California will receive federal support to expand a distracted driving pilot program, federal officials announced Thursday.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Thursday released a “Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving” that offers a comprehensive strategy to address the growing and dangerous practice of using handheld cell phones behind the wheel.

The plan outlines concrete steps stakeholders around the country – from lawmakers and safety organizations to families and younger drivers – can take to reduce the risk posed by distracted driving.

While unveiling the plan, Secretary LaHood also announced $2.4 million in federal support for California and Delaware that will expand the Department's "Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other" pilot enforcement campaign to reduce distracted driving.

"Distracted driving is an epidemic. While we've made progress in the past three years by raising awareness about this risky behavior, the simple fact is people are continuing to be killed and injured – and we can put an end to it," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

He added, "Personal responsibility for putting down that cell phone is a good first step – but we need everyone to do their part, whether it's helping pass strong laws, educating our youngest and most vulnerable drivers, or starting their own campaign to end distracted driving."

The "Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving" outlines a plan that builds on the national momentum that Secretary LaHood and USDOT have spearheaded for the last three years.

Recognizing the extent and complexity of the problem, the plan:

• Encourages the remaining 11 states without distracted driving laws to enact and enforce this critical legislation.
• Challenges the auto industry to adopt new and future guidelines for technology to reduce the potential for distraction on devices built or brought into vehicles.
• Partners with driver education professionals to incorporate new curriculum materials to educate novice drivers of driver distraction and its consequences. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show drivers under the age of 25 are two to three times more likely than older drivers to send text messages or emails while driving.
• Provides all stakeholders with actions they can take that go beyond personal responsibility to helping end distracted driving nationwide.

Applying a 'proven formula' to California, Delaware enforcement programs

Coinciding with the release of the "Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving," Secretary LaHood announced that California and Delaware have been selected to receive federal support for pilot projects that will test the effect of increased law enforcement and high-profile public education campaigns on distracted driving.

"We know from the success of national efforts like 'Click It or Ticket' that combining good laws with effective enforcement and a strong public education campaign can – and does – change unsafe driving behavior," said NHTSA Administrator David Strickland. "Now, along with two great state partners, we're using this proven formula to help tackle distracted driving."

DOT is providing California and Delaware with $2.4 million of federal support for pilot programs that will examine whether increased police enforcement coupled with paid media and news media coverage can significantly reduce distracted driving over a widespread area.

The California program will take place in the Sacramento Valley region comprising eight counties and 3.8 million residents, while the Delaware program will be conducted statewide.

Both projects are expected to be under way in fall 2012.

The multi-market efforts in these states mirror the approach used in smaller-scale demonstration projects completed in 2011 in Hartford, CT, and Syracuse, NY.

The 2011 pilot projects found dramatic declines in distracted driving in the two communities tested – with texting dropping 72 percent in Hartford and 32 percent in Syracuse.

In 2010, at least 3,092 people were killed in distraction-affected crashes – accounting for approximately one in every ten fatalities on the nation's roadways.

Meanwhile, among the findings from NHTSA's first nationally-representative telephone survey on driver distraction released earlier this year, more than three-quarters of drivers reported that they are willing to answer calls on all, most, or some trips.

Survey respondents acknowledged few driving situations when they would not use the phone or text, and yet reported feeling unsafe when riding in vehicles in which the driver is texting and supported bans on texting and cell phone use.

Almost all respondents (about 90% overall) reported that they considered a driver who was sending or reading text messages or e-mails as very unsafe.

Nationwide, 39 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and Guam ban texting behind the wheel. Ten states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and Guam prohibit all hand-held cell phone use while driving.

To learn more about NHTSA's efforts on distracted driving visit www.distraction.gov .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – A week before its union-represented nurses were set to go out on another one-day strike, Sutter Lakeside Hospital has reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining contract with the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United.

According to reports from Sutter Lakeside and the union, negotiations on Wednesday night led to an early Thursday morning agreement after hospital officials withdrew all concession proposals.

“Our nurses play an integral role in providing patients in our community with quality care,” said hospital Chief Administrative Officer Siri Nelson. “We are very pleased to bring closure to this process and to reach agreement on a new contract for our nurses.”

Carrie Roth, a medical surgical registered nurse at the hospital and a member of the CNA nurse bargaining team, called the tentative agreement “a major victory” both for nurses and patients in Lake County.

She added, “Our new contract enhances our ability to provide our patients with the care they deserve.”

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United represents 120 registered nurses at Sutter Lakeside Hospital.

Roth said Sutter Lakeside's nurses will meet on Monday, June 11, to ratify the new contract.

On Monday the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United had announced that the nurses they represented at several hospital around Northern California – including Sutter Lakeside – were preparing to walk out on June 13.

However, once the agreement at Sutter Lakeside was reached Thursday, the union withdrew its official notice of intent to hold the one-day strike in Lakeport on June 13. The union said a strike at other Bay Area Sutter hospitals is still set to go forward.

Sutter Lakeside nurses had previously participated in a one-day strike on May 1, as Lake County News has reported.

During that one-day walkout, Roth had told Lake County News that Sutter Lakeside's nurses were more united than ever, and determined to continue working on settling contract negotiations.

Sutter Lakeside's withdrawal of concessions “provides a significant contrast with other Sutter Bay Area hospitals where corporate executives are demanding more than 100 sweeping concessions that would erode patient care conditions and RN standards,” the union said in a Thursday afternoon written statement.

Roth said there were some small takeaways but they were smaller than what the hospital originally sought.

She said it came down to give and take between the bargaining teams.

“We're realized we have an obligation to the community and our patients,” and so they stuck it out to come to an agreement, Roth said.

“It's been a long haul,” she said, with the nurses' original contract ending in 2010.

She said the nurses and hospital will have to go back to the table to begin work on a new contract in June 2014.

For now, however, Roth said the nurses are happy and ready to get back to work caring for their patients.

Sutter Lakeside did not reveal any of the details concerning the tentative agreement or contract negotiations, which it said will be forthcoming upon ratification of the contract.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United did offer some basic details of the agreement, which the union said includes new patient care protections, enhanced autonomy of charge RNs to utilize independent professional judgment in accepting patient assignments – including meal and break coverage – and workplace violence protections.

There also are to be modest wage improvements – including a new pay scale with additional pay steps with a new 20-year longevity step – and layoff and severance protection and compensation, the union said.

Other points the union said are included in the tentative agreement are enhanced daily cancellation language that considers the severity of patients’ illnesses, and new admissions, prior to canceling RNs from their shift; improved just cause/disciplinary action language and protection for RNs; new language that allows charge nurses to carry out their patient advocacy roles with full union protections; and improved leave of absence policies relating to medical, family care, military and professional leaves.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

NORTH COAST, Calif. – A major milestone was reached on Wednesday in the effort to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) along California’s coast.

In a 3-0 vote, the California Fish and Game Commission approved and adopted regulations for the North Coast MPAs, completing the network of MPAs in California’s open coastal waters, from Mexico to the Oregon state line.

The network of MPAs is the first in the United States to be designed from the ground up as a science-based network, rather than a patchwork of independent protected areas without specific goals and objectives.

“This is a great day for California’s ocean and coastal resources,” said Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird. “As promised, we have completed the nation’s first statewide open coast system of marine protected areas, strengthening California’s ongoing commitment to conserve marine life for future generations. Through the process, we also established the first ever special designation allowing tribes to continue ancestral fishing practices on the North Coast.”

Assemblyman Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata) spoke to the commission to urge its members to adopt Marine Life Protection Act proposals worked out by a coalition of local fishermen, environmentalists and area tribes known as the North Coast Regional Stakeholders Group.

“It’s unanimous: We on the North Coast all support protecting our ocean fishery resources and we highly value sustainable commercial, recreational and traditional harvests,” said Chesbro, who spoke at the commission’s meeting in Eureka.

The proposal ultimately was accepted as part of the MPA.

The public planning process for the North Coast region began in June 2009 and included numerous public workshops and more than 75 days of meetings that provided opportunities for formal and informal public input through a regional stakeholder group, a science advisory team, and a blue ribbon task force.

Public comments were also received throughout the regulatory and environmental review processes for the proposed North Coast MPAs.

“Our decision today was made possible by the hard work and dedication of hundreds of stakeholders up and down the California coast,” said Michael Sutton, vice president of the Fish and Game Commission who presided over the historic vote. “California can be proud not only of its new, comprehensive network of protection for the marine environment, but of the cutting-edge public process that made it happen.”

The North Coast regulations include a provision for federally recognized tribal members to continue harvesting and gathering fish, kelp and shellfish as they have for countless generations.

The provision will allow noncommercial take to continue, consistent with existing regulations, in MPAs other than State Marine Reserves, where there is a record of ancestral take by a specific tribe.

“We sincerely appreciate the state’s willingness to hear the concerns of the tribes and develop a plan that meets critical marine conservation and tribal cultural protection goals,” said Chairwoman Priscilla Hunter of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a consortium of 10 federally recognized North Coast tribes based in Mendocino and Lake counties. “The start of this process was very difficult and contentious, but thanks to Secretary Laird and Governor Brown, we have ended in a very positive place with a strong framework for future tribal consultation on important conservation and environmental issues.”

The North Coast region covers approximately 1,027 square miles of state waters from the California/Oregon state line south to Alder Creek near Point Arena in Mendocino County.

The plan, adopted by the commission with broad community support, includes 19 MPAs, a recreational management area, and seven special closures covering approximately 137 square miles of state waters or about 13 percent of the region.

California encompasses approximately 5,285 square miles of open coast state waters. The open coast portion of the statewide network of MPAs now includes 119 MPAs, five recreational management areas and 15 special closures covering approximately 16 percent of all open coast state waters.

Approximately half of California’s new or modified MPAs are multiple use areas, with the remaining in no-take areas.

The MPAs were developed to be consistent with California’s landmark Marine Life Protection Act, the first statutory mandate of its kind in the nation, requiring that California’s MPAs be redesigned based on the best available science, with identified goals and objectives, with the advice and input of stakeholders and experts to create a statewide network.

“This statewide system will benefit fish and fishermen in California for generations to come,” said Charlton H. Bonham, director of the Department of Fish and Game. “The science shows that by protecting sensitive ocean and coastal habitats, marine life flourishes and in turn, creates a healthier system overall.”

The North Coast MPAs adopted by the Commission today are expected to go into effect by early 2013.

For more information on the Marine Life Protection Act, visit www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/ .

One of the top suspects behind killer vascular diseases is the victim of mistaken identity, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, who used genetic tracing to help hunt down the real culprit.

The guilty party is not the smooth muscle cells within blood vessel walls, which for decades was thought to combine with cholesterol and fat that can clog arteries. Blocked vessels can eventually lead to heart attacks and strokes, which account for one in three deaths in the United States.

Instead, a previously unknown type of stem cell — a multipotent vascular stem cell — is to blame, and it should now be the focus in the search for new treatments, the scientists report in a new study appearing June 6 in the journal Nature Communications.

"For the first time, we are showing evidence that vascular diseases are actually a kind of stem cell disease," said principal investigator Song Li, professor of bioengineering and a researcher at the Berkeley Stem Cell Center. "This work should revolutionize therapies for vascular diseases because we now know that stem cells rather than smooth muscle cells are the correct therapeutic target."

The finding that a stem cell population contributes to artery-hardening diseases, such as atherosclerosis, provides a promising new direction for future research, the study authors said.

"This is groundbreaking and provocative work, as it challenges existing dogma," said Dr. Deepak Srivastava, director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at UC San Francisco, who provided some of the mouse vascular tissues used by the researchers. "Targeting the vascular stem cells rather than the existing smooth muscle in the vessel wall might be much more effective in treating vascular disease."

It is generally accepted that the buildup of artery-blocking plaque stems from the body's immune response to vessel damage caused by low-density lipoproteins, the bad cholesterol many people try to eliminate from their diets.

Such damage attracts legions of white blood cells and can spur the formation of fibrous scar tissue that accumulates within the vessel, narrowing the blood flow.

The scar tissue, known as neointima, has certain characteristics of smooth muscle, the dominant type of tissue in the blood vessel wall.

Because mature smooth muscle cells no longer multiply and grow, it was theorized that in the course of the inflammatory response, they revert, or de-differentiate, into an earlier state where they can proliferate and form matrices that contribute to plaque buildup.

However, no experiments published have directly demonstrated this de-differentiation process, so Li and his research team remained skeptical. They turned to transgenic mice with a gene that caused their mature smooth muscle cells to glow green under a microscope.

In analyzing the cells from cross sections of the blood vessels, they found that more than 90 percent of the cells in the blood vessels were mature smooth muscle cells. They then isolated and cultured the cells taken from the middle layer of the mouse blood vessels.

After one month of cell expansion, the researchers saw a threefold increase in the size of the cell nucleus and the spreading area, along with an increase in stress fibers.

Notably, none of the new, proliferating cells glowed green, which meant that their lineage could not be traced back to the mature smooth muscle cells originally isolated from the blood vessels.

"Not only was there a lack of green markers in the cell cultures, but we noticed that another type of cell isolated from the blood vessels exhibited progenitor traits for different types of tissue, not just smooth muscle cells," said Zhenyu Tang, co-lead author of the study and a Ph.D. student in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering.

The other co-lead author of the study, Aijun Wang, was a post-doctoral researcher in Li's lab.

"The different phenotypes gave us the clue that stem cells were involved," said Wang, who is now an assistant professor and the co-director of the Surgical Bioengineering Laboratory at the UC Davis Medical Center. "We did further tests and detected proteins and transcriptional factors that are only found in stem cells. No one knew that these cells existed in the blood vessel walls because no one looked for them before."

Further experiments determined that the  newly discovered vascular stem cells were multipotent, or capable of differentiating into various specialized cell types, including smooth muscle, nerve, cartilage, bone and fat cells. This would explain why previous studies misidentified the cells involved in vessel clogs as de-differentiated smooth muscle cells after vascular injury.

"In the later stages of vascular disease, the soft vessels become hardened and more brittle," said Li. "Previously, there was controversy about how soft tissue would become hard. The ability of stem cells to form bone or cartilage could explain this calcification of the blood vessels."

Other tests in the study showed that the multipotent stem cells were dormant under normal physiological conditions. When the blood vessel walls were damaged, the stem cells rather than the mature smooth muscle cells became activated and started to multiply.

The researchers analyzed human carotid arteries to confirm that the same type of multipotent vascular stem cells are found in human blood vessels.

"If your target is wrong, then your treatment can't be very effective," said Dr. Shu Chien, director of the Institute of Engineering in Medicine at UC San Diego, and Li's former adviser. "These new findings give us the right target and should speed up the discovery of novel treatments for vascular diseases."

Grants from the National Institutes of Health and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine helped support this research.

Sarah Yang writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.