible to be vaccinated, day care centers with those younger kids “still need to use masks.”

Maldonado, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, said people who say masks and distancing don’t work are wrong.

“They absolutely work. We’ve seen so much data now that they work,” Maldonado said.

Source: School mask mandates: Is it safe for kids to go maskless? – Los Angeles Times

Implements used in nixtamalization and processing maize.

Somewhere between 1500 and 1200 BC, Mesoamerican people discovered nixtamalization, or boiling dried corn kernels in alkaline water with calcium hydroxide derived from ash. The process rendered corn far more digestible, unlocking previously unobtainable nutrients and creating a foodstuff that fueled empires. By 1000 BC, dough made from nixtamalized corn was being formed into tamales and other staples.

“It was very difficult to tell the story of corn in such a small space, so it had to be small and mighty,” says Ximena Martin, a director at the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. Telling the gastronomic history of a country is never easy, but it’s particularly challenging when it is as ancient and complex as that of Mexico’s. Yet LA Plaza Cocina, an extension of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, which opened in February in Los Angeles, seeks to do just that, often by combining various mediums and methods. In the near future, the full onsite kitchen will be home to everything from cooking classes to mezcal tastings.

“Every class is going to have some cultural history behind it,” Martin says. While chefs such as Carlos Salgado of Taco María will helm some classes, Martin is excited to pass the mic to home cooks as well. “This is about where it comes from, with opportunities for oral history and storytelling.”

Source: Inside LA’s New Mexican-Food Museum – Gastro Obscura

Source: All-Male Subcommittee Tries to Ban Abortion on International Women’s Day

At least four volunteers have been murdered since Russia invaded Ukraine, with at least three of them killed while trying to help civilians or the animals who are also victims of this savage war.  This is without counting the men and women who have died, either as members of Ukraine’s Armed Forces or as civilian volunteers who have come forward to defend Ukraine against the invader

Source: Russian invaders murder Ukrainian volunteers

“We are very concerned. We’ve done 425,000 vaccinations, and we haven’t been paid for any of those who are on Medi-Cal,” said Jim Mangia, CEO of St. John’s Well Child and Family Center in L.A.

To get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible, Mangia and other health clinics set up vaccine-only sites across the county starting in Jan. 2021. The vaccine doses were provided by the L.A. County Department of Public Health, but community clinics covered all the other costs for more than a year.

“We opened 26 vaccine centers, and we deployed three mobiles and a van to do pop-up vaccinations across the county,” said Mangia, speaking at St. John’s Avalon clinic in South L.A.. “We did a tremendous amount of advertising, social media, text blasting to just really drive up the vaccination rates.”

Source: LA Community Clinics Vaccinate The Most Vulnerable. A Year Later, They Still Haven’t Been Paid | LAist

Michael Marotta, 26, of Sewell, New Jersey, pleaded guilty today to making threatening interstate communications. Marotta admitted that he used an anonymizing text message service to threaten physical harm to a Black woman and her family in Maryland.

According to Marotta’s plea agreement, on April 14, 2020, Marotta used an anonymizing mobile phone application to send a threatening message to a Black Maryland woman. In the message, Marotta used racial epithets to describe the Maryland woman and her family, and he threatened to come to their home and do physical harm. As detailed in the plea agreement, Marotta wrote, among other things, “I know where you live now, I’m coming to rape your family” and “eat my bullets.” As detailed in his plea agreement, Marotta claims he does not know the recipient-victim of the message, nor does the recipient-victim know Marotta.

Source: New Jersey Man Pleads Guilty to Making Threatening Interstate Communications to Black Maryland Woman and Her Family | OPA | Department of Justice

Source: Red Hat Is Discontinuing Sales and Services In Russia and Belarus – Slashdot

“As alleged, Elena Branson, a dual U.S. / Russian national, actively subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States in order to promote Russian policies and ideology.  The Russian government at its highest levels, up to and including President Vladimir Putin, have made known that aggressive propaganda and recruitment of the Russian diaspora around the world is a Russian priority.  In connection with this pursuit, Branson is alleged to have corresponded with Putin himself and met with a high-ranking Russia minister before founding a Russian propaganda center here in New York City, the Russian Center New York.  Branson’s promotional outreach, including an ‘I Love Russia’ campaign aimed at American youths, exemplifies her attempts to act at the behest of the Russian government to illegally promote its interests in the United States.  All the while, Branson knew she was supposed to register as an agent of the Russian government but chose not to do so and, instead, instructed others regarding how to illegally avoid the same.  Particularly given current global events, the need to detect and hinder attempts at foreign influence is of critical importance, and the Southern District of New York is proud to do its part in the fight against tyranny.” Source: Dual U.S. / Russian National Charged With Acting Illegally As A Russian Agent In The United States | USAO-SDNY | Department of Justice