Red Bluff Daily News

January 07, 2017

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ByScottSmith The Associated Press FRESNO Rangers at Yo- semite National Park stood watch Friday along the Merced River flowing through the scenic valley on alert for weekend flood- ing as stormy weather heads to California, offi- cials said. A combination of heavy rain and snow above 9,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada are expected over the weekend to trigger runoff, overflow foothill streams and rivers. Wind gusts could knock down power lines from falling trees. On the coast, forecasters anticipate the storm surge from the Pacific — called an atmospheric river — to dump up to eight inches of rain from Sonoma to Mon- terey counties, and up to a foot in isolated places in the Santa Cruz mountains. Forecasters warn of mud- slides on the Central Coast hard hit this summer by scarring wildfires. The heavy rains come as California enters a sixth year of drought, starting in October with more rain falling than in three de- cades, mostly in Northern California. Los Angeles is experiencing the wettest winter in six years, fore- casters say. Yosemite spokeswoman Jamie Richards said that rangersareurgingparkvis- itors to stay alert to chang- ingweatherconditions.She says, however, that the park remains open this weekend withsomeareaspotentially being closed. Rangers are keeping an especially close eye on Pohono Bridge, which crosses the Merced River deep in Yosemite Valley. Richards said that flood- ing there starts when the water level reaches 10 feet, but on Thursday the water- mark hit just four feet. A large storm in 1997 flooded Yosemite Valley, closing the park for two months and washing out roads, lodging and camp- grounds. Rangers don't ex- pect damaging conditions like those 20 years ago, of- ficials said. Officials in Santa Cruz told residents to stay off the roads this weekend and hunker down by stock- ing up on groceries and batteries. Yosemiterangers ey e ri ve r as s to rm heads to California WEATHER JOHNWALKER—THEFRESNOBEE A 150-foot section of Highway 140at El Portal, west of Yosemite National Park, is washed out by the Merced River in 1997. The Associated Press SACRAMENTO A foreign government may have been behind a cyber breach of health insurance company Anthem Inc. that compro- mised the records of more than 78 million consum- ers, investigators said Fri- day. They declined to iden- tify the hackers or the for- eign government. Social Security numbers, birthdates and employment details of customers — all key ingredients of identity theft — were accessed in the breach, officials said. Anthem, the nation's sec- ond-largest health insurer, has agreed to make $260 million in improvements to its information security systems as part of a settle- ment with insurance reg- ulators in most U.S. states and territories. The company will also provide credit protection to consumers whose infor- mation was compromised. The insurer is licensed in all 50 states and conducts business under brands in- cluding Blue Cross Blue Shield, Unicare, CareMore and Amerigroup. Investigators from the cybersecurity firm Crowd- Strike identified the attack- ers with "high confidence" and concluded with "me- dium confidence" that they were working for a foreign government, according to a report released by Cali- fornia Insurance Commis- sioner Dave Jones. "Insurers have an obliga- tion to make sure consum- ers' health and financial information is protected," Jones said in a statement. A finding of high confi- dence means the informa- tion is verified by multiple sources or a single highly reliable source. Medium confidence means the in- formation is open to mul- tiple interpretations or not reliable enough to warrant higher confidence. Federal law enforcement officials requested that Jones not identify the for- eign government due to an ongoing investigation, said Madison Voss, a spokes- woman for the insurance department. Previous attacks by that same government have not resulted in personal infor- mation being sent to non- governmental entities, CrowdStrike said in its re- port. Investigators say intrud- ers cracked Anthem's da- tabase in February 2014 with a phishing email and evaded multiple layers of se- curity. The hackers eventu- ally gained remote access to at least 90 systems within the Anthem enterprise. California insurance commissioners concluded that shortfalls in Anthem's security protocols were typical for a company of its size and declined to issue fines or other punishment. They said the company re- sponded promptly, ejecting the cyber intruders within three days and notifying af- fected customers. A lawsuit filed by custom- ers who say they were af- fected by the breach paints Anthem as a ripe target for hackers. It says the insurer allowed wide employee ac- cess to its database and didn't train workers on the handling of phishing emails. Anthem discovered the cyber breach a year ago and said it included the re- cords of at least 12 million minors. Anthem spokesman Dar- rel Ng said the insurer has cooperated with insurance regulators since the breach was discovered. "Anthem takes the se- curity of its information and the personal informa- tion of consumers very se- riously and is committed to protecting the data of its customers," Ng said in an emailed statement. HEALTH CARE SECURITY Investigators link insurer cyber breach to foreign nation, but won't say which By Don Thompson The Associated Press SACRAMENTO A 57-year- old convicted killer serving a life sentence in California became the first U.S. inmate to receive state-funded sex- reassignment surgery, the prisoner's attorneys con- firmed Friday. California prison officials agreed in August 2015 to pay for the surgery for Shi- loh Heavenly Quine, who was convicted of first-de- gree murder, kidnapping and robbery for ransom and has no possibility of parole. Quine's case led the state to become the first to set standards that will allow othertransgenderinmatesto apply to receive state-funded sex-reassignment surgery. It also prompted a federal magistrate to require Cali- fornia to provide transgen- der female inmates housed in men's facilities with more female-oriented items such as nightgowns, scarves and necklaces. "For too long, institutions have ignored doctors and casually dismissed med- ically necessary and life- saving care for transgender people just because of who we are," said Kris Hayashi, executive director of the Transgender Law Center, which represents Quine and other transgender inmates. Completion of the surgery not only fulfills a landmark legal settlement but marks a victory "for all transgender people who have ever been denied the medical care we need," Hayashi said. Quine will be moved to a women's prison after the operation, which was per- formed at a hospital in San Francisco,herattorneyssaid. The daughter of Quine's victim said she objects to inmates getting taxpayer- funded surgery that is not readilyavailabletonon-crim- inals, regardless of the cost. "My dad begged for his life," said Farida Baig, who tried unsuccessfully to block Quine's surgery through the courts. "It just made me dizzy and sick. I'm helping pay for his surgery; I live in California. It's kind of like a slap in the face." Quine and an accomplice kidnapped and fatally shot 33-year-old Shahid Ali Baig, a father of three, in down- town Los Angeles in Febru- ary 1980, stealing $80 and his car during a drug- and alcohol-fueled rampage. California was legally re- quired to pay for the oper- ation, corrections spokes- womanTerryThorntonsaid. "The Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution re- quires that prisons provide inmates with medically nec- essary treatment for medi- cal and mental health con- ditions including inmates diagnosed with gender dys- phoria," Thornton said in a written statement. California corrections of- ficials had fought in court for years to avoid paying for sex-reassignment sur- geries. In one high-profile case, the state paroled Mi- chelle-Lael Norsworthy in 2015, just one day before a federal appeals court was to hear her request for state- funded surgery. 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