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October 2009
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1. Homecoming weekend: Robert Reich on “Obamanomics and the Future of the Economy”
October 2, 9:30-10:30 a.m. | Chevron Auditorium, International House
All attendees must be registered for Homecoming
2. Homecoming weekend: David Kirp on “The Kids-First Solution”
October 2, 2-3 p.m. | Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Sponsored by the
3. Homecoming weekend: “The California Budget Crisis”
October 3 | 12-1:30 p.m. | Valley Life Sciences’ Chan Shun Auditorium, Room 2050
- Senator Carol J. Liu,
- Henry E. Brady, Dean and Professor of Public Policy,Co-director of the Class of 1968 Center on Civility and Democratic Engagement, Goldman School of Public Policy
- John Ellwood,
Professor of Public Policy,
4. Homecoming weekend:
“Grassroots Biosecurity”
Stephen Maurer, Adjunct Professor of Public Policy and Director, Information Technology and Homeland Security Project
October 3 | 2:30-3:30 p.m. | Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Sponsored by the
5. “The Financial
Crisis in
Elizabeth Hill
(MPP 1975),
October 7, 2009, 12:00-1:00 p.m. Room 250,
Feel free to bring your lunch.
6. California Health Professional Student Alliance’s 2nd Annual Northern California Health Care Conference
October 17th on the UC Berkeley campus; for more info and to register
Speakers include the following and more:
* Tangerine Brigham (MPP 1990), Director of Healthy San Francisco, the first program in the nation to provide health care services for all city residents without insurance….
7. 11th ANNUAL ALUMNI RECOGNITION DINNER
October 23, 2009. Cocktail Reception 5:30 p.m. Dinner 7:00 p.m.
The
Honoring 2009 Alumnus of the Year: Barbara A. Chow (MPP 1980), Education Program Director, The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
Class Reunions: Classes 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2004 are celebrating their milestone reunions in 2009
8. “Herbert Hoover: Landslide” a documentary
film – PBS nation-wide primetime premiere October 26 (check your local listings
for exact times and rebroadcasts)
Features interview with Robert Reich among others. http://www.kqed.org/tv/schedules/daily/index.jsp?format=long&ymd=2009-10-26
ROBERT REICH: … [I]n this time of testing democracy, American Democracy survived. It survived the Great Depression…. Around the world others succumbed to Fascism, Totalitarianism, Totalitarian Communism or worse—we kept our democracy. That’s a tremendous achievement….
9. “Shock Doctrine California Style: How the
Poor are Paying the Price for Wall Street’s Greed—and How to Fight Back!”
The 13th annual Mario Savio Memorial Lecture & Young Activist Award will present author, journalist, and activist Naomi Klein.
October 27 | 8 p.m. | Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, Pauley Ballroom
Doors open at 7:15. Admission is free but tickets are required (available only at the door).
Sponsor: Mario Savio Memorial Lecture Fund
For further information, contact savio@sonic.net . 510-643-0394
ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS
1. “Green Retrofits through Property Tax: The New Cash for Clunkers?” (Green Tech Media, September 30, 2009); story citing CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000), DAN KAMMEN, and study by JOHN QUIGLEY; http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/green-retrofits-through-property-tax-the-new-cash-for-clunkers/
2. “China leads way for solar energy” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 2009); column citing firm managed by JIM MARVER (MPP 1974/PhD 1978); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/29/BU3019SV07.DTL#ixzz0SVltZYMd
3. “Examining Health Care Coverage Fears” (All Things Considered, National Public Radio (NPR), September 28, 2009); interview with KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982); Listen to this story
4. “PR News Announces PR People Award Finalists” (PR News, Vol. 65 No. 37, September 28, 2009); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
5. “Daniel Borenstein: We must do better on health care” (Oakland Tribune, September 27, 2009); column by DANIEL BORENSTEIN (MPP 1980/JD 1985); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_13437226?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com
6. “AIDS vaccine promising; experts urge caution” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 25, 2009); story citing MARK CLOUTIER (MPP/MPH 1993); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/24/BANM19S3NR.DTL#ixzz0S8Je9nOZ
7. “‘Equity share’ loans of up to $75K offered to Silicon Valley homebuyers” (San Jose Mercury News, September 24, 2009); story citing JESSICA GARCIA-KOHL (MPP/MPH 2005); http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13402546?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
8. “S.F.,
9. “Nations Appear Headed toward Independent Climate Goals” (The Washington Post, September 23, 2009); story citing NED HELME (MPP 1971).
10. “CCAP’s Helme discusses U.S., China plans on emissions” (Environment and Energy Daily, E&ETV’s OnPoint Vol. 10 No. 9, September 24, 2009); interview with NED HELME (MPP 1971); Watch video
11. “Made in
12. “
13. “
14. “Alcohol Abuse is Meeting Subject - City,
15. “UCLA School of Dentistry to Build New Cancer Research Facility” (US Fed News, September 17, 2009); newswire citing STEVE OLSEN (MPP 1979); http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/dental-school-to-build-new-cancer-101847.aspx
16. “Healthy Families insurance program for kids won’t be cut after all” (Sacramento Bee, Sep. 17, 2009); story citing GINNY PUDDEFOOT (MPP/MPH 1988); http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/2188594.html
17. “Olbermann glosses over detail on the Baucus Plan” (St. Petersburg Times, Politifact.com Edition, September 17, 2009); analysis citing JANUARY ANGELES (MPP 2002); http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/17/keith-olbermann/olbermann-glosses-over-detail-baucus-plan/
18. “Now in mix, co-op option questioned - Few know about it,
and many who do don’t believe in it” (
19. “Georgetown University Health Policy Institute Research Professor Karen Pollitz Testifies before House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee” (FD (Fair Disclosure) Wire, September 16, 2009); congressional testimony by KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
20. “Proposed fuel-economy rules would boost
21. “Farm cash is the root of conflict; Arguments over the Common Agricultural Policy allow politicians to grandstand in front of their electors but obscure the need for a fundamental reappraisal of how the EU budget is spent, argues Jack Thurston” (The Daily Telegraph (London), September 16, 2009); op-ed by JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999).
22. “ACLU settles suit over unsanitary immigrant center” (The Associated Press State & Local Wire, September 16, 2009); newswire citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
23. “
24. “UN says Yemeni child bride’s death is tragedy” (The Associated Press, September 15, 2009); newswire citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).
25. “Editorial: Incomplete grade for Legislature” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 14, 2009); editorial citing RANDY KANOUSE (MPP/JD 1978); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/14/EDIN19LTBO.DTL
26. “ENERGY MARKETS: Ag panel examines Treasury’s derivatives reform bill” (Environment and Energy Daily, September 14, 2009); story citing SKIP HORVATH (MPP 1976); http://www.eenews.net/EEDaily/2009/09/14/archive/8?terms=%22skip+horvath%22
27. “Big Spenders? They Wish. As jobs are lost in recession, so is the middle class” (New York Times, September 13, 2009); book excerpt citing JOE CORTRIGHT (MPP 1980); http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/business/economy/13excerpt.html?pagewanted=3&th&emc=th
28. “High marks for Healthy S.F. again” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 13, 2009); story citing program headed by TANGERINE BRIGHAM (MPP 1990); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/13/BATK19L86M.DTL#ixzz0R6SoPCRO
29. “Renewable electricity boost clear
30. “CNN Newsroom: No to Obama, Yes to Bush; Inside
31. “Obama and Health Care: Time to Hit ‘Reset’; In his speech, the President must be clear about his reform priorities and why they’re vital even to those who have insurance” (Business Week Online, September 10, 2009); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
32. “Grand Opening of Miller’s Court, Providing Affordable Homes for Teachers, Office Space for Education Nonprofits in Baltimore” (PR Newswire, September 10, 2009); event featuring MATT JOSEPHS (MPP 1997).
33. “Philly Clout: Budget Director to
34. “Health care reform now” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 8, 2009); op-ed contribution by SUSAN EHRLICH (MPP 1984/MD); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/08/ED5D19INR5.DTL#ixzz0QohpmrRa
35. “Obama’s Hurdle: Selling the Satisfied on Healthcare” (Morning Edition, National Public Radio (NPR), September 8, 2009); interview with KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982); Listen to the story
36. “Program helps jobless parents” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 8, 2009); story citing NOELLE SIMMONS (MPP 1998); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/08/BUB619IED1.DTL&type=jobs#ixzz0QiqV3cRU
37. “UNICEF official ordered to leave
38. “As usual, Congress is way behind on budget bills” (McClatchy-Tribune News Service, September 7, 2009); newswire citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
39. “Editorial: Workers’ comp idea is another flawed fiscal ploy by Schwarzenegger” (Oakland Tribune, September 7, 2009); editorial citing FRANK NEUHAUSER (MPP 1993); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_13271789?IADID=Search
40. “Renewable-power fight at crossroads” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 4, 2009); story citing LAURA WISLAND (MPP 2008); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/03/BU5K19HH3E.DTL&type=tech#ixzz0Q9hjisTJ
41. “
42. “Insight: Why
43. “Health care premiums rise quickly: annual insurance costs in California up 9% - from 2007, three times higher than overall rise in cost of living” (Press Democrat, September 3, 2009); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP/MPH 1989).
44. “‘Aged-out’ foster youth at terrible risk” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 2, 2009); editorial citing AMY LEMLEY (MPP 1998); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/02/ED0N19GU13.DTL
45. “Transit change fuels concerns for disabled - Meeting attendees say cutbacks to bus service will hurt them” (Albuquerque Journal, September 2, 2009); story citing CHRIS CALVERT (MPP 1979).
46. “Gov. Kulongoski Submits Appointments for Senate Consideration” (US State News, September 2, 2009); newswire citing JOCK MILLS (MPP 1981).
47. “Fear of rebels in
48. “FCC Should Set Bar High for Broadband Definition” (Targeted News Service, September 1, 2009); newswire citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).
49. “ISPs Seek to Lowball Broadband Definition” (PC Magazine.com, September 2, 2009); story citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).
50. “Bike economics 101: How the cycle track pumps green into the local economy” (The Oregonian, September 1, 2009); blog citing JOE CORTRIGHT (MPP 1980); http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2009/09/bike_economics_101_how_the_cyc.html
51. “College GuideRankings” (Washington Monthly, September 1,
2009); rankings citing
52. “Possible language to revamp derivatives markets may put ISOs and RTOs under CFTC umbrella” (Inside F.E.R.C., August 31, 2009); story citing WILLIAM HEDERMAN (MPP 1974).
53. “Sunset Magazine and the California Coastal Commission announce the 2009 Coastal Heroes Awards” (PR Newswire, August 31, 2009); award citing LINDA SHEEHAN (MPP/JD 1990).
54. “Health care premiums’ ‘double-edged sword’; Lowering costs for old could raise them for young” (Gannett News Service, August 30, 2009); newswire citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP/MPH 1989) and KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
55. “The Local Buzz, Aug. 28: PUC decision targets energy” (San Gabriel Valley Tribune, August 27, 2009); newswire citing DAVID GAMSON (MPP 1986).
56. “Revamp community colleges, study urges; A hodgepodge of transfer policies is cited as one reason so few students go on to a four-year institution” (Los Angeles Times, August 27, 2009); story citing NANCY BOROW SHULOCK (MPP 1978).
57. “On water issue, Democrats try to give up some power” (Los Angeles Times, August 25, 2009); story citing RANDY KANOUSE (MPP/JD 1978) and sometime Visiting Lecturer PHIL ISENBERG; http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap25-2009aug25,0,5395588.column
58. “Overuse of antivirals could make H1N1 pandemic even worse” (Los Angeles Times, August 24, 2009); story citing TIM UYEKI (MPP 1985/MD); http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-tamiflu24-2009aug24,0,5220123,full.story
59. “The Insider’s Insider: Social Connections, Political Savvy and Boundless Energy Have Made Heather Podesta The It Girl of a New Generation of Lobbyists” (The Washington Post, August 24, 2009); column citing DOROTHY ROBYN (MPP 1978/PhD 1983).
60. “ICE boss says he suspended use of arrest quotas” (The Associated Press State & Local Wire, August 18, 2009); newswire citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
61. “Cash is king; More hospitals and systems are using credit scores and financial records in collection strategies—and they’re asking patients to pay upfront” (Modern Healthcare, August 17, 2009); story citing KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
62. “U.S. should no longer stand alone in North America” (Naples Daily News (FL), August 17, 2009); editorial citing LAYDA NEGRETE (MPP 1998/PhD cand.) and ROBERTO HERNANDEZ (PhD cand.).
63. “Natural gas to try making up for lost time as Senate grapples with climate bill in fall” (Electric Utility Week, August 17, 2009); story citing SKIP HORVATH (MPP 1976).
64. “Northwest wind power: My, how you’ve grown” (The Oregonian, August 16, 2009); editorial citing ROB GRAMLICH (MPP 1995); http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/northwest_wind_power_my_how_yo.html
65. “Last-minute boost for
66. “They came, they saw, they heard, they tasted. Sproul
Hall staff kids experience all things
67. Overcoming the odds in a marriage of opposites” (Manhattan Mercury (KS), August 9, 2009); book review citing SOPHIA RADAY (MPP 1993).
68. “Post saluted for class act; city & fed bigs hail school series” (New York Post, August 7, 2009); story citing RAY DOMANICO (MPP 1979).
69. “Price Variation in Markets with Homogenous Goods: The Case of Medigap” by Nicole Maestas, Mathis Schroeder, Dana Goldman (NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health, 2009, No. 1); NBER working paper coauthored by NICOLE MAESTAS (MPP 1997/PhD Econ 2002); http://www.nber.org/aginghealth/2009no1/WorkingPaperSummaries.html
70. “
71. “NUMMI just the latest in
72. “Scientists zoom in on carbon dioxide in NYC” (Brattleboro Reformer (VT), July 19, 2009); story citing KEVIN GURNEY (MPP 1996).
73. “Flowers Heritage Foundation Donates 500,000 Condoms to Non-Profit Organizations” (Business Wire, July 13, 2009); newswire citing MARK CLOUTIER (MPP/MPH 1993).
74. “Selling a city in hard times” (Contra Costa Times, July 3, 2009); story citing ALEX GREENWOOD (MPP 1993) and EMILY CHANG (MPP 2001); http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_12749277?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com
75. “World Bank Group: Asia Pacific Global Development
Learning Network members discuss further contributions to the region’s
prosperity in
76. “Carla Javits’ speech to the Goodwill Industries Delegate Assembly on June 30, 2009” (REDF Publications, 2009); event featuring CARLA JAVITS (MPP 1985); http://www.redf.org/learn-from-redf/publications/778
77. “Ford, Nissan, Tesla to get first loans under DOE auto-retooling program” (Inside Energy with Federal Lands, June 29, 2009); story citing LUKE TONACHEL (MPP 2004).
78. “Children to visit D.C. to talk about living with type 1 diabetes” (Connecticut Post, June 17, 2009); story citing CYNTHIA RICE (MPP 1994).
79. “House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity Hearing; The Section 8 Voucher Reform Act; Testimony by William Fischer, Senior Policy Analyst, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities” (Congressional Documents and Publications, June 4, 2009); congressional testimony by WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999).
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
1. “Alternative Energy Projects Stumble on a Need for Water” (New York Times, September 30, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN and firm managed by JIM MARVER (MPP 1974/PhD 1978); http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/business/energy-environment/30water.html?pagewanted=2&em
2. “California GOP sees hope on the horizon” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 28, 2009); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/27/MNQ419TJJ3.DTL
3. “Your Money: Don’t bank on your home as an ATM” (Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2009); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cover-housing27-2009sep27,0,6348009,print.story
4. “Congress takes on financial reform” (Marketplace [NPR], September 25, 2009); interview with ROBERT REICH; listen to this interview
5. “Water to be auctioned by Chino Basin Watermaster” (Los Angeles Times, September 24, 2009); story citing MICHAEL HANEMANN; http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-water-auction24-2009sep24,0,3148275,full.story
6. “Boisterous rally draws thousands to
7. “What good does the Dow rising do?” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR], September 23, 2009); Listen to this commentary
8. “The Roundtable: Obama Media Blitz, Baucus Bill” (This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC TV, September 20, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT REICH; see this program
9. “Health reform’s ‘gang of 6’ reaps political cash” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 20, 2009); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/09/20/MNA519NGGU.DTL
10. “Wall Street’s up to old near-death tricks”
(Sunday Telegraph (
11. “Editorial: Green buildings are great investments” (Sacramento Bee, Sep. 18, 2009); editorial citing research by JOHN QUIGLEY; http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/2191095.html
12. “Asia’s Future (in
13. “
14. “The Situation Room” (CNN, September 14, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT REICH; http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0909/14/sitroom.01.html
15. “No recovery with so many unemployed” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR], September 10, 2009); Listen to this commentary
16. “Pres. Obama’s speech tries to bring clarity” (KGO TV, September 10, 2009); features commentary by HENRY BRADY; http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/politics&id=7007488
17. “What Was Missing in Obama’s Speech” (New York Times, September 10, 2009); commentary by ROBERT REICH; http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/what-was-missing-in-obamas-speech/?hp
18. “Economics Lesson for Higher Ed” (Inside Higher Ed, September 10, 2009); story citing ROBERT REICH and HENRY BRADY; http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/09/10/reich
19. “Living With Coal: Climate policy’s most inconvenient truth” (Boston Review, September/October, 2009); article citing research by MARGARET TAYLOR; http://bostonreview.net/BR34.5/victor_morse.php
20. “Politics Blog: UC-Berkeley’s Robert Reich can teach Obama a thing about making the public option understandable (VIDEO)” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 8, 2009); blog citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/index?
21. “‘Working It Out,’—Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich & Robert Brusca of Fact and Opinion Economics” (Nightly Business Report, PBS, September 7, 2009); interview with ROBERT REICH; http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/robert_reich_and_robert_brusca_090907/
22. “Who Should Replace Ted Kennedy?” (The Washington Post, September 6, 2009); guest editorial by ROBERT REICH.
23. “Critical Care” (New York Times Magazine, September 6, 2009); book review by ROBERT REICH; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/books/review/Reich-t.html?_r=1&ref=books
24. “Obama attacked for trying to speak to students” (Show, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, September 5, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.
25. “President Obama: Don’t Forget about Doctors” (Washington Post, September 4, 2009); blog by RICHARD SCHEFFLER; http://voices.washingtonpost.com/shortstack/2009/09/president_obama_dont_forget_ab.html
26. “Warming to a Nuclear Future” (The California Report, KQED public radio, September 4, 2009); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; Listen to the program
27. “WMD Terrorism: Science and Policy Choices” - Edited by Stephen M. Maurer (MIT Press, September 2009); book edited by STEPHEN MAURER, with articles by EUGENE BARDACH, JASON CHRISTOPHER (IT Manager at GSPP and Technical Director of the Berkeley Synthetic Biology Security Program), MICHAEL NACHT, MICHAEL O’HARE, BLAS PÉREZ HENRÍQUEZ (MPP 1992/PhD 2002), and MICHAEL THOMPSON (MPP 2003); http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11905
28. “The Choice: Experts Point to 5 Emerging Majors” (New York Times, September 1, 2009); blog citing ROBERT REICH; http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/experts-point-to-5-emerging-majors/?pagemode=print
29. “Prescriptions: Reich Says Obama Supporters Were ‘Outmaneuvered’ by the Right” (New York Times Online, September 1, 2009); blog citing ROBERT REICH; http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/reich-says-obama-supporters-were-outmaneuvered-by-the-right/?scp=1&sq=%22robert%20reich%22&st=cse
30. “The Internet and Civic Engagement” (Targeted News Service, September 1, 2009); newswire citing HENRY BRADY.
31. “Why the deficit hysteria? I only wish we’d
borrow more: Projections of national debt in the
32. “
33. “Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee: Addressing a New Generation of Threats from Weapons of Mass Destruction: Department of Energy Nonproliferation Programs and the Department of Defense Cooperative Threat Reduction Program” (Federal News Service, July 15, 2009); congressional testimony by MICHAEL NACHT.
1. “Green Retrofits through Property Tax: The New Cash for Clunkers?” (Green Tech Media, September 30, 2009); story citing CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000), DAN KAMMEN, and study by JOHN QUIGLEY; http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/green-retrofits-through-property-tax-the-new-cash-for-clunkers/
Michael Kanellos
Image via Trebosc /
It could dwarf the Cash for Clunkers program, but,
according to its backers, taxpayers won’t have to pick up the bill.
PaceNow has launched an effort to popularize PACE – or property assessed clean energy – loans for retrofitting homes and commercial buildings. Unlike conventional loans, the money gets paid back through supplemental property tax assessments, a twist that provides a host of benefits.
Fifteen states including
“With a federal guarantee it will grow from a hundreds of millions to a $400 to $500 billion program,” said Jack Hidary, who runs the Jack D. Hidary Foundation, one of the several organizations associated with Pace, and one of the drivers behind the car trade-in law. “It can also help the 1.5 million people out of work in the construction industry.” …
And if enough retrofits
occur, the nation as a whole can start to curb energy consumption and reduce
the growth of greenhouse gases. Building operations consume about 40 percent of
the energy in
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac initially “raised concerns” about the program, said Hidary. The mortgage agencies, however, have become more amenable as studies have shown that green retrofits increase the value of a building. A report [coauthored by John Quigley] in January from the University of California and Maastricht University showed that rental rates on green commercial buildings were 6 percent higher and the buildings achieved a sales price 16 percent higher than normal.
“The kicker is that it enhances the creditworthiness,” Hidary said.
Kammen will deliver a keynote speech on Thursday at West Coast
Green in
A presentation on PaceNow was made at the Clinton Global Initiative [where the Cash-for Clunkers program was promoted before becoming legislation] this year.
2. “China leads way for solar energy” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 2009); column citing firm managed by JIM MARVER (MPP 1974/PhD 1978); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/29/BU3019SV07.DTL#ixzz0SVltZYMd
--Andrew S. Ross
Next month,
“If the
... In as little as two
years, analysts predict,
As if any more wake-up calls were needed, two other VantagePoint Venture Partners’ portfolio companies, Santa Clara’s Miasolé, which produces advanced, thin-film solar panels, and Sunnyvale’s Bridgelux, developer of energy-efficient LED lighting, are reluctantly considering locating their manufacturing facilities outside the United States….
3. “Examining Health Care Coverage Fears” (All Things Considered, National Public Radio (NPR), September 28, 2009); interview with KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982); Listen to this story
MELISSA BLOCK, host: … So should Dave Koenig be worried? To help answer that question, I’m joined by Karen Pollitz. She’s a research professor at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute….
... [T]he fear that’s been expressed by him and many others is that if there is a complete overhaul, that health insurance companies will change the way they do business in order to stay profitable.
Prof. POLLITZ: There is no requirement that Dave has to change his coverage. There is a requirement that everybody has to have coverage that meets minimum standards. And it sounds like Dave’s coverage and his sister Jane’s coverage already is well above that minimum standard. So it’s not a constraint that’s going to move him anywhere. It is generally the case, and has been for a long time, that health insurance coverage kind of declines over time. We’ve seen a steady erosion in what health insurance covers and a steady increase in what it costs, both for people who buy on their own and for people who get coverage at work. So I think there’s no guarantee that Dave’s employer won’t change his coverage over time, just in response to rising health care costs.
But under health reform, no matter which bill passes, there will be a requirement that health insurance policies that you get at work, that you buy on your own cover a minimum number of services and have a maximum level of cost sharing. So that I think should be helpful for everybody, and it shouldn’t change. It shouldn’t change what Dave has because it sounds like he’s on the high end of coverage right now. And if his employer feels pressure over time if health costs continue to increase, even after health reform, then it’s possible that his employer might back down toward that minimum. But I think that would happen in the absence of reform, as well….
4. “PR News Announces PR People Award Finalists” (PR News, Vol. 65 No. 37, September 28, 2009); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
Once again, the
finalists in this year’s PR News PR People Awards set an even higher standard
of excellence and innovation in the realm of communications, and they did so in
the midst of a profoundly challenging business context. The winners will be
announced at an awards luncheon on Dec. 1 at
Investor Relations/Financial Communications Professional of the Year
* Stan Collender--Qorvis Communications ….
5. “Daniel Borenstein: We must do better on health care” (Oakland Tribune, September 27, 2009); column by DANIEL BORENSTEIN (MPP 1980/JD 1985); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_13437226?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com
By Daniel Borenstein, Staff columnist and editorial writer
AS I WATCH the health care debate, I can't help thinking about my friend Sarah, who is going broke under the weight of her medical bills.
You might remember Sarah, a fellow cancer survivor about whom I wrote in December as I implored our newly elected president to make health care his top priority behind fixing the economy.
With the nation's medical debate devolving into surreal discussions of "death panels" and socialism, it's important to remember that there are real lives at stake here….
She had childhood leukemia, which was treated with chemotherapy and full-body radiation. She relapsed twice before having a bone-marrow transplant in her early 20s. For two decades, she was relatively healthy. Then her brain tumor, probably a result of her earlier radiation, was discovered. They operated, removed the tumor and then cut into her skull a second time to remove the infection from the first surgery….
Sarah's broke and unemployed. Her savings are almost gone. The first bill she still pays each month is her health insurance. She knows she can't risk being without it.
But it's a crummy plan with high deductibles, hefty co-pays and restrictive coverage….
Most of you know someone like Sarah. Some of you face similar health coverage horrors. All of us should care. As a society, we are at a moral crossroad: Are we going to repair our system to ensure all are provided health care when they need it, or are we who are fortunate going to turn our backs on those less lucky? …
Obama starts with the premise that a government-run health insurance system, a so-called "single-payer" system, would be too disruptive a change. I think he's wrong. Roughly a third of private health insurance premiums go toward administration, marketing and profits. Cutting out the insurance companies would be the best thing we could do to fix health care….
It's so easy to demonize the cost aspects of any of the health care plans until one puts the numbers in perspective. Keep in mind that we're arguing over the difference of $774 billion and $1 trillion over 10 years in an industry that currently costs $2.5 trillion a year.
We're talking about a difference of less than 1 percent of the total cost. It pales in comparison to the costs associated with the bigger issues, such as the role of the insurance companies and the lack of a public option to keep them honest.
Yet, while
We can do better. We must do better.
6. “AIDS vaccine promising; experts urge caution” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 25, 2009); story citing MARK CLOUTIER (MPP/MPH 1993); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/24/BANM19S3NR.DTL#ixzz0S8Je9nOZ
--Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer
This undated photo released by the U.S. Military HIV Research
Program shows a researcher during the Thai phase III HIV Vaccine Trial, also
known as RV 144, testing the “prime-boost” combination of two vaccines: ALVAC
HIV vaccine and AIDSVAX B/E vaccine at the Armed Forces Research Institute of
Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) in
(09-24) 19:20 PDT -- As Bay Area scientists celebrated the first promising results from the largest-ever AIDS vaccine trial, they cautioned that much more research is needed before a vaccine could be available to the public.
The news that an
experimental AIDS vaccine tested on 16,000 heterosexual volunteers in
According to the Thai Ministry of Health and the study’s other backers, the vaccine regimen was safe and 31 percent effective in preventing HIV infection compared with a placebo. Researchers described that result as significant and promising for the future, but not enough to make such a product available to the public soon….
The most confusing aspect of the study is that the people who received the vaccine and still got infected had no lower levels of the virus than those who took the placebo and got infected. That indicates the vaccine may be better at preventing the virus than controlling it once it gets into the body….
Because of the long time frame, health advocates warn that people should not count on a potential vaccine to treat and contain infections.
“It doesn’t have a
public health impact perhaps for many, many years,” said Mark Cloutier,
7. “‘Equity share’ loans of up to $75K offered to Silicon Valley homebuyers” (San Jose Mercury News, September 24, 2009); story citing JESSICA GARCIA-KOHL (MPP/MPH 2005); http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13402546?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
By Frank Michael Russell, Mercury News
The nonprofit Housing
Trust of Santa Clara County is teaming up with American Home Equity Partners to
offer a new down-payment-assistance program for buyers in
Under the “equity share co-investment,” or ESCO program, the Housing Trust will advance as much as $75,000 to first-time home buyers who make up to 140 percent of the region’s area median income, or about $147,700 a year for a family of four. The money will be used to match a buyer’s 5 percent to 15 percent down payment.
No payments on the ESCO loan will be due for 10 years, or until the home is sold or the borrowers refinance. At that time, borrowers must repay the loan at a rate tied to how much the home has gained in value.
Jessica Garcia-Kohl, the trust’s associate director, said that up to $1 million will be offered at first, but more money could be added if the program is successful.
Bank of America and Citibank have been approved as first-mortgage lenders in the program.
Information about the equity-share program may be found at www.ahepllc.com/esco. Information about the Housing Trust may be found at www.housingtrustscc.org.
8. “S.F.,
--Wyatt Buchanan, Matthew
Yi, Chronicle
The Milkhouse Island Boat Launch, on the southern end of
(09-24) 04:00 PDT
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which combined serve approximately 3.7 million people in the Bay Area, fear that in dry years they could be forced to give up water to protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
They also believe the
plan could jeopardize their legal rights to water that could instead be sent to
parched regions of the Central Valley and
Part of the plan could
lead to the creation of a canal that would divert as much as 6 million acre-feet
of water a year around the delta and into pumps that flow to Southern
California and other parts of the
In dry years—such as the current three-year drought—Bay Area water agencies fear they would be forced to give up substantial amounts of water from their systems to keep the delta from turning into a giant mud pit.
If that were to happen, “in future dry years our ability to serve our customers becomes more difficult and the prospect of rationing becomes more real,” said Randele Kanouse, lobbyist and special assistant to EBMUD’s general manager.
That utility district,
which serves parts of
9. “Nations Appear Headed toward Independent Climate Goals” (The Washington Post, September 23, 2009); story citing NED HELME (MPP 1971).
By Juliet Eilperin and
Colum Lynch;
Several world leaders on Tuesday gave the most decisive indication in months that they will work to revive floundering negotiations aimed at securing a new international climate pact. But the vision that President Obama and others outlined at the United Nations climate summit—in which countries offered a series of individual commitments—suggests that a potential deal may look much different from what its backers originally envisioned.
Initially, many climate
activists had hoped this year would yield a pact in which nations would agree
to cut their greenhouse gas emissions under the auspices of a legal
international treaty. But recent announcements by
“That’s the real power of the U.N.,” said Ned Helme, president of the Center for Clean Air Policy. “It’s all about the view of everyone. You stand up and say what you’re going to do.” …
10. “CCAP’s Helme discusses U.S., China plans on emissions” (Environment and Energy Daily, E&ETV’s OnPoint Vol. 10 No. 9, September 24, 2009); interview with NED HELME (MPP 1971); Watch video
After addressing the United Nations on climate
change this week, has President Obama successfully added momentum to the
international climate negotiations ahead of the
Monica Trauzzi: … Did
[President Obama] give the international community a clear enough picture of
what the
Ned Helme: I think the big picture was there, the clear sense of
momentum, the sense of urgency. I think that was there and that was really
important. I think, again, he could have done more. We have a better story to
tell than we told. I mean the Waxman-Markey bill is really well designed to fit
with the international treaty. It includes both a strong target for us and an
additional target where we’ll provide financing for developing countries’
action. So it fits beautifully in the basic
11. “Made in
By Bryan Bender Globe Staff, Globe Staff
But the bomb … violates
terms of a landmark international treaty limiting cluster bombs to 10 bomblets
or less. The pending treaty, signed by 98 nations last year in
Now Textron, with the support of the Pentagon and the State Department, is mounting a campaign to derail the cluster-bomb treaty and write a new set of rules under the United Nations that would make it easier to sell its weapon around the world.
Textron’s primary argument for scrapping the treaty is that 99 percent of the bomblets released by the Sensor Fuzed Weapon will explode in combat, leaving only a tiny amount of unexploded ordinance that could be picked up by a child or hit by a farmer’s plow. Textron calls this capability “clean battlefield operation.’’ …
The
Textron wants the international community to rewrite the treaty to allow weapons with large numbers of bomblets, if they can be shown to avoid the potential for civilian casualties from unexploded components.
The initiative has outraged many arms control advocates, however, who secured signatures from Britain, France, and 96 other countries at last year’s Oslo negotiations. The treaty needs to be ratified by 30 countries to take effect; so far, 17 of them have done so….
“They think technology is the answer,’’ said [Thomas] Nash, the Cluster Munition Coalition coordinator. His group contends that Textron’s claims of accuracy and reliability have historically been overstated….
Moreover, even if the
weapon can achieve the level of reliability advertised, it is still highly
dangerous for civilians on the battlefield, said Jeff Abramson, deputy director of the Arms Control Association, a
nonpartisan
“If you have 1 percent of 10,000 submunitions, that is 100 left that could possibly explode in the future,’’ he said….
12. “
By Patrick Kerkstra; Inquirer Staff Writer
Barring unexpected
problems, the sales tax in
The temporary sales-tax
hike was a key component of the
The sales tax in
City budget experts have predicted a 10 percent decline in sales volume on tax-eligible goods and services because of the increase, a figure they characterize as an “educated guess.”
“The theory is that when taxes rise, increasing the price of a service or good, it has the potential to influence decisions. Some people will decide either to forgo the purchase because of the higher price, or they will go elsewhere to purchase it,” said city Budget Director Steve Agostini.
Nutter administration officials settled on the 10 percent estimate after consulting with economists who have studied the effect of tax increases on commerce, but Agostini noted, “Until you test it empirically, you really don’t know.”…
13. “
--Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
The rebates will be available to homeowners, renters and businesses beginning in July. The exact amount of the rebates has not been determined, but will probably be larger for moderate-income residents.
“This is a great jump
start to some good programs that
Malcolm said the rebates are dwarfed by grants and other incentives
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is already offering in the
14. “Alcohol Abuse is
Meeting Subject - City,
By Kiera Hay, Journal Staff Writer
Restricting alcohol consumption and sales on some city-owned property and changing state law to allow local taxation of alcohol were among the recommendations offered up Thursday night at a special city-county meeting focused on reducing substance abuse in the community.
The advice was the result of more than two months of work by dozens of community members, and stemmed from an agreement in early July by the Santa Fe City Council and Santa Fe County Commission to take a hard look at “programmatic steps to accelerate community change that will end violence from alcohol and drug abuse.”
It was an official
response to the deaths of four
On Thursday, however, the City Council didn’t even have enough members present to vote on whether to accept the final recommendations. Only Mayor David Coss and Councilors Chris Calvert, Carmichael Dominguez and Ron Trujillo sat through the entire meeting….
15. “UCLA School of Dentistry to Build New Cancer Research Facility” (US Fed News, September 17, 2009); newswire citing STEVE OLSEN (MPP 1979); http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/dental-school-to-build-new-cancer-101847.aspx
By Sandra Shagat
LOS ANGELES -- The UCLA
School of Dentistry consistently ranks among the country’s top dental schools
in National Institutes of Health funding. During the past three fiscal years,
the school has secured nearly $30 million in grants for oral cancer research
and research training. Now, the dental school has received a major infusion of
construction funding for the creation of the
As a result of funds
made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the NIH’s
According to the
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, oral cancer is the
sixth most common cancer in men and the 14th most common cancer in women in the
“This is the second time in the UCLA School of Dentistry’s history that it has applied for and won an NIH construction grant,” said Steve Olsen, UCLA vice chancellor for finance, budget and capital programs. “The first such grant created the Jane and Jerry Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology, which also was established under Dean [No-He] Park’s tenure.” …
16. “Healthy Families insurance program for kids won’t be cut after all” (Sacramento Bee, Sep. 17, 2009); story citing GINNY PUDDEFOOT (MPP/MPH 1988); http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/2188594.html
By Susan Ferriss
State officials decided Thursday to lift a ban on adding as many as 88,000 children to Healthy Families medical insurance.
The Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which administers the children’s program, found Thursday that recently approved legislation will help provide enough funding this year to cover recent budget cuts.
Healthy Families provides coverage to children of working parents with no job-based insurance option.
Program managers had feared that a $196 million shortfall would force them to drop hundreds of thousands of children already enrolled in the program – as well as turn away those who have accumulated on a waiting list since July.
A major source of
revenue to restore funding came with passage of a bill by Assembly Speaker
Karen Bass, D-
“It’s such good news for hundreds of thousands of children,” said Ginny Puddefoot, deputy director of health policy and legislation for the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board….
17. “Olbermann glosses over detail on the Baucus Plan” (St. Petersburg Times, Politifact.com Edition, September 17, 2009); analysis citing JANUARY ANGELES (MPP 2002); http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/17/keith-olbermann/olbermann-glosses-over-detail-baucus-plan/
By Angie Drobnic Holan
When it comes to health reform, all eyes have been watching the powerful Senate Finance Committee. The committee has been trying to reach consensus between Democrats and Republicans.
The committee released its findings on Wednesday in the form of a “Chairman’s mark,” a report that sets out the parameters of legislation.
None of the committee Republicans would support the bill at this stage. And some Democrats didn’t like it much either.
Liberal commentator
Keith Olbermann of MSNBC savaged the proposal on his show Countdown that night,
reserving particular criticism for committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, a
Democrat from
“If it were up to Senator Max Baucus,middle-class families would be forced—literally forced—to pay far more on health care than they already do right now,” Olberman said. “Thirteen percent of what they make could be deducted directly from their paychecks and mainlined to insurance companies, the so-called ‘Max Tax.’” …
Olbermann used the example of a family of four at 300 percent of the poverty line. According to the plan, the family would have income of $66,150 and pay premiums of $8,600 a year, or $716 a month. So Olbermann’s numbers are solid….
For a detailed comparison of the three Democratic bills on this point, the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has created a handy chart [authored by January Angeles]. The center has criticized the Baucus plan for not being as generous for people of modest incomes as the other Democratic plans….
Sources:
…
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “Subsidies in Baucus Health Reform Plan Would Fall Short of What Is Needed for Many People to Afford Health Care” [by January Angeles], Sept. 16, 2009
Interview with January Angeles of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Sept. 17, 2009….
18. “Now in mix, co-op
option questioned - Few know about it, and many who do don’t believe in it” (
By Michael Booth, The
… The latest U.S. Senate proposal for health insurance reform released Wednesday relies on co-ops to expand coverage rather than a vilified “public option” government insurer.
Problem is, few know what a co-op is, and many who do don’t believe it’ll work. The weaker fallback plan is still hurting for lack of true champions. Many experts see co-ops as too feeble to achieve much reform and too expensive for the government to launch….
A “public option” government plan, still favored by Democrats in the House, would create a new government health insurance agency. It would have the price-setting clout and administrative power of programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and pay claims directly….
The co-op proposals, though sketchy so far, would take big steps back from that kind of muscular government organizing and buying power ….
The co-ops would use any buying power they could muster to negotiate contracts with doctors, hospitals and other local providers. In doing so, of course, they would compete directly with dominant local carriers with decades of experience negotiating such discounts….
Federal and local studies have shown that co-ops and similar structures have not been able to meet the primary goal of their creators: offering health care at significantly lower premiums than existing public or private competitors….
The new federally sanctioned co-ops would be one menu offering in another confusing reform term: “exchange.” Exchanges are one-stop shopping centers where existing insurers offer minimum policies at competitive rates for consumers to choose.
“You still bump into these same questions: Who is going to enroll, what kind of risk profile do they have, what does it take to manage their care and find the providers they need?” Mulkey said. “It’s really a struggle to provide intelligent commentary on these things when you don’t really know what they are. It’s fair to say putting these kinds of organizations in place is a very slow process.” …
19. “Georgetown University Health Policy Institute Research Professor Karen Pollitz Testifies before House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee” (FD (Fair Disclosure) Wire, September 16, 2009); congressional testimony by KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
* KAREN POLLITZ RESEARCH PROFESSOR - GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HEALTH POLICY INSTITUTE
… I am a Research Professor at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute where I study the regulation of private health insurance. Thank you for holding this hearing today on transparency and accountability in health insurance. These characteristics are lacking in private health insurance today and must be strengthened as part of health care reform….
There are also sparse data to monitor consumer protections in health insurance. For example, this Committee recently queried all 50 state insurance departments about health insurance rescissions. In response to that query,
--only 4 states could provide data on the number of rescissions that occurred
--only 10 states could provide the number of individual health insurance policies in force, and
--more than one-third of states could not supply a complete list of companies that sell health insurance within their jurisdictions.3
Enforcement of consumer protections in health insurance today is largely triggered by complaints. Unfortunately, complaints are not a sufficient basis on which to judge compliance with health insurance consumer protection or the need for stronger oversight and enforcement. Only a fraction of consumer problems with health insurance ever are translated into formal complaints. For example, data provided by the NAIC on behalf of all 50 state insurance departments found that nationwide only 32 complaints about health insurance rescission were filed in 2007, 181 from 2003-2007.4 In stark contrast, last year this Committee requested data on health insurance rescissions from just three national carriers and learned those companies alone had rescinded nearly 20,000 health insurance policies from 2003-2007….
Insurers must also be held accountable for compliance with market rules and consumer protections. That will require resources for oversight and enforcement. In addition, it is time for the federal government to take a more active role in health insurance regulation.
… Resources to regulate private health insurance at the federal level are particularly lacking and must be increased. At a hearing of this Committee last year, a representative of the Bush Administration testified that [the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services] then dedicated only four part-time staff to HIPAA health insurance matters. Further, despite press reports alleging abusive rescission practices, the agency did not investigate or even make inquiries as to whether federal law guaranteed renewability protections were being adequately enforced….
20. “Proposed
fuel-economy rules would boost
By Ken Bensinger
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
Lisa Jackson, right, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announce proposed
fuel-economy rules at the White House on Tuesday. (Chip
Somodevilla / Getty Images / September 15, 2009)
The Obama administration’s new rules for vehicle
fuel economy and first-ever limits on greenhouse gas emissions would
dramatically improve the efficiency of America’s automotive fleet—and give the
White House a boost in upcoming international climate control talks.
As written, they also
allow for integration with
The proposed rules, issued Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation, would go into effect in 2012, ramping up average fuel economy for cars and trucks every year to reach 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016. The current average is 25 mpg.
By providing for a
meshing with
“What we’re
seeing is a real affirmation of
21. “Farm cash is the root of conflict; Arguments over the Common Agricultural Policy allow politicians to grandstand in front of their electors but obscure the need for a fundamental reappraisal of how the EU budget is spent, argues Jack Thurston” (The Daily Telegraph (London), September 16, 2009); op-ed by JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999).
By Jack Thurston
Nothing sours relationships like a quarrel over money, and like squabbling siblings, the EU’s 27 member states are still arguing over the EU’s budget, with long-standing resentments over the British rebate fanning the flames….
Regardless of its real importance, the reality is that negotiations on the EU budget are irresistible to politicians who want to engage in high profile grandstanding for the benefit of a domestic audience…. In truth, every national government cares much more about the difference between what it puts into the EU pot and what it gets out than how the money is spent.
The result is a budget that in no way reflects the priorities of European countries in the 21st century and is holding back the potential of the EU as an engine for economic growth and an effective player on the world stage.
If the EU budget is considered as an ancient forest overgrown with brambles, by far the most impenetrable thicket is the Common Agricultural Policy. At a cost of some pounds 48 billion a year, farm subsidies account for close to half of all EU spending….
Over time,
the budgetary costs spiralled out of control. The countries that get the most
money are those that produce the most food and so a country like
When
Since we’re never going to convince the bulk of our fellow members to scrap the CAP, a more pragmatic approach would be to allow other countries to decide for themselves how much to give their farmers, as long as they foot the bill and as long as all aid meets the clear and well-established conditions for state aid in other sectors of the economy….
The EU budget should not compete with national budgets; rather it should focus on doing the things that national budgets cannot do. First, allowing richer countries to contribute towards the economic development of their poorer neighbours (recognising the obvious mutual interest) and second, sharing the costs of genuinely pan-European projects such as international transport and energy networks, cutting-edge research and development and action on climate change and global security.
Reshaping the budget along these lines will reaffirm Britain’s commitment to a European Union that is, first and foremost, a free trade area offering choice for British shoppers and opportunities for British businesses, but is also a permanent strategic alliance that enables a group of small and medium-sized countries to meet the global challenges that are too big to be faced alone. It is the vision of an EU that, far from disempowering nation states, serves to give them new tools to get things done.
Jack Thurston is co-founder of www.farmsubsidy.org and has led the campaign for transparency in the EU budget.
22. “ACLU settles suit over unsanitary immigrant center” (The Associated Press State & Local Wire, September 16, 2009); newswire citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
By Robert Jablon, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES
-- Federal immigration officials have settled a lawsuit that claimed suspected
illegal immigrants were kept in “barbaric” conditions in a downtown
The federal court agreement restricts detainees at the facility to 12 hours at a stretch except under unusual circumstances such as epidemics or natural disasters. It requires that they be provided with soap, access to attorneys and writing materials for those who need to prepare legal documents….
The ACLU, the National Immigration Law Center and a private law firm claimed that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement maintained overcrowded and squalid conditions in B-18, a temporary holding center located in the basement of a downtown federal building….
The lawsuit alleged that B-18 has held 200 or more people at a time. Immigrants are not supposed to be held at the detainee center for more than 12 consecutive hours because it has no beds. The lawsuit contended that some detainees were held for 20 hours or more, slept on the floor, and drank from a sink because there was no other water source.
“Immigrants were crowded into cells, sometimes waiting for hours without room to sit down,” an ACLU statement said Wednesday. “Some had not been able to shower, brush their teeth, or change their clothes in weeks. Women asking for sanitary napkins were often ignored, and often forced to sleep on the floor for several days in a row.”
Other detainees were shuttled to overcrowded local jails for the night and then returned, a practice prohibited by the lawsuit settlement.
“This
settlement serves as a safeguard against what was once an almost everyday
situation at B-18: unlawful treatment and unsanitary conditions,”
23. “
A municipal public option takes hold in
The Healthy San
Francisco Plan, the city’s public health plan for the uninsured, has many of
the elements currently under consideration in
Called Healthy San Francisco, the program for the uninsured isn’t health insurance but instead offers care in clinics and covers admissions to hospitals located in the city.
How are the results? Hospital admissions of plan members have dropped, and the average stay for those who wind up in the hospital has been cut almost in half, Varney reports. Those changes suggest chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, asthma and hypertension, are being managed better, reducing the need for crisis care….
Tangerine Brigham oversees the health plan.
TANGERINE BRIGHAM: “Prior to Healthy San Francisco, someone who was
unisured had a very difficult time accessing care. It was somewhat of a
fragmented system; they didn’t know when to receive services. Healthy
[Healthy
24. “UN says Yemeni child bride’s death is tragedy” (The Associated Press, September 15, 2009); newswire citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).
UNITED NATIONS -- The head of the U.N. children’s agency said Monday that the tragic death of a 12-year-old Yemeni after three days in labor underscores the urgent need to better protect the rights of girls and prevent child marriages.
Fawziya Abdullah Youssef
died of severe bleeding on Friday while giving birth to a stillborn child in
the al-Zahra district
UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman expressed sadness at Fawziya’s untimely death.
“Child marriage denies girls of their childhood, deprives them of an education and robs them of their innocence,” she said in a statement.
Child marriages are
widespread in
Veneman said “the younger the girl is when she becomes pregnant, the greater the health risks for her and her baby.”
Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s, she said.
“Tragedies like these underscore the urgent need to better protect the rights of women and children, particularly girls,” Veneman said. “Child marriages are often a result of poverty and ignorance. More must be done to address the underlying causes in order to prevent tragic deaths like those of 12-year-old Fawziya and her baby.”
25. “Editorial: Incomplete grade for Legislature” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 14, 2009); editorial citing RANDY KANOUSE (MPP/JD 1978); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/14/EDIN19LTBO.DTL
Their primary mission in the final week was to send Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a package of bills that would overhaul the state’s water system to redistribute the scarce resource more fairly, promote conservation and assure quality. Those measures were to be accompanied by a multibillion-dollar bond to pay for the plan.
By midweek, it was clear that time was running out—and the behind-the-scenes nature of the negotiations between Schwarzenegger’s office and key legislators had created an atmosphere of mistrust that would make consensus impossible. On Friday morning, hours before legislators were expected to vote on a package of such cost and complexity, the vast majority still waited to see the bills….
Meanwhile, representatives of major water suppliers, including the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and East Bay Municipal Utility District, were sounding alarms at what they feared was a grab of their water rights in parts of the hundreds of pages of legislation.
“I swear, in 30 years, I’ve never [seen] anything on water that comes close to this madness ... the madness of trying to do this in this time frame,” said Randy Kanouse of EBMUD….
26. “ENERGY MARKETS: Ag panel examines Treasury’s derivatives reform bill” (Environment and Energy Daily, September 14, 2009); story citing SKIP HORVATH (MPP 1976); http://www.eenews.net/EEDaily/2009/09/14/archive/8?terms=%22skip+horvath%22
By Katherine Ling, E&E reporter
The House Agriculture Committee on Thursday will consider a proposal by the Treasury Department to strengthen regulations and transparency in “over the counter” derivatives markets….
The Treasury draft would require all standard over-the-counter derivatives to be centrally cleared and traded on an exchange or platform regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission or the Securities and Exchange Commission. It would also increase the margin and capital requirements … for nonstandardized contracts to encourage traders to use standardized contracts where possible, according to the Treasury.
The administration would also endow CFTC and SEC with stronger authority policing over-the-counter markets, including setting position limits and large trader reporting requirements for derivatives that help set a commodity’s final price. It also attempts to protect “unsophisticated” investors, such as individual investors and municipalities, by narrowing the definition of those eligible to participate in the over-the-counter markets.
The Frank and Peterson plan would move standard over-the-counter derivatives through clearinghouses but only “strongly incentivize” standard contracts to exchanges or trading platforms. Both plans are more stringent than the bill passed by Peterson’s committee, H.R. 977, earlier this year…..
Speculators and hedgers have mostly welcomed proposals for additional transparency in the over-the-counter markets and the recognition by both the administration and the chairmen of the importance of maintaining those markets.
But the additional requirements to clear or move over-the-counter trades through exchanges or other regulated facilities or impose higher capital requirements has received some pushback.
Energy companies warn that these “punitive” measures meant mainly for financial products that brought down the economy will cut down on liquidity and impede companies ability to achieve the lowest possible price for fuel. The Edison Electric Institute, the Natural Gas Supply Association and 13 other “end user” association sent a letter to Congress in July saying higher margins and capital requirements would decrease the amount of cash available to build necessary new infrastructure.
Natural gas is the most transparent commodity market in the amount of “timely” and “diverse” price and data reporting available, according to an analysis by William Albrecht, an economist and former acting chairman of CFTC, released last week by NGSA.
“We urge regulators who are considering making wholesale changes to OTC markets to bear in mind that natural gas markets work well and avoid imposing unnecessary restrictions on natural gas that will impede market liquidity and potentially harm consumers,” said Skip Horvath, NGSA president and CEO, in a statement….
27. “Big Spenders? They Wish. As jobs are lost in recession, so is the middle class” (New York Times, September 13, 2009); book excerpt citing JOE CORTRIGHT (MPP 1980); http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/business/economy/13excerpt.html?pagewanted=3&th&emc=th
By Peter S. Goodman
… As attention focuses on how best to nurture good jobs, many advocate increased government investment into research institutions to spur innovation, in addition to tax incentives for private ventures that turn the resulting know-how into businesses. Renewable energy and biotechnology exemplify how such public-private partnerships have already produced jobs….
Some argue that the Next Big Thing may not be big at all, but rather a diffuse process of innovation unleashed on established areas of the economy, one that extracts greater value by improving goods and services we already use every day. Traffic-choked cities may be liberated with modernized public transportation. Homes may be made more comfortable with advances in furnishing. The great American capacity to engineer solutions to life’s problems — still intact — may need only the right policies to flourish again.
“There’s a lot of opportunities for change in existing industries,” says Joe Cortright, an economist at Impresa, a consulting firm in Portland, Ore., where traditional agriculture has in recent years evolved into boutique wineries and specialty-vegetable growers, extracting far greater value….
28. “High marks for Healthy S.F. again” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 13, 2009); story citing program headed by TANGERINE BRIGHAM (MPP 1990); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/13/BATK19L86M.DTL#ixzz0R6SoPCRO
--Heather Knight
First came the UC Berkeley report showing the city’s universal health care program, Healthy San Francisco [headed by Tangerine Brigham], isn’t hurting San Francisco’s economy. Then came the Kaiser Family Foundation report showing participants are largely satisfied with their care.
Now comes a third report, prepared by the Department of Public Health itself. Surprise, surprise: It, too, finds the 2-year-old Healthy San Francisco a success.
Here are some findings:
Department officials are advising
Just 363 complaints about the program were logged during the past year among the roughly 43,500 participants. More than three-quarters of participants had a primary care visit within their first year of belonging to the program, and of all the times participants visited the emergency room, only 8 percent were avoidable….
29. “Renewable
electricity boost clear
“This legislation puts
The proposed 33 percent renewable electricity standard could reduce global warming emissions in the state by as much as 12.8 million metric tons, or the equivalent of eliminating the need for 10 to 15 new conventional large fossil-fueled power plants, according to the California Public Utilities Commission.
“The legislature acted
today to modernize and clean up
30. “CNN Newsroom: No to
Obama, Yes to Bush; Inside
… KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN
ANCHOR: Sex, AIDS and Adolf Hitler. Three elements that mixed together are
creating one heck of a controversy in
DIANA MAGNAY, CNN
CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. Yes, this ad campaign certainly is causing a real
stir, both here in
MAGNAY (voice-over): It’s a fairly standard sex scene like you see in the movies. Lithe bodies in the throes of erotic passion. Sexy stuff until you see who the leading man in this particular love scene is: Adolf Hitler. The tag line to this ad: AIDS is a mass murder….
PHILLIPS: ... You know,
ads, commercials, public service campaigns, for that matter, news broadcasts
have to get your attention to be effective. But it’s also possible to alienate
the people you’re trying to influence. Joining me now with opposite views of
the AIDS mass murderer campaign, Kelly McCann, CEO of AIDS Foundation Houston.
And Mark Cloutier, the CEO of the
And Kelly, let’s start with you. What do you think?
KELLY MCCANN, AIDS FOUNDATION HOUSTON: ... I thought that while controversial, this was an important way of getting awareness of HIV increased and also a way of really driving home the point that AIDS is a killer….
PHILLIPS: Mark Cloutier, you know, it’s a topic that needs to be talked about, it needs to be addressed. You’re the policy guy that worked with Barbara Boxer that was involved in putting together the legislation to get it out there to make a difference. What do you think of this way of exposing HIV/AIDS and the horrors behind it?
MARK CLOUTIER, CEO,
So, putting aside the issue of that—the Hitler image makes people who have HIV into victims or perpetrators, which again is the wrong message. We don’t want to say that people who have HIV are mass murderers. That alienates them, it’s the wrong message, it stigmatizes HIV further.
Moreover, when we get people’s attention, we need to help them figure out how they protect themselves. We need to tell them that using condoms is an effective school for HIV prevention, and that’s not in this message….
MCCANN: … I’m OK with this vilifying the disease. We need to declare war on AIDS….
CLOUTIER: We do need to declare war on AIDS, and the way to do that is not to, again, turn people into victims by it or to make people who transmit HIV perpetrators. It’s to give people solutions about how they protect themselves and respect the dignity of other people. There’s no way you can win this war by doing it in a negative fashion. We need to help people with positive messages that help them change their behavior and respect other people who are struggling with this disease.
PHILLIPS: … But tell me what has worked at this point. With such high numbers and such a high death toll, and the spread of HIV/AIDS, tell me what has worked or what is working right now that you see is making a difference in the way that you’re saying that you support.
CLOUTIER: So, what is making a difference is that we know that condoms are highly effective, getting people to use condoms more frequently, every time they have sex is a proven prevention strategy; getting people tested to understand their HIV status so they can get in treatment if they’re positive or engage in reducing risk behavior so they don’t transmit HIV to others are very proven ways of reducing risk behavior and thereby attacking this disease that continues to ravage the United States.
As was said, about 50,000 cases of new HIV infections are occurring here. And we know how to prevent them….
MCCANN: … I think many people have developed a very complacent attitude about HIV. And so they’re not using condoms on a regular basis, they’re not following through with safer sex practices. So, absolutely. Anything that will allow us to generate discussion, raise awareness, and sometimes even reach out and grab us and shake us into reality, frankly, we support that….
CLOUTIER: I want to fundamentally disagree that with anything, we should not do anything. We should do the things that have the biggest impact, that does get people’s attention and drives them immediately to change their behavior….
31. “Obama and Health Care: Time to Hit ‘Reset’; In his speech, the President must be clear about his reform priorities and why they’re vital even to those who have insurance” (Business Week Online, September 10, 2009); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
By Jane Sasseen
… With his much anticipated prime-time speech on Sept. 9 before both houses of Congress … the issue is whether Barack Obama can restart the health-care debate and turn momentum back in his favor.
It certainly won’t be easy. Despite months of trying, Obama has yet to present a clear, coherent vision of what he wants out of health-care reform and why Americans should be convinced they will be better off going along with his plans. In part, that’s because they—not to mention the congressional leaders trying to draft the various bills—still don’t know exactly what he will support, what he won’t, and why.
“Everyone knows the
potential costs and the risks of a growing bureaucracy,” says Stan Collender, a partner at Qorvis
Communications, a public affairs consultancy in
32. “Grand Opening of Miller’s Court, Providing Affordable Homes for Teachers, Office Space for Education Nonprofits in Baltimore” (PR Newswire, September 10, 2009); event featuring MATT JOSEPHS (MPP 1997).
WHEN: Monday, September 14, 2009, at 10 a.m.
GUEST SPEAKERS:
Martin O’Malley,
Governor of
Sheila Dixon, Mayor of
Matt Josephs, Program Manager, CDFI
33. “Philly Clout:
Budget Director to
In another example of administration belt-tightening, Budget Director Steve Agostini has been tapped to temporarily oversee stimulus funds provided to the city.
The city originally planned to hire a dedicated “recovery officer” to supervise and report on how the city is spending locally allocated funds from President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package. A job description was posted on the city’s online contracting website in June and the city said stimulus funds would be used to pay the salary.
But Agostini said there was concern about whether the available stimulus funds would cover the cost of a hire and noted that many felt that this wasn’t the best time to take on a new staffer.
“Given what’s happening with our own budget and the economy, we thought let’s absorb this,” Agostini said. He said he’ll do both jobs until December or January, at which time the administration hopes to review the situation. Agostini will not get any extra pay for the second gig. (Posted by Catherine Lucey @ 5:57 PM)
34. “Health care reform now” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 8, 2009); op-ed contribution by SUSAN EHRLICH (MPP 1984/MD); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/08/ED5D19INR5.DTL#ixzz0QohpmrRa
--Sue Currin
Several months ago, a 50-year-old woman arrived at a Bay Area public hospital urgent care clinic with tremendous swelling in the lower half of her body, and a cough that wouldn’t go away. The doctor who examined her said it was a miracle that she hadn’t had a stroke.
Her blood pressure was out of control. She had an abnormal accumulation of fluid in her lungs and was suffering from congestive heart failure. The patient had been taking high blood pressure medication, but when her hours at a local car dealership were drastically cut months before, she no longer qualified for her employer’s health insurance. She couldn’t afford to refill the prescription.
For the past few weeks, the news has been dominated by stories about individuals who are opposed to Congress’ efforts to pass a health care reform measure. Some seem to feel “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
But if you were to ask anyone who works in a public hospital, or the woman described above or the thousands more like her who come to our public hospitals each day seeking care, that person would tell you that the health care insurance system is, in fact, quite broken. We all see firsthand the toll that this national health care crisis takes on our communities….
These problems aren’t limited to the chronically uninsured. We also are treating patients who are turning to us because they have recently lost their jobs and their health insurance. And there are so many more who do have health insurance, but their deductible or out-of-pocket expenses are so high that, for all intents and purposes, they have no coverage because they can’t access medical care….
The proposals under
consideration by Congress may not be perfect, but we believe they will result
in a healthier
So please help our
Sue Currin, R.N., is the CEO of
35. “Obama’s Hurdle: Selling the Satisfied on Healthcare” (Morning Edition, National Public Radio (NPR), September 8, 2009); interview with KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982); Listen to the story
Reported by Julie Rovner
How do you sell something to someone who doesn’t know they need it? That, in a nutshell, is the biggest hurdle President Obama and Congressional leaders face in trying to push a health care overhaul to the roughly 180 million Americans who have private health insurance coverage….
But the sagging poll
numbers, both for Obama and his top domestic priority, show that so far, the
public isn’t buy what he’s selling. Robert Blendon, a public opinion expert at
the Harvard School of Public Health, says he’s not that surprised. “This
recession... has not left
Karen Pollitz, an insurance expert at Georgetown University, says the problem is actually even bigger: Most people who have insurance don’t realize that they might not have as much protection as they think.
The reason most people say they’re satisfied with their health insurance? They don’t use it very much. “The majority of Americans who are healthy account for only about 3 percent of total medical spending,” Pollitz said. “It’s kind of like hearing that most people are satisfied with their new car before they drive it off the dealer’s lot.”
On the other hand, those who do run up big bills often experience problems. One survey, Pollitz said, “found...that more than one in five cancer patients who had health insurance the whole time they were in treatment, nonetheless, ended up using up all or most of their savings on medical bills.”
Pollitz says that because most people are healthy, insurance companies have tried to attract their business by holding down premiums. But what many people don’t realize is that those lower premiums often mean less coverage when you really need it.
For example, she says, “you might be paying a lower premium because the drug benefit in your policy only covers generic drugs.”
That’s no problem if you have a common ailment like high blood pressure or only require the occasional antibiotic. But if you’re diagnosed with a serious illness for which there are no generic medications, like multiple sclerosis, “you need very very expensive name brand drugs that cost thousands of dollars every month,” Pollitz said….
And that you find out too late your low premium health insurance doesn’t cover….
36. “Program helps jobless parents” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 8, 2009); story citing NOELLE SIMMONS (MPP 1998); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/08/BUB619IED1.DTL&type=jobs#ixzz0QiqV3cRU
--Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
In the wake of last
week’s report of rising unemployment, here’s a reminder about a
The program, called Jobs Now, offers private and nonprofit employers a 100 percent wage subsidy until next September if they hire San Francisco residents who:
-- Have at least one minor child.
-- Are unemployed.
-- Meet certain household income requirements.
For instance, if one spouse is out of work and the couple has two children, the family can earn up to $3,675 a month and still be eligible for a wage subsidy to the unemployed adult.
Noelle Simmons, with the San
Francisco Human Services Agency, said the parent being subsidized must live
in
Simmons said
If the state runs out of money before next September, Simmons said the subsidy may have to end early, but promised to give advance notice.
“We’re basically guaranteeing our employers that we’re not going to leave anyone out there unreimbursed,” she said.
37. “UNICEF official
ordered to leave
The expulsion of a U.N.
official from
The Sri Lankan government has accused Elder of spreading propaganda supporting Tamil rebels.
Ann Veneman, UNICEF’s executive director, said the agency was “extremely concerned and disappointed” with the decision.
“Through Mr. Elder, UNICEF has consistently spoken out against the suffering of children on both sides of the intense hostilities earlier this year and called for their protection. UNICEF unequivocally rejects any allegation of bias,” she said in a statement Monday night.
Elder has often spoken to the media about the agency’s concerns about children caught up in the country’s civil war and the conditions they endure at camps for the displaced.
In February, Elder told CNN that children as young as 4 months old were being treated in hospitals for shrapnel injuries and other wounds of war. The fighting created a “nightmarish” situation for civilians in the conflict zone, Elder said at the time.
38. “As usual, Congress is way behind on budget bills” (McClatchy-Tribune News Service, September 7, 2009); newswire citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
By David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers
But with his first full fiscal year about to begin on Oct. 1, the Democratic-controlled Congress has not passed a single major fiscal 2010 spending bill, and is virtually certain to begin funding the government next month with the same kind of stopgap steady-spending measure used during all eight years of the Bush administration….
Members of Congress have been in the budget trenches, and their experiences this summer illustrate why it’s so hard to pass spending bills. Before the House of Representatives could pass legislation funding the Commerce, State and Justice Departments in June, it had to debate and vote on 62 motions, amendments and other measures.
Since the debate on health care is likely to dominate Congress during September, it’s highly unlikely that the budget work will be finished by Oct. 1. More likely, say congressional officials, is approval by Sept. 30 of a “continuing resolution” that funds much of the government at 2009 levels until at least mid-November.
Despite Obama’s eagerness to streamline the process, there are probably few structural changes in the way budgets get funded likely in the future. “You cannot take the politics out of a fight that is inherently political and overwhelmingly political,” said veteran budget analyst Stan Collender….
39. “Editorial: Workers’ comp idea is another flawed fiscal ploy by Schwarzenegger” (Oakland Tribune, September 7, 2009); editorial citing FRANK NEUHAUSER (MPP 1993); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_13271789?IADID=Search
--MediaNews editorial
DESPERATION CAN lead to creative solutions to problems; it also can spawn some harebrained schemes that are doomed to failure. Unfortunately, desperate attempts to balance the state’s budget have produced more of the latter.
Among the more egregious efforts to raise some revenue is the Legislature’s approval of a $1 billion sale of some of the State Compensation Insurance Fund’s policies….
As a result, State Fund might have to raise rates on its insurance polices to cover a higher overall risk. Small businesses which rely on State Fund would suffer the most because private insurers prefer to work with large companies….
If this plan flies, it
appears that
Frank Neuhauser, a UC Berkeley researcher and expert on workers’ compensation, believes the plan to sell State Fund policies is reminiscent of the budget deal, nothing more than smoke and mirrors….
40. “Renewable-power fight at crossroads” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 4, 2009); story citing LAURA WISLAND (MPP 2008); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/03/BU5K19HH3E.DTL&type=tech#ixzz0Q9hjisTJ
--David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer
The Shiloh Wind Power Plant near Rio Vista, California in
(09-03) 18:38 PDT -- A
fierce and complicated fight has broken out in
Two bills pending in the Legislature would force the state’s electrical utilities to get 33 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020, up from the current requirement of 20 percent by the end of 2010. A priority of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the 33 percent goal has the backing of environmentalists, legislators and—grudgingly—the utilities….
The utilities want maximum flexibility in how they meet the requirement. They want to tap large amounts of power from out-of-state wind farms, solar plants and hydroelectric dams, and they want the ability to get extensions if they blow the deadline….
Environmentalists want
to make sure the bills don’t weaken the state’s standards for the kinds of
renewable-power projects that would count toward the 33 percent goal. Consumer
advocates want to keep Californians’ electric bills from soaring. They also
want to limit power imports so that most of the solar and wind farms built as a
result of the 33 percent requirement are built in
Senate Bill 14, which will probably face an Assembly vote in the next week, would allow imported power, but only to a point. Long-distance imports could make up 20 percent of each utility’s total renewable power portfolio.
That limit works for the Union of Concerned Scientists, one of the many environmental groups eyeing the bill. But Laura Wisland, an energy analyst for the group, wants to make sure the bill’s final language doesn’t change the kinds of renewable power projects that could count toward the 33 percent goal.
PG&E, she said, is
interested in Canadian “run-of-the-river” hydro projects that might not meet
“Run of river doesn’t necessarily mean no environmental impact—it just means no big dam,” Wisland said.
41. “
--Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
Stanford, the nation’s third-wealthiest university, is feeling poor.
The school has laid off 412 employees this year, with dozens more layoffs to come. It has also frozen salaries and shuttered its physics library as it tries to counter the largest loss to its endowment in 120 years….
It’s all because Stanford’s endowment plunged by an estimated 30 percent this fiscal year, from about $17 billion to $12 billion, [spokeswoman Lisa] Lapin said….
Stanford’s woes are mild by comparison to the troubles of its public counterparts. Substantial reductions in state support for the University of California, California State University and the community college systems have led to hundreds of courses being canceled, employee furloughs, pay cuts and deep layoffs at public colleges and universities up and down the state….
“This is a terrible time
for American higher education,” said Nancy
Shulock, director of the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy
in
“We’ve built our currency as a major economic power on educated individuals. The problem is real, and it’s serious.”
42. “Insight: Why
By Vivek Wadhwa
In the 1980s, the
There is no doubt that
43. “Health care premiums rise quickly: annual insurance costs in California up 9% - from 2007, three times higher than overall rise in cost of living” (Press Democrat, September 3, 2009); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP/MPH 1989).
By Guy Kovner, The Press Democrat
One of the larger bills most people pay—their monthly health insurance premium—is rising rapidly amid the intense national debate over health care costs. But because most employers pay part of the cost and the rest is deducted from workers’ paychecks, consumers are insulated from the full cost of their health insurance and the escalation often gets overlooked….
In
Businesses and insurers are coping with the cost crunch in a variety of ways, including higher deductibles, more emphasis on wellness programs and requiring workers to pay more of the costs. More than one-third of employers said they were likely to boost the amount employees pay for insurance this year, the Healthcare Foundation said.
For many businesses, rising health care payments are competing with company dollars for employee raises. Employers see health care as “a growing part of compensation’’ that must be considered in determining wages, new hires and layoffs, said Marian Mulkey of the Healthcare Foundation, a nonpartisan Oakland think tank….
The Healthcare Foundation hasn’t tabulated premium increases for 2009, but Mulkey said she expects they will continue to outpace inflation, driven by relentless increases in the cost of American medicine. Insurance industry regulations under consideration by Congress may give more people the opportunity to buy insurance, but Mulkey said it’s unclear if the legislation will rein in the cost of care….
44. “‘Aged-out’ foster youth at terrible risk” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 2, 2009); editorial citing AMY LEMLEY (MPP 1998); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/02/ED0N19GU13.DTL
The phrase “at risk” gets tossed around a lot by educators and social workers. Nowhere is the buzzword more applicable—and more poignant—than in its description of foster youth who are “aging out” of the system at age 18.
Talk about “at risk.”
One recent study revealed that 54 percent of young men and 25 percent of young
women are incarcerated within 18 months of leaving the foster-care system.
Another survey showed that 70 percent of
The same Schwarzenegger
who in 2006 signed the landmark package of foster-care reform bills recently slashed
$80 million from the state support for child welfare services. Those cutbacks
would cost
The result would be a devastating rollback in the state’s effort to give these foster youth—our children, our collective responsibility—the services they so desperately need. Social workers would have higher caseloads and less time to identify and address the needs of youth under their charge; there would be less money for transitional housing and independent living programs; there would be cutbacks in programs that allow children to reunify with their families instead of landing in long-term foster care….
Amy Lemley, policy director of the John Burton Foundation, is among the foster-care advocates who is trying to stir pressure on the governor and legislators to restore these cuts. “If you can’t rally to protect abused and neglected children, what does that say about the state’s priorities?” she asked….
45. “Transit change fuels concerns for disabled - Meeting attendees say cutbacks to bus service will hurt them” (Albuquerque Journal, September 2, 2009); story citing CHRIS CALVERT (MPP 1979).
By Phil Parker, Journal Staff Writer
The Santa Fe Transit
Advisory Board meeting was a fiery affair Tuesday night as several members of
Santa Fe Ride, a service for people whose disabilities make it difficult to use regular bus service, will switch from running around the clock to being offered from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The changes came in response to the city’s declining revenues during the slumping economy.
If city income dips further, then Phase Two would go into effect. Those proposed changes would eliminate Sunday service, change routes 1, 4, 21 and 24 from 30 minutes to 45 minutes, and modify bus schedules on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day and the Friday after Thanksgiving….
There was almost unanimous animosity from the audience that the Phase One changes have already been approved, but [city transit director Jon] Bulthuis said there have been several transit board and City Council meetings previously where concerned citizens could have voiced opposition.
“It’s tough,” he said after Tuesday’s meeting. “Until there are changes that affect people’s lives, it’s hard to get them engaged.”
Said City Councilor Chris Calvert, a member
of the transit board: “Nobody pays attention sometimes until it’s too late.” Calvert promised audience members that
he’ll investigate whether any modifications can be made to Phase One. Whether
Phase Two becomes a more serious topic of conversation depends on
46. “Gov. Kulongoski Submits Appointments for Senate Consideration” (US State News, September 2, 2009); newswire citing JOCK MILLS (MPP 1981).
Fair Dismissals Appeals
- reappointments of David Krumbein,
Pendleton and Jock Mills,
47. “Fear of rebels in
By Owen Bowcott
Attacks by rebels are
spreading fear and the threat of famine through previously undisturbed tracts
of the
As many as 320,000 people in the north of the country have been displaced by the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army as it extends its abduction and terror raids across the region, according to the UN children’s agency.
Unicef’s executive director, Ann Veneman, returned this week from
the town of
As many as 1,200 civilians are estimated to have been killed in the area in two years. In one raid LRA fighters attacked a Catholic church last December, hacking worshippers to death.
“The population of Dungu
live in constant fear of attacks from the LRA, who inflicted 20 years of terror
in
“I met a boy who had been kidnapped by the LRA,” Veneman said. “His foot became seriously infected and he was unable to keep up with the treks across the countryside. The rebels severely beat him and left him behind. He lay stranded in the bush without food or water for five days.” He is now being looked after by a foster family in Dungu.
48. “FCC Should Set Bar High for Broadband Definition” (Targeted News Service, September 1, 2009); newswire citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).
In the comments, Free Press emphasized the importance of creating a “future-proof” definition that treats broadband as critical infrastructure and takes into account the services and applications consumers can utilize with their connection, especially high-quality video communications.
Derek Turner, research director of Free Press, made the following statement:
“We need a definition of
broadband that sets the right course for policy in this country and returns the
Read Free Press’ recommendations for how the FCC should define broadband here: www.freepress.net/files/FreePress_Broadband_Definition_Comments.pdf
49. “ISPs Seek to Lowball Broadband Definition” (PC Magazine.com, September 2, 2009); story citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The biggest U.S. Internet service providers urged regulators to adopt a conservative definition of “broadband,” arguing for minimum speeds that were substantially below many other nations….
The Obama administration is seeking ways to extend broadband services to both unserved Americans living in rural areas and to make broadband affordable for those living in urban areas.
Some of the submissions from service providers argued for a definition that even undercut an international ranking of U.S. Internet speed.
A 2008 study by the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development showed that the United
States ranked 19th with an advertised rate of 9.6 megabytes per second (mbps).
The top three countries were
Comcast Corp, the biggest cable provider, said that “simpler is better” … in its letter, which argued for defining “basic” broadband as having a downstream and upstream speed of 0.256 mbps.
However, Free Press, a public interest group, urged Congress and the FCC to set the bar high and to consider broadband as a critical infrastructure.
In its submission, Free Press urged the FCC to craft a definition with a minimum upstream and downstream speed of at least 5 mbps for each end user.
“We fully recognize that incumbents for the most part will scoff at a symmetrical definition,” wrote Derek Turner, research director at Free Press. “The commission must ignore any such self-serving pleas for watered-down standards.” …
50. “Bike economics 101: How the cycle track pumps green into the local economy” (The Oregonian, September 01, 2009); blog citing JOE CORTRIGHT (MPP 1980); http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2009/09/bike_economics_101_how_the_cyc.html
By Joseph Rose, The Oregonian
A cyclist makes his way along
It should be old news.
But after reading today’s comments from critics and skeptics regarding Portland’s new buffered bike lanes and downtown cycle track, it’s obvious that we need to dust off economist Joe Cortright’s 2007 study on how Portland’s green policies added at least $800 million a year to the local economy.
For instance, Hard Drive reader “tombdragon” wonders about the bike-lane experiments: “What is the measurable economic benefit, and what warrants the change?”
Well, Mr. Dragon …, Cortright’s detailed white paper “
“Skeptics view biking, transit, density and urban growth boundaries as a kind of virtuous self-denial, well meaning, but silly and uneconomic. Critics see the seeds of economic ruin. They claim planning, policies and regulations that restrict use or access to resources impede growth and lower household income. Both the skeptics and the critics are wrong. Being green means Portlanders save a bundle on cars and gas, and local residents have more money to spend on other things they value, which in turn stimulates the local economy.”
How does he figure?
Cortright notes, among other things, that
That doesn’t sound like much. But then Cortright does the math.
“The
51. “College
GuideRankings” (Washington Monthly, September 1, 2009); rankings citing
Below are the
1 University of
2 Univ. of
3 Univ. of
4 Stanford University (CA) Overall score 79 ….
52. “Possible language to revamp derivatives markets may put ISOs and RTOs under CFTC umbrella” (Inside F.E.R.C., August 31, 2009); story citing WILLIAM HEDERMAN (MPP 1974).
By Eric Wieser
Recently proposed legislative language meant to overhaul derivatives trading would not only reform derivatives markets, but also threatens to subject certain financial products in markets operated by independent system operators and regional transmission organizations to Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight, according to a research group.
The Department of Treasury earlier this month sent legislative language to Congress to kick off the debate on derivatives oversight reform. One of the key proposals, if adopted, would require standardized derivatives to be cleared through a central clearing party overseen by the CFTC….
In a recent research note to its clients, Concept Capital’s Washington Research Group discussed the proposal and argued that measures as currently proposed could put the RTO/ISO markets under the CFTC regulatory umbrella instead of FERC’s. “These rules would probably subject electricity market operators, such as PJM and other RTO/ISOs, to CFTC regulation because they clear products that would probably be considered swaps, such as virtual trades,” wrote the group.
Virtual and financial transmission markets are part of the vast electricity markets operated by RTOs and ISOs. While day-ahead markets are tied to physical scheduling of power, other products such as the FTRs or virtuals are financial products to hedge risk…
William Hederman, a senior vice president with the research group and a former FERC enforcement official, said the issue of CFTC jurisdiction over the electricity markets has come up before. Yet he does not think Congress is “intentionally casting a net to include electricity markets,” but rather looking for all swaps to be cleared through an exchange.
If financial transmission rights or virtual trades were interpreted as swaps, then they would have to be cleared, he said. In the electricity arena, Hederman noted that the recently launched Nodal Exchange is already clearing some electricity products….
Some market participants argue that transactions done through an ISO/RTO could be considered going through a central clearing party. A “question raised by this whole train of thought is whether or not an ISO would meet the definition of a ‘clearing organization’ for determining where transactions in its markets fit in any regulatory scheme,” said one market participant.
To determine whether a transaction done through an ISO/RTO is in fact a cleared product would probably require a regulatory ruling or court ruling to determine whether an RTO/ISO is considered an exchange or central clearing organization, Hederman said….
53. “Sunset Magazine and the California Coastal Commission announce the 2009 Coastal Heroes Awards” (PR Newswire, August 31, 2009); award citing LINDA SHEEHAN (MPP/JD 1990).
On September 17, 2009, Sunset
magazine (www.sunset.com), the premier guide to life in the West, and the
California Coastal Commission (www.coastal.ca.gov) will present their first
Coastal Heroes Awards. The awards honor nine individuals whose dedication and
hard work are protecting the
The 2009 Sunset magazine/California Coastal Commission Coastal Heroes are: …
Linda
54. “Health care premiums’ ‘double-edged sword’; Lowering costs for old could raise them for young” (Gannett News Service, August 30, 2009); newswire citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP/MPH 1989) and KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
By Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News
Chris Denny, who runs a
small marketing firm in
Yet the same policy, from the same insurer, would cost a 60-year-old man $735 a month, according to an estimate at eHealthInsurance, an online marketplace that lists quotes and coverage from a variety of insurers….
For years, insurers have charged older customers far more than younger ones, in part because of older residents’ higher use of medical services. Now, as Congress wrestles with a health care overhaul aimed at covering the majority of the 46 million uninsured, that discrepancy is one area targeted for change….
.... Limit insurers to charging only a small difference in monthly premiums between older and younger people, and the younger ones would likely pay far more than they do now. Allow a larger spread, and older residents may be priced out of coverage.
“It’s absolutely a
double-edged sword,” says Marian Mulkey,
a senior program officer at the
Proposals approved by House and Senate committees would limit insurers to charging older people no more than double what younger people pay. Only nine states now restrict the range insurers can charge individuals based on age….
Age is currently one of many factors that go into premium pricing, along with an applicant’s health, geographic location and the type of coverage and benefits sought, says Karen Pollitz, project director at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute.
Average medical spending per person among 18- to 44-year-olds was $2,079 in 2006, the latest data available from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Spending for 45- to 64-year-olds was $4,866, about 2.3 times more….
Pollitz calls the industry request for a 5-1 ratio “obscene.”
“That’s just a tax on getting old,” she says….
If Congress limits insurers to charging older residents double what younger ones pay, Mulkey at the California Healthcare Foundation gives a “ballpark estimate” that premiums for younger people in her state could double. Meanwhile, premiums could decline by about 50% for older people….
Georgetown’s Pollitz says it would be difficult to assess how efforts to regulate age-based premiums have affected the young and old in other states because most do not post premium prices online. Yet she notes the gap in premiums is larger in states that have less regulation….
55. “The Local Buzz, Aug. 28: PUC decision targets energy” (San Gabriel Valley Tribune, August 27, 2009); newswire citing DAVID GAMSON (MPP 1986).
The California Public Utilities Commission this week issued a proposed decision by Commissioner Dian M. Grueneich and administrative law Judge David Gamson that would approve 2010-2012 energy efficiency budgets and programs for the state’s investor-owned electric and gas utilities: Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas and Electric Company, and Southern California Gas Company.
The proposed decision would approve $2.9 billion dollars of ratepayer-support for energy efficiency programs administered by the state’s investor-owned utilities; establishes 12 statewide programs to harness greater efficiencies in program administration, marketing, and evaluation; and it launches a broad-scale residential retrofit initiative, under the California Statewide Program for Energy Efficiency, targeting 20 percent savings in 130,000 homes by 2012.
It also updates
It would additionally create a new statewide brand to coordinate effective messages about energy efficiency, renewable energy, and demand-side management, alongside those of climate action….
56. “Revamp community colleges, study urges; A hodgepodge of transfer policies is cited as one reason so few students go on to a four-year institution” (Los Angeles Times, August 27, 2009); story citing NANCY BOROW SHULOCK (MPP 1978).
By Seema Mehta
Community college student Kristen Grand dreams of transferring to Cal State Long Beach so she can earn a bachelor’s degree in social work and become an adoption caseworker. But the process of accumulating the right course work and filling all the requirements is overwhelming, the 26-year-old says…..
Grand is not alone. More
than 2.7 million Californians are students in the state’s sprawling network of
community colleges. Some are enrolled in vocational classes or pursuing
two-year degrees, while others seek a path into a four-year institution. But
relatively few make the jump—in the 2007-08 school year, 106,666 students
successfully transferred to a
Now, a new study finds
that the obstacles
Fixing the pipeline to baccalaureate degrees is vital to the state’s economic future, according to the study by the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Cal State Sacramento. The report [coauthored by Nancy Shulock], which is scheduled to be released today, notes that by 2025, there will be 1 million more jobs for college graduates in California than there are degree-holders.
“The issue is not new, but the problem is taking on increasingly large dimensions,” said Nancy Shulock, the institute’s executive director. “It’s a pretty straight line—you can connect the dots between the number of educated people we have and the economic future of the state.”
The problem, she said, is exacerbated by the fact that community colleges often serve students who are unprepared, including those who are the first in a family to attend college, and lack enough counselors to meet their needs.
The report also found that the state’s higher education system, which includes 110 community colleges, suffers from a hodgepodge of transfer policies that result in students taking too many courses or the wrong courses—a frustrating waste of time and money that leads some to drop out….
For example, if a Bay
Area student enters community college and hopes to seek a bachelor’s degree in
psychology, the six nearest public four-year institutions, including
“That is very frustrating and confusing to students,” Shulock said. “They may not know what major they are going to choose, or what university they want to transfer into. They may not get into their first-choice university.” …
The report’s authors
advocate creating associate degrees specifically for transfer students that
would fulfill the basic requirements for all
A link to the study can be found at www.csus.edu/ihe .
57. “On water issue, Democrats try to give up some power” (Los Angeles Times, August 25, 2009); story citing RANDY KANOUSE (MPP/JD 1978) and sometime Visiting Lecturer PHIL ISENBERG; http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap25-2009aug25,0,5395588.column
By George Skelton, Capitol Journal
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is a major source of
Southland drinking water. (Robert Durell /
It’s power that Democrats have been incapable or unwilling to exercise anyway. And it’s not like they’re giving it to Republicans.
They’re attempting to
create an independent governing body to decide how to restore the ecosystem and
remodel the waterworks of the deteriorating Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta,
a major source of drinking water for Southern Californians and irrigation for
Wealth, livelihoods and
ways of life are at stake. Some of
Handing off the
decision-making authority to an outside entity was suggested by a special
commission—the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force—created by Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and headed by attorney
Philip Isenberg, a former high-ranking legislator and
More than 200 federal, state and local entities have their fingers in delta water, the panel noted in its report last October. “Everyone is involved but no one is in charge…. Continuation of the current system of governance ... guarantees continued deadlock and inevitable litigation.” …
The council’s co-equal mission would be to improve both the ecosystem and water supply. It would assess fees on users of delta water to pay for the billions in upgrades.
The Simitian bill is part of a comprehensive Democratic package that also would, among other things, require a 20% reduction in urban water consumption by 2020. Crop irrigation likewise would have to be more efficient. And all groundwater levels would be monitored by local agencies and reported to the state.
“This is the most profound, the most radical change in water policy in my lifetime,” says Randele Kanouse, veteran lobbyist for the East Bay Municipal Utility District. He says much tinkering is needed and urges the Legislature to delay final action until next year….
58. “Overuse of antivirals could make H1N1 pandemic even worse” (Los Angeles Times, August 24, 2009); story citing TIM UYEKI (MPP 1985/MD); http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-tamiflu24-2009aug24,0,5220123,full.story
By
Indiscriminate use of antiviral medications to prevent and treat influenza could ease the way for drug-resistant strains of the novel H1N1 virus, or swine flu, to emerge, public health officials warn—making the fight against a pandemic that much harder….
On Friday, however, the World Health Organization advised doctors that even those who are sickened with swine flu do not need to be given Tamiflu or Relenza if they are only mildly or moderately sick and are not in a high-risk group (such as children under 5, pregnant women and those with an underlying health condition)….
Some
A handful of resistant
H1N1 cases have been reported worldwide among people who had taken Tamiflu
preventively: three in
Those cases are not surprising nor of great concern to health authorities, said Dr. Tim Uyeki, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC. They are cropping up sporadically and don’t seem to be spreading from person to person.
“The most important question for public health is not whether sporadic cases occur but whether there is ongoing transmission of oseltamivir-resistant strains,” Uyeki said….
59. “The Insider’s Insider: Social Connections, Political Savvy and Boundless Energy Have Made Heather Podesta The It Girl of a New Generation of Lobbyists” (The Washington Post, August 24, 2009); column citing DOROTHY ROBYN (MPP 1978/PhD 1983).
By Manuel Roig-Franzia;
The yenta swung into action. After the opera one night, Robyn presented a list of three eligibles, with Tony Podesta—whom Robyn had dated briefly—at the bottom. Robyn moved him up, past “two wonky types,” when Heather kept saying she just “loooooves MEN.” Tony Podesta, Robyn decided, was sufficiently “larger-than-life” to satisfy her, even though he was more than a quarter century older.
A romance quickly blossomed, followed almost immediately by a living-together period and, in 2003, a show-stopping wedding reception….
60. “ICE boss says he suspended use of arrest quotas” (The Associated Press State & Local Wire, August 18, 2009); newswire citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
By Amy Taxin, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES -- The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday the agency is no longer using arrest quotas in a program aimed at tracking down immigrants who have ignored court orders to leave the country.
John Morton, assistant secretary of homeland security for ICE, told reporters that eliminating the quotas in the program was one of the changes he made since taking office this year….
Immigrant advocates
voiced outrage at the quotas and accused agents of racial profiling to net more
arrests. An internal ICE report released earlier this year showed that agents
arrested two dozen Latinos at a
ICE’s fugitive operations teams made more than 34,000 arrests during the 2008 fiscal year, more than double the number of arrests made two years earlier.
Morton, who spoke with
reporters on a two-day visit to
Karen Tumlin, a staff
attorney with the
“Having a quota system really drove a lot of that profiling and inappropriate enforcement,” Tumlin said. “It could be a positive sign. It is one of those only time will tell.”…
61. “Cash is king; More hospitals and systems are using credit scores and financial records in collection strategies—and they’re asking patients to pay upfront” (Modern Healthcare, August 17, 2009); story citing KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
By Melanie Evans
Hospitals have always known why patients visit. Increasingly they now know exactly which patients will be able to pay for those visits.
Income and credit scores have long been factors when consumers go to buy a car, home or apply for a credit card. Now consumers’ financial profiles—credit card balances, income and overdue bills—are taking hold in healthcare.
Hospitals have grown more sophisticated and aggressive when it comes to calculating the patient’s share of a medical bill, whether households have cash or credit to cover the debt, and how readily patients will pay, if at all. The push, fueled in part by a burgeoning industry in healthcare consumer credit, is changing when and how hospitals seek to collect what patients owe, from $50 copayments to deductibles 20 times that amount….
Behind the push, executives say, are growing numbers of health plans with hefty deductibles or coinsurance. The ongoing recession has added to the pressure. “The prior assumption was that if you had insurance you were a good credit risk,” [Richelle Fleischer of Riverside Health Systems] says. “The weakening economy is undermining that assumption.” …
But the industry’s push to collect could further jeopardize households’ financial stability at a time when a growing number of people are struggling with medical bills, says Karen Pollitz, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute, who studies private insurance regulation and has testified to Congress on legislation to expand affordable coverage.
Confronted by hospitals to settle medical bills with available credit lines, patients may quickly find such debt—compounded by credit card interest rates—unmanageable, Pollitz says.
Insurance may provide patients little protection from catastrophic medical bills, putting households at risk of financial distress or bankruptcy, particularly for the acutely or chronically ill, Pollitz says.
Health insurers are “very creative in how they can erode the actuarial value of a policy,” Pollitz says. Household medical bills can escalate rapidly when patients need more than routine care and run into clauses that limit benefits or exclude certain spending from applying to deductibles, says Pollitz, who notes rising rates of medical debt and bankruptcy. “Good insurance can nonetheless leave you exposed to thousands of dollars for covered services every year,” she says….
62. “U.S. should no longer stand alone in North America” (Naples Daily News (FL), August 17, 2009); editorial citing LAYDA NEGRETE (MPP 1998/PhD cand.) and ROBERTO HERNANDEZ (PhD cand.).
Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexican trucks were to have unrestricted highway passage in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas in the beginning, and, later, all highways. Roadblocks, however, of one kind or another have been imposed since 1995….
It might take a while for public attitudes to warm up to the fact that we are increasingly perceived abroad as part of a North American community and not standing alone….
How to work together
should not have us in a quandary. North American advanced higher-education
institutions all should operate with some active collaboration involving a
sister college or university in
Take for instance what
two Mexican students, Layda Negrete
and Roberto Hernandez, did while each worked on their doctorates at the
But after she and Hernandez teamed up to tell the same story in a 20-minute documentary, political channels took note. The issue soon became part of a national debate. Eventually, in 2008, an amendment was made to the Mexican Constitution to include due-process rights and presumption of innocence of defendants.
A full-length film by
the pair about one of their cases recently debuted in
Unless we increase norms for civic, political and economic exchanges to influence each other’s countries, how else does change happen?
No matter how we try to make it seem, our economic situation is awakening us to the fact that the North American nations are intertwined in ways we have been reluctant to acknowledge, including driving delivery trucks.
– Hispanic Link News Service
63. “Natural gas to try making up for lost time as Senate grapples with climate bill in fall” (Electric Utility Week, August 17, 2009); story citing SKIP HORVATH (MPP 1976).
By Cathy Cash
As the Senate drafts legislation to tackle climate change, natural gas interests are vowing to work harder to get more support for the fuel that emits half the carbon of coal-fired generation, although some policy experts remain concerned about the prospects for steady, affordable supplies of gas….
The bill (H.R. 2454) that passed the House June 26 gave coal-fired utilities — tagged a top emitter of greenhouse gases — billions of dollars toward the development of carbon capture and sequestration technology. Coal-fired generation also got 35% of the pot of free emission allowances to help keep coal units running under a federal mandate to cut carbon emissions starting in 2012.
Natural gas would come under the cap in 2016 and gas local distribution companies would receive 9% of the allowances, after the American Gas Association sought that provision late in the Energy and Commerce Committee’s markup process….
Natural Gas Supply Association President and CEO Skip Horvath, in an interview last week, said his group would seek “parity” in allowances.
Perhaps surprisingly, he also said the industry wants carbon capture and storage provisions aimed specifically at natural gas plants. Although the CCS language in the House bill is written in a way that is neutral, it would largely apply to coal projects, Horvath said.
“Our focus will be on CCS, because that is going to be an important part of any carbon-constrained future. That is something Congress can do something about,” said Horvarth, adding that lawmakers could set annual funding for carbon capture projects. “I want to make sure natural gas is at the table. Most people are not aware that CCS is more applicable for gas than coal.”
Horvath called a new report, from [Tim] Wirth and [John Podesta], a move in the right direction. “It clearly establishes the argument and the case that natural gas is going to be part of our future, not as a bridge fuel but as a sustainable fuel,” he said….
64. “Northwest wind power: My, how you’ve grown” (The Oregonian, August 16, 2009); editorial citing ROB GRAMLICH (MPP 1995); http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/northwest_wind_power_my_how_yo.html
By Rick Attig, The Oregonian
For the past decade, Northwest policymakers have treated wind energy like a newborn, lavishing it with political love and bathing it in tax credits and other incentives….
Wind generation in the Northwest has nearly doubled each of the past four years. Now the thousands of spinning blades in the Columbia River Gorge have the capacity to produce more than 2,000 megawatts—meaning wind farms can churn out the equivalent of two Bonneville dams.
And with wind generation predicted to double again in two years, it will soon grow to the whopping size of four Bonnevilles….
Two recent events should spur a broader public discussion about wind power.
One was the Bonneville Power Administration’s announcement that it will increase by 90 percent the rate it charges wind producers to absorb and smooth out the intermittent stream of power sent onto the grid. The other was Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s veto of a bill that would have cut tax credits to large wind energy projects….
For their part, wind producers now seem committed to making a much greater effort to accurately forecast and schedule their output. The BPA is installing 16 stations to measure wind speed and direction around the region to provide data to wind operators at five-minute intervals.
It is noteworthy that the American Wind Energy Association and other industry groups praised BPA’s final rate increase. “Bonneville has taken steps on transmission that lead other utilities around the country,” said Rob Gramlich, senior vice president of the American Wind Energy Association….
65. “Last-minute boost
for
By Theresa Harrington, Staff Writer
Less than three weeks
from the first day of classes, the
“We staffed extremely tightly,” Interim Superintendent Dick Nicoll said. “But it turned out, like it often does, that it’s just not enough teachers at all schools.”
Although the district’s overall enrollment is declining, some schools will see more students than projected because of transfers, said Alan Young, associate superintendent for educational services….
The district will use nearly $1 million in federal stimulus funds to hire more than 15 teachers who will work at seven middle schools and four high schools. It will hire five more teachers with about $350,000 set aside for low-income and limited English students….
66. “They came, they
saw, they heard, they tasted. Sproul Hall staff kids experience all things
By Dick Corten, Graduate Division
(Ellen Gobler photo)
BERKELEY, Calif. -- Ranging in age from two to
10, a lively bunch of kids children of staff members in the Graduate Division
and the Ombuds Office for Students (both quartered in Sproul Hall) had a full
agenda on “Bring a Child to Work Day,” July 23….
Yes, this was where mom or dad worked. But they also got to tour the UC Police Department including its small holding cell, and Morgan the friendly, bomb-sniffing dog hear the Cal Straw Hat Band perform at Sather Gate, and see the huge T-rex skeleton and other treasures of the Valley Life Sciences Building.
They lunched at Crossroads (courtesy of Cal Dining), took a Fun Tour of campus, learned some yoga (from Graduate Division’s assistant development director Karyn Krause), had storytime (conducted by public policy alumna Anat Shenker), and were ultimately rewarded with a “diploma” from Graduate Division Associate Dean Joseph Duggan.
67. Overcoming the odds in a marriage of opposites” (Manhattan Mercury (KS), August 9, 2009); book review citing SOPHIA RADAY (MPP 1993).
Love in
Condition Yellow: A Memoir of an Unlikely Marriage, by Sophia Raday
Beacon Press; 2009. 288 pages, $24.95 hardcover
Reviewed by Robin Farrell Edmunds, Contributing writer
On the heels of a difficult break-up, political activist and “hippie girl” Raday is set up on a blind date by her cousin George with big-city policeman and former soldier, Barrett. She is urged by extended family members to go: “I realized this is an odd triangulation. Thirteen-year-old Mallory thinks Barrett’s cute and my thirty-one-year-old gay cousin thinks he has je ne sais quoi. Hmm.” …
This is the engaging
story of their courtship and eventual marriage against the backdrop of events
in the
The second half of the book is about the give and take of marriage and the evolving dynamics of life as more than a couple. Raday envisions motherhood, a professional career, home renovations, and life with her protector, her rock.
Then 9/11 happens and her husband, a Reserve soldier, is ready. “Barrett is a warrior always on the lookout. You could almost say he was waiting for this moment, preparing for it, all his life.”
Raday, who has a master’s
degree from the
The family struggles with conception, work and time constraints, and the eventual deployment of Barrett to the war…. It’s a story many families could tell, but Raday tells it best….
68. “Post saluted for class act; city & fed bigs hail school series” (New York Post, August 7, 2009); story citing RAY DOMANICO (MPP 1979).
By Maggie Haberman
Mayor Bloomberg led a chorus of praise yesterday for The Post’s series highlighting the improvements under mayoral control, saying the paper’s coverage helped pave the way for extending the system.
“Today, the state Senate
stood up for
“Many individuals and organizations played a part in securing this victory, and the New York Post, with its series ‘City Schools, City Rules,’ “ played a critical role in highlighting exactly how much was at stake.”
The accolades for the
months-long series, largely written by Post reporter Carl Campanile, came from
lawmakers in
The articles focused on school safety, accountability measures such as ending social promotion, and parental involvement in the process. Post editorials and columns also focused on retaining the current structure….
“You kept the focus on mayoral control and provided a lot of solid information on what was going on.” - Ray Domanico, parent adviser, Metro-Industrial Areas Foundation …
69. “Price Variation in Markets with Homogenous Goods: The Case of Medigap” by Nicole Maestas, Mathis Schroeder, Dana Goldman (NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health, 2009, No. 1); NBER working paper coauthored by NICOLE MAESTAS (MPP 1997/PhD Econ 2002); http://www.nber.org/aginghealth/2009no1/WorkingPaperSummaries.html
Abstract: Nearly 30 percent of Americans age 65 and older supplement their Medicare health insurance through the Medigap private insurance market. We show that prices for Medigap policies vary widely, despite the fact that all plans are standardized and even after controlling for firm heterogeneity. Economic theory suggests that heterogeneous consumer search costs can lead to a non-degenerate price distribution within a market for otherwise homogenous goods…. We argue that information problems arise from the complexity of the insurance product and lead individuals to rely on insurance agents who do not necessarily guide them to the lowest prices.
70. “
By Paul Thissen
Two
In order to help Concord Chevrolet survive after the demise of Fitzpatrick Chevrolet, the city’s redevelopment agency plans to give the new dealership a $250,000 loan.
And the city plans to give Lehmer Buick Pontiac GMC an extra year or two to repay $170,000 it owes for a parking lot it bought from the city’s redevelopment agency.
Both deals are to be considered today by the Concord City Council.
“We’ve been working very hard to try to hold on and keep auto dealerships from closing down,” said Alex Greenwood, the city’s economic development manager. “We want to make sure, to put it crassly, that we’re the last man standing.”
The investments will pay off in the long term, he said. Concord Chevrolet is projected to bring the city about $300,000 in sales tax revenue per year, he said.
And with the number of dealers shutting their doors across the region, those that remain may command an even greater share of the market when the economy recovers, providing even more tax revenue for the city, he said….
71. “NUMMI just the
latest in
By Patrick May
Chrystal Grow uses a special robotic chair to help her install
silencer pads in the dashboard of a Pontiac Vibe at the NUMMI auto plant in
…Along with keen innovation, intoxicating sunshine and world-class universities, one of the Bay Area’s trademarks has been its steady erosion of manufacturing jobs. Decades of workplace detritus litter the region, from shipbuilding to aerospace to computer chips.
And that trend could
accelerate with the seemingly imminent closing of
From a peak in the San Jose metropolitan area of about 264,000 manufacturing jobs in 2000, to about 165,000 in 2008, the long slide has sent thousands of job seekers packing for other states and left countless others scrambling to find replacement work….
In fact, the total number of jobs in the seven-county region, according to state figures, has risen from about 2.66 million in 1990 to nearly 3 million last year….
Across the bay in
“And we don’t have to give up on manufacturing,” Henton says. “It’ll just be a different kind of manufacturing.”
Labor market consultant
Ruth Kavanagh says that when
By last year, that
number had dropped by nearly a third, to 303,900, or about one in 10 jobs in
the region.
Henton says, though, “there are actually more manufacturing jobs here than people may realize.” And in addition to those “quieter” jobs, such as under-the-radar work for the Department of Homeland Security and military-defense technologies, Henton says Silicon Valley engineers are busy “designing satellites, for example, and these require some production, too. There’s also still some agricultural machinery manufacturing going on; it’s small, but these jobs add up.”
As a rule, Henton says, while the region lost jobs in previous economic downturns, it was able to create new ones as the latest wave unfolded, such as Internet and software technologies, and even new processes like eBay and online insurance.
Technology, though, explains only part of the job erosion. Outsourcing overseas, a political hot potato and something economists struggle to quantify, surely took many of the valley’s jobs away forever, including the lion’s share of its fabrication plants.
Still, people like Henton warn that outsourcing can be a misleading term.
“It’s a very hard thing to track,” he says. “And while the semiconductor industry moved all their fabs overseas years ago, we still do the design work here, even though assembly is done elsewhere. That’s an important distinction to make. Outsourcing has been going on a long, long time, and it all comes down to what end of the value chain we want to be on.” …
72. “Scientists zoom in on carbon dioxide in NYC” (Brattleboro Reformer (VT), July 19, 2009); story citing KEVIN GURNEY (MPP 1996).
By Jennifer Peltz, Associated Press Writer
Within 15 minutes, a
graph spiked in his office eight blocks away. The abrupt peak marked the carbon
dioxide the
The rise of greenhouse gases already has increased temperatures, sea levels and heavy rains enough to affect water supplies, agriculture and health, and the effects are expected to worsen, scientists told the Obama administration in a report released last month. The report calls for more work on distinguishing human and natural factors in climate change and scaling the information down to local levels….
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration now has about 70 carbon dioxide sensors around the world, many in remote areas. The agency hopes to do more carbon dioxide monitoring in cities to help test whether efforts to curb carbon emissions are effective, said Pieter Tans, who runs the monitor network….
Purdue University researcher Kevin Gurney sends a low-flying plane
over
73. “Flowers Heritage Foundation Donates 500,000 Condoms to Non-Profit Organizations” (Business Wire, July 13, 2009); newswire citing MARK CLOUTIER (MPP/MPH 1993).
The Foundation’s donation includes … 100,000 condoms to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Stop AIDS Project….
“Condoms remain the most
effective way to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV,” said Mark Cloutier, CEO of the
74. “Selling a city in hard times” (Contra Costa Times, July 3, 2009); story citing ALEX GREENWOOD (MPP 1993) and EMILY CHANG (MPP 2001); http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_12749277?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com
By Paul Thissen
His product is the city
of
It’s his job, as economic development manager, to convince
businesses to move to
And he’s excited, even
though the
“This is a city at an
inflection point, at a very important moment in its history,”
The statistics roll off his tongue: $50 million in new retail under construction in the midst of the recession, and office space is 25 to 30 percent cheaper than in nearby cities — a great selling point….
Some of the city’s successes are concrete, like resurrecting Concord Chevrolet with new owners out of the ashes of Fitzpatrick Chevrolet.
The City Council will vote later this month on a $250,000 loan from the city’s redevelopment agency to help that dealer. At the same meeting, the council will consider a revised Economic Vitality Plan, which formalizes where the city should focus its efforts….
Many cities are trying
to increase sales tax revenue in the recession, but not all are taking their
efforts as far as
In Walnut Creek, neither the city nor the Walnut Creek Downtown Business Association have done anything to directly reach out to businesses and encourage them to come to Walnut Creek, said Emily Chang, the association’s executive director. It hasn’t been necessary, she said.
The association focuses
its efforts on encouraging residents to spend their dollars at home.
75. “World Bank Group:
Asia Pacific Global Development Learning Network members discuss further
contributions to the region’s prosperity in
The World Bank Mongolia
Office and
Mongolia’s Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is a major partner of GDLN in Mongolia and today the Minister Mr Yo Otgonbayar opened the meeting saying that this was a great opportunity to step up national distance learning and boosting the interaction with the GDLN….
According to Philip Karp, GDLN Coordinator, East Asia and Pacific Region and World Bank Institute Lead Specialist, “GDLN provides a unique mix of delivery infrastructure, partnership networks, and understanding of how to make effective use of modern information and communication technologies for learning and knowledge exchange. The purpose of our meeting this week has been to share experience on how to make best use of our network to foster economic and social development in the Asia Pacific region.”…
76. “Carla Javits’ speech to the Goodwill Industries Delegate Assembly on June 30, 2009” (REDF Publications, 2009); event featuring CARLA JAVITS (MPP 1985); http://www.redf.org/learn-from-redf/publications/778
Carla Javits, REDF’s President, spoke at the 2009 Goodwill Industries International Delegate Assembly. In this transcript of her speech, Carla explains how Goodwill may consider building on their reputation to make an even greater impact for those faced with the most urgent and compelling problems.
77. “Ford, Nissan, Tesla to get first loans under DOE auto-retooling program” (Inside Energy with Federal Lands, June 29, 2009); story citing LUKE TONACHEL (MPP 2004).
By Alexander Duncan
The Energy Department said last week it plans to award $8 billion in low-interest loans to Ford, Nissan and Tesla Motors, marking the first disbursal of funds under a fledgling $25-billion program designed to help automakers achieve better fuel economy and produce cutting-edge vehicles such as electric cars.
Ford would receive $5.9
billion to retool several factories across the Midwest, while Nissan North
America would get $1.6 billion to revamp one of its plants in
Congress added the so-called Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program to a major 2007 energy bill to help automakers to comply with a provision that required them to meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards of at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020, an increase of about 40% over current levels….
The Obama administration
last month increased the CAFE standards to 35.5 mpg by 2016. The White House
also set the first-ever limits on motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions that
are said to exacerbate global warming. Those standards are based on a
The Natural Resources Defense Council expressed support for the program and the loans announced last week. “These companies are investing in the technology and jobs to keep them competitive for the long term,” said Luke Tonachel, a vehicles analyst at NRDC. “Advanced technologies are the key to transforming the auto industry.”
78. “Children to visit D.C. to talk about living with type 1 diabetes” (Connecticut Post, June 17, 2009); story citing CYNTHIA RICE (MPP 1994).
By Lisa Chamoff, Staff Writer
Delilah Brien, who just finished kindergarten at The Stanwich
School, will represent
Delilah Brien only mentions the good things when she talks about her life with type 1 diabetes—the free Jell-O at the hospital after being diagnosed last year at age 5, and the colorful candy she gets to eat when her blood sugar is low.
She has blood drawn more than a dozen times a day to test her sugar levels, but that doesn’t phase Delilah, who recently finished kindergarten at The Stanwich School….
Delilah and her family
are hoping for an end to repeated finger pricks and adjusting her insulin pump.
On Monday, the 6-year-old is traveling to
Delilah is one of 150
children and teenagers, including five from
“We find that children can be very persuasive advocates to talk about how it is to live with type 1 diabetes and their hopes for a cure,” said Cynthia Rice, the vice president of government relations for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. “It happens all the time that members of Congress, when they meet with our board members or our staff members, they always remember the children they met at Children’s Congress.”
The kids tell their representatives about how when they play sports, they have to stop periodically to test their blood sugar, Rice [Chair Mom for Children’s Congress 2009] said They also create a scrapbook with their story….
Next week, the Children’s Congress will focus on urging legislators to reauthorize a special federal program that puts $150 million a year toward diabetes research, about 35 percent of the federal funding for the disease, according to Rice….
79. “House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity Hearing; The Section 8 Voucher Reform Act; Testimony by William Fischer, Senior Policy Analyst, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities” (Congressional Documents and Publications, June 4, 2009); congressional testimony by WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999).
… There are three reasons why it is important that Congress not only act on SEVRA [Section 8 Voucher Reform Act], but do so expeditiously. First, SEVRA is already long overdue. More than 10 years have passed since the last major authorizing legislation affecting the voucher program, the 1998 Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act. As with any government program, there are substantial benefits to be reaped from updating the voucher program as circumstances change and lessons are learned.
Second, enacting the bill promptly would allow the new Administration to use it as a foundation for efforts to strengthen the voucher program and other housing assistance programs through administrative or regulatory action. If Congress delays action, HUD may undertake some administrative streamlining and other reforms, but such efforts would be limited by the constraints of the current statutory framework and likely would require revision once SEVRA is enacted. As a result, later enactment of SEVRA would increase administrative burdens on HUD and its partners.
Last and most important, SEVRA is urgently needed to help low-income families cope with the consequences of the economic downturn, including rising homelessness and poverty and widespread foreclosures. The bill’s provisions enabling agencies to assist more families with available resources and protecting tenants of owners facing financial difficulty are particularly timely. The sooner SEVRA is enacted, the sooner it will begin helping families that are clinging to their homes or are already doubled up with friends or relatives, living in shelters, or on the streets….
1. “Alternative Energy Projects Stumble on a Need for Water” (New York Times, September 30, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN and firm managed by JIM MARVER (MPP 1974/PhD 1978); http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/business/energy-environment/30water.html?pagewanted=2&em
By Todd Woody
The German developer Solar Millennium hopes land in the valley, above, can be home to solar plants. Public opinion, partly because of water issues, appears to be split. (Isaac Brekken for The New York Times)
But then things got messy. The company revealed that its preferred method of cooling the power plants would consume 1.3 billion gallons of water a year, about 20 percent of this desert valley’s available water….
Here is an inconvenient truth about renewable energy: It can sometimes demand a huge amount of water. Many of the proposed solutions to the nation’s energy problems, from certain types of solar farms to biofuel refineries to cleaner coal plants, could consume billions of gallons of water every year….
Conflicts over water could shape the future of many energy technologies. The most water-efficient renewable technologies are not necessarily the most economical, but water shortages could give them a competitive edge….
… BrightSource Energy’s dry-cooled Ivanpah
project in
The greater water efficiency was one factor that led VantagePoint Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm [in which Jim Marver is managing partner], to invest in BrightSource. “Our approach is high sensitivity to water use,” said Alan E. Salzman, VantagePoint’s chief executive. “We thought that was going to be a huge differentiator.” …
While water is particularly scarce in the West, it is becoming a problem all over the country as the population grows. Daniel M. Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, predicted that as intensive renewable energy development spreads, water issues will follow.
“When we start getting 20 percent, 30 percent or 40 percent of our power from renewables,” Mr. Kammen said, “water will be a key issue.”
2. “California GOP sees hope on the horizon” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 28, 2009); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/27/MNQ419TJJ3.DTL
--Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
(09-28) 04:00 PDT Indian Wells, Riverside County -- California Republicans begin the 2010 campaign season with something many considered unthinkable just a few months ago—hope that they can win a major statewide race.
They realize the odds are still steep. Only 31
percent of
California Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth urged party members to reach out to supporters of the anti-tax, anti-government tea parties that have been held across the country over the past several months.
“Here’s the challenge: They’re angry at everyone,” Hollingsworth said. “We have to make sure to earn their trust. These folks have to realize that their natural home is the Republican Party.”
But Henry Brady, a professor of political science at UC Berkeley, was skeptical of the strategy.
“I don’t see where reaching out to the tea party people helps. That’s the fringe of the far right,” he said. “They need to reach out to the decline-to-state voters in the middle.” …
Brady, of
UC Berkeley, said that when times are difficult, the out-of-power party
stands to gain in an election. But
“I don’t see the fundamentals changing in
3. “Your Money: Don’t bank on your home as an ATM” (Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2009); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cover-housing27-2009sep27,0,6348009,print.story
By Peter Y. Hong
For generations of Americans, a home was seen
not simply as a dwelling, but as an engine of personal wealth. That view was
promoted by the home-building and real estate sales industries as well as the
Now, however, the worst housing crash since the Great Depression may mean that a home purchase ought to be considered with the same warning issued to investors in securities: Past performance is not indicative of future results….
“We can no longer assume that housing will be as
good an investment for the future as it has been,” said Robert Reich, public policy professor at UC Berkeley and U.S. Labor
secretary in the
“We can expect a gradual rise [in home values], but not the bonanza we’ve become accustomed to between the end of World War II and 2006, and especially the last 20 years.” …
The housing market may be hitting its bottom, as median prices lately have held steady or declined only modestly in many regions. But Reich and other economists say there are many fundamental reasons the coming decades won’t repeat the kind of dramatic rise in real estate values that previous generations experienced….
With greater debt loads and flat wages, Americans have less to spend on houses, condominium units and everything else….
Reich has noted that people developed “coping mechanisms” so they could keep spending as wages began flattening in the 1970s. More women entered the workforce; the percentage of working women with school-age children has nearly doubled, to about 70%, since 1970, Reich said. The typical American worker toils two weeks more per year than 30 years ago, Reich said, and more than the average European or Japanese worker.
The final coping mechanism, according to Reich, was easy credit that allowed people to buy homes they couldn’t otherwise afford and supported other consumption by borrowing against inflated home equity.
Still, Reich isn’t forecasting a catastrophe.
“People in the middle class, although stressed, will still want homes, and homeownership will still be part of the American dream,” he said. “House prices will continue to rise, just more slowly than they did in the past 70 years.” …
4. “Congress takes on financial reform” (Marketplace [NPR], September 25, 2009); interview with ROBERT REICH; listen to this interview
Steve Chiotakis: While the G-20 in
Robert Reich: Less than expected eight months ago. The sense of urgency is gone—most people are focused on health care these days, and the Street has been exercising its lobbying muscle, already watering down proposals for tightening rules on trading derivatives like credit-default swaps.
Chiotakis: And what about President Obama’s idea for giving the Fed this authority to oversee financial risk?
Reich: Doubtful. Many in Congress are asking why give the Fed more power when in blew it last time by not seeing the housing bubble? One possibility here: Chris Dodd, the new chair of the Senate banking committee, wants to combine the Fed with three other major bank regulators into one super regulator….
Chiotakis: And Bob, what if this is all for nothing, and we walk away without any bills getting passed?
Reich: Well don’t even think about it, Steve. Now that the big banks know they’re too big to fail and will be bailed out if their bets turn sour, they’re likely to make even riskier bets than before in the absence of smarter regulation and better oversight. And nobody wants to go through another meltdown again.
Chiotakis: All right. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who teaches public policy at
the
5. “Water to be auctioned by Chino Basin Watermaster” (Los Angeles Times, September 24, 2009); story citing MICHAEL HANEMANN; http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-water-auction24-2009sep24,0,3148275,full.story
By Bettina Boxall
Need more water? If you’ve got $30 million or so, you can bid for it at an auction this fall.
In what officials believe is a first for the state, a Southern California water agency is planning to auction off enough water to supply about 70,000 homes for a year....
Michael Hanemann, a resource economics professor at UC Berkeley, called water auctions “an idea that makes sense” but wasn’t sure whether they would take off as a trend.
Water “is a limited resource and we need to be aware of that. Putting a price on that is good. It makes the real value of the water transparent,” he said. “Raising the price, while unpleasant, is telling us something we need to know.”...
6. “Boisterous rally draws thousands to
An estimated 5,000 protesters
filled
BERKELEY, Calif. -- The UC budget wars came home Thursday as thousands of students, staff, and faculty held a series of events on and around campus to protest administrative measures including student-fee hikes, staff layoffs, and unpaid furloughs for staff and faculty.
About 5,000 people, many wearing red armbands
and carrying placards, overflowed
Campus disruptions, however, were minimal. Of Berkeley’s 10,000 or so staff employees, managers reported that 138 workers most members of the University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE), the Coalition of University Employees (CUE), and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) complied with those unions’ call for a one-day walkout to protest university-wide pay cuts….
A survey of campus departments suggested that while some classrooms and lecture halls remained empty, many faculty members had arranged to meet with students at alternate locations. Of 33 political-science classes scheduled for the day, only one was reported canceled….
At
She shared the class with fellow economists Brad DeLong and John Quigley, who together delivered a primer on how
7. “What good does the Dow rising do?” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR], September 23, 2009); Listen to this commentary
ROBERT REICH: So how can the Dow be flirting with 10,000 when consumers, who make up 70 percent of the economy, have had to cut way back on buying because they have no money? Jobs continue to disappear. Houses can no longer function as piggy banks because they’re worth far less. And Americans are compelled to pay off their debts and start to save, for the first time in a decade.
Even more curious, how can the Dow be so far up when every business and Wall Street executive I come across tells me government is crushing the economy with its huge deficits, and its supposed “takeover” of health care, autos, housing, energy, and finance? Their anguished cries of “socialism” are almost drowning out all their cheers over the surging Dow.
The explanation is simple. The great consumer retreat from the market is being offset by government’s advance into the market. Consumer debt is way down from its peak in 2006, government debt is way up. Consumer spending is down, government spending is up. Why have housing prices stopped falling and new housing starts begun? Because the Fed is keeping mortgage rates low by buying up Fannie and Freddie’s paper…..
RYSSDAL: Robert
Reich is a professor of public policy at the
8. “The Roundtable: Obama Media Blitz, Baucus Bill” (This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC TV, September 20, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT REICH; see this program
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS): … when people started to look at this bill by Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Chairman, this week, they look at some of the provisions, and for some middle class families in the $66,000 to $100,000 range, 13% of their incomes will be going to premiums before they go to co-pays and deductibles. And Bob Reich, this is something that it was interesting, Democrats pounced on this.
ROBERT
REICH (FORMER
... But look, it’s the beginning point. I think it is. This is the dance of legislation. Over the next month and a half, we’re going to see the Democrats in the House come out with a very different bill. We’re going to see something go to the Senate as a whole. We don’t know exactly what it is. We’re gonna see a lot of negotiating in the Senate Finance Committee itself. Is this a good place to begin? I would say it’s not ideal. But it’s at least a place to begin. I think the momentum for health care, is that such that we are going to get a health care bill on the President’s desk that he will be comfortable about signing this fall….
9. “Health reform’s ‘gang of 6’ reaps political cash” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 20, 2009); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/09/20/MNA519NGGU.DTL
--Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa,
pivotal in the health care debate, has received $223,600 from the industry. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
The bipartisan “gang of six” senators who helped craft the health care reform bill going before a key Senate committee Tuesday represent less than 3 percent of the U.S. population—but they hold a lot of power at a crucial policy-shaping moment in Congress.
That’s why, analysts say, health care industry lobbyists have showered them with more campaign cash on average than other senators this year, in an attempt to influence the outcome.
Three Republican and three Democratic senators in the group, all of them members of the Senate Finance Committee, received an average of $74,600 from health industry lobbyists, according to The Chronicle’s analysis of records through June.
That is about 25 percent more than the average of $59,632 in such donations that the gang’s other Senate colleagues raked in from lobbyists for the pharmaceutical, hospital, insurance and nursing home industries, according to the analysis, which was based on records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit watchdog group.
“Money buys access,” said Henry Brady, a professor of public policy and dean of the
10. “Wall Street’s up to old near-death tricks”
(Sunday Telegraph (
By Robert Reich
As he tried to do with health-care reform, the
Yet the prospects seem dubious. As with health-care reform, he has stood on the sidelines for months and allowed vested interests to frame the debate. Nor has he come up with a sufficiently bold or coherent set of reforms likely to change the way the Street does business, even if enacted.
Let’s be clear: The Street today is up to the same tricks it was playing before its near-death experience. Derivatives, derivatives of derivatives, fancy-dance trading schemes, high-risk bets. “Our model really never changed, we’ve said very consistently that our business model remained the same,’’ says Goldman Sachs’ chief financial officer.
The only difference now is the Street’s biggest banks know for sure they’ll be bailed out by the federal government if their bets turn sour—which means even bigger bets and bigger bucks….
The basic function of commercial banking in our economic system—linking savers to borrowers—should never have been confused with the casino-like function of investment banking. Securitisation, whereby loans are turned into securities traded around the world, has made lenders unaccountable for the risks they take on. Pension and superannuation plans should never have been allowed to subject their beneficiaries to the risks that Wall Street gamblers routinely run. The Street has been given too many chances to play too many games with other peoples’ money….
Yet without substantial reform,
Robert Reich, former
11. “Editorial: Green buildings are great investments” (Sacramento Bee, Sep. 18, 2009); editorial citing research by JOHN QUIGLEY; http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/2191095.html
As
Office buildings built to the latest energy-saving standards, the study found, rent for more than comparable structures. These energy efficient buildings also fetch a higher price when sold. Being green, in other words, can earn you green.
Researchers at the Center for the Study of Energy Markets examined records for 10,000 office buildings, their rental rates and sales prices. Their study concluded that, after controlling for the buildings’ quality and location, rental rates for “green” buildings were 3 percent higher per square foot than rents for otherwise identical buildings. “Effective rents,” after controlling for occupancy levels, were 6 percent higher. And sales prices were about 16 percent greater for the energy-efficient buildings.
The study found that every $1 in energy cost savings in a building with an Energy Star rating meant about $18 in increased value. The premium went beyond the value of the energy savings in part because of the intangible value of the Energy Star label….
[Read the study, “Doing Well by Doing Good? Green Office Buildings,” by Piet Eicholtz, Nils Kok and John Quigley.]
12. “Asia’s Future (in
The
... Robert
Collier [visiting scholar at the
13. “
--David L. Kirp, Professor, University of
There’s an endless debate about whether the high college dropout rate should be attributed to money or a failure to help students adjust and persevere. Like most such “better taste/fewer calories” arguments, it’s a pointless argument. We need to pay attention to both dollars and support.
Parse the dropout figures and you’ll see that poor students are least likely to make it to graduation. Those students, as economists remind us, do a better job of calculating short-term costs than figuring long-term benefits; that’s why proportionately fewer of qualified students from poor families enroll in college in the first place. The answer is straightforward—award grants during the first two years of school, when attrition is most likely, then shift gradually to a loan/grant package, making sure that students don’t face a crushing debt burden when they graduate.
At schools like U Mass and
14. “The Situation Room” (CNN, September 14, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT REICH; http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0909/14/sitroom.01.html
… WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, President Obama today was back on Wall Street talking about the economic recovery….
Joining us now, professor Robert Reich. He’s the author of “Supercapitalism.” He’s
a professor of public policy at the
University of California-Berkeley, a former
How much credit does President Obama deserve for the economic improvement, shall we say, over the past year? …
ROBERT REICH, FORMER U.S. LABOR SECRETARY: … Look … I do agree with Steve Forbes that things are looking better. The administration does deserve credit for bringing the financial crisis back from the brink. And, also, that stimulus program does seem to have had an effect. Although the spending part of it has not really done very much yet, much of it that is out there really has stimulated the economy.
Let me just say that the health care reforms that the president is talking about will go some way to continuing to stimulate the economy, simply because Americans are now spending so much on co- payments and deductibles and premiums that, if that could be lowered, if they could actually get better deals, that would give them more money to spend on other things in the economy. And that’s going to be stimulative….
15. “No recovery with so many unemployed” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR], September 10, 2009); Listen to this commentary
ROBERT REICH: According to last Friday’s jobs report, almost one out of six Americans who needs a full-time job either can’t find one or is working part-time. Meanwhile, wage growth among people who have jobs has just about stopped. And the typical workweek is now so short, at just over 33 hours, that if and when companies need workers they’ll just expand the hours of people already on payrolls rather than hire anyone new.
Bottom line: No net new private-sector jobs, probably for years.
Does this mean a jobless recovery? No. It means no recovery….
But according to a recent report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, we shouldn’t worry: 42 percent of consumer spending before the meltdown came from the top-earning 10 percent of Americans. Not too surprising given that the top 10 percent was raking in half of total earnings.
So as long as the top continues to do relatively well, says Bank of America, their spending will revive the economy….
This logic is morally and economically indefensible. If we’ve learned anything from the Great Meltdown, it’s that the skewing of income and wealth to the top has made our economy far less stable. Stagnant median wages, widening inequality, and job insecurity got us into this mess in the first place. And until we deal with them head on, the mess will remain.
RYSSDAL: Robert
Reich is a professor of public policy at
the
16. “Pres. Obama’s speech tries to bring clarity” (KGO TV, September 10, 2009); features commentary by HENRY BRADY; http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/politics&id=7007488
By Mark Matthews
WASHINGTON (KGO) -- In a prime time address to the nation and a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama outlined his goal of overhauling the nation’s health care system. He gave more specifics than he has in the past and said he is willing to compromise. This speech was a critical one for the president as he told Congress the time for bickering is over….
And he said for those don’t have insurance, there will be affordable choices.
“A market place where individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices,” said President Obama….
The official Republican response to the president’s speech was delivered by Louisiana Congressman Charles Boustany, a retired heart surgeon.
“The president had a chance tonight to take government run healthcare off the table, unfortunately he didn’t do it,” said Boustany.
The Republicans are characterizing the Democratic health care plan as a government take over….
The dean
of U.C. Berkeley’s
“They are so focused on the public option as the central problem with this, that it seems to me that eventually it’s going to be a very good thing for the President to say ‘Okay. If that’s so important to you, we’ll take that off the table’ and then he’ll get a lot of the other things that he cares about a lot, including making sure that we have a universal program that covers everybody,” said Brady.
Brady also believes Democrats will push this through the Senate using a procedure known as a reconciliation—which requires just a simple majority and cuts off the possibility of a Republican filibuster. If that happens, expect Republicans to howl.
17. “What Was Missing in Obama’s Speech” (New York Times, September 10, 2009); commentary by ROBERT REICH; http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/what-was-missing-in-obamas-speech/?hp
By The Editors
President Obama’s address to Congress on health care, coming after an August marked by confused messages and partisan rhetoric, had to accomplish a lot. It had to show Democrats his firm commitment to pushing through comprehensive reform this year. It had to respond to the intensifying opposition among Republicans. And it had to reassure nervous voters that change won’t leave them with less choice and less coverage.
We asked some analysts of health care politics to tell us what was good about the speech and what was missing.
• Robert Reich, former secretary of labor …
Too Little on What Controls Costs
Robert
Reich, a professor at the Goldman School of Public
Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was secretary of labor
in the
The president’s rebuttal of the fear-mongers was strong and he made a compelling case for preventing insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions or dropping coverage because of a serious illness and for requiring all Americans to have health insurance. He clarified his goal of full coverage and his support for a public insurance option.
But I thought he should have been clearer about how he intends to pay for the coverage of Americans who can’t otherwise afford it, and how he’ll contain future costs. A commission to look at health outcomes is a fine idea but how are its findings to be used and enforced?
Taxing high-cost insurance plans is worthwhile but won’t raise much money or dramatically reduce future costs. An optional public insurance plan that’s open to all would put competitive pressure on private plans to reduce costs while also pressuring drug companies and providers to do the same, but his version of a public option would be available only to a relatively small number of Americans who lack employer-provided care….
18. “Economics Lesson for Higher Ed” (Inside Higher Ed, September 10, 2009); story citing ROBERT REICH and HENRY BRADY; http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/09/10/reich
On Sunday
talk shows of late, Robert Reich has
been a vocal advocate of expanding access to health care for all Americans. It
is perhaps fitting then that Reich,
the former U.S. Labor Secretary turned public
policy professor, has been advocating access of a different kind at the University of California at Berkeley.
Reich is one of
“He said ‘I’d really hate to do that; I don’t want to close people out,’ “ recalls Henry Brady, the school’s dean.
Given budgetary constraints, the school was only going to be able to provide six teaching assistants for Reich’s class. When Reich previously taught a class of 440 students, he needed nine TA’s to help grade papers and run weekly break-out discussions of 25 students each. With just six TA’s, there would only be enough support to enroll 300 students, Brady said.
Call it third way politics if you like, but Reich, the former Clinton Cabinet member, suggested another option no one else had previously considered. What if the school could offer two different options for students, giving them some access to the popular class while still reducing the need for TA’s? In one class, worth four units, students would have the traditional lectures with Reich and break-out discussion groups with TA’s. In a second class, worth only two units, students would attend the Reich lectures without the additional break-out sessions or the same level of coursework. Students in the lecture-only class will still receive exams, which will be graded by less expensive readers, but they won’t write essays graded by TA’s.
Reich concedes the option is “not ideal,” but says “I wouldn’t be offering it to students lecture-only if I didn’t think they would get a lot out of it. And it seems to me we’ve hit on a reasonable compromise.”
Brady agrees. “I think it’s a model for making sure we still give students access to lecturers like Bob Reich without breaking the bank,” he said….
…The lower credit option may appeal to some students, but Brady concedes it was a stopgap measure to address a difficult situation.
“We’ve got terrible problems,” he said, “but we’re trying to find creative ways to solve them and meet the students’ needs.”…
Reich’s
course, “Wealth and Poverty,” is an examination of the widening gap of
income inequality and wealth in the
— Jack Stripling
19. “Living With Coal: Climate policy’s most inconvenient truth” (Boston Review, September/October, 2009); article citing research by MARGARET TAYLOR; http://bostonreview.net/BR34.5/victor_morse.php
--David G. Victor and Richard K. Morse
Governments
around the world are now struggling with the question of how to reduce
emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The task is bigger
than any other environmental challenge humanity has faced. Carbon dioxide, the
leading human cause of global warming, is an intrinsic byproduct of burning the
fossil fuels that power the world economy and thus difficult to regulate.
All fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide when burned, but the real heart of the warming problem is coal. Emissions from coal are growing faster than from any other fossil fuel. Beyond greenhouse-gas pollution, coal is linked to a host of other environmental troubles such as local air pollution, which is why a powerful coalition of environmentalists in the richest and greenest countries is rallying to stop coal. Mired in opposition, barely any new coal plants are being built anywhere in the industrialized world. Coal, it may seem, is on the precipice....
For three decades now, environmental regulation
has focused on finding new ways to cut pollution. In a masterful study, researchers [including Margaret Taylor] at the
[Read the study by Margaret R. Taylor, Edward S. Rubin, and David A. Hounshell, “Control of SO2 Emissions from Power Plants: A Case of Induced Technological Innovation in the U.S.“ Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 72: 6, 697-718, July 2005.]
20. “Politics Blog: UC-Berkeley’s Robert Reich can teach Obama a thing about making the public option understandable (VIDEO)” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 8, 2009); blog citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/index?
Posted By: Joe Garofoli| Sep 08 at 10:06 PM
We know President Obamaa can deliver a fine inspirational speech. But his test Wednesday night is tougher: Can he sell policy?
If The O can make the public option as easy to understand as former Clinton Labor Secretary (and UC-Berkeley professor) Robert Reich does in this video, he may have a shot at convincing a few folks whose eyes glaze over at any detail on health policy.
Now the back half of this video is pretty partisan, but the front half is a good example of how to make a complex idea accessible.
21. “‘Working It Out,’—Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich & Robert Brusca of Fact and Opinion Economics” (Nightly Business Report, PBS, September 7, 2009); interview with ROBERT REICH; http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/robert_reich_and_robert_brusca_090907/
… SUSIE GHARIB: With almost seven million jobs
disappearing from
ROBERT REICH, PROFESSOR, UNIV. OF CALIF BERKELEY: Susie, certainly the rate of loss of jobs seems to be slowing overall, but we still find in the job market overall a very bleak picture this Labor Day weekend. We find that about one out of six Americans is under employed, that is either officially unemployed or working part time, rather be working full time or too discouraged to even look for work. And we’ve got a lot of Americans who even though they are employed, they’re earning less than they were earning before. This is a huge problem for any economic recovery….
GHARIB: Professor Reich, people are counting on businesses to start hiring at some point. Will those millions of jobs that we’ve lost ever come back?
REICH: Susie, I wish I could be optimistic. The problem is that … the general tendency in businesses is to not rehire until they’re sure that there are consumers, customers out there for the goods and services they have to generate, but with so many people unemployed and so many people earning less than they were earning before or earning nothing, there just are not the customers out there. There is not … what we call aggregate demand….
REICH: ... The difference this time around [with a recovery is] … typically in a recession we have the Federal Reserve Board causing the recession by yanking interest rates up so high that inflation is avoided. That’s the last recessions we’ve had over the last 20 or 30 years. But this recession—this big recession we are now in is closer to the great depression in the sense that it was caused not by the Fed overshooting, but it was caused by a huge explosion of a major asset bubble, a big speculative bubble, caused housing, but also all the derivatives related to housing to be worth far less. It’s very hard to recover out of that kind of a deep, deep recession. There’s not likely to be a quick recovery….
22. “Who Should Replace Ted Kennedy?” (The Washington Post, September 6, 2009); guest editorial by ROBERT REICH.
The Post asked political experts and analysts who should replace Edward M. Kennedy in the Senate.
ROBERT REICH
Secretary of labor from 1993 to 1997; candidate for governor of
I met Joe almost 20 years ago, when he was coaching a kids’ soccer team my son was on. I was impressed by his dedication to those kids. He encouraged them when they were down, pushed them when they were up, joked with them, cared about them.
Years later I worked with Joe when he was a
member of Congress representing
Politics is a tough business, especially for those who want to change the status quo and fight for those who have very little. Ted Kennedy was a master at this. I’ve never known anyone who fought harder. My sense is that Joe is as tough, cares as much and will fight just as hard.
23. “Critical Care” (New York Times Magazine, September 6, 2009); book review by ROBERT REICH; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/books/review/Reich-t.html?_r=1&ref=books
By ROBERT B. REICH
Illustration
by John Hersey
Book Review: “The Heart of Power—Health and
Politics in the Oval Office” by David Blumentahal & James A. Morone.
Illustrated. 484 pp.
This timely and insightful book puts Barack Obama’s current quest for universal health insurance in historical context and gives new meaning to the audacity of hope. Universal health care has bedeviled, eluded or defeated every president for the last 75 years. Franklin Roosevelt left it out of Social Security because he was afraid it would be too complicated and attract fierce resistance. Harry Truman fought like hell for it but ultimately lost. Dwight Eisenhower reshaped the public debate over it. John Kennedy was passionate about it. Lyndon Johnson scored the first and last major victory on the road toward achieving it. Richard Nixon devised the essential elements of all future designs for it. Jimmy Carter tried in vain to re-engineer it. The first George Bush toyed with it. Bill Clinton lost it and then never mentioned it again. George W. expanded it significantly, but only for retirees.
David Blumenthal, a professor at
The alternative proposal, starting with Eisenhower, was to create a market for health care based on private insurers and employers; he locked in the tax break for employee health benefits. Nixon came up with notions of prepaid, competing H.M.O.’s and urged a requirement that employers cover their employees. Everything since has been a variation on one or both of these competing visions. The plan now emerging from the White House and the Democratic Congress combines an aspect of the first (the public health care option) with several of the second (competing plans and an employer requirement to “pay or play”)….
Blumenthal and Morone’s most provocative finding is that presidents who have been most successful in moving the country toward universal health coverage have disregarded or overruled their economic advisers. Plans to expand coverage have consistently drawn cautions or condemnations from economic teams in every administration, from Harry Truman’s down to George W. Bush’s. An exasperated Lyndon Johnson groused to Ted Kennedy that “the fools had to go to projecting” Medicare costs “down the road five or six years.” Such long-term projections meant political headaches….
Robert B. Reich, a former secretary of labor, is
a professor of public policy at the
24. “Obama attacked for trying to speak to students” (Show, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, September 5, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.
JOHN SHOVELAN: Congress is back in session next week and the President has scheduled an address to a joint sitting for Wednesday night. It’s his last chance to win public support for his health care overhaul. He’s staked all on his ability to deliver fundamental reform in this area and his address is a doubling of his bet.
President Obama has often in a crisis resorted to his skills as an orator to dig himself out of a hole. And while he may win back some public support, Republicans have made it clear they aren’t interested in substantial negotiation…..
The former
labour secretary in the
ROBERT REICH: He’s got no help at all from the Republicans on the stimulus package, on anything else he has done. I think bipartisanship is dead, he ought to just give it up….
25. “President Obama: Don’t Forget about Doctors” (Washington Post, September 4, 2009); blog by RICHARD SCHEFFLER; http://voices.washingtonpost.com/shortstack/2009/09/president_obama_dont_forget_ab.html
Stock
photo
By GUEST BLOGGER: Richard M. Scheffler
With President Obama heading to Capitol Hill this week to lay out his prescription for health care reform before a joint session of Congress, we asked guest blogger Richard M. Scheffler for his perspective. Scheffler is author of “Is There A Doctor In The House? Market Signals and Tomorrow’s Supply of Doctors“ (Stanford University Press, $27.95), which examines the economics of keeping the health care system sufficiently staffed with properly trained physicians. Scheffler is distinguished professor of health economics and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
… Providing affordable health insurance for all is the focus of [President Obama’s] plan to date, but without systemic improvements to our health care system, we will not get our money’s worth or be able to foot the bill. The president must know this and he needs to tell us what he has in mind.
Any reform that covers more people will translate into pressure on the health care system. The system now under-provides basic primary care—which is key to a well-functioning system. The health workforce needs to be reconfigured. We need more primary care doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, and we need them right away. If we do not have an adequate number of primary care providers, then the reforms will surely fail….
…Primary care doctors make about 60 percent of what specialists do.
Most of this is due to low fees. Medicare, for example, has a fee schedule that makes this happen—it heavily favors specialty care over primary care services. This needs to be changed and the president should tell us how he plans to do it….
26. “Warming to a Nuclear Future” (The California Report, KQED public radio, September 4, 2009); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; Listen to the program
In
Dan Kammen is a professor of nuclear energy at UC-Berkeley and heads the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab there.
DAN KAMMEN: Even if we have full permitting and licensing today, a new nuclear plant will not be built for one decade….
There are very credible analysts out there today who think even if nuclear is a great low-carborn solution, it’s not cost effective relative to what solar, wind, ocean, and energy efficiency could do. That’s a debate we’ve yet to have and amazingly we’ve never had that conversation….
27. “WMD Terrorism:
Science and Policy Choices” - Edited by Stephen M. Maurer (MIT Press, September
2009); book edited by STEPHEN MAURER,
with articles by EUGENE BARDACH, JASON CHRISTOPHER, MICHAEL NACHT, MICHAEL
O’HARE, BLAS PÉREZ HENRÍQUEZ
(MPP 1992/PhD 2002), and MICHAEL
THOMPSON (MPP 2003); http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11905
... Although WMD research has accelerated since
September 11, 2001, much of this scholarship is hard to find, forcing
nonspecialists to fall back on gut instinct and Beltway clichés. This book
provides the first full-length, up-to-date, comprehensive review of what
scientists and scholars know about WMD terrorism and
Contributors: Gary Ackerman, Jeffrey M. Bale, Deborah Yarsike Ball, Eugene Bardach, Jason Christopher, C. Norman Coleman, Lois M. Davis, Thomas Edmunds, Peter Gordon, Blas Pérez Henríquez, Dwight Jaffee, Robert Kirvel, Simon Labov, Stephen M. Maurer, James E. Moore II, Michael Nacht, Michael O’Hare, Qisheng Pan, Ji Young Park, Ellen Raber, Harry W. Richardson, Jeanne S. Ringel, Thomas Russell, George W. Rutherford, Christine Hartmann Siantar, Tom Slezak, Page O. Stoutland, Tammy Taylor, Michael Thompson, Richard Wheeler
About the Editor
Stephen
M. Maurer is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy
and the Boalt School of Law at the
Endorsements …
“This is a remarkable book presenting a sober
and nuanced coverage of the risks and nature of possible WMD terrorism against
the
28. “The Choice: Experts Point to 5 Emerging Majors” (New York Times, September 1, 2009); blog citing ROBERT REICH; http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/experts-point-to-5-emerging-majors/?pagemode=print
By Jack Kadden
(Photo: Robert Nickelsberg,
Getty Images)
If
you’re not sure that majoring in English is going to pay off in the current
economy, The Chronicle of Higher
Education offers a few alternatives – what it calls “five emerging areas of
study” as cited by academic experts, business analysts, and economic forecasters….
Some new majors arise in response to student demand, while other degree programs are meant to provide an industry with workers. Many cross disciplinary boundaries, such as combining environmental science with agriculture or bringing together chemists and computer scientists.
“Most of the interesting work today is done at
the interstices of disciplines,” says Robert
B. Reich, a former
29. “Prescriptions: Reich Says Obama Supporters Were ‘Outmaneuvered’ by the Right” (New York Times Online, September 1, 2009); blog citing ROBERT REICH; http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/reich-says-obama-supporters-were-outmaneuvered-by-the-right/?scp=1&sq=%22robert%20reich%22&st=cse
By The New York Times
Robert
Reich, the labor secretary under President Bill Clinton and now a professor at the
Obama and progressive supporters of health care were outmaneuvered in August — not because the right had any better idea for solving the health care mess but because the rights’ attack on the Democrats’ idea was far more disciplined than was the Democrats’ ability to sell it.
Read his post. Do you agree?
30. “The Internet and Civic Engagement” (Targeted News Service, September 1, 2009); newswire citing HENRY BRADY.
Still, there are hints that the new forms of civic engagement anchored in blogs and social networking sites could alter long-standing patterns. Some 19% of Internet users have posted material online about political or social issues or used a social networking site for some form of civic or political engagement. And this group of activists is disproportionately young….
The report, titled “The Internet and Civic Engagement,” comes from a national telephone survey of 2,251 adults conducted in August 2008. The overall sample has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. For Internet users, the margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points. The survey and resulting report are the result of a collaboration of Aaron Smith, Research Specialist at the Pew Internet Project with Sidney Verba, Kay L. Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady, the co-authors of Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Harvard University Press, 1995).
The survey showed that those who are politically active using social media are not just demographically different from those who take part in other forms of civic and social engagement, they also branch out and engage in a wide range of online and offline civic activities. Compared with those who go online but do not post political or social content or to those who do not go online in the first place, members of this group are much more likely to take part in all kinds of civic activities…..
Added Berkeley’s Brady, who this week becomes the president of the American Political Science Association: “It is remarkable how quickly Americans, especially the young, have moved their political activity to the Internet to do many of the same things they used to do by mail, telephone, and in-person.” …
Read the full report The Internet and Civic Engagement (http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/15--The-Internet-and-Civic-Engagement.aspx ) on the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s Web site.
31. “Why the deficit hysteria? I only wish we’d
borrow more: Projections of national debt in the
By Robert Reich
‘At every stage in the growth of the debt it has been
seriously asserted by wise men that bankruptcy and ruin were at hand. Yet still
the debt went on growing, and still bankruptcy and ruin were as remote as
ever.” So wrote Lord Thomas Macaulay, the great 19th-century British historian.
He was alluding to the English public debt, but he might as well have been
referring to the
Last week the White House announced that deficits over the next 10 years are likely to be worse than it had thought—and, as expected, the same old group of deficit hysterics went ballistic. “…
Can we please relax? Ten-year budget projections
are notoriously wrong. Remember Ross Perot? He ran against Bill Clinton and the
first George Bush in 1992, garnering enough votes to deny
The numbers attached to deficits and debts take on meaning only in relation to something else. And the most important something else, in terms of what the nation can afford, is the size of the national economy. Pay close attention, in particular, to the debt-to-GDP ratio. True, that ratio is heading in the wrong direction—it’s likely to reach 80% by the end of 2010. That’s high, but not compared with the 119% it reached in 1945, after the ravages of depression and war.
Yet by the mid-1950s, the debt as a proportion of
GDP had been tamed. How did that happen? Not mainly because of cuts in
government spending….. But the most important change occurred in the
denominator of the equation. Economic growth kicked in big time after the war,
and reduced the debt as a proportion of the
That’s why it’s so important now that government steps in and runs large deficits….
Robert
Reich was
32. “
The U.S. Defense Department intends by September to finish its plan for helping to achieve President Barack Obama’s goal of securing the world’s loose nuclear materials within the next four years, a Pentagon official said yesterday on Capitol Hill….
“I’m optimistic that we will have something to report to you in September,” Michael Nacht, assistant defense secretary for global strategic affairs, told the House Armed Services Committee….
The containment of nuclear material was a
cornerstone of Obama’s wide-ranging nonproliferation speech in
Nacht told the panel that the U.S. National Security Council is coordinating the nonproliferation strategy, which will employ resources and programs across the federal government.
Defense Department staff is “defining and scoping the problem, in terms of definitions and thresholds for vulnerable materials,” he said. The Pentagon is also prioritizing a list of “key facilities and sources of vulnerable materials worldwide,” according to Nacht.
In addition, the department is working to identify if the president’s four-year goal can be addressed through “expanding and accelerating” existing programs or if new initiatives will be required, he said.
Nacht did specify the exact role the Pentagon would play in this program. However, the effort could be expected to include the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which is operated by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to secure and eliminate WMD materials in former Soviet states.
The Pentagon-wide examination will include an “evaluation” of the roles and missions of the “major departments” within the federal government, Nacht added without naming specific agencies.
“I believe that we could be able to return to you in September and provide a more detailed report on the proposed way forward,” Nacht told the panel….
33. “Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee: Addressing a New Generation of Threats from Weapons of Mass Destruction: Department of Energy Nonproliferation Programs and the Department of Defense Cooperative Threat Reduction Program” (Federal News Service, July 15, 2009); congressional testimony by MICHAEL NACHT.
Chaired By: Representative Ike Skelton (D-Mo);
Witnesses: Thomas D’Agostino, Undersecretary for Nuclear Security, Department of Energy, Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration; Michael Nacht, Assistant Defense Secretary for Global Strategic Affairs, Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, Department of Defense….
MR. NACHT: Mr. Chairman, I know you and your colleagues are well-acquainted with the history and activities of the program. I just want to bring you up to date briefly on the status of some current projects, some recent achievements and then some new initiatives.
[The Cooperative Threat Reduction Program] today
is in a period of transition from a nuclear-centric effort focused on the
former
DOD and DOE are now coordinating closely to give
the Russian military the means to sustain operational readiness into the
future. On March 5th of this year, the first chemical munitions were destroyed
in the Shchuchye chemical weapons destruction facility. By 2012, the facility
will destroy the chemical weapons stockpile at the nearby Planovy military
base, which contains approximately one-seventh of
September 10 MICHAEL HANEMANN spoke on “Vulnerability to Climate Change in California” and “The Design of Improved Economic Impact and Adaptation Studies” at the Sixth Annual Climate Change Symposium, “The Future is Now: Climate Change Mitigation, Impacts, and Adaptation Research,” Sacramento, CA.
September 16 DAN KAMMEN was a featured speaker at
the “Berkeley Energy and Resources Forum,”
September 17 ROBERT REICH was featured in the BBC
documentary on the credit crisis, “The Age of Risk,” broadcast in the
September 19 ROBERT REICH spoke at the Annual Impact
Conference for Independent Advisers, sponsored by The Charles Schwab Corp.,
“Climate Change, Economic and Carbon Pricing
Overview” featuring DAN KAMMEN;
first broadcast on UCTV
on Oct. 5, 2009; video available at: http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=16590
What needs to be done to
limit global climate change to two degrees Celcius? Dan Kammen gives an economic overview; Payal Parekh presents the
scientific evidence of climate change; and Holmes Hummel explores price-based
climate policies. (#16590)
To view a complete list
of GSPP videos, visit our Events Archive at: http://gspp.berkeley.edu/news-events/archive.html
Recent events viewable on UC Webcast: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events.php?group=The+Richard+%26+Rhoda+Goldman+School+of+Public+Policy
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