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1. NETWORK
The 4th Annual Network San Francisco reception provides
students with the opportunity to meet and talk with prospective employers and
2. “How Policy Change Can Help Increase Student
Success in
NANCY BOROW SHULOCK
(MPP 1978) –
Policy Analysis for
Basement Conference Room,
3. 2009
UC Berkeley Campus, Martin Luther King Jr.
Student Union, Pauley Ballroom West (wheelchair accessible).
Event details and online
registration
4.
2009 ANNUAL AARON WILDAVSKY FORUM
Dean Rebecca Blank, Ford
Topic & location TBD
5.
WILDAVSKY FORUM PANEL DISCUSSION
Panelists TBD
ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS
1. “Farmers to reap benefit from sterling’s fall against the
euro: Plunging £ means the value of next year’s EU payments will rise by more
than £ 1bn” (The Observer (
2. “US Budget: Analysts Eye Size, Timing, Comp of Stimulus”
(The Main Wire, Market News International,
3. “Little to cheer in jobless report” (Orlando Sentinel,
4. “
5. “City Insider: S.F. mayor happy Feinstein to high Senate
post” (San Francisco Chronicle,
6. “The Tenderloin” (Forum, KQED public radio, December 17,
2008); features commentary by DON FALK
(MPP 1981); Listen to the program
7. “Emissions Trading For All Sizes” (The Record –
8. “S.F. supes to deal with budget
cuts next year” (San Francisco Chronicle, December 17, 2008); story citing CARMEN CHU (MPP 2003); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/17/BA1214PAL0.DTL
9. “Senate panel approves medical marijuana bill” (The
Record,
10. “Genest
rips lawmakers in radio address” (Sacramento Bee, Capitol Alert,
11. “Eight years in office, a $10.6 trillion debt”
(Washington Times,
12. “Lawmakers seek to expand Northwest power grid” (The News
Tribune (
13. “Next Climate Summit May Turn on Rich Nations’ Approach
to Poor Ones” (Washington Post,
14. “The Year in Ideas 2008: Kindergarten Redshirting
is Bad in
15. “New York City Grew, but Traffic Didn’t” (New York Times,
16. “What if one or all of the big three don’t survive?” (The Nightly Business Report [PBS],
17. “Loyalty or else in King Dellums’
realm” (San Francisco Chronicle,
18. “Before Summit, E.U. Debates Limits on Carbon Emissions -
Nations Weigh Economic, Climate Risks” (Washington Post, December 11, 2008);
story citing NED HELME (MPP 1971); http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121003233_2.html?sid=ST2008121101532&s_pos=
19. “Environmental groups irked - Money intended for ‘green’
efforts now goes to bailout” (USA TODAY, December 11, 2008); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20081211/green11_st.art.htm?loc=interstitialskip
20. “Former New George’s nightclub in
21. “A government-run auto industry?” (Christian Science
Monitor,
22. “Cutting childhood fatalities; Half of 830,000 annual
childhood deaths from injury could be avoided, study says” (The Globe and Mail
(
23. “California Legislature told projects could be shut down”
(Sacramento Bee,
24. “Budget crisis could stall projects in Bay Area” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
25. “Budget crisis may lead to $40 billion deficit” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
26. “Construction projects halted” (Sacramento Bee,
27. “S.F. faces $575.6 million budget deficit” (San Francisco
Chronicle,
28. “City workers, poor lose out in S.F. budget cuts” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
29. “$15B could help now, but what about later? -
30. “
31. “Mayor omits deficit in his State of City videos” San
Francisco Chronicle,
32. “Howard Weaver, McClatchy VP for news, retiring”
(Sacramento Bee,
33. “McClatchy to hold on through turbulent times” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
34. “Give the
35. “State agency taking steps on efficiency - Study of
sharing services may help in allocating aid” (The Record, (Hackensack, NJ),
December 3, 2008); story citing ROBERT
GORDON (MPP 1975).
36. “Chevron cleared in
37. “Director Gambrell Speaks at
New Markets Tax Credit Coalition’s 7th Annual Conference” (US Fed News,
December 2, 2008); story citing MATT
JOSEPHS (MPP 1997).
38. “Carbon Detectives Are Tracking Gases in
39. “Two lawyers with cameras help rehabilitate Mexican ‘justice’”
(UC Berkeley NewsCenter, December 1, 2008); story
citing LAYDA NEGRETE (MPP 1998/PhD cand.) and ROBERTO
HERNÁNDEZ (PhD cand.); http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/12/01_mexicanjustice.shtml
40. “You Da H-Bomb! Raves For Hydrogen-Powered SUVs” (New York Post,
41. “Testing newborns for HIV can save lives” (Associated
Press,
42. “Prop. 8 could be good for
43. “
44. “Interview with Mickey
Levy: There will be a rebound—but no fast break” (Journal Inquirer (
45. “BoA’s Levy urges Fed to take quantitative
easing steps” (MarketWatch,
46. “Second stimulus bill will push rates up: Bank of America”
(MarketWatch,
47. “Councilors Wary of Wage Delay - Chamber of Commerce
wants to wait to increase minimum” (Albuquerque Journal,
48. “Criteria Revision Results in Upgrades for 15
Municipalities in Oregon, Washington, Report Says” (Market News Publishing,
November 10, 2008); newswire citing LISA
SCHROEER (MPP 2005).
49. “Carbon Controls,
Energy Taxes May Be Used to Cover US Bailout” (Natural Gas Week,
50. “Standard & Poor’s has good news for Marin County”
(Marin Independent Journal, October 16, 2008); story citing LISA SCHROEER (MPP 2005); http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_10738362?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
1. “Have a peaceful, prosperous new year” –
Commentary by ROBERT REICH
(Marketplace [NPR],
2. “A look at business news in the Bay Area” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
3. “Chalking up the losses of 2008” (Marketplace
[NPR],
4. “Art: Whose Rules Are These, Anyway?” (New
York Times (*requires registration),
5. “Obama taps
6. “Still reluctant to change after fallout” –
Commentary by ROBERT REICH
(Marketplace [NPR],
7. “In financial crisis, it’s still a democracy”
– Commentary by ROBERT REICH
(Marketplace [NPR],
8. “Primary care doctors struggling to survive.
Relatively low earnings, rising overhead and overwhelming patient loads are
sending veteran physicians into early retirement and driving medical students
into better-paying specialties” (Los Angeles Times, December 15, 2008); column
citing RICHARD SCHEFFLER; http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-doctors15-2008dec15,0,2626195,print.story
9. “Above the Law: Many lack jobless benefits”
(Washington Times,
10. “RFK Jr. vs. ‘corporate plunder’. In his
Mario Savio Lecture, Kennedy argues that America’s ‘environmental
destiny’ hinges on an energetic democracy and a responsible press” (The Berkeleyan,
11. “Three rules for Obama’s
stimulus plan” – Commentary by ROBERT
REICH (Marketplace [NPR],
12. “Poll: Many have difficulties making ends
meet” (San Francisco Chronicle,
13. “Why were Wall Street workers not asked for
concessions? Autoworkers stepped up to the plate to save the car industry.
White-collar workers, on the other hand, weren’t expected to do the same when
financial firms went to Congress with hat in hand” (Los Angeles Times,
14. “Countdown with Keith Olbermann”
(MSNBC,
15. “
16. “Fresher cookers. Technology and development:
The humble cooking stove is being overhauled around the world with the help of ‘user
focused’ design” (The Economist [
17. “
18. “Where’s the bailout for human capital?” –
Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace
[NPR],
19. “Hawaii Endorses Plan for Electric Cars” (New
York Times,
1. “Farmers to reap benefit from sterling’s
fall against the euro: Plunging £ means the value of next year’s EU payments
will rise by more than £ 1bn” (The Observer (
By Toby Helm, Whitehall
Editor
British farmers and
landowners - including the Queen and Prince Charles - are in line for a £ 1bn “subsidy
bonanza” from
Many of the bigger
landowners would see the value of their payments from the EU’s
Common Agricultural Policy soar if, as expected, they exercised their right to
receive the money in euros - and then used it to buy £.
The euro is now worth
96p, compared with 72p at the end of last year and 60p in March 2000. Subsidies
to
Jack Thurston, who was an adviser to former agriculture secretary Nick
Brown from 1999 to 2001, and who
runs the website farmsubsidy.org, said: “After many years of suffering from
the strong £, farmers are now benefiting. When the £ is strong their incomes go
down and when it is weak they go up. They are doing well at the moment, both
because their subsidies are worth more and because their produce is more
competitive on export markets.” …
2. “US Budget: Analysts
Eye Size, Timing, Comp of Stimulus” (The Main Wire, Market News International,
By John Shaw
There is broad agreement
that a significant package is needed to boost the economy, but some experts say
they are concerned that the package will lack both long-term coherence and
short-term punch.
At a Friday press
conference in
When pressed to say how
large the stimulus package will be, Obama said, “we haven’t finalized our actual plan.” …
There have been reports
that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated this week that a stimulus
package of about $850 billion would be appropriate and is urging lawmakers to
offer specific ideas for the plan.
“It’s very important to
look beyond the headline number,” says Stan
Collender, a budget expert at Qorvis
Communications.
“Sure, $850 billion is a
very large number. But if this is a two- ear spending number, it’s not all that
large, especially given the size of the problem Obama
is trying to fix,” Collender
says.
“It would be better for Obama to come out of the box with a big package and then
trim it back if the economy picks up steam. He does not want to go back to
Congress and try to get a second stimulus package passed, so it’s better to err
on the side of a large one this time,” he adds.
Collender said that Obama’s formulation of “short-term stimulus and long-term
discipline” makes sense as a concept, but does not yet have any specific
meaning.
“Right now it’s only a
slogan. But the bottom line is that stimulus cannot go on for ever. At some
point, when the economy revives, you have to phase out the stimulus. How you do
that will be very important,” he says….
3. “Little to cheer in
jobless report” (Orlando Sentinel,
By The Associated Press
554,000 - The number of
new applications for jobless benefits for the week ending Dec. 13. The figure
was slightly below economists’ expectations and was down from a revised figure
of 575,000 the previous week….
The report indicates
that employers are continuing to lay off workers and are slow to hire, trends
that economists said will send the unemployment rate—now 6.7 percent—higher in
coming months….
“This is exactly the
stage of the recession where businesses are aggressively cutting employment....
I expect the pace of layoffs to continue,” said Mickey Levy, chief economist at Bank of America Corp. in
4. “
By Kristofer
Noceda
CASTRO VALLEY —
School officials earlier
this month dropped the lawsuit, ending nearly eight years of butting heads with
In 1997, Redwood
Christian discovered the semirural property that sits
in
Officials subsequently
applied to the county for a conditional use permit, with a plan to build a 650-student
junior and senior high school on the site.
The
Shortly after their plan
was rejected, Redwood Christian officials filed a federal lawsuit in 2001
against the county under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons
Act of 2000. The federal law protects individuals, houses of worship and other
religious institutions from discrimination in zoning laws.
Richard Winnie, county counsel … previously told The Daily Review
that denial of the permit had nothing to do with the applicant’s religious
affiliation….
5. “City Insider: Swim
it off” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Marisa Lagos
At a time of deep, painful budget cuts at the
city and state levels, we’re thrilled to bring our readers a little bit more
good news.
The Recreation and Park
Department, along with Supervisor Carmen
Chu, will celebrate the reopening of Sava Pool on
6. “The Tenderloin”
(Forum, KQED public radio, December 17, 2008); features commentary by DON FALK (MPP 1981); Listen
to the program
A resident of
Guests:
• Don Falk, executive director of the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development
Corporation, an affordable housing and social service provider focusing on
the Tenderloin
• Elaine Zamora,
district manager of the North of Market / Tenderloin Community Benefit District
• Jaz
Groome, Tenderloin resident
• Joe Garrity, lieutenant with the San Francisco Police
Department
DON FALK: “The Tenderloin is the only neighborhood in the city that
does not have a full-service grocery store, and we’ve been working to get one
for the neighborhood for a long time.” …
“It’s not so much the
number of liquor stores—people will find liquor when they want it—but we need
drug treatment on demand, because addiction is the problem.” …
“The Tenderloin has been
an immigrant gateway for decades. Many
veterans returning from the War helped to make it a family neighborhood.” …
7. “Emissions Trading
For All Sizes” (The Record –
By Hugh R. Morley
In a Closter basement,
Philip Gotthelf is trying to turn noxious gas into
gold.
Eight months ago, Gotthelf, a 55-year-old commodities trader, launched a
computerized trading system that he believes will help reduce the amount of
greenhouse gas emissions—and make a buck, too.
Global Emissions
Exchange (GEX) allows carbon dioxide generators such as manufacturers and
coal-burning power companies to offset the pollutants they pump into the
atmosphere by purchasing carbon offsets or credits from homeowners who cut
their emissions….
Slowly, the business is
finding customers. Last week, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau agreed that its
members—farmers, equipment companies and others—would register their carbon
savings on GEX, Gotthelf said. Some power companies
such as Exelon are interested in buying on the
exchange, he said.
Critics of voluntary
systems say they offer polluters no incentive to cut emissions and real carbon
reductions will require a nationwide mandate.
Yet companies are
participating, for a variety of environmental or public relations reasons.
One is that “they think
it’s the right thing to do in terms of corporate social responsibility,” said Emilie Mazzacurati, a
senior analyst in the
Another reason, she
said, is that companies believe a federal mandate is inevitable and that
companies that offset emissions now will later get credit from the government….
8. “S.F. supes to deal with budget cuts next year” (San Francisco
Chronicle, December 17, 2008); story citing CARMEN CHU (MPP 2003); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/17/BA1214PAL0.DTL
--Marisa Lagos,
Chronicle Staff Writer
(12-16) 17:30 PST SAN
FRANCISCO -- The budget battle expected at City Hall on Tuesday was put off
until next year and punted to the new Board of Supervisors that takes office
Jan. 8 - a move that will give various nonprofit service providers a brief respite
from funding cuts….
Tuesday’s decision means
that the board won’t vote on several controversial cuts proposed by outgoing
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin - such as
axing the
Other supervisors are
also looking for ways to trim costs. Arguing that they cannot start new
programs when existing services are being cut, a majority of the board voted
Tuesday to kill nearly $1 million in funding for a pet project of the mayor’s,
a Tenderloin community court that will prosecute crimes like aggressive
panhandling and selling drugs.
The supervisors voted
6-4 against the
9. “Senate panel
approves medical marijuana bill” (The Record,
BY John Reitmeyer -
Doctors in
Several witnesses urged
lawmakers to make medical use of marijuana a legal option, including some who
said they already use it because legal drugs have been ineffective.
“I find myself in a
precarious situation where I’m forced to break the law,” said Scott Ward, a
former Marine with multiple sclerosis who lives in Robbinsville,
The Senate Health, Human
Services and Senior Citizens Committee later voted 6-1 in favor of the bill,
with two abstentions. Two
“I found the testimony
very compelling,” Gordon said….
10. “Genest rips lawmakers in radio
address” (Sacramento Bee, Capitol Alert,
Mike Genest, the governor’s director of the
Department of Finance, aggressively went after the Legislature for its
inability to strike a budget deal. He did so in the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
weekly radio address—the usually benign three-minute Saturday chat.
Here’s the meat of Genest’s beef
with lawmakers—of both parties:
It
is time for negotiation, compromise and solutions but so far all we’ve seen is
posturing.
The
Republicans have an entire set of demands they want met before even talking
about raising the taxes we need to keep government running.
That’s
how you conduct a hostage negotiation.
But
in a hostage negotiation at least you know when demands are met the hostage is
released.
In
this case, Republicans would only be willing to consider letting the hostage
go.
The
Democrats are just as bad….
In the end, Genest says
Schwarzenegger “is asking the leaders to come down to his office with a set of
compromises, instead of demands.”
11. “Eight years in
office, a $10.6 trillion debt” (Washington Times,
By David M. Dickson, The
President Bush has
nearly doubled the national debt during his eight years in the White House.
As he prepares to return
to
The government’s debt
situation is about to get worse.
“Federal debt should
increase by $2 trillion in fiscal year 2009,” said Stan Collender, a longtime budget analyst who
is the managing director at Qorvis Communications.
“We are in a situation
where you do what you have to do to get the economy moving again,” said Mr. Collender,
who then issued a warning about the consequences of the soaring debt level. “It
will complicate federal-debt financing and fiscal policy for decades.”
For example, given an
average interest rate of 4 percent, the $5 trillion in national debt that has
accumulated so far during the Bush administration could require an additional
$200 billion per year from taxpayers in interest on that debt—n perpetuity.
During October, the
first month of fiscal 2009, the national debt increased by a staggering $549
billion….
Treasury borrowed a lot
of money in October to give to the Federal Reserve, which needed the funds to
lend to American International Group (AIG) and other financial firms and to
finance an array of “liquidity facilities” into which the Fed has been pouring
hundreds of billions of dollars in order to thaw the world’s frozen credit
markets.
Much of this money
should return to the Treasury eventually, Mr.
Collender said.
“There is never a
guarantee,” he said. “For example, what if AIG goes belly-up and the loans
become worthless?” …
12. “Lawmakers seek to
expand Northwest power grid” (The News Tribune (
By Les Blumenthal; The News Tribune
Seven thousand workers
employed by the Works Progress Administration built Grand Coulee Dam - a mile
wide and twice as tall as
Now, as the current
economic downturn deepens, there’s talk of another major public works project
for the Northwest, one that would deliver green wind power to the Interstate 5
corridor and, by some estimates, help create 50,000 jobs.
With Congress set to
consider a new stimulus plan early next year, the region’s lawmakers want to
provide funding for the Depression-era Bonneville Power Administration to
expand its transmission system.
The plan could be a
perfect fit with the incoming administration’s support for green energy and
green jobs. It also could emerge as a model for turning the nation’s antiquated
200,000-mile transmission system into a clean energy superhighway….
The Northwest is a
microcosm for a problem bedeviling utilities nationwide as they develop
renewable energy resources, mostly in remote areas, but face bottlenecks in delivering
the power to population centers….
The problem is the BPA
doesn’t have enough capacity on its existing transmission lines to carry the
wind power from the east side to the
“In the Northwest and across
the country, we need more transmission infrastructure to move electricity from
remote areas into populations centers like Seattle, and more coordinated
regional grid operations,” said Rob Gramlich , policy director at the American Wind Energy
Association….
13. “Next Climate Summit
May Turn on Rich Nations’ Approach to Poor Ones” (Washington Post,
By Juliet
The acrimonious end to
the United Nations talks here early Saturday morning highlights the challenge
rich and poor countries will face as they seek a global climate pact in the
coming year, as well as a possible path toward compromise.
Much of the debate this
year focused on how to structure the year-old adaptation fund, which devotes a
small portion of the money industrial nations pay on clean-energy projects in
developing nations to helping those same countries cope with global warming.
Poor nations had hoped
to strike a deal in which some of the money raised by auctioning international
pollution allowances in the next few years would go toward this effort, but
industrialized countries resisted. While this sparked a slew of impassioned
speeches in the closing hours of the two-week conference, it also underscored
that a future global warming agreement will depend in large part on the extent
to which developed nations address the needs of vulnerable countries and
emerging nations that have become a growing source of the greenhouse gases
responsible for human-induced climate change….
Ned Helme, president of the Center for Clean
Air Policy, said the fact that developing countries were putting concrete
emissions-reduction plans on the table and emphasizing what they need to cope
with global warming shows how the impetus for action has become stronger in the
past year.
“The tenor has changed,”
Helme
said, noting that officials from these countries are more committed to act now
that they have witnessed what is at stake for their citizens. “We’ve really
seen a shift.” …
14. “The Year in Ideas
2008: Kindergarten Redshirting is Bad in
By Christopher Shea
The practice of holding
young children back from kindergarten in order to increase their odds of
success in school has long worried educational observers. A paper published
this summer by the economists David Deming,
of Harvard’s Kennedy School, and Susan Dynarski,
of the University of Michigan, found that so-called redshirting
affects more children than previously thought — and the trend is accelerating.
The “lengthening of childhood” also has negative consequences that other
analysts have neglected, including economic ripple effects that could affect
the long-term solvency of Social Security….
While other academics
have debated how the broader age ranges at each grade level affect academic performance
gaps, Deming and Dynarski
spotlight two negative outcomes. The first stems from the American tradition of
setting a minimum school dropout age. (Some European countries mandate a
minimum number of years in the classroom instead.) Disadvantaged students are
more likely to drop out as soon as they can, therefore disproportionately
decreasing the amount of education they complete. If they also started school
late, these students lose time at the start of their education and at the end.
Meanwhile, other redshirted children delay their entry into the work force.
They’re in high school when their parents were in college…. The long-term
ramifications of this demographic shift may be significant. Consider that
Congress increased the Social Security retirement age from 65 to 67, on the
logic that retirees would be supported by more workers. But with late school
entry shrinking the size of the work force, that reform “will partially be
undone,” Deming and Dynarski conclude—by the lengthening of the American
childhood.
15. “New York City Grew,
but Traffic Didn’t” (New York Times,
By William Neuman
Relaxing upstairs on a double-decker bus, which
got a trial run in September. The transportation authority hopes the new
buses can save fuel while moving more people. (Christian
Hansen for The New York Times)
As the city’s economy
soared and its population grew from 2003 through 2007, something unusual was
happening on the streets and in the subway tunnels.
All those tens of
thousands of new jobs and residents meant that more people were moving around
the city, going to work, going shopping, visiting friends. And yet, according
to a
“What you see is that
for the first time since at least World War II, all of the growth in travel in
the city has been absorbed by non-auto modes, primarily by mass transit,” said Bruce Schaller,
“Now we’ve really turned
a corner in the city in that all of the growth in travel over the last four
years has been absorbed by mass transit and so, in terms of the city’s
sustainability goals, this is very encouraging to see.”
The city’s sprawling
public transportation system was able to handle such a surge because of vast
improvements in service in recent years, Mr.
Schaller said, as well as the advent of the MetroCard,
which made using the system more efficient. A steep drop in crime made people
more willing to use the system, and the construction of housing in areas well
served by subways also brought in many more riders….
The study is the first
analysis to take an overall look at traffic and transit patterns in New York
during the boom years from 2003 through 2007, when, according to the report,
the city added more than 200,000 jobs and its population increased by more than
130,000….
“We’re in a recession at
the moment, but when we come out of that I think we’re well positioned to
continue in the direction of sustainable growth, provided that the support is
given to transit,” Mr. Schaller said….
The flattening of
overall traffic volumes, with an actual decline in
But Mr. Schaller, whose department was deeply involved in supporting
congestion pricing, said that the data did not undermine the basic principles
behind the plan, since traffic levels remain well above what they were a decade
or two ago.
“People can make a
judgment as to whether it’s acceptable that the traffic is as heavy as it is,”
he said. “If it’s stable, I think that’s good news. It doesn’t mean that it’s
stable at an acceptable level.” …
16. “What if one or all
of the big three don’t survive?” (The Nightly Business Report
[PBS],
SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY
BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: ... There is no simple answer to the question
what if? What if the American auto industry fails? No answer because failure
could take many forms. Economist Cary Leahey says the
worst case scenario would mean GM, Ford and Chrysler all suddenly going out of
business. That would push the unemployment rate into double digits.
CARY LEAHEY, ECONOMIST,
DECISION ECONOMICS: The 250,000 workers that could potentially get laid off,
the direct auto suppliers that add another half million to that giving you
three quarters of a million. Then all the indirect effects of all the people
working in the region who, you know, people who clean homes, people who deliver
flowers, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, you name it.
GURVEY: But it is more
likely there will be a controlled downsizing of one or more of the companies. And
over time production will shift to foreign auto makers who even now are
building new plants in the
MICKEY LEVY, CHIEF ECONOMIST, BANK OF
17. “Loyalty or else in
King Dellums’ realm” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Chip Johnson
The city of
And within the confines
of that form of government, any criticism or disloyalty directed at the king -
whether real or imagined - is dealt with.
Consider the case of Anne Campbell Washington, an assistant city administrator who
resigned her position last week under unrelenting pressure from the mayor’s
office.
Her crime: She gave an
affectionate hug to an elderly woman who spoke at a City Council meeting
against a Dellums appointment to the city’s housing
authority commission in early October.
When word of
The hug, which took
place before the woman spoke, was quickly misinterpreted as an overt act of
disloyalty by unidentified members of the mayor’s staff and
The news of
“When someone like Anne leaves, it’s like losing bone from
the body of the organization,” the staffer added….
City Administrator Dan Lindheim,
The final coffin nail
came when someone recalled that in her last position with the city she’d served
as chief of staff to former Mayor Jerry
Brown, who is now
By all accounts,
She and her husband,
Glynn, a onetime City Council candidate, are the kind of people
18. “Before Summit, E.U.
Debates Limits on Carbon Emissions - Nations Weigh Economic, Climate Risks” (Washington
Post, December 11, 2008); story citing NED
HELME (MPP 1971); http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121003233_2.html?sid=ST2008121101532&s_pos=
By Juliet
With delegates from
around the world struggling to make progress here toward a new agreement on
combating global warming, the European Union is locked in its own contentious
debate over whether to toughen limits on carbon emissions, even though much of
the continent has fallen behind on meeting current targets….
At the
But Ned Helme, president of the Center for Clean
Air Policy, said opponents of a
“The key thing to watch
is whether the target is changing, and the answer is no,” he said. “The fight
in the E.U. is over who gets the money. Nobody is eroding that target. That’s
what counts in this debate.” …
19. “Environmental
groups irked - Money intended for ‘green’ efforts now goes to bailout” (USA
TODAY, December 11, 2008); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20081211/green11_st.art.htm?loc=interstitialskip
By Sharon Silke Carty and Chris Woodyard: (c) USA TODAY
Environmental groups are
disappointed that money put aside to aid automakers to produce more
fuel-efficient cars is now going to fund their operations.
Although the bill
promises the money for retooling plants will be replenished in the future,
environmentalists are skeptical. And they’re also upset the bailout doesn’t ban
automakers from suing states that set tougher emissions limits than federal
rules.
Roland Hwang, vehicle policy director for the Natural Resources Defense
Council, said, “The White House has decided they want to hold up this
entire bailout bill in order to remove this litigation provision. We’re very
disappointed.” …
20. “Former New George’s
nightclub in
--Paul Liberatore
Always wanted to open a
nightclub?
New George’s, the
The long-shuttered brick
building on
Once Marin’s largest
nightclub, the 5,300-square-foot building may look forlorn on the outside, with
its weather-beaten “George’s” sign and dirty windows, but Monte said the
interior has been completely remodeled to meet city codes. It features
high-tech lighting, two new bars, a stainless-steel kitchen, a
stage and dance floor.
“It’s beautiful and
looks ready to go,” said Nancy Mackle,
In January 2006, the
city granted a use permit for the building’s owner, Louis Jones, to open a
snazzy new supper club called Kimball’s West, a Marin branch of Kimball’s East
in Emeryville….
According to Monte, the
Kimball’s people closed their Emeryville club, then
backed out of the Marin deal a month ago for undisclosed reasons. Now Jones is
looking to implement Plan B.
“We’re disappointed
about the loss of Kimball’s, but this could be a step toward helping us find
another operator and getting this project moving forward again,” Mackle said,
adding that the city is eager to see a new club bring some much-needed
nightlife to downtown….
21. “A government-run
auto industry?” (Christian Science Monitor,
By Gail Russell Chaddock, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Needing rescue: From left, GM CEO Richard Wagoner, UAW president Ron
Gettelfinger, Ford CEO Alan Mulally,
and Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli testified on Capitol
Hill Dec. 4. (Gerlad Herbert/AP/File)
The proposed $15 billion rescue plan that drew
lawmakers back to Capitol Hill this week gives
In sharp contrast to the
relatively lax terms of the recent $700 billion bailout for the financial
services industry, the auto rescue plan sets up a level of government oversight
and control not seen since World War II….
In one of the most
controversial elements of the proposal, Democrats propose banning auto
manufacturers accepting financial assistance under the new law from “participating
in, pursuing, funding, or supporting in any way any legal challenge (existing
or contemplated) to state laws concerning greenhouse gas emission standards.”
At a hearing on the
energy implications of the auto bailout on Tuesday, Rep. Ed Markey (D) of
“If they’re testifying
to the effect that they can meet that standard, doesn’t it make sense to put
their promises technologically into the law, so at least the Sierra Club ...
can sue them if they don’t meet that standard?” Mr. Markey said at Tuesday’s
hearing of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
Markey is chair of the committee.
On Monday, the National Resources Defense Council
(NRDC) released a report that converted the miles per gallon (m.p.g.) values in
the companies’ business plans to greenhouse-gas (GHG) emission rates.
If those company
projections are accurate, both Ford and GM would “easily meet the 2015
California GHG standards nationwide,” the report concludes.
“GM’s plan states that
it will achieve 2012 fuel economy levels of 37.3 mpg and 27.5 mpg for their new
car and light truck fleets, respectively. The projected GHG emission level
would enable GM to comply with a national version of the California GHG
standards in 2012.”
“The issue now is to
make sure these are not false promises in exchange for bailout money,” says Roland Hwang, NRDC vehicle policy director….
22. “Cutting childhood
fatalities; Half of 830,000 annual childhood deaths from injury could be
avoided, study says” (The Globe and Mail (
By André Picard, Public Health Reporter
Injuries sustained in
motor vehicle crashes, scalding burns, poisonings and the like kill more than
830,000 children a year worldwide - the equivalent of the city of
And millions more
children suffer non-fatal injuries that leave them physically
and mentally disabled and saddle families with devastating treatment costs,
says the study being released today by Unicef
and the World Health Organization.
“More must be done to
prevent such harm to children,” said Ann
Veneman, executive director of Unicef.
She noted that poor
children are particularly vulnerable to a broad range of calamities because
they live in precarious situations and do not benefit from prevention programs.
In fact, according to
the 232-page World Report on Child Injury Prevention, at least half the
childhood fatalities could be prevented with proven public-health measures such
as the use of seatbelts and motorcycle helmets, childproof medicine bottles and
regulating the temperature of hot-water heaters….
23. “California
Legislature told projects could be shut down” (Sacramento Bee,
By Steve Wiegand and Jim Sanders
Mike Genest, the governor’s finance
director, said the projected $28 billion shortfall over two years is getting
worse by the day as revenue drops. (Brian
Baer/Sacbee.com)
California state coffers
are so dangerously short of cash that $5 billion in public works projects will
grind to a halt within two weeks unless there is a fast solution to the budget
crisis, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer warned
legislators Monday….
• Legislative Analyst
Mac Taylor said that trying to close the gap through budget cuts alone would
mean slicing the equivalent of all state spending on state colleges and
universities and all social service programs, from welfare to aid to the
developmentally disabled.
• Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger’s director of
finance, said that gloomy projections of the future gap between revenue and
spending are getting darker by the day….
24. “Budget crisis could
stall projects in Bay Area” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Matthew Yi, Michael Cabanatuan, Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writers
Westbound traffic uses one of three bores of the Caldecott Tunnel
during the evening commute. The Caldecott Tunnel’s fourth bore project may come
to a halt because of the state’s budget mess.
(12-09) 20:37 PST -- Bay
Area officials said Tuesday the region will be devastated if work on school
renovations and transportation projects is halted or delayed because of Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature’s inability to solve the state’s huge
budget deficit….
Several Bay Area public
works projects would be affected if state financing runs dry in the coming
days, including a $950,000 job to resurface a freeway ramp in
Initial financing for
those projects comes from the state’s Pooled Money Investment Account, which is
a combination of the state’s general fund, special funds and deposits from
local governments. The money is repaid by bond sales.
But the current
credit-market freeze, coupled with California’s fiscal crisis, has made it
nearly impossible for the state to sell voter-approved bonds for the state’s
public works projects, [state Treasurer Bill] Lockyer
said….
A final decision on
whether to halt financing for the local construction projects will be made Dec.
17 by the little-known Pooled Money Investment Board, which is made up of Lockyer, Chiang and Schwarzenegger’s
finance director, Mike Genest.
While Lockyer said the state needs to stop financing projects
until lawmakers fix the budget, representatives of Chiang and Genest refused
to say Tuesday whether their bosses support the treasurer’s conclusion….
25. “Budget crisis may
lead to $40 billion deficit” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Matthew Yi, Chronicle
(12-14)
But Republican state
lawmakers, whose votes are needed for the Legislature to reach the two-thirds
majority vote required to approve a budget or taxes, are steadfastly opposed to
raising taxes as a way to solve the state’s deepening fiscal mess….
Trying to bridge the gap
without new tax revenue would be virtually impossible, experts say….
Larry Gerston, a political science professor at
The third way to apply
pressure is from the general public, Gerston said,
adding that he’s surprised there hasn’t been more public outrage over the state’s
budget mess.
But that could change if
the budget deficit is not resolved and the state runs out of cash in coming
weeks, he said. Schwarzenegger’s finance
director, Mike Genest, told reporters Thursday
that without a quick budget fix, the state’s cash balance could be nearly $5
billion in the red by March.
That could mean paying
state workers with IOUs, along with vendors doing business with the state and
even taxpayers awaiting tax refunds….
26. “Construction
projects halted” (Sacramento Bee,
By Tony Bizjak
Treasurer Bill Lockyer (left) and Finance
Director Mike Genest, members of the Pooled Money
Investment Board, confer during discussions on which project funding would have
to be stopped. (AP)
Deeply in debt, state
officials took the extraordinary step today of halting funds for thousands of public
work projects statewide, including roads, levees, schools and prisons, until
the Legislature balances the state budget, and possibly longer….
[State Treasurer Bill] Lockyer and other members of the Pooled Money Investment
Board predicted that unless the state balances its budget, the funding shutoff
will further harm the economy and expose the state to lawsuits….
Fellow board member, Michael Genest, the
governor’s finance director, said the state is trapped until it comes up
with a long-term budget solution.
“I don’t see anything to
suggest we have an alternative, really,” Genest said before voting with Lockyer and state Controller John Chiang to shut funding.
But with the economic downturn
and budget crisis, the state has been unable to sell bonds to finance projects
since June and has no prospects of being able to do so in the new year….
27. “S.F. faces $575.6
million budget deficit” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Heather Knight,
Chronicle Staff Writer
(12-08) 20:43 PST -- San
Francisco’s budget deficit for next year has grown to $575.6 million - equal to
nearly half the city’s discretionary spending account. It’s a financial crisis
Mayor Gavin Newsom called one of the worst the city has experienced since the
1930s.
Newsom will announce his
plan for cutting up to $125 million from this year’s $6.6 billion budget today,
but gave few details about what it will include….
This year the mayor had control
over about $1.2 billion in discretionary spending, with the rest of the city
budget required by law to be spent in specific ways.
Nani Coloretti, the mayor’s budget director,
said the midyear cuts will help because programs and positions eliminated now
will mean continued savings next year.
“It means you feel pain
over 18 months, not over 12,” she said.
Downgrading positions
and charging enterprise departments like Muni more
for city services are also ways to save money without eliminating entire
programs, she said.
Coloretti and Steve Kawa, the mayor’s chief of staff, have been making the
rounds to supervisors’ offices in recent days to prepare them for today’s
extensive budget cuts….
28. “City workers, poor
lose out in S.F. budget cuts” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Erin Allday, Heather Knight, Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff
Writers
City controller Ben Rosenfield (left), and budget director Nani
Coloretti speak to the media about the cuts in
the city budget.
(12-09) 20:44 PST --
Nearly 400 city employees will lose their jobs in February as part of $71
million in cuts announced Tuesday by Mayor Gavin Newsom.
The mayor’s plan also
includes $17 million in cuts to public health, affecting programs that help the
mentally ill and homeless people….
In a rare and surprise
appearance before the Board of Supervisors, Newsom on Tuesday said the
current-year budget cuts were “the easy part of this job,” noting that next
year’s budget will almost definitely require heavy cuts and further layoffs.
“(Next year) is a
magnitude that can only be described as a crisis,” Newsom said. “That’s why I
am here, to ask for your support and advice and counsel.”
The mayor revealed few
specifics about his proposed budget cuts during the Board of Supervisors meeting.
His proposal was released later in the afternoon at a news conference that
neither the mayor nor the supervisors attended [where representatives of the
Mayor, including his budget director, Nani Coloretti, spoke to the
media about the cuts]….
29. “$15B could help
now, but what about later? -
By James R. Healey,
Sharon Silke Carty and
Chris Woodyard: (c) USA TODAY
An industry that relies
on deals is on the verge of closing its biggest ever.
Crafting of legislation
to funnel $15 billion in emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler was in
its final stages late Monday. Though the beleaguered car companies are in no
position to argue, the bill assumes they have made
serious mistakes and need a government-run overhaul to avoid financial thin ice
again.
In fact, just getting
the outline of a deal required hurdling strong arguments in Congress and
elsewhere that the government should let the weakest auto companies fail, then help pick up the pieces, if necessary….
In a statement, GM
acknowledged the bill’s provision for unusual government controls, but said, “The
current set of extraordinary economic circumstances the industry faces requires
equally extraordinary action now on both the part of the automakers and
Congress. ... We will abide by the conditions proposed in the bill and will
continue our restructuring with great urgency.”
The legislation enabling
the loans became a magnet for auto activists.
“Congress should assure
we get environmental benefits out of this program. This is the way we can hold
their feet to the fire,” said Roland Hwang
of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Otherwise, they will go back to
their gas-guzzling ways.”
He was referring to a
provision that would prohibit any automaker taking federal loans from suing states
that enacted tougher laws about greenhouse-gas emissions….
30. “
By Brandon Larrabee
More than two years into
the University System of Georgia’s attempt to allow students to more easily
predict how much four years of college will cost them,
the Fixed for Four program is facing its most serious challenge yet.
The potential for steep
cuts across the state budget to slash $182 million or more in higher-education
spending prompted the board of regents to approve last week a fee of between
$50 and $100 per semester at each of Georgia’s 35 public colleges and
universities.
Regents opted for the
fee because Fixed for Four doesn’t allow midyear tuition increases.
Essentially, the program guarantees college students the same tuition rate for
their first four years in college.
Earlier this year,
Chancellor Erroll Davis said the university system
would have to re-examine the policy if state lawmakers cut too deeply into the
enrollment-driven funding formula that is supposed to guide spending on higher
education.
“If we do not get full
formula funding, then obviously we’re going to have to look at our ability, for
any particular cohort, to maintain fixed tuition,”
There are no immediate
plans to scale back the guaranteed tuition plan, officials say, and current
students would likely be grandfathered in even if the system decided to take
another look at the plan….
Even so, some college
presidents are already beginning to grumble that the tuition plan is causing
problems with budgets as the cost of doing business in higher education grows
more rapidly than tuition.
“I think Fixed for Four,
while it’s a very nice political concept, is not an economically viable
concept,” Georgia State University
President Carl Patton said in August. “Our electricity is not fixed for
four. Our water is not fixed for four. ... We have to compete in the national
market for faculty. That’s not fixed for four.” …
31. “Mayor omits deficit
in his State of City videos” San Francisco Chronicle,
--Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer
The budget deficit—expected
to reach about $100 million for the current fiscal year and $500 million in
2009—was a glaring omission from the mayor’s State of the City address,
especially considering that the speech went 7 1/2 hours, said several city
leaders and political analysts….
“What the State of the
City was intended to be was a comprehensive look at what the city is doing
proactively,” [spokesman Nathan Ballard] said….
Meanwhile, in almost all
of the other video segments, Newsom talks at great length about projects that
have been completed in the past year or that he hopes to implement in the
coming year, with little discussion of how those future projects will be
funded.
“When people get their
20- to 30-minute digests, that’s one of the things they really want to know,”
said political consultant David Latterman, who said he “skimmed” through most of the
mayor’s speech. “We’re in this budget hole, they want
to know, are there going to be layoffs? Are services going to be in trouble? It
gets back to the expectation of the people, and that is to put together a
relevant speech that addresses any current serious crisis.” …
Asking
“It puts the burden of
watching all of this on us, the citizens,” he said. “I would have liked to have
had some kind of real speech. I don’t think there’s a problem with putting all
of this info on YouTube, the problem is there is no
summary, there is no speech. This is like a lecture
series.”
32. “Howard Weaver,
McClatchy VP for news, retiring” (Sacramento Bee,
By Dale Kasler
Howard Weaver said today
that he is retiring as vice president of news for The McClatchy
A former Bee editor,
Weaver oversees McClatchy’s news bureaus in
“Howard wholeheartedly
embraced the digital age and saw an important place in it for McClatchy
journalism,” said McClatchy Chairman and
Chief Executive Gary Pruitt. He said the company will look for a
replacement….
33. “McClatchy to hold
on through turbulent times” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Andrew S. Ross
McClatchy Co. isn’t
interested in Chapter 11
Might a media company
based in Northern California follow the Tribune Co.’s example and be the next
to seek some “breathing space” from its debts, i.e., file Chapter 11? No way,
said Gary Pruitt, CEO of Sacramento’s
McClatchy Co. Talking to a reporter after his
presentation Tuesday at the UBS Global Media and Communications conference in
Along with other
newspaper chains, McClatchy has seen double-digit drops in revenue, circulation
and newsroom staff. Stock price in 2005 - $76. Closing bell Tuesday - $2.35. “Our current results are
lousy, and the economy seems to be worsening,” Pruitt told the UBS audience. On the upside, he noted that
McClatchy paid down $404 million in debt through the first nine months of 2008.
That leaves a current balance of $2.07 billion on which “further progress” was
being made. Even better, by the second half of next year, “the recession may
have bottomed or perhaps the economy may even have returned to growth,” he
said.
All in all, said Pruitt, he approached the New Year “with
a strong sense of resolve.” Like others in the business, he’s going to need it.
34. “Give the
--Leah Garchik
…Mayors Willie Brown and
Gavin Newsom and first lady Jennifer Siebel were at breakfast at the Westin St.
Francis on Wednesday for the Tipping Point
Awards. This is the second year of the $50,000 prizes for making a
difference.
This year’s recipients
were Compass Community Services, Rubicon Programs and the
Tipping Point, founded by Daniel Lurie,
Ronnie Lott and Katie Schwab in 2005, took in $450,000 in its first year; this
year, it took in $6 million. The pledge of the organization is that all
overhead—the cost of breakfast, for example—is paid for by board members.
Donations go directly to the organizations benefited.
I sat next to Michele
Jackson of the Shelter Network of San Mateo, who told me that last year, 50
families had applied for help; this year, 114. Tipping Point board President Alec Perkins said that the number of
people looking for shelter in this downturn has tripled; food hot line requests
are up by 92 percent. At the end of lunch, Lurie announced that between now
and Jan. 31, the board of this nonprofit is chipping in as much as $1 million
to match donations received.
35. “State agency taking
steps on efficiency - Study of sharing services may help in allocating aid” (The
Record, (Hackensack, NJ), December 3, 2008); story citing ROBERT GORDON (MPP 1975).
By Michael Gartland, Staff Writer
The state Department of Community
Affairs has begun a program to assess the efficiency of
The program is in its
infancy, but eventually would lead to a more data-driven approach to shared
services and could affect the amount of funding towns receive from the state,
he said.
“We’ll be able to make
town-to-town comparisons,” Gordon
said during a shared-services panel discussion at
“At some point, we’re
going to start allocating state aid based on efficiency.”
Gordon said he is uncertain about details of how the law is being
used, but said that such factors as how much a town spends on police, public
works and other services could be factored into aid calculations.
“If they want to operate
on a small scale or in an inefficient way, fine,” he said. “But don’t expect
the state to subsidize it.” …
Ridgefield Park Mayor
George Fosdick said that saving small amounts of money
here and there does not translate in a significant way to people’s property tax
bills….
The solution he proposed
was to revamp the state’s property tax system.
Gordon agreed that the system needs reworking, but said that shared services is also part of the answer.
“As the cost of
government increases, I think public support for it will grow,” he said.
36. “Chevron cleared in
By Richard C. Paddock - a
Times staff writer.
Survivors of the 1998
incident had argued that the oil company should be held accountable because it
paid the police and soldiers and transported them by helicopter to the oil
platform, where they shot and killed two unarmed protesters and wounded two
others.
San Ramon-based Chevron,
The case was brought
under the Alien Tort Statute, signed into law by President Washington.
In recent years, environmental
and human rights activists have increasingly sought to use the law to hold
Naomi Roht-Arriaza, a professor at UC
Hastings’ College of the Law who observed part of
the trial, said the verdict appears to have turned on the facts in the case,
not on whether the Alien Tort Statute should apply.
“What really struck me
is that after 10 years, the case came down to basic tort law—the tort part of
the Alien Torts act,” she said. “There were two different sets of facts, and
they were very far apart.”
Despite the outcome, Roht-Arriaza
said the trial was a success for the human rights community because the lawyers
succeeded in bringing a case to trial under the Alien Tort law.
In the future,
corporations operating in countries with corrupt, repressive regimes will have
to weigh the possibility of being held accountable in a
“The fact that they
managed to have a jury trial was already a huge victory,” she said. “If you are
a corporate executive, you have to consider the consequences of calling in the
security forces, especially if they are known to be abusive.” …
[Naomi Roht-Arriaza was also cited in a
report by UPI news service.]
37. “Director Gambrell Speaks at New Markets Tax Credit Coalition’s 7th
Annual Conference” (US Fed News, December 2, 2008); story citing MATT JOSEPHS (MPP 1997).
Like other urban areas,
Utilizing the NMTC
Program, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency is using their recent
allocation to raise equity investments that will qualify for federal tax
credits. The proceeds of those equity investments will be used to benefit the
city: $2.6 million in Federal funding to help rebuild the park, making it more
appealing to residents and visitors alike….
Another NMTC recipient
was the Urban Development Fund, a CDE that invested its Qualified Equity
Investments (QEIs) into the
The center has already received
high praise from the community, not only for the services it will offer, but
also for the center’s effect on the local economy. The project itself will
create 50 full-time jobs. An additional 80 jobs were added during its
construction….
In Fiscal Year 2008, the
NMTC Program was named as one of the Top 50 Programs that advanced to the final
stages of competition for the prestigious Innovations in American Government
Award administered by the Ash Institute at Harvard’s
Following this
presentation, I invite you to join Matt Josephs,
Manager of the NMTC Program, for a panel discussion on the year ahead….
38. “Carbon Detectives
Are Tracking Gases in
By Susan Moran
The 984-foot tower, left, and the view from atop
the tower. Kevin Moloney
for The New York Times.
It’s a good thing she
loves climbing tall structures. Dr. Andrews, an atmospheric scientist at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in
She is one of many
carbon sleuths, scientists who track and analyze where greenhouse gases come
from and where they go over time. Think of it like personal finances. To plan
for a sound financial future, it helps to create a budget and keep track of how
one is spending money. Similarly, atmospheric scientists need to develop a “budget”
for greenhouse gases.
But the atmosphere
delivers no monthly statement on greenhouse gas dynamics, so scientists have to
tease out the information from disparate and often contradictory sources. The
key task is measuring the sources, or emissions, of these planet-warming gases,
and the “sinks” — forests, cropland and oceans that absorb carbon….
A vexing challenge is
that surface inventory assessments — based on measuring forests, agricultural
fields and smokestack emissions, for instance — generally do not agree with
atmospheric measurements.
“We’ve got to close the
carbon budget to know precisely what’s going where,” said Kevin Gurney, an assistant
professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at
Toward that goal, last
April, Dr. Gurney started the Vulcan Project. Named after
the Roman god of fire, Vulcan is a massive database and a graphic map that
shows hourly changes of CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels in every
locale by every source, including vehicles, power plants and factories….
Ultimately, many
scientists hope their discoveries will inform climate policies, like mandatory
limits on emissions that many expect Congress will eventually impose.
“It’s a national
priority to understand the carbon budget so people can make smart, good policy,”
said Dr. Gurney of Purdue, adding
that many scientists feel pressured to push the boundaries of knowledge in this
field in their effort to slow global warming. “It’s what motivates us to wake
up in the morning.”
39. “Two lawyers with
cameras help rehabilitate Mexican ‘justice’” (UC Berkeley NewsCenter,
December 1, 2008); story citing LAYDA
NEGRETE (MPP 1998/PhD cand.) and ROBERTO HERNÁNDEZ (PhD cand.); http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/12/01_mexicanjustice.shtml
By Cathy Cockrell, NewsCenter
Roberto Hernández and Layda Negrete. (Bill Schwob photo)
BERKELEY — Shortly before leaving Mexico City to
begin graduate work at UC Berkeley in 2006, lawyers Layda Negrete and Roberto Hernández got a desperate phone
call. The couple had become well known for their efforts to reform their
country’s criminal-justice system, where trials are not public and the accused
are not assumed to be innocent. Now, a breakdancer
and street vendor named Antonio “Toño” Zúñiga was on the phone, pleading for their help. He’d been
arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Zúñiga
claimed, and the facts suggested, that he had nothing to do with the crime.
As planned, Hernández and Negrete left for
Remarkably, the young “lawyers
with cameras,” as they call themselves, also were granted permission to film
the judicial retrial in a
They used the footage,
eventually, to make a 90-minute documentary revealing standard practices in
Working with a national
network of judicial-reform activists, they made presentations to Mexico’s
movers and shakers (using video on Chilean reforms as a point of contrast),
were interviewed on CNN’s Spanish-language channel, and uploaded to YouTube an initial video, a 20-minute documentary “El Túnel” (which so far has received more than 50,000 “views”).
“Roberto, I was speechless, my throat closed up, my heart hurt, I let out a cry, … but this video is worth the world in gold,” one
viewer responded in Spanish on the website’s comment section.
This June, Mexican
President Felipe Calderón signed a constitutional
amendment for sweeping judicial reforms, which Negrete describes as “a very
strange combination of Patriot Act and very liberal human-rights pieces.” Hernández was
instrumental in the incorporation of the latter elements — borrowing language
from international agreements to which
“Is it not unbelievable,”
he asks, “that inserting presumption of innocence into our constitution was,
still in 2008, a matter of huge controversy?” Now the challenge, Fernández
believes, is to implement the amendment’s due-process procedures throughout the
land. “I do not believe people understand presumption of innocence yet,” he
says.
Layda Negrete on
why she is studying public policy at UC Berkeley: ‘We were sure that we needed
more training to develop serious social science and policy research. Legal
training does not provide this training at all….
‘Now
I feel we are much more competent to work in teams with social scientists. I
feel [I have] a more powerful mind and that I am closer to understanding the
chaotic Mexican institutions with something more than rhetoric and poetry.’
40. “You Da H-Bomb! Raves For Hydrogen-Powered SUVs”
(New York Post,
By Tom Topousis
The future of
General Motors is in the
midst of a national test of fuel-cell-powered SUVs, with 100 of the high-tech
vehicles tooling around
So far, the reports from
the road are stunning. Drivers say the fuel-cell vehicles, which are modified
Chevy Equinoxes, are a marvel to drive. They are powerful, quick and quiet,
with no internal combustion engine to pound away under the hood….
While fuel-cell vehicles
hold the promise of a transportation revolution, there are still two enormous
hitches: the cost of producing the vehicles and the extremely limited street
availability of hydrogen.
GM hasn’t said how much
the experimental cars cost to make, but estimates have put the price tag at
close to $1 million each - a price engineers say will plummet with advances in
technology and a move to mass production
Coming up with
fuel-efficient and alternative energy cars is a key concern of President-elect Barack Obama, who is being
lobbied to back a multibillion-dollar bailout of the near-bankrupt
“Ten years ago, GM bet
the house on hydrogen fuel cells and gave short shrift to hybrid vehicles, said
Roland Hwang, vehicle policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
While GM says it should
have fuel-cell vehicles available by 2015, Hwang
said it would probably take a decade longer to produce an affordable car and
create a reasonable network for fueling.
41. “Testing newborns
for HIV can save lives” (Associated Press,
UNITED NATIONS -- Early
treatment for babies born with the virus that causes AIDS can significantly
increase their chances of survival, according to a report Monday by four U.N.
agencies.
Far too few pregnant
women know their HIV status and in 2007 less than 10 percent of infants born to
HIV-positive mothers were tested for the virus before they were two months old,
the report said.
“Without appropriate
treatment, half of children with HIV will die from an HIV-related cause by
their second birthday,” Ann Veneman, executive director of the U.N. children’s agency,
UNICEF, said in a statement.
“Survival rates are up
to 75 percent higher for HIV-positive newborns who are
diagnosed and begin treatment within their first 12 weeks,” she said….
In 2007, only 18 percent
of pregnant women in low-income and middle-income countries were given HIV
tests and of those who tested positive, only 12 percent were further screened
to determine how advanced the disease was and the type of treatment required, the
report said.
42. “Prop. 8 could be
good for
--C.W. Nevius
... Although the battle
over Proposition 8, the constitutional measure that bans same-sex marriage,
seemed like a body blow to the aspirations of Mayor Gavin Newsom, it may prove
a boost to [City Attorney Dennis] Herrera’s career.
Ever since 2004, when
Newsom said City Hall would marry same-sex couples, Herrera has stepped up to
fight the legal battle. Now, after nearly five years of litigation for same-sex
marriage, Herrera looks professional, even-handed, and ... well ... mayoral.
Herrera frankly admits
he never dreamed the issue would have such a run, or end up resonating across
the country. “When I look back to 2004, did I think that I would still be
dealing with this issue in 2009?” Herrera said. “No way.”
But the result is that
he’s a local face on a national issue, a calm presence in an emotional debate,
and an appealing alternative to voters who are tired of the bickering at City
Hall.
“At this point, what I
am hearing is that people are just looking for someone who can run the city,”
said David Latterman,
a political analyst at Fall Line Analytics. “He’s certainly one of the
serious contenders. He’s in a good position and he could win.” …
Herrera’s office was
deeply involved in same-sex marriage from the moment Newsom said gay and
lesbian couples could marry in 2004….
But Herrera’s profile
didn’t really rise until this year, when Prop. 8
became a subject of national debate.
“This is why we all go
to law school,” Herrera said. “To be involved in weighty issues that really have an impact on justice. These are the cases
you live for.”
Latterman puts it a little more
succinctly.
“When something falls in
your lap,” he said. “You take it. And he did.” …
43. “
By Chris Metinko
The Alameda County Board
of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to join the cities of
Prop. 8, which passed
with 52 percent of the vote this month, overturned the state Supreme Court’s
decision in the spring that legalized same-sex marriage. The measure changes
the constitution to limit marriage to between a man and a woman.
The suit, which also has
been joined by
Nearly
a dozen opponents of Prop. 8 came to the supervisors meeting with the
intent to urge the county to join the lawsuit. However, County Counsel Richard Winnie announced at the start of the meeting’s
regular calender that the supervisors had agreed to
take part in the litigation during closed session….
44. “Interview with Mickey Levy: There will be a rebound—but
no fast break” (Journal Inquirer (
Bank of America’s chief economist, Mickey D. Levy analyzes and
forecasts national and international economic performance and financial market
behavior and conducts research on monetary and fiscal policies. Levy, a widely quoted economic
observer, is also an adviser to several Federal Reserve Banks.
With retail sales plunging, hundreds of thousands of monthly job
losses, manufacturing in steep decline, and credit scarce, what’s your outlook
on the economy for the rest of this year and next?
LEVY: We will be in recession through mid-year 2009. I expect a
rebound in the second half of next year, although that forecast requires that
efforts by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve loosen up the monetary policy
transition channels that are now clogged….
How do you characterize this recession?
LEVY: The recession started out as a clearing out of the excesses
that had built up in housing and financials characterized by sharp declines in
housing and unprecedented losses in banks, and it has now spread to the rest of
the economy.
In response to declining
employment and net worth, households are cutting their consumption, and
businesses are trimming production and delaying capital spending plans.
International economies have also slumped, and
How do you get the money to the people who really need it?
LEVY: I would like to see tax-cuts for middle- and lower-income
households in order to increase their disposable incomes. One of the failures
of the tax rebates from last spring is there was no sense of permanence because
they were not associated with tax cuts.
Cutting Social Security
taxes—FICA contributions—would also be an attractive alternative.
On another front, the
government is now focusing on ways to help distressed homeowners. But that won’t
clear up the major problem facing housing: the large inventory overhang that is
putting downward pressure on housing prices. I recommend tax credits and other
subsidies of home purchases. Such an approach would get money to people and, by
increasing demand for housing, would reduce inventories and ease pressure on
house price declines….
Should the government hand out bail-out money with or without conditions
to the automakers whose leaders refused to make fuel-efficient cars?
LEVY: I am against bailing
out the auto industry, if such a bailout would perpetuate the automakers’
current business model, which has been broken for years. I would much rather
see the government subsidize the workers’ pensions and
provide transition money to unionized workers, while forcing a change in the
business model….
45. “BoA’s Levy urges Fed to take quantitative easing steps” (MarketWatch,
By Greg Robb
46. “Second stimulus
bill will push rates up: Bank of America” (MarketWatch,
By Laura Mandaro, MarketWatch
“Eventually, rates will
rise to reflect the ballooning Treasury borrowing requirements, a shrinking of
the recent excess global savings and U.S. economic recovery,” wrote economists Mickey Levy and Peter Kretzmer in a report released late Monday….
Bank of America predicts
a second stimulus could total up to $300 billion, or 2.2% of the country’s
gross domestic product….
An additional stimulus
package, on top of October $700 billion bailout of troubled lenders, could
drive the deficit near $1 trillion. That would be nearly 7% of GDP - the
highest of the post-World War II period, Bank of America said.
The Treasury is expected
to borrow up to $2 trillion this year to fund the government’s rescue programs
and other outlays. But so far, it hasn’t had to pay up for its debt….
But foreign investments
will likely wane in coming years, pushing up Treasury yields, said Bank of
“The pool of excess
global saving will shrink as global growth slows,” said Bank of America’s Levy and Kretzmer.
47. “Councilors Wary of
Wage Delay - Chamber of Commerce wants to wait to increase minimum” (Albuquerque
Journal,
By Kiera
Hay Journal Staff Writer
A Santa Fe Chamber of
Commerce request to delay a costof-living increase to
the $9.50 living wage could face an uphill battle at the City Council.
At least a few
councilors contacted by the Journal this week don’t immediately appear
enthusiastic about the proposal….
At the moment, it’s
looking like the new hourly wage will be between $9.80 and $9.90 when the
increase, based on a Western regional consumer price index, kicks in January 1….
In the summer of 2007, however,
a coalition including city government, the Living Wage Network, unions and
business advocacy groups announced a deal that would scrap the increase to
$10.50 but expand the law to cover all workers within
In November 2007, the
City Council unanimously approved the changes.
While the Chamber of
Commerce supported the deal at the time, “it’s time to reassess all of the
assumptions we made back then,” chamber president Simon Brackley
said recently.
Earlier this week, Mayor
David Coss proposed an economic stimulus package that
includes moving forward with funding for alternative energy, infrastructure
projects and promotion for the city’s upcoming 400th anniversary.
Councilor Chris Calvert said Friday he would prefer to help the
local economy through projects rather than freeze the living wage increase.
Calvert also reiterated that the compromise on the living wage
worked out in 2007 was a good one, in part because it included all parties.
“Some people got what
they wanted initially, but now they don’t want the new part. You’ve got to take
the good with the bad,” he said.
“Everybody agreed to
this compromise. I understand that it’s tough economic times, but it’s tough economic times for everybody,” Calvert said.
48. “Criteria Revision
Results in Upgrades for 15 Municipalities in Oregon, Washington, Report Says”
(Market News Publishing, November 10, 2008); newswire citing LISA SCHROEER (MPP 2005).
“We believe that these entities
reflect traits of a higher credit quality than previously assigned because of
their good financial performance record,” said Ms. Schroeer in the report, “Criteria
Revision Bumps Up Several Pacific Northwest Ratings,”
published on RatingsDirect.
Many of these
municipalities have seen strong growth in revenues over the past several years
and this has led to healthy financial positions that we believe will provide
some cushion to weather the current economic downturn, she said. The upgraded
municipalities in
49. “Carbon Controls,
Energy Taxes May Be Used to Cover US Bailout” (Natural Gas Week,
By Lauren O’Neil,
National debate on
energy policy and carbon control measures are poised to merge perhaps more than
ever as Democratic Sen. Barack Obama
is sworn in as the next US president in a little more than two months from now,
alongside strengthened Democratic majorities in the US House and Senate.
A national system of
emissions allowances, as well as taxes on oil and natural gas companies, are
being discussed as a way for the government to combat greenhouse emissions—while
simultaneously generating more revenue, especially since the government just
footed a $700 billion bailout to rescue US financial players….
Whether or not gas
processors are regulated, a national carbon reduction system has been seen as
something that could easily place too much demand on natural gas supplies as
environmental restrictions tighten, which could place upward pressure on
prices. However, industry leaders also point out that the crucial role of
natural gas in offsetting carbon emissions—either by helping to meet
electricity demand under a carbon mandate, or by backing up wind and solar
production—could garner a great deal of political support for gas
infrastructure and E&P activities….
Meanwhile, Natural Gas Supply Association President
Skip Horvath says natural gas could emerge as a big winner if Democrats
promote a stronger transition toward cleaner sources of electricity generation.
“If the Obama administration and Congress follow through on their
campaign promises to rely on more renewables to make
electricity, natural gas will prove extremely useful in enhancing the
reliability of those fuels,” Horvath
said.
50. “Standard & Poor’s
has good news for Marin County” (Marin Independent Journal, October 16, 2008);
story citing LISA SCHROEER (MPP
2005); http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_10738362?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com
By Nels
Johnson
Amid a national
recession, plummeting stock market, frozen credit market, real estate slump and
related fiscal turmoil across the nation, there was some great financial news
for
Standard
& Poor’s, which provides independent credit data, risk evaluation and
investment information, upgraded Marin County to its top tier of ratings.
Marin scored an AA+, as did
“This action marks the
first time that credit quality among
The AA+ rating is good
news for Marin taxpayers, said Marin County Treasurer-Tax Collector Michael
Smith, noting it will “translate into lower borrowing costs” should the county
need to finance public projects or programs in the future….
“The county recently
formalized an unreserved fund balance minimum of 5 percent of expenditures
(roughly $25 million), though it typically holds substantially more in its
unreserved fund balance (38 percent audited fiscal 2006),” Standard & Poor’s analysts Lisa Schroeer
and Gabriel Petek said in a report.
“Despite cuts from the
state, the county anticipates 2009 should end equally as strong as previous
years due to property tax revenues coming in stronger than budgeted and the
majority of state cuts affecting grant-funded programs that will be phased out,”
the analysts added….
1. “Have a peaceful,
prosperous new year” – Commentary by ROBERT
REICH (Marketplace [NPR],
ROBERT REICH: The biggest thing to
happen to me this year was the birth of my first grandchild, a little girl
named Ella….
My point is
that, relative to Ella, it’s all, well, sort of
irrelevant…. Having kids or grandkids expands your focus, and also your time
horizon.
You pay a
little bit less attention to what the Dow is likely to do over the next
quarter, and more to the underlying wealth of the nation. Not just its gross
domestic product, but its gross domestic decency, if there were such a measure:
The quality of our public schools and of our atmosphere, the extent of our
generosity to one another. You find yourself paying less attention to the
gossip surrounding Bernie Madoff or Rod Blagojevich,
than to the larger questions they raise about greed and public morality.
Which brings
me to today, and tomorrow and beyond.
I wish you not
just a prosperous new year; on that score, 2009 may be something of a bummer.
No, I wish you and your kids and grandkids, and Ella, a good and peaceful and
generous new year.
Ryssdal: Robert Reich
is a grandfather and a professor of
public policy at the
2. “A look
at business news in the Bay Area” (San Francisco Chronicle,
Reich to deliver economic forecast Jan.
14
As the economy
nose-dives into a crisis of unknown depths, hear economist and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich lay out
his thoughts on what lurks around the financial corner in 2009.
Reich, more recently an economic
adviser to President-elect Barack Obama
and a UC Berkeley professor, will
deliver the Commonwealth Club’s annual Bank of America-Walter E. Hoadley economic forecast Jan. 14 at the Hotel Nikko Ballroom,
3. “Chalking
up the losses of 2008” (Marketplace [NPR],
ROBERT REICH: Incomes are dropping,
partly because people are losing jobs, or they are losing hours on the job—that
means that we are seeing median incomes continue to drop. But also we’re seeing
people who have savings, their nest eggs are dropping
or disappearing. People’s homes have been their major nest egg; those homes
have dropped, in some places around the country, 20 percent in value. The
S&P 500 stock index has lost about 36 percent since January. A lot of 401(k)s and IRAs depend on that. Well, that means that people
have about 30 to 40 percent less in their mutual funds….
Ryssdal: But the point is, we’ve lost so much ground, even
after a recovery in late 2009, if we’re lucky, it’s going to take us some time
to get back to what we’re used to having, right?
REICH: Well, if you’re talking about “used
to” in terms of getting the stock market back to where it was in 2004 or 2005,
well, it could take a very long time. If you’re talking about getting incomes
back to where they were in 2000, which is about the highest they were, adjusted
for inflation, that could take easily another five, six, seven, eight years….
…[J]ust relatively speaking, the
American economy in the late ‘90s, the early part of this decade, was in
wonderful shape. But even before the bubble people were living OK. The poor
were still having a hard time, but
Ryssdal: Robert Reich.
He teaches public policy at
4. “Art:
Whose Rules Are These, Anyway?” (New York Times (*requires registration),
By Jori Finkel
The director
of the art-rich yet cash-poor
Even so, she
said, she was not prepared for the directors group’s “immediate and punitive”
response to the sale. In an e-mail message on Dec. 5 to its 190 members, it
denounced the academy, founded in 1825, for “breaching one of the most basic
and important of A.A.M.D.’s principles” and called on
members “to suspend any loans of works of art to and any collaborations on
exhibitions with the National Academy.” …
Donn Zaretsky, a
Michael O’Hare, a cultural policy professor
at the University of California, Berkeley, who has also broached the issue
on samefacts.com, said in a telephone interview, “I see no reason for strict
rules about deaccessioning, other than telling the
truth to the public and not selling to international trafficking mafias.
“The
“If it were
suddenly legitimate to sell artworks and use the proceeds for anything other
than acquisitions,” [Graham Beal, the director of the Detroit Institute of
Arts, which has had operating shortfalls of more than $10 million a year for
several years now] contended, “there would be a wholesale cannibalization of
many museums.” …
Yet critics
of strict deaccessioning rules make a public-access
argument as well. “Most big museums can’t show 90 percent of the objects they
own — it’s all in storage,” said Mr. O’Hare
at Berkeley. “What’s wrong with selling these objects to smaller museums or
even private collectors, who are more likely to put them on display?” …
5. “Obama taps
--Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
The
influence parade starts with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director Steven
Chu, who is scheduled to be secretary of energy, and
Rep. Hilda Solis, D-
UC Berkeley Professors Robert Reich and
Laura Tyson, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
and Google CEO Eric Schmidt are on Obama’s team of
economic advisers. And with [Leon] Panetta, a former Monterey area congressman,
and UC Berkeley law school Dean Christopher Edley
counted among the confidants of Obama and his top
lieutenants, the state’s unofficial list of White House advisers is deep, too.
“I think it
means a great deal to have Californians in the administration because our needs
are so much different than other states,” said Henry Brady, a UC Berkeley professor of politics and public policy.
“So we are a
lot different than many of the swing states like
6. “Still reluctant to change after fallout” –
Commentary by ROBERT REICH
(Marketplace [NPR],
ROBERT REICH: The public believes the
bailouts of Wall Street and the Big Three will permanently change these
industries, but I doubt that’s what industry insiders want. Goldman Sach’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein, for
example, said recently the firm’s business strategy doesn’t need to change….
Now I’m not
so cynical as to accuse anyone of bad faith. It’s just that both Wall Street
and
But the
bailouts have been sold to the public as means toward fundamental change in
finance and autos. This means if the bailouts are to do what they’re supposed
to do—stop Wall Street from wild risk-taking with piles of borrowed money, and
push the auto industry into making fundamentally new products—Washington will
not only have to set strict standards, but watch over these industries even
when the recession is over.
Jagow: Robert Reich
teaches public policy at the
7. “In
financial crisis, it’s still a democracy” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR],
ROBERT REICH: I’m among those who think
there’s good reason to give the Big Three a $14 billion bridge loan to stave
off immediate bankruptcy until they come up with a restructuring plan. But I’ve
got to tell you, I’m deeply troubled by what I hear is the administration’s
likely decision to give them a bridge loan, when just last week Congress said
they can’t have it.
Call me
old-fashioned, but I believe in democracy. And under our Constitution, Congress
is in charge of appropriating taxpayer money. If Congress explicitly decides
not to appropriate it for a certain purpose, where does the White House get the
right to do so anyway? ...
Now
personally, I think there’s more reason to rescue big automakers than big Wall
Street banks, but what I want isn’t the issue. It’s what our representatives
voted for. When they voted for TARP in October, they didn’t say to the
President, here’s a $700 billion slush fund to use as you wish. They said: Here’s
$700 billion for Wall Street.
…But our
system of government depends on sunlight, transparency, public awareness. It
also depends on Congress exercising its constitutional duty to make laws and
the president executing them. An economic crisis is no excuse for turning our
back on democracy.
VIGELAND: Robert Reich is a professor of public
policy at the
8. “Primary
care doctors struggling to survive. Relatively low earnings, rising overhead
and overwhelming patient loads are sending veteran physicians into early
retirement and driving medical students into better-paying specialties” (Los
Angeles Times, December 15, 2008); column citing RICHARD SCHEFFLER; http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-doctors15-2008dec15,0,2626195,print.story
By Lisa Girion
Dr. Tanyech Walford
takes blood from patient Gwendolyn Wood during Wood’s check-up on Tuesday. Walford is closing her
The morning’s
last patient, a disabled woman on Medicare, trails her doctor into her office
and confides that she doesn’t have money for lunch. Tanyech
Walford pulls out her billfold and hands her $3. It’s money the doctor really doesn’t have....
Walford’s fashionable medical suite in a sleek
black-paneled building in
“It’s very
difficult, even in rich neighborhoods like
9. “Above
the Law: Many lack jobless benefits” (Washington Times,
--Tom Ramstack, Columnist
Unemployment
insurance claims are up on the heels of the biggest monthly layoffs in November
since 1974, but some labor advocates say the numbers do not reflect the “contingent
workers” who are left with no financial backstop....
About 30
percent of the nation’s work force are “contingent
workers” who work at part-time jobs or are self-employed, said Robert Reich, former
“Their ranks
are growing very, very large,” Mr. Reich
said. “We’ve gotten to the tragic situation where we have joblessness soaring
and a huge hole in our joblessness safety net.”...
10. “RFK Jr.
vs. ‘corporate plunder’. In his Mario Savio Lecture,
Kennedy argues that
By Barry
Bergman, Public Affairs
BERKELEY — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came to
Berkeley last week to argue that it takes a vibrant democracy, unshackled by
corporate pillagers — and a vigorous press as focused on public policy as on Brangelina and Britney Spears — to preserve natural
resources, ensure clean air and water, combat global warming, and achieve
energy security.
The longtime
environmental crusader, asserting “a direct correlation between the level of
environmental injury and the level of tyranny” in nations around the world, was
the keynote speaker at the annual Mario Savio
Memorial Lecture, staged since 1997 to honor the fiery Free Speech Movement
icon and promote the work of a new generation of activists. Savio,
he said, understood the “subversion of American democracy” inherent in the efforts
of corporate lobbyists — aided and abetted today, he said, by a compliant White
House — to rewrite or undermine laws and regulations intended to safeguard
public health and the environment.
Mario Savio (Courtesy of Bancroft Library)
That was a lesson Kennedy himself learned from
his father, the former
Weaning
ourselves off coal and foreign oil, Kennedy told his appreciative audience, is
a path to increased national security, greater national wealth, and a cleaner
environment.
Carbon is “the
principal drag” on the
Kennedy also
attributed a “pediatric epidemic” of asthma to what he said were $156 million
in campaign contributions from the coal industry to George W. Bush over the
past eight years. The father of three asthmatic children, he said he sometimes
has to watch his kids “gasping for air on bad-air days because somebody gave
money to a politician.”…
11. “Three
rules for Obama’s stimulus plan” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR],
Congress and
the Obama administration are preparing a new stimulus
plan likely to be signed as soon as the new president is sworn in. Commentator Robert Reich has a few
suggestions for keeping the money out of corporate welfare….
ROBERT REICH: … Getting it enacted won’t
be difficult. Even deficit hawks know that when millions of people are
unemployed, offices vacant, and factories shuttered, deficit spending that gets
the economy growing again will make future deficits smaller.
The real
political challenge will be to avoid pork-barrel projects and corporate
welfare. Yet
First, the
stimulus package should be transparent—unlike the opaque Treasury bailout of Wall
Street. Spending priorities should be posted on the Internet, along with
reasons why they are priorities. All contracts should be subject to competitive
bidding, with the final winning and losing bids also clearly posted.
Second, and also
by contrast to the Wall Street bailout, lobbyists should be barred from
receiving any benefits at all from the stimulus package. The rule should be
that no stimulus money may go to any company that has paid a lobbyist to seek
any portion of the stimulus package on its behalf.
Finally, the
stimulus package may not contain earmarks or special allocations of money to
any state or locale. The only valid reason for state or local governments
getting stimulus funds should be to remedy their budget shortfalls and thereby
restore public services. This means no amendments to the stimulus bill. Make it
a straight up or down vote….
Jagow: Robert Reich
teaches at the
12. “Poll:
Many have difficulties making ends meet” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Tom Abate,
Chronicle Staff Writer
Many jobless
Americans have had phones disconnected or utilities turned off or have been
forced to skip meals, according to a poll released Monday by a national organization
that wants to make it easier to collect unemployment benefits….
The [National
Employment] Law Project released the survey Monday in an effort to persuade
congressional leaders to include an Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act,
intended to broaden eligibility for benefits, in the stimulus package for the
incoming Obama administration.
“There’s a
big hole in unemployment insurance. Only 37 percent of Americans who are
jobless today collect benefits,” said former
Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who cited a government estimate.
Reich, now a UC Berkeley professor,
attributed the low rate of eligibility to changes in the nature of work, as
people work part time or hop from job to job in ways that don’t fit the
criteria. He said these trends particularly affect low-wage workers who end up
missing out on badly needed benefits.
“It’s a
matter of social equity, and it is also one of the best ways to stimulate the
economy,” Reich said of the proposed
changes….
13. “Why
were Wall Street workers not asked for concessions? Autoworkers stepped up to
the plate to save the car industry. White-collar workers, on the other hand,
weren’t expected to do the same when financial firms went to Congress with hat
in hand” (Los Angeles Times,
--David Lazarus, Columnist
The
president of the United Automobile Workers union, Ron Gettelfinger,
cut right to the chase when he announced last week that autoworkers were
prepared to sacrifice job security, funding for retiree healthcare and other
contract provisions to help salvage their fast-sinking industry....
“There is absolutely no excuse for a bailout without significant sacrifices by
all stakeholders,” said Robert Reich, who
served as Labor secretary under President Clinton and is now a professor of
public policy at UC Berkeley.
“We should be making everyone on Wall Street jump through hoops, not just the
automakers.”...
“Most Americans don’t understand—or don’t want to understand—the complicated
deal we made with Citigroup,” Reich
said. “But when you talk about General Motors, it’s much more concrete. People
know what a car is.”
For that reason, he said, lawmakers in
Reich is right: A bailout should
require concessions from all stakeholders, not just the top brass and certainly
not just the public....
14. “Countdown with Keith Olbermann”
(MSNBC,
MR. OLBERMANN: For more on the urgency of the
economic crisis, time to call in former
Losing jobs at a rate of half a million a month
and an underutilization rate that’s double the unemployment rate; consumers who
don’t seem to be spending very much this holiday season and a president who
finally admits way too late that we’re in a recession….
How bad do you think it could get? I mean, what
is the momentum like right now with numbers like these in terms of six weeks
before Obama takes office?
MR. REICH:
Keith, I don’t want to be a doomsayer, but certainly unemployment could reach
up to 8 or 9 percent. But you mentioned underemployment. That’s something that
people have not been paying enough attention. It’s people who are too
discouraged to look for work and also people who are working part-time who
would rather be working full-time.
The new numbers we have today from the Bureau of
Labor Statistics show that we have kind of a 45-year record level of people who
are basically working fewer hours than they would like to work….
…[I]f this is like … the
pattern of very severe recessions, yes, a lot of those people are headed toward
unemployment. A lot of those people are headed toward sort of a lot of
part-time jobs. They’ll call themselves consultants or they’ll be independent
contractors. But they’re going to be hurting and they are hurting. And
unemployment insurance does not reach them….
MR. OLBERMANN: All right, so if the goal is how
many new jobs can you make fast, obviously the first goal is to have to prevent
more jobs from being put on the wrong side of the balance. Did those economic
numbers today—in a perverse way, was that the best news the automakers could
have gotten this week?
MR. REICH:
Yes, it was very perverse news, in a very perverse way. Yes, automakers make
their claim to Congress, and Congress is getting huge pressure from
constituents back home to do something about the job situation. So as Jonathan
Alter said, yes, there probably will be a bridge loan.
I expect in January or February the automakers
will extract something, you know, that looks like a bailout; maybe $1 of
taxpayer money for every $2 that comes from all of the stakeholders, the UAW
and the executives and the shareholders and the creditors of the auto workers.
It’s not going to be exactly a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Nobody’s going to call it
a bankruptcy. Call it liverwurst. But it’s going to be something like that….
15. “
MR. GREGORY: … Joining me now, Robert Reich, secretary of Labor under
President Clinton and the author of “Supercapitalism:
The Transformation of Business, Democracy and Everyday Life,” also an adviser
to President-elect Obama…. Let’s talk about where we are with this
bailout idea of the big three [automakers]. And my question to you is, is Congress going to deal with this now, or ultimately
will this be part of the stimulus that President Obama
takes on?
MR. REICH:
Well, my reading is that if Congress really is worried that GM, for example,
might go down over the next month, before the inauguration of the
president-elect, well, Congress may provide a little bit of a bridge loan.
Nobody wants to see GM go down or even Ford or Chrysler.
But I think the big question is,
what’s so wrong with Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code? What you didn’t talk
about quite enough, I think, in the previous segment is that there are really
two fundamentally different forms of bankruptcy. One is Chapter 11. That’s
liquidation. Nobody wants that. But then there is reorganization under Chapter
11, which means that creditors and shareholders and executives and employees,
everybody takes a hit in order to keep a firm going. And everybody knows that
it’s worth more alive than it is dead.
Now, Chapter 11 ought to be the starting place
for whether we’re talking about Citigroup or we’re talking about General Motors.
Whatever company we’re talking about, the question should be what’s wrong with
Chapter 11? Are there public issues here, public costs and public benefits,
that merit additional cash from taxpayers?
MR. GREGORY: … Both from a market point of view, but
also if ultimately you’re going to get to real financial health and you’ve got
a business model that has been reworked and is sustainable, it may have to come
through that process of bankruptcy.
MR. REICH:
Yeah. And I think what we’re going to see, David, is sort of a hybrid. You talk
about hybrid vehicles. This is going to be a hybrid financial vehicle of both a
bailout and bankruptcy. That is, the taxpayers will be putting up some money.
But for every dollar the taxpayers put up, there’ll probably be $2 required of
all of the stakeholders in these automobile manufacturers, and probably some
severe public oversight, as we had with the Chrysler bailout in the early
1980s.
MR. GREGORY: You were talking on your blog recently about some of the elements in this debate
that come to dictating how the industry ought to evolve. You write this: “Telling
automakers to make more fuel-efficient cars as a condition of being bailed out
is like telling Citigroup or any other big bank to issue more affordable loans
to
MR. REICH:
It won’t happen, because there are not consumers out there that create the
demand for these businesses to do it. I mean, as oil prices have gone down,
what we’re seeing, the relatively few people who are still buying cars are not
buying fuel-efficient cars. Oil prices come down; gas prices come down. And
unfortunately—I say unfortunately, because I’m concerned about CO2 in the
atmosphere and energy conservation—unfortunately a lot of people are reverting
back to the big gas guzzlers, the SUVs, the trucks.
And so what is an automobile company going to do?
What is a big bank going to do when people don’t have the money and they don’t
want to make bank loans and get bank loans because they’re already deep in
debt?
These companies exist to make profits. They want
to make money. To tell them to try to do something else is like pushing on a
string….
16. “Fresher cookers. Technology and development:
The humble cooking stove is being overhauled around the world with the help of ‘user
focused’ design” (The Economist [
Environfit International
If
user demand were the sole driver of innovation, the biomass cooking stove would
be one of the most sophisticated devices in the world. Depending on which
development agency you ask, between two-and-a-half and three billion people nearly
half the world’s populationuse a stove every day, in
conjunction with solid fuel such as wood, dung or coal. Yet in many parts of
the world the stove has barely progressed beyond the Stone Age.
...Research from the
After an initial wave of stove design that sought to reduce deforestation
through improved efficiency, scientists and engineers have turned their
attention to stoves that minimise the levels of
noxious emissions to which stove usersmainly women
and childrenare exposed. Crucially, they have also recognised the need to take account of the way in which
stoves are actually used....
Even if they get the thermodynamics and materials right, designers must also
make the devices compatible with local foodstuffs and cooking habits. A lot of
the initial stove projects failed this test, says Daniel Kammen of
17. “
Wall Street stocks suffered the fourth largest
loss in history Monday following the announcement that the
Guests:
-- Robert
Reich, professor of public policy at UC
-- Jerry
Nickelsburg, economist at UCLA Anderson Forecast,
Anderson School of Management
18. “Where’s the bailout for human capital?” –
Commentary by ROBERT REICH
(Marketplace [NPR],
ROBERT
REICH: Our preoccupation with the immediate crisis of financial capital is
causing us to overlook the bigger crisis in
Education is largely funded by state and local
governments whose revenues are plummeting. As consumers cut back, state sales
taxes are shrinking, and as home values decline local property taxes are taking
a hit. Three-quarters of our states are facing budget crises. As a result,
schools are being closed, teachers laid off, after-school programs cut,
so-called “noncritical” subjects like history
eliminated, and tuition hiked at state colleges.
It’s absurd. We’re bailing out every major bank
to get financial capital flowing again. But we’re squeezing the main sources of
our human capital.
Yet, the future competitiveness and standard of
living of
RYSSDAL: Robert
Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley.
His most recent book is called Supercapitalism.
19. “Hawaii Endorses Plan for Electric Cars” (New
York Times,
By John Markoff
Shai
Agassi, right, founder of Better Place LLC, met with
Anders Eldrup, center, a Danish energy executive, in
SAN FRANCISCO — The State of Hawaii and the
Hawaiian Electric Company on Tuesday endorsed an effort to build an alternative
transportation system based on electric vehicles with swappable batteries and
an “intelligent” battery recharging network.
The plan, the brainchild of the former Silicon
Valley software executive Shai Agassi,
is an effort to overcome the major hurdles to electric cars — slow battery
recharging and limited availability.
By using existing electric car technologies,
coupled with an Internet-connected web of tens of thousands of recharging
stations, he thinks his company, Better Place L.L.C. of Palo Alto, Calif., will
make all-electric vehicles feasible….
Given the downturn in the mortgage market, he
said that investors are looking for new classes of assets that will provide
dependable revenue streams over many years. “I believe the new asset class is
batteries,” he said. “When you have a driver in a car using a battery, nobody
is going to cut their subscription and stop driving.” …
Drivers on the islands also rarely make trips of
more than 100 miles, meaning there will be less need for his proposed battery
recharging stations. Part of Mr. Agassi’s model
depends on quick-change service stations to swap batteries for drivers who need
to use their cars before they have completely recharged their batteries….
In late November, the mayors of
Despite challenges, the
[This story also appeared in the <a href=“http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/03/technology/03hawaii.php“>International
Herald Tribune</a>]
“An innovation and policy agenda for commercially competitive
plug-in hybrid electric vehicles” by D M Lemoine, D M Kammen
and A E Farrell, 2008 Environmental Research Letters 3 014003. Data sets for
this paper are available online at
“Abstract. … If most [Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs)] are charged after the workday, and thus after the
time of peak electricity demand, our forecasts suggest that several million PHEVs could be deployed in California without requiring new
generation capacity, and we also find that the state’s PHEV fleet is unlikely
to reach into the millions within the current electricity sector planning
cycle. To ensure desirable outcomes, appropriate technologies and incentives
for PHEV charging will be needed if PHEV adoption becomes mainstream.”
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