Coffee linked to lower risk of death

Researchers have some reassuring news for the legions of coffee drinkers who can't get through the day
without a latte, cappuccino, iced mocha, double-shot of espresso or a plain old cuppa joe: That coffee habit
may help you live longer.


A new study that tracked the health and coffee consumption of more than 400,000 older adults for nearly 14
years found that java drinkers were less likely to die during the study than their counterparts who eschewed

the brew. In fact, men and women who averaged four or five cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk of
death, according to a report in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.


The research doesn't prove that coffee deserves the credit for helping people live longer. But it is the largest
analysis to date to suggest that the beverage's reputation for being a liquid vice may be undeserved.


"There's been concerns for a long time that coffee might be a risky behavior," said study leader Neal
Freedman, an epidemiologist with the National Cancer Institute who drinks coffee "here and there." "The
results offer some reassurance that it's not a risk factor for future disease."


Coffee originated in Ethiopia more than 500 years ago. As it spread through the Middle East, Europe and
the Americas, its popularity was tempered by concerns about its supposed ill effects. A 1674 petition by
aggrieved women in London complained that coffee left men impotent, "with nothing moist but their snotty
noses, nothing stiff but their joints, nor standing but their ears," according to the book "Uncommon Grounds:
The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World."


In more modern times, the caffeinated beverage has been seen as "a stimulating substance, a commonly
consumed drug," said Rob van Dam, an epidemiologist at the National University of Singapore who has
investigated the drink's health effects but was not involved in the latest study.


"People get somewhat dependent on it," Van Dam said. "If you try to rapidly reduce coffee consumption,
you get headaches or other symptoms."


The National Coffee Assn. estimates that 64% of American adults drink coffee on a daily basis, with the
average drinker consuming 3.2 cups each day. To get a deeper understanding of the risks and benefits of all
that joe, the National Cancer Institute researchers turned to data on 402,260 adults who were between the
ages of 50 and 71 when they joined the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study in 1995 and 1996. The
volunteers were followed through December 2008 or until they died — whichever came first.


When the team first crunched the numbers, coffee seemed to have a detrimental effect on longevity. But
people who drink coffee are more likely to smoke, and when the scientists took that into account (along with
other demographic factors), the opposite appeared to be true.


Compared with men who didn't drink any coffee at all, those who drank just one cup per day had a 6%
lower risk of death during the course of the study; those who drank two to three cups per day had a 10%
lower risk, and those who had four to five cups had a 12% lower risk. For men who drank six cups or
more, the apparent benefit waned slightly, with a 10% lower risk of death during the study compared with
men who drank no coffee.


The relationship between coffee and risk of death was even more dramatic in women. Those who drank one
cup per day had 5% lower odds of dying during the study compared with women who drank none. Those
who consumed two or three cups a day were 13% less likely to die, those who downed four or five cups
were 16% less likely to die, and those who drank six or more cups had a 15% lower mortality rate.


The effect held across a number of causes of death — including heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke
and diabetes — but not cancer, the researchers found. And the link was stronger in coffee drinkers who had
never smoked.


The correlation even held for people who mostly drank decaf brew, the researchers found.


"If these are real biological effects, they seem to [have] to do with the substances in coffee that are not
caffeine," Van Dam said. Other compounds in the coffee could be linked to the lower death rates, he said —
or there could be no causal relationship at all.


And, Van Dam added, the researchers didn't make distinctions between different types of drinks. Unfiltered
brews like Turkish coffee or Scandinavian boiled coffee have been shown to raise cholesterol and could
present very different results from the current study if examined separately, he said.


To prove that coffee deserves the credit, researchers could study each of the 1,000-odd compounds in the
brew and test them on subjects over time to see if they reduced inflammation, improved the body's sensitivity
to insulin or caused any other useful biological effects, he said.




http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/16/science/la-sci-coffee-death-20120517

Realignment Plan for California Prisons Causing New Friction

Higher volume of 'compliance checks' done by law enforcement on felons released in L.A. County means that probation officers often aren't available to go along.

By Jason Song, Los Angeles Times

Pamela Morris, right, sobs while discussing her problems with Susan Burton, executive director of the New Way of Life group home in South Los Angeles. Morris, 45, was recently handcuffed and searched by LAPD officers even though she was in full compliance with her probation at the home. (Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times / May 18, 2012)

The first four times Pamela Morris was released from prison, she would go to her state parole officers or they would occasionally make unannounced solo visits to make sure she wasn't committing new crimes.

But after Morris completed a state sentence for shoplifting earlier this year, she reported to Los Angeles County probation officers under a new cost-cutting state program known as realignment and checked into a group home for newly released female ex-convicts.

Things were going well, Morris said, until the afternoon three LAPD officers showed up at her door, handcuffed her and searched her room.

"They scared the living mess out of me," said Morris, who added that she takes medicine for schizophrenia. "Nobody would tell me what was going on."

Rather than keeping her on the right track, Morris said the incident was so unnerving that she briefly went back to living on the streets before returning to the group home.

"It kind of set me back," she said.

The encounter at Morris' home highlights one of the new friction points created by a recent shift of responsibility for thousands of prisoners and ex-convicts from state to local authorities. Realignment was intended to relieve California's overcrowded prison system by keeping more low-level offenders in local jails rather than transferring them to state custody. And by giving local agencies more responsibility for monitoring prisoners freed on probation, the state can save hundreds of millions of dollars.

But city and county efforts to keep tabs on nearly 6,000 felons released in L.A. County alone have also prompted confusion and anger, jockeying among agencies for millions in public money and warnings that public safety employees are facing new dangers.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and LAPD officers have expanded duties for periodic "compliance checks" on the reassigned former inmates, who served time for nonviolent crimes. The volume of checks means that probation officers, who may already know the ex-convicts and be better positioned to defuse situations that can become confrontational, often aren't available to go along.

In many cases, like Morris', police or deputies working in teams roll up in multiple squad cars.

Law enforcement officials say officers may not know what they are walking into and that teams help ensure safety. Moreover, under the terms of their release, parolees and probationers generally are subject to warrantless searches at any time, they note.

But critics, including some elected officials, argue that in some cases, the tactics being used are needlessly intimidating and expensive.

"It really erodes trust when four cars and several officers pull up," said Mark Faucette, vice president of the Amity Foundation, which runs a residential treatment facility near USC.

Los Angeles County SupervisorMark Ridley-Thomas, who happened to be visiting Morris' group home when the LAPD officers arrived, expressed concerned about the amount of scarce law enforcement resources being used for the program. "It's not cost-effective, particularly when there was no imminent threat of danger," he said.

Ridley-Thomas said he was so disturbed by the scene at the group home, which was videotaped by a staff member and posted on YouTube, that he phoned LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. Beck told him officers were still adapting to their new duties and that procedures were still evolving, Ridley-Thomas said.

Beck confirmed the conversation in an email. "This is a new role for us, and we are working to develop the protocols that our officers use with this population," he said.

The compliance checks top a growing list of controversies quietly brewing as realignment takes hold in communities across California. Other complaints include cuts in public transportation assistance for newly released inmates and delayed payments to nonprofit groups providing drug counseling, job training and other services intended to keep ex-convicts from committing new crimes.

The state gave Los Angeles County about $120 million this fiscal year for its law enforcement and social service obligations under the realignment program. Given the state budget shortfall, it's unclear how much may be provided next year. An estimated $10.6 million of that will be spent by the county Sheriff's Department on compliance checks. A team of 50 deputies, plus other personnel, are assigned to the effort. The LAPD estimates that checks on ex-convicts in its territory will cost the city more than $35 million a year. Thus far, it has been unable to obtain reimbursement through the county.

LAPD officials say they asked for probation officers to be assigned to each of the department's 21 stations to assist in compliance checks. But only five were assigned because of the cost.

Unions representing probation officers say the checks would be more efficient — and less risky — if their members were involved. Leaders of the groups recently wrote county supervisors, criticizing them for not hiring more staff to deal with added increased workloads.

"We are all collectively sitting on a tinderbox waiting to explode," they wrote. "It is no longer a case of 'if' an officer gets injured in the line of duty; it is a matter of 'when.'"

But supervisors say they need to move cautiously in divvying up a limited amount of realignment funding.

"There are some departments that see this as an opportunity to grab a chunk of cash," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. "We should be husbanding our money and being conservative, not overly generous in how we appropriate the money."

Those money concerns underscore the need to reexamine the tactics employed in compliance checks, some say. "They're having four people do the job of one person," said Jeff Christensen, the project director of the nonprofit Sober Living Network, which advocates for group homes. Christensen said he's heard more complaints in the last five months about compliance checks than he received over the previous decade.

Realignment, officials say, is limited to ex-inmates whose last conviction was for a nonviolent or nonsexual crime.

Morris, 45, said she has spent the last decade bouncing in and out of jail and prison for shoplifting or violating her parole by not taking her medication.

She said she had a troubled upbringing with her mother's family in Gardena and only occasionally saw her father, who lived in New York. At 12, she recalled, she was so distraught leaving him after a visit that she got a teardrop tattoo under her right eye.

She first went to jail in 1999, for stealing clothes from a Target store. Ten years later, she said, she was arrested for the same offense: taking baby clothes from an Old Navy in Manhattan Beach.

While serving a three-year sentence at a state prison for women in Chowchilla, Morris said she decided to turn her life around, which led her to the New Way of Life group home in Watts after her release in January. There, she underwent drug testing, attended several counseling sessions a day and took a daily round of medications.

"For the first time, I really wanted help," Morris said.

On the day of the LAPD compliance check, she said, she had just finished telling Ridley-Thomas and other visiting county officials about the progress she was making. When she was approached by three officers and placed in handcuffs, she said, "I thought I was getting arrested."

She said little during the incident, Morris said. The video shows New Way of Life's executive director, Susan Burton, angrily confronting the officers in the street afterward. Burton demanded their business cards and asked why they had handcuffed Morris.

"This is a waste of taxpayer money," Burton tells the officers at one point.

"I agree," one officer responds. LAPD Capt. Phil Tingirides later viewed the video at a community meeting in South Los Angeles where complaints about the tactics were aired. An online video of the meeting shows Tingirides telling Morris he was sorry she felt embarrassed but that the officers acted appropriately.

In a Times interview, he said that the same team had found guns during other compliance checks. "It is not like we can go into these checks knowing beforehand that one person is a big deal and another isn't," he said.

Still, Tingirides said he hopes officers can undergo more training because the searches are creating tension. "If we keep going as we are, we are going to alienate people," he said.

Morris said she appreciated Tingirides' apology. But she worries about her next compliance check.

"I don't want to get handcuffed again," she said. "I've done my time and trying to start a clean slate."

jason.song@latimes.com

Staff writer Joel Rubin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-adv-realignment-cops-20120526,0,4960199,full.story?track=lanowpicks

Inmates With Mental Illnesses Wait Months in Jail Before Treatment

Advocates for prison inmates are criticizing the practice of holding individuals with mental illnesses who are deemed incompetent to stand trial in jail for months while waiting for state hospital beds to become available, the Sacramento Bee reports.

The Sacramento Bee article was produced by the California HealthCare Foundation's Center for Health Reporting. The Center is supported by a grant from CHCF, which publishes California Healthline.

Background

In recent years, California counties have sustained severe cuts to mental health programs.

The state reduced mental health funding by $765 million -- more than one-fifth of its mental health budget -- from 2009 to 2012, according to a report from National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Meanwhile, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has determined that the number of state prison inmates with mental illnesses has increased from 19% in 2007 to 25% in 2012.

Randall Hagar -- director of government affairs for the California Psychiatric Association -- said that in many counties, patients with serious mental health conditions often wait three to six months in jail before a state hospital bed becomes available.

According to data from the sheriff's department in Stanislaus County, the number of inmates with mental illnesses in the local jail increased by nearly 50% in the past six years.

Concerns

Prisoner health advocates say that the combination of mental health cuts, a decreasing number of state hospital beds and prison realignment plans are exacerbating the problem (Weiner, Sacramento Bee, 5/27).

In May 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to reduce its inmate population to help improve health care. Since then, the state has begun shifting low-level offenders to county jails to address prison overcrowding (California Healthline, 5/17).

Pilot Program Could Offer Solution

Hagar said San Bernardino County has piloted a program that would help inmates with mental illnesses being held in jails. Inmates participating in the program can receive the medication and education services needed to restore competency rather than waiting for the treatment at hospitals, according to Hagar.

Lawmakers have introduced a bill (AB 1693) that would expand the pilot program to a few other counties (Sacramento Bee, 5/27).

Read more: http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2012/5/29/inmates-with-mental-illnesses-held-for-months-before-treatment.aspx#ixzz1wI58gcEs

Are Healthy Foods Really More Expensive? It Depends on How You Measure the Price

Healthy food, we’ve often heard, is pricey food. Fruits and vegetables -- they’re expensive! We can’t afford to eat that way! That’s why we don’t do it!

The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants us to understand that this isn’t the case, and held a news conference Wednesday to report the results of a study that examined the matter.

Study lead author Andrea Carlson from the USDA’s Economic Research Service presented the 50-page report, entitled “Are Healthy Foods More Expensive? It Depends On How You Measure the Price."

Carlson explained that most studies measure the prices of groceries based on price-per-calorie. And when prices are computed that way, sure enough, items like broccoli do end up being more expensive than the likes of maple-glazed donuts. What about that?

(It may just be me, but isn't it a little astounding that analyses are generally done this way? Calories are not what most Americans lack.)

Carlson and her colleague, Elizabeth Frazao, calculated food costs the price-per-calorie way and two
additional ways.

One method -- price per edible weight -- calculated price based on the weight of food once it was all
prepared (that is scaled, seeded, hulled, bones removed, cooked, etc.).

A third way was price per average amount -- meaning how much people actually eat of a food. (You could
see how broccoli would end up being a heck of a lot cheaper than maple-glazed donuts if prices were
calculated this third way.)

They used a database of more than 4,000 food items and sorted them into several groups: the five USDA
food groups -- grains, dairy, fruit, vegetables or protein foods -- as well as mixed dishes and “less healthy”
items. Less-healthy foods had too much saturated fat, sodium or added sugars or were just generally
lacking, five-food-group-wise. (Interestingly, a lot of canned soups as well as fruit-flavored yogurt fell into
that group.)

“If we use price per calorie, fruits and vegetables tend to be more expensive than less healthy food,” Carlson
wrote on the USDA blog. “If we use price per edible weight or per average amount eaten, then grains,
vegetables, fruits and dairy foods are less expensive than most protein foods and less healthy foods.”

The research “challenges the widely held belief that ‘Gee, I just can’t eat healthily affordably,’ ” commented
Kevin Concannon, USDA undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services.

It is still true that the USDA’s vegetable recommendation is the most expensive to meet because we’re
meant to eat a whole bunch of vegetables, Carlson notes. (The recommendation depends on your age and
level of physical activity: I just calculated mine and I should eat 1.5 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables a
day. Try computing your own.) 

But there are always ways to eat cheaply and healthily just by choosing the right foods, Carlson said.
Cabbage, onions and beans come to mind.

Some may protest that the cheap-eating methods involve skills beyond the current ability of many Americans
because cooking is a lost art. Carlson says culinary cluelessness should be no barrier. Fresh fruit? Wash and
eat. Beans? Defrost, or open a can. “I know cooking skills are lacking but I think we can still use a can
opener,” she said.

Perhaps the bigger issue is what people actually like to eat. A burger and fries or a whole mess of cabbage
and beans? “My study doesn’t really cover what consumers value, but we do know from other studies that
taste is the first thing that people consider … taste and convenience,” Carlson said.

News conference participants noted that there are a variety of tools on the USDA website to help people
eat well on a shoestring.

And check out these thrifty-eating tips compiled by freelance writer Karen Ravn for a previous L.A. Times
article.

Via: http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-healthy-cheap-food-usda-20120516,0,2551287.story

Calif. schools employing fewer nurses, librarians

Joanna Lin/California Watch Mary Nixon is one of two school nurses in Trinity County. The number of school nurses in California has dropped 13.3 percent in five years.

Joanna Lin/California WatchMary Nixon is one of two school nurses in Trinity County. The number of school nurses in California has dropped 13.3 percent in five years.

California is issuing fewer credentials for public school service positions such as librarians, school nurses and administrators, and its schools are employing fewer service staff, according to a recent report by the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

The commission issued 11 percent fewer service credentials between the 2006-07 and 2010-11 school years. The number of people employed in service positions declined 9 percent during the same period, according to the report.

The findings [PDF], released last week, track credentials and employment in five areas: administrative services; teacher librarian services; school nurses; speech-language pathology, and clinical or rehabilitative services; and pupil personnel services, which include school counselors, psychologists, social workers, and child welfare and attendance workers.

The number of credentials issued also fell by 19.1 percent for administrative services, 18.9 percent for school social workers and 10 percent for school psychologists. Except for school social workers, whose ranks rose 20.2 percent, schools employed fewer service staff in all these areas than they did five years ago.School nurse credentials saw the biggest drops, with just 209 issued in 2010-11 – a 26.4 percent decline from 2006-07. At the same time, the number of school nurses employed in public schools fell by 13.3 percent to 2,474.

While service positions saw a downward trend overall, the number of credentials issued in some areas has grown.

The 104 new teacher librarian credentials in 2010-11, for example, represent an 8.3 percent increase since 2006-07. But the decline in working teacher librarians was three times that figure: Just 895 teacher librarians were employed in 2010-11 – 339 fewer than five years earlier.

The same was true among speech-language pathologists: More credentials were issued, but fewer people were employed in these areas.

California awarded 504 language, speech and hearing credentials in 2010-11 – a 40 percent increase over five years. At the same time, however, the number of speech-language pathology waivers remains high, with 439 waivers issued in 2010-11. The commission issues waivers when there are not enough credentialed individuals to fill positions.

In fact, since 2006-07, only in the past two years has the number of speech-language pathology credentials trumped the number of waivers, the report found. Overall employment for speech-language pathologists fell 8.4 percent in the five-year period to 4,646.

Only school counselors saw an increase in both the number of credentials issued and employment. The 1,166 school counseling credentials issued in 2010-11 represented a 14.8 percent jump over 2006-07. California's public schools in 2010-11 employed 8,201 counselors – a 4.7 percent increase.

The commission said the growing numbers of school counselors and school social workers, whose ranks climbed 20.2 percent to 417 in 2010-11, could be attributed in part to the Quality Education Investment Act of 2006. The act provides funding for the state's lowest-performing schools to improve student achievement.

Still, the commission said, California's student-to-counselor ratio remains among the worst in the nation: 49th in 2009-10, according to U.S. Department of Education data, with 810 students for every counselor. The national average at the time was 459 students to every counselor.

Via: http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/calif-schools-employing-fewer-nurses-librarians-16202

AB 2530 unanimously passed AB 2530

On May 21, 2012 the California Assembly unanimously passed AB 2530, a bill that would ban the most dangerous forms of shackling of incarcerated women who are pregnant. 

We want to thank everyone who took action on this bill through Take Action California.

We have two more hurdles to clear: the Senate & the Governor's office - This is the third year we've tried to outlaw the barbaric practice of shackling and with your help we can do it.
 

Please stay tuned. For more information contact: karen@prisonerswithchildren.org

PACE’s latest update on California’s K-12 education finds little progress, lots of challenges

The latest five-year assessment of the state of California’s K-12 public school system — conducted by the Policy Analysis for California Education, an independent research center — reports small progress in the face of persistent as well as unanticipated challenges like the recession.

Released May 3, the PACE report, “Getting Down to Facts-Five Years Later,” focuses on finance, governance, data systems and personnel issues from 2007 through 2011. It follows up on a similar investigation five years ago by Stanford University. PACE is based at UC Berkeley, Stanford University and the University of Southern California.

Authors of the first report said they hoped it would lead to new policies to streamline governance, simplify and rationalize school finance, improve educational information and assessment, and ensure that schools operate with enough topnotch staff.

“Our initial optimism was unwarranted,” says the new report, in an introduction by Susanna Loeb, an education professor at Stanford and a PACE director. She notes that while the issues raised in the first “Getting Down to the Facts” report have penetrated policy discussions, “the past five years have seen only small improvements” in the central problems identified five years ago, due in part to the severe economic recession.

The original report provided a comprehensive diagnosis of the issues facing California’s education system, and a framework for policies to move the state forward, according to David Plank, PACE’s executive director. He says that the latest report shows that the original report’s diagnosis and prescription “remain as relevant as five years ago.”  The recommendations include targeting resources to students who need them most, and reducing the burden of state regulation so local educators have more flexibility in how they use resources.

The new PACE report is being formally presented at a seminar for leading education policymakers and scholars today in Sacramento. At the seminar, USC’s Dan Schnur, who also is on the faculty of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, will lead discussion about the results of a related PACE/USC Rossier School of Educationonline poll on education issues, such as reform, funding, and taxes.

The full PACE report is available online. Among its key findings:

• The economic downturn led to reduced education spending across the state, with California general fund spending on education down 15 percent by the end of the last decade compared to its peak in 2007-2008.
• A series of proposals are circulating to make education finance more flexible, including plans for a weighted formula to allow adjustments for schools’ special or differing needs.
• The state’s education system is heavy on compliance and complexity, but light on data collection that could lead to improvements. However, California’s Longitudinal Student Data System (CALPADS) has been running for two years, conducting detailed analyses of student learning as well as accurate measures of dropout and graduation rates.
• State budget cuts have led to layoffs and reduced staff development, but the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing has upped its oversight of teacher education programs.
• While educational governance at all levels remains weak, improvements include: increased resource control for local authorities; more federal support through the Race to the Top initiative and stimulus/innovation funding; elimination of the state Office of the Secretary of Education to avoid duplication; and successful local initiatives to increase district accountability, flexibility and transparency and develop new ways to evaluate, compensate and support teachers.

Bruce Fuller, a PACE director and professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley, says he remains optimistic, noting that the report shows that “despite huge cuts to local schools, two governors have now advanced policies that cut central bureaucracy and move a richer share of dollars into classrooms” as  Sacramento tries “to lift, rather than over-regulate, teachers and classrooms.”

PACE investigators acknowledge in the latest report that they hope their research will help spur more “fruitful changes to state policy so that California can provide the educational opportunities that its students deserve.”

The current “Getting Down to The Facts” was supported by PACE’s core funders, including the California Education Policy Fund (a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors), the Dirk and Charlene Kabcenell Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation and the Stuart Foundation.

PACE works on long-term strategy for comprehensive policy reform and improved performance throughout California’s education system. It bridges the gap between research and policy, working with scholars from California’s leading universities and with state and local policymakers to increase the impact of academic research on educational policy in California.

Via: http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/05/03/pace-report-updates-state-of-k-12-education-in-california/

Calif. crackdown on junk food in schools paying off

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGO) -- There is some encouraging news about what California kids are eating. The state crackdown on junk food at school is apparently having a broader effect.

Intuitively, lawmakers knew taking junk food out of schools was a good thing. Now, new numbers back that up.

A new University of Illinois study is suggesting California's policies that ban junk food in school cafeterias is influencing teenagers' eating habits. It's been five years since the crackdown, and researchers found high school 

students are eating an average of 160 calories fewer calories a day than kids in other states, a trend that could help reverse obesity trends. They're also eating less fat and sugars.

"Studies are really showing that we sort of stopped the growth in the obesity epidemic, that it's leveling off and hopefully these kids are taking a stronger interest in nutrition and their health," said Anne Gaffney, R.D., a student nutrition specialist.

Like Elk Grove High School, California campuses don't sell sodas, unhealthy snacks and fried foods. You'll find fruits and vegetables, French fries that are baked and whole grains. Schools have even gotten rid of salt packets.

"At first, I was kind of upset because I like salt, but it is helping me eat a lot better. And that's what I actually want to do," said Diana Nagtalon, a high school senior.

High school senior Alexander Lunbang believes he'd actually be heavier today if junk food was readily available at school.

"This would be a large size, these shorts, this shirt. I do feel like I would be heavier," said Lunbang.

Now, 160 fewer calories a day may not be much, it's like a small bag of chips. But researchers say most children could avoid significant long-term weight gain by simply cutting out 100 to 200 extra calories a day.

But, students do bring junk food from home and they consume only 25 percent of their calories at school. Assm. Richard Pan, MD, D-Sacramento, who's also a pediatrician, says more needs to be done.

"We've just shown that in the school, we've created an environment where kids will take fewer calories. We can now use this as information to talk to parents about how do we create the environment at home," said Pan.

The study's author also noted the news is also encouraging for the Hispanic community, considering the high prevalence of obesity among Latino youth.

Via: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/politics&id=8655170

CSU Fullerton spends $300,000 to remodel president's house

In addition to a controversial 10 percent pay raise, incoming CSU Fullerton President Mildred Garcia will receive another benefit when she arrives on campus: a $300,000 remodel on the eight-bedroom historical house where she will live.

In March, the California State University Board of Trustees voted to give Garcia – the outgoing president of CSU Dominguez Hills in Carson – the maximum pay raise allowable under a new executive compensation cap approved by trustees in January. In addition to her base salary of $324,500, she gets free housing at the presidential estate and a $12,000-per-year car allowance.

The decision stoked outrage among some faculty and students, who said the raise sent the wrong message at a time of devastating budget cuts at CSU.

Also in March, CSU Fullerton began work on fixing up Garcia's future home, the historic C. Stanley Chapman house, also known as El Dorado Ranch. Located just a few miles from the downtown Fullerton campus, the two-story, eight-bedroom, 5,800-square-foot house is nestled on a 3.9-acre parcel with a tennis court. The property was last assessed at $3.4 million in 2011, property records show.

Before outgoing CSU Fullerton President Milton Gordon and his wife moved out of the estate in February, they resided there for 22 years. University officials say the house is in dire need of repair. It has received light maintenance over the years, but no major renovation since 1951, Bugbee said.Money for the construction does not come from state funding. It's from surplus revenue from one or more of the campus auxiliary organizations, which run commercial operations on campus, university spokesman Christopher Bugbee said.

But some say the move shows the university's misplaced priorities during lean times – whether it involves state funding or not. For the cost of the renovation, the university could pay for roughly 49 full scholarships for CSU Fullerton students, for example."Instead of directing the funding for our students, they are directing it towards the comfort of top executives," said Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, a frequent critic of the university's executive compensation practices.

"All of us would love to renovate our homes, to modernize it and all that. But when we don’t have the money, then you need to prioritize. Unfortunately, this is a classic example of the CSU, where the priorities are always towards the executives and not toward the students," Yee said.

The bulk of the construction, which is slated for completion in late June, involves upgrading the kitchen to better accommodate the many events and receptions held at El Dorado Ranch. The remodel also includes upgrades to lighting, electrical, plumbing and the alarm system.

The university will replace 20-year-old carpet, peeling wallpaper and old flooring, as well as perform some wood preservation and restoration, Bugbee said. Safety improvements, such as asbestos abatement and sewer line replacement, are also in the plans.

CSU Sacramento came under scrutiny by the California State Auditor in 2007 [PDF] because a university auxiliary organization spent $27,000 to remodel President Alexander Gonzalez's kitchen. In that case, Gonzalez owned the home.

Garcia is slated to move in July 1. If the renovations aren't complete by that time, she will receive a $5,000-per-month housing allowance until the house is finished, according to the terms of her offer letter.

Bugbee said the renovation plans were prompted not by any request or demand from Garcia, but by the need for repairs. The remodel was authorized by interim President Willie Hagan.

Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association, called the university's decision "another round of tone-deafness." The 23,000 members of the association began voting this month on whether to authorize a fall strike after the collective bargaining process for CSU faculty members stalled.

Meanwhile, CSU officials plan to cut enrollment by up to 25,000 students in 2013-14, and they have said that if voters do not pass Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative come November, the system will lay off up to 3,000 faculty and staff.

"If you have $300,000 available, where are you going to spend it?" Taiz said. "Spending it on renovating the president’s house is an odd choice. Even if the money is coming from foundations, there’s probably a lot of students who could use some scholarship money right now."

A 2001 Los Angeles Times profile of El Dorado Ranch described a two-story foyer with "rich birch paneling," a living room with a grand piano and crystal light fixtures, and a library with a wood-burning marble fireplace and wingback chairs.

Bugbee said the house is not as grand as people assume it is. 

"It’s not the palatial specter that people expect when they hear about the El Dorado Ranch," Bugbee said. "It’s a well-appointed, reasonable structure."

Via: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/04/27/cal-state-fullerton-spends-300k-to-renovate-home-of-incoming-president/

Gov. Brown increases prison budget, cuts basic services

Predicting a $16 billion budget shortfall, Gov. Jerry Brown today proposed an additional $8 billion in spending cuts. Yet his May Revise budget shows that the governor and the Department of Corrections hope to make as few changes as possible to the bloated CDCR in order to come into compliance with the Supreme Court’s Plata ruling to reduce overcrowding, advocates charged today.

“Of course we applaud the goal of reducing corrections spending; however, the way to do that isn’t to increase the corrections budget,” comments Debbie Reyes of the California Prison Moratorium Project. The governor’s plan includes increasing Corrections spending from $8.082 billion up to $8.889 billion in this budget year, an increase of $807 million. “Why are we increasing General Fund spending on Corrections by 10 percent while we’re cutting In Home Supportive Services, cutting funds for our public colleges, cutting Workforce Development and cutting Health and Human Services?” asks Reyes.

Despite the court ruling and Gov. Brown’s criminal justice realignment plan, the May Revise calls for expanding California’s prison system.

“Building more prisons that we don’t need and can’t afford is the policy that got us into this mess in the first place,” commented Emily Harris of Californians United for a Responsible Budget. “CDCR’s approach to the intertwined budget and prison crises has been to hit the pause button, but now they’re ready to fast forward more prison and jail cells. It is past time to reverse a failed policy that has made California poorer at the expense of our most vulnerable residents.”

The savings proposed by closing the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) are eliminated by plans to expand new infill beds at three existing prisons, convert the closed DeWitt Nelson Youth Facility to an adult prison, expand the Folsom Transitional Treatment Facility to house women, and open and operate the new California Health Facility.

“We’re very disappointed that Gov. Brown has turned from the opportunity to continue to reduce the number of people in prison. Now is the time for a real overhaul of the sentencing and parole laws that fueled the growth of the system over the past three decades,” said Gail Brown of Life Support Alliance. Today’s proposal suggests returning to the courts to increase the population reduction benchmark from 137.5 percent to 145 percent.

Gail Brown continues, “If we implemented the Alternative Custody Program and compassionate release, expanded medical parole, developed a geriatric parole process and actually released life-term prisoners who are being held way past their minimum release date as prescribed by law, we wouldn’t be trying to build all these expensive new prison beds.”

The budget proposes slashing authorization to borrow over $4.1 billion from AB900 prison construction funds but allocates an additional $500 million to counties to expand jail capacity, adding to the $1.2 billion awarded to counties earlier this year. “The governor is not solving the prison crisis by encouraging a bigger jail crisis,” said Kevin Michael Key of Critical Resistance. “If more state money is to flow to the counties as a part of realignment, Sacramento should be encouraging counties to spend that money on social services.”

“Let’s invest our scarce tax dollars in Californians rather than sink it into building more jails,” added Key.

California Prison Moratorium Project, Life Support Alliance and Critical Resistance are all members of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, a statewide coalition of more than 50 organizations working to CURB prison spending by reducing the number of prisons and prisoners in California. CURB’s detailed response to the Corrections provisions of the May Revise and CDCR’s “Future of California Corrections” report can be found at http://curbprisonspending.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CURB-response-to-CDCR-Future-of-California-Corrections-Final-1.pdf. Bay View staff contributed to this story.

via SFBayview