June 06, 2023

Congenital Syphilis Spike in Sacramento Pregnancies | State Farm, Allstate Withdraw from California | UC Davis Prodigy Siblings

50 minutes

Sacramento responds to rise in congenital syphilis cases in pregnancies disproportionately impacting unhoused residents. State Farm and Allstate stop selling new policies to California property owners. From STEM to opera, we meet UC Davis sibling prodigies.

Syphilis spike

Congenital Syphilis is a disease passed to a baby during pregnancy, and there has been a steep increase in recent years– a 950% rise in cases from 2011 to 2020, according to the California Department of Public Health. Jake Bradley-Rowe, Executive Director of Sunburst Projects, joins Insight to explain why Sacramento County is among the largest rise in cases per capita in the country, with a disproportionate impact of pregnancies involving those experiencing homelessness. He also explains why his non-profit received new funding from the county to house and care for those infected, including treatment before birth.

Insurance companies withdrawing

Two of the largest property insurers are no longer offering new policies to California residents. Michael Wara, Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University Woods Institute for the Environment, discusses why insurers like State Farm and Allstate are withdrawing from California. We’ll unpack how climate change and building costs are driving factors behind the withdrawal, as well as how this is a part of an ongoing financial challenge facing property owners in high wildfire risk areas in recent years.

Child prodigy siblings

They are the wonder kids from UC Davis. One is now a 19-year-old doctorate student who will graduate with a PhD in biomedical engineering in a few weeks. The other is a 17-year-old soprano and grad student at Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. We have followed their journey on Insight and today, Tanishq and Tiara Abraham, join Vicki for an update on what they are up to, their latest accomplishments and plans for the future.

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