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Kerry Klein
Reporter
Kerry Klein is a health reporter for Valley Public Radio, covering air quality, drinking water, public health and other topics in California’s San Joaquin Valley. She studied science communication at UC Santa Cruz following an undergraduate degree in geology from McGill University. In addition to her work for KVPR, she’s written print and radio pieces for KQED, NPR, the San Jose Mercury News, and The Atlantic. Her radio work has earned her a 2017 first-place health policy award from the Association of Health Care Journalists, and four “Golden Mike” awards from the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California. She was a California Fellow with the Center for Health Journalism in 2016.
For her 2018 Data Journalism Fellowship project, Kerry plans to explore trends in opioid use and access to treatment within the San Joaquin Valley, from some of the smallest communities to the biggest industries in the region.
Articles
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Nearly two decades of postponing a ban on burning have left clean air advocates dubious that local air regulators will follow through.
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%20(1)695d.jpg?itok=Ybl3BHTL "Norma Vargas uses multiple medications to manage her severe asthma, which she developed while growing up in a San Joaquin Valley ag town with poor air quality.")
Long-term exposure to the particulate matter released by open agricultural burning has been associated with a suite of health problems, and the communities most affected are majority-Latino.
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%20(1)_0b144.jpg?itok=IVc_nJzm "Regulators promote chipping or grinding agricultural debris like branches and whole trees using heavy equipment as the primary alternative to agricultural burning in the Valley.")
In their new plan to ban agricultural burning, air regulators are using outreach and financial incentives to convince growers to adopt an alternative known as whole orchard recycling.
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%20(1)d354.jpg?itok=nZclXcAt "Dennis Hutson, who farms 60 acres in Allensworth, is one of many small farmers who worry they won’t be able to afford alternatives to ag burning.")
Even with $220 million in financial incentives, growers are wondering how they’ll afford whole orchard recycling in the long term – especially small farmers, who have fewer resources to begin with.
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b756.jpg?itok=kKbTHHPa "A political fight in the Sacramento legislature resulted in a loophole that allowed ag burning to continue.")
A California senator set out to ban agricultural burning in the San Joaquin Valley nearly 20 years ago. What happened?
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a5a0.jpg?itok=onZi94kb "The San Joaquin Valley is the only region in the country to be out of compliance with 1997 federal air quality standards.")
Clean air advocates hope the EPA will step in to strengthen regulations of polluting industries.
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Topics
Although still unknown outside of the American west, valley fever is a severe fungal infection — and its territory may expand as the climate warms.
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Researchers have been trying to understand valley fever for decades, but the playing field remained small until recently.
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Former California Gov. Jerry Brown pledged $8 million in state money to fight valley fever in the final 2018-2019 budget, split between the University of California and the new Valley Fever Institute.
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‘Eureka moment’ in valley fever case paves way for new research, treatment options.