Congress passes bill renewing Violence Against Women Act

The House on Thursday passed and sent to President Obama a far-reaching extension of the Violence Against Women Act. The vote came after House Republican leaders, cognizant of divisions in their own ranks and the need to improve their faltering image among women voters, accepted a bill that cleared the Senate two weeks ago on a strong bipartisan vote.

The bill renews a 1994 law that has set the standard for how to protect women, and some men, from domestic abuse and prosecute abusers. Thursday's 286-138 vote came after House lawmakers rejected a more limited approach offered by Republicans.

It was the third time this year that House Speaker John Boehner has allowed Democrats and moderates in his own party prevail over the GOP's much larger conservative wing. As with a Jan. 1 vote to avoid the fiscal cliff and legislation to extend Superstorm Sandy aid, a majority of House Republicans voted against the final anti-violence bill.

The law has been renewed twice before without controversy, but it lapsed in 2011 as it was caught up in the partisan battles that now divide Congress. Last year, the House refused to go along with a Senate-passed bill that would have made clear that lesbians, gays, immigrants and Native American women should have equal access to Violence Against Women Act programs.

It appeared the scenario would be repeated this year when the House introduced a bill that didn't mention the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and watered down a Senate provision allowing tribal courts to prosecute non-Indians who attack their Indian partners on tribal lands.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., who has spent months working on the issue, defended the Republican plan: "Our goal in strengthening the Violence Against Women Act is simple. We want to help all women who are faced with violent, abusive and dangerous situations. ... We want them to know that those who commit these horrendous crimes will be punished."

But the House proposal encountered quick and strong opposition from women's groups, the White House, Democrats and some Republicans, and on Tuesday, the GOP leadership agreed to give the House a vote on the Senate bill. It passed immediately after the House rejected Cantor's bill, 257-166, with 60 Republicans voting against it.

The GOP decision to show the white flag came after the party's poor showing among women in last fall's election and Democratic success in framing the debate over the Violence Against Women Act as Republican policy hostile to women. President Barack Obama won 55 percent of the women's vote last November. Republican presidential candidates haven't won the women's vote since 1984, when Ronald Reagan held a 12-point lead over Walter Mondale among women.

The anti-violence bill should never have become partisan, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a sponsor of the Senate bill. "That is why I applaud moderate Republican voices in the House who stood up to their leadership to demand a vote on the Senate bill."

The Senate passed its bill on a 78-22 vote with every Democrat, every woman senator and 23 of 45 Republicans supporting it.

A turning point in the debate came earlier this month, when 19 Republicans, led by Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J., wrote a letter to their leadership urging them to accept a bipartisan plan that would reach all victims of domestic violence. The letter, Runyan said, was a catalyst in showing the leadership "a willingness of people in the House to really compromise" and see that the Senate "has a pretty good bill."

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., a Native American, also wrote his Republican colleagues saying he was voting against the House alternative because "it falls short of giving tribes what they need to keep their women safe."

American Indian women suffer incidents of domestic violence at rates more than double national averages, but American Indian courts don't have jurisdiction over non-American Indians, and federal prosecutors don't take up about half the violence cases on reservations because of lack of resources to pursue crimes on isolated American Indian lands. The Senate bill would give American Indian courts the ability to prosecute non-American Indians for a limited set of crimes limited to domestic violence and violations of protecting orders. Opponents have said that raises constitutional issues.

The Violence Against Women Act is credited with helping reduce domestic violence incidents by two-thirds over the past two decades. The Senate bill would authorize some $659 million a year over five years to fund current programs that provide grants for transitional housing, legal assistance, law enforcement training and hotlines.

The Senate bill adds stalking to the list of crimes that make immigrants eligible for protection and authorizes programs dealing with sexual assault on college campuses and with efforts to reduce the backlog in rape kit analyses. It reauthorizes the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

via Fox News

New California bill would require adult care homes to notify families, police when residents go missing

A Contra Costa state assemblywoman has introduced a bill that would subject adult care facilities to strict notification requirements when a patient goes missing.

Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan's bill, AB 620, would require adult care facilities to create safety plans and contact police and family members of residents who vanish. Currently, the facilities are required only to notify the state.

"It's common sense for you and me," said Gayle Larson, a field representative for Buchanan, a San Ramon Democrat. "But it's not required. If it's not required, things can slip through the cracks. And people have slipped through the cracks with pretty significant consequences."

Two such cases in Concord -- one with fatal results -- were detailed in this newspaper in November.

The fatal case was the story of 86-year-old Yolanda Membreno, who walked away from Julia's Home in Concord on Sept. 30. Employees did not contact police until more than an hour after noticing her missing. A few hours later, she was found dead on a playground about 100 yards away. An autopsy determined she died of heat stroke.

In the second, Caitlin Lester, a 24-year-old developmentally disabled woman, left a Concord facility last year and wandered the streets for several hours until police were contacted.

Buchanan's bill came at the urging of Caitlin's mother, Denise Lester.

"I am just beside myself with joy," Lester said Wednesday. "It's encouraging -- there's strength in numbers."

Caitlin Lester expressed her happiness non-verbally during a conversation with her mother.

"I explained to her how a bill works, how it ends up at the governor's desk," Denise Lester said. "I told her, 'We're going to make it so that this isn't going to happen anymore, what happened to you.' And she gets it."

In its current form, Buchanan's bill does not spell out the maximum length of time a patient is missing before facility workers must contact police and family. Larson said that will be negotiated later.

The bill will first be assigned to a policy committee before it winds its way through the legislative process. If approved, a person who violates the provisions of the bill could be found guilty of a misdemeanor.

"Everyone's reaction is 'Of course you'd call police immediately,' " Lester said. "When you tell them 'No,' that's when people's jaws drop. Basic human dignity is missing in this equation."

via Mercury News

New Collaborative Parter: 4e

Dear friends, 

We are excited to announce that Take Action California has a new collaborative partner joining forces in our shared agenda for social change. We'd like to introduce: 4e. The mission of 4e is to create opportunities for families, individuals, or groups to grow in liberty, justice, peace, and harmony for the common good through the promotion of a culture of education, empowerment, equity and excellence. For more information about 4e and their work, please contact Alex Avila at 909-713-3145. You may also reach them at their mailing address, P.O. Box 2051, San Bernardino, CA 92406. 

California braces for impending cuts from federal sequestration

California's defense industry is bracing for a $3.2-billion hit with the federal budget cuts that are expected to take effect Friday.

But myriad other federally funded programs also are threatened, and the combined effect is expected to slow the momentum that California's economy has been building over the last year.

As the state braces for pain from so-called sequestration, there are warnings of long delays at airport security checkpoints, potential slowdowns in cargo movement at harbors and cutbacks to programs, including meals for seniors and projects to combat neighborhood blight.

Despite the grim scenarios from local and state officials, economists say the cuts' overall blow to the economy would be modest, felt more acutely in regions such as defense-heavy San Diego and by Californians dependent on federal programs, such as college students who rely on work-study jobs to pay for school.

Critics say the cuts come at an inopportune time because the economic recovery in the U.S. and California is still weak.

"We need stimulus, not premature austerity," Gov. Jerry Brown said during a break at the National Governors Assn. meeting in Washington.

Rep. John Campbell (R-Irvine) contends that critics of the cuts are exaggerating the effects.

"If we can't do this, what can we do" to reduce Washington's red ink, he asked. "We ought to be panicked about the day when people won't buy our debt anymore because we borrowed too much."

If automatic spending cuts occur as planned, the growth in the country's gross domestic product is likely to slow by 0.4 percentage points this year, from about 2% to 1.6%, economists said.

California's GDP would see a similar slowdown. The state stands to lose as much as $10 billion in federal funding this year, according to Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto.

Levy said the more than $1 trillion in cuts planned over the next decade include "items in the federal budget that invest for the future," such as support for research and clean energy, that particularly affect California because of its "innovation economy."

The ripple effects the cuts might have on business and consumer confidence — which would further dampen economic activity — remain to be seen, said Jason Sisney, a deputy at the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.

"We're at a point where gains in housing and construction markets have begun to take hold," Sisney said. "A slowdown from sequestration would come at just the moment that the economy was beginning to right itself."

Jerry Nickelsburg, a UCLA economist who writes a quarterly economic forecast on the Golden State, said the state's recent economic gains would provide a buffer against sequestration.

"California can absorb it," Nickelsburg said. "Will it slow economic growth? The answer is yes. Will it result in negative economic growth? I think the answer is no."

Los Angeles officials project that the city would lose more than $100 million at a time when they're struggling to close a hole in the city's budget.

Douglas Guthrie, chief executive of the Los Angeles city housing authority, said Monday that rent subsidies to as many as 15,000 low-income families would be cut an average $200 a month, forcing many families to search for less expensive housing. His agency also might face as many as 80 layoffs in an already reduced workforce.

But Guthrie said in a letter to the Los Angeles City Council that the housing authority must plan for the "painful consequences" of the federal budget cuts and is preparing to send warning notices to participants in the housing assistance program "as soon as we see that the cuts are made and there are no immediate prospects to resolve the budget crisis."

At Yosemite National Park, snow plowing of a key route over the Sierra would be delayed, ranger-led programs are likely to be reduced and the park would face "less frequent trash pickup, loss of campground staff, and reduced focus on food storage violations, all of which contribute to visitor safety concerns and increased bear mortality rates," according to the National Park Service.

Some programs, such as Social Security, would be spared from the $85 billion in cuts nationwide due to kick in Friday. But defense programs are expected to be cut by about 13% for the remainder of the fiscal year and domestic spending by about 9%, according to the White House budget office.

The Obama administration sought Monday to highlight the effects close to home in an effort to step up the pressure on Congress to replace across-the-board cuts with more targeted reductions and new tax revenue collected from taxpayers earning more than $1 million a year.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is bracing for a loss of $37 million a year in federal funding. Supt. John Deasy said Monday that he is sending a letter to the California congressional delegation warning about the "potential very grave impact" of the cuts on Los Angeles schools.

Rachelle Pastor Arizmendi, director of early childhood education at the Pacific Asian Consortium for Employment in Los Angeles, said she anticipated that the cuts would cost her agency $980,000 in federal Head Start funding. That would force PACE to eliminate preschool for about 120 children ages 3 to 5.

"It's not just a number," she said. "This is closing down classrooms. This is putting our children behind when they're going to kindergarten."

The nonprofit serves about 2,000 children, providing most of them two meals a day in addition to preschool education. The cuts would mean PACE would have to lay off four of its 20 teachers, forcing the closure of eight Head Start classrooms, Arizmendi said.

via LA Times

Cutting-edge California tunnels poised to open

 Two slick new mile-long tunnels are undergoing final safety tests this month, poised to divert motorists away from an ocean cliff-hanging roadway dubbed Devil’s Slide south of San Francisco to a smooth, Alpine-like passageway unlike any in the U.S. today.

The $439 million project, paid for with federal emergency funds, features massive exhaust fans, carbon-monoxide sensors and a pair of 1,000-foot bridges soaring 125 feet above a grassy horse ranch.

A series of 10 fireproof shelters are staggered between the double bores, and remote cameras dangle from the ceiling, monitored by an round-the-clock safety staff of 15.

The tunnels, the first in the U.S. designed and built with an Austrian technique, have a Euro-glossiness to them, with white, glistening walls and shiny pipes gliding down a rounded ceiling.

There’s a bit of theme-park vibe as well, with retaining walls and fake boulders at the entrance sculpted by the man who shaped and molded Disneyland’s Indiana Jones ride.

“A new highway tunnel is a rare beast in this country, and what they are doing at Devil’s Slide is certainly different than anything we’ve seen in the U.S.,” said Neil Gray, director of government affairs at the Washington, D.C.-based International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association.

The Tom Lantos Tunnels, named after the late congressman, are the first tunnels built in California in more than 50 years.

There are only a handful of tunnels under construction in the U.S. today, including the Alaskan Way tunnel in Seattle, and the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel, just 34 miles east of Devil’s Slide in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area.

Unlike tunnels built to relieve commuter congestion, this new pair, 15 miles south of San Francisco, will divert a treacherous 1.2-mile stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway that constantly erodes and frequently collapses.

It’s a spectacular section of road that was never meant to be.Just three years after its 1937 completion, the road tumbled into pounding waves below. It has fallen eight times since, causing costly closures that have devastated communities to the south — Montara, Moss Beach, El Granada, Princeton and Half Moon Bay — that depend on the route for daily commutes and for tourism from motorists heading south from San Francisco.

Each closure turns a 7-mile scenic drive from Pacifica to Montara into a 45-mile detour through the hills, and some have lasted for months.

In addition to slides, every year there are serious — often deadly — accidents on the narrow roadway, which twists so sharply that drivers are forced to slow to less than 25 mph. Reckless motorists have plunged hundreds of feet down the cliffs or drifted into oncoming traffic, resulting in horrifying collisions. Plans are to turn the road, once closed, into a pedestrian and cycling park.

In 2006, voters declared 3-to-1 that they wanted the more expensive tunnels instead of a state-backed 4.5-mile road that would cut inland around a rugged, sage-covered mountain, crossing streams and paving over sensitive plants and habitat.

Neither on budget nor on time, it was a five-year,
$240 million project when it launched in 2006. Seven years and $439 million later, Y. Nien Wang, project manager for design contractor HNTB, said seismic concerns, along with few existing standards and regulations, made it a particularly challenging project.

The Federal Highway Administration is only now developing national tunnel inspection standards, and doesn’t track information on tunnels in any systematic way. And since this was the first tunnel constructed in decades in California, there were many first-time decisions to be made about seismic safety and design.

“A lot of what we did will be a model for future tunnel work in California,” said Wang.

The one-lane tunnels with wide shoulders for stalled cars and bicycles are built to withstand a magnitude 7.5 to 8.0 earthquake, the maximum movement geologists estimate for this reach of the San Andreas fault.

Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus said the site’s geology also added costs. With one set of machinery for soft rock, a different set for hard rock, crews dug with what were at the time the two largest excavators in the country, 148 tons each.

And then there were the red-legged frogs. Early on, planners realized that at least one of the 256 streams this protected species lives in ran close to the tunnel sites. Thus, a team of three biologists were hired to protect whatever frogs they could find.

via Seattle Times

Federal cuts could cost California billions

Gov. Jerry Brown arrives in Washington today to meet with the nation's governors as federal leaders deal with a pending deadline for budget cuts that could damage California's fragile recovery.

The across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration could lead to cutbacks in defense, healthcare and other areas, putting California's fiscal health in danger.

Jason Sisney, a spokesman for the state's legislative analyst, said the cuts could mean "a few billion dollars" less for state coffers because of the resulting slowdown in economic growth.

When asked about the possibility of those cuts taking effect, Brown refused to say whether he wanted Congress and President Obama to renegotiate. He said the wrangling in Washington only underscores the need for state budget-makers to be fiscally prudent.

"I can’t discern what they’re going to do in Washington because I'm not even sure they know themselves," Brown said. "But the takeaway for California is that we have to maintain a prudent surplus because we could lose hundreds of millions of dollars by decisions that Congress makes."

via LA Times

The Solution To California's Problems Is Beneath Its Feet — But Rich Environmentalists Are Having None Of It

SHALE exploitation in North Dakota has lifted incomes and brought unemployment down to 3.2% of the workforce, the lowest level in the country.

Californians are rarely found looking longingly towards the Midwest. But the revelation that their state, with unemployment at 9.8% and America’s highest poverty rate, may be sitting on the largest deposit of shale oil in the continental United States has led some to wonder if their salvation lies 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) beneath them.

California has been an oil state since 1865. Thanks largely to reserves that can still be tapped by conventional means, it remains the third-largest producer in the country. Output has lately been declining by 2-3% a year, according to the state’s Energy Commission. But in 2011 the federal Energy Information Administration declared that the Monterey shale formation, which spans 1,750 square miles (450,000 hectares) in southern and central California, held 15.42 billion barrels of recoverable oil, 64% of the total estimated to be in the 48 contiguous states.

That should be an attractive prospect for a state with a history of unemployment and fiscal woe. But environmental scruples have long been as characteristic of California as budgetary mismanagement, and a battle is brewing. Opponents of the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") technique often used to extract oil and gas from shale rock in "unconventional" drilling say regulations proposed by the state in December do not adequately protect against groundwater contamination or air pollution. Some mutter about earthquakes. Such concerns find receptive ears in a seismically active state with a large farm sector.

The oilmen reply that fracking has been conducted in California for years without trouble. Moreover, they add, surely the environmentally concerned should want as much Californian oil as possible produced under the state’s tight regulations, rather than imported from places with looser regimes. Some see an emerging split between inland counties, which tend to have higher unemployment and more conservative politics, and the conservationists along the coast. The row will rumble on, with revised rules expected later this year.

For some, the complex geology of the Monterey shale opens up alternative means of extraction. Santa Maria Energy, a small producer in Santa Barbara County, about 150 miles (240 km) north-west of Los Angeles, extracts 200 barrels of crude a day from the shale at depths of around 2,500 feet by exploiting natural fractures in the rock. Although the firm has no plans to begin fracking, David Pratt, its president, likes to say that the Monterey is California’s way out of the "fiscal toilet".

Some of the "Saudi America" talk is overdone. And even if California does begin exploiting the Monterey aggressively, an economic miracle is unlikely. California’s population is over 50 times bigger than North Dakota’s, and, as Kevin Klowden of the Milken Institute, a think-tank, points out, the opportunity costs of giving over land to drilling may be far higher in California than in some other states.

No producer has yet found a way to begin large-scale extraction from the Monterey. But despite the geological and regulatory uncertainties, several firms have placed large bets on its future. And other states in the region sitting on shale reserves are forging merrily ahead. At a Senate hearing on February 12th John Hickenlooper, Colorado’s Democratic governor, staked out his position by announcing that he had once drunk a glass of fracking fluid.

Meanwhile, the technology that kick-started the revolution marches on. Some speak excitedly of fracking that uses saline rather than fresh water, or no water at all. The industry has moved so quickly in recent years, says Dan Kirschner of the Northwest Gas Association, a trade body, that it is starting to seem odd to call shale resources "unconventional".

via Business Insider

Bankrupt San Bernardino hires new manager for California city

San Bernardino was forced to look for a new city manager after its acting city manager, Andrea Travis-Miller, quit.

Her resignation coincides with the departure of the city's finance chief. Both had been the key officials overseeing the city's bankruptcyapplication and their departures threaten the city's ability to achieve it. They had more knowledge than anybody else of the city's finances and the experience to answer questions from the court and creditors.

The city council voted to hire Allen Parker to replace Travis Miller. According to his resume provided to the city, Parker has been an economic development consultant since 2006.

From June 2001 until December 2006, according to his resume, Parker was chief administrative officer of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, a federally recognized tribe in California. Before that he was village manager of Maywood, Illinois.

The federal judge overseeing San Bernardino's bankruptcy application said in a court hearing on Tuesday that the new city manager would be confronted with a steep learning curve.

Various creditors are demanding a wealth of financial documents from the city. The city must also produce a detailed bankruptcy blueprint to explain how it intends to deal with its creditors, a key part of proving its eligibility for bankruptcy.

The city council considered two applicants for the job, and voted unanimously to hire Parker.

"Allen Parker brings a wealth of city management experience to San Bernardino," the mayor, Pat Morris said. "I have great confidence in his ability...to guide San Bernardino through the difficult decisions we must make in bankruptcy."

San Bernardino, a city of 210,000 about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, filed for bankruptcy protection on August 1, citing a $46 million deficit for the current fiscal year and little scope to meet its day-to-day expenses. It was the third California city to file for bankruptcy last year, following Stockton and Mammoth Lakes.

The city's biggest creditor, the California Public Employee Pension Fund (Calpers), has opposed San Bernardino's quest to seek bankruptcy protection. Without it, the struggling city will likely face multiple lawsuits in state court for unpaid bills, at a time when its officials say it can barely make payroll.

The city pegs its debt to America's biggest public pension fund at $143 million.

San Bernardino has not made its $1.2 million, twice monthly payment to Calpers since its bankruptcy declaration last August.

No city has ever unilaterally suspended payments to Calpers, which manages pension plans for state government employees and many municipalities and local government agencies around California.

The bankruptcy could be a test case as to whether the pensions of government workers take precedence over other payments in a municipal bankruptcy - a high-stakes issue for pension plans and their beneficiaries, and for the Wall Street bondholders who lend money to governments.

In a statement, Calpers said: "We are very pleased to have Mr. Parker stepping into his new role as city manager of San Bernardino and our executives have already reached out to him personally to welcome him and begin a dialogue with Calpers."

via Reuters

California reveals details of health-law insurance plans

Consumers are getting their first glimpse at what health insurance will look like in California as the state prepares to implement the federal healthcare law. On Wednesday, state officials will spell out the details on policies available next year to people buying their own coverage. In January 2014, most Americans will be required to have health insurance or face a penalty.

Federal law established four broad plans of coverage — Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze — whose benefits vary based on the level of out-of-pocket expenses that consumers are required to pay. A Platinum plan, the most expensive, would require policyholders to pay about 10% of the cost of care, while the Bronze plan, the least expensive, pegs the patient share at 40%.

Now for the first time, California is laying out the specific co-pays and deductibles that many policyholders will face when going to see a doctor, get a lab test or visit an emergency room.

Nationwide, President Obama's Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover certain services, such as maternity care and prescription drugs, and they must accept all applicants regardless of preexisting medical conditions. But the federal law allows states to go beyond those minimum standards and set stricter rules.

State officials said they took this extra step to help Californians get the best deal when they shop for insurance. Consumers will be able to buy these policies through Covered California, the state-run marketplace for health insurance.

"For the first time, all Californians will be able to make an apples-to-apples comparison of their health plan choices in 2014," said Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California. "Today's health insurance market is a shell game where insurers are trying to avoid paying for expensive care and consumers don't know what's covered or not covered."

Consumer advocates applauded California's move. But some healthcare experts warned that policyholders will still have to navigate a lot of jargon. And the ultimate cost of this coverage won't be known until the state negotiates rates with health insurers later this year.

To help Californians get some idea of what they might pay, officials are launching a website Wednesday to provide estimates of monthly premiums. The federal law grants premium subsidies to families earning up to about $93,000 a year to make coverage more affordable. It also expands Medi-Cal coverage to lower-income people. California estimates take those subsidies into account.

For example, the state says that a family of four earning $35,000 would pay less than $120 a month for health insurance with the help of federal subsidies. At $47,000 a year, a family's monthly premiums would be $247 a month.

Premiums are just one factor in the health insurance cost equation. Patients must also pay out of pocket for a wide range of medical care.

Under the state requirements to be issued Wednesday, for example, a Silver plan would have a $2,000 annual deductible and a $45 co-pay for a primary-care visit. A more expensive Platinum plan would have no deductible and a $25 co-pay for a regular doctor's visit. Lower-income policyholders would pay substantially less because of federal aid.

via The LA Times

New California Field Poll shows support for 'soda tax

Three months after a penny-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages was trounced by Richmond voters, a new statewide poll has given hope to supporters of "soda tax" measures.

According to a new Field Poll, only 40 percent of voters support a soda tax when first asked, but support increases dramatically to 68 percent if the proceeds are earmarked for improved school nutrition and physical activity programs.

The poll could help propel efforts in California and other states to put a soda tax on statewide ballots.

The survey found support for a tax is especially strong among Latinos, Asian-Americans and African-Americans. The poll also showed that 75 percent of registered California voters, including 85 percent of Latinos, see a link between drinking sugary sodas and a person's chance of becoming overweight or obese. But fewer voters believe energy drinks or sports drinks carry the same health risks.

"I think this poll shows that a campaign either statewide or locally in cities has an excellent chance," said Wendel Brunner, Contra Costa County's director of public health.

But officials of the beverage industry, which fiercely fought the Richmond measure, downplayed the poll results.

"I don't think the voters are ready for a tax as presented in the poll because voters (eventually) learn that most of the added sugar in the American diet is from other sources," said Chuck Finnie, a spokesman for the American Beverage Association. "They come to understand that singling out a particular product for special treatment is not good policy.

"Californians are very health conscious," he added. "But the poll is almost designed to overstate."

Field surveyed 1,184 registered California voters by telephone Oct. 17-24. The margin of error for the poll, which was conducted in six languages, was plus or minus 3 percentage points. It was the third in a series of annual statewide surveys on childhood obesity conducted on behalf of the California Endowment, a health foundation.

Richmond's Measure N was the first in the country to propose a local merchant tax on sales of beverages containing added sugar, a category comprising more than 700 products and brands. The measure would have generated $2 million to $4 million in annual revenue initially.

Proponents insisted the revenue generated from the tax would go to recreation and childhood obesity programs. But Proposition 13, passed in 1978, requires that any local tax for a specific expenditure receive two-thirds of the vote. So soda tax proponents also put Measure O on the ballot to direct the revenue from Measure N towards youth health and recreation programs.

Measure O passed with 63 percent approval, but it was a moot point because 67 percent of Richmond voters said no to Measure N.

A similar measure was also defeated by a similar margin in El Monte in Southern California.

The beverage industry funneled more than $2.5 million into Richmond to fight the measure, appealing to minority groups and painting opponents as white elitists seeking to impose new taxes on the working poor and minority businesses. Tax opponents, bolstered by an expensive and sophisticated campaign run by a San Francisco consulting firm, consistently highlighted the idea that the tax was overly broad and would hit products ranging from nutritional shakes for seniors to baby formulas.

"There wasn't a billboard available in town that hadn't been bought," Brunner said.

But soda tax advocates clearly aren't giving up.

Former Richmond Councilman Jeff Ritterman, a primary proponent of Measure N, said that he is working with colleagues in Sacramento to draft a statewide soda tax initiative that would directly tie tax revenues to specific health programs to combat obesity, with only a voter majority approval required to pass. In addition, soda tax advocates are trying to get similar measures on the ballot in Hawaii, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island.

Despite scientific research showing a link between obesity and other non-soda sugar-sweetened beverages, such as energy drinks and sports drinks, the Field Poll indicated that fewer voters see this linkage. Only 42 percent think regularly drinking energy drinks like Red Bull, Rockstar or Monster definitely increases a person's chances of being overweight or obese. And just 26 percent said this about sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade.

UC San Francisco obesity researcher Nancy Adler explained the discrepancy by suggesting that people may see sodas as only empty calories but perceive positive qualities from energy drinks or sports drinks. Also, she said, there is a perception that someone may drink those all day long but may have only one or two energy or sports drinks per day and therefore perceive less of a health risk for those drinks.

Adler said there are no positive health benefits for any sugary beverage. "There's only possible health risks and definite health risks," she said.

Aside from a soda tax, the increased perception of soda's link to obesity among minority groups, especially Latinos, suggests education campaigns sponsored by California's Department of Public Health are working, according to Marjorie Freedman, an associate professor of nutrition at San Jose State. "That actually means the message is getting across."

via Mercury News

Southern California home prices rise; foreclosures fall statewide

Southern California’s housing market in January posted strong median home price gains as new foreclosure starts plummeted dramatically across the state.

The six-county region's median home price rose 23.5% from the same month a year earlier to $321,000, according to real estate research firm DataQuick. Home sales rose 10.6% to 16,058 over the same period.

The rise in home prices came as foreclosure starts in California took a massive tumble. The foreclosure decline came as new state laws aimed at prohibiting certain aggressive bank repossession practices went into effect. 

The real estate website ForeclosureRadar.com reported a 60.5% decline in the number of default notices issued in California in January compared with December. The number of default notices — the first formal step in the state’s foreclosure process — fell 77.7% from December 2011. A total of 4,500 such filings were logged last month, the lowest number since at least September 2006, when the website’s records begin.

The website gave no explanation for the sharp decrease in notices of default, but noted that the drop coincided with a package of tough new laws that provide homeowners with some of the nation's strongest protections from bank repossession practices taking effect in January.

Most notably, the Homeowner Bill of Rights bans the practice of “dual tracking,” in which a lender seizes a home even while negotiating a lower mortgage payment with the owner.

Passed last year, the legislative package was sponsored by California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris and written by 10 Democratic lawmakers.

The laws also outlawed so-called robo-signing -- the improper or faulty processing of foreclosure documents -- and would allow state agencies and private citizens to sue financial institutions, under limited conditions, for economic compensation and for additional civil damages of up to $50,000 if lenders willfully, intentionally or recklessly violate the law.

via LA Times

California bill would ban teen drivers from using Smart car technology

California minors are already banned from using their smartphones behind the wheel, even with a hands-free device.

But new legislation introduced in the state Senate would expand those rules to include their use of new technology while driving.

Senate Bill 194, by Stockton Democrat Cathleen Galgiani, would broaden the state's ban on talking on the phone and texting while driving for motorists under 18, prohibiting those drivers from using any "electronic wireless communications device," even if it's hands-free. The aim of that change is to make sure drivers with provisional licenses don't use touch-screen or voice-command technologies that have been introduced in new car models.

Mercedes-Benz, for example, made headlines last month by announcing a new feature that provides Facebook access through a car.

Drivers caught breaking the law would face the same fines issued for violating the current hands-free law – $20 for a first offense and $50 for subsequent stops. Those rates go up significantly when court fees are factored in.

Galgiani spokesman Thomas Lawson said the senator decided to introduce the bill after hearing from the California Highway Patrol about the dangerous and sometimes deadly effects of young teen drivers being distracted behind the wheel. He said the CHP, which is sponsoring the bill, estimates that half of all teens pulled over were texting or using other technology at the time of the violation.

"Even though they may not be manually distracted, they could be visually or cognitively distracted by using Siri and Bluetooth technology and touch-screen technology on the vehicles," he said. "This hopefully allows them to focus on the one task at hand. The most important task is driving."

via The Tribune

Inmate lawsuits cost California $200 million

Gov. Jerry Brown has begun aggressively challenging federal court oversight of California's prison system by highlighting what he says is a costly conflict of interest: The private law firms representing inmates and the judges' own hand-picked authorities benefit financially by keeping the cases alive.

How much are they making?

A tally by The Associated Press, compiled from three state agencies, shows California taxpayers have spent $182 million for inmates' attorneys and court-appointed authorities over the past 15 years. The payments cover a dozen lawsuits filed over the treatment of state prisoners, parolees and incarcerated juveniles, some of which have been settled.

The total exceeds $200 million when the state's own legal costs are added.

While the amounts are a blip on California's budget, they provide a continuous income stream for the private attorneys and experts involved in the ongoing litigation. And that is the point Brown is trying to make.

The AP sought the tally after the Democratic governor began using court filings and public appearances to call for an end to two major lawsuits that have forced the state to spend billions of dollars improving its medical and mental health care for prison inmates. Brown says the complaints are expensive, frivolous and motivated by attorneys' own financial interest.

"They don't want to go away," he said last month, standing behind a stack of court documents. "I mean, the name of the game here is, 'Come to Sacramento and get your little piece of the pie.'"

Brown says that, thanks to recent overhauls, California now offers inmates the best medical and mental health care of any prison system in the nation.

Inmates' lawyers and the court-appointed authorities overseeing inmate medical and mental health say the system, with more than 132,000 inmates, remains crowded and still has problems with suicides and mentally ill prisoners who deserve better care. They say they are not motivated by profit, but by a desire to protect prisoners' constitutional right to be free from cruel treatment.

"It's ridiculous for the governor to merely characterize these cases as being about money, when in fact these cases have been the only impetus in the last 20 years for reducing the prison population and improving conditions," said Donald Specter, director of the nonprofit Prison Law Office in Berkeley, which has won several major cases against the state.

The nonprofit, which has taken the lead in suing the state over inmate health care, and other legal firms have been paid $8.3 million in that case.

Many of the lawsuits are continuing despite the billions of dollars spent to improve treatment for the state's felons and a massive realignment of the state's penal system. The realignment has transferred responsibility for incarcerating tens of thousands of convicts from the state to the counties to reduce prison crowding.

Brown says inmate care now exceeds constitutional standards. He argues that what he called "the prison lobby" - lawyers and the court-appointed special master overseeing penitentiary improvements - is perpetuating the legal action to make money.

"We've got hundreds of lawyers wandering around the prisons looking for problems," he said.

The state has paid nearly $83 million to private law firms and the court-appointed authorities involved in the two major lawsuits that have forced the state to reduce its prison population and improve inmate medical and mental health treatment, according to the figures provided at the AP's request. The costs were provided by the corrections department, the state Department of Justice and the prison medical receiver's office and compiled by the AP.

In his budget address last month, Brown said the money that would be saved by ending court oversight in the mental health and health care cases could be spent instead on inmate education, substance abuse treatment and other rehabilitation programs, as well as to supervise convicts once they leave prison.

J. Clark Kelso, the court-appointed receiver who controls California's prison health care system, is paid $224,000 annually, and his administration costs taxpayers about $2 million a year. The receivership has spent $2.4 million for lawyers.

Receiver spokeswoman Joyce Hayhoe said Kelso expects to return control to the state as soon as it proves it can properly care for inmates.

"There is no effort on our part to delay any part of this case," she said.

The governor has taken particular aim at the court-appointed monitor overseeing inmate mental health care, Matthew Lopes.

The state has paid the special masters in that case and the prison experts they have hired more than $48 million since 1997, the earliest year for which reliable records can be found, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The beneficiaries of those payments include Lopes, who has been the special master for more than five years, and his Rhode Island law firm, Pannone Lopes and Devereaux LLC. The previous special master left in 2007.

In a court filing last month, the governor's administration said Lopes' ever-expanding standards for care have no relation to the real world and do not acknowledge the steps the state has taken to improve treatment.

"Perhaps the reason is because there is no incentive for the special master to be objective in this case," the administration said in disputing Lopes' conclusion that the state still provides substandard mental health care. "Further monitoring ensures that this revenue stream will continue."

Lopes said he could not comment because the matter is part of the ongoing legal dispute.

"There's no evidence that backs that up, other than saying, 'Oh, he got all that money' and they don't like his reports," said Michael Bien, the lead attorney representing the welfare of mentally ill inmates.

Bien's San Francisco law firm, Rosen Bien Galvan and Grunfeld, is among the firms that have been paid $19 million by the state in the inmate mental health lawsuit.

He said Brown and the state would be better off working with Lopes to reduce inmate suicides and improve mental health treatment.

Later Monday, the inmates' attorneys planned to file their formal response to Brown's criticism of Lopes' recent report.

Bien and other inmates' attorneys are paid by taxpayers only if they can prove a federal or constitutional violation, and by law are then paid at a rate hundreds of dollars below what they would usually charge. They also have to pay out of pocket for expert witnesses.

"This is really offensive to say that I'm doing this for the money," Bien said. "I didn't do it to get rich."

via ABC news

California School Districts Misspent Millions Of Cafeteria Money, State Senate Report Finds

 California school districts have misspent tens of millions of dollars intended to provide subsidized meals to low-income students, according to a state Senate report released Wednesday.

The California Department of Education recently ordered eight districts to repay about $170 million to programs that offer free and reduced-price lunches and breakfasts, according to the investigation by the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes.

In most cases, the cash-strapped districts used the misappropriated funds to pay for other expenses, such as salaries and equipment, according to the report, titled "Food Fight: Small team of state examiners no match for schools that divert student meal funds."

The cafeteria fund diversions have led to cost-cutting measures, such as shorter lunch periods, inadequate staffing and serving processed foods instead of fresh fruits and vegetables, the report said.

The cases mentioned in the report may only represent a fraction of misappropriated meal money in California because the state doesn't have the resources to monitor how its nearly 3,000 school districts spend their cafeteria funds, the report said. Most of the investigations were prompted by whistleblowers.

Chief Deputy Superintendent Richard Zeiger said Wednesday that the Department of Education plans to hire and train more staff members to monitor district meal programs and conduct more frequent reviews later this year.

"Our goal is to be sure every dollar set aside to feed California's children is spent for that purpose, and that purpose alone," Zeiger said in a statement. "From my point of view, they are literally taking food out of the mouths of kids."

The department ordered the Los Angeles Unified School District to repay $158 million to its cafeteria fund after state officials found misappropriations and unallowable charges, according to the report.

The Los Angeles district, the nation's second largest, said in a statement Wednesday that it has been working with state education officials to "ensure full compliance to federal and state guidelines. All disputed costs for the years in question have been adjusted accordingly."

The Department of Education also ordered repayments, ranging from $369,000 to $5.6 million, from the Baldwin Park, Centinela Valley, Compton, Oxnard, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Ana districts. Another six districts were ordered to repay smaller amounts.

The San Diego and Santa Ana districts are challenging the department's findings.

California school districts provide 2.4 million free and reduced-price meals every day. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides more than $2 billion a year in meal subsidies to California, which provides an additional $145 million.

via The Huffington Post

CPEHN: Brown Administration Introduces Medi-Cal Expansion Proposal

Last week, Governor Jerry Brown's Administration introduced their proposal for the Medi-Cal expansion authorized as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). This proposal, while an important first step, fails to take advantage of all of the opportunities available in the ACA to ensure our most vulnerable populations, the majority from communities of color, can access affordable health coverage through a fully expanded Medi-Cal program.


You have the opportunity to contribute to this critical discussion. The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) is hosting a stakeholder call to discuss the proposal tomorrow, Wednesday, February 6th, from 1:30 to 2:30 pm. To access this call, dial (877) 708-9768 and enter the passcode: 5143546.


If you have further questions, email Cary Sanders at csanders@cpehn.org.

Prison Nation!

Come check out Prison Nation on February 21st at the Day Reporting Center, an exciting event filled with art, guest speakers, and education. 

High-Yield in California Gives Governments Bonanza

California’s rebounding finances are drawing investors to the riskiest debt of the world’s ninth- largest economy, buoying prospects for a revival in bond sales by its blight-fighting organizations.

The successor to the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency sold $123 million of debt last week, a year after lawmakers abolished the issuers. The offer marked the first new bonds to back a redevelopment project since all of the more than 400 authorities were eliminated as part of steps to balance the state budget. The securities are unrated, placing them among the most default-prone local obligations.

With the state poised for its first surplus in almost a decade and muni yields close to 47-year lows, some investors are turning to riskier California bonds. U.S. high-yield local bonds have gained 1.3 percent this year, double the investment-grade return, Standard & Poor’s data show. Debt of former redevelopment agencies is also rallying, fueling demand for San Francisco’s sale and raising prospects other cities may follow.

“People are more comfortable that this type of debt is going to pay,” said Bill Black, Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois- based co-manager of the $7.3 billion Invesco High Yield Municipal Fund, which bought some of the issue. “There’s also a demand for high-yield debt, particularly in California.”

Boats Lifted

The most-populous state had its bond rating raised by S&P last week for the first time since 2006 as the revenue outlook improves for the home to companies such as Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. The fourth-biggest crude oil producer among states has also seen home values rise more than the national average in the past year, according to Zillow Inc. data.

Under California’s redevelopment program, municipalities formed taxing authorities that issued bonds to improve blighted areas and repaid them with levies on property values enhanced by the projects. The local authorities had nearly $30 billion in debt as of June 30, 2010, the state controller said.

Governor Jerry Brown, a 74-year-old Democrat, and legislators eliminated the agencies effective Feb. 1, 2012, to divert about $1 billion to schools. Brown signed a bill last year clarifyingthat cities and counties taking on obligations of the former agencies could issue debt to fulfill contracts with developers.

Rail Yards

San Francisco’s agency had entered into a contract to redevelop rail yards, according to a staffreport to the oversight board of the successor agency. The project includes housing, a medical center, a police station, offices and biomedical laboratories. It represents $9 billion in new investment in the city, according to the report.

The issuer last week was the Successor Agency to the San Francisco City & County Redevelopment Agency. The tax-exempt securities included bonds maturing in August 2022 and priced to yield 3.54 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The yield was about 1.9 percentage points higher than on AAA munis, Bloomberg Valuation data show.

The sale may open the door to other cities, Black said.

“From an investor’s perspective we feel that the sale was successful and should be conducive for more debt sales with issuers that are in a similar position,” he said in an e-mail.

Risk Judgement

Still, unrated bonds are riskier than most local borrowings. About 4 percent of such munis are in default, compared with 0.1 percent of rated bonds, said Matt Fabian, managing director of Municipal Market Advisors in Concord, Massachusetts. About 92 percent of munis are rated, he said.

For investors willing to take the risk, the extra yield is appealing given the rally in lower-rated local debt. Ten-year securities rated BBB, or two levels above junk, yield about one percentage point above top-rated munis, close to the smallest difference since 2008, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Holders of securities issued by redevelopment agencies before their elimination are benefiting from a rally in California debt.

Federally taxable San Jose redevelopment bonds maturing in August 2035 traded this week at an average yield of about 5.95 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That was about 2.9 percentage points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, according to BVAL analysis.

The difference is down from about 3.5 percentage points early last year. Moody’s Investors Service rates the bonds one level below investment grade.

Reimbursement Funds

Last week’s offer will reimburse the developer for public improvements such as streets and utilities. Unlike redevelopment bonds repaid through taxes on enhanced property values, the San Francisco debt is funded through three special districts that have been collecting taxes on property since 2002.

Such entities are common in California and levy taxes based on the size of parcels rather than assessed value, said Catherine Reilly, manager of the San Francisco project. The three San Francisco districts will collect taxes on properties until 2050 or the improvements are paid off, whichever comes first, Reilly said in a telephone interview.

Investors probably were reassured by the familiar repayment mechanism, Reilly said. At the same time, she said a limited number of cities and counties will be able to replicate San Francisco’s model. Under California’s tax-limiting Proposition 13, two-thirds of residents within the proposed area must vote to form such a district.

In trading yesterday, yields on benchmark munis due in 10 years were little changed at 1.83 percent after the biggest weekly jump since December, Bloomberg Valuation data show.

via Bloomberg