SACRAMENTO – A landmark study just kicked off with the goal of answering why Black women have a much higher mortality rate when it comes to cancer. It just launched last week and they need volunteers in California to help.

The study is named VOCIES of Black Women and it aims to promote just that.

“For most types of cancer, Black women actually have the highest death rate and shortest survival of most types of cancer compared to other racial/ethnic populations,” said Dr. Apla Patel with the American Cancer Society. 

The question is “Why?” The long-term study by the American Cancer Society will gather valuable data from Black women between the ages of 25 and 55 from diverse backgrounds and income levels who have not been diagnosed with cancer.

The goal is to enroll over 100,000 Black women across 20 states, including California and D.C., where, according to the U.S. Census, more than 90% of Black women in the U.S. reside.

“Medicine is constantly evolving and again when we look at who’s in those studies that are helping us learn about how to treat cancers and other health outcomes differently we have to look at the makeup of those populations,” Dr. Patel said.

Officials want to better understand how factors like biology, lifestyle and behaviors, and access to quality treatment affect Black women.

“There may be environmental differences, there may be differences based on where you live and lifestyle behaviors and other factors,” Dr. Patel said. 

The study will last decades and will provide information that can save lives for generations to come.

“There’s a lot of inequities around how cancer is developing and how it is affecting Black women that we will be able to learn through this study,” Dr. Patel said.

Enrollment for the study launched last week and more information is available online.

The “California Stop,” also known as the “California Roll,” is the act of not coming to a full and complete stop at a stop sign. Whatever it’s called where you live, it’s illegal and can get you a $200+ ticket and can land you in hot water with your driving record when it’s issued by an agency with authority. One California agency however, with no type of traffic authority has been issuing thousands of rolling stop tickets by secretly recording drivers.

KTLA reports that California’s Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority issues around 17,000 rolling stop tickets each year, bringing in over $1.1 million in revenue annually. What exactly is the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority? According to the agencies site, it’s described as “a local public agency dedicated to the acquisition, preservation and protection of open space, wildlife habitat, and urban, mountain and river parkland that is easily accessible to the public.”

So how exactly does a state park agency that oversees over 75,000 acres of park lands in Southern California issue that many tickets? In secret, as KTLA described:

At 12:15 p.m. on a warm, sunny day last July, Andrew Rice’s adult kid did a rolling stop in a Prius while leaving the Temescal Canyon parking lot near Pacific Palisades.

What Rice’s kid didn’t know was that he was being filmed as he did so. And the recording would result in a $100 “administrative citation” from the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, or MRCA…

The problem with these tickets — aside from being issued by a state park agency with no real authority to issue them — is that they’re technically not citations. It seems their sole purpose is to bring in revenue for the MRCA as one Prius driver who was ticketed discovered. “They’re engaged in a deceptive practice of pretending to enforce the motor vehicle code when they don’t have the authority to do that, and they’re tricking people into paying these tickets,” they told KTLA.

Jamie Court, president of the Los Angeles advocacy group Consumer Watchdog says even though they’re not actually tickets with no legal consequence, they can still hurt drivers financially. And that’s what forces people to pay them. “But it could go on your credit score and hurt your chances of getting a mortgage or a loan, and no one wants to deal with that. So people just pay it rather than fight it.”

What’s worse is that nothing has been done to stop it. A spokesperson for the agency told KTLA that the cameras and citations are about “public safety.” It seems though it’s more about collecting money with no oversight. “This is a program that is meant to make income for the park system. It’s a terrible abuse. And the fact that it’s gone on for a decade or more without anyone doing anything is really shameful,” Court said.

A hiker was killed near Mt. Whitney on Sunday after being struck by a falling rock, marking the third fatality within a week near California’s highest peak, authorities said.

The hiker was in the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek Trail when bystanders reported that a rock fell and severely injured the individual, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office said.

Search and rescue crews immediately responded to the scene via helicopter and lowered a team member down to the site of the accident. Rescuers determined the injured hiker had died from their injuries, the sheriff’s office said.

The hiker’s body was then airlifted to Lone Pine and turned over to the Inyo County Coroner. Officials did not immediately release the identity of the hiker or provide additional details.

BODIES OF MISSING HIKERS RECOVERED, IDENTIFIED AFTER DISAPPEARING ON HIKE UP CALIFORNIA’S HIGHEST PEAK

It was the third hiker fatality in the Mt. Whitney region within a week. 

The bodies of two missing hikers were recovered from the north face of Mount Whitney on Thursday. The hikers were identified as Andrew Niziol, 28, a resident of South Lake Tahoe, and Patty Bolan, 29. The pair were on a long-term hiking trip across the state of California.

The two previous fatalities were Andrew Niziol, 28, and Patty Bolan, 29. Their bodies were found on the north face of Mount Whitney after the couple went missing.  (iStock/Andrew Niziol Facebook)

UTAH HUNTER FINDS SKELETAL REMAINS OF MAN MISSING SINCE 2019 IN REMOTE MOUNTAINS

Officials cautioned those visiting the area to be aware of the changing weather conditions as the seasons shift.

Mt. Whitney has an elevation of 14,505 feet. (Santi Visalli/ Getty Images, File)

“Early spring conditions prevail on the mountain, with treacherous steep snow, loose rock, and variable weather,” the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office said. “Parties venturing onto Mt. Whitney should stay together, turn around before deteriorating conditions become unmanageable, make responsible decisions, and be prepared and fit.”

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Mt. Whitney is the highest mountain in the contiguous U.S., reaching an elevation of 14,505 feet. More than 25,000 visitors per year seek to summit Mt. Whitney, according to the National Park Service.

Fox News’ Stepheny Price contributed to this report.