GSPP

Web

Editors

eDIGEST March 2008

UPCOMING EVENTS

1. “Greenhouse Gas Management: An Energy Company Perspective”

John Cain, Principal Carbon Management Advisor, Chevron Corporation

March 19, 2008, noon-1:00 p.m.

Room 355 at Goldman School of Public Policy

Presented by the CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PUBLIC POLICY

Lunch will be served. Please RSVP by March 14 to cepp@berkeley.edu

2. “Reparations Programs in the Wake of Large-Scale Atrocities”

by NAOMI ROHT-ARRIAZA (MPP/JD 1990), professor of law at UC Hastings

March 31, Noon-1:15 p.m., 554 Barrows

Presented by Center for Latin American Studies

http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/series/latinamerican/index.html

3. ANNUAL AARON WILDAVSKY FORUM: “Terrorism: Explaining the Inexplicable”

Arie Kruglanski, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland

April 3, 7:30-9:30 p.m., Booth Auditorium, Boalt School of Law; http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/pubpol.html?event_ID=5697&view=preview

4. WILDAVSKY FORUM DISCUSSION

April 4, 9:00-11:00 a.m., GSPP Living Room

5. California and the Future of Environmental Law and Policy

April 10-11, 2008, UC Berkeley, Boalt Hall

Michael Hanemann (Inv.) to speak on “California’s Regulatory Response to Climate Change- Implementing AB 32”

5. “The Role of U.S. State Climate Efforts, Post Federal Policy Passage”

Josh Bushinsky, Pew Center on Global Climate Change

April 16, 2008, noon-1:00 p.m.

Presented by the CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PUBLIC POLICY

Lunch will be served. Please RSVP by April 11 to cepp@berkeley.edu .

6. Students of Color in Public Policy - 3rd Annual Alumni and Friends Dinner

April 18, 6:00-10:00 p.m.

QUICK REFERENCE LIST

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

1. “Bare-bones health plan left family swimming in debts - Benefits minimal for 2 hospital stays. Experts say such policies may not be a good deal” (Seattle Times, February 28, 2008); story citing KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982); http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=mega28m&date=20080228&query=devers

2. “Spending by prison care overseer questioned” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 28, 2008); story citing TODD SPITZER (MPP/JD 1989); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/28/MNCQV9QEG.DTL

3. “Health insurance law misses goals - Letting companies deny coverage for prior ills hasn't increased number of insured, study finds” (Indianapolis Star, February 27, 2008); story citing KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).

4. “Luxury loophole disputed. Debate pits revenue gain vs. possible loss of jobs” (Sacramento Bee, February 27, 2008); story citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975) and MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/742228.html

5. “Governor backs off tax breaks. He softens stance on rescinding all credits proposed for cutting” (Sacramento Bee, February 29, 2008); story citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/749289.html

6. “Governor’s plan would cut Medi-Cal rolls” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 25, 2008); story citing TOBY DOUGLAS (MPP 2001/MPH 2002) and TANGERINE BRIGHAM (MPP 1990); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/25/MN9JV78GV.DTL

7. “Analyst: Shift parole to counties. Budget watchdog’s plan finds fault with governor’s early-release proposal” (Sacramento Bee, February 24, 2008); story citing TODD SPITZER (MPP/JD 1989); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/734402.html

8. “Move Over, Oil, There’s Money In Texas Wind” (New York Times, February 23, 2008); story citing ROBERT GRAMLICH (MPP 1995); http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/business/23wind.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22clifford+krauss%22&st=nyt&oref=slogin

9. “Broader school notification bill sought - Advocates: Other chemicals should be on list” (Record, The (Hackensack, NJ) - February 22, 2008); story citing ROBERT GORDON (MPP 1975); http://www.northjersey.com/education/Broader_school_notification_bill_sought.html

10. “City seeks ways to trim looming deficit” (Times-Herald, February 21, 2008); story citing CRAIG WHITTOM (MPP 1985); http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_8324807

11. “Governor orders cuts in state agencies now. Budget trims can save $100 million by June 30, he says” (Sacramento Bee, February 20, 2008); story citing MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/724790.html

12. “State budget analyst floats rival plan to governor’s. Her proposal cuts less from education but reduces tax breaks” (Sacramento Bee, February 21, 2008); story citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975) and MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/727787.html

13. “Editorial: Analyst offers a sensible alternative on budget. Targeted cuts, elimination of tax breaks offer a better way to deal with state deficit” (Sacramento Bee, February 22, 2008); editorial citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/730464.html

14. “Budget advice, with lunch. Ex-governors offer input on state deficit at a midday forum” (Sacramento Bee, February 29, 2008); story citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/749152.html

15. “Report: Midwage jobs vanish in Silicon Valley” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2008); story citing DOUG HENTON (MPP 1975); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/19/BUI2V2SGD.DTL

16. “Georgia’s cities could be a TAD disadvantaged” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 18, 2008); story citing CARL PATTON (MPP/PhD 1976); http://www.ajc.com/search/content/business/saporta/stories/2008/02/17/saporta_0218.html

17. “‘Green’ rice on menu. Farmers could profit from carbon offsets” (Sacramento Bee, February 17, 2008); story citing MARK TREXLER (MPP 1982/PhD 1989); http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/716580.html

18. “Ranching is going green - Ranchers buck the industry to protect the environment” (Abilene Reporter-News, February 17, 2008); story by GARANCE BURKE (MPP 2005/MJ 2004); http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/feb/17/ranching-is-going-green/

19. “Prison beds, rehab delayed. No construction yet in $7.9 billion program” (Sacramento Bee February 16, 2008); story citing TODD SPITZER (MPP/JD 1989); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/716906.html

20. “Same-sex marriage amendment sought. Conservatives hope to take issue away from state Supreme Court” (Oakland Tribune, February 15, 2008); story citing PAMELA BROWN (MPP 1991); http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_8269885

21. “Emergency plan calls for layoffs, service cuts” (Times-Herald (Vallejo, CA) - February 14, 2008); story citing CRAIG WHITTOM (MPP 1985); http://www.timesheraldonline.com//ci_8260138?IADID=Search-www.timesheraldonline.com-www.timesheraldonline.com

22. “Study: Mexicans willing to pay for cross-border health insurance” (Santa Cruz Sentinel, February 14, 2008); story citing ARTURO VARGAS-BUSTAMANTE (MPP/MPH 2004); http://www.santacruzsentinel.com//ci_8258999?IADID=Search-www.santacruzsentinel.com-www.santacruzsentinel.com

23. “Editorial: Want to keep parks open? Cut prison spending” (Sacramento Bee, February 14, 2008); editorial citing MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/711068.html

24. “NAMES IN BUSINESS: Beltline donors unfazed by ruling on financing” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 14, 2008); story citing CARL PATTON (MPP/PhD 1976); http://www.ajc.com/search/content/business/stories/2008/02/14/saporta0214.html

25. “Inmate education increase urged by report - Legislative Analyst’s Office says boosting classes saves money” (Sacramento Bee, February 13, 2008); story citing BRIAN BROWN (MPP 2003); http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/story/708274.html

26. “Lenders offer help to avoid foreclosure. The most delinquent homeowners will be given a grace period to contact their lenders and work out a plan” (Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2008); story citing LARRY ROSENTHAL (MPP 1993/PhD 2000); http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-loans13feb13,0,4638492,print.story

27. “Tight parking spot - no space for cars near congest zones” (New York Post, February 13, 2008); story citing BRUCE SCHALLER (MPP 1982); http://www.nypost.com/seven/02132008/news/regionalnews/tight_parking_spot_97394.htm

28. “U.S. to Skirt Green-Card Check - Action Will Help Applicants Lacking Final FBI Clearance” (Washington Post, February 12, 2008); story citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004); http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/11/AR2008021103132_2.html

29. “From Access to Success in California’s Community Colleges – No Time to Waste” by Nancy Shulock (Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley, February 12, 2008); lecture presented by NANCY SHULOCK (MPP 1978); http://cshe.berkeley.edu/events/index.php?id=243

30. “A blogger’s view of `irrelevant’ budget” (Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, IN) - February 9, 2008); commentary by STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080209/NEWS06/802090345&SearchID=73309370600109

31. “More on-ramp metering lights, fewer delays” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 9, 2008); story citing JEFF GEORGEVICH (MPP 1982); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/09/MNCHUV430.DTL&hw=georgevich&sn=001&sc=1000

32. “Analyst: Skip raise for prison officers” (Sacramento Bee, February 8, 2008); story citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/697267.html

33. “Remorseful voters rue casting absentee ballots too early” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 7, 2008); column citing DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/07/BABIUTILU.DTL&hw=nevius&sn=008&sc=167

34. “McClatchy sees profit; charge set” (Sacramento Bee, February 7, 2008); story citing GARY PRUITT (MPP 1981/JD 1982); http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/693490.html

35. “Budget repair tool too weak? Prop. 58 puts onus on the Legislature; GOP lawmakers skeptical” (Sacramento Bee, February 5, 2008); story citing TODD SPITZER (MPP/JD 1989); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/687715.html

36. “White House Watch: White House Mole” (Washington Post, February 4, 2008); blog citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/02/04/BL2008020401554_3.html

37. “Why Bush’s budget will change its shape” (Christian Science Monitor, February 5, 2008); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0205/p01s01-usec.html

38. “With $10M price tag, Jersey primary date brings questions” (Star-Ledger, The (Newark, NJ) - February 3, 2008); story citing ROBERT GORDON (MPP 1975).

39. “Investigator delayed getting to Cosco Busan accident” (Oakland Tribune, February 1, 2008); story citing LINDA SHEEHAN (MPP/JD 1990); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_8137957?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

40. “Judge orders transit funds’ return. Ruling could add $409 million to deficit, but lets $779 million shift stand” (Sacramento Bee, February 1, 2008); story citing MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/678800.html

41. “GSU Hall of Fame to induct four” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 31, 2008); story citing CARL PATTON (MPP/PhD 1976); http://www.ajc.com/search/content/business/saporta/stories/2008/01/30/saporta_0131.html

42. “Study: US Broadband Goal Nearly Reached” (Associated Press Online, January 30, 2008); story citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).

43. “Some farmers prefer selling water, not crops” (Alameda Times-Star, January 26, 2008); story by GARANCE BURKE (MPP 2005); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_8086082?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

44. “Report urges action on Salton Sea rescue” (Press-Enterprise, January 25, 2008); story citing BRENDAN MCCARTHY (MPP 2004).

45. “Economy suffers bear of a day” (Oregonian, January 23, 2008); story citing JOE CORTRIGHT (MPP 1980).

46. “White House Watch: Markets Vote ‘No’ on Bush” (Washington Post, January 22, 2008); column citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/01/22/BL2008012201457_2.html

47. “A chance to help write history” (Progress-Index (Petersburg, VA) - January 16, 2008); column citing AMINA LUQMAN (MPP 2001).

48. “All eyes on S.F. - Challenge to city’s health care plan could affect state” (Sacramento Bee, January 13, 2008); story citing TANGERINE BRIGHAM (MPP 1990); http://www.sacbee.com/health/story/630096.html

49. “Florida woos OHSU with unit with deal to expand” (Oregonian, January 9, 2008); story citing JOE CORTRIGHT (MPP 1980).

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

1. “San Francisco State: Grant elevates Jewish studies” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 29, 2008); story citing RICHARD N. GOLDMAN; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/29/BACMVB02U.DTL

2. “‘Marketplace’ Report: Renewable Energy” (Day to Day [National Public Radio], February 28, 2008); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; Listen to story

3. “Strong community networks linked to fewer recurring heart problems, new study finds” (Berkeleyan, February 28, 2008); story citing RICHARD SCHEFFLER; http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/02/26_heart.shtml

4. “Foreign investments are just bailouts” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], Feb. 27, 2008); Listen to commentary

5. “Documentary shows imbalance of wealth” (Olympian, The (WA) - February 18, 2008); TV highlight citing ROBERT REICH.

6. “Semper fi, Berkeley” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 18, 2008); commentary by DAVID KIRP, and citing program initiated by CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/02/18/EDKJV3P2P.DTL&type=printable

7. “California Still Counting Heavy Feb. 5 Vote” (New York Times, February 17, 2008); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/us/politics/17vote.html?_r=1&sq=Berkeley&st=nyt&adxnnl=1&scp=11&adxnnlx=1203443049-RyNmFlp8jjwqQnQM1zYLUQ&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

8. “Investment in agri vital to India: World Bank” (The Economic Times, February 15, 2008); story citing ALAIN DE JANVRY; http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2786456,prtpage-1.cms

9. “Op-Ed: Totally Spent” (New York Times [*requires registration], February 13, 2008); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/opinion/13reich.html?em&ex=1203051600&en=a7286ed59f2526c9&ei=5087%0A

10. “The real Google versus Microsoft fight” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media, February 13, 2008); Listen to commentary

11. “Reich predicts year will be painful” (Salt Lake Tribune, February 12, 2008); interview with ROBERT REICH.

12. “Analysis: Superdelegates May Break Democrats’ Dead Heat” (All Things Considered, NPR, February 11, 2008); analysis citing HENRY BRADY; Listen to story

13. “Powered Down: The Vanishing Establishment” (New York Times, February 10, 2008); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/weekinreview/10confess.html

14. “California proposes a global-warming fee on businesses. Bay area firms would be charged based on emissions” (Mercury News, February 9, 2008); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_8215767?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com

15. “Talk of the Nation: Environmentalists Debate the Promise of Biofuels” (Science Friday, NPR, February 8, 2008); commentary by DAN KAMMEN; Listen to program

16. “When pols say ‘check is in the mail...’” (Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, MA), February 8, 2008); column citing ROBERT REICH.

17. “Asian Alienation: Why did Asian Americans vote so overwhelmingly against Barack Obama?” (New Republic, February 7, 2008); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=0e0891ad-466b-4176-919b-16d11a69f069

18. “Berkeley joins the nation in turning the spotlight on climate change” (Berkeleyan, February 7, 2008); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/02/01_focus.shtml

19. “Biofuels emissions may be ‘worse than petrol’” (NewScientist [UK], February 7, 2008); story citing study coauthored by MICHAEL O’HARE; http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn13289-biofuels-emissions-may-be-worse-than-petrol.html

20. “Unemployment benefits need overhaul” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], February 6, 2008); http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/02/06/unemployment

21. “California May Not Be Key Player in November Election” (KCBS Radio, February 6, 2008); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.kcbs.com/California-May-Not-Be-Key-Player-in-November-Elect/1609664

22. “McCain surges ahead; Clinton, Obama split states. Romney notches six wins, but future’s in doubt as Huckabee sweeps South” (MarketWatch, Feb. 6, 2008); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/mccain-surges-ahead-clinton-obama/story.aspx?guid=%7bF3B19832-349F-4AE3-BCAE-7F2EABF6925C%7d&print=true&dist=printTop

23. “Romney breezes to victory. Favored ex-governor trounces McCain 59% to 19% with nearly all results in” (Denver Post, February 6, 2008); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.denverpost.com/ci_8179956

24. “McCain’s continued lead defies pundits’ attacks. Heavy turnout in California could mean trouble for Republican” (Denver Post, February 5, 2008); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.denverpost.com/nationalpolitics/ci_8169348

25. “Skepticism greets firms that sell offsets” (Contra Costa Times, February 5, 2008); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_8173228?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com&nclick_check=1

26. “Texas primary could be a big deal after all” (Dallas Morning News, February 4, 2008); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8UJKOI01.html

27. “COUNTDOWN 2008: Margins of error: Why political polling often misses” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 3, 2008); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.ajc.com/search/content/opinion/stories/2008/02/03/polls0203.html

28. “Closing Income Gap Tops Obama’s Agenda for Economic Change” (New York Times, February 2, 2008); story citing ROBERT REICH.

29. “A Green Energy Industry Takes Root in California” (New York Times, February 1, 2008); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/technology/01solar.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=Berkeley&st=nyt&scp=2

30. “California moves up, but will it stand out?” (MarketWatch, February 1, 2008); story citing HENRY BRADY.

31. “Reich sees point of Wall Street pain” (News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC) - February 1, 2008); interview with ROBERT REICH.

32. “Illegal immigrants benefit economy” (News-Times (Danbury, CT) - February 1, 2008); opinion citing ROBERT REICH.

33. “A Growing College Rivalry: The Fight for Faculty Stars” (Washington Post, January 14, 2008); story citing DAVID KIRP; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/13/AR2008011303436.html

ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS

By Kyung M. Song: Seattle Times health reporter

Preston and Theresa Devers, with sons Steele, 14 (sitting); Cole, 11 (standing next to his father); and Locke, 12. Although the Deverses had health insurance, medical bills have wiped out the family's savings. (Photo: Mike Siegel, The Seattle Times)

TACOMA — When her youngest son, Cole, awoke one night last month writhing in pain, Theresa Devers pleaded with him to hang on until morning so they wouldn't have to go to an emergency room.

Then, when they got to a Tacoma hospital and found out that the 11-year-old's appendix had ruptured and he urgently needed to be transferred to Seattle, Devers asked without success if she could drive her son there instead of having him taken in an ambulance. And when they arrived at Seattle's Swedish Medical Center, Devers urged the staff to skip tests or procedures unless they were vital.

Anxious actions of a mother without health insurance? Actually, the family has what many critics say is just as dangerous: a bare-bones insurance policy that Devers says has left her family financially devastated.

They're among about 42,000 people in Washington who have health coverage through MEGA Life and Health Insurance, an Oklahoma-based company that is being investigated by insurance officials in Washington and 34 other states. Regulators found that MEGA and two sister companies have misled consumers, denied legitimate claims and mishandled complaints….

With monthly premiums often less than half those of comprehensive health plans, MEGA and its affiliates have enrolled 700,000 self-employed workers, business owners, students and others in 44 states who want coverage that's inexpensive, if not expansive….

But some experts charge that such plans actually exploit that sense of desperation.

"You're giving money to a company for what? In return for protection? That's not what you're getting," said Karen Pollitz, a professor at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute.

"Why should we allow these things to be called health insurance?"…

--Tom Chorneau, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Sacramento--The former federal receiver hired to improve California’s troubled prison health care system misspent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars before being fired last month, according to a state inspector general’s report released Wednesday.

Robert Sillen, who once threatened to “back up the Brink’s truck” to the state’s treasury to get the money needed to provide better inmate care, authorized $218,790 in overpayments to staff members for benefits such as health insurance and retirement that they already received, said the report, which found no evidence of fraud….

Sillen, a former Santa Clara County health care director, was fired last month by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, largely over Sillen’s confrontational approach with state officials….

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, who chairs a prison oversight committee, called for the return of the money.

“Clearly Henderson is embarrassed by the findings of this report, but he hasn’t gone far enough,” Spitzer said. “It is incumbent on Judge Henderson to order that money be returned where there have been overpayments or double payments.”

If the employees who received double benefits refuse to repay the money, Spitzer said, “The U.S. attorney or the district attorney has got to go after these employees for double-dipping.”…

By Daniel Lee and Eunice Trotter

A change in state law that allows health insurance companies to deny coverage of pre-existing conditions has failed, as promoted, to increase the overall number of Hoosiers with health insurance.

In 2004, Indiana lawmakers supported the argument that insurance companies would cover more residents if they didn't have to bear the risk of costs associated with pre-existing conditions, some as minor as acne or bunions….

In the three years since the law passed, the number of Hoosiers covered by private insurance increased less than 0.2 percent, according to Kaiser Family Foundation…. The group also found that the number of Hoosiers with no insurance increased by about 50,000.

Though the dominant reason for the increase in the uninsured was the loss of employer-sponsored group insurance, the Kaiser study says states that allow insurance companies to limit eligibility or increase premiums due to a person's health history contribute to an increase in the number of uninsured.

High premiums and deductibles make the insurance unaffordable, and the very problems for which health coverage is needed are excluded from coverage, the study says….

"It's a really difficult market for everybody," said Karen Pollitz, project director at the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "It's like an onion; there are all sorts of layers of difficulties. If one of the difficulties doesn't trip you up, another one will."…

By Judy Lin

Chuck Lenert bought his boat in Canada and left it there and in Washington state for more than a year before bringing it to Sacramento, so he did not owe a sales and use tax. (José Luis Villegas/Sacramento Bee)

When Republicans killed a recent effort to close a loophole on luxury boats, recreational vehicles and planes, they argued that a tax change would chase away working-class jobs….

Yet when the state’s nonpartisan fiscal analyst looked at the proposal, she came to a different conclusion. Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill supported closing the loophole because she found it could generate $21 million a year for the state without causing serious harm to the economy….

Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers support a tax change that would make it more difficult for wealthy Californians to dodge the state sales and use tax….

The proposal calls for boosting from 90 days to one year the time a large private vehicle, vessel or aircraft would have to be kept out of state in order for residents to claim a tax exemption….

“The governor has said the yacht tax is an unfair, special treatment of a very limited, small group of people for reasons that aren’t clear why we’re doing it,” said his finance director, Michael Genest.

The analyst’s report found in 2006 that sales of luxury items continued to rise under the 12-month requirement even though fewer residents qualified for the exemption….

A congressional study concluded yacht sales were actually greater than expected, according to the legislative analyst’s report.

The analyst’s report found that a longer exemption period had little impact on manufacturers and sellers because their products sell nationwide….

[Robert Morgester, who chases tax cheats for the state attorney general’s office] said the current law could have the counter effect of encouraging residents to buy big-ticket items out of state because they only have to wait 90 days to avoid paying thousands of dollars in taxes. Tax collectors estimate the state is already losing millions in sales tax and registration fees….

By Kevin Yamamura

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the state should “look at all the ideas that are available and where we can ... close some of those tax loopholes.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told business leaders Thursday he supports a proposal by nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill to rescind $2.7 billion in tax credits, but he later softened that stance and said he doesn’t necessarily support all of her recommendations.

Hill last week found a dozen tax breaks that could be reduced or removed to help bridge an $8 billion budget gap remaining for the next fiscal year. The largest would be a $1.3 billion rollback of credits for those who claim child dependents, going from $294 per dependent down to $94.

“She has identified $2.5 billion of tax loopholes, including the yacht tax,” Schwarzenegger said at a Los Angeles economic town hall, using a long-term annual estimate of Hill’s proposals. “I think that we should go after those tax loopholes because we would need the extra $2.5 billion. This is $2.5 billion we can give straight to education. I’m totally for that … and I agree that we should go for it, and we should do it because everybody has to give something in order to make this work.”

But speaking to reporters afterward, Schwarzenegger said…, “I’m not for the recommendations she made, necessarily.”…

Democrats said they welcomed his apparent interest in reducing tax credits, even if he backed off of his original blanket approval of Hill’s suggestions…

Republicans said Hill’s recommendations were nothing short of tax increases….

--Tom Chorneau, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

(02-25) 04:00 PST Sacramento -- Less than a month ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was pushing lawmakers to pass a landmark program aimed at bringing health care coverage to 6.8 million uninsured Californians.

Now, with his health care expansion on the rocks and the state facing a multibillion-dollar budget gap next year, Schwarzenegger has proposed a plan to make most enrollees of state-sponsored medical care fill out more eligibility paperwork as a means of saving money—a move that critics say is insidious.

Administration officials expect the rule will result in 122,000 people being dropped from the rolls next year, saving the state $92 million—money that the governor’s staff has already counted against the state’s deficit.

The plan calls for about 4.5 million of the 6.5 million enrollees of the Medi-Cal program to file eligibility forms with the state four times a year. Under existing law, children, some disabled people and pregnant women must reapply once a year, while parents are required to report twice annually….

Critics of Schwarzenegger’s plan called it a cynical approach to saving money….

Not so, said Toby Douglas, deputy director of the state Department of Health Care Services. He said the idea is to simply get people who are not eligible for state services out of the system sooner.

“We are not doing this to create barriers to enrollment,” Douglas said. “We are doing this as a way to ensure that those who are no longer eligible are no longer enrolled in the program.”

Still, the proposal could have significant impact on San Francisco’s plans to become the first city in the nation to provide insurance to all residents because the city is relying on the state to maintain coverage to existing Medi-Cal patients.

Tangerine Brigham, director of the San Francisco program, said her office has not had a chance to study the governor’s plan but any barrier to coverage will increase the number of uninsured residents in the city and complicate the efforts of officials….

By Andy Furillo - afurillo@sacbee.com

The Legislative Analyst’s Office is proposing to shift more than half of the state’s parole population to county probation control.

In its most recent analysis of the state budget, the LAO said the move could mean annual savings to the state of $500 million….

[Dan Carson, chief of the LAO’s criminal justice program] said the LAO proposal contrasts sharply with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plans to release 22,000 inmates in the final 20 months of their term and leave them and 18,500 more offenders essentially unsupervised but still subject to search and seizure….

The LAO proposal would shift to the counties 71,000 of the same kind of offenders targeted in the governor’s early release and parole formula. The state would pay for the program by shifting to the locals some vehicle license fees, sales taxes earmarked for public safety as well as special district property taxes….

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, the GOP’s criminal justice point man, said the proposal “is definitely something to discuss,” but added that he is “very concerned about long-term funding.”

By Clifford Krauss

Photo: Brian Harkin for the New York Times

The wind turbines that recently went up on Louis Brooks’s ranch are twice as high as the Statue of Liberty, with blades that span as wide as the wingspan of a jumbo jet. More important from his point of view, he is paid $500 a month [for each turbine] to permit 78 of them on his land, with 76 more on the way.

“That’s just money you’re hearing,” he said as they hummed in a brisk breeze recently.

Texas, once the oil capital of North America, is rapidly turning into the capital of wind power. After breakneck growth the last three years, Texas has reached the point that more than 3 percent of its electricity, enough to supply power to one million homes, comes from wind turbines….

Wind turbines were once a marginal form of electrical generation. But amid rising concern about greenhouse gases from coal-burning power plants, wind power is booming. Installed wind capacity in the United States grew 45 percent last year, albeit from a small base, and a comparable increase is expected this year….

A longer-term problem is potential bottlenecks in getting wind power from the places best equipped to produce it to the populous areas that need electricity. The part of the United States with the highest wind potential is a corridor stretching north from Texas through the middle of the country, including sparsely populated states like Montana and the Dakotas. Power is needed most in the dense cities of the coasts, but building new transmission lines over such long distances is certain to be expensive and controversial.

“We need a national vision for transmission like we have with the national highway system,” said Robert Gramlich, policy director for the American Wind Energy Association. “We have to get over the hump of having a patchwork of electric utility fiefdoms.”…

By Michael Gartland, Staff Writer

A bill that would require parents to be notified when pesticides are found on school property does not go far enough and must be broadened to be effective, environmental advocates said Thursday….

Last May, Paramus school district officials announced that pesticides at levels above state standards were discovered at West Brook Middle School—five months after district leaders learned of the problem with the soil. But parents, teachers and students were not notified until The Record reported the story.

In the subsequent months, different soil problems were also found at schools in Fair Lawn, Oradell, Dumont, Ridgewood and Garfield. In Paramus, PCBs and other chemicals were later discovered at a public pool and golf course.

[Bill S-480], which was introduced after the pesticides were discovered in Paramus, is being ushered through the legislative process by Sen. Robert Gordon.

Gordon said he plans to meet with officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection and private interest groups in the coming weeks and hopes to have a revised draft ready within the next two months.

“The bill really should be much broader,” he said. “We shouldn’t just be focused on pesticides.”

Asbestos, mold and PCBs could also be included, he said.

Environmental advocates agree that the bill should include those substances, but also contend it should be broader still….

Jeff Tittel, director of the state Sierra Club, wants to reevaluate more than just policies on notification and remediation. He would like to see the state DEP take a more proactive approach when it comes to determining whether school grounds are contaminated….

“What we need to do is have testing at our facilities before there’s a problem,” Tittel said. “We’ve put legislation in that requires schools test for radon. Why not test air, water and soil?”

Gordon agreed those are issues that should also be addressed, but said proactive testing and adjustments to remediation regulations might be better addressed in a separate bill.

He said that not all schools should be required to initiate proactive testing because not all sites have a history of contamination.

“It’s not one size fits all,” he said….

10. “City seeks ways to trim looming deficit” (Times-Herald, February 21, 2008); story citing CRAIG WHITTOM (MPP 1985); http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_8324807

By Sarah Rohrs/Times-Herald staff writer

Faced with a $6 million general fund budget shortfall, Vallejo city officials continue to meet with employee groups in an effort to hammer out a plan to stave off bankruptcy.

Assistant City Manager Craig Whittom said both sides “are meeting in good faith” and have a common desire to find a way to close the deficit.

The City Council met three hours in closed session Tuesday night for an update on the most recent talks which took place earlier in the day. No decisions were made following the closed session, Whittom said.

Meanwhile, budget figures are being revised as the city grapples with the retirements of 21 police officers and firefighters last week. Employee leave buy-outs and other retirement costs have increased by at least $4 million—far more than what has been budgeted, officials have said….

Vallejo is also losing sales tax revenues from the weak economy, and gas tax funds and other revenues as a result of the state’s own budget crisis which will alter revenue projections.

More labor talks will take place the remainder of the week, and a recommendation is expected to go to the council for its consideration Tuesday, Whittom said….

By Judy Lin

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday ordered additional cuts across the state bureaucracy that will slow down state hiring and nonessential service contracts—a move he said could save the cash-strapped state $100 million by June 30.

The governor ordered all agency secretaries and department directors to immediately begin reducing their current budgets by 1.5 percent by cutting nonessential services and activities….

The governor, who has already proposed 10 percent across-the-board cuts, said he wanted to make sure the state is in “good financial footing” as it heads into the 2008-09 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Schwarzenegger’s finance director, Mike Genest, said each department head can achieve savings through a combination of ways: freezing hiring, postponing nonessential contracts, reducing equipment purchases, postponing outreach campaigns and canceling travel. Savings will be reviewed on a monthly basis by the Governor’s Office.

Though departments are being urged to postpone hiring, Genest said directors will get to decide on a “case-by-case basis which positions they must fill” so as not to jeopardize health care delivery or public safety.

“What the hiring freeze is intended for is (to) control the pace of hiring so we can minimize the need for layoffs down the road if the budget situation worsens,” Genest said….

By Judy Lin

The state’s top budget analyst said Wednesday the state’s budget situation is worsening and that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal is so flawed, she felt compelled to come up with a plan of her own.

As an alternative to Schwarzenegger’s 10 percent across-the-board cuts, state Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill crafted a long-term spending blueprint that would cut less from schools but reduce tax breaks for businesses and ask families with children and seniors to take smaller tax credits….

“We certainly recognize that very tough decisions are ahead,” Hill said in announcing the state had lost another $1.5 billion in revenues since the governor released his spending plan last month. “We recognize that a sacrifice would have to be made by all Californians in order for the state to get its fiscal house in order.”…

In January, the Schwarzenegger administration proposed cutting most state departments by 10 percent to bring spending in line with tax revenues that continue to fall below expectations, primarily due to ongoing problems in the housing market and high energy prices.

Hill, who has acted as a nonpartisan watchdog for lawmakers for 22 years, called that approach “flawed” because it fails to prioritize such state programs as education and health care. Instead, she took the rare step of offering an alternative budget that relies on cutting nonessential services and raising certain taxes to generate $2.7 billion for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Schwarzenegger’s finance director, Michael Genest, said the administration would continue to resist tax increases. The governor has asked the Legislature to enact additional cuts in March in order to achieve immediate budget savings.

“It’s not appropriate to ask taxpayers to bail out Sacramento for our spending problem,” Genest said. “We don’t want to go down that path.”…

Democratic Assembly leader Fabian Núñez praised Hill for taking a reasonable approach to balancing the budget rather than only axing services.

“You cannot balance the budget simply by cutting back services,” said the lawmaker from Los Angeles. “You need to look at the tax structure … and figure out what tax credits we can roll back.”…

[“Budget Analysis” (The California Report, KQED-FM, February 21, 2008); ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975) and MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980) were interviewed; Listen to the program ]

If lawmakers were to endorse Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, prison guards would get $500 million in raises, while foster care families would confront $82 million in cuts.

Counties would have to lay off 500 social workers who help protect at-risk children, even as tax loopholes for businesses remained untouched….

If these priorities make little sense to you, then you’re in good company.

In a must-read series of reports Wednesday, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill pointed out all of these shortcomings, and more, with the governor’s budget. Among other things, Hill’s analysis reveals that the next-year deficit is likely to reach $16 billion.

Going even further, Hill offered up an alternative budget that, unlike the governor’s version, reduces tax breaks and makes targeted—instead of across-the-board—cuts to spending. Hill’s plan would also put the state on a five-year trajectory toward eliminating its structural deficit.

Schwarzenegger should have waited a day before responding to Hill’s thoughtful reports. Instead, he issued a statement that “we should begin negotiations with all ideas on the table” but that he opposes “raising taxes to fix Sacramento’s spending problem and our budget.”

Huh? How can the governor claim to want “all ideas on the table” when he’s ready to saw at least one leg from the furniture?

The legislative analyst takes a smarter approach. Along with targeted spending cuts, Hill suggests the narrowing or elimination of several outdated tax credits….

By tapping this extra revenue, the state would be in a better position to protect foster care youths, Medi-Cal beneficiaries and others who are vulnerable. There still would be a lot of pain in Hill’s proposals, but public education would not see huge swings in funding and the state would emerge stronger once the economy rebounds….

[Read the legislative analyst’s report at www.lao.ca.gov. ]

[Elizabeth Hill was also cited in columns by Dan Walters: http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/730557.html ; by Daniel Weintraub: http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/732733.html ;by Steve Wiegand: http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/732932.html and by Peter Schrag: http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/741863.html ]

By Judy Lin

Ex-Govs. Gray Davis, left, and Pete Wilson, right, discuss ways to tackle California’s budget deficit Thursday as Mark Baldassare moderates. (Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee)

Former Gov. Gray Davis, who knows firsthand how a fiscal crisis can contribute to the demise of a political career, is offering advice on how to tackle the current deficit—by tweaking voter-approved mandates such as minimum school funding….

Davis, a Democrat, offered no specific details for changing current rules but said special interests have passed ballot initiatives over the years as a way of protecting themselves against budget cuts—much to the detriment of California’s fiscal health….

[Former Governor Pete] Wilson, a Republican, endorsed bringing back spending limits and applauded a competing plan put forth last week by Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill that seeks to balance the state’s remaining $8 billion deficit for the new fiscal year by prioritizing programs instead of making 10 percent across-the-board cuts….

--Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer

While other companies are downsizing, electrical contractor Dirk Swanepoel is looking to boost his eight-person Morgan Hill staff….

Swanepoel’s experience is in line with a new report that will be released Friday that identified electrical work as one of the few growing, well-paid fields accessible to someone without an advanced degree. Yet most job seekers don’t know such opportunities exist, nor do they have any way to get retrained if they need to make a career switch, according to the 2008 Silicon Valley Index….

For the first time, this report documents an alarming fact: The middle fell out of the region’s payroll between 2002 and 2006.

Federal and state jobs data show that 62,050 midwage jobs—defined as having salaries between $30,000 and $80,000—vanished during that four-year period, according to the report….

What [the report’s authors] found was a commonsense pattern. Some workers had to remain local, like electricians, plumbers and medical assistants…. And of course, jobs related to manufacturing, such as semiconductor processing or electronics technicians, have long been moving to less-expensive locales.

These trends are well known, but the report tries to put a useful spin on the data by suggesting that workers and policymakers should look at job and job training differently. Mike Curran, director of the Sunnyvale workforce development group NOVA, was involved in the report’s preparation. He said rather than focusing solely on new or fast-growing sectors, like green technology, everyone from regional educators to career counselors to job seekers should start thinking about job turnover caused by predictable factors like retirements….

Regional cooperation also should be creating programs to train or retrain workers for midwage jobs in emerging industries such as biotechnology, he said…

“It’s a tough message,” said Doug Henton, the economist who oversaw the index. “In a world where the company no longer takes care of you, you have to take care of yourself.”

By Maria Saporta; Staff

It’s a major hit. The Georgia Supreme Court ruling limiting the amount of funds that can be generated in a tax allocation district is threatening redevelopment plans across the state.

Even worse, metro Atlanta already has been lagging in its use of the TAD financing tool. Unless something is done to quickly change Georgia’s Constitution, the state, its cities and towns will lose even more ground compared to other metro areas across the country….

That point hit home when a delegation of about 110 metro Atlanta leaders (LINK) visited Chicago in 2002….

About 20 people from the LINK delegation called on Chicago Mayor Richard Daley at City Hall, where he encouraged them to seize on this financing tool to reinvest in their communities. At that time, there were 220 TIFs in Chicago … and several of them were about to expire as bonds were repaid. When that happened, Daley said local governments would receive a major windfall in tax revenue.

The message resonated with Carl Patton, president of Georgia State University, who is an urban planner who had first heard of TIFs when he was in school. So he used the opportunity of the Chicago LINK trip to spread the word of how this could help revitalize communities throughout metro Atlanta.

The idea took hold. Atlanta currently has 10 of the 27 TADs across the state, according to Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin….

But the Georgia Supreme Court ruling declared that the Beltline TAD couldn’t include property taxes dedicated to schools, roughly half of the total….

“It’s like we are handicapped while playing the game,” says Patton, who also served as co-chair of the Beltline TAD Steering Committee. “We were late coming to the game. And we were just figuring out how to use these TADs.”

Patton referred to a city planning textbook published more than 20 years ago that said tax increment financing has become the single most important source for development with the reduction of federal involvement in the revitalization of cities….

By Jim Downing

Arcadia Biosciences researchers Liying Wu, left, and Michelle Medina grade the health of rice plants in a greenhouse north of Davis. (Randy Pench/Sacramento Bee)

The war on global warming has entrepreneurs racing to find new ways to trim the carbon emissions linked to everything from wine to washing machines.

But Eric Rey was the first to see the promise of low-emissions rice.

In Davis, Rey’s Arcadia Biosciences is crafting genetically modified rice that thrives on just half the typical dose of nitrogen fertilizer—a source of greenhouse emissions on a par with all the world’s passenger vehicles.

By growing rice that needs less nitrogen, farmers would save money on fertilizer and plug into the booming global market in carbon offsets. Rey would be able to price his rice seed the same as conventional varieties and make a profit by taking a share of the carbon-credit revenue….

… In addition to cutting greenhouse gases, the rice has the potential to reduce nitrate pollution, a scourge of rivers and aquifers worldwide.

On the farms in rural China where he hopes to launch the plan and where he is focusing his efforts, Rey figures each acre planted with Arcadia’s rice could yield close to one metric ton of carbon offsets, now trading at $22 a ton on European markets and expected to climb in the future. Even at current rates, the offsets alone would boost farmers’ profits by as much as 25 percent….

[In China] Arcadia is monitoring the nitrous oxide gas that burbles from fertilized rice paddies. The measurements will provide baseline data needed to demonstrate that large-scale plantings of Arcadia’s rice would actually reduce emissions. That’s important, because while researchers have estimated the climate impact of fertilizer on a global scale, international emissions traders don’t yet recognize offsets generated by reductions in nitrous oxide emissions from a particular farm field.

“It’s one of the harder things to quantify accurately,” said Mark Trexler, a director with EcoSecurities Group, a leading player in the global carbon market….

By Garance Burke - Associated Press

Beef rancher, Seth Nitschke is shown at his ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)

CATHEYS VALLEY, Calif. -- Seth Nitschke spent his early 20s working at large feed lots before he returned home to start a business raising beef cattle fed on the grasses of the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Nitschke, 31, who herds heifers through pastures near Yosemite National Park, doesn’t consider himself an environmental activist, though he’s planting saplings to protect nearby streams and runs a light herd to let his pastures breathe.

Unlike some of his counterparts in traditional livestock production, he and a new crop of cattlemen are quietly working to minimize their industry’s ecological footprint and are forging unlikely alliances with environmental groups.

“Look at this grass. If I don’t take care of it, that’s my livelihood,” Nitschke said, kneeling as he examined foxtail shoots. “We dress differently than the eco-folks, we probably vote differently, but in the end there’s a lot of ways in which our core values are really close.”

Across the West, cattlemen and environmentalists have locked horns over grazing practices for decades. But increasingly, ranchers are buying into the idea that they have a role to play in protecting open space, be it through preserving private wildlands or promoting sustainable grazing techniques.

Near Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, the World Wildlife Fund has recruited ranchers to build ditches on their lands to improve wetlands habitat for threatened and endangered birds like the wood stork and crested caracara.

In Wyoming, the Audubon Society is trying to persuade oil and gas companies to pay ranchers to maintain sage brush expanses key to the survival of the sage grouse.

And in California, 75 ranching organizations, environmental groups and state and federal agencies have adopted a common strategy to enhance the state’s rangelands while protecting its ecosystems.

“This new generation of ranchers knows they have to work on the environmental part of it to survive,” said Neil McDougald, a rancher at the University of California Cooperative Extension office in Madera County. “I’ll guarantee you the guys driving cows today have a better environmental conscience than the ranchers who were riding around holding up stagecoach’s.”…

By Andy Furillo

The state corrections agency still hasn’t broken ground on new prison bed space, and its plan to redirect the lives of its inmates has come under criticism.

Lawmakers say they are frustrated by the delays and wonder if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants the federal courts, instead of him, to grant early releases to tens of thousands of inmates to relieve prison overcrowding.

At issue is the rollout of Assembly Bill 900, the state’s $7.9 billion plan enacted last May to repair California’s faltering prison system. Corrections officials say the plan to add 53,000 beds to the system and tie most of them to new rehabilitation programs is running late, but still working.

Lawmakers disagree.

“AB 900 is snake oil,” said state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, whose Senate Public Safety Committee will hold a hearing on prison overcrowding Tuesday….

Romero’s ideological opposite in the Legislature, Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, said the Schwarzenegger administration has “completely backed away” from AB 900.

Spitzer, a strong supporter of the bill when it was passed, cited Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal to release 22,000 inmates before their terms expire. Rather than take the political heat for the releases, Spitzer suggested, the administration now may want to let the federal courts do the dirty work. A federal three-judge panel already is considering imposing a prison population cap, as sought by plaintiffs’ lawyers who argue that prison overcrowding is keeping the state from providing constitutional medical and mental health care.

“I think they believe that early release is the path of least resistance to deal with overcrowding,” Spitzer said. “I think they feel that politically, the way they get out is … (through) the three-judge panel, so they can say, ‘Oh my goodness, it was the three-judge panel.’”…

By Lisa Leff, Associated Press

Shauna Rajkowski, left, and her partner Pamela Brown check out the pre-printed notice they were given when they attempted to get a marriage license at the Alameda County Clerk’s office, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008 in Oakland, Calif. The notice said that the state of California only permits marriage between “an unmarried man and an unmarried woman.” (D. Ross Cameron/The Oakland Tribune)

SAN FRANCISCO — As California’s highest court prepares to take up a case seeking to legalize same-sex marriage, two groups that failed to get gay marriage bans on the state ballot two years ago are trying again, one with backing from a prominent Christian conservative organization.

The groups, ProtectMarriage.com and VoteYesMarriage.com, have filed ballot language with the California secretary of state that would, if approved by voters, amend the California Constitution to limit marriage to one man and one woman regardless of how the Supreme Court rules….

By enshrining the two laws that already prevent gays from marrying in the state constitution, both amendments would overrule the justices if they decide the current statutes are an unconstitutional violation of the civil rights of same-sex couples. A ruling is expected in June.

The VoteYesMarriage initiative would go a step further, however, by prohibiting the state from granting gays the spousal rights and tax benefits of marriage, as it already has by allowing gays to register as domestic partners.

If the initiative passes, those rights would be eliminated….

Gay marriage proponents are gearing up for a fierce and expensive fight, said Geoffrey Kors, executive director of the gay rights group Equality California….

By Sarah Rohrs/Times-Herald staff writer

Faced with possible bankruptcy, the Vallejo City Council received an emergency plan Wednesday that would require widespread staff layoffs, salary rollbacks and community service cuts. Finance Director Rob Stout said the general fund faces a $10 million shortfall while the deficit will deepen to $13.8 million next year. A draft fiscal emergency plan presented Wednesday comes close to avoiding insolvency, but more work is needed, staff said.

Looming is the threat of bankruptcy, an option the city may seriously consider if employee groups do not agree to concessions now under negotiation, staff said….

“This is a very serious issue,” said Assistant City Manager Craig Whittom. “We need to take action immediately.” He cited salary increases, loss of sales tax and the deteriorating housing market for the worsening general fund….

City Manager Joe Tanner said the city began investigating bankruptcy after an arbitrator’s decision forbidding the city from making $4.25 million in fire staffing cuts….

Some have suggested that declaring bankruptcy could help the city free itself from expensive labor contracts which have been blamed for the fiscal crisis.

On Feb. 26, a staff report and plan for council action could include the outcome of ongoing negotiations with four employee groups over possible concessions….

…Whittom said any [labor contract] issue resolutions would be disclosed Feb. 26….

By Jondi Gumz - Sentinel Staff Writer

Research out of UC Berkeley points to cross-border health insurance as a way to expand health coverage to Mexican immigrants living in the United States, and a county health staffer plans to learn more about it.

The study [published in Health Affairs], by Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a doctoral candidate at [the Goldman School of Public Policy] UC Berkeley, found:

• 62 percent of Mexican immigrants surveyed said they would support a cross-border insurance plan.

• 57 percent said they’d pay $75-$125 per month if services in Mexico were provided in public hospitals.

• Mexican immigrants in the U.S. sent $20 billion to their relatives back home in 2005, primarily to help cover family health care expenses.

• Those who sent money for family health care expenses strongly supported cross-border insurance.

The study was released as the Pew Research Center unveiled projections that Latino population in America would more than double from 14 percent in 2005 to 29 percent by 2050.

“The Mexican-born population in the U.S. has the lowest share of health insurance coverage than any other foreign-born group,” said Gil Ojeda, director of UC Berkeley’s California Program on Access to Care and Health Initiative of the Americas, which co-funded the study…

23. “Editorial: Want to keep parks open? Cut prison spending” (Sacramento Bee, February 14, 2008); editorial citing MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/711068.html

If you need yet another example of how California’s expanding prison system is killing other priorities, look at the state parks system. We’ve reached a point where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for the first time in the state’s history, has proposed closing 48 state parks to help solve a $14.5 billion budget deficit….

Just how much would this save the state? A paltry $13.3 million. And it would cost the state $3.7 million in fees that would have been collected if those parks were open, so the overall savings would be less than $10 million. By comparison, overtime pay for prison guards costs the state $500 million last year (up from $53 million a decade ago)….

• Over the last 20 years, parks have relied more and more on visitor fees. In the 2001-2002 year, visitor fees funded 31.1 percent of state park operating costs. By 2006-2007, that had jumped to 50.4 percent….

Some have suggested that the parks should simply raise fees. But the state has been there and done that – three times between 2002 and 2004. And as fees have gone up, attendance has gone down. Department of Finance Director Mike Genest told The Bee editorial board that further fee increases would lose the state more revenues than it would gain….

By Maria Saporta ; Staff

Downtown leaders to be recognized

Two longtime leaders will be recognized by Central Atlanta Progress, a downtown business organization, at its annual breakfast on March 26.

Carl Patton, the president of Georgia State University who is retiring this year, will receive the prestigious Dan Sweat Award. Patton has championed Georgia State’s strong expansion, which has helped revitalize downtown….

By Andy Furillo

If California wants to save money, it would enroll a lot more prisoners in inmate education programs than it currently does, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said in a report Tuesday.

Only 54,000 of the prison system’s 170,000 inmates attend academic, vocational, industries or independent study programs, the LAO said, even though 75 percent of its population reads at the high school level.

Numerous studies show that recidivism decreases when education increases, and that savings can reach as much as $14,000 per inmate-turned-productive citizen. The analyst’s 32-page report laid out a six-point plan to get more cons into class.

Among the suggestions: increase visiting hours, sentencing time credits and other incentives for inmates who complete school programs; fill teacher vacancies; get more prisoners into classrooms even when their housing units are locked down due to violent disturbances.

LAO criminal justice analyst Brian Brown said the Legislature and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have made “new commitments” to step up inmate educational programs, that cost $202 million in fiscal 2006-07.

Brown said only 40 percent of the enrolled inmates attend classes on any given day. To make the funding more efficient, Brown said it should be allocated based on average daily attendance, like they do in the public schools.

“The idea there is that these programs are being underutilized and there needs to be an incentive for the department to get inmates into class on a daily basis and address those sorts of problems leading to low attendance rates,” Brown said in an interview….

[Read Brian Brown’s report “Reforming Inmate Education to Improve Public Safety: From Cellblocks to Classrooms“ ]

By Jonathan Peterson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Washington Amid mounting foreclosures, a group of major lenders Tuesday said they would offer seriously delinquent borrowers a grace period of up to 30 days to establish possible workout plans before finalizing steps to take away their homes.

The initiative, announced by Bush administration officials and the Hope Now industry alliance, is an attempt by lenders to jump-start communications with borrowers who have been out of touch and are heading toward foreclosure. The lenders, including Countrywide Financial Corp. and Bank of America, said they would target their efforts at borrowers who are 90 or more days delinquent....

Recent efforts by loan companies to contact delinquent borrowers highlight the challenge of starting the dialogue. Just 16% of borrowers responded late last year to mass mailings by Hope Now mortgage-billing companies -- and that was significantly higher than the usual response, lenders said.

Larry Rosenthal, executive director of UC Berkeley’s Program on Housing and Urban Policy, pointed Tuesday to three major categories of borrowers who don’t respond to mailings: people who have decided to walk away from their debts, those in self-denial about the extent of their problems and people who may already be seeking help with their finances.

“We don’t know the relative sizes of these groups,” he said....

By Patrick Gallahue - Transit Reporter

Park and ride? Dream on. Concern that a plan to charge drivers $8 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street would turn nearby neighborhoods into parking lots is likely unfounded—because there’s almost nowhere to park, a recent city survey found….

A Transportation Department survey of five neighborhoods—either immediately next to the zone or with rail facilities that could make them an attractive connection for commuters—found that 93 to 98 percent of the nonmetered spaces were taken on any given afternoon….

For example, 98 percent of the nonmetered parking spaces surveyed on the Upper East Side were occupied at 2 p.m., 6 p.m. and 5:30 a.m….

But anti-congestion pricing activists said the numbers were most alarming because they show that with nowhere else to go, commuters could end up heading to other residential areas that aren’t as crowded to park their cars, a possibility Long Island City Councilman Eric Gioia called the “congestion creep.”

DOT Deputy Commissioner Bruce Schaller said the agency was still analyzing the numbers and hadn’t committed to any policy proposals yet….

By Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post Staff Writer

Facing a rapidly growing backlog of immigration cases, the Bush administration will grant permanent residency to tens of thousands of legal U.S. immigrants without first completing required background checks against the FBI’s investigative files.

The change affects a large but unknown number of about 47,000 permanent residency, or green-card, applicants whose cases are otherwise complete but whose FBI checks have been pending for more than six months, U.S. officials said. Overall, about 44 percent of the 320,000 pending immigration name checks before the FBI … have waited more than six months….

The change, announced in an internal agency memorandum Feb. 4, follows years of criticism by [Prakash Khatri, the ombudsman of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services], the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, lawmakers and federal judges, who say that lengthy delays in FBI name checks serve neither national security nor immigrants, who in any case have been living in the United States for years while awaiting a decision….

… In the instances when negative information is found—less than 1 percent of the time, according to the bureau—green-card holders will be deported….

Representatives of the American Immigration Law Foundation, the ACLU and other immigrant advocates hailed the change. But they questioned why it excludes citizenship applicants, when they must have lived in the United States at least three years after becoming permanent residents.

“If they really believe people pose some risk to the United States, why would they want folks inside, waiting years and years to complete the same name check?” asked Karen Tumlin of the National Immigration Law Center….

29. “From Access to Success in California’s Community Colleges – No Time to Waste” by Nancy Shulock (Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley, February 12, 2008); lecture presented by NANCY SHULOCK (MPP 1978); http://cshe.berkeley.edu/events/index.php?id=243

Abstract:

Far too few Californians are earning college degrees for the state to compete successfully with leaders in the global economy. In order to reach the education levels of the most competitive economies, the number of students earning college degrees each year (associates and bachelors) would have to increase by more than fifty percent. The community colleges are indispensable to any effort to educate more Californians because they serve the majority of undergraduates in the state, including large shares of the students who go on to pursue a bachelors degree in the state’s universities. The colleges are particularly important to increasing education levels among the growing Latino population. But current completion rates of community college students are low. This presentation will explore how changes in public policies can help the California Community Colleges produce more educated Californians.

Bio:

Nancy Shulock is Director of the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Sacramento State University, and a professor of Public Policy and Administration…. She has authored numerous reports and articles on higher education, policy analysis, strategic planning, and legislative decision making. Prior to the establishment of the Institute in 2001, Nancy was associate vice president for academic affairs at Sacramento State. She began her state policy work with the California Legislative Analyst’s office, where she worked on K-12 and higher education issues.

The following is from the blog Capital Gains and Games, written by Stan Collender, a long-time Washington budget analyst. The blog about “Washington, Wall Street and Everything in Between” is at www.capitalgainsandgames.com .

A “Why bother?” is what you get when you go into a Starbucks and order a decaf coffee with extra sugar and extra milk. It’s also what you get when you look at the Bush fiscal 2009 budget.

Less than 12 hours after it was sent to Congress earlier today, the Bush FY09 budget is already largely considered irrelevant. A quick (and totally unscientific) survey this afternoon of some of my budget friends on both sides of the aisle resulted in a rather amazing finding: no one cared about what the White House was proposing, thought it would be followed in any way, or that would have any impact on this year’s budget debate. The word I kept hearing was “irrelevant.”

Some of this was to be expected. This was, after all, the final budget of a lame duck president being submitted to a Congress controlled by the other party, and that party seems to think it is increasingly likely to pick up a substantial number of seats in the next election….

But the Bush administration made things tougher for itself by proposing a budget that it had to know wouldn’t be taken seriously. Money for Iraq and Afghanistan that everyone knows will be spent wasn’t included for fiscal 2010 - 2013. Even the president’s preferred plan to have a permanent U.S. presence in Iraq at a cost of $30 billion or so a year wasn’t included...and that’s the least-cost alternative.

The president’s budget also did not assume that the alternative minimum tax would be fixed beyond a 2009 temporary patch even though that is as certain as anything can be in politics. As a result, for 2010-2013, the budget includes around $65 billion a year in revenues that will never be collected.

The budget also assumes that domestic appropriations will be frozen in nominal terms from 2009 to 2013, which is laughable no matter who is elected president and which party is in control of the House and Senate.

Why make so many off-the-wall assumptions? Because they allow the White House to do the only thing it wanted to accomplish with this budget: project a surplus in 2012….

--Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Metering lights are lighting up more Bay Area freeway on-ramps, and the result, according to transportation officials, is a dramatic decrease in traffic congestion.

Caltrans flipped on metering lights three weeks ago along a 10-mile stretch of eastbound Interstate 580 between Foothill Road in Pleasanton and Greenville Road in Livermore. It’s a stretch where traffic commonly slowed to a crawl - or a stop - during the evening commute.

“By activating those meters, we have cut congestion in half,” said Jeff Georgevich, a planner at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission….

On I-580, Caltrans activated metering lights on seven eastbound on-ramps on Jan. 22, turning them on Monday through Friday from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Since then, freeway travel times have fallen between 15 and 45 percent, depending on time and day….

32. “Analyst: Skip raise for prison officers” (Sacramento Bee, February 8, 2008); story citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/697267.html

By Andy Furillo

When it comes to money, the $73,728 that top-step California correctional officers make every year is more than enough, the state’s nonpartisan budget analyst concluded Thursday.

In a 20-page report, the Legislative Analyst’s Office recommended that the Legislature kill a proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to raise the officers’ pay 5 percent.

Lawmakers appear to be taking the recommendation to heart. As of Thursday, none had stepped forward to carry a pay raise bill sought by the administration.

“The LAO hit the nail on the head with her honest findings,” Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez said in a prepared statement about the report produced by budget analyst Elizabeth Hill’s office. “This independent report will be a critical tool to help guide our thinking on the herculean task of fixing our prison system.”…

The Legislative Analyst’s Office report called the relationship between the CCPOA and the Schwarzenegger administration “completely dysfunctional” and said the state can’t afford to pay the officers more in part because of “serious budgetary challenges.” California is facing a $14.5 billion budget deficit.

Some 130,000 applications flood the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation every year, the report said, suggesting current pay scales don’t need to be raised….

--C.W. Nevius

Voters in California have been encouraged to use mail-in absentee ballots for years now. The idea is to increase participation. And it has.

But this year some voters are wishing they hadn't done it….

It wasn't just that some voters made their selection early and then wished they'd had a chance to jump on the bandwagon of someone like Democrat Barack Obama or Republican Mike Huckabee, each of whom made national "Super Tuesday" surges on the day of the California primary election.

Some voters saw their candidate vanish before their eyes….

And frankly, political operatives were pushing the idea for all they were worth….

Part of that had to do with the rescheduling of California's primary that made it an important part of the nominating process. Previously, it was so late in the election process that the votes felt almost ceremonial.

"It is so rare that California matters, people are out of practice," said David Latterman, a San Francisco pollster.

"I don't think you'd have to do much analysis to know that people are kicking themselves for wasting a vote."…

34. “McClatchy sees profit; charge set” (Sacramento Bee, February 7, 2008); story citing GARY PRUITT (MPP 1981/JD 1982); http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/693490.html

By Dale Kasler

The McClatchy Co. reported slightly better-than-expected profit for the fourth quarter Wednesday but said revenue continues to get hammered by competition from the Internet and a “recessionary” economy that’s particularly rough on its California and Florida newspapers….

Gary Pruitt, McClatchy’s chairman and chief executive, said the company will continue to reduce expenses where it can, but the short-term advertising outlook remains troubling.

“While we saw a slight improvement in advertising in the fourth quarter compared to the second and third quarters, the advertising environment in 2008 does not appear to be improving,” he said in a conference call with analysts and investors. “In fact, in January, we’ve seen headwinds from a worsening national economy.”

He said ad revenue will likely fall 10 percent or more in the first quarter this year, although “we expect advertising revenue trends to improve somewhat from the first quarter.”

An advertising alliance with Yahoo Inc. likely will boost online ad sales significantly, but probably not until late this year, he said.

Like other publishers, McClatchy is struggling with the migration of business to the Internet and, more recently, an economy that Pruitt called “recessionary.”

McClatchy is having a particularly hard time because one-third of its revenue comes from California and Florida, two states that have been particularly hard hit by the housing slump. More than half of the decline in McClatchy’s ad revenue can be traced to California and Florida.

Pruitt said McClatchy is encouraged by its Yahoo deal, although it will be several months before it generates significant revenue. He said he doesn’t believe the alliance will be affected by a possible takeover of Yahoo by Microsoft Corp.

McClatchy’s online ad revenue grew 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter, and some investors say they hope the Yahoo deal will inject more momentum into McClatchy’s Web efforts….

By Judy Lin

Turns out a law voters approved four years ago to force the Legislature and governor to fix state budget problems may be broken itself.

The Legislature’s lawyers have concluded that Proposition 58, invoked for the first time by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this year to help deal with the state’s projected $14.5 billion budget shortfall, could let lawmakers sidestep punishment if they fail to agree on budget solutions.

Passed in March 2004 along with another measure to authorize bonds to reduce that year’s deficit, Proposition 58 allows the governor to declare an emergency when revenues “decline substantially” and gives lawmakers 45 days to “address” the problem.

If they don’t, “the Legislature may not act on any other bill, nor may the Legislature adjourn for a joint recess, until that bill or those bills have been passed and sent to the governor,” according to the law….

But some Republicans are worried that Democrats, who control both houses, will use loopholes in the law to avoid making difficult decisions.

In a letter to Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, the Office of the Legislative Counsel wrote that lawmakers don’t have to submit a balanced budget in order to “address” the state’s fiscal emergency. The letter said the Legislature could continue its policy work and recess for up to 10 days even after a 45-day deadline to address the state’s fiscal emergency has passed.

Spitzer said that’s not what voters intended when they passed Proposition 58. “You must put down all your work and completely focus on the budget,” he said.

It’s also unclear what could happen if the governor finds the Legislature’s proposal unacceptable.

Proposition 58 does not provide the governor recourse if the legislative body fails to pass a bill reducing spending. “They’re saying, ‘Whatever you do, it’ll turn out to be OK,’ “ Spitzer said. “And that can’t be right.”…

By Dan Froomkin, Special to washingtonpost.com

The Bush Budget

…First, here’s noted budget expert Stan Collender declaring it dead on arrival: “[W]ith a projected $400 billion plus deficit, $3 trillion or more in spending, and program cuts that few, if any Republicans will support…. The Bush fiscal 2009 budget is so dead that it may not even make it to the Monday evening political talk shows.”…

37. “Why Bush’s budget will change its shape” (Christian Science Monitor, February 5, 2008); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0205/p01s01-usec.html

By Peter Grier, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Critical eyes: House Budget Committee chairman John Spratt (D) of South Carolina (c.), examining the Bush’s budget with staffers, says it would lead to more deficits, debt, and cutbacks in services.

Joshua Roberts/Reuters

When it comes to President Bush’s new $3 trillion budget blueprint for 2009, one thing is almost certain: It’s going to get changed. Probably a lot.

In part that’s because events may intervene. The economy could be falling into recession, with unpredictable fiscal results. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars will probably cost far more than the $70 billion allotted them in Mr. Bush’s plan.

But politics is the main reason why Uncle Sam’s actual ‘09 spending and taxing policies will probably end up so differently from the way the president proposes….

And a Democratic Congress is unlikely to rubber-stamp Bush’s proposed increase in military spending and decrease in domestic programs.

“He’s drawing a tougher line in the sand than most Democrats can deal with,” says Stan Collender, a former congressional budget official who is now a managing director of Qorvis Communications….

Bush’s budget does predict a return to government surpluses in 2012. In part, say critics, that is because it is counting on unrealistic reductions in spending on Medicare and Medicaid….

But Medicare is getting bigger so fast that such a reduction [$178 billion over the next five years] would simply slow the rate of its growth, not actually make it smaller….

In addition, the bipartisan agreement on the need for a quick $150 billion stimulus package—without offsetting budget cuts or tax increases to pay for it—may make some lawmakers feel less need for fiscal restraint, for at least this year.

The stimulus deal may seem like a “get out of jail free card” for some lawmakers, says Mr. Collender of Qorvis, unleashing their inner spending impulses….

38. “With $10M price tag, Jersey primary date brings questions” (Star-Ledger, The (Newark, NJ) - February 3, 2008); story citing ROBERT GORDON (MPP 1975).

Author: Robert Schwaneberg and Mark Mueller, Star-Ledger Staff

The two Democratic candidates for the presidential nomination have been to New Jersey and one has scheduled an encore appearance tomorrow, when the Republican front-runner also is expected. And when New Jerseyans go to the polls Tuesday, it will be the first time in 24 years that their votes in a presidential primary mattered.

But it will cost the taxpayers more than $10 million to hold a special presidential primary on the same day that 23 other states have presidential contests in at least one party….

“I’m thrilled that we did it,” said Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), who sponsored the bill to move New Jersey’s presidential primary to the first Tuesday in February. “We’re relevant and that’s what counts.”…

Standing at Drumthwacket on April 1 as Gov. Jon Corzine signed his bill, Codey predicted the presidential primary would “be over on Feb. 5.”

“I was half right,” Codey said last week….

Sen. Robert Gordon (D-Bergen), a co-sponsor of the bill moving New Jersey’s primary to Feb. 5, is pleased with the attention the state is getting from candidates.

“Look around: We had Hillary Clinton in Hackensack, we had Obama, we have McCain coming here,” Gordon said….

“We don’t have a monopoly on the attention of the candidates or the press, but we’re getting a lot more attention than we ever did before,” Gordon said. “They just never spent any time here before.”…

By Mike Taugher, Staff Writer

A key investigator was unable to get to the Cosco Busan for hours after the ship hit the Bay Bridge Nov. 7 because the state agency responsible for preventing and responding to oil spills did not have a boat to take him there. The pollution specialist who eventually corrected early, lowball estimates of the spill’s size instead was stranded for more than two hours on Yerba Buena Island. Roy Mathur of the state’s Oil Spill Prevention and Response agency eventually hitched a ride on a U.S. Coast Guard boat delivering sandwiches to the ship, hours after the 8:30 a.m. accident that spilled more than 50,000 gallons of noxious bunker fuel….

The lingering perception that the spill was small throughout the day appears to have affected the response….

Meanwhile, an elite team based in Novato that specializes in oil spill cleanup and hazardous materials leaks, the Coast Guard’s Pacific Strike Team, volunteered its help but was told it was not needed.

Later in the day, the team called again and its offer was accepted.

“They said it’s probably a really good idea if we come out,” said Linda Sheehan , executive director of the California Coastkeepers Alliance and a member of the independent panel that reviewed the spill response in a report released this week.

Sheehan said state law requires the best achievable protection against oil spills, but not having a boat to respond to oil spills in San Francisco Bay, where more than 150 million barrels of oil arrives each year by oil tanker, falls short of that….

By Jim Sanders

Raiding $409 million in public transportation funds to help balance California’s state budget last year was illegal, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled this week.

But Judge Jack Sapunor sided with the state in its diversion of an additional $779 million for programs such as home-to-school transportation.

The ruling, issued Wednesday, comes as the state is struggling with a projected budget deficit of $14.5 billion.

“We are gratified that the court has sustained the majority of our proposed use of ($1.2 billion),” Finance Director Mike Genest said in a written statement.

“We will work with the Legislature to ensure that this decision does not result in any additional costs to the general fund in the current year or in the future,” Genest said….

The Sacramento lawsuit targeted a $1.2 billion shift last year from the state’s Public Transportation Account, created by a 1990 initiative and funded by motor fuel sales tax….

--Maria Saporta

…Four distinguished leaders will be inducted into Georgia State’s Robinson College of Business’ Hall of Fame on May 15.

The inductees: Xernona Clayton, president and chief executive for the Trumpet Awards Foundation; Mackey McDonald, chairman of the VF Corp., based in Greensboro, N.C.; John A. Williams, CEO of Williams Realty Advisors; and Sam A. Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce….

Fellow inductee Sam Williams also was honored, but said he “can think of a lot who are more qualified than me.”

Still, Williams is happy to be honored this year, the last with Carl Patton as GSU’s president. “I think the world of Carl Patton and what he’s done,” Williams said….

42. “Study: US Broadband Goal Nearly Reached” (Associated Press Online, January 30, 2008); story citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).

By John Dunbar, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON -- In 2004, President Bush pledged that all Americans should have affordable access to high-speed Internet service by 2007. A report to be released Thursday by the administration says it has succeeded mostly….

Broadband penetration has been a sore point for the government and industry as international surveys have shown that the United States, the birthplace of the Internet, lags behind other nations. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked the U.S. in 15th place for broadband lines per person in 2006, down from No. 4 in 2001.

The [National Telecommunications and Information Administration] report drew its conclusion using data from the Federal Communications Commission and other sources. The FCC reported that more than 99 percent of all U.S. ZIP codes received broadband service from at least one provider by the end of 2006.

Critics say the FCC’s data is misleading. A broadband provider has to serve only a single residence in a ZIP code for it to be counted….

The FCC numbers indicate that the total number of broadband lines has grown from 6.8 million in December 2000 to 82.5 million in December 2006.

But defining broadband is a highly subjective exercise. The FCC defined it as 200 kilobits per second. That’s about four times the speed of a good dial-up connection and barely fast enough to stream video.

“The notion that a 200-kilobit connection is broadband is itself ludicrous,” said Derek Turner, research director for Free Press, a nonprofit public interest group that studies media and technology issues. Turner wrote a report critical of the FCC’s data analysis.

Turner said there have been great strides in the growth of broadband, but said there is still a digital divide.

“In rich suburban areas they’re getting broadband,” he said. “But in many poor and many rural areas we’re not seeing the same kind of competitive marketplace that President Bush.

By Garance Burke, Associated Press

FRESNO — With water becoming increasingly precious in California, a rising number of farmers figure they can make more money by selling their water than by actually growing something. Because farmers get their water at subsidized rates, some of them see financial opportunity this year in selling their allotments to Los Angeles and other desperately thirsty cities across Southern California, as well as to other farms….

What effect these deals will have on produce prices remains to be seen, because the negotiations are still going on and it is not yet clear how many acres will be taken out of production. But California grows most of the nation’s winter vegetables and about 80 percent of the world’s almonds, and is the No. 2 rice state, behind Arkansas.

Environmental restrictions, booming demand for water and drought along the Colorado River have created one of the worst water shortages in California in the past decade, and prices are shooting up in response.

The would-be water sellers include farmers who grow rice, cantaloupes and tomatoes around Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley. Rice, in particular, requires a lot of water; the fields have to be flooded.

The farmers looking to buy water are generally farther south in the San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles area and grow such crops as pistachios, almonds and grapes. Because of the heavy capital investment they made in their trees and vines, these farmers cannot afford to stop irrigating their crops and let them die….

Water on California’s open market typically sells for $50 per acre-foot in wet years. But now it is expected to go for as much as $200. Farmers, however, pay $30 to $60, rates that are set under state and federal policy….

Some environmentalists are troubled by farmers’ efforts to sell their water, and warn that such deals don’t begin to address the long-term problem.

“Essentially these farmers are getting water for a subsidized price and selling it to taxpayers at an elevated rate,” said Renee Sharp of the Environmental Working Group.

44. “Report urges action on Salton Sea rescue” (Press-Enterprise, January 25, 2008); story citing BRENDAN MCCARTHY (MPP 2004).

By Jim Miller, Sacramento Bureau

Despite a multibillion-dollar state budget shortfall, California lawmakers need to get moving on the costly job of fixing the Salton Sea, the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal analyst said in a report Thursday.

Lawmakers should approve a restoration plan for the ailing desert lake, which straddles Riverside and Imperial counties, as well as set priorities for paying for the work, the report recommends.

Reductions in its water supply will make the sea too salty for any fish by 2015, experts predict, as well as expose acres of sediment that will worsen the region’s air pollution….

To date, though, the Legislature has taken no action on the plan. A bill to begin the process by releasing $47 million in water bond money was held in the Assembly last year after officials raised concerns that the spending would commit the state to far greater costs in the future….

Yet there is no way for the state to avoid the project, Thursday’s report said. State law, as well as the 2003 agreement that reduced Colorado River water to Southern California, obligates the state to fix the sea.

… What money the state has should be targeted at projects that reduce air pollution, protect wildlife, and help the economy.

“It doesn’t make any sense to start building the preferred alternative if the state runs out of money and you have a barrier that goes only halfway across the sea,” fiscal and policy analyst Brendan McCarthy, the report’s author, said.

[Read Brendan McCarthy’s report, “Restoring the Salton Sea“.]

45. “Economy suffers bear of a day” (Oregonian, January 23, 2008); story citing JOE CORTRIGHT (MPP 1980).

By Richard Read, The Oregonian

Oregon’s ‘08 recession, if it comes, likely would spread pain selectively. The economic tornado would hit certain industries and products, and glance off others. Like December’s flooding, economists say, it could devastate portions of Oregon and leave parts unscathed….

“There’s a 50-50 chance of recession, and we may yet avoid it,” said Portland economist Joe Cortright , vice president of Impresa Inc. consulting.

Until this week’s sickening stock plunges, economists had been watching for a recession caused by the mortgage-finance collapse. They thought Oregon, insulated by its export industry and a relatively buoyant real-estate market to date, might survive such a downturn fairly well.

But stock implosions from Hong Kong to London exposed a more frightening scenario: World financial turmoil would spare no regions or industries, mowing down Oregon’s export and housing sectors along with everything else.

The recession early this decade especially hurt Oregon, Cortright said, because of the state’s heavy reliance on durable-goods and high-tech manufacturing—both of which fell sharply nationwide. A new recession would pound the state’s housing sector, he said, as well as those forest-products businesses that remain in commodities….

Some retailers such as home-improvement stores—as well as local governments deprived of revenue—would suffer in a recession, said Tom Potiowsky, the state economist. But transportation equipment, services and high-tech might hurt less, he said, while health care could continue surging.

Both he and Cortright said Oregon no longer necessarily falls into recessions sooner, and emerges later, than the nation, the way the state did from the 1940s to the 1960s when timber ruled….

The Bush Economic Legacy: Massive Deficits

Stan Collender writes in his opinion column in Roll Call that “the lasting Bush budget legacy, which is decidedly negative, was determined long ago and nothing that happens in the remaining 11 months of his presidency will change that….

“Regardless of the reasons you think it happened, when the Bush administration officially began in January 2001, the federal budget was in surplus. In fact, this was the first time since 1927-1930 that there were four consecutive annual surpluses and it was a reason for celebration and wonder by policymakers.

“Bill Clinton as he left office and Bush as he was taking the oath both said the federal debt would be all but eliminated by around the end of this decade. The Federal Reserve wondered out loud about how it was going to control monetary policy if there were no more Treasury bills, notes, and bonds for it to buy and sell. And academics were discussing whether it was better for the economy to use the surplus to pay down the federal debt or cut taxes.

“All that changed almost as soon as the Bush administration began and the budget surplus that had been projected to grow quickly changed to a deficit. The red ink we were told would quickly turn back into a surplus instead grew into several consecutive nominal all-time-high deficits.”

Collender also notes: “The Bush legacy also includes one of the most effective efforts to limit the debate and, therefore, minimize the issue, in the history of federal budgeting.”…

47. “A chance to help write history” (Progress-Index (Petersburg, VA) - January 16, 2008); column citing AMINA LUQMAN (MPP 2001).

[Cliff Davis writes a column for The Progress-Index]

…Twice in my past when I wrote articles about aspects of local African-American history - once about a neglected cemetery in Chester, another time when I wrote about a nearby, Depression-era black economic zone that bulldozers were about to flatten - I received little to no response. It was disappointing.

So I am always excited when I do come across efforts to preserve black history. For black history is American history just as much as the adventures of Capt. John Smith, as the War of 1812, the Alamo, the Gold Rush, the Civil War….

T. DeVon Robinson's recent article in The Progress-Index should have anyone excited who feels a love for Petersburg, no matter their race. Our Petersburg Public Libraries Director Wayne Crocker, one of the friendliest, most approachable people I know, is working with Ms. Amina Luqman-Dawson to collect Petersburg's African-American history. That will only happen if people speak up, if they search their attics and albums, if they share - even if sometimes it gets a little painful….

By Aurelio Rojas

Margarita Avalos signs herself and her son Marco, 16, up for Healthy San Francisco at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center on Thursday. Avalos’ husband works in construction as a laborer and painter in jobs that do not provide medical insurance. “Thank God, we haven’t been sick,” Margarita Avalos said. “But this program eases our worries because you never know.” (Anne Chadwick Williams/Sacramento Bee)

A day after San Francisco expanded its 6-month-old program to provide health care to the uninsured, Margarita Avalos and her son walked into a clinic in the Mission District to apply.

On the same day, a federal appellate court was hearing arguments from San Francisco officials seeking to stay a lower court order that employers can’t be required to help pay for the Healthy San Francisco program.

At Palio d’Asti, a restaurant in the Financial District, owner-chef Daniel Scherotter weighed the developments while tending to a lunch crowd and predicted the outcome.

“The courts are going to strike down the program,” Scherotter said. “That’s what ERISA is for.”…

Formally known as the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, ERISA pre-empts state and local governments from regulating employee benefits—and it could upend a proposed California law designed to cover 70 percent of the uninsured statewide….

Created by Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Tom Ammiano, Healthy San Francisco was launched last July as a pilot program in two Chinatown clinics for individuals making 100 percent or less of the federal poverty guideline, about $10,210 a year. It now operates in 22 clinics citywide….

To defray the estimated annual price tag of $200 million at full implementation, the city wants companies with 20 or more workers to spend at least $1.17 per hour toward each employee’s health care….

Tangerine Brigham, director of the program, said employer contributions will pay for about 6 percent of the cost of the program at full implementation.

The bulk of the program money comes from a combination of county and state funding as well as a federal grant that will provide San Francisco with $73 million over three years.

“The importance of the employer spending requirement is that it reduces the incentive for employers to drop coverage,” Brigham said….

49. “Florida woos OHSU with unit with deal to expand” (Oregonian, January 9, 2008); story citing JOE CORTRIGHT (MPP 1980).

By Ted Sickinger, The Oregonian

Florida has recruited one of Oregon Health & Science University’s research units to expand on that state’s Treasure Coast, lavishing a $118 million incentive package on the institute to recruit 200 staff and occupy a new building amid a rapidly evolving biotechnology research hub there.

Between 2001 and 2006, OHSU received more than $500 million from private donors and Oregon’s tobacco settlement, based mostly on its heady promises to spin off biotech companies and jobs after recruiting top-shelf scientists and building state-of-the-art research space.

Those jobs have been slow to materialize, however, and Tuesday’s announcement likely means that the bulk of expansion in at least one of the university’s fast-growing research institutes will take place in another state….

“As long as Florida continues to write checks, I’m sure that other researchers will be happy to cash them,” said Joe Cortright , a local economist who has studied the development and concentration of the biotech industry in a number of centers nationwide….

Cortright is skeptical that the national biotech arms race, liberally subsidized by taxpayers in various states, ultimately will deliver the promised economic bonanza. Private biotech jobs, he believes, will continue to gravitate toward established hubs beyond Florida and Oregon that already have the research, managerial, manufacturing and financial expertise to sustain it.

Still absent in Florida, Cortright said, are private companies making big investments. “Florida’s biotech boom is almost entirely public money going to researchers,” he said.

From the Oregon perspective, he said, the key question is where VGTI would choose to develop any products based on research it undertakes….

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

--Chronicle Staff Report

A new department of Jewish studies will be established at San Francisco State University following a $3.75 million grant from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, it was announced.

The endowment enables the university to elevate its existing Jewish studies program to department status and establish an endowed chair in Israel studies.

“As conflicts in the Middle East continue, it is vitally important to provide students with a deeper and more fully developed understanding of Israel,” Richard Goldman, founder and president of the fund, said it a statement released by San Francisco State.

The university said the gift was the largest ever received to endow an academic chair in the history of the California State University system.

The new professor … will concentrate on Jewish literature and history and contribute to inter-department dialogue with colleagues in political science, history, Middle East and Islamic studies disciplines….

The new department of Jewish studies will be the only such academic department in the state university system and the only one in the Bay Area offering undergraduate study, according to San Francisco State officials.

2. “‘Marketplace’ Report: Renewable Energy” (Day to Day [National Public Radio], February 28, 2008); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; Listen to story

It his news conference today President Bush threatened to veto a bill that would offer incentives for renewable energy…. It would extend existing tax breaks for solar and wind and renewable energy projects. And it would pay for that by ending subsidies for oil and natural gas. Marketplace’s Sam Eaton joins us…

ALEX CHADWICK: So what happens if the tax credits for renewable energy are not extended past this year?

SAM EATON: Well, the fear… is that the U.S. would not only see less renewable energy built here but it would also fold its cards in the race to become the world leader in renewable energy technology. Now, that would be a big loss. Last year investors poured nearly $150 billion into clean energy worldwide, and that’s a 60 percent increase over the previous year.

Some renewable energy advocates say the U.S. is already way behind and they say it’s because the tax breaks that we’re talking about here only run in three year cycles. That’s basically way too unpredictable for most businesses, which need longer term outlooks in order to attract investors. So we may be installing lots of wind turbines and solar panels.

But most of them, unfortunately for the U.S. economy, are manufactured elsewhere, where incentives are more guaranteed.

CHADWICK: So if the government took a longer term view, perhaps, longer cycles of funding these things, the thought is this could maybe speed the transition to more renewable energy.

EATON: Well, it would help, but it’s not necessarily the silver bullet, especially for wind energy. I spoke to Dan Kammen, an energy policy expert at UC Berkeley, and he says the U.S. faces a unique set of challenges simply because it’s so big.

Professor DAN KAMMEN (University of California, Berkeley): Many of our best resources, notably wind, are in wide open areas; the prairies; west Texas has been a huge leader; the Dakotas are an absolutely phenomenal resource. These are places that have low populations and are underserved by big transmission lines.

EATON: And now Kammen says wind developments are already pushing up against a limited number of high voltage transmission lines needed to bring electricity into the cities. In Texas it’s expected to exceed transmission line capacity 65 percent by the end of the year….

By Sarah Yang, Media Relations

BERKELEY – Home may be where the heart is, but it could be one’s surrounding community that helps keep the ticker healthy, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

Specifically, the study found, low-income patients with existing heart problems are significantly less likely to have another heart attack or a recurrence of chest pain if they live in a county with higher measures of trust, cooperation and social networks—something researchers call “social capital.” This was true even after researchers accounted for such factors as gender, age, race or ethnicity, and the existence of other concurrent health problems.

“This analysis points to a real effect on real people,” said study lead author Richard Scheffler, UC Berkeley professor of health economics and public policy. “It speaks to the value of clubs and social organizations in providing health information and reducing stress, both of which are known to reduce heart disease.”…

There is growing evidence that cardiovascular health is linked to where a person lives, but it had been unclear whether location served as a proxy for other unmeasured factors, including the type of medical treatment or health care available there.

To address this gap, UC Berkeley researchers partnered with Kaiser Permanente Northern California, a non-profit integrated health care delivery system.

Data was obtained from actual clinical records of nearly 35,000 Kaiser Permanente patients who had been hospitalized for acute coronary syndrome … in Northern California between 1998 and 2002. Patients were tracked for symptoms of recurring heart problems. To protect patient privacy, only authorized Kaiser Permanente personnel had direct access to the clinical records for this study.

“Because we’re using actual clinical records instead of self-reported medical information, we have a clearer picture of a person’s health status and medical treatment,” said Scheffler, who is also director of the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets & Consumer Welfare at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “And because all the patients are in the same health care system, we avoid the problem of comparing people with different kinds of health plans or who don’t have insurance at all. We also were able to follow patients over time to track any recurrence of heart problems, which is very unique.”

The authors noted that patients in low-income areas have the most to gain from higher social capital….

The researchers pointed out that patients did not need to be members of any of the community organizations measured in order to benefit.

“An area with a high density of social networks and resources changes the character of a community, regardless of whether any one particular individual joins or not,” said Scheffler. “It’s the opposite of having a liquor store on every corner. You don’t have to shop at the liquor stores to be impacted by the type of environment they create.”…

[The full study is to be published online in the Feb. 28 issue of the journal Social Science & Medicine.]

4. “Foreign investments are just bailouts” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], Feb. 27, 2008); Listen to commentary

Lisa Napoli: A delegation from the U.S. Treasury Department met recently with a couple of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. They want to avoid a political firestorm as more and more foreign investment makes its way into the U.S. economy. Marketplace commentator Robert Reich says these investments from abroad are nothing more than bailouts.

ROBERT REICH: Over the past 30 years, the U.S. government has dismantled the system of regulation intended to prevent the sort of wild speculation that preceded the financial meltdown of the Great Depression.

Now, we’re witnessing another financial meltdown, also fueled by speculation—hopefully not as serious. Yet instead of regulating banks and other financial institutions, response this time is for government to own them….

The problem is, governments are lousy at deciding where profits can be found. They’re liable to make decisions based on politics rather than profits.

So it’s the biggest irony in financial history. Decades of U.S. government deregulation of Wall Street has reaped a whirlwind of irresponsible speculation -- ending in a financial meltdown that’s being remedied by government ownership, with all the strings that come with it. And it’s not even our government that’s holding the strings.

Napoli: Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich teaches public policy at the University of California Berkeley. His latest book is “Supercapitalism.”…

5. “Documentary shows imbalance of wealth” (Olympian, The (WA) - February 18, 2008); TV highlight citing ROBERT REICH.

Not only is Jamie Johnson an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, but he’s also a filmmaker who explores what it means to be rich.

In his second film, “The One Percent,” Johnson examines the discrepancy between most Americans and the population’s 1 percent possessing about half of U.S. wealth—and how this imbalance affects society.

He interviews tycoons including Apple computers’ Steve Jobs and Kinko founder Paul Orfalea, as well as noted economist Milton Friedman, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and activist Ralph Nader.

“The One Percent” received its world premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, and now airs on Cinemax at 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

--David L. Kirp

The recent attack on the Marine Corps as “unwelcome intruders” is just the latest example of Berkeley politicians behaving badly….

But ask Standard & Poor’s, the financial services company, what it thinks about Berkeley and you’ll get a very different response. Last month, the firm upgraded the city’s bonds to AA, which puts it among the top 5 percent of American municipalities….

Not only is Berkeley an unexpected model of fiscal prudence. Equally surprisingly, it’s also a leader when it comes to smart government. Examples abound. In recent months, Berkeley launched a program [initiated by Cisco DeVries, the mayor’s chief of staff] that enables residents to convert their homes to solar energy without having to invest a fortune in the new system….

… A few months back, it joined forces with surrounding towns, as well as with UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, to establish what Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates hopes will be “the Silicon Valley of the green economy.”…

… The percent of pregnant women who receive prenatal care has grown, and the gap between white and African American women who get prenatal care has vanished. Despite the city’s “free love” reputation, the teen birth rate is one of the nation’s lowest, as is tobacco use among youth, which keeps declining. Reports of domestic violence have dropped, as have new AIDS cases. None of this happened by accident—these improvements are the result of years of coordinated public health initiatives involving the city’s public health department and UC Berkeley….

David L. Kirp is a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy, at UC Berkeley, and the author of “The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics.”

By Jesse McKinley

SAN FRANCISCO — It has been nearly two weeks since primary day in California, and Stephen Weir is still ironing ballots.

Like many of his counterparts across the state, Mr. Weir, the registrar in Contra Costa County … is still counting votes from the Feb. 5 election; and, because of the weight and fold of some of the absentee ballots, Mr. Weir says he and his staff often have to steam them to allow them to be fed into vote-counting machines….

Election officials say a combination of high turnout, technology flaws and millions of mailed-in and dropped-off ballots have led to painstakingly slow returns in some counties, with nearly 800,000 ballots remaining to be processed….

For all that, the California secretary of state, Debra Bowen, decertified electronic, touch-screen voting machines last August in 21 of the state’s 58 counties, citing concerns about vote tampering.

The machines were reinstated with heightened security measures, but in Los Angeles only one polling place had an electronic machine, mainly for the disabled.

Many states are debating the options for electronic voting, said Henry Brady, a professor of political science and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. While nobody wants a repeat of the 2000 presidential vote debacle in Florida, Professor Brady said, such vacillation is not always a good thing.

“We just keep pinballing from one system to the next, thinking the next system will be perfect,” he said. “Think of the poor county registrars. They don’t have a lot of money, and they’re asked to do the impossible every election; and we’re surprised there are slow counts of ballots?”…

NEW DELHI: Greater investment in agriculture in transforming economies like India is vital to the welfare of 600 million rural poor, mostly in Asia, says the latest World Development Report (WDR) of the World Bank.

Presenting the India highlights of the report here on Friday, WDR co-author Alain de Janvry said there was “much mis-spending on agriculture” in India, with investments accounting for only 25 percent of public expenditure, while subsidies took up 75 percent….

…The report, titled Agriculture for Development, warns: “The international goal of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 will not be reached unless neglect and under-investment in the agricultural and rural sectors over the past 20 years is reversed.”

Talking about the large number of farmer suicides in India, de Janvry said the way out was crop insurance….

De Janvry, who teaches agricultural and resource economics at the University of California at Berkeley, said, “In transforming economies such as India and China, agriculture contributed an average seven percent to growth in GDP between 1995 and 2003, though the sector accounts for about 13 percent of the economy and employs just over half the labour force.”

The productivity of farm labour in India was a major area of concern, de Janvry said, pointing out that it was lower than in China or Bangladesh.

“There is growth in agriculture in India. But with it there is a growth in the labour force engaged in agriculture. So the per capita productivity is not going up as much as it should. China and Bangladesh have done better in moving farm labour to the non-farm rural economy, and India should do the same.”

Ruing the neglect of agriculture by policymakers around the world, de Janvry said, “Growth originating in agriculture is two-three times more effective for the poor than growth originating in non-agriculture.”

One of the big changes in Indian agriculture, de Janvry pointed out, was the rise in the number of small farmers as landholdings were being fragmented all the time. “Rural households are being squeezed out of land.”…

9. “Op-Ed: Totally Spent” (New York Times [*requires registration], February 13, 2008); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/opinion/13reich.html?em&ex=1203051600&en=a7286ed59f2526c9&ei=5087%0A

By ROBERT B. REICH

Oliver Munday/New York Times

Berkeley, Calif.—We’re sliding into recession, or worse, and Washington is turning to the normal remedies for economic downturns. But the normal remedies are not likely to work this time, because this isn’t a normal downturn.

The problem lies deeper. It is the culmination of three decades during which American consumers have spent beyond their means. That era is now coming to an end. Consumers have run out of ways to keep the spending binge going.

The only lasting remedy, other than for Americans to accept a lower standard of living and for businesses to adjust to a smaller economy, is to give middle- and lower-income Americans more buying power — and not just temporarily.

Much of the current debate is irrelevant. Even with more tax breaks for business like accelerated depreciation, companies won’t invest in more factories or equipment when demand is dropping for products and services across the board, as it is now. And temporary fixes like a stimulus package that would give households a one-time cash infusion won’t get consumers back to the malls, because consumers know the assistance is temporary. The problems most consumers face are permanent, so they are likely to pocket the extra money instead of spending it.

Another Fed rate cut might unfreeze credit markets and give consumers access to somewhat cheaper loans, but there’s no going back to the easy money of a few years ago. Lenders and borrowers have been badly burned, and the values of houses and other assets are dropping faster than interest rates can be lowered.

The underlying problem has been building for decades. America’s median hourly wage is barely higher than it was 35 years ago, adjusted for inflation. The income of a man in his 30s is now 12 percent below that of a man his age three decades ago. Most of what’s been earned in America since then has gone to the richest 5 percent.

Yet the rich devote a smaller percentage of their earnings to buying things than the rest of us because, after all, they’re rich. They already have most of what they want. Instead of buying, and thus stimulating the American economy, the rich are more likely to invest their earnings wherever around the world they can get the highest return.

The problem has been masked for years as middle- and lower-income Americans found ways to live beyond their paychecks. But now they have run out of ways….

Robert B. Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author, most recently, of “Supercapitalism.”

10. “The real Google versus Microsoft fight” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media, February 13, 2008); Listen to commentary

Scott Jagow: Microsoft versus Google looms as a great corporate battle this year. Yahoo’s rejecting Microsoft’s buyout bid this week is only round one. But whatever happens next, commentator Robert Reich says the victor won’t be decided in Redmond, Washington or in Sunnyvale, California.

ROBERT REICH: Microsoft wants to move into the lucrative online search and advertising business. Google naturally doesn’t want it to. The pawn is the ailing Yahoo!

But if you think the final outcome will be decided by the shareholders of Yahoo and Microsoft, you don’t know the real power plays or players.

You see, Google and Microsoft both maintain armies of lobbyists and lawyers in Washington. The two firms also have Political Action Committees, which give generously to congressional leaders and members of antitrust committees on both sides of the aisle….

Jagow: Robert Reich teaches public policy at the University of California Berkeley. His latest book is “Supercapitalism.”

11. “Reich predicts year will be painful” (Salt Lake Tribune, February 12, 2008); interview with ROBERT REICH.

By Mike Gorrell - The Salt Lake Tribune

Former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, gives his thoughts on business, the economy and presidential candidates during a visit Tuesday to Salt Lake City.

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich does not recall a comparable time in U.S. history when politics and economics were concurrently in such upheaval….

President Clinton’s labor secretary, Reich is now a professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley, a commentator on National Public Radio and in various print forums, and author of seven books, most recently Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy and Everyday Life.

…[H]e told The Salt Lake Tribune he is more optimistic about the country’s political situation than its economic future.

Reich said he has known Hillary Clinton for 40 years and feels she would be “a good president.” But he is impressed by Obama, too. Although part of a Democratic administration, Reich did not diss McCain, whom he called the “most reasonable” Republican candidate.

“One will be elected and we’ll find ourselves with a capable, intelligent president,” he said.

But Reich said presidents get too much credit when times are good and too much criticism when things go bad. In terms of economics, he contends former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan is far more responsible than presidents for the current state of affairs.

Greenspan was the “hero of the ‘90s” for recognizing that globalization allowed interest rates to be kept low without igniting inflation, Reich said. But Greenspan also contributed to current woes by supporting Bush’s tax cuts and by not making sure lenders were wise about handing out cheap money.

“That was a recipe for disaster,” Reich said, predicting the next 1½ years will be “painful for a lot of people.”

12. “Analysis: Superdelegates May Break Democrats’ Dead Heat” (All Things Considered, NPR, February 11, 2008); analysis citing HENRY BRADY; Listen to story

by David Welna

Democratic candidates New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama have each won contests in a number of states, but what really matters is how many delegates they accumulate for the Democratic Party’s National Convention in Denver in August....

The 796 superdelegates make up nearly 20 percent of the overall Democratic delegation this year. They are members of Congress, governors, party elders and activists. Party officials created superdelegates in the early 1980s so situations such as a deadlocked convention could be resolved by party insiders, said nominations expert Henry Brady of the University of California at Berkeley.

“There was a concern that somehow there wasn’t enough adult supervision actually by the rest of the party, and so one way to get more of the party politicos and pros into the process was to create these superdelegates,” Brady said....

13. “Powered Down: The Vanishing Establishment” (New York Times, February 10, 2008); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/weekinreview/10confess.html

By Nicholas Confessore

INSIDE AND OUTSIDE John F. Kennedy huddled with Massachusetts delegates at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1956. (Butt Glinn/Magnum Photos)

…[T]his season’s primaries have made the idea of a political establishment, whether Republican or Democratic, hard to take seriously.

Among Democrats, the establishment candidate would appear to be Hillary Rodham Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, whose husband remains the Democratic Party’s most influential figure seven years after he left office…. Yet she is now locked in a struggle for political survival with Barack Obama, who not long ago was an obscure state senator from Illinois.

… Her chief campaign strategist, Mark Penn, contended last week that it was Mr. Obama … who was running an “increasingly establishment-oriented campaign.” If there is a Democratic establishment, in other words, the establishment Democratic candidate wants no part of it….

“The American public doesn’t particularly like establishments, especially when the country appears to be off track,” said Robert B. Reich, secretary of labor in the Clinton administration and now a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. “I think we may be witnessing something of a revolt against the establishment in both parties.”

By Paul Rogers

In the first such program in California, and perhaps the United States, Bay Area air pollution regulators are proposing to charge an annual fee to thousands of businesses based on the amount of greenhouse gases they emit.

The fee—4.2 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide—would affect everything from oil refineries to power plants, and landfills, factories and small businesses like restaurants and bakeries….

The fee does not affect homeowners or motor vehicles….

“I think this is tremendously gutsy,” said Dan Kammen, a Harvard University-trained physicist who is director of renewable energy programs at the University of California-Berkeley.

“Emissions in California are still going up. All the nice paperwork is not going to make emissions go down until we put a price on what we don’t want—which is greenhouse gas emissions.”

Europe set up a carbon-trading market after its countries signed the Kyoto agreement. Under that “cap and trade” system, companies are limited in the amount of carbon dioxide they can emit. If they emit less, they can sell credits to other companies that exceed their limits. Currently, the market cost is about $40 a ton, Kammen noted. California is studying creating a similar carbon market, and all three leading presidential candidates—Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain—have said they support creating a national mandatory cap-and-trade program. Northeastern states also are setting up a similar market for power plants.

“What the air district is doing is what every economist knows is coming—but somebody has to go first,” he said….

15. “Talk of the Nation: Environmentalists Debate the Promise of Biofuels” (Science Friday, NPR, February 8, 2008); commentary by DAN KAMMEN; Listen to program

Farmland in Brazil is burned, in preparation for planting corn and beans. A new study finds that ethanol production drives such land clearing, contributing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. (Richard Azoury: Corbis)

Two recent studies published in the journal Science suggest that growing additional biofuel crops might actually increase the amount of carbon entering the atmosphere, especially if existing forests or grasslands must be cleared for biofuel farming. Do the fuels make sense from an environmental and economic standpoint?

Guests:

DANIEL KAMMEN, professor of energy at the Goldman School Of Public Policy; co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment; founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley....

Host IRA FLATOW: Dan Kammen, when we’re considering whether or not to use biofuels, we’re considering a couple of things, there’s energy independence, meaning coming up with a different source of energy than petroleum and also the carbon dioxide output. Are these the two main concerns? What if we decide, you know, one is more important than the other?

Prof. KAMMEN: Right. Well, those are two of the concerns. I also think the livelihoods of poor farmers in the U.S. and overseas are also part of the story…. What these studies say and they do document it very well, and they’ve used different methods. They come down to this idea of what’s the carbon or ecological debt that we are extracting from the soil.

And what they come down to is to say if you have healthy, standing ecosystems where the rainforest or other things, it’s crazy to put pressure on them, to cut them down, which is what is happening in places like the Amazon where the boom in biofuel markets is…. That’s crazy because those ecosystems provide lots of services, one of which happens to be sucking up lots of carbons.

… What I think is nice is that they’ve clearly encapsulated what seems like an obvious truth. And in fact, what they’ll lead you to say is that in the worst case, we should use no land or very little land for biofuels until we do what we can with current waste streams since they’re using municipal waste, all the garbage you put in the landfills, we can develop bugs to chew that up and make biofuels. We could also use non-crops, these are the willows and things. We could also integrate biofuels into food production and in many parts of the developing world where the land is quite degraded and we have put very little inputs into it, the prospects with other crops—sorghum and things—to get better food yields, better biofuels and help to restore the ecosystem where it actually all exists.

FLATOW: But Dan, how do you turn around this juggernaut?

Prof. KAMMEN: Well, that’s the real problem, and number one in this process is that the scientific community has spoken, that corn into ethanol is simply a stupid pathway for this. There’s not many other ways to sugarcoat it. There’s a few places where corn is grown with low fossil fuel inputs. But essentially in this country, we’ve optimized corn to be as fossil fuel intensive as possible because fossil fuel prices have been kept somewhat artificially low and we reward farmers. So removing the subsidies for doing business as usual is step one.

But the broader message here is that there’s a new kind of accounting we need to do which is called life cycle or cradle-to-grave-and-back-into-the-cradle. And if you want to think about any new energy system, whether it’s solar panels or biofuels, you need to do that accounting. And the U.S. and some of the European agricultural lobbies are not. They are just looking at profit from converting lands, irrespective of what the carbon damage is or what the damage is to poor communities anywhere on Earth….

16. “When pols say ‘check is in the mail...’” (Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, MA), February 8, 2008); column citing ROBERT REICH.

[Ted Nesi is a Sun Chronicle staff writer]

…Pundits may have cheered President Bush and House Speaker Pelosi last month for coming to a quick compromise on an economic stimulus package - which really should be called $150 billion in deficit spending - the centerpiece of which is a plan to send checks to millions of Americans.

Unfortunately, as is too often the case in Washington, the Bush-Pelosi plan dispenses with what works in favor of what sounds good.

If we’re going to borrow $150 billion from China specifically to jump-start our economy, we ought to make sure we use the money as efficiently as possible. And, according to the scrupulously nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the quickest and most cost-effective way the government can get money out into the economy is to temporarily increase food stamps and unemployment benefits available to out-of-work Americans.

That makes sense, since the people who get food stamps and unemployment checks have almost no choice but to spend the money. And taxpayers get a real bang for their buck, too: every $1 in unemployment benefits adds $2.20 to the economy, according to the Labor Department.

Yet the Bush-Pelosi economic stimulus package doesn’t increase food stamps or unemployment benefits at all. Instead it devotes most of the $150 billion to rebate checks - always popular with congressmen, who hope you’ll remember in November the check you got in May.

Moreover, in a worsening economy, Americans may not use their rebate checks in ways that do much for the broader economy.

With millions of households deep in debt, a lot of people could decide to use the money to pay bills….

But this is all par for the course in an American economy that’s dangerously out of whack.

For the majority of Americans, the key problem is that economic growth nationally no longer leads to an increase in prosperity personally. As Robert Reich makes clear in his terrific new book “Supercapitalism,” most Americans still aren’t getting ahead in this globalized, high-tech era….

As Reich notes, Americans found three ways to maintain middle class lifestyles despite declining wages. First, women went to work, giving households a second income; next, both spouses started working more; and finally, Americans borrowed an astronomical amount, not to invest but to spend. But now, families are hitting a wall….

Anyone who has been watching or reading coverage of the Super Tuesday results has heard about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s success with Latino voters. In California, the day’s biggest prize, Clinton beat Barack Obama by a margin of 67 percent to 32 percent…. However, a quick glance at the exit polling shows that in California, Latinos were not Clinton’s biggest boosters. In fact, another subset of the population went the former first lady’s way by nearly a 3-1 ratio: Asian Americans....

In evaluating Hillary Clinton’s success on Tuesday, it should not be forgotten that Bill Clinton was widely popular in California (and for obvious reasons, given the state’s Silicon Valley-driven economic boom in the 1990s). Also, the Clinton administration made numerous prominent Asian American appointments, and received significant support from the Asian American community during Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign....

Unfortunately, there are also less seemly reasons why Obama may have come up short in Asian American communities this week. California has a long history of battles over affirmative action, and as Henry Brady, a political scientist at UC Berkeley explained to me, “A lot of those fights pitted African Americans against Asians.”…

By Barry Bergman, Public Affairs

Fahmida Ahmed (left), UC Berkeley sustainability specialist, reports on campus efforts to “educate by example” on the need to reduce carbon emissions. Joining Ahmed on the Focus the Nation panel were (L to R) Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates; filmmaker Marshall Herskovitz; professor Dan Kammen (rear), the panel moderator and co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment; Haas MBA student Merrian Fuller; Erik Solheim, Norway’s minister for the environment; and Lisa Bauer, manager of Campus Recycling and Refuse Services. (Steve McConnell photo)

BERKELEY – When President George H.W. Bush called on Americans in 1991 to devote themselves to “a shining purpose, the illumination of a thousand points of light,” he could never have dreamed the illumination would come from a thousand-plus colleges and universities, or that the shining purpose would be to mobilize the citizenry to stem the tide of global warming….

Berkeley, joining with campuses … across America, took part Thursday in a daylong “Focus the Nation” event, gathering hundreds of listeners at International House … to discuss policy and local action, while on campus, instructors were working climate change into their lectures.

For Berkeley, the event also served as a chance to highlight the campus’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint to 1990 levels by 2014, six years before the statewide 2020 target set by.

Former Assemblywon Fran Pavley, the morning keynote speaker.(James Block photo)

[Fran] Pavley, who co-wrote [the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which directs the California Air Resources Board to develop a comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions]—and whom Professor Dan Kammen, a respected energy expert and the event’s moderator, jokingly nominated as a write-in candidate for EPA administrator — ticked off a litany of positive steps being taken in California on the global-warming front, from campuses to local governments and venture capitalists investing in green technologies. She added, however, “We all know that’s not enough.”…

It was Kammen, a professor in the Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy and director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, who may have best captured the spirit of the daylong forum.

“This energy crisis is not like your grandmother or grandfather’s, or your father or mother’s energy crisis,” he noted. “Hopefully, events like this will give politicians the backing and the courage to make a new energy and climate policy part of the agenda.”

--Jim Giles

Biofuels, once seen as a useful way of combating climate change, could actually increase greenhouse gas emissions, say two major new studies….

…[T]he second study [“Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from indirect land use change” coauthored with Michael O’Hare] suggests that producing corn for fuel rather than food could have dramatic knock-on effects elsewhere.

Corn is used to feed cattle and demand for meat is high, so switching land to biofuel production is likely to prompt farmers in Brazil and elsewhere to clear forests and other lands to create new cropland to grow the missing corn.

When the carbon released by those clearances is taken into account, corn ethanol produces nearly twice as much carbon as petrol.

“The implications of these changes in land use have not been appreciated up until now,” says Alex Farrell, at the University of California, Berkeley, US.

Farrell adds that biofuels could still prove useful in the fight against climate change, but using different approaches – such as focusing on crops for both food and fuel, or new technology for generating biofuels from food waste.

The Senate is considering whether to lengthen the six-month period in which people can collect unemployment. Commentator Robert Reich says not only should unemployment benefits be extended, they should also be reformed.

ROBERT REICH: The Senate is considering whether to lengthen the period of time people can collect unemployment benefits if they still can’t find a job after six months, which is how long unemployment insurance is now available. That’s sensible.

A new study by the Economic Policy Institute estimates almost two million job losers will run out of unemployment benefits this year unless benefits are extended. It’s not unusual to extend benefits during a recession, because recessions often last longer than six months, and businesses don’t start hiring again until the economy picks up, and there are few better ways to stimulate the economy. Unemployment benefits put cash directly in the hands of people who need it most, and are most likely to spend it.

But running out of benefits isn’t the biggest problem facing job losers. It’s not getting benefits to begin with. The troubling fact is most people who lose their jobs simply don’t qualify [under current rules]….

Kai Ryssdal: Robert Reich is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. Back in the day, he was Secretary of Labor for President Clinton.

Reported by Doug Sovern

San Francisco -- California played a crucial role in Super Tuesday primaries, but that may not be the case in the November election, according to some political pundits.

Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have promised plenty of face time in California….

But even if Sen. John McCain is the Republican nominee, California is likely to remain a blue state, said UC Berkeley Political Science Professor Henry Brady.

The democrats won’t take it for granted, but he doubts it will be competitive.

By Robert Schroeder & Russ Britt, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON -- With big primary victories in the North, California and on his home turf of the Southwest, Arizona Sen. John McCain surged ahead of the pack in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination on Super Tuesday, while Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama stood toe to toe, swapping victories and prolonging their campaign.

Overall in an incomplete count, McCain was in the lead with 522 delegates. Romney had 223, Huckabee had 142, and Ron Paul had 9, according to a tally compiled by the Associated Press. The Republican nominee will need 1,191 delegates to be nominated. A total of 1,021 Republican delegates are at stake in the Super Tuesday primaries, caucuses and conventions, with McCain holding a firm lead.

“That puts him [McCain] well toward the 1,191,” said Henry Brady, professor of political science and public policy at University of California, Berkeley….

[Another election story quoting Professor Brady appeared in <a href=“http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/californians-get-say-super-tuesday/story.aspx?guid=%7B4D31F5BF%2D788B%2D43CC%2DB529%2DB5B5F35F1029%7D“>MarketWatch</a>]

By Chuck Plunkett

Mitt Romney handily dispatched John McCain in Colorado’s Republican presidential caucuses Tuesday….

On Tuesday, Colorado’s GOP caucuses had a secondary impact on the national race, as Dr. James Dobson, the Colorado Springs evangelical Christian leader, released a statement condemning McCain that was read on the Laura Ingraham conservative radio program.

“I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative, and in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are,” Dobson said.

“I cannot, and I will not vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience,” Dobson said….

“The only thing you can read in it is he’s trying to push people toward Romney,” said Henry Brady, a political scientist at the University of California at Berkeley….

By Chuck Plunkett

Arizona Sen. John McCain speaks at a campaign rally at Boston’s Faneuil Hall on Monday. (David L. Ryan, The Boston Globe )

Days of vicious assault by conservative talk-show hosts against John McCain may be having some impact in California and Georgia, but the Arizona senator continued to dominate almost everywhere else Monday, leaving political observers mixed on whether the pundits have mattered….

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released Monday showed Romney leading McCain by 8 percentage points. The poll, conducted Friday through Sunday, contradicts a trusted California poll—the Field Poll—released Sunday, which placed McCain ahead by 8 points….

The Zogby poll release was enough to scramble the Romney campaign to fly the candidate to California for a rally Monday night…. But it didn’t convince Henry Brady of the University of California at Berkeley political-science department.

“You just have to be really skeptical,” Brady said. “Maybe (opinion) is changing that fast.”

Then again, Brady said, the California electorate this season has proved “very changeable,” and it’s possible the burning-up-the-airwaves rhetoric is shifting those voters who are supporting bottom-tier GOP candidates Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.

Brady said the California Republican Party expected a large turnout, and that could signal trouble for McCain, as it should equal an energized base. Further, voters registered as Independents, who have helped McCain’s surge in earlier contests, won’t be allowed to vote in California’s GOP primary….

By John Simerman

Angie Schiavoni recycles. She composts and screws in low-energy light bulbs. She grew up with “hippie” parents and drank green tea.

But when it came time to buy a car, a hybrid was out of reach….

So last week she visited the Web site of the small nonprofit group LiveNeutral, calculated the greenhouse gas “footprint” from her Honda Accord, then paid $22 for three metric tons of someone else’s emissions reduction to cover her for a year….

At the heart of the problem is knowing if a project would have happened anyway, without the offsets—or, in the case of planting trees, just how long it will take. What if your carbon-neutralizing grove burns down or fails to grow?

Many experts point to a host of standards, including those under the Kyoto Protocol, and third-party auditors who certify that projects meet them. Environmental groups police them, and there is little sign of snake oil in the industry, they say….

Daniel Kammen, a professor of energy resources at UC Berkeley, buys carbon offsets and thinks those that are audited and follow solid standards are worth it—but not to absolve guilt.

“Some people are thinking about offsets as the way to do climate change. That’s really wrong,” he said. “It’s like saying, ‘I’m going to go to McDonalds and eat this hamburger and order a Diet Coke and ask a person in Costa Rica to drink the Diet Coke for me.’”…

26. “Texas primary could be a big deal after all” (Dallas Morning News, February 4, 2008); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8UJKOI01.html

By Kelley Shannon, Associated Press

Once written off as inconsequential, the Texas presidential primary could gain more importance if the Democratic and Republican nominations aren’t sewn up in Super Tuesday contests.

“A lot of us thought it would be over by Super Tuesday. That was our prediction and, to some extent, our lament, because we thought it would go too fast,” said Henry Brady, a professor of political science and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley.

That may not be the case now.

Polls show Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a tight race heading into Tuesday’s slew of primaries and caucuses in some two dozen states. Republican John McCain is leading rivals Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee but some conservatives have expressed discomfort with some of McCain’s positions.

If Tuesday doesn’t solidify a candidate’s claim to a party nomination, the Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4 or other states later in February could be decisive. The Democratic race appears to be the most fluid and could go the longest, said Brady, who directs the Survey Research Center at UC-Berkeley….

By Richard Halicks; Staff

Several polls in this smashed-up primary season have failed to pin the tail on the donkey, and the elephant hasn’t been the easiest target, either….

If this were an actual poll, here’s the most common response pollsters would get, “Hi, this is Dave. Please leave a message at the tone...”.

And that’s part of the problem, polling experts say.

Pollsters have become adept at random sampling—assembling a group of people who truly represent the public at large. What they’re not as good at is getting those people to answer the phone. And among the group that does answer the phone, a dwindling number will actually agree to be interviewed for the poll.

“The joke among pollsters is, it’s always the little old ladies sitting by their phones waiting for the children to call. But that’s not an accurate sampling of America,” said Henry Brady, professor of political science and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the university’s Survey Research Center.

Polling’s “response rate”—the proportion of people in the sample who actually complete an interview—is low and getting lower.

Academic pollsters, who typically take more time on their surveys than media pollsters do, often shoot for response rates of 50 percent.

“We’re all having trouble getting good response rates,” Brady said. “Fifty percent is incredibly hard for me to get now. But I get 50 percent by making 10, 20, 30, 40 callbacks.”…

28. “Closing Income Gap Tops Obama’s Agenda for Economic Change” (New York Times, February 2, 2008); story citing ROBERT REICH.

By David Leonhardt

Senator Barack Obama says the top priority of the next president should be to create a more lasting and equitable prosperity than achieved by either President Bush in the current decade or even Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

In an hourlong interview outlining his economic views, Mr. Obama praised the Clinton administration for reducing the deficit and setting the stage for the ‘90s boom. But he said Mr. Clinton had failed to halt a long-term increase in income inequality that had left the middle class feeling squeezed….

Mr. Obama said he would push for more investment in emerging industries, education and worker training—ideas that Mr. Clinton campaigned on in 1992 but mostly backed away from as president to repair the fiscal imbalance.

Mrs. Clinton also favors many of these ideas, in a sign that the Democratic Party has reached something of a consensus on its main economic policy goals. Indeed, Mr. Obama suggested that his cabinet would include a good number of Clinton administration alumni.

“I want an Alan Blinder, and I want a Jacob Hacker, and I want a Bob Rubin, and I want a Robert Reich,” he said, referring to a mix of centrist and more liberal Democratic economic advisers. “And I want a good robust argument about where we need to go.”

By Matt Richtel and John Markoff

Peter Rive of SolarCity, an installer of rooftop solar cells in California. Photo: Noah Berger for New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — The sun is starting to grow jobs.

While interest in alternative energy is climbing across the United States, solar power especially is rising in California, the product of billions of dollars in investment and mountains of enthusiasm….

Not coincidentally, three-quarters of the nation’s demand for solar comes from residents and companies in California. “There is a real economy—multiple companies, all of which have the chance to be billion-dollar operators,” said Daniel M. Kammen, a professor in the energy and resources group at the University of California, Berkeley. California, he says, is poised to be both the world’s next big solar market and its entrepreneurial center.

The question, Professor Kammen says, is: “How can we make sure it’s not just green elite or green chic, and make it the basis for the economy?”…

Among the companies that academics and entrepreneurs believe could take the industry to a new level is Nanosolar, which recently started making photovoltaic cells in a 200,000-square-foot factory in San Jose. The company said the first 18 months of its capacity has already been booked for sales in Germany.

“They could absolutely transform the market if they make good on even a fraction of their goal for next year,” Professor Kammen said. “They’re not just a new entrant, but one of the biggest producers in the world.”

30. “California moves up, but will it stand out?” (MarketWatch, February 1, 2008); story citing HENRY BRADY.

By Russ Britt, MarketWatch.

LOS ANGELES -- For years, the nation’s most populous state had the least amount of influence when it came to presidential primaries.

Now that California has worked its way up the election calendar by four months, from June to February, will it have a bigger say in who ends up representing Democrats and Republicans in current and future presidential contests?…

Different rules for Democrats and Republicans in California regarding independent voters could muddy the waters on either side.

Republicans have a closed primary, meaning that those who are independent or decline to state their allegiance cannot cast a ballot on the GOP ticket on Tuesday. That could work against U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz….

… But McCain scores well among centrists and independent voters, since he is known to buck party doctrine, and they won’t be able to cast ballots for him.

“That’s an especially hard test for McCain,” said Henry Brady, professor of political science and public policy at University of California, Berkeley. “I think that probably benefits Romney.”…

31. “Reich sees point of Wall Street pain” (News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC) - February 1, 2008); interview with ROBERT REICH.

By Jonathan B. Cox, Staff Writer

RALEIGH -- Robert Reich has served in three presidential administrations, most recently as labor secretary under President Clinton. Now a public policy professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Reich, 61, is still sought for his views on the economy, politics and globalization.

He was in Raleigh on Thursday for a speech at N.C. State University. Here are five points from a wide-ranging interview.

ON THE ECONOMY: “I wish I could be more optimistic. I’ve been predicting recession for about eight months now because the housing bubble was just waiting to burst. ... Consumers are pulling back. That’s rational from their standpoint, but it means there’s not enough demand in the economy to absorb all the goods and services that are being produced, which in turn means there are going to be more layoffs. You can see how that becomes a downward spiral.”

ON THE FIX: “The only way to get out of the current predicament is to allow the speculation and bad loans to work their way through the system. ... The fact is there’s no way to get rich quick, and somebody eventually has to pay the piper. These speculative bubbles are like pyramid schemes, or perhaps the best analogy is musical chairs. Somebody gets hurt in the end.”…

ON THE BIGGEST ISSUE FACING WORKERS: “Widening inequality and instability of jobs. When I say widening inequality, I don’t mean between the middle class and poor. I mean between the top 5 percent and everybody else. We haven’t seen this degree of concentrated wealth since the 1890s….

ON GLOBALIZATION: “Globalization is good for us in the long run. The question first is who is ‘us’? It’s not good for all of us. Some of us, particularly blue-collar workers, have been hurt badly. Secondly, how long is the long run? Are we talking about three years or 10 years? It’s more like 10 years or 20 years.

“What we need is to make our work force more adaptable, to take some of the hardest edges off globalization….

32. “Illegal immigrants benefit economy” (News-Times (Danbury, CT) - February 1, 2008); opinion citing ROBERT REICH.

When I was a kid, my mother used to tell me, “Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure.”

That expression came to mind when I read Kevin Corbett’s comments (letter, Jan. 28), in which he refers to figures from some undisclosed—and no doubt immigrant-bashing—Web site that show that each illegal immigrant household costs us $19,588—the difference between the taxes paid and the value of benefits received.

Interestingly, Mr. Corbett admits that the figures refer to “low-skill immigrants,” which includes legal immigrants and excludes high-skill illegal immigrants (carpenters, etc.), and that the benefits include Social Security, Medicare and food stamps, which illegal immigrants don’t get—for which reasons alone his conclusion makes no sense….

I prefer to rely on statistics published in the New York Times and referred to by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich to the effect that the overall economic effect of illegal immigration is slightly favorable.

But even if it were not, as Mr. Reich recently pointed out in a radio column, if you think that our economy can function without the so-called illegal immigrants, you are deluding yourselves….

--Barry Corn, Ridgefield

By Valerie Strauss, Washington Post Staff Writer

George Mason University officials could not shout loud enough when economist Vernon L. Smith won the Nobel Prize in 2002. Smith’s recruitment a year earlier had shone a welcome light on the school, and the award was a crowning bonus.

Today, GMU is quiet, as Smith has slipped away for a job in California, lured by the same administrator who brought him to GMU.

Some universities play down faculty member moves, calling them part of the recruitment process in higher education. Others refer to many of the raids on star faculty members by competing universities as poaching or outright theft….

But there can be costs, too. Some superstars bring their name and reputation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they want to mingle with students or peers. Even a Nobel can come with a caveat: Many are awarded the prize long after their most productive research days….

And at some schools, the hunt for superstars—who are offered big money and lavish housing—can leave homegrown scholars feeling unappreciated.

That was how Siva Vaidhyanathan, a young tenured faculty member at New York University, said he felt. NYU, according to David Kirp in his book “Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line,” took a page from Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and went on a shopping spree to buy the best faculty available. Vaidhyanathan left NYU and has just finished his first semester teaching at the University of Virginia, where his pioneering work on digital copyright made him a fine catch….

FACULTY SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS & EVENTS

Feb. 12 ROBERT REICH addressed the Association for Corporate Growth’s fourth annual Capital Connection Conference in Salt Lake City.

Feb. 15 MICHAEL HANEMANN gave a talk on “The Economics of Climate Change in California and Globally” at the California Climate Change Center, UC Berkeley.

Feb. 22 DAVID VOGEL presented a paper on “EURO-US Risk Regulations and the ‘California Effect’: An Historical Perspective” at the EU-California Regulatory Cooperation Project Workshop, UC Berkeley.

Feb. 22 MARGARET TAYLOR and JAVIERA BARANDIARAN (MPP cand. 2008) presented a paper on “Nanotechnology in California and the EU” at the EU-California Regulatory Cooperation Project Workshop, UC Berkeley.

Feb. 22 MICHAEL HANEMANN presented a paper on “Climate Change Policy in California and the EU” at the EU-California Regulatory Cooperation Project Workshop, UC Berkeley.

Feb. 23 DAVID VOGEL gave a talk on “Conclusions and future of the EU-California Regulatory Cooperation Project” at the EU-California Regulatory Cooperation Project Workshop, UC Berkeley.

Feb. 27 MICHAEL HANEMANN spoke on “Using Carbon/Environmental Taxation to Meet AB32 Global-Warming Goals” at the New America Foundation conference: “How Do/Should We Tax? Tax Reform for California’s New Economy,” Sacramento, CA.

VIDEOS & WEBCASTS

To view a complete list of GSPP videos, visit our Events Archive at: /news-events/archive.html

Recent events viewable on UC Webcast: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/archive.php?select2=36

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