CALIFORNIA NEWS
IPM Achievement Award Winners Announced H umane Wildlife Control Inc. of Moss Landing, founded in 2013 by Duane Titus and Rebecca Dmytryk, is one of five winners of a state award given for achievements in reducing risk from pesticide use. On Feb. 18, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation announced the winners of the IPM Achievement Award recognizing their use of integrated pest management, a method that
reduces chemical pesticide use by choosing preventative and natural strategies. Titus and Dmytryk have chosen to not use rodenticides for structural rodent and wildlife management. Instead, their company uses live-trapping, one-way exits, and biological control to remove and exclude rodents. Dmytryk contends the non-chemical methods are effective long-term and prevent re-infestation.
“Recall” from page 21
Assuming there will be a governor’s recall election in 2021, the political wildcard is the status of COVID-19 in California. In the January PPIC Survey, about half of likely voters say that COVID-19 is the most important issue for the governor and legislature to work on in 2021. Currently, Governor Newsom has mixed reviews for his handling of this issue (50% approve, 47% disapprove). And less than three in ten give the state government an excellent or good rating for its handling of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution. In contrast, seven in ten approve of the way that the pandemic is being handled by Joe Biden in his early days of presidential leadership. Deep in the Weeds o, what are the key differences between these two surveys, much deconstructed and dissected in political circles, both produced by very fine pollsters? (For what it’s worth, the dispositive 538 pollster ratings show that PPIC has about the same high rating as the now defunct Field Poll had, but enjoys a much better rating than Berkeley.) PPIC uses live interviews and
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“Minimum Wage” from page 20 • That net increase would result from higher pay ($509 billion) for people who were employed at higher hourly wages, offset by lower pay ($175 billion) because of reduced employment. In an average week in 2025, the year when the minimum wage would reach $15 per hour, 17 million workers whose wages would otherwise be below $15 per hour would be directly affected, and many of the 10 million workers whose wages would otherwise be
“We are at an inflection point in the evolution of pest management in California and greater use of integrated pest management techniques will be fundamental to this transition,” said DPR Director Val Dolcini. “I congratulate this year ’s award winners for helping lead this transition and for using innovative and sustainable pest management techniques that are both effective and safer for the environment.” n
Every pollster has their own comrandom digit dialing, which gives every telephone exchange (land line and cell bination of questions to try to make phone) an equal chance of being surveyed, sure they distinguish who is and who and they use an established method to is not a voter, but it’s as much art as it get someone from the household on the is science. In addition, some people are so susphone. This is classic polling methodology, picious of authorities, institutions and developed over decades to ensure that researchers they won’t ever participate in a random sample of the population is a survey, even when the call is from the Public Policy Institute of California and surveyed. But it has become increasingly more not some “partisan” or egghead caller difficult (and expensive) to get people to like, say, the University of California Berkeley. take phone surveys. IGS, on the other hand, can’t afford PPIC’s response rate in its latest survey was about 5% for landline calls the huge cost of live surveys (for the most part) and so and 3% for cellhas turned to online phones (although [PPIC] is classic polling polling, with sophisfor those in the methodology, developed ticated abilities to sample who had parover decades to ensure that target and engage ticipated in a prior a random sample of the voters in the actual survey it was higher population is surveyed. voter file from the — 44% for landlines But it has become increasCalifornia Secretary and 25% for cells). ingly more difficult (and of State. In addition, pollexpensive) to get people to But they have to sters determine who take phone surveys. invite about 190,000 is and who is not a voters to participate registered voter (or a likely voter) by asking questions respon- to get a sample of 10,000 voters. And they dents may or may not answer truthfully, can only invite voters who have listed an email address, which is now about half like: Are you registered to vote? What the registered voters. So, their effective response rate is party are you registered in? How much are you following the news? Do you plan also about 5%, and it’s a pre-screened group of people who have listed an email to vote the next election? slightly above that wage rate would also be affected. At that time, the effects on workers and their families would include: • Employment would be reduced by 1.4 million workers, or 0.9 percent, according to CBO’s average estimate; and • The number of people in poverty would be reduced by 0.9 million. This report also provides CBO’s estimates of its effects on spending for major health care programs, unemployment compensation, Social Security, nutrition
Duane Titus and Rebecca Dmytryk
address and will go to the trouble of filling out the survey online. They have the same problem that live calling has of Trumpistas, who don’t want to participate at all so their views can’t even be given weight to represent their share of the population. Moreover, online surveys can’t claim to represent a random sample of voters because not every voter has an equal chance of being surveyed. So, they have to construct a representative sample based on sophisticated use of variables like age, gender, location, education, etc. What this method does know for sure is they’re dealing with actual voters and even how often they have voted, all of which is in the voter file. There are many more issues that confront pollsters using either method. Needless to say, polling has become a hugely difficult endeavor, which the most recent presidential campaign revealed starkly. But this much we know for certain: Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing voters who no longer thinks he’s the bee’s knees. And the only way he can guarantee survival in office is to make people believe that California is doing a better job of containing the coronavirus, distributing vaccine, opening schools and businesses and slowing the death toll. n
programs, other mandatory spending; plus effects on revenues, discretionary outlays for wages of federal workers; net spending for interest; and uncertainty surrounding the budgetary estimates. The report covers effects on employment, wages of affected workers, distribution of family income, real (inflation-adjusted) output, pries, distribution of labor and capital income and interest rates. n ••• To read the analysis: https://www.cbo. gov/publication/56975
www.tpgonlinedaily.com Aptos Times / March 1st 2021 / 23
