Study conducted at California State University, Fresno showed more drivers behind the wheel using phones

In a 2018 report, the California Office of Traffic Safety found that cell phone usage behind the wheel had gone up since 2017, but down compared to the percentage of that in 2016. California State University, Fresno helped conduct the study between August and September of 2018, and discovered that 4.52 percent of drivers in California were spotted using or picking up their phone while driving. In 2017, 3.48 percent were seen utilizing their devices, resulting in over a 1 percent increase between 2017 and 2018.

“When it comes to distracted driving, social norms are changing,” said Tim Weisberg, the public information officer for the Office of Traffic Safety. “Like carpool violators, tailgaters, speeders and drivers who are under the influence, drivers are also frowned upon when others see them on their phones. Having said that, I think many drivers still believe they can handle sending or reading a text, punching in directions, you name it, themselves.”

Before the most recent cell phone law, the study concluded that 7.6 percent of California drivers in 2016 could be on their mobile device while operating a vehicle. With many laws being implemented and tickets being threatened for those who break these laws, this percentage has been cut nearly in half.

“It’s hard to pinpoint the exact cause, but we do know that drivers are using their phones in more dangerous ways,” Weisburg said. “Instead of holding the phone to their ear or talking on speakerphone, they are more likely texting, emailing, scrolling through social media or performing another function on the phone that does not involve calling someone. These are all actions that take their eyes off the road.”

In 2016, the results of the study exemplified the need for a new law. The 2017 hands-free cell phone law does not allow drivers to hold their phone for any reason. This new law led to a huge decrease in the number of drivers found on their phones in 2017.

“We are also so reliant on phones for performing everyday tasks,” Weisburg said. “They allow us to do a lot of things in the palm of our hand. Everything is immediate. In that sense, we are glued to them, making it hard to resist the urge to grab the phone when we shouldn’t, like when we are driving.”

Cell phone laws have now been in effect for over 10 years, and OTS hopes to continuously urge people to stay off their phones.

OTS is not the only group trying to educate drivers on the dangers behind cell phone use behind the wheel. The Parkview Adult and Pediatric Trauma Center has an a more in-depth program on the consequences that follow. The program, called “Don’t Text and Drive!”, serves as a tool to offer a public service campaign against texting and driving. The website offers statistics, help and more in line with their campaign to persuade people to make the choice against texting and driving.

“Nearly everyone, down to new drivers, have a smart phone with access to texting, calling, internet, camera, GPS, etc,” said Lisa Hollister, the director of Don’t Text and Drive! for Trauma and Acute Surgery, via email. “This is vastly different than when only a portion of society had flip-phones. There are no adverse consequences for usage (look at seatbelt usage) and it’s an addiction.”

Drivers today are only allowed to tap or swipe their phone once if needed to disable or start up a specific function such as directions. The phone must also be mounted. If drivers choose not to abide by this law, a $162 ticket will be cited for first-time offenders, and a $285 for second-time offenders.

“I was actually hit by a girl texting and driving while heading home from school,” said Danielle Itani, a second-year communication and psychology major at UC Davis. “I remember how shocking and surreal it was to step out of my car and see the whole back of my car completely destroyed while hers was totaled. Her airbags deployed, and she broke her arm and definitely faced major repercussions. After that traumatizing experience, I cannot even have my phone nearby me while driving.”

OTS found that cell phone use was eight times higher for drivers with no passenger versus a driver with someone else in the car. Another part of the study conducted concluded that cell phone use was much higher on local roads than on freeways.

OTS is urging people to direct their attention to what is ahead of them rather than any screen that could result in a fine or accident. It hopes that the study will inspire drivers to put their phones down.

Written by: Lauren Tropio — city@theaggie.org

IRS-certified student organization looks to expand tax services

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is a nonprofit student organization that provides free tax assistance to the Davis community, including students, who need their taxes filed. It is IRS-certified and centered in the city.

Carrie Cho, a fourth-year managerial economics major, is a part of VITA as one of its marketing directors. Cho elaborated on how the program started.

“It started as this IRS-sponsored program,” Cho said. “We partner with them, and they provide us with all the materials to certify all the interns to make sure that we’re doing everything correctly so that we are qualified to file tax returns for clients.”

Second-year managerial economics major Noah Bassi is VITA’s marketing director. Bassi explained that its members are interns who must pass an exam in order to help with the process.

“As an intern, you will be paired with someone in the community who is filing for their tax return,” Bassi said. “Through Fall Quarter, we train interns to be ready for the tax season. We tell them all about types of credit and how much they’re allowed to claim, as well as deductions. We basically teach them everything about how to do a tax return, and that allows for the interns to be prepared for their examinations for IRS certification to pass with an 80 percent or more. Every intern will be IRS-certified so that when they start doing tax returns, they will be fluent in taxes and accounting.”

“The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program offers free tax help to people who generally make $55,000 or less, persons with disabilities and limited English speaking taxpayers who need assistance in preparing their own tax returns. IRS-certified volunteers provide free basic income tax return preparation with electronic filing to qualified individuals,” according to the IRS’s description of the program.

Since the student organization has successfully filed under the IRS, it has been able to attain sponsorships.

“I think that because we were successfully filed, we were able to get sponsorships from other companies like [PricewaterhouseCoopers] that see the girth that we do and want to expand on VITA,” Cho said.

Cho also mentioned that the organization has been recognized for their impact on the community.

“Just last year, we were able to prepare 393 tax returns and give back over $330,835 in tax refunds to the community,” Cho said. “I think this is a pretty great accomplishment, considering that this is a lot of money that is going back to the people of Davis or the community in general. We also received the UC Davis community service award as the gold recipient for 2017-2018. This recognized our organization’s generous dedication to serving the community.”

Bassi noted that they have been working on new strategies to get the word out and help more people file for their taxes.

“We’re actually working on a new marketing strategy, where the school district will be sending out newsletters instead of flyers,” Bassi said. “Instead of posting flyers, we were actually able to send an email out to parents over the next few months for people who are interested to do tax returns with us. We plan to open more sites with available times. We’re working with more community centers so that we can have more dates opened and clients. We’ve actually seen so many people trying to file their returns earlier in the year.”

Bassi added that similar organizations have personally impacted his life, so he had faith the program would be effective.

“I’m really proud to be a part of the organization that is so beneficial for anyone to benefit from the program,” Bassi said. “I am low income as well — when I was in elementary school and middle school, my mom would benefit from these programs. It’s always nice to have someone who is knowledgeable to help out at no cost. It really is a program for the community. We’re really an all-around great program, and the only thing we need to do more is to get more people. We’re always trying to get our name out there and reach out.”

Written by: Stella Tran — city@theaggie.org

18th annual Black History and Multicultural Event hosted in Guigna Guange Hall

On Feb. 6, the Guigna Guange Hall hosted its 18th Annual Black History and  Multicultural Event. The event was filled with music, free food and inspirational speeches and stories from all perspectives of life. The thought of the event thrilled Vicky Ma, a first-year mechanical engineering student at UC Davis.

“It’s a good introduction to the rich and diverse culture for people who know nothing ‘bout it,” Ma said. “[The event] really brings awareness to something undermined in the past. It gives an opportunity to learn more about it and its connections to part of our community.”

The event, which took place on Saturday, Feb. 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., attracted many people who came for the musical performances, exhibits, speeches and free lunch provided by Cache Creek Casino. Many guests also brought in their own side dishes to share.

Musical performances were conducted by Clarence Van Hook, one of the events founders, along with a local mariachi band. There were also cultural dance performances by the groups Praise Dance and Native American Pomo Dances.

Guest speakers included UC Davis’ Chancellor Gary May. His talks were titled “Price of being Born Black in America” and “Why.” Other speeches made by other guest speakers included “The Multicultural History of Capay Valley.”

Along with the many festivities, the multicultural event included an essay contest for high school seniors. The prompt this year was “Cultural History in Yolo County.” The winner of the contest was announced and awarded $500 at the event.

Exhibits also dotted the event area, sponsored by Yolo County Historical Society and the Yolo County Archives.

 Following a long tradition, the 18th annual celebration is organized by Van Hook, Judge Dave Reed and a group of dedicated community volunteers.

The event started about 17 years ago as a black history celebration. Since then, the event has gained more popularity and evolved into a multicultural celebration recognizing other cultures and their contributions to the region. The event is always celebrated on the second Saturday of February.

The Greater Capay Valley Historical Society has extensively documented and recorded African American history in the region. In 1890, Green Berry Logan, the first African American to homestead in the region, blazed the trail for the small, growing community. Since the Logan family’s arrival, many other African Americans from across the country came to the frontier, and the once small, unknown town became rich with diversity. The location soon became known as “The Hill, The Heaven or the Summit.”

“California also did not encourage Blacks to settle here — but things were different in the Capay Valley. Our schools were never segregated,” according to the website.

Eui Hyung, a first-year economics major at UC Davis, emphasized the importance of the event on the greater community, as well as on rich cultural diversity.

“It is important, and needed as it’s a month needed to celebrate the significant contribution that African Americans made throughout our history,” Hyung said. “It’s important to celebrate this because it’s important to remember them and their achievements, and this event really captures that.”
Written by: John Regidor — city@theaggie.org

Cohort of high schoolers begins pilot civic engagement program

The Sacramento Area Council of Government kicked off its Youth Leadership Academy on Jan. 26 with the pilot program’s first training. Over the next five months, the program’s cohort of 29 high school participants from across SACOG’s six counties — El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba — will engage with SACOG through board meetings and trainings.

Throughout the program, Youth Leadership Academy participants will learn about and discuss issues that SACOG deals with, which include topics around transportation, land use and housing. Then, the program will culminate in a mock Civic Lab, in which students will participate in the development of a short-term innovation project. Ideally, the students will serve as part of the cohort for one- to two-year terms.

Jay Schenirer, a council member for Sacramento’s fifth district, initiated the vision for Youth Leadership Academy when he was SACOG’s board chair last year after recognizing a need for the region to better engage youth with governmental planning.

“I’ve been working on these issues for quite a while, and a lot of them have to do with how we engage young people to be involved with their own futures, and how we can be advocates for those futures,” Schenirer said. “It really came to my mind that […] we’re planning for the future of the region, which absolutely includes young people, and we had no structure or venue to engage those young people in the decisions that we were making.”

The SACOG board voted to go through with Youth Leadership Academy. The current session of the program is funded by The California Endowment, Sacramento Regional Community Foundation and Bank of America. In terms of execution, the program operates through a partnership between SACOG and PRO Youth and Families, a Sacramento-based youth development organization.

One key goal for Youth Leadership Academy is to facilitate a two-way learning process between youth and SACOG.

Rosie Ramos, a communications analyst for SACOG who is running the program alongside Pro Youth and Families’ Youth Engagement Coordinator Taylor Buck, commented on how important this two-way element is.

“What would be amazing as we continue to grow this program is that what comes out of the cohort is not just [students] learning more about what we do and how the politics work, but also […] for us to hear what’s really important to our group,” Ramos said.

The ultimate goal, according to Ramos, is to find ways to make sure that those priorities are incorporated into SACOG’s daily work.

In addition to connecting students with SACOG, the program will also connect students from several geographic areas with each other. Buck sees the program as innovative in this regard.

“A big hope is that it will not only just bring those folks together in the same room but also make sure that young people [develop] — as they move forward as community leaders and potential political advocates — that understanding of our region more broadly,” Buck said.

Buck believes it’s important for students to engage with SACOG issues.

“SACOG deals with transportation, affordable housing, ratio of population and resources that we have in our region, climate change and infrastructure — there’s a lot of things that sometimes don’t get mentioned in your high school civics classes,” Buck said. “So, [Youth Leadership Academy is] really providing an outlet for students to learn about it.”

In recruiting students to participate, SACOG wanted to ensure that students were representative of the region and encourage recruitment of students who were not the “usual suspects” — that is, “youth who are already highly engaged in their schools and community,” according to the program’s proposal.

To this end, Buck said that PRO Youth and Families took a multi-pronged approach to strive for a broad outreach. PRO Youth and Families tabled at individual schools and paid particular attention to schools in cities where it saw a more limited response. PRO Youth and Families also recruited through partner groups. SACOG board members were asked to distribute information through their networks as well.

Ramos confirmed that despite time constraints for the recruitment period, she feels confident in the group of students who make up the cohort.

“They have all kinds of backgrounds — they’re from all over the region, and it’s a diverse group,” Ramos said. “We have a great group of kids.”

Over the next several months, Ramos and Buck will be looking for ways to adjust the program for future years.

“One of the biggest piece[s] of feedback that we received from the students is that they wanted more discussion time,” Buck said. “These kids are highly engaged and are just really ready to sink their teeth into the policy issues that are impacting our region.”

Though this is a pilot session, Ramos expressed hopes for the program to be a continued element of SACOG.

“Ideally, we’re going to plan for the next year,” Ramos said. “We need funding and all of that, so that’ll be an important part. But that’s the goal — that we would continuously have it.”

Written by: Anne Fey — city@theaggie.org