Join us Wednesday, July 30th to Celebrate 49 Years of Medicare!
Where: Inland Center Mall
500 Inland Center Drive
San Bernardino, CA 92408
When: Wednesday, July 30, 2014
at 11:30 am
Monday, July 28, 2014
Friday, July 25, 2014
AM Alert: Will gas price hikes trip up climate change efforts?
The California Air Resources Board concludes its two-day monthly meeting, 8:30 a.m. at the Cal/EPA building on I Street, with a presentation on updates to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. One of the centerpieces of the state’s fight against global warming, the standard is being considered for re-adoption next year with a couple of amendments to its credit program.
Under the 2007 executive order by then-Gov.Arnold Schwarzenegger, fuel producers must reduce the “carbon intensity” of their products by 10 percent by 2020, taking into account the entire process – from growing corn for ethanol to shipping fuel to California.
The standard survived a legal challenge last month when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a lawsuitbrought by oil and out-of-state farm groups.
via: http://www.sacbee.com/capitol-alert/
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Suit charges California prison program discriminates against men
A California prisons program meant to expedite the reunification of inmates with their families – but which excludes male prisoners – is being challenged in federal court as discriminatory and short-sighted.
Lawyers for inmates are seeking a preliminary injunction to force prison officials to include men in the program.
An inmate enrolled in the Alternative Custody Program receives a day off her sentence for each day she participates. The inmate is released from prison and allowed to live in a residential home, transitional care facility, or residential drug treatment program for the remainder of her sentence. She is regularly checked on by a parole agent and subject to electronic monitoring. Each inmate has an individualized treatment and rehabilitation plan. Serious or violent offenders are not eligible.
As originally enacted by the Legislature in 2010, the program was open to all female prisoners, but only to male prisoners who were “primary caregivers” of dependent children.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation offered the program only to females. Two years later, the Legislature amended the statute to expressly exclude men, and that became permanent on Feb. 25, 2013.
The exclusion violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, the inmates’ lawyers claim in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Sacramento federal court. The clause requires that all persons in similar situations be treated alike.
“CDCR’s implementing regulations contain 16 mandatory and another six discretionary exclusionary criteria to insure that only low-risk, low-level offenders participate in the ACP,” the motion for a preliminary injunction says. “Each of these exclusionary criteria is sex-neutral and focused solely on the prisoner’s risk level.
“Nothing in the statute or implementing regulations purports to justify this blatant and illegal discrimination. Sex-based distinctions that hinge on assumptions about women’s roles as caregivers cannot stand.”
Corrections spokesman Jeffrey Callison said the only immediate comment from prison officials is, “We are currently reviewing this lawsuit.”
Prisoners’ lawyers also point out that the program has been promoted by prison officials and the last two governors as one that will help them reduce the inmate population in accord with a series of orders issued by a three-judge federal court. The judges found that crowded conditions in the state’s adult prisons are the primary cause of inmate health care so lacking that it is unconstitutional.
“Excluding men from the ACP is contrary to (court orders) because overcrowding would be further reduced if the program were offered to men as well,” the motion for a preliminary injunction states.
“CDCR nonetheless excludes a significant portion of eligible prisoners from ACP; the in-custody male prison population is approximately 120,659, whereas the female in-custody population is approximately 6,244 (roughly 1/20th the size).”
Callison pointed to a paragraph in a recent report from the corrections department to the three-judge court. It says:
“The state expects to bring an 82-bed facility in San Diego on line this month and is searching for additional sites for the Alternative Custody Program for females. CDCR is currently marketing the program to female inmates and is reviewing inmate applications to determine placement in the program.”
via: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/17/6564808/suit-charges-california-prison.html
Monday, July 21, 2014
Jerry Brown signs gun control bill
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a gun control measure eliminating an exemption for certain semiautomatic pistols from California’s unsafe handgun law, Brown’s office announced Friday.
The California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees, which opposed the bill, said it will “further narrow California’s already onerous and overly burdensome ‘not unsafe’ handgun roster and eliminate more firearms from the non-peace officer marketplace,” according to a legislative analysis.
A state audit last year found California courts did not file at least 2,300 prohibited person reports to the Department of Justice from 2010 through 2012.
via: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/18/6566434/jerry-brown-signs-gun-control.html#mi_rss=Capitol%20Alert
Assembly Bill 1964, by Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, is designed to limit the exemption for single-shot pistols from the state’s unsafe handgun roster, excluding semiautomatic pistols altered to not fire in semiautomatic mode.
Gun control advocates argued the exemption allowed gun dealers to sell temporarily altered single-shot pistols to people who could convert them back into semiautomatic weapons that do not comply with state safety requirements.
The California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees, which opposed the bill, said it will “further narrow California’s already onerous and overly burdensome ‘not unsafe’ handgun roster and eliminate more firearms from the non-peace officer marketplace,” according to a legislative analysis.
The bill was passed in the Legislature largely on partisan lines, with Democrats in support and Republicans opposed. Brown, a Democrat, signed the measure without comment.
The measure was one of 15 bills Brown announced signing Friday. In another gun measure, Brown signed legislation requiring local courts to notify the Department of Justice more quickly when actions are taken that would result in a person being prohibited from owning guns, such as being found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Assembly Bill 1591, by Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian, R-San Luis Obispo, shortens from two court days to one the time in which courts must make such a notification.
A state audit last year found California courts did not file at least 2,300 prohibited person reports to the Department of Justice from 2010 through 2012.
via: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/18/6566434/jerry-brown-signs-gun-control.html#mi_rss=Capitol%20Alert
Friday, July 18, 2014
New Data Shows Importance of Targeted Outreach in Languages Other than English
New Data Shows Importance of
Targeted Outreach in Languages Other than English
It is estimated that at least 40% of Californians eligible for subsidies in Covered California speak a language other English; however only 17% of enrollees statewide reported a language other than English as their preferred written or spoken language. These numbers vary greatly between regions. For example, close to half (47%) of enrollees in Region 13 (Mono, Imperial, and Inyo Counties) reported Spanish as their preferred written and spoken language. Similarly, around a third of enrollees in Kern County and Northern Los Angeles County (Regions 14 and 15, respecitvely) and roughly 1 in 4 enrollees in the Central Valley (Regions 10 and 11) reported a language other than English as their preferred written and spoken language.
The data includes regional break-outs for Spanish as well as the other Medi-Cal Managed Care threshold languages: English, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Farsi, Tagalog, Cambodian, Russian, Arabic, Armenian, and Hmong.
There is an opportunity to improve outreach and enrollment in languages other than English. Covered California is planning to award up to $16.9 million in grants, including to community-based organizations, for enrollment assistance during the next enrollment period slated to start November 15, 2014. A portion of the funds will be awarded specifically for targeted outreach and enrollment of hard-to-reach populations including young adults and Limited English Proficient Californians. Covered California’s new language data highlights the importance of continued targeted funding for culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach and enrollment of the remaining uninsured.
Visit Covered California's Open Enrollment Data Book for more detailed enrollee data.
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© 2014 | California Pan-Ethnic Health Network | info@cpehn.org
MAIN OFFICE: 1221 Preservation Park Way, Suite 200, Oakland, CA 94612 Phone: (510) 832-1160 | Fax: (510) 832-1175 SACRAMENTO OFFICE: 1225 8th Street, Suite 470, Sacramento, CA 95814 Phone: (916) 447-1299 | Fax: (916) 447-1292 |
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Federal Judge Rules Death Penalty Unconstitutional in California
A federal judge in Orange County on Wednesday declared the death penalty "unconstitutional" in the State of California.
In the first ruling of its kind, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney in Orange County made the ruling, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.
Attorney General Kamala Harris said she is "reviewing the ruling." And a spokesperson for the Claifornia Department of Corrections did not immediately respond for comment.
ACLU of Northern California Associate Director Natasha Minsker, who is not directly involved in the case but following it closely, tweeted as she read the ruling, citing the judge who said the current system is plagued by delay and violates the Eighth Amendment, among other problems.
In her opinion, Minsker said the judge made this unprecedented ruling because he felt that "enough was enough."
Cormac was appointed to the federal bench by then Republican President George W. Bush in 2003.
The case stems from a 1995 case of Ernest Dewayne Jones who sued Kevin Chappell, the warden of the California State Prison at San Quentin.
According to a court document, Jones was condemned to death by the State of California on April 7, 1995. He remains on death row today, awaiting execution, but without any certainty as to when, or whether it will actually come, Carney wrote.
"Mr. Jones is not alone," Craney wrote.
Of the 900 people sentenced to death for their crimes since 1978, when the current death penalty system was adopted by California voters, only 13 have been executed so far.
Calling the system's administration "dysfunctional," Carney wrote that it will continue to result in an unpredictable period of delay preceding their actual execution.
For the random few for whom execution becomes a reality, they will go on to languish for so long on Death Row that "their execution will serve no retributive or deterrant purpose and will be arbitrary."
In his 29-page ruling on the Jones vs. Chappell case, Carney wrote that when an individual is condemned to death in California, the sentence carries with it the promise that it will actually be carried out.
That promise is made to citizens, jurors, victims and their loved ones and to the hundreds of individuals on death row, he wrote.
However, Carney argues, “for too long now, the promise has been an empty one.”
“Inordinate and unpredictable delay has resulted in a death penalty system in which very few of the hundreds of individuals sentenced to death have been, or even will be, executed by the State,” he wrote.
The delays have resulted in a system in which arbitrary factors, rather than legitimate ones like the nature of the crime or the date of the death sentence, determines whether an individual will actually be executed, Carney wrote,
In his closing paragraph, Carney says that the current system serves no “penological purpose.”
via: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Federal-Judge-Rules-Death-Penalty-Unconstitutional-in-California-267380871.html
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Suspected Drug Users Used as Classroom Subjects
The California Highway Patrol has been stopping people suspected of using drugs and giving them a choice: either to face arrest or to be used as educational tools in the Drug Recognition Evaluator Program. The DRE Program is designed to help officers learn how to identify what drugs a suspect may be using. Their website includes a photo gallery of visual clues of drug abuse, with its models uncredited.
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| [image by Nick Fisher, https://www.flickr.com/people/cobrasick/] |
Much of our legal system bends toward free or near-free labor: even Whole Foods is dependent on prisoners for its cheeses. In California, prisoners get paid 30 cents - 95 cents per hour, before up to fifty percent is deducted for court-ordered restitutions and fines. Since in the city of Fresno, police can stop anyone pushing a shopping cart, this program's use of private citizens as classroom aids seems particularly targeted, like much of the justice system, at the addicted and indigent.
Though drug abuse is more common among white people than those who are black, in California (as in many places) the arrest statistics would suggest the opposite. It’s safe to say that law enforcement is biased toward race-based arrests. That is part of what is so worrying about this program – disproportionate numbers of black and brown people are being picked up off the streets and put in front of officers for examination, with no compensation for their time or labor.
Of course, it would cost money to pay people to appear before a classroom of law enforcement officers, and California famously doesn't have much of that. That doesn't even factor in the cost of prosecuting subjects after forcing them to participate -- for according to Fresno's DRE instructor, Sergeant Gilbert Perisol, those chosen to participate in the program actually still risk arrest: "We don't do a lot of bartering… If I see signs and symptoms of drug influence, you can be arrested."
There may be a solution, though - something that would save the state money, and eliminate any reason for sweeping people off the streets without cause: halt the arrests and prosecution of nonviolent drug offenders.
If we are truly concerned about drug addiction, we can offer rehabilitation. Treatment would respect the fundamental humanity of addicts, and save our state both money andprison space. Of course, people in rehab are not traditionally compelled to work for sub-minimum wage, but evaluation of fair pay is a necessary step forward for California as well.
Harry Waksberg is a Los Angeles-based writer and lazeabout. He and his dog are prison abolitionists.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Field Poll: Broad concern about wealth gap, disagreement on minimum wage
A majority of Californians don’t like the way income and wealth are distributed in the state, but they divide by political ideology and party affiliation and about how much government should do to reduce disparities between the wealthiest people and the rest of the population, according to a new Field Poll.
A majority of Democrats – 57 percent – say the state should raise the minimum wage more than it already is scheduled to go up, while 70 percent of Republicans say currently scheduled increases are adequate or already too much.
“Even though the U.S.-born residents see the problem more clearly ... they are more hesitant to have government do anything about it,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll. “Politically, they’re a more conservative population overall than the immigrant population.”
Overall, 54 percent of California adults say they are dissatisfied with the way income and wealth are distributed in the state, while 38 percent say they are satisfied, according to the poll. Nearly 60 percent of residents say the gap between wealthy Californians and the rest of the population is larger than in the past, and about two-thirds of adults say government should do “some” or “a lot” to reduce the gap.
Forty-eight percent of adults say the minimum wage should be increased more, while 37 percent say current scheduled increases are adequate, according to the poll. Ten percent of California adults say the minimum wage already has been raised too much.
Legislation that raised the minimum wage to $9 an hour passed last year and will raise the hourly minimum to $10 in 2016. A California Assembly panel last week rejected a bill that would raise the state's minimum wage even higher.
Lisa Radoycis, a poll respondent from Rocklin, said the minimum wage is already more than enough and that government should concern itself with basic services, not disparities in wealth.
“I don’t think it’s a government thing,” said Radoycis, a school librarian who described herself as conservative. “I don’t think it’s for them to do.”
Tom Metry, a Republican from Fresno, disagreed. The retired math teacher said raising the minimum wage could help low earners improve their lives in a community where he said he knows many people who have to work two or more jobs.
“That’s the only way we’re going to level things out,” Metry said. “It’s got to be some type of fair equity.”
Monday, July 7, 2014
California Assembly Speaker Atkins: Water bond deal has stalled
In an interview with Capital Public Radio, Assembly Speaker Atkins (D-San Diego) blamed outside interest groups for blowing up negotiations to replace the $11 billion water bond currently on the November ballot.
“I’m incredibly disappointed,” Atkins said in the interview. “The stakeholders are really going to have to understand, if they hold out for everything that they want, they could end up with nothing – and I think that’s my biggest concern. We need parochial interests to take a back seat to the needs of the entire state. If one region gets undercut, that’s going to have economic and environmental repercussions in other parts of the state.”
Atkins specifically said water storage supporters and environmental groups that oppose money for dams won’t get everything they want.
“Storage is absolutely a part of our package, but it can’t be at the 2009 level, Atkins said.“Other areas have taken a bigger haircut to help ensure that we find an overall way to get this bond passed,” Atkins said.
Her message to environmental groups: “There are opponents to dams – which is a piece of storage – that are gonna have to realize that some of the storage needs need to be part of the solution. So blowing up a water bond b/c it includes storage will actually sacrifice long-term environmental gains.”
Assembly Minority Leader Connie Conway (R-Tulare) said the sides will continue to talk.“You have to remember it took six years to get the last water bond passed. These things will take some time. We have a good framework, but this can not be rushed,” Conway said.
“Sen. Steinberg already has his sleeves rolled up and is willing to keep working at it,” said a spokesman for Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).
Steinberg and his fellow Senate Democrats failed to pass a $10.5 billion water bond last week. The next day, Gov. Jerry Brown told legislative leaders he wanted a $6 billion measure. Atkins says Assembly Democrats had nearly reached consensus on an $8 billion bond before outside groups interfered.
“The outside interests have basically taken the time to pretty much get people who were on board before to hold out for everything that they could possibly get. Now the concern I have is that they may eventually wind up with nothing,” Atkins said.
The speaker says she still believes a water bond deal can be reached in August, but the interest groups will need to accept less money than they want.
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