From the Wash Post, Want to know why America is losing its edge? Look around campus. An excerpt:
“Some 2.5 million fewer Americans are enrolled in college than in 2011, and the decline is accelerating. The college-going rate of high school graduates has dropped from 70 percent in 2016 to 62 percent in 2022, and if this trend continues, a group of young Americans will — for the first time in our history — enter the workforce with less education than the one before.”
From the NYTimes: 13 Lessons From the Covid Pandemic
The authors were members of the Biden-Harris Transition Covid Advisory Board, appointed by the then-incoming Biden administration in November 2020 to provide advice on the government’s pandemic response.
New GAO report: FEMA Disaster Workforce: Actions Needed to Improve Hiring Data and Address Staffing Gaps. A short version and the full report ( 36 pages) are available on the website.
Here is a commentary on the report from GovExec.com: FEMA is Losing Employees at an Alarming Rate. Burnout is leading to attrition as disasters spike, but watchdog also blames agency for poor workforce management.
From the HSNW: Deadly Lessons from Fukushima Changed Japan and the World
“The strongest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history triggered a massive tsunami in 2011. Together, the two natural disasters claimed close to 20,000 lives, making the event one of the deadliest in Japan’s history. But the crisis didn’t end there.
The strongest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history triggered a massive tsunami in 2011. Waves taller than houses slammed against hundreds of miles of the country’s northern coastline; one wave measured 33 feet high. Together, the two natural disasters claimed close to 20,000 lives, making the event one of the deadliest in Japan’s history.
But the crisis didn’t end there. The tsunami knocked out power to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, launching a nuclear meltdown whose fallout still affects Japan’s citizens, international relations…”
Weather Service report details communication gaps during deadly Hurricane Ida. The report, issued after long pause in post-storm reviews, found the agency must improve how it communicates flash flood threats and reaches vulnerable groups.
Third Quadrennial Homeland Security Review. The Department of Homeland Security has released the Third Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR), a continuation of the first two QHSR Reports issued in 2010 and 2014. The purpose of the QHSR is to highlight the “collective efforts and shared responsibilities of federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, nongovernmental, and private-sector partners–as well as individuals, families, and communities.” This third edition of the review reaffirms the five missions listed in the first two reviews: Preventing Terrorism and Enhancing Security, Securing and Managing Our Borders, Enforcing and Administering Our Immigration Laws, Safeguarding and Securing Cyberspace, and Ensuring Resilience to Disasters. In addition to keeping the first five mission statements relevant, this third QHSR review introduces a new mission.
From the WashPost, this Opinion piece: A closer look at the U.S. pandemic response reached an unsettling conclusion.
“Looking back at the U.S. response to the pandemic, many setbacks and mistakes are well-known. But a closer examination by a team of seasoned experts has brought to the surface a profoundly unsettling conclusion. The United States, once the paragon of can-do pragmatism, of successful moon shots and biomedical breakthroughs, fell down on the job in confronting the crisis. The pandemic, the experts say, revealed “a collective national incompetence in government.”
This warning comes through over and over again in “Lessons from the Covid War: An Investigative Report,” a book published Tuesday by a group of 34 specialists led by Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the 9/11 Commission and a history professor at the University of Virginia. Their verdict: “The leaders of the United States could not apply their country’s vast assets effectively enough in practice.”
Mr. Zelikow mobilized the experts to help get ready for a possible national commission on the pandemic. When Congress and the White House failed to launch a national inquiry, the experts wrote their own report. It is a compelling, disturbing account. They conclude the pandemic was not an inescapable tragedy. The United States could and should have done better.”
From HStoday: FEMA Reaches Historic $30 Billion Milestone for the Recovery of Puerto Rico. Over 10,600 projects cover various categories under Public Assistance funds to address infrastructure whose renovations will benefit the entire island.
From the HSNW: Economic Earthquake Risk in the United States.
“Earthquakes cost the nation an estimated $14.7 billion annually in building damage and associated losses, a new report finds. The new estimate is twice that of previous annual estimates due to increased building value and the fact that the report incorporates the latest hazards as well as improvements to building inventories.”
Recovery Diva 