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eDIGEST July 2006
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GSPP’s 8th Annual
Alumni Recognition Dinner
October 6, 2006 at The
5:30 pm - cocktail reception, 7:00 pm - dinner
In addition to the print media
referenced below, broadcast media coverage includes numerous interviews with
DEAN NACHT by KRON TV, KGO TV and KTVU, among others.
ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS
2. “McClatchy confronts Web challenge” (Sacramento Bee, June 28, 2006); story citing GARY PRUITT (MPP 1981); http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/14272467p-15082794c.html
3. “State’s budget called a victory for all sides. Debt reduced, education fully funded -- governor is expected to sign it Friday” (San Francisco Chronicle, June 28, 2006); story citing MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/28/BAGOEJLJV71.DTL&hw=mike+genest&sn=003&sc=425
4. “Bank of
5. “WHO investigation shows H5N1 bird flu virus mutated slightly in Indonesian family cluster” (Associated Press Worldstream, June 24, 2006); story citing TIM UYEKI (MPP 1985).
6. “Limits on eminent domain are approved by Assembly”
(Star-Ledger, The (
7. “Voters have power to fix traffic jams. Infrastructure bond could help Bay Area clear top trouble spots” (Inside Bay Area, June 21, 2006); story citing STUART COHEN (MPP 1997); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3962038
8. “Why WiFi? Using Mobile Technology to Create a Sense of Place on Your Main Street” (Main Street News, issue no. 229, June 2006); article by CURT GIBBS (MPP 1977); forthcoming online at http://www.mainstreet.org/content.aspx?page=4628§ion=8
9. “
10. “AIDS/LifeCycle Rolls Victoriously into Los Angeles, Raising AIDS Awareness, $8 Million for HIV/AIDS Services” (U.S. Newswire, June 10, 2006); story citing MARK CLOUTIER (MPP 1993); http://www.aidslifecycle.org/press/index.html
11. “Open Forum: Leadership needed for better health-care research” (San Francisco Chronicle, June 9, 2006); op-ed by CHRISTOPHER WOLF (MPP cand. 2007); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/06/09/EDGDOILMAF1.DTL
12. “The fast and the serious - This summer, the multiplex is
a good place to study our conflicted relationship with cars” (Times Union, (
13. “Cool 2 Know: It came unplugged. Examining the modest
rise and swift demise of GM’s electric car” (Newsday (
14. “State to Delay Benefit Rule;
15. “BART loses the way to
16. “Lockout at Hospital to End; Contract Talks to Resume”
(Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News - The Record (
17. “Officials call rules lax on site cleanups; Want state,
not polluter control” (The Record (
18. “It isn’t all bad news. Digital ventures recruit readers,
offset dreary circulation reports” (Times-Tribune, (
19. “Study: Too little enterprise in business tax-break zones: Payouts, Not Benefits, Up Dramatically” (San Jose Mercury News, April 18, 2006); story citing study by DAVID CARROLL (MPP 2000).
20. “Testimony delivered April 6 before House Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education appropriations, to discuss NCI budget request for Fiscal year 2007” (States News Service, April 6, 2006); story citing RICHARD TURMAN (MPP 1987).
21. “Housing Needs of Many Low-Income Hurricane Victims Remain Unmet; Study Outlines Additional Federal Steps Needed” (U.S. Newswire, February 23, 2006); story citing study by WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999).
22. “Analyst questions impact of Katrina grants on low-income in Miss.” (Associated Press State & Local Wire, January 25, 2006); story citing WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999).
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
1. “
2. “Raising a $60 billion question” (San Francisco Chronicle [*requires registration], June 28, 2006); story citing ROBERT MacCOUN; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/28/BUGVJJLAU41.DTL&type=printable
3. “Housing bubble deflating” Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, National Public Radio, June 28, 2006); Listen to this commentary at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/06/28/PM200606287.html
4. “Robert Reich and Steve Moore debate whether conservatives are happier than liberals” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, June 27, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.
5. “Companies Resist Bid to Limit Emissions. State lawmakers
will consider a bill to address global warming with industry mandates” (Los
Angeles Times, June 26, 2006); story citing study led by MICHAEL HANEMANN;
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-greenhouse26jun26,0,5235168,print.story
6. Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees: Fires and Global Warming” (CNN News, Aired June 26, 2006 - 23:00 ET); features interview with MICHAEL HANEMANN; http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/26/acd.02.html
7. “
8. “Poplar trees and grass may make fine gas for cars” (Contra Costa Times [*requires registration)], June 24, 2006); story citing DAN KAMMEN and study co-authored with MICHAEL O’HARE and BRIAN TURNER (MPP 2005); http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/breaking_news/14896223.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
9. “On the Grid. Solar power finally took off once it plugged into the larger electrical system” (East Bay Express, June 21, 2006); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2006-06-21/summer/summerarts3.html
10. “50 People Who Matter” (Business 2.0, CNN Money.com, July 2006 issue, posted June 21, 2006); STEPHEN MAURER is named to top 50 list; http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/peoplewhomatter/index.html
11. “LHS grad lauded for initiative. Berkeley professor named one of ‘50 Who Matter Now’” (Lawrence Journal-World [KS], June 27, 2006); story citing STEPHEN MAURER.
12. “California Sets ‘Clean Energy’ Oil Tax on Ballot” (New York Times Online [*requires registration], June 21, 2006; story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-energy-california-ballot.html?pagewanted=print
13. “Forget inflation, that’s deflation looming. Commentator ROBERT REICH warns Fed Chief Ben Bernanke not to become too focused on inflation and miss possible warning signs of deflation” (Marketplace, National Public Radio, June 21, 2006); listen to the commentary at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/06/21/AM200606211.html
14. “With State Coffers Full, Firms Seek Tax Breaks. Businesses seeking concessions on gas fees and the cost of making movies find a willing ally in Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. But the campaign faces opposition from Republicans...” (Los Angeles Times, June 14, 2006); story citing JOHN ELLWOOD; http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taxbreaks14jun14,1,2084852,print.story?coll=la-headlines-california
15. “Tomorrow’s Forecast: Eight ways to beat the heat” (Los Angeles Times, June 11, 2006); op-ed by DAN KAMMEN; http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-chart11jun11,1,1948091,full.story
16. “The Numbers Guy: Digging Into the Ethanol Debate” (Wall Street Journal [*requires subscription], June 9, 2006); column citing DAN KAMMEN and study co-authored with MICHAEL O’HARE and BRIAN TURNER (MPP 2005); http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114970102238673892.html
17. “Robert Reich and Steve Moore discuss Tom DeLay and the power structure in Washington” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, June 9, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.
18. “25 x 25 Energy Plan” (Science Friday, National Public Radio, June 9, 2006); program featuring DAN KAMMEN; podcast at: http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2006/Jun/hour2_060906.html
19. “Estate tax repeal? Bad for the economy” Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace Morning Report, National Public Radio, June 7, 2006); listen to the commentary at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/06/07/AM200606071.html
20. “Republicans face veteran Democrats in statewide races this fall” (San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 2006); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/06/07/politics/p151109D05.DTL&type=printable
21. “It is now safe to answer the phone again” (Oakland
Tribune, June 6, 2006); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.insidebayarea.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3904359
22. “Roundtable: Robert Reich, George Will, Jay Carney” (This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC News, June 4, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.
23. “Two Viewpoints on Prop 82: Universal Preschool” (The
California Report Magazine, KQED-88.5 FM, June 2, 2006); features commentary by
DAVID KIRP; listen to the commentary at: http://www.californiareport.org/domains/californiareport/
24. “Op-Ed: On Proposition 82’s call for universal preschool. Should the state educate 4-year-olds? PRO: Preschool is a smart investment” (San Francisco Chronicle, June 1, 2006); op-ed by DAVID KIRP; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/01/EDGDOIJM8F1.DTL&type=printable
25. “High likelihood of
1. “Mickey Levy of Bank of America, author Ben Stein, former Federal Reserve governor Wayne Angell, John Ryding of Bear Stearns and Joe Lavorgna of Deutsch Bank discuss the Federal Reserve and inflation” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, June 29, 2006); features commentary by MICKEY LEVY (MPP 1974).
LARRY KUDLOW, host:
On this evening’s program, so the Fed shows the consensus
route by raising its target rate a 1/4 point to 5.25 percent. Personally, I
thought this was kind of a wuss-out. He flunked the monetary manhood test.
Stocks loved it, but so did inflation-sensitive gold and commodities. And as
usual, the Fed’s written statement was completely ambiguous, leaving the door
open to almost any future outcome, tightening, easing, pausing, invading the
Joining me now, a blow-out all-star panel. We’ve got
economist Ben Stein, author of “How Successful People Win.” We’ve got former
Federal Reserve governor Wayne Angell. We’ve got Mickey Levy, chief
economist of Bank of
KUDLOW: Mickey Levy, what is your response to Wayne Angell’s point that there’s no clarity of strategy, there’s no clarity of targeting. I think these are spot-on criticisms, and, Mickey, I often fret, the whole idea of data-driven means as Wayne Angell inferred, that the Federal Reserve Board will be looking through the rear-window mirror rather than the front-view windshield. Now, what is your response to that? Doesn’t that set up big risks?
Mr. MICKEY LEVY (Bank of
KUDLOW: Right. It’s not changes in the unemployment rate, it’s not changes in the GDP necessarily. It’s the change in the value of money which has something to do with the money volume created by the Fed, does it not?
Mr. ANGELL: Well, that’s correct. But not only do you have the price of gold being affected, but we also had the price of houses…. So it’s not the decline in the price of gold that’s going to be the signal, it is the movement of house price to pure deflation….
Mr. LEVY: … Look, what you’ve had here is the Fed for four years was too accommodative, money was growing too rapidly, interest rates were way too low, and so for the last couple of years, we’ve had excess demand. Nominal spending growth in the economy’s averaged 6.7 percent, which is way, way, way above the nation’s long-run capacity to grow. So with this excess demand now, we’re feeling the lag of upward pressure on inflation. And the Fed has raised rates to try to slow nominal spending in the economy.
KUDLOW: How high should the target rate go, Mickey, in your judgment?
Mr. LEVY: I think we’re going to 5 3/4. And the point is we all want the Fed to be successful, to keep inflation low because we all know that, in the long run, stable low inflation is the best foundation for maximum economic growth and job creation. I think the Fed would like to pause. They kind of gave us a hint of that today. But I think this upward drift in inflation’s baked in the cake….
KUDLOW: Well, Wayne Angell… In your era as the Fed board member, we were really more on a commodity-oriented approach to measuring liquidity and inflation fears. Do you think they’ll ever get back to where you guys were in the early ‘90s?
Mr. ANGELL: Well, I hope so. Because I’ll tell you what’s going to happen….The real risk is that the Fed let the housing boom go too far, and it’s going to go crashing down…. And so that’s a real risk.
Mr. LEVY: Larry, I disagree…. I mean, the fundamentals
underlying the housing market are still favorable, and as long as the Fed
constrains inflationary expectations, which is an anchor for mortgage rates,
housing prices aren’t going to fall like that,
2. “McClatchy confronts Web challenge” (Sacramento Bee, June 28, 2006); story citing GARY PRUITT (MPP 1981); http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/14272467p-15082794c.html
By Dale Kasler -- Bee Staff Writer
Gary Pruitt, chairman and
chief executive of The McClatchy
There was a time when Sutter Health relied mainly on classified advertisements in The Bee and other local newspapers when it needed to hire a nurse.
Now the hospital chain is more likely to turn to the Internet: nursing sites and help-wanted outfits. On the Web, “we get the candidate pool that we need to reach,” said Debbie Moreno, Sutter’s regional recruitment director.
Sutter’s new approach to job recruitment offers a glimpse of the challenges facing newspapers just as The Bee’s parent, The McClatchy Co., completed its purchase Tuesday of Knight Ridder Inc., a historic acquisition that makes McClatchy the nation’s second largest newspaper chain. McClatchy says the deal will nearly triple its revenue and immediately add to cash flow, a measure of profitability.
But some analysts believe the deal is loaded with peril. Despite a strong economy, newspaper circulation is falling and most advertising revenue is stagnant.
Still, the industry has real strengths: Newspaper profit margins are about twice that of the average Fortune 500 company. And newspaper Web sites attracted more than one in three of all Internet users during the first quarter of 2006, according to a recent study.
McClatchy Chairman and Chief Executive Gary Pruitt said problems exist but aren’t overwhelming. “It’s certainly possible that (profits) may decline a little bit,” he said in an interview. “But they may not. It remains a profitable, healthy business.”
At risk, though, is the industry’s grip on help-wanted, automotive and other forms of classified advertising -- a segment that until recently generated up to 70 percent of profits, analyst Lauren Rich Fine of Merrill Lynch said in a recent speech. Now, she and others say, papers are losing market share to Web sites like Monster.com and craigslist….
Pruitt said classified ads account for less than 70 percent of McClatchy’s profit but they are “critically important.” And he acknowledged that the Web is “a virulent classified competitor.”
He also believes newspapers, in tandem with their Web sites, can fight off the infection because of their dominant position in each market they serve.
“We’re the local media leader, and we will be able to offer a combination of print and online,” he said. “That’s a combination our competitors can’t offer.”
McClatchy is revving up its Web sites with sophisticated search engines so readers can find local advertisers more effectively. It is part owner of two national classified-ad Web sites, including one -- CareerBuilder -- used by Sutter.
And, like other publishers, McClatchy is actually giving away some classifieds. The Bee offers free print and online classifieds to anyone selling merchandise priced at $250 or less. The idea is to make sure the paper retains a critical mass of ads to hold onto readers. Pruitt said the freebies are “reflective of increasing competition.”…
Total newspaper ad revenue increased 2.5 percent last year, the Newspaper Association of America said. That’s a far cry from the 7 percent increase the industry would normally enjoy in a strong economy, said Goldman Sachs analyst Peter Appert.
Yet industry officials say newspaper Web sites are gaining traction. A recent study by the Newspaper Association of America said visitors to newspaper Web sites are more likely than other Internet users to make online purchases. The study polled users of several Web sites, including sacbee.com.
Pruitt thinks newspapers and their Web sites can hold their own. Unlike the interlopers, McClatchy has local salespeople -- “feet on the street,” he said -- who can engage advertisers.
McClatchy owns a minority stake in Classified Ventures, an Internet company that includes Cars.com and several real estate sites. As part of the Knight Ridder takeover, McClatchy has inherited a one-third stake in CareerBuilder.com, a help-wanted site.
The size of the CareerBuilder stake could change because the other two partners have the option of buying McClatchy’s share. More alliances could occur.
“Google and Yahoo and Monster may be viewed as competitors today, but one or more of them are likely to be partners tomorrow,” Pruitt said.
3. “State’s budget called a victory for all sides. Debt reduced, education fully funded -- governor is expected to sign it Friday” (San Francisco Chronicle, June 28, 2006); story citing MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/28/BAGOEJLJV71.DTL&hw=mike+genest&sn=003&sc=425
By Lynda Gledhill; Chronicle
The state Legislature on Tuesday night approved a $131 billion budget that uses $7.5 billion in unexpected revenue to give victories to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative Democrats and Republicans by funding their key priorities….
The 2006-07 spending plan makes major inroads in paying down debt and fully funds education, spends significantly on transportation, and includes cost of living adjustments for poor and elderly people.
Despite the bipartisan good will, this budget continues to spend more than it takes in and leaves the state with a $4.5 billion deficit for the 2007-08 fiscal year, said Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger’s finance director….
4. “Bank of
Bank of America Corporation Chief Economist Mickey Levy
testified today in
[From Mr. Levy’s testimony:]
The
Several risks face economic performance in 2006-2007. The first is the risk that the Fed inadvertently pushes up interest rates too much, which would generate an economic slump. Presently, this risk is low, and the Fed is well aware of the consequences of tightening monetary policy too much. The second risk is a misguided thrust toward protectionism that could potentially disrupt global trade and capital flows. Congressional authors and supporters of protectionist legislation must be warned that such measures would damage economic performance and hurt many citizens they are intended to help.
The high
Sustained healthy economic performance requires coming to grips with the large Federal budget imbalance. Closing the budget gap ultimately requires reforming Social Security, Medicare and the retirement programs by trimming future benefit structures and making them economically rational. Failure to address these issues is a disservice to the citizenry and only increases the eventual costs of adjustment….
5. “WHO investigation shows H5N1 bird flu virus mutated slightly in Indonesian family cluster” (Associated Press Worldstream, June 24, 2006); story citing TIM UYEKI (MPP 1985).
By Margie Mason, AP Medical Writer
Jakarta Indonesia -- A World Health Organization investigation showed that the H5N1 virus mutated slightly in an Indonesian family cluster on Sumatra island, but bird flu experts insist it did not increase the possibility of a human pandemic.
The virus that infected eight members of a family last month killing seven of them appears to have slightly mutated in a 10-year-old boy, who is then suspected of passing the virus to his father, the WHO investigative report said.
It is the first evidence indicating that a person caught the virus from a human and then passed it on to another person, said Tim Uyeki, an epidemiologist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said the H5N1 virus died with the father and did not pass outside the family.
“It stopped. It was dead end at that point,” he said, stressing that viruses are always slightly changing and there was no reason to raise alarm….
[Dr. William Schaffner, a bird flu expert at the
Despite the virus’ slight mutation, Uyeki insisted that an analysis suggested there was “nothing remarkable about these viruses.”…
6. “Limits on eminent domain are approved by Assembly”
(Star-Ledger, The (
By Robert Schwaneberg and Steve Chambers; Star-Ledger Staff
A bill intended to restrict government’s power to seize private property through eminent domain passed the Assembly yesterday, 52-18. The bill goes to the Senate, where a rival version is pending.
Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester) called his bill “a critical and crucial step” toward protecting the rights of property owners while maintaining a vital tool for transforming blighted areas into new ratables.
“The fear of New Jerseyans that government is waiting around the corner and on a whim can take their homes is a fear we have to address,” Burzichelli said. He said his bill (A3257) does that by making it harder for government to declare an area “blighted” and subject to condemnation.
Assemblyman Robert Gordon (D-Bergen) [the bill’s co-sponsor] said the bill also requires public hearings “at every point of the process” and “greatly” increases compensation to the owners of homes or businesses that are taken by government….
7. “Voters have power to fix traffic jams. Infrastructure bond could help Bay Area clear top trouble spots” (Inside Bay Area, June 21, 2006); story citing STUART COHEN (MPP 1997); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3962038
By Erik N. Nelson, Staff Writer
The
This year, however, local transportation officials offered a new twist with their annual congestion report: In November, they said, motorists can fix some of these problem areas by voting for a $20 billion state transportation bond….
Caltrans is already in the initial stages of putting in eastbound carpool lanes on the I-580 to reduce congestion, [Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who represents the county on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission] explained, and planners hope that by 2012, they will be able to build carpool lanes on the westbound side as well.
But some in the Bay Area do question how much good the bond measure would do to solve the area’s congestion headaches.
“Adding more highway capacity has typically failed us,” said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Transportation and Land-use Coalition (TALC), a coalition that advocates for environmental protection and mass transit. “You’ll add a lot more capacity by making major investment in rail than you will by adding one extra lane on 580.”
8. “Why WiFi? Using Mobile Technology to Create a Sense of Place on Your Main Street” (Main Street News, issue no. 229, June 2006); article by CURT GIBBS (MPP 1977); forthcoming online at http://www.mainstreet.org/content.aspx?page=4628§ion=8
By Curt Gibbs
LA Councilwoman Jan Perry holds
a laptop at the launch of
…WiFi
applications can be used to attract visitors, increase foot traffic, assist
local businesses, enhance public safety, and aid public employees.
Communicating through WiFi can benefit neighborhoods and bolster economic
development. Setting up or enhancing public WiFi districts and marketing
to individuals with WiFi-enabled devices can help create and define a sense of
place….
…Everyone is waiting to see how a large-city deployment like
Relatively lost-cost WiFi solutions to connect visitors,
workers, and residents to the Internet can be implemented now by
Curt Gibbs is Senior Resource Development Officer at the
Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of
9. “
By John O’Dell, Times Staff Writer
Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday that it intended to increase research into plug-in hybrid technology, which it once derided, and to double the number of conventional hybrid models it sells globally by early next decade.
The Japanese automaker, poised to overtake General Motors Corp. as the world’s largest automaker by sales volume, presented a far-reaching look at its fuel-efficiency and environmental goals.
In addition to increasing to 14 the number of
gasoline-electric hybrid models it offers,
The moves come as Toyota, like other automakers, gears up to compete in a world of soaring gasoline prices, diminishing supplies of easily obtainable crude oil and increased political and social pressure to reduce oil consumption and auto emissions….
–
“Don’t tell me about the technologies — tell me how you will use them to reduce global warming pollution,” said Roland Hwang, Berkeley-based vehicle program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “That’s what’s missing here.”
That’s second-best in the
10. “AIDS/LifeCycle Rolls Victoriously into Los Angeles, Raising AIDS Awareness, $8 Million for HIV/AIDS Services” (U.S. Newswire, June 10, 2006); story citing MARK CLOUTIER (MPP 1993); http://www.aidslifecycle.org/press/index.html
2,200 Participants in 5th Annual Event Commemorate 25 Years of Battle Against AIDS Photo credit: Susan Goldman - AIDS/LifeCycle
After a week
experiencing the physical and emotional challenges of a 585-mile journey from
“In this 25th year of the fight against AIDS, 2,200
participants took a week out of their lives to remind the world
that AIDS deserves all our attention,” said Mark Cloutier,
executive director of the
AIDS/LifeCycle 5 set a new record for participation and money
raised, attracting cyclists from nine countries and 40 states, including a
contingent of people living with HIV known as the Positive Pedalers. No other
event raises as much money for HIV/AIDS services. The riders, volunteers and
thousands of well wishers were welcomed to
11. “Open Forum: Leadership needed for better health-care research” (San Francisco Chronicle, June 9, 2006); op-ed by CHRISTOPHER WOLF (MPP cand. 2007); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/06/09/EDGDOILMAF1.DTL
By Christopher Wolf
Ask the person next to you if they know of any therapies
based on stem cells that have been clinically successful; better yet, ask
yourself the same question. Now consider the case, in 2003, of a 16-year-old
boy in the
In this case, however, a different approach was taken; namely, the peripheral, the so-called “adult” stem cells, were harvested from the boy’s blood, cultured and subsequently injected into the coronary artery nearest the injury. “Six months later, the patient is attending school and playing basketball with friends,” according to the Genome News Network.
Today, three years later… Stem-cell therapies, however, have not made significant headway into the clinical setting….
As it stands, the FDA cannot approve new technologies that use human embryonic-stem cells because that would involve federal funding, which President Bush has banned.
This lack of federal research may foster private interests to step in and reap the benefits. For example, say a biotech company develops a fundamentally new therapy; given enough marketing and initial capital, such a company could monopolize that portion of regenerative medicine and start hindering any further advances that involve its patented technology. Under such a circumstance, regenerative medicine could become a set of monopolies controlled by corporations and/or other countries.
Other countries, most notably
Christopher Wolf is a student in the
[This op-ed was the winner in a writing contest judged by David Kirp and Visiting Professor Ruth Rosen.]
12. “The fast and the serious - This summer, the multiplex is
a good place to study our conflicted relationship with cars” (Times Union, (
By Mark McGuire, Staff Writer
Cars are:
(A) Cute and toothy and goofy and fast and funny.
(B) Among the most lethal devices choking our overheated planet.
You kinda root for (A), but fear (B) might be closer to the
truth. No worries:
With high gas prices, concerns over terrorism, the war in
In almost every megaplex in the land, you’ll find “Cars,” the latest feature film from the computer-animation titans at Pixar. The story of a race car that finds itself in a backwater desert town inhabited mostly by clunkers is almost assured to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the summer season….
Next week brings two more films concerning cars. The latest
installment in the street-racing “Fast and the Furious” franchise, subtitled
“Tokyo Drift,” moves the action to
There’s more: Later this month, in much more limited release, the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” looks at the demise of fuel-efficient vehicles in California, answering its titular question by pointing the finger at the oil and automobile industries, government and even consumers….
“It’s a great juxtaposition,” said Roland Hwang, who works on transportation issues as a senior policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “I think it’s pretty ironic the `Cars’ movie is coming out as we are coming to increasingly realize the dangers of global warming, and the role cars are playing in it.”
“Car culture is amazingly huge in
Filmgoers shouldn’t worry about seeing their end of the chase scene as we know it. Even ardent environmentalists don’t foresee a day when a devotion to cars becomes an on-screen pariah on the level of smoking or casual racism.
“We certainly don’t believe ... that we have to obliterate car culture, that our love affairs with cars can’t continue,” Hwang said.
13. “Cool 2 Know: It came unplugged. Examining the modest
rise and swift demise of GM’s electric car” (Newsday (
By Tom Incantalupo, Staff Writer
With world attention focused on rising energy costs and Al Gore’s global warming film doing surprisingly well at the box office, a movie like “Who Killed the Electric Car?” looks like it could be a money-maker. Sony Pictures’ new film, due out next week, accuses General Motors of sabotaging its own electric car program in the 1990s, dooming it to failure.
But did GM really do what the film claims - scuttle the program in order to protect the corporation’s investment in gasoline engines and to kill a mandate that would have forced it to sell thousands of the electric cars in California?
Industry analysts who followed the saga of the GM “EV1” say the film is wrong - that the car’s own shortcomings killed it, not GM’s alleged undermarketing and under-production.
Environmentalists, though, tend to view the film as more factually accurate.
The EV1 did have its drawbacks, among them a two-seat body style and a range between rechargings of 55 miles to 130 miles (at which point the car would drop dead wherever it was). The 130-mile range was only in later models with better batteries - and then only under optimum conditions. Recharging took at least four hours and as long as eight.
“It never had a prayer of becoming a viable vehicle,” said veteran auto analyst David Healy of Burnham Securities….
Even environmentalists say it’s unfair to ask a company to lose money indefinitely on a product, especially a company such as GM that has long been under siege from offshore competitors and running in the red at home. “We can’t ask any auto company to build cars if they’re not going to make money on them,” said Roland Hwang, vehicle policy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, who has seen the film. “There has to be a pathway for them to make a profit on these technologies.”
Still, he said he believes GM eventually might have made a go of the EV1 if it had stuck with it longer, as Toyota did with its Prius hybrid, after, analysts believe, losing money on it for years.
Hwang thinks the engineers who designed the EV1 and the marketers who tried to sell it made a good-faith effort that was hampered and ultimately killed by GM higher-ups who knew that high sales of the EV1 would weaken their lobbying efforts against the California state electric car mandate, which had been postponed from 1996 and was to have taken effect in 2003. Carmakers objected to being forced to market vehicles for which, in their view, demand was small. “They were not going to be pouring millions into a serious program that would be counterproductive to their own political goals,” Hwang said….
14. “State to Delay Benefit Rule;
By Rong-Gong Lin II, Times Staff Writer
State health officials said Tuesday that they will delay
enforcement of a controversial federal law intended to keep illegal immigrants
from improperly receiving government-funded medical care, fearing that hasty
action could imperil coverage of
The new rule would for the first time require 50 million Medicaid enrollees nationwide to provide identification and proof of citizenship to receive benefits. President Bush signed the regulation into law in February, and it is scheduled to go into effect July 1.
Of nearly 7 million Medi-Cal recipients in California, about 650,000 may lack documentation such as birth certificates or passports even though they are legitimately enrolled, according to the California Budget Project [in a report authored by David Carroll], a nonprofit group that studies government policies affecting the poor. About half of all Medi-Cal recipients are children and about 10% are 65 or older….
Both federal and
It is unclear how many
“No one would want us to send 3.2 million children to the
Department of Motor Vehicles to get photo identification,” [Stan Rosenstein of
the
[David Carroll’s report, “New Medicaid Documentation Requirement Could Create a Barrier to Health Care,” can be read at: http://www.cbp.org/2006/0605_bb_citdocumentation.pdf ]
15. “BART loses the way to
By Erik N. Nelson, Staff Writer
Measure A, which would have levied a half-cent sales tax for 30 years for general county expenditures, was defeated Tuesday when 57 percent voted no and 43 percent voted yes.
The measure was envisioned as a way to provide consistent funding
to operate BART to six stops that would skirt the east side of
Opponents of the line said the vote showed support for the extension was weaker than backers have maintained.
“This sends a very loud and clear message to the power brokers down there that BART is not as popular as they thought,” said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition, a nonprofit that backs “sustainable and socially just transportation.”…
In the eyes of opponents, a path that leads away from BART would be preferable.
“They really will have to consider something that is less than $7 billion, which is what this will really cost,” Cohen said, adding the project’s debt service and operating cost to its construction costs.
The nearly $2 billion in money already available for the project could be better spent, Cohen said, on a rail service using existing track, perhaps connecting the Tri-Valley area to San Jose on something resembling the Caltrain service that connects San Jose, San Mateo County and San Francisco….
16. “Lockout at Hospital to End; Contract Talks to Resume”
(Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News - The Record (
By afternoon, though, under pressure from state and local leaders, the hospital agreed to end the lockout on Monday morning and the two sides agreed to resume negotiations and extend the current contract for three weeks.
It was the end of two days of high drama in hospital-union relations, mirrored by the weather, as scores of nurses endured violent thunderstorms in their vigil outside the hospital.
Nearly 150 nurses were turned away from their shifts at 7 a.m. Friday. They were joined by other members of Local 5004 of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union. They gathered on the sidewalk outside the hospital, chanting, “We want to work.”…
A few hours later, hospital administrators met with local public officials and agreed to welcome the nurses back Monday morning.
Ann Twomey, president of the 11,000-member union, attributed the swift resolution to “the solidarity of our members and the tremendous support from local, state and national elected officials.”
The announcement of the lockout’s planned end followed a meeting between hospital officials and Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney and Assemblyman Robert Gordon, D-Fair Lawn….
17. “Officials call rules lax on site cleanups; Want state,
not polluter control” (The Record (
By Alex Nussbaum, Staff Writer, North Jersey Media Group
Polluters and developers have too much control over toxic waste cleanups, state lawmakers warned on Thursday.
Leaders of the Assembly’s environment and judiciary
committees, meeting in a joint session in
“A consultant working for a producer of waste is going to feel pressure to provide answers that their client wants,” said Assemblyman Robert Gordon, D-Fair Lawn.
The state’s cleanup program has had a series of other mishaps in recent years. In Ringwood, for example, the state allowed a site to be removed from the federal Superfund list even though neighbors complained toxic paint sludge from another Ford plant still littered the area….
Environmentalists blame a series of votes by the Legislature in the ‘90s that aimed to speed the cleanup process and encourage redevelopment of polluted “brownfields.”…
18. “It isn’t all bad news. Digital ventures recruit readers,
offset dreary circulation reports” (Times-Tribune, (
By Jeff Sonderman Staff Writer
Each time a new report emerges about declining newspaper circulation, pessimistic prognosticators declare the industry one step closer to extinction.
The industry’s latest wallop came in May, when a report showed newspaper sales nationwide down 2.5 percent in six months.
Weekday newspaper sales dropped 12.4 percent from 1990 to 2004, according to the industry journal Editor & Publisher.
Other industry insiders, however, say things just aren’t as bad as the circulation numbers suggest.
“The fact is, newspapers are still among the best media businesses,” Gary Pruitt, chairman and chief executive of the McClatchy Co., wrote in a recent op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal.
The Sacramento-based company is investing $4.5 billion to buy Knight Ridder Inc., the nation’s second-largest newspaper chain. It will keep 20 and resell 12….
Mr. Pruitt noted that newspaper audiences are actually growing when online readers are included.
“While it may seem counterintuitive to suppose that a company founded before the advent of electric lights would be a media leader in the age of blogs, podcasts and text messaging, that’s exactly what has happened,” Mr. Pruitt wrote….
19. “Study: Too little enterprise in business tax-break zones: Payouts, Not Benefits, Up Dramatically” (San Jose Mercury News, April 18, 2006); story citing study by DAVID CARROLL (MPP 2000).
By Chris O’Brien,
An economic policy think tank issued a report [authored by David Carroll] Monday asserting that the state’s enterprise zone program offers too many tax breaks to businesses while doing little to help the economy.
The California Budget Project, an independent analysis group
in
The Budget Project called on the state agency that
administers the program and the Legislature to sharply reduce the number of
enterprise zones -- currently 42 -- and more carefully target benefits so that
only the most economically distressed areas are eligible. The zones aren’t
sufficiently targeted, with one in eight
“The cost of the program has skyrocketed, yet the effectiveness of the tax breaks is tenuous, at best, and companies claim tax breaks without demonstrating that they create new jobs,” the report said….
The Budget Project asserted that the program has a number of flaws:
• The zones are often too big, especially in cities such as
• The zones frequently are far from economically distressed.
• The tax credit for hiring certain types of workers is too easily abused by companies that are able to use it even while hiring employees who would not necessarily have a hard time finding work due to disability or some other barrier.
• Some businesses have engaged in “forum shopping” by locating in one enterprise zone but applying for hiring vouchers in other zones….
[Jean Ross, executive director of the Budget Project] noted that in the case of the tax credit for hiring, companies could get rewarded for hiring some employees even while firing others. As a result, it would be to a company’s advantage to increase “churn” so it could gain a tax advantage….
In fact, even before the report was issued Monday, enterprise zones had come under scrutiny and are probably headed for changes….
[Other stories citing the report appeared in The San Diego
Union-Tribune, (
[David Carroll’s report, “
20. “Testimony delivered April 6 before House Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education appropriations, to discuss NCI budget request for Fiscal year 2007” (States News Service, April 6, 2006); story citing RICHARD TURMAN (MPP 1987).
By John E. Niederhuber, M.D., Deputy Director, National Cancer Institute, and Richard Turman, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Budget, Department of Health and Human Services
Four years ago, we put the NCI on a trajectory towards the Challenge Goal of eliminating suffering and death due to cancer as early as the year 2015. Since that time, we have vigorously and aggressively managed NCI’s portfolio of investments in cancer research across that entire continuum of the process of cancer, whether we’ve been focusing on understanding genetic mutations that were responsible for susceptibility to cancer or focusing on issues that have to do with survivorship and living with, rather than dying from, cancer….
A RECORD OF REAL SUCCESS
The past year in cancer research shows a record of substantial and heartening achievement. We are expanding our foundation of knowledge and the technical tools with which rapid advances can be made in understanding the mechanisms of cancer. We are exponentially increasing the opportunities to manage this lethal disease. Building on NCI-funded research, large-scale clinical trials in 2005 yielded results that will have profound effects in preventing and treating many cancers.
For example, three different clinical trials showed that
adding trastuzumab (Herceptin) to standard adjuvant chemotherapy significantly
reduced the risk of recurrence in women with the early-stage breast cancer….
Approximately 50,000 women in the
Equally stunning results were seen in the trial of a vaccine that protects against two strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) that cause over 70% of cervical cancers, a disease that kills more than 200,000 women each year, including many in developing countries….
In January, an NCI-sponsored trial reported that women who
received chemotherapy directly in their abdomens as part of treatment for
advanced ovarian cancer lived more than a year longer than women who received
the same chemotherapy intravenously…. Ovarian cancer causes the most deaths of
any gynecological cancer in the
Another notable advance came last September with the announcement of results from the NCI-sponsored Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST). The study found that digital mammography is more accurate than film mammography for women with dense breasts, as well as for several other groups of women, including women under 50 and pre- and perimenopausal women….
Finally, NCI has made strides to address the widespread disparities in cancer screening, treatment, and care for disadvantaged, mostly minority populations….
CONCLUSION
We must do more to continue the acceleration of discovery, development, and delivery of the interventions that will hasten the transformation of our traditional view of cancer as a death sentence into a disease that we can prevent, eliminate, or control. This will be the legacy we leave our children.
…We are committed to face the challenge of making difficult choices between those programs that we will continue to grow and nurture and those that have already advanced our knowledge. The decisions will be science driven. This is an unprecedented era of discovery. The opportunities to apply powerful new technologies to advance our knowledge and the opportunities to change the course of cancer have never been greater.
John E. Niederhuber, M.D.
Richard J. Turman
21. “Housing Needs of Many Low-Income Hurricane Victims Remain Unmet; Study Outlines Additional Federal Steps Needed” (U.S. Newswire, February 23, 2006); story citing study by WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999).
Washington—The federal government has not done enough to meet the housing needs of poor residents affected by the 2005 hurricanes, according to a new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which also details several policy recommendations for Congress in this area.
“The rebuilding from the hurricanes has only begun,” said Will Fischer, the report’s primary author. “But the course that has been charted to date indicates that many low-income hurricane victims will not be provided the means to return home and secure housing that they can afford.”
The storms’ immediate devastation displaced rich and poor alike, the report explains, but higher-income households are much better equipped than lower-income households to rebuild their lives because they are much more likely to have insurance, significant non-housing assets, and the ability to obtain private loans. The federal government has done little to address the serious problems that low-income households face in these areas….
The report recommends that Congress take the following steps:
● Have HUD, not FEMA, provide continuing rental assistance to disaster victims….
● Help owners repair easily fixed apartments in the disaster area. FEMA’s primary strategy for making housing available in damaged areas has been to install trailers. This has occurred at an extremely slow pace….
● Restore the pre-hurricane supply of federally subsidized housing….
● Authorize additional housing vouchers to ensure that a share of rebuilt private housing is affordable to poor households….
● Help low-income homeowners repair or replace damaged homes….
If these funds are not provided, many households—and particularly low-income households—would not be able to rebuild or replace their homes. As a result, tens of thousands of low-income, disproportionately African-American households would be left with their primary asset destroyed and little means of restoring it….
The full report can be accessed at: http://www.cbpp.org/2-23-06hous.pdf
22. “Analyst questions impact of Katrina grants on low-income in Miss.” (Associated Press State & Local Wire, January 25, 2006); story citing WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999).
By Valerie Bauman, Associated Press Writer
Jackson Miss.—An analyst for a
Will Fischer, senior policy analyst for the Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities, said Wednesday that Republican Gov. Haley
Barbour’s plan for rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged
Barbour told lawmakers earlier this month that the federal money would be used to give homeowners grants of up to $150,000…. Homeowners who receive the federal grants must agree to meet stringent building code standards when they rebuild, Barbour said.
Those new standards will cost homeowners a lot of money and
will drive up the price of rental properties, Fischer said. “The
people who are going to be left in the lurch are low-income people,” Fischer
said. Rental units make up 30 percent of housing on the
The problem is that all property owners will be given funding based on the pre-Katrina value of their homes or apartment buildings, but they will be required to rebuild to a new standard that will cost more money, he said. This will create more costs for property owners and renters.
Fischer encouraged legislators consider bills that would accommodate low- and moderate-income families…. Federal law requires that as little as 25 percent of the funding could be applied to low and moderate income families, Fischer said….
1. “
By Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
With resolutions and proclamations, left-leaning cities and
counties across the
Now
With overwhelming support from
“I don’t think it’s a laughable idea,” said UC Berkeley political science and public policy Professor Henry Brady. “This is a president with a 35 to 40 percent approval rating. They shouldn’t be laughing.”
But impeachment might not be the way to go, Brady said. While voters may be frustrated with the Bush administration, impeachment should not be taken lightly.
“Bush may have made many, many policy errors, but it’s questionable whether he’s committed high crimes and misdemeanors,” he said. “I think we’ve been too quick to talk about impeachment for the past 20 years.”
A more effective way to fight the White House is to pressure representatives to tackle some of these issues, Brady said.
“The bigger picture is that people are upset about Bush and not quite sure how to deal with it,” he said. “But they should pressure Congress to hold hearings on what’s gone wrong.”…
2. “Raising a $60 billion question” (San Francisco Chronicle [*requires registration], June 28, 2006); story citing ROBERT MacCOUN; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/28/BUGVJJLAU41.DTL&type=printable
By David Lazarus
Warren Buffett has made clear over the years that he invests for the long haul and that he always does his homework before putting his money to work.
So what does that say about Buffett’s decision to give away
the bulk of his $44 billion estate to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
which is committed to improving health care in the developing world and
education in the
The danger, of course, is that a private-sector entity with the economic heft of the Gates Foundation will be in a position to hijack the public-policy agenda....
What if, for example, the Gates Foundation decides that malaria is a higher priority than AIDS? How would governments worldwide respond? And how would this impact the pharmaceutical industry, which historically has focused its research efforts on areas that hold the greatest promise of profit?
“These are good questions,” said Robert MacCoun, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley. “We’re really in uncharted territory here, and it’s very hard to see how this is going to play out.”
He emphasized that, to date, the Gates Foundation “has shown itself to have noble interests.” But MacCoun said it’s not hard to imagine the foundation “taking an interest in more controversial topics.”...
MacCoun said it’s difficult to comprehend the influence a $60 billion private-sector foundation will have on world affairs.
“They could put a topic on the map and everybody else could end up following because this is what the Gates Foundation is interested in,” he said. “Conversely, some governments might cut back on spending for certain things because they’ll figure that the Gates Foundation is involved.”...
3. “Housing bubble deflating” Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, National Public Radio, June 28, 2006); Listen to this commentary at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/06/28/PM200606287.html
By Robert B. Reich
…It’s better that bubbles leak than burst…. But the housing boom has been so large and so important to the American economy over the past five years that even this slow leak will cause severe headaches. One will be for millions of households that have turned their growing home values into piggy banks to finance their continued consumption. Well, that easy route to cash is just about gone.
The inevitable result will be less consumption, which will mean fewer jobs.
A more immediate problem will arise for all the people making, financing and selling houses…. According to Moody’s Economy.com, housing-related employment has accounted for almost a quarter of the 5 million jobs that have appeared since 2003.
But with the boom over, many of these jobs will be over, too. In other words, without the housing bubble, the American economy will lose a lot of its fizz. I don’t like bubbles, but from a jobs standpoint this recovery has needed all the fizz it can get.
Which brings us to Ben Bernanke and his gang at the Federal Reserve Board Open Market Committee, which meets tomorrow. It’s an open secret they’re planning to raise interest rates yet again, because they think the economy is too fizzy and still prone to inflation. I hope they listen carefully.
The hissing sound they hear is air escaping the housing bubble. There’s less fizz in the economy than they think. Raise interest rates and the Fed raises the likelihood the economy will deflate.
4. “Robert Reich and Steve Moore debate whether conservatives are happier than liberals” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, June 27, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.
LARRY KUDLOW, host: Let’s bring in our dynamic duo. Robert Reich, he’s former labor secretary, professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley. Steve Moore, senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
Gentleman, let me just set this up for you. Arthur C. Brooks, yesterday’s Wall Street Journal said basically conservatives are happier adults than liberals. He says, “Conservative Americans are twice as likely as liberals to attend a house of worship.” And then he goes on to say, “Voluminous research on happiness has shown that religious people are much happier about their lives and futures than nonreligious people.”
Robert Reich, your take, conservatives happier?
Mr. REICH: Well, I don’t know this. Generalizations don’t make any sense to me. I mean, I am a yuk a minute. I am much happier than either of you guys. I have a very delightful life. I mean, what are we talking about here? It is true that liberals and progressives in general, if one can generalize, tend to see more complexity and have a little bit more appreciation for uncertainties. I mean, you have a lot of conservatives, and I dare say, and it’s real risky for me to say, a lot of very religious people who have a lot of certainty about what is life all about and where they ought to be going and what the answers are to everything, and I think that certainty does breed a certain stability and maybe even a certain contentedness. That doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily happier….
Mr. MOORE: Well, first of all, the reason Reich is happier than you and I is because he makes more money than we do, and that just proves that money buys happiness.
Mr. REICH: I doubt it very much. I’m happier because
I’m in
Mr. MOORE: Here’s the explanation for this, Larry. Conservatives are optimistic about the future. It’s not just about religion. It’s about the idea that the future is going to be better than the past. If you listen to the liberals and Al Gore, they’re--all the world is coming to an end, we’re all going to be underwater, the rich are getting rich and the poor are getting poor….
Mr. REICH: ...Can I… may I respectfully disagree with my good friend, my happy friend, Steve Moore, and say that I occasionally, when I am feeling a little bit downcast, I read the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal, and I… see nothing but bile, anger. If I listen to some of the conservative talk-show hosts, it’s anger, it’s negativism, it’s just… life is awful. People are awful. I mean, … I am an optimist. I am upbeat…. I mean, I don’t--we don’t--liberals and progressives, they don’t indulge in that kind of character assassination, that kind of negative poisonous stuff….
5. “Companies Resist Bid to Limit Emissions. State lawmakers will consider a bill to address global warming with industry mandates” (Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2006); story citing study led by MICHAEL HANEMANN; http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-greenhouse26jun26,0,5235168,print.story
By Marc Lifsher, Times Staff Writer
At issue is a bill by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-
Environmentalists say the bill to be heard by the state Senate Environmental
Quality Committee this afternoon would put teeth in the governor’s pledge to
slash greenhouse emissions.
Proponents also note that hitting the governor’s pollution reduction targets
would create as many as 20,000 jobs and add $59 billion to the state’s gross
product by 2020, according to a January study by UC Berkeley [scientists
led by Michael Hanemann]....
[The UC Berkeley study, “Managing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in
6. Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees: Fires and Global Warming” (CNN News, Aired June 26, 2006 - 23:00 ET); features interview with MICHAEL HANEMANN; http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/26/acd.02.html
COOPER: …As we speak, acreage is currently burning in several
western states right now. These are pictures from today. One thousand tourists
at the
More on the possible wildfire and the global warming connection, if there is any, CNN’s Rob Marciano.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): In New Mexico, a 2,300 acre blaze forced residents from their homes.
Near
MARCIANO: Just the start of fire season, and already 3.3
million acres blackened in the
MICHAEL HANEMANN, [UC
MARCIANO: Michael Hanemann is the director of the
HANEMANN: We know the National Academy of Sciences reported on Friday that the last decade is clearly warmer than the previous 400 years. And these fires and the drought are associated with that unusual increase in warming.
MARCIANO: The Southwest is hot, but part of a bigger trend.
This April was the hottest on record in the
And although we can’t blame the recent wet weather in the Northeast on global warming, Hanemann says climate patterns all across the planet could change with rising temperatures in ways we don’t yet understand.
HANEMANN: Moving forward, I think we can expect to see increasing extremes, increasing variation in climate as a result of climate change.
MARCIANO: Hanemann says unless developed countries get serious about global warming, we can expect the worst. More fires and flooding.
HANEMANN: If we take action now, we will prevent I think really nasty consequences in the second part of this century. And if we don’t take action now, I think we will experience really nasty consequences in the second half of this century….
7. “
By Betsy Mason, Contra Costa Times
With only one public ethanol fuel station,
The governor has recommended sharp reductions in emissions, a goal that could
be met in part by replacing gas with ethanol. A November ballot initiative
could provide subsidies for ethanol stations. And state use of a 6 percent
ethanol gasoline additive has spurred construction of local ethanol production
plants....
“
That measure calls for a state oil production tax of 1.5 to 6 percent,
depending on oil prices. It would generate $4 billion toward cutting fossil
fuel use by 25 percent over the next decade. Some of that could be used as
subsidies to offset the cost of converting gas pumps to ethanol.
“The only thing that’s really holding us back is infrastructure,” Kammen
said.
8. “Poplar trees and grass may make fine gas for cars” (Contra Costa Times [*requires registration)], June 24, 2006); story citing DAN KAMMEN and study co-authored with MICHAEL O’HARE and BRIAN TURNER (MPP 2005); http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/breaking_news/14896223.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
By Betsy Mason, Contra Costa Times
Poplar trees and switch grass are on track to become important weapons in national
security defense, and a
The Joint Genome Institute, best known for the Human Genome Project, is betting
genetic research can make those plants ideal for producing ethanol, grain
alcohol that can be used as vehicle fuel. Today, most ethanol is fermented from
corn, but scientists say switching to the other plants could give it the boost
it needs to significantly reduce
“With ethanol we’re paying American farmers, not oil sheiks in the Middle East
for our fuel,” said Daniel Kammen, a professor at UC
In his State of the Union address in January, the president renewed the push
for energy independence by calling for a 75 percent reduction in
In January, Kammen co-authored [with Michael O’Hare and Brian Turner
(MPP 2005)] a study in the journal Science that put to rest a long debate about
whether it takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than a car could
get out of it. The study concluded ethanol from corn does have a positive energy
balance, and that switching to grass or trees could make it more cost
efficient.
Kammen believes switching to a dedicated energy crop is critical. “The
problem with corn is the way we grow it in the
9. “On the Grid. Solar power finally took off once it plugged into the larger electrical system” (East Bay Express, June 21, 2006); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2006-06-21/summer/summerarts3.html
By Laura Counts
Liz Horowitz of
It’s not off-the-grid hippies who have fueled the new solar
boom. It’s the availability of systems connected to the power grid that has
made solar practical for homeowners. Back when [Gary Gerber, president of
That was changing by the mid-1990s, when home systems
consisting of an array of photovoltaic panels and an inverter that converts the
direct current they produce to the alternating current of the grid came to
market. In 1996,
“We are paying a lot of money for that small amount of energy spilling back to the grid. The idea is that if you offer a subsidy to customers that install solar, then some day the industry will grow enough not to need it,” [said PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno].
That’s the way it’s going in Japan and Germany, which are way
ahead of the United States in solar use, said UC Berkeley professor Dan
Kammen, a solar expert who directs the Renewable and Appropriate Energy
Laboratory. Last year,
Solar advocates say arguments such as PG&E’s ignore the fact that solar users are forking over thousands of dollars to install their systems, decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases produced, and sending energy to the grid. A bill pending in the state legislature will increase the 1996 limit on the amount of energy solar customers can put into the grid — the net metering law capped solar at 0.5 percent of overall peak power generation. Solar customers are likely to exceed that this year. The pending bill raises the cap to 2.5 percent.
Even with the 0.5 percent cap, Kammen swears it was solar that made enough of a difference to keep the grid running during the 2001 blackouts. “I’m considered a diehard socialist by most of my friends,” he said. “But in this case, if you didn’t start with a subsidy for the most affluent you would never get any action.”…
10. “50 People Who Matter” (Business 2.0, CNN Money.com, July 2006 issue, posted June 21, 2006); STEPHEN MAURER is named to top 50 list; http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/peoplewhomatter/index.html
Rank: 41
Stephen Maurer and Andrej Sali
Adjunct associate professor,
Why They Matter: The magic of open-source lies in the notion that patents and other intellectual property rights aren’t always the most effective incentives to promote innovation. The idea has been proven out in the software world, but it’s now spreading to other, arguably more important realms, such as pharmaceutical research. And for that, Maurer and Sali deserve much of the credit. These two academics launched the Tropical Disease Initiative to organize computational biologists working on cures for ailments like malaria, tuberculosis, and dengue fever. The results will be put in the public domain, where clinical researchers can use them to guide their own work. Big Pharma likes the idea as well: Though there have been no formal announcements yet, some of the most prominent names in the industry are already donating laboratory resources to support the effort.
11. “LHS grad lauded for initiative. Berkeley professor named one of ‘50 Who Matter Now’” (Lawrence Journal-World [KS], June 27, 2006); story citing STEPHEN MAURER.
By Mark Fagan
Business and financial big-timers Steve Jobs, Ben Bernanke, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Jeff Bezos now can add another industry accolade to their already sparkling résumés.
They finally share a list with
Maurer, who attended Hillcrest School, West Junior High School and graduated in 1975 from LHS, was listed this month among the “50 Who Matter Now,” a roster of the most important people in business as determined by Business 2.0 Magazine….
Stephen Maurer, an adjunct associate professor at the
University of California at Berkeley, shares the No. 41 ranking with Andrej
Sali, a professor at the
The goal: Just as open sourcing has promoted innovation in the world of software engineering, the initiative looks to link computational biologists to develop drugs to fight malaria, tuberculosis, dengue fever, leishmaniasis and other tropical diseases….
12. “California Sets ‘Clean Energy’ Oil Tax on Ballot” (New York Times Online [*requires registration], June 21, 2006; story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-energy-california-ballot.html?pagewanted=print
By Reuters
Opponents say the initiative is a sheep in wolves’ clothing that if passed will create an unchecked bureaucracy and not only higher taxes but also higher fuel prices in the end.
“In the absence of a federal energy policy, the oil companies have a business-as-usual plan for California’s energy future: higher gas prices, more pollution and greater dependence on insecure foreign sources of oil,’’ said Dan Kammen, Professor of Public Policy at the University Of California at Berkeley and founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory there....
California is third in the United States in oil production and requires no tax on oil companies for extracting natural resources, unlike Alaska (15 percent tax), Texas (4.6 percent), and Louisiana (12.5 percent), according to Californians For Clean Alternative Energy.
If voters approve the ballot measure, the state will get new revenue of between $200 million to $380 million annually from a tax of 1.5 percent to 6 percent on oil production, according to the state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst [headed by Elizabeth Hill (MPP 1975)].
The money would fund research and development of alternative energy including solar and wind power and electric and hydrogen-fueled cars. Both public and private organizations will be eligible for funds….
13. “Forget inflation, that’s deflation looming. Commentator ROBERT REICH warns Fed Chief Ben Bernanke not to become too focused on inflation and miss possible warning signs of deflation” (Marketplace, National Public Radio, June 21, 2006); listen to the commentary at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/06/21/AM200606211.html
Tess Vigeland: Will they or won’t they? That is the question when it comes to whether or not the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates yet again. The Fed meets next week and is expected to hike the benchmark federal funds rate for the 17th time in a row. Mostly on inflation worries. Marketplace commentator and former labor secretary ROBERT REICH says there is something to fret over, but it is not inflation....
ROBERT REICH: Ben Bernanke and his Federal Reserve remember the double-digit inflation of the 1970s and are determined to mount a preemptive strike.
They don’t have a direct memory of the trauma that haunted the previous generation, the depression of the 1930s. Each generation, in its determination to avoid the nightmare it does remember, runs the danger of overreacting.
A generation ago, they paid too little attention to inflationary forces, so Paul Volcker who was then Fed chairman, had to break the back of inflation and thereby put the economy into a severe recession.
Now Bernanke and company are paying too little attention to
deflationary forces building in
Tess Vigeland: Robert Reich teaches public policy at the
14. “With State Coffers Full, Firms Seek Tax Breaks. Businesses seeking concessions on gas fees and the cost of making movies find a willing ally in Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. But the campaign faces opposition from Republicans” (Los Angeles Times, June 14, 2006); story citing JOHN ELLWOOD; http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taxbreaks14jun14,1,2084852,print.story?coll=la-headlines-california
By Evan Halper, Times Staff Writer
Sacramento — Unions, school groups and advocates for the poor aren’t the only ones clamoring for the extra cash that has state coffers overflowing for the first time in years — California’s biggest corporations are angling for the money too....
Despite the extra cash the state has lying around this year, multibillion-dollar deficits are still projected well into the future. Any tax breaks passed will cause next year’s shortfall to grow, putting pressure on legislators to cut government programs next year. And the surge in revenue could be fleeting. The new revenues would quickly evaporate if the stock market has a bad year or the housing market collapses.
“These additional revenues are all bubble revenues,” said UC Berkeley professor of public policy John Ellwood, “that are coming from stock market gains and the housing market. They could disappear tomorrow.”...
15. “Tomorrow’s Forecast: Eight ways to beat the heat” (Los Angeles Times, June 11, 2006); op-ed by DAN KAMMEN; http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-chart11jun11,1,1948091,full.story
By Daniel M. Kammen
There is no single solution to global warming, but renewable, clean energy sources abound, and so do the technologies to put them to use. Here are eight strategies and power sources that can help “fix” global warming, along with their costs now and in the future. If we act, it is very possible to reach the goal of reducing greenhouse emissions 80% over the next 50 years.
The Fix: $30-per-ton carbon-emissions tax….
A carbon-emissions tax would make every other “fix” on this
list more practical and effective. Taxing carbon emissions, and using the
revenues to develop clean energy sources, discourages greenhouse gas production
and encourages investments in alternative energy sources. It could be balanced
by a reduction in income taxes or other taxes. Many experts figure a
$30-per-ton tax would “reorient” the
The Fix: Energy efficiency….
The technologies are readily available, from compact
fluorescent lighting to efficient water heaters. Based on the example of
DANIEL M. KAMMEN, a professor at UC Berkeley, is founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (rael.berkeley.edu.) and co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment.
16. “The Numbers Guy: Digging Into the Ethanol Debate” (Wall Street Journal [*requires subscription], June 9, 2006); column citing DAN KAMMEN and study co-authored with MICHAEL O’HARE and BRIAN TURNER (MPP 2005); http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114970102238673892.html
By Carl Bialik, Columnist
President Bush announced in his State of the Union address in January that he backed funding for research into producing ethanol from corn and other farm products, with the goal of making a viable fuel alternative to gasoline for automobiles. Since then, Congress has wrangled over how to implement the idea....
Two prominent researchers are chiefly responsible for the
energy-efficiency claim:
But the analysis stacks the deck against ethanol in a number of ways….
When prompted by their students to investigate biofuels, Berkeley Energy and Resources Professors Dan Kammen and Alex Farrell discovered the sharp disagreements among researchers. “It became pretty clear to us, as we were getting up to speed on ethanol, that there are a large number of divergent studies in literature, and it’s not clear why they are divergent,” Prof. Farrell told me. They attempted to reconcile disputing studies by comparing them side by side, tracing the numbers back to their original sources and converting everything to standard units. Their conclusion, published in Science in January, was largely in line with Dr. Wang’s. (So was an analysis of published studies that appeared in March in Environmental Science & Technology, and funded in part by the environmental organization Natural Resources Defense Council.)...
17. “Robert Reich and Steve Moore discuss Tom DeLay and the power structure in Washington” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, June 9, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.
LARRY KUDLOW, host: …[L]et’s listen to some parting words from Tom DeLay.
Representative TOM DeLAY (R-Texas): In any place or any time, on any issue, what does liberalism ever seek, Mr. Speaker? More. More government, more taxation, more control over people’s lives and decisions and wallets. If conservatives don’t stand up to liberalism, no one will. And for a long time around here, almost no one did.
KUDLOW: All right. Here to debate, our dynamic duo: Robert Reich, former labor secretary, professor of public policy, University of California-Berkeley; and Steve Moore of The Wall Street Journal editorial board…. I don’t know, Robert Reich. I heard that clip from Tom DeLay’s parting farewell parting speech on the floor of the House. Sounded pretty good with me. Do you have a problem with it?
Mr. ROBERT REICH (Former Labor Secretary): Defiant to the end. “The Hammer” does not stop hammering. Look, Larry… if we’re talking about big government that’s intrusive and large and out of control and spending that’s out of control, you … don’t have to look farther than the Bush administration. I mean, this is spending like mad, a huge budget deficit, an intrusive government spying on Americans. What in the world is Tom DeLay talking about? He was there, helping to preside over all of this.
Mr. STEVE MOORE (The Wall Street Journal): Well, I think
[DeLay] had it exactly right. Liberalism is all about more, more taxes, more
government, more regulation…. I think he got caught up in the power structure
of
Mr. REICH: Wait a--Steve, wait a minute. Let me just
ask you a question. You say that he is this kind of tragic figure that got
caught up in the power structure of
Mr. MOORE: …[DeLay] said, ‘Look, we control things. Now you business community lobbyists are going to have to start hiring Republicans.’ What’s wrong with that? That’s the way the game is played.
Mr. REICH: No majority leader--yeah, Steve, no majority leader had-- ever gone to trade associations, to K Street, to corporations and say, ‘You have got to have my people if we’re going to talk with you at all.’… No majority leader also had ever said to the other party, ‘You are completely closed out, we’re not going to listen to you, we’re not going to include you. We’re going to schedule votes in such a way that you are not even going to know what’s being voted on.’
Mr. MOORE: Bob, that’s the way the game is played in
Mr. REICH: Now come on. This is--this is completely trampling on the institutional foundations of our democracy….
18. “25 x 25 Energy Plan” (Science Friday, National Public Radio, June 9, 2006); program featuring DAN KAMMEN; podcast at: http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2006/Jun/hour2_060906.html
A new group of strange bedfellows, including farmers,
foresters, environmentalists, and politicians, wants 25 percent of America’s
energy to come from renewable resources by the year 2025. That means more
ethanol, wind, and solar energy. Can it -- and should it -- be done? Some
critics say beefing up ethanol production would be bad for the environment,
wasting energy and potentially increasing emissions. This hour, we’ll take a
look at the “25 X 25” plan and talk about
Guests:
Daniel M. Kammen
Class of 1935 Distinguished Chair in Energy
Energy and Resources Group &
Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory
Co-Director, Berkeley Institute of the Environment
19. “Estate tax repeal? Bad for the economy” Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace Morning Report, National Public Radio, June 7, 2006); listen to the commentary at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/06/07/AM200606071.html
SCOTT JAGOW, anchor: This week the Senate’s looking at repealing the estate tax; the House has already voted to get rid of it. In this edition of THE PUBLIC’S BUSINESS, commentator Robert Reich says it’s a bad move for the economy.
Mr. ROBERT REICH: The earnings of nearly everyone used to rise with rising productivity. That’s no longer true. Today’s workers are 24 percent more productive than they were five years ago, but their median real earnings have barely budged. What’s happened to all this extra value?
A big chunk has gone to people earning over $1 million a year; mostly CEOs, investment bankers and hedge fund managers….
Now what does this mean for the nation? Thirty years ago, the
richest 1 percent owned less than a fifth of
Super-rich couples can now pass on $4 million to their heirs tax-free. Anything over 4 million is taxed at a 45 percent rate. So why exactly is it so important to repeal the estate tax altogether? Repeal will cost the treasury nearly a trillion dollars in its first 10 years, more than the entire shortfall in Social Security. That means more federal debts or higher taxes on the middle class….
People who inherit great wealth just because they’re lucky enough to have super-rich parents don’t have any particular incentive to be entrepreneurial. They don’t have any particular incentive to do anything. That’s who we want to run the American economy?….
JAGOW: Robert Reich teaches public policy at the
20. “Republicans face veteran Democrats in statewide races this fall” (San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 2006); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/06/07/politics/p151109D05.DTL&type=printable
By Samantha Young, Associated Press Writer
Los Angeles (AP) -- Republicans hold just two of the eight statewide offices but are hoping to change their fortunes in November with what they believe is a strong roster of conservative candidates....
The November roster includes several well-known Democrats: state Insurance Commissioner James Garamendi seeking the lieutenant governor’s job; Oakland Mayor and former governor Jerry Brown running for attorney general; Attorney General Bill Lockyer running for state treasurer; and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante campaigning for insurance commissioner.
Perhaps the most anticipated matchup is the one between Brown, 68, and Republican state Sen. Charles Poochigian, R-Fresno.
“The attorney general’s race is going to be an all-out
slugfest,” said Henry Brady, a professor of political science and public policy
at the
21. “It is now safe to answer the phone again” (Oakland Tribune, June 6, 2006); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.insidebayarea.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3904359
By Brenda Payton [Columnist]
Maybe now it’s safe to answer the phone....
This isn’t the first campaign to use the prerecorded campaign phone calls, aka robo calls. But the practice is clearly spreading, almost as extensively as a computer virus. As if vapid mailers clogging the mailbox weren’t bad enough....
If everyone hates them, then why are they so popular with candidates? I asked Henry Brady, UC Berkeley professor of political science and public policy, if there are any studies of their efficacy.
We do know that telephone get-out-the vote campaigns aren’t particularly successful, he said. In experiments in which half the voters received the calls and half didn’t, there was no difference in the number who voted.
There was no impact, Brady said.
In that experiment, researchers could track who actually voted. It’s more difficult to track whether a person who received a call for a candidate voted for the candidate....
My sense is an impersonal telephone message is not tremendously successful, Brady said. So why do it? Brady pointed out telephone get-out-the-vote campaigns continue even though they have been proven ineffective. For an unknown candidate, the calls might be another way of getting his or her name out there.
And if they’re pretty cheap, a candidate might say, Why not?’”
Brady said voters are persuaded more by an endorsement by someone they know.
If my best friend called up, I would take my best friend’s advice seriously, Brady said. Campaigns have a hard time knowing who my best friend is....
22. “Roundtable: Robert Reich, George Will, Jay Carney” (This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC News, June 4, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS moderator): (Off-camera) And
we are back now with the roundtable….Welcome back to Bob Reich, professor at
GEORGE WILL (ABC NEWS): (Off-camera) Well, he says the following. The planet, the whole thing is in mortal peril. That death may come in ten years. The presidency is uniquely able to deal with it. And he, Al Gore, has unique insight into this crisis. How do you say all that and then say, I don’t think I’ll run?…
ROBERT REICH (FORMER SECRETARY OF LABOR): I agree with George. You know, once you run for President and come that close, you won the popular vote, it’s very, very difficult to disabuse yourself of the notion that you might not do it again. Also, I can’t help but believe that the timing of the movie, 19 months before the first Democratic nomination, is not accidental. That movie could have come out last year, the year before, the year before that. I believe that he really doesn’t want to run unless he has a very good chance of winning. But when I hear some politicians say three times in a short interview ‘I’m not going to make a Shermanesque statement,” I believe that they are going to in fact run….
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS): (Off-camera) …Much more serious subject, Haditha. This week the investigation continued [of the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians by Marines]. …[W]e’re already seeing, Bob Reich, the Iraqis, the new Prime Minister al-Maliki lashing out, saying that these kind of occurrences have become habitual on the part of Americans. And it might even lead him to reconsider the presence of US troops. Yet it comes at a time when he’s more dependent than ever on those troops to keep control.
ROBERT REICH (FORMER SECRETARY OF LABOR): Of course, George. And we’re gonna hear more and more statements from him and from the Iraqi government to the extent that there is a government, that ‘we don’t tolerate this, we don’t like this.’ But they are not going to threaten to expel the Americans. But just going back to something George just said, these Marines are on their third tour of duty, they’re under extraordinary stress. We don’t know how many Hadithas there are, frankly. It’s just an accident this came to light. If there hadn’t been any home video.…
…[M]any [reports of such atrocities] come to nothing. But I
think there is a loss for the hearts and minds not only of the Iraqis but also
the Americans. We have two audiences here, remember. Only 40% of Americans
support this war now. The parallels with
GRAPHICS: NEW TREASURY SECRETARY
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS): (Off-camera) So a signal there that President Bush wants him to sell the economy a little bit better. But that can’t have been a good enough reason for the chairman of Goldman Sachs to become treasury secretary, Bob Reich. It’s no secret that he was reluctant to take it. Two questions, why do you think he did? And how much difference can he make?
ROBERT REICH (FORMER SECRETARY OF LABOR): I think he
did because he thinks that he can manage an orderly decline of the dollar. I
think that’s all he can do. He’s not going to affect tax policy. He’s got going
to affect spending policy. But maybe because of his good relations with
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS): (Off-camera) So he’s there as kind of an insurance policy for the White House against a crisis?
ROBERT REICH (FORMER SECRETARY OF LABOR): I think so, exactly….
23. “Two Viewpoints on Prop 82: Universal Preschool” (The
California Report Magazine, KQED-88.5 FM, June 2, 2006); features commentary by
DAVID KIRP; listen to the commentary at: http://www.californiareport.org/domains/californiareport/
There are only two statewide propositions on Tuesday’s
ballot. The one that has received almost all of the attention is Proposition
82. It would raise income taxes on people making $400,000 dollars a year or
more and use the money to fund pre-school for all 4-year-old children in
24. “Op-Ed: On Proposition 82’s call for universal preschool. Should the state educate 4-year-olds? PRO: Preschool is a smart investment” (San Francisco Chronicle, June 1, 2006); op-ed by DAVID KIRP; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/01/EDGDOIJM8F1.DTL&type=printable
By David L. Kirp, Deborah Stipek
David L. Kirp is a professor of public policy at UC
Should free, high-quality preschool be available to every
4-year-old in the state? That’s what Proposition 82, which appears on the June
6 ballot, guarantees. If the research matters, the answer is a no-brainer:
pre-kindergarten is a smart investment to make in our children’s futures. A
library-shelf’s worth of studies confirm what every parent already knows—that
the early years of a child’s life make an enormous difference. That’s why the
waiting lists for decent preschools are endless, and it’s why so many parents
pinch pennies to spend, on average, $7,500 a year—more than the tuition at
In recent years, neuroscientists have been able to show how rapidly the brain grows. Researchers, who focus on the impact of preschool, report that providing children with a word-rich, idea-filled and emotionally supportive world, and teaching them social skills—the ability to work and play with others—helps them succeed in school and stay out of trouble down the road. As Nobel Prize-winner James Heckman puts it, skill begets skill....
The benefits of preschool are greatest for poor children—that’s no surprise, because those youngsters typically grow up in more stressful circumstances—but the studies show that middle-class children are also gainers. While it’s not true that, to paraphrase a familiar line, everything you really need to know you learn in preschool, it’s an important start....
The opponents’ biggest beef is that the measure is a giveaway
to parents who can afford to send their offspring to preschool. The complaint
ignores the gigantic waiting lists in many communities, the low quality of a
large proportion of the preschool programs that
25. “High likelihood of
(REPORTER) ELEANOR HALL: A security consultant to the United States Defence Department and a former adviser to President Clinton on nuclear arms reduction says today’s announcement by Iran [that their scientists have successfully enriched a small amount of uranium] is deeply worrying.
Dr Michael Nacht, who is now Dean of Public Policy at
University of California, predicts that there is a high likelihood that
there will be a military confrontation between
But speaking to me earlier today, Dr Nacht said the choices for the international community are limited and that doing nothing in response to Iran’s latest challenge is not an option.
MICHAEL NACHT: There of course are different judgements about how quickly they can actually fabricate and then deploy a nuclear weapon…. But there’s no doubt that they have the capability and they’re moving in the right direction from their perspective.
ELEANOR HALL: Well President Ahmadinejad actually scoffed that the United Nations Security Council knows it can’t do anything. How should the international community respond then? I mean are sanctions a realistic option?
MICHAEL NACHT: I actually don’t think they’re very realistic,
because in economic terms, the European Union and many other countries trade extensively
with
ELEANOR HALL: So what message does that send?
MICHAEL NACHT: The message is that the path they’re on is going to pay off…. They can basically develop a nuclear energy program. They can, in addition, in my view, work on a clandestine nuclear weapons program, and they can also maintain bilateral and multilateral economic and political relations with many countries in the world. And in doing all that, they strengthen the hand of the regime internally and they reduce… their own internal opposition….
ELEANOR HALL: So if you were advising the Bush administration at the moment, what would you be suggesting they do in response to this statement?
MICHAEL NACHT: I probably would try a multiple strategy. I would not give up on the multilateral diplomatic IAEA UN sanctions strategy, which is largely what they are doing. I would pursue that. I’m not very optimistic it would work, but I would pursue that.
I probably at some point would engage in direct diplomatic negotiations with the Iranians. I’d at least try. I don’t think you have a lot to lose. I think that’s been a mistake of the Bush administration - not to negotiate directly with the Iranians or frankly with the North Koreans.
And then I would have a military option, but you’d have to really make the case to the American people and to the international community about the justification for this. And frankly right now, of course, President Bush is in a very weakened position….
ELEANOR HALL: But you’re saying that even with the threat
that military action could unleash more terrorism, that is a better option than
allowing
MICHAEL NACHT: Yes. It could have very... there’s no doubt that it could have very adverse consequences if we act militarily. I think you’d have to go in with your eyes wide open.
But the precedent of Iran going down this path, the precedent for others, the impact further even on North Korea, the impact on a possible - which has been discussed - a possible Saudi-Pakistani-Sunni nuclear program and nuclear alliance to combat the Iranian Shia nuclear program.
This is all very bad news and I do think, though perhaps I’m misreading the situation, I do think that Bush will act one way or the other. It will be resolved in some... let’s say it’ll be transformed by the end of his tenure….
June 14-16 ROBERT REICH was keynote
speaker at IDC’s IT Forum & Expo in
June 15 JOHN
ELLWOOD gave the plenary address at the APPAM spring conference: “A
Morphology of Graduate Education for Public Service in the
June 15 MICHAEL
O’HARE presented his paper, “Pedagogy for Policy Analysis and Management,” at
the APPAM spring conference,
June 16 EUGENE BARDACH was discussion leader in the session, “How to Move Students Toward Mastery,” at the APPAM spring conference, in which the rapporteur was JOHN MENDELOFF (MPP 1974, PhD 1977).
June 16 MICHAEL NACHT was rapporteur of the session, “Managing the Policy School Enterprise,” in which SANDRA ARCHIBALD (MPP 1971) presented her paper, at the APPAM spring conference.
June 29 DANIEL KAMMEN spoke at a forum on: “Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles: A California Vision For Kicking America’s Oil Addiction And Reducing Transportation’s Impact On Global Climate” at the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco. http://www.commonwealthclub.org/mlf/
1. “The Class of 2006 Commencement, May 20, 2006” can
be viewed at: /news-events/archive.html
The ceremony featured Dean Michael Nacht's welcome to family and friends; Larry Rosenthal (MPP 1993, PhD 2000), president of the Alumni Board; student speakers Stephen Wald and Juanita Brown; retiring Faculty member Eugene Bardach. Greg Kato presented the class gift. Prof. Steven Raphael presented the Outstanding Student Instructor Award to Sonya Blesser; Prof. Jane Mauldon presented the Smolensky Prize for Outstanding Advanced Policy Analysis to S. Derek Turner whose APA (on Universal Service Reform -- to provide universal, affordable high-speed broadband service to the entire public) has already been read into the Congressional Record. Former Labor Secretary and now permanent member of faculty, Prof. Robert Reich, gave the keynote commencement address.
Also viewable on UC Webcast: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/archive.php?select2=36
2. “Building Bridges: Keeping Youth
Connected.” Webcast at: /buildingbridges/
On March 15, 2006 the Goldman School of
Public Policy and the City and
A U.C. Berkeley student committee, spear-headed by BETSY BAUM (MPP 2006), organized the event in conjunction with NANI COLORETTI (MPP 1994) of the San Francisco Mayor’s Office and Rachel Antrobus of the Youth Commission. DEAN MICHAEL NACHT made opening remarks, acknowledging the contributions of staff member KATE ANDERSON and HEIDI SOMMER (PhD cand.). MICHELE BYRNES (MPP 2003), director of Honoring Emancipated Youth, was acknowledged by an emancipated youth speaker. Panelist AMY LEMLEY (MPP 1998) was introduced as co-founder of First Place Fund for Youth, “acknowledged nationally as one of most creative organizations serving emancipated foster youth,” and currently with the John Burton Foundation for Children Without Homes. Prof. JANE MAULDON moderated the Q&A.
3. “What Would Franklin Do? A Centrist Civic Primer on
Religion, Politics and Community-Serving Programs” – The 2006 Aaron
Wildavsky Forum debuts nationally on UCTV this month. Locally it can be
seen on cable (Comcast) in
An archive of GSPP programs on UCTV is
accessible at: http://www.uctv.tv/series/index.asp?show=show&number=57
If you would like further information
about any of the above, or hard copies of cited articles, we’d be happy to
provide them.
We are always delighted to receive your material for inclusion in the Digest. Please email the editor at wong23@berkeley.edu .
Sincerely,
Annette Doornbos
Director of External Relations and Development
Visit the
(This digest was edited by Theresa Wong)