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1. “Global Leadership for Food Security and the
Well-Being of Children”
A Conversation with Ann Veneman (MPP 1971), 2012 Regents’ Lecturer; Executive Director of UNICEF 2005-2010; U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 2001-2005.
April 2, 5:00-6:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public.
Presented by the
2. “Economic Inequality Teach In: Causes and Consequences, and Solutions” with:
* Robert Reich,
* Emmanuel Saez, UCB Department of Economics
* Paul Pierson, UCB Department of Political Science
April 4, 1:00-5:00 pm, 100 Lewis, UC Berkeley
Hosted by the
3.
Annual Aaron Wildavsky
Forum 2012: “Economic Possibilities for Our Children”
Lawrence Summers, President Emeritus
of Harvard University; Director of the National Economic Council in the Obama
Administration 2009-2011; U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, 1999-2001.
April 12, 2012, 7:30-9:00 p.m.,
International House – Chevron Auditorium, UC Berkeley
4.
“
April 16, 2012, 4-5:30 p.m., IGS
Library, 109 Moses Hall,
Invited Panelists:
* John Ellwood, Professor of
Public Policy, Goldman
* Tim Gage (MPP 1978), former
Director, California Department of Finance, and Principal and Co-Founder,
Blue Sky Consulting Group
Sponsored by the
5.
“Youth and the 2012 Political Landscape”
April 16, 2012, 5:30 p.m., Room 250
Goldman School
Panelists include:
Amy
Lemley (MPP 1998), Policy
Director at the John Burton Foundation
Ted Lempert,
President of Children Now
David
Kirp, Professor
at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy
Presented by the Interdisciplinary
Youth Policy Committee
6.
Race and Policy Symposium: “Between Systems and Institutions: Using
Public Policy to (Re)form and (Trans)form our Society”
April 19, 2012, 3:00-7:00 p.m.
Presented by the Students of Color in
Public Policy
7.
Robert Reich: “Political
Civility Should Not Be an Oxymoron”
April 21, 1:00 p.m. 155 Dwinelle Hall
Cal Day Event presented by the Center
on Civility & Democratic Engagement
ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS
1. “Alastair MacLennan Fitzpayne Confirmed as Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs” (Targeted News Service, March 31, 2012); newswire citing ALASTAIR FITZPAYNE (MPP 1998) and JILL MORNINGSTAR (MPP 1999).
2. “Daniel Borenstein: Bureaucrats engineer rigged election to get taxpayers’ money” (Contra Costa Times, March 31, 2012); op-ed by DANIEL BORENSTEIN (MPP 1980/MJ 1985); http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_20293890/daniel-borenstein-bureaucrats-engineer-rigged-election-get-taxpayers
3. “Legislators delay action on immigration” (Rocky Mount Telegram (NC), March 28, 2012); story citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
4. “High Marks for Adult Education Program; San Diego Community College District receives praise for diversity of offerings” (U-T San Diego, March 26, 2012); story citing STUART DROWN (MPP 1986).
5. “SF City College slashing summer school enrollment” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 26, 2012); story citing PETER GOLDSTEIN (MPP 1981); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/23/BABT1NPF1A.DTL#ixzz1qG5oQXMN
6. “MILC Program Days Numbered - Leahy Hears Farmers on New U.S. Farm Bill” (St. Albans Messenger, March 26, 2012); story citing KARI DOLAN (MPP 1990).
7. “Daniel Borenstein: Public-pension fund assumptions put future generations at financial risk” (Contra Costa Times, March 25, 2012); op-ed by DANIEL BORENSTEIN (MPP 1980/MJ 1985); http://www.insidebayarea.com/columns/ci_20249776/daniel-borenstein-public-pension-fund-assumptions-put-future
8. “Low-Income Kids Receive 70 Percent of Federal Spending on Children; Disproportionately Vulnerable to Budget Cuts” (Targeted News Service, March 24, 2012); newswire citing JULIA BIXLER ISAACS (MPP 1985).
9. “Senate panel backs choice in Medi-Cal coverage of Sacramento County kids dental care” (Sacramento Bee, Mar. 23, 2012); story citing TOBY DOUGLAS (MPP 2001/MPH 2002); http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/23/4359993/senate-panel-backs-choice-in-medi.html
10. “McClatchy chairman and CEO
11. “Our picks for Dane
12. “Leading Thinkers Convene to Hack the Future of Higher Education” (Marketwire, March 22, 2012); newswire citing MARINA GORBIS (MPP 1983).
13. “BRAC Offers Unmatched Cost Savings, Pentagon Official Says” (Targeted News Service, March 22, 2012); newswire citing DOROTHY ROBYN (MPP 1978/PhD 1983).
14. “More Chinese investments likely to come this way” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 21, 2012); column citing agency headed by GINNY FANG (MPP 2008); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/20/BU681NNG8B.DTL#ixzz1plnsDycU
15. “1.2 Billion People Live in Poverty - The Rockefeller Foundation and Institute for the Future Invite 7 Billion People to Help Find Solutions” (PR Newswire, March 21, 2012); newswire citing MARINA GORBIS (MPP 1983).
16. “House Republicans to Unveil Budget Plan” (Morning Edition, National Public Radio, March 20, 2012); features commentary by STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
17. “GM, Tesla fight politicization of electric cars” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 19, 2012); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/18/MTJA1NL8OD.DTL&ao=all#ixzz1paW2gbvF
18. “Higher standards for MPG will pay off” (Daily Herald (
19. “Unemployed Is Bad Enough; ‘Unbanked’ Can Be Worse” (The New York Times, March 18, 2012); story citing GREG KATO (MPP 2006).
20. “Mirkarimi case a political minefield for S.F. pols” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 2012); column citing DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/17/BAR51NKVVH.DTL&ao=all#ixzz1pbOFU3Y4
21. “Real Time Economics Blog: Number of the Week: Who Gets Credit for iPhone Trade?” (Wall Street Journal Online [*requires registration], March 17, 2012); blog citing GREG LINDEN (MPP 1995); http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/03/17/number-of-the-week-who-gets-credit-for-iphone-trade/
22. “Fights brewing over House Republicans’ budget” (CNN Wire, March 17, 2012); analysis citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
23. “
24. “Assembly Panel Backs Kindergarten Program” (U-T San Diego, March 15, 2012); story citing DEBORAH KONG (MPP 2007).
25. “Election 2012: Dane
26. “Steinberg to introduce change to Sacramento County’s kids’ dental program” (Sacramento Bee, Mar. 14, 2012); story citing TOBY DOUGLAS (MPP 2001/MPH 2002); http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/14/4335155/steinberg-to-introduce-change.html#storylink=cpy
27. “Susan De Vos: We can cut greenhouse gases with more local foods,
fewer highways, more mass transit” (The Capital Times (
28. “President’s Budget Not Sufficient to Renew Rental Assistance Fully for Low-Income Households” (States News Service, March 14, 2012); newswire citing WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999).
29. “Addressing the political and practical interests of drug users” (The International Herald Tribune, March 13, 2012); story citing LAURA THOMAS (MPP/MPH 1995).
30. “As gas prices spike again, opinions, advice turn shrill” (Columbus Dispatch, March 11, 2012); analysis citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992).
31. “Federal Appeals Court Blocks Parts of Alabama’s Discriminatory Anti-Immigrant Law” (Targeted News Service, March 10, 2012); newswire citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
32. “What Would Impact Investing at Scale Look Like? $20 Trillion for Good” (Forbes Online, March 9, 2012); interview with BEN THORNLEY (MPP 2009); http://www.forbes.com/sites/rahimkanani/2012/03/09/what-would-impact-investing-at-scale-look-like-20-trillion-for-good/
33. “S.F. gets $5 million
34. “State Sues BP Over Clean Fuel Violations - Oil giant accused of shipping gas that did not meet standards” (Contra Costa Times, March 8, 2012); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992).
35. “
36. “County Superintendent of Schools will no longer administer KidsNCare program in San Bernardino County” (Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, March 7, 2012), story citing GREG HUDSON (MPP 1989).
37. “Obama makes alternative-fuel vehicle push” (CNN Wire, March 7, 2012); story citing LUKE TONACHEL (MPP 2004).
38. “Agri-business - Millions in subsidies go to wealthy landowners” (The Irish News, March 6, 2012); story citing JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999).
39. “
40. “Big brands backing ‘greener’ cotton; Scheme sees farmers use less water and pesticides; pilot run on mainland this year” (South China Morning Post, March 5, 2012); story citing MICHAEL KOBORI (MPP 1995).
41. “Bill Lockyer gave $1.7 million to wife’s campaign” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 4, 2012); column citing SABRINA BIRNBAUM LANDRETH (MPP 2004); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/03/BA4C1NFD5I.DTL#ixzz1oGxHCrAR
42. “Apple says it has created more than 500,000 jobs in the
43. “Junk health insurance; Stingy plans may be worse than none at all” (Consumer Reports, March 2012); story citing KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
44. “In cramped S.F., more uses sought for reservoirs” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 1, 2012); story citing PETER GOLDSTEIN (MPP 1981); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/29/MNT81NC78J.DTL#ixzz1ntDXtH5C
45. “Report: Community colleges should handle adult ed” (Fresno Bee, March 1, 2012); story citing STUART DROWN (MPP 1986).
46. “Arizona ‘model’ would hurt immigrants - Politics - Law earns strong support from Romney and Santorum” (The Telegraph (Nashua, NH), March 1, 2012); column citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
47. “EarthTalk: Progress on smog in
48. “Pizarro: Michael Miller jumps from leading San Jose Jazz to Children’s Musical Theater” (San Jose Mercury News, February 29, 2012); column citing BRENDAN RAWSON (MPP 1995).
49. “Marin planners OK huge Lucasfilm project” (Oakland Tribune, February 27, 2012); story citing JOY DAHLGREN (MPP 1977).
50. “20-Something Visionary Promotes Obama’s Higher-Education Goals” (The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 26, 2012); story citing AMY LAITINEN (MPP 2003).
51. “3.8 Billion Years in Sustainability R&D” (San Francisco Examiner, February 26, 2012); story citing MICHAEL KOBORI (MPP 1995).
52. Agencies Spent Public Money on
53. “How One Community Foundation Funded a New Journalism Powerhouse” (States News Service, February 24, 2012); story citing HANS DEKKER (MPP 1991).
54. “NERC sets up system for analyzing events faster, identifying trends, ‘lessons learned’” (Electric Utility Week, February 20, 2012); story citing ALLEN MOSHER (MPP 1978).
55. “Cruising 55” (Commonwealth Club of California, February 13, 2012); event featuring ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); Listen to this program
56. “
57. “The 18th Assembly District: This Year’s Most Competitive Race; The contest to replace Swanson features four candidates - Rob Bonta, Abel Guillen, Joel Young, and Kathy Neal - who each have a legitimate shot at winning” (East Bay Express, February 8, 2012); story citing ABEL GUILLEN (MPP 2001).
58. “Despite improved dialogue, experts see lingering strain between NERC and FERC” (Inside F.E.R.C., February 6, 2012); story citing ALLEN MOSHER (MPP 1978).
59. “Romney should show concern for the poor” (Daily News (
60. “Privatizing dorms raises concerns - Feasibility, accountability are key issues as UK considers privatization” (Lexington Herald-Leader, February 5, 2012); story citing LARRY OWSLEY (MPP 1973).
61. “The Case for More Privatization in
62. “CalSTRS may cut forecast again - Consultant: Fund Outlook Still Too Rosy” (Sacramento Bee, February 1, 2012); story citing ED DERMAN (MPP 1978); http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/01/4229555/calstrs-may-cut-forecast-again.html
63. “Tax-share program receives scrutiny” (Star Tribune (
64. “Recession’s effects on children felt more in
65. “Election could change face of
66. “In
67. “House Democrats Urge Obama to Replace FHFA’s DeMarco ‘Immediately’” (The Frontrunner, January 12, 2012); story citing WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999).
68. “KELL Partners Reaches New Milestone, Engages with Nonprofits on More than 300 Convio Common Ground and Convio Luminate Projects” (Marketwire, January 10, 2012); newswire citing TOM KRACKELER (MPP 1998).
69. “With $150 million [in debt], we’re really not concerned with the European market. You can go to three to four banks and get it done” (Power, Finance and Risk, January 9, 2012); story citing PAULA ZAGRECKI (MPP 1992).
70. “Hewlett Foundation Sponsors Prize to Improve Automated Scoring of Student Essays” (States News Service, January 9, 2012); newswire citing BARBARA CHOW (MPP 1980).
71. “Scientists fine-tuning plans to improve Missisquoi Bay - Study reveals path to efficiency” (St. Albans Messenger, January 5, 2012); story citing KARI DOLAN (MPP 1990).
72. “
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
1. “SolFocus to help
2. “Oakland City Council members’ actions face audit” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 29, 2012); story citing LARRY ROSENTHAL (MPP 1993/PhD 2000); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/28/BAHC1NRFNB.DTL#ixzz1qWSOWqHc
3. “Kosovo counting on the
4. “New Research Suggests Cap and Trade Programs Do Not Provide Sufficient Incentives for Energy Technology Innovation” (The Berkeleyan, March 27, 2012); story citing MARGARET TAYLOR; http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2012/03/15/cap-and-trade-programs-do-not-provide-sufficient-incentives/
5. “Immersed in Race, Gingrich Stays in Despite Setbacks” (Reuters, March 26, 2012); story citing JACK GLASER; http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/03/26/us/politics/26reuters-usa-campaign-gingrich.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=Berkeley&st=nyt
6. “Rep. Mike Honda presents his ‘Budget for All’ as counter to GOP plan” (San Jose Mercury News, March 26, 2012); analysis citing JOHN ELLWOOD; http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_20253586/rep-mike-honda-presents-his-budget-all-counter
7. “Morality crisis is in the boardrooms, not bedrooms” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 25, 2012); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/23/INT61NNGDJ.DTL#ixzz1qGL9n2xF
8. “Blog: Fired Up! A Thank You to Paul Ryan for the Republican Budget” (Huffington Post, March 21, 2012); blog by JENNIFER GRANHOLM; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-m-granholm/paul-ryan-budget-_b_1369892.html
9. “Economists offer more pessimistic view on manufacturing in upcoming report” (Washington Post, March 19, 2012); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/economists-offer-more-pessimistic-view-on-manufacturing-in-upcoming-report/2012/03/19/gIQAKSpZNS_story.html
10. “Economic pie grows, but workers’ slice shrinks” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 2012); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/16/INAV1NK18P.DTL#ixzz1pagvddeJ
11. “Stanford now ahead of UC Berkeley in world academic rankings” (Digital Journal, March 17, 2012); story citing DAVID KIRP and HENRY BRADY.
12. “The conservative mind” (Lake County Record Bee, March 14, 2012); column citing JACK GLASER.
13. “Why Coal-Rich Kosovo Can Lead on Clean Energy, with Forward-Looking International Cooperation” (National Geographic, March 12, 2012); op-ed by DAN KAMMEN; http://www.greatenergychallengeblog.com/blog/2012/03/12/coal-rich-kosovo-can-lead-on-clean-energy/
14. “College spells success, except in Santorum’s mind” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 11, 2012); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/09/ING31NGN8H.DTL#ixzz1ovW16pFe
15. “Pat Robertson backs legal marijuana. Will other conservatives follow?” (Christian Science Monitor, March 9, 2012); story citing ROBERT MACCOUN.
16. “Morning Edition: Is
17. “Students rally in
18. “To stay fiscally healthy, state’s hospitals want fewer patients” (Los Angeles Times, March 4, 2012); story citing RICHARD SCHEFFLER; http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-hospital-changes-20120305,0,5184223.story
19. “Gas prices rise on Wall Street’s bets” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 4, 2012); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/02/IN2P1NDBAQ.DTL#ixzz1oGopSkJU
20. “The 1% Solution. Robert Reich speaks up for everyone else” (California Magazine, Spring 2012, Vol. 123, No. 1); interview with ROBERT REICH; http://alumni.berkeley.edu/news/california-magazine/spring-2012-piracy/the-1-percent-solution
21. “Rensselaer Research Vice President Francine Berman Appointed Co-Chair as National Academy of Sciences Board on Research Data and Information Names New Members” (States News Service, January 31, 2012); newswire citing HENRY BRADY.
1. “Alastair MacLennan Fitzpayne Confirmed as Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs” (Targeted News Service, March 31, 2012); newswire citing ALASTAIR FITZPAYNE (MPP 1998) and JILL MORNINGSTAR (MPP 1999).
Fitzpayne has served as Treasury’s deputy chief of staff since January 2009. He has also served as the Department’s Executive Secretary since April 2010.
“Al has been an integral part of the Treasury leadership team since the early days of this Administration. His deep knowledge of Congress and the legislative process is also held in high regard throughout Washington and will be an incredibly valuable asset to me and the Department in this new role,” said Treasury Secretary Geithner. “I am pleased that the Senate moved to confirm this qualified nominee.”
Prior to joining Treasury, Fitzpayne served as a member of the Economics and
International Trade Agency Review Team on the Obama-Biden Transition Team
assigned to the Department of the Treasury. Fitzpayne
previously spent eight years working on Capitol Hill. He served as a
legislative assistant to former Sen. Evan Bayh,
advising him on tax, budget, small business, and technology issues. He served
as senior policy advisor for former Rep. Rahm Emanuel
and advised him on tax, budget, and financial services issues while Emanuel was
Democratic Caucus Chair and a Member of the
Fitzpayne received a B.A. from
2. “Daniel Borenstein: Bureaucrats engineer rigged election to get taxpayers’ money” (Contra Costa Times, March 31, 2012); op-ed by DANIEL BORENSTEIN (MPP 1980/MJ 1985); http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_20293890/daniel-borenstein-bureaucrats-engineer-rigged-election-get-taxpayers
By Daniel Borenstein – Staff columnist and editorial writer
Protecting creeks, the Delta
and
It’s impossible to discern from the $1 million taxpayer-funded study and propaganda effort, produced by an unaccountable group of government bureaucrats and their consultants, whether the ballot measure deserves support.
You read that right: They’re using your money to persuade you to pay more taxes. If they succeed, look for other Bay Area counties to follow suit.
Maybe the tax increase is justifiable. Maybe it’s not. But this election, for which mail-in ballots must be received by Friday, turns the democratic process on its head. Voters received no neutral analysis and no pro or con ballot arguments....
To make decisions like this, Californians have rightly come to expect fair election materials that include useful summaries of ballot measures. This, however, is no typical plebiscite. Backers instead opted to conduct an election of property owners in a process usually used for small geographic areas that need to raise money for a particular purpose....
3. “Legislators delay action on immigration” (Rocky Mount Telegram (NC), March 28, 2012); story citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
RALEIGH - The leaders of a special legislative committee set up to examine what North Carolina can do to crack down on illegal immigration say they do not plan to recommend any new legislation this year.
Committee co-chairman N.C. Rep.
Harry Warren of
Still, there has been mounting pressure on the Republican majority swept into power in 2010 to follow the lead of other GOP-controlled legislatures in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and other states that have enacted tough new laws barring illegal immigrants from accessing public services and empowering local law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of people they suspect are in the country illegally.
North Carolina may be the first state where lawmakers have cited the pending Supreme Court case as a reason to hold off on new immigration legislation, said Karen Tumlin , managing attorney for the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy group that has joined lawsuits seeking to overturn Alabama's law and other measures.
While the Supreme Court has
been cited by individual lawmakers in other states as a reason for caution, Tumlin said she
isn't aware of a legislative leadership adopting a wait-and-see approach as in
"It makes sense," she said. "There has been a very strong sign to statehouses that passing legislation like this will likely involve them in costly litigation."...
4. “High Marks for Adult Education Program; San Diego Community College District receives praise for diversity of offerings” (U-T San Diego, March 26, 2012); story citing STUART DROWN (MPP 1986).
By Pat Flynn, U-T
One recent morning in a spotless shop, 19-year-old Brandy Olson was cutting rubber to fit the seat of a 1997 Mitsubishi.
A few hundred feet away, Clive Morgan, 52, was learning how to use Word and Excel in a gleaming computer lab.
And at the other end of the San
Diego Community College District’s Educational Cultural Complex in the
They are among the 85,000 to 90,000 adult students served every year by the college district’s Continuing Education program.
Motivations for enrolling in the free program are as varied as the services it offers — English as a second language for immigrants, general education development (GED) test preparation, certificated job training, remedial preparation for entry into community college and more....
The Continuing Education program is little known to the public despite its $29 million annual budget and the number of students it serves....
That may be changing. In a
recently released study, the Little
Hoover Commission — an independent, bipartisan government oversight
committee established by the Legislature — cited the
“These two are doing the job. They are successful in preparing students,” said Stuart Drown, the commission’s executive director. “They should be looked to as models of how it should be done.”
The Little Hoover Commission’s
praise of the
5. “SF City College slashing summer school enrollment” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 26, 2012); story citing PETER GOLDSTEIN (MPP 1981); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/23/BABT1NPF1A.DTL#ixzz1qG5oQXMN
--Nanette Asimov
Now, with the summer school reduction, this year’s gap has been whittled down to $1.8 million, Goldstein said.
Instead of starting classes in mid-June as usual, summer school will begin on July 2 - one day after the start of the new fiscal year. That means the campus won’t have to pay for the program in the current fiscal year.
The campus will also save money by slashing summer enrollment by 60 percent.
Goldstein acknowledged the strategy essentially kicks the can down the road. Next year’s budget gap already tops $17 million.
6. “MILC Program Days Numbered - Leahy Hears Farmers on New U.S. Farm Bill” (St. Albans Messenger, March 26, 2012); story citing KARI DOLAN (MPP 1990).
By Michelle Monroe; Messenger Staff Writer
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt, was in
The rest of bill The Farm Bill is one of the largest regular produced by Congress and covers nearly every type of program offered by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, including conservation, nutrition, research and energy programs....
Kari Dolan, head of the Ecosystem Restoration Program at the Vermont
Agency of Natural Resources, called the conservation programs “absolutely
critical to the State of
The Natural Resources
Conservation Service has $8 million for programs in
“The economic payoff to us is tremendous,” Leahy said of the conservation programs....
7. “Daniel Borenstein: Public-pension fund assumptions put future generations at financial risk” (Contra Costa Times, March 25, 2012); op-ed by DANIEL BORENSTEIN (MPP 1980/MJ 1985); http://www.insidebayarea.com/columns/ci_20249776/daniel-borenstein-public-pension-fund-assumptions-put-future
By Daniel Borenstein – Staff columnist
... At [the California Public Employees’ Retirement System], the argument this month was over whether to continue forecasting a 7.75 percent annual return, or lower the assumption to 7.5 percent or, as the system’s actuary recommended, 7.25 percent.
The pension board chose the midpoint. But the entire debate begs the bigger question many economists are raising: Why should pension systems base contribution rates on guesstimates of anticipated future earnings from often-volatile investments such as stocks and real estate?
Think about it: If you knew you had a large upcoming mortgage or property tax payment that absolutely had to be made, would you put money in the stock market and hope that it would earn enough interest to meet the obligation? Or, would you set aside sufficient funds in a safe investment so that you knew you could cover the payment when it came due?
Public-sector pension plans gamble much of their money on the stock and real estate markets. They then assume they’ll earn strong future investment returns. The CalPERS board members were told by their staff that they had only a 50 percent chance of hitting or surpassing the 7.5 percent target, yet they adopted that assumption. Others say the odds are even worse than that.
If CalPERS
loses the bet, as it is likely to, the next generation will pay the shortfall,
probably from funds that would otherwise go to public services. We’re already
experiencing that phenomenon as
8. “Low-Income Kids Receive 70 Percent of Federal Spending on Children; Disproportionately Vulnerable to Budget Cuts” (Targeted News Service, March 24, 2012); newswire citing JULIA BIXLER ISAACS (MPP 1985).
Low-income children, 42 percent of the child population, received 70 percent of federal spending and tax expenditures in 2009 geared toward those 18 years or younger, researchers at the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution estimate. However, states directed about half of their children’s spending in 2008 (latest available data) to low-income families.
“Because many low-income families depend on the federal commitment, particularly its heavily targeted safety net programs, to prevent excessive hardship, a diminished federal role could have serious negative consequences for millions of children, their families, and the social and economic health of this country,” the Urban Institute’s Tracy Vericker noted....
The federal government, through programs and the tax code, spent $291 billion on low-income children, more than twice the $127 billion for higher-income kids. State and local spending is less targeted than federal spending on low-income children.
“State and local governments allocated resources to better-off children at about the same level as low-income children, largely due to spending on public education for all children. The federal government plays a significantly stronger role than state and local governments in targeting resources toward the disadvantaged,” Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution pointed out.
“How Targeted Are Federal Expenditures on Children? A Kids’ Share Analysis of Expenditures by Income in 2009” (http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=412522 ) was produced by the Urban Institute’s Tracy Vericker, Heather Hahn, Katherine Toran, and Stephanie Rennane and the Brookings Institution’s Julia Isaacs....
9. “Senate panel backs choice in Medi-Cal coverage of Sacramento County kids dental care” (Sacramento Bee, Mar. 23, 2012); story citing TOBY DOUGLAS (MPP 2001/MPH 2002); http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/23/4359993/senate-panel-backs-choice-in-medi.html
By Emily Bazar –
... A Senate committee
unanimously approved a proposal by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg,
D-Sacramento, to give
Steinberg said the
legislation is necessary because
Steinberg also has noted that Toby Douglas, the director of the state Department of Health Care Services, has the authority to implement a fee-for-service system himself if he concludes managed care is not adequate.
But Douglas has not been receptive to fee-for-service in
“I’m 100 percent focused on making sure that managed care works now and we have a system that’s accountable and we have the oversight, the monitoring and the right requirements on our plans,” he said....
Steinberg left open the
possibility that immediate improvements to the
[James Gross, an
attorney representing Access Dental, a plan that participates in
10. “McClatchy chairman
and CEO
By Dale Kasler – The
(José Luis Villegas / Bee file, 2004)
Gary
Pruitt, who led The McClatchy Co. through
a turbulent era of growth and contraction, resigned Wednesday to become
president and chief executive officer of the Associated Press....
Pruitt, 54, said he wasn’t looking to leave McClatchy, but the AP job “was too much to resist.”
Following several years of layoffs and other cutbacks caused by declining revenue, Pruitt said the company is on the mend. “I’m leaving McClatchy in excellent shape,” he said. “Its financial strength is growing.”
Pruitt has spent 28 years with McClatchy, starting as in-house legal counsel and serving, among other things, as publisher of the Fresno Bee. In 1996, at the age of 38, he became just the second CEO from outside the McClatchy family. Two years later, he stunned the industry by purchasing the Minneapolis Star Tribune for $1.2 billion, a record for a single newspaper.
But his time with McClatchy will be forever judged by one transaction: the $4.4 billion takeover of Knight Ridder Inc. in 2006.
It nearly tripled the
company’s newspaper holdings, giving it a reach from
The boyish-looking native Floridian – a devoted Rolling Stones fan fond of quoting rock lyrics at shareholder meetings – became something of a newspaper industry superstar.
Pruitt “presided over McClatchy at a difficult time for the
newspaper industry and wound up having to do things I’m sure he didn’t want to
do,” said John Morton, an independent newspaper industry analyst in
Morton credited Pruitt for steering McClatchy through the economic downturn while maintaining journalistic quality. “I think (journalism) suffered less at McClatchy than at many other places.” ...
Pruitt’s “commitment to high-quality news content mirrors AP’s values,” said Mary Junck, the incoming board chair of AP....
11. “Our picks for Dane
The
So the choices for the
Dane
DISTRICT 17: Jeff Pertl
With his broad financial
management experience with state and local government, as well as nonprofits, Jeff Pertl
would bring a balanced perspective to the board — especially when it comes to
collective bargaining and the protection of public services. He believes in
working with unions in a cooperative manner, and is outspoken in his opposition
to the
12. “Leading Thinkers Convene to Hack the Future of Higher Education” (Marketwire, March 22, 2012); newswire citing MARINA GORBIS (MPP 1983).
PALO ALTO, CA -- What does learning in the 21st century look like and what can happen when you convene a diverse group of cutting edge innovators, scholars, administrators, education advocates, and students for a higher education hack day? You discover hope for the next generation of learners and for the future of education.
The Institute for the Future (IFTF), in partnership with Autodesk and Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities, today announced the Redesigning Education: An Innovation Leaders Exchange on March 24th to explore the unprecedented disruptions and opportunities facing our higher education institutions and to design new learning environments for the future.
The exchange will take
place at IFTF’s headquarters in
“Young people today are caught in the transition between two worlds—the world of institutional production of education and a new world of possibilities for highly personalized on-demand continuous learning,” offered Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Future. “It is a typical 2-curve problem with mass-produced education delivered through existing institutions on the decline; on the rise are new forms of education and learning that combine technologies with the best of social tools to enable learning that is personalized and meaningful. This week we are convening a group of thinkers representing different parts of the new education ecosystem to exchange best practices and to dream together about how to build the best learning environments given today’s sets of tools and technologies.” ...
13. “BRAC Offers Unmatched Cost Savings, Pentagon Official Says” (Targeted News Service, March 22, 2012); newswire citing DOROTHY ROBYN (MPP 1978/PhD 1983).
By Lisa Daniel – American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 21 -- The Defense Department’s request for two new rounds of base realignments and closures should be compared to the cost effectiveness of the first four BRAC rounds, not those done in 2005 to transform installations to match force structure, a Pentagon official said today.
“The math is straightforward,” Dorothy Robyn, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, told a Senate panel. “BRAC is the single most effective thing the department has ever done in terms of producing greater efficiency and savings.”...
Robyn and other defense leaders say the department needs BRAC rounds in fiscal 2013 and fiscal 2014 to meet constricting budgets. She reiterated those needs today to the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on readiness and management support....
The department receives about $4 billion in annual savings from the 2005 BRAC, Robyn said, but she acknowledged those realignments and closures won’t yield a net savings until 2018. By contrast, she said, the department has reaped $8 billion in annual recurring savings from the first four rounds of BRAC, which occurred from 1989 to 1995, Robyn said.
“That’s the equivalent of buying three Apache attack helicopters or four Virginia-class submarines,” she said.
The 2005 BRAC is not the right comparison because it was designed more for transforming installations to meet military needs during wartime than for savings and eliminating excess capacity, Robyn said.
“That was a period of growth in the military, and [BRAC] reflected the goals and needs of that time,” she said. “It was not about saving money and space.” Today, the military needs to reduce its installation space to match downsizing plans, she added....
14. “More Chinese investments likely to come this way” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 21, 2012); column citing agency headed by GINNY FANG (MPP 2008); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/20/BU681NNG8B.DTL#ixzz1plnsDycU
--Andrew S. Ross, Chronicle Columnist
ChinaSF, [Ginny Fang, executive director] the public-private city agency that
has been bringing Chinese businesses to San Francisco for the past three
years—including China’s fifth largest bank, Bank of Communications—is engaged
in discussions with Chinese enterprises, said Nathan Williams, who heads ChinaSF’s Beijing office. “There’s a ton of interest in
project financing. They’re definitely interested in infrastructure investments
in
More immediately
promising is ChinaSF’s
“sandbox” project—finding space for Chinese tech startups in
15. “1.2 Billion People Live in Poverty - The Rockefeller Foundation and Institute for the Future Invite 7 Billion People to Help Find Solutions” (PR Newswire, March 21, 2012); newswire citing MARINA GORBIS (MPP 1983).
Around the world, hundreds of millions of people are looking for ways out of poverty. While progress has been made, over 1.2 billion poor or vulnerable people around the world are still living in extreme poverty.
“The public, private and social sectors have worked to tackle poverty, vulnerability and exclusion for years,” said Dr. Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation. “While the lives of countless people and communities have been transformed as a result, the persistent level of poverty and vulnerability that remains requires new and innovative thinking. Using technology to engage a new set of actors from all over the world will provide unique perspectives, allowing us to identify new ways to solve problems and address poverty at its root causes.”
To close this gap, the Rockefeller Foundation has joined forces with IFTF to test a new way of solving global problems and developing solutions. Using cutting-edge gaming principles and collaboration techniques, Catalysts for Change creates an opportunity for people everywhere to contribute their unique perspectives. Armed with these insights, our global community will be better equipped to address the root causes of poverty....
The game will offer celebrity awards that highlight different kinds of catalysts for change.... But as Marina Gorbis, IFTF’s Executive Director points out, “The real winner will be the future we create together and the solutions we gather to help solve global poverty.” ...
16. “House Republicans to Unveil Budget Plan” (Morning Edition, National Public Radio, March 20, 2012); features commentary by STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
DAVID GREENE: This morning, House Republicans unveiled a new budget plan on Capitol Hill. And like President Obama’s budget document last month, the GOP’s version is as much a political statement as an actual road map....
TAMARA KEITH: When it
comes to Medicare, this plan would allow seniors in the future to choose
between government coverage and private insurance. It’s somewhat less severe
than what the House GOP proposed last year. And in fact, [House Budget
Committee Chairman Paul] Ryan has been working with a Democrat in the Senate on
this concept. But already, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is
using the proposal to go after vulnerable incumbents, with robo-calls
that charge this new budget chooses millionaires over Medicare. Rep. Tim
Griffin, a freshman Republican from
TIM
TAMARA KEITH: But
dealing with Medicare last year didn’t go entirely well for House Republicans.
That budget was dead on arrival in the Senate, and Democrats were able to use
the Medicare issue to win what had been a solidly Republican House seat in
STAN COLLENDER: The Republican problem is that they’ve got to appeal to the base now, but then they’re going to have to broaden their appeal to independents and hopefully, some Democrats, later in the year. And that’s going to be very difficult to do when you’re attacking Medicare....
17. “GM, Tesla fight politicization of electric cars” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 19, 2012); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/18/MTJA1NL8OD.DTL&ao=all#ixzz1paW2gbvF
--Carolyn Lochhead
Randy Abraham is excited to be the first to purchase a Coda electric
vehicle from the
But it may not stop the
electric car. The assault has enraged General Motors. On March 1, the company
opened an unprecedented campaign to re-introduce the Volt in
[Jesse] Toprak of Truecar.com said the 18,000 electric cars sold in
the
Still, electric cars are outperforming the first-year introduction of hybrids, said Roland Hwang, the San Francisco-based transportation program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
“If the electric vehicle
market is dead, then why did
18. “Higher standards
for MPG will pay off” (Daily Herald (
If you are fuming about having to shell out your hard-earned cash for Memorial Day gas prices in March, you are not alone. The hard truth: Prices at the pump are not getting better any time soon....
Fortunately, real relief
is on the way for
The
Don’t listen to people who mistakenly think high MPG autos are too expensive for you to afford. Based on EPA estimates, the 54.5 MPG standard will save consumers a net of $4,400 over the life of their vehicles.
Experts estimate that
already there are 150,000 jobs in 300 automotive supply companies across 43
states (including
Every dollar we don’t spend on gasoline is kept here in our country, which helps to fuel our economic growth. Higher MPG will mean that Americans spend half a trillion dollars less on oil over the next two decades.
While some of these huge
benefits may seem far off,
--Roland Hwang, Transportation program director – Natural Resources Defense Council
19. “Unemployed Is Bad Enough; ‘Unbanked’ Can Be Worse” (The New York Times, March 18, 2012); story citing GREG KATO (MPP 2006).
By Titania Kumeh. culture@baycitizen.org
Joey Macias has lived without a bank or credit union account for more than a year....
Mr. Macias stopped banking after losing his job and incurring debt, which in turn led to bad credit. For now, fringe financial companies—businesses like check cashers, payday lenders and pawnshops that lack conventional checking or savings accounts and frequently charge huge fees and high interest for their services—are the only places Mr. Macias can cash his paychecks and borrow money....
Over the past few years,
the issue of ‘‘unbanked’’ people [an estimated 5.7 percent of
Lacking a bank account
imposes limitations on a person’s financial options, said Greg Kato, policy and legislative manager of the Office of the
Treasurer-Tax Collector in
The City of
20. “Mirkarimi case a political minefield for S.F. pols” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 2012); column citing DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/17/BAR51NKVVH.DTL&ao=all#ixzz1pbOFU3Y4
--Rachel Gordon, John Coté
An official misconduct charge against embattled San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi would suck the political oxygen out of City Hall over the coming months and test Mayor Ed Lee’s reputation as a get-along mayor, political observers said.
It also would put tremendous pressure on the Board of Supervisors at a time when five of the 11 members are standing for election in November. The board would serve as the tribunal that decides whether to uphold the misconduct charge and remove Mirkarimi from office.
The decision to pursue a misconduct case would be one of Lee’s most important since he was sworn in as mayor 14 months ago. He said he would make up his mind after Mirkarimi’s scheduled sentencing Monday for misdemeanor false imprisonment of his wife, a crime he pleaded guilty to last week.
“This is the most
controversial thing Ed Lee will have done,” David Latterman, a
If the mayor doesn’t move on Mirkarimi, “the electorate will take care of the matter itself,” Latterman said, predicting that would most likely come in the next sheriff’s race in 2015....
21. “Real Time Economics Blog: Number of the Week: Who Gets Credit for iPhone Trade?” (Wall Street Journal Online [*requires registration], March 17, 2012); blog citing GREG LINDEN (MPP 1995); http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/03/17/number-of-the-week-who-gets-credit-for-iphone-trade/
By Phil Izzo
(Associated Press)
Every iPhone sold in
the
The iPhone
provides a good example of the problems with the way trade is currently
calculated. The Apple device features hardware from all over the world, but
because it’s manufactured in
But the researchers note
that such estimates overstate
22. “Fights brewing over House Republicans’ budget” (CNN Wire, March 17, 2012); analysis citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
By Jeanne Sahadi
Lawmakers won’t be finalizing too many financial decisions before the November elections. But they’re about to engage in yet another fight that could risk a government shutdown in the fall.
That would add to the fiscal hurricane set to hit right after Nov. 6. That’s when the lame duck Congress must decide what to do about the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the Medicare “doc fix” on the eve of deep, automatic spending cuts that nobody wants.
For next week, though, the focus will be on the House Republicans’ 2013 budget proposal put out by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan.
Democrats have been crying foul in advance, because the House GOP is expected to propose a top-line number below the $1.047 trillion discretionary spending cap agreed to in last summer’s Budget Control Act, the deal struck as part of the debt ceiling compromise....
In any case, Republicans contend that they can propose any cap under the $1.047 trillion level, because that simply represents the uppermost limit for discretionary spending, not a level up to which Congress must spend.
In fact, there’s nothing in the law barring them from proposing something lower, said budget expert Stan Collender, once a Democratic staffer on the Hill.
But just because they can doesn’t mean they should, Collender said in a recent Roll Call column.
Doing so would guarantee that the Senate rejects the House-passed budget resolution.
And it increases the chances that Congress will end up passing yet another a temporary spending measure to keep the government open after Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year, or risk a shutdown a month before the elections....
23. “
By Public Affairs
BERKELEY — UC Berkeley’s reputation shines internationally, and the campus’s graduate schools retain high marks nationally, as well, according to two separate rankings made public this week.
Reputational rankings for
certain disciplines saw
24. “Assembly Panel Backs Kindergarten Program” (U-T San Diego, March 15, 2012); story citing DEBORAH KONG (MPP 2007).
By Karen Kucher • U-T
Supporters of transitional kindergarten were claiming a bit of a victory this week after an Assembly budget subcommittee voted to reject the governor’s proposal to eliminate a two-year kindergarten program for younger students to save $224 million.
The 3-1 vote Tuesday by the Assembly’s education finance subcommittee, which fell along party lines, is an early signal of Democratic opposition to Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget-cutting plan, advocates said.
“We really think this
early vote reflects the strong and broad support for transitional kindergarten,
and with the vote the Assembly has sent a clear message that should erase any
doubt in school districts that transitional kindergarten will remain
25. “Election 2012: Dane
Incumbent Donald Imhoff is running against challenger Jeff Pertl for the
Jeff Pertl ...
Job: Federal Funds trustee and senior adviser to state Superintendent Tony Evers
Family: Married to Bethany Ordaz; two cats and a dog
Public service: Federal Funds trustee and policy adviser at the state Department of Public Instruction; policy adviser at the College Access Foundation; legislative staff for state Sen. Lena Taylor; campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin; legislative coordinator at the Wisconsin Association of School Boards; president of the United Council of UW-Students; member of the Heritage Heights Neighborhood Association; member of the Eastside Progressives; member of the Associated Students of Madison Foundation Board; former finance officer for the United States Student Association and State Student Association Alliance boards; Eagle Scout; volunteer for several local organizations
Education: Bachelor’s degree in ancient history from UW-Madison; master’s degree in public policy from UC-Berkeley ...
Q: Why are you the best candidate for this post?
Imhoff:
I am a lifelong resident of
Pertl: A weak economy and devastating state budget cuts have left too many hard-working families struggling. I will draw on a decade of finance and leadership experience helping nonprofits and local governments responsibly balance budgets. Working together, we can limit tax increases and avoid debt while supporting seniors, children, public safety and job creation.
Q: Do you agree with the county’s decision to extend its labor contracts before Gov. Walker’s new collective bargaining law took effect? Why?
Imhoff: I am not sure it matters, but we will find out soon.
Pertl: Yes. Having worked with
both management and labor, I strongly believe in workers’ rights and collective
bargaining. I built a track record of fairly and responsibly balancing budgets
without increasing debt. The recent concessions between
26. “Steinberg to introduce change to Sacramento County’s kids’ dental program” (Sacramento Bee, Mar. 14, 2012); story citing TOBY DOUGLAS (MPP 2001/MPH 2002); http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/14/4335155/steinberg-to-introduce-change.html#storylink=cpy
By Emily Bazar –
Seeking to break managed
care’s monopoly on dental care for
More than 110,000
But that model also has
one of the worst records of care: In fiscal 2010-2011, 30.6 percent of
The Sacramento
Democrat’s bill, which he plans to introduce next week, would give
But state Department of Health Care Services Director Toby Douglas, in previous correspondence with Steinberg, has said it would be “most expedient and effective” to keep Sacramento kids in the managed care program because the state may have to alter agreements with the federal government, which provides some Medi-Cal funding.
Instead,
27. “Susan De Vos:
We can cut greenhouse gases with more local foods, fewer highways, more mass
transit” (The Capital Times (
Dear Editor: A recent letter to the editor questioning the whole premise of biofuels as a substitute for regular gasoline made some very good points, but did not go as I would have liked. Since most of our consumption of oil is for transportation, and since transportation accounts for a third of our greenhouse gas emissions, it seems logical to me to question our disproportionate reliance on the single-occupancy vehicle and our over-consumption of foodstuffs hauled in from far away. I would have like to see more questioning of our insatiable thirst for road expansion and new highways. I would have liked to see a recommendation for more mass transit, a job-supporting and more environmentally friendly infrastructure.
Susan De Vos
–
28. “President’s Budget Not Sufficient to Renew Rental Assistance Fully for Low-Income Households” (States News Service, March 14, 2012); newswire citing WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999).
By Douglas Rice and Barbara Sard – Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
... The President’s fiscal year 2013 budget request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is at least $1.7 billion below the amount needed to fully renew rental assistance provided this year under HUD’s three major rental assistance programs for low-income households....
The budget proposes to increase the minimum rent for assisted families to $75 per month and eliminate public housing agency discretion to set the minimum rent below that cap. Under current law, agencies may (but are not required to) set a minimum rent of up to $50 per month for households in the public housing and housing voucher programs, and HUD has established a minimum rent of $25 for households in project-based section 8 units. Under a mandatory minimum rent of $75 per month, approximately 400,000 of the poorest recipients of housing assistance would experience rent increases of 50 percent or more, exposing them to considerable additional hardship....
The basic policy is also unwise. HUD rules include a “hardship” exemption designed to protect many of the poorest households from unaffordable rents, but the criteria for such exemptions are vague, the existence of such exemptions is not widely known among tenants, and exemptions are rarely granted.[14] ...
[14] See Barbara Sard, Will Fischer, and Thyria Alvarez-Sanchez, “Proposed Change in HUD’s Minimum Rent Policy Could Raise Rents For Several Hundred Thousand Poor Families,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, November 28, 2011....
29. “Addressing the political and practical interests of drug users” (The International Herald Tribune, March 13, 2012); story citing LAURA THOMAS (MPP/MPH 1995).
By Jesse Mckinley
But the group, the San
Francisco Drug Users’
In San Francisco, the
drug union received its first grant in 2009, [founder Isaac] Jackson said, and
got more help in December 2010 from the city’s Hepatitis C Task Force, which
has advocated for a pilot ‘‘supervised injection facility’’ for intravenous
drug users because they often contract hepatitis by using dirty needles. No
such facility exists in the
Advocates for such a site say it would not only help prevent new hepatitis and AIDS infections but could also provide a contact point for other health services, including rehabilitation, for addicts who are often loath to seek help.
And the idea of a safe injection site has won some support, including from several mayoral candidates last fall like John Avalos, a leader of the progressive bloc of the city’s all-Democratic Board of Supervisors. Laura Thomas, the interim California director for the Drug Policy Alliance, an organization in New York that helps finance the union, said that San Francisco had a history of ‘‘compassionate response’’ to drug users, and that an injection site was not so far-fetched.
‘‘I have a small bet
with one of my co-workers as to who is going to get there first,
30. “As gas prices spike again, opinions, advice turn shrill” (Columbus Dispatch, March 11, 2012); analysis citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992).
By Robert Vitale, The
The U.S. Department of Energy raised its 2012 gasoline-price projections last week and offered this scary glimpse into the future: We’ll probably pay more than $3.90 per gallon all summer....
“It feels like Groundhog Day all over again,” said Roland Hwang, the transportation program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council....
Prices jump every spring
as travel increases and demand rises, according to experts. Last year, gas
prices across the
This year, uncertainty
about
Hwang said he advocates more travel options, more alternative fuels and higher mileage mandates on new vehicles to drive down demand....
Hwang said high prices don’t help environmental advocates make their case, either. The Natural Resources Defense Council opposes increased drilling and backs President Barack Obama’s calls for more fuel-efficient cars.
“There’s a lot of opportunity to elevate the debate, but also an opportunity for demagoguery and bad policy,” he said. “We need to have an energy policy that’s not driven by the latest crisis at the pump.” ...
31. “Federal Appeals Court Blocks Parts of Alabama’s Discriminatory Anti-Immigrant Law” (Targeted News Service, March 10, 2012); newswire citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
Parts of the
Karen Tumlin, managing attorney for [
32. “What Would Impact Investing at Scale Look Like? $20 Trillion for Good” (Forbes Online, March 9, 2012); interview with BEN THORNLEY (MPP 2009); http://www.forbes.com/sites/rahimkanani/2012/03/09/what-would-impact-investing-at-scale-look-like-20-trillion-for-good/
By Rahim Kanani, Contributor
Recently, I interviewed Ben Thornley of InSight
and author of a new study on impact investing, which demonstrates that
institutional investors, such as pension funds and endowments that invest for
social and environmental outcomes are also earning a competitive rate of
financial return. Launched a few weeks ago in New York by InSight
at Pacific Community Ventures and the Initiative for Responsible Investment at
Harvard and funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, the report, Impact at Scale: Policy Innovation for
Institutional Investment with Social and Environmental Benefit, reveals
numerous government strategies that catalyze private investment for public
good, including laws in 20 states that allow or encourage “economically
targeted investments” where a public pension system invests in its home state
to support local economic growth while also targeting a financial return to the
fund.
Ben Thornley is the Director of InSight – the thought leadership practice in
high-impact investing at Pacific Community Ventures (PCV). PCV is a preeminent
San Francisco-based Community Development Financial Institution [Beth Sirull,
executive director] and growth equity manager deploying $60 million in three
funds with the aim of creating quality jobs in low-income areas of
Ben is responsible for PCV’s policy
research and non-financial performance evaluation initiatives, working with
prominent institutions including the California Public Employees Retirement
System (CalPERS), The Rockefeller Foundation, and The
California Endowment. InSight assesses the social
impact of over $1.2 billion of private equity investments by 40 individual
money managers and $17 billion invested by CalPERS in
Rahim Kanani: What was the motivation behind publishing Impact at Scale: Policy Innovation for Institutional Investment with Social and Environmental Benefit?
Ben Thornley: The motivation was twofold: first, it was an important next step in our efforts to document how governments can support the growth of impact investing. In an initial report published in January 2011, we worked with the Initiative for Responsible Investment at Harvard to frame the manner in which government can grow the supply of impact investing capital (for example by co-investing alongside private investors), develop demand (for example by providing technical assistance to the recipients of capital), and direct capital to social impact (for example by offering tax credits for affordable housing, clean energy, and other markets of interest). We wanted to hone in on a particularly important group of stakeholders –US institutional asset owners – in order to explore the relationship between the public sector and private investors in more detail.
Second, we wanted to broaden the discussion about impact investing more generally to include the largest players. US pension funds, insurers and endowments control over $20 trillion and could potentially change the game by bringing markets with intentional social and environmental benefit to scale....
33. “S.F. gets $5
million
--Andrew S. Ross, Chronicle Columnist
Students Valencia Peete (left), Seth Elvebak, Brittany Lyons and Christopher Ananuevo at Year Up SF. (Michael Macor / SFC)
The city has been given $5 million by the U.S. Department of Labor for a workforce-training program aimed specifically at the IT sector.
Responding to concerns among employers about the increasing demand for high-tech workers, the city recently started working with private companies and nonprofit organizations on designing job-training programs, including those aimed at minority and underserved communities. The $5 million “substantially increases the amount of money the city will be spending in this area,” said [Amy Wallace, deputy director of the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development]....
In addition to the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the private companies, others involved include WestEd, a nonprofit educational agency; Year Up [headed by Jay Banfield], a San Francisco nonprofit that works with young adults in underserved communities; City College, Bay Area Video Coalition and Bayview Hunters Point Center for Arts & Technology....
34. “State Sues BP Over Clean Fuel Violations - Oil giant accused of shipping gas that did not meet standards” (Contra Costa Times, March 8, 2012); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992).
By Mike Taugher - Staff Writer
Tens of millions of gallons of gasoline that did not meet California’s clean fuel specifications was delivered to Martinez and sold across the state by petroleum giant BP, state regulators said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday....
[Stanley Young, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board] said it was not clear whether the company simply made errors or deliberately misled regulators, but BP is a “repeat offender” that has been fined by the board more than 30 times for clean fuel violations over the past 10 years, he said....
“It seems like there’s a pattern here,” said Roland Hwang, transportation program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Do they have a system in place, or is this going to be a recurring pattern with this company?” ...
Young said the actual concentration of a class of chemicals called aromatic hydrocarbons was about 10 percent higher than the company said. Some aromatic hydrocarbons are toxic and can cause cancer. In addition, they lead to increased smog.
“The clean gasoline program is one of the most important pollution standards to protect public health that we have,” Hwang said. “It’s very troubling if there’s any company out there that’s selling gasoline that is dirtier than what is legally allowed.”
35. “
By Larry Gordon
Jack Scott, a veteran and popular educator who has headed the state’s community college system during a period of brutal budget cuts and was often a voice decrying the impact on students, announced Tuesday that he will retire as chancellor overseeing the 112 campuses....
A grandfatherly figure who charms audiences with witticisms, Scott has been an important advocate in the recent effort to make it easier for students to transfer from the two-year schools to four-year universities. Parts of this and other reforms are awaiting review by the Legislature and face some opposition because they would ration classes and give priority to students who have such concrete goals as a degree, vocational certificate or transfer.
Scott used the budget
crisis to his advantage in pushing for the recent reforms, according to Nancy Shulock,
executive director of the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy
at
36. “County Superintendent of Schools will no longer administer KidsNCare program in San Bernardino County” (Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, March 7, 2012), story citing GREG HUDSON (MPP 1989).
By Monica Rodriguez, Staff Writer
The San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Office will no longer administer the KidsNCare program after June 30.
KidsNCare is a program assisting low-income families to locate quality child care programs and subsidized child care.
The state Department of Education will find a new organization to operate the program starting July 1....
A county-initiated investigation determined inappropriate activity involved such things as county reporting of information to the state on families and child care providers, said Dan Evans, a county schools spokesman.....
Following a complaint, Department of Education representatives conducted a review of the county program, said Greg Hudson, administrator for Southern Field Services in the Child Development Division of the state agency.
“When we come down to review someone, we come to review normal operations. We did not feel that was going on,” he said....
“They’re doing a bang-up job” in that area, he said.
As for the KidNCare program, enough time exists so that the transition to a new administrating agency should be seamless without affecting families or providers.
“It’s going to be
relatively invisible,”
Steps to find a new agency, which will include seeking proposals from interested agencies, will begin shortly, he said.
Once an agency is
selected to administer the KidsNCare program,
families and providers will be notified,
37. “Obama makes alternative-fuel vehicle push” (CNN Wire, March 7, 2012); story citing LUKE TONACHEL (MPP 2004).
By Peter Valdes-Dapena
President Obama outlined new plans Wednesday to support the sales and use of alternative-fuel vehicles—including cars and trucks that run on hydrogen and natural gas instead of just those that run on electricity.
The plans are part of a $1 billion National Community Deployment Challenge intended to support the use of natural gas and other alternative fuel technologies, in addition to plug-in vehicles. The president also announced separate incentives to encourage individuals and businesses to purchase alternative-fuel vehicles.
The president proposed increasing the current $7,500 tax credit for advanced technology vehicles to a maximum of $10,000. The credit would also be broadened so that it applies to more different types of vehicles instead of just plug-in cars, as it does now....
Also, funds from the National Community Deployment Challenge will be used to help 10 to 15 “model communities” create incentives and infrastructure to support advanced vehicles, according to the White House proposal.
“By accelerating deployment of alternative-fuel trucks and making electric vehicles more economical, these new initiatives will expand the benefits to our wallets, to our economy and our environment,” said Luke Tonachel, senior vehicles analyst for Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement....
38. “Agri-business - Millions in subsidies go to wealthy landowners” (The Irish News, March 6, 2012); story citing JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999).
Some of the wealthiest
landowners in
The Panorama investigation showed that in 2010, 47 payments of more than £1 million were made to individuals and business under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)....
Overall 709 got more
than £250,000, 133 were given at least £500,000 and 47 received more than £1m.
The total number of payments for the whole of the
Panorama said those benefiting from large subsidy payments included wealthy figures such as Sir Richard Sutton, a baronet with extensive property holdings who regularly appears in the Times Rich List. He is said to have received £1.9m in farming subsidies last year.
British royals also benefited, including Queen Elizabeth.
According to Panorama she has received around £7m in farming subsidies over past decade and the Duke of Westminster has had around £6m in that time.
Campaigner Jack Thurston of farmsubsidy.org told Panorama: “These are very wealthy people and if we’re in the business of handing out public money to farmers because they’re poor, these are not the kind of people that we’d be handing that money to.
“It’s an awful lot of money and the reason they get so much is because they own so much land and the farm subsidies are allocated on the basis of how much land you’ve got, not how much financial need you’re in.” ...
39. “
--Chip Johnson, Chronicle Columnist
There were times last year when it appeared Oakland Mayor Jean Quan believed she had to fight every fight—feeling perhaps there was no one else to do it....
... After less than a year in office, public confidence had plummeted and two separate recall efforts had been launched against her. But since the new year began, Quan has drastically changed her approach to the job—and so far it’s a noticeable improvement over her first attempt....
She has reduced public appearances, quietly ended weekly press briefings and delegated authority to the team of administrators she chose, not inherited.
Quan still responds to press questions, but does so on specific issues, said Anne Campbell-Washington, who has served as Quan’s chief of staff since December.
“There’s a conscious
decision made with each (media) story about who is the appropriate person to
speak about the issue,”
... With a team and a chief of staff in place that she trusts, the difference in the mayor’s management style—and her stress level—must be palpable....
40. “Big brands backing ‘greener’ cotton; Scheme sees farmers use less water and pesticides; pilot run on mainland this year” (South China Morning Post, March 5, 2012); story citing MICHAEL KOBORI (MPP 1995).
By Joyce Ng
Popular international fashion brands have formed a consortium to grow environmentally-friendly cotton on a global scale for use in their products.
The initiative is backed and funded by 19 brands and retailers, including Adidas, H&M, IKEA, Levi’s, Marks & Spencer and Nike, and also with grants from the Dutch, Swedish and Swiss governments.
The group, called the Better Cotton Initiative, is running a
pilot on the mainland this year, with potential areas in Xinjiang and along the
Yellow River and Yangtze River identified, after pilots in five other
countries, including
Michael Kobori, who chairs the initiative’s governing council, told the South China Morning Post that the purpose was to teach cotton farmers to reduce their use of water and pesticides, and not to use child labour.
“Ninety per cent of
cotton farmers in the world, including
The pilot in
Unlike with Fairtrade products, farmers were paid no premium under the initiative, but they benefited from lower production costs and higher yields, Kobori said.
“The trick of better cotton ultimately is to offer sustainability at no additional cost. Consumers want the great style, quality and sustainability... but they don’t want to pay more costs for sustainability,” he said.
Kobori, also vice-president of social and environmental sustainability at Levi’s, said a blend of the “better cotton” had been integrated into two million pairs of jeans in its autumn product lines last year. Levi’s plans to raise the percentage of the cotton in its products to 20 per cent by 2015, and at the same time it has launched a “waterless” programme to cut water use in industrial processes....
41. “Bill Lockyer gave $1.7 million to wife’s campaign” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 4, 2012); column citing SABRINA BIRNBAUM LANDRETH (MPP 2004); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/03/BA4C1NFD5I.DTL#ixzz1oGxHCrAR
--Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross, Chronicle Columnists
... Shrink fit: The $28
million budget bomb that
What’s more, the city made no serious service reductions to make up for the loss of redevelopment money to the state. In fact, about the only noticeable change will be the extra day or two it will take for city workers to clean up illegal dump sites.
Otherwise, the city was able to do the job by centralizing services, eliminating duplicate administrative positions and cutting 30 job slots that weren’t filled to begin with.
“It took a lot of digging down and thinking creatively,” said budget director Sabrina Landreth....
42. “Apple says it has
created more than 500,000 jobs in the
By John Boudreau
Apple, which relies on
Asian contractors to manufacture its iPhones and iPads, said in a report released Friday that it has
directly or indirectly created 514,000 jobs in the
The company, which used
data crunched from economists at the Analysis Group, placed the job creation in
two categories. The first comprised 304,000 jobs, including software engineers
working at the
The second category comprised 210,000 independent app developer positions that exist as a result of the company’s iPhone and iPad devices. Separately, the company said it has generated more than $4 billion in business for developers who make apps for the iPhone and iPad....
Greg Linden, a researcher at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, questioned the legitimacy of Apple taking credit for some jobs, such as those of UPS and FedEx employees who deliver the company’s products. “Those jobs are questionable to the extent they’d exist whether or not Apple existed,” he said.
However,
“The app phenomenon is real,” he said. “Those are good, solid jobs, and they deserve all the credit for them. They jump-started the whole app ecosystem.” ...
43. “Junk health insurance; Stingy plans may be worse than none at all” (Consumer Reports, March 2012); story citing KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
It might seem to be health insurance, if you don’t look too closely, and most people don’t. The premiums are surprisingly affordable. And so millions of unemployed people, service industry workers, and those taken in by fast-talking telemarketers sign up. They may think they’re insured—until they have a medical problem and find out that their coverage is as skimpy as a hospital gown.
The Affordable Care Act was supposed to usher in a new era of consumer-friendly health care. For instance, insurers are no longer allowed to put outrageously low limits on the amount they pay out for medical care in a year or lifetime.
While millions of Americans have benefited from that and other reforms, many are still prey to the kind of skimpy “junk” plans the new law was designed to eliminate. Some plans, known as mini-meds, are operated by employers and brand-name insurance companies with special dispensation from the federal government. Others, such as health discount cards and fixed benefit indemnity plans, from companies you’ve probably never heard of, are so meager that regulators don’t consider them to be health insurance at all—though that’s frequently not clear to consumers....
“Don’t buy fixed benefit plans,” says Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation and an expert on individual insurance. “You’ll still be uninsured but out a bunch of money.” ...
44. “In cramped S.F., more uses sought for reservoirs” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 1, 2012); story citing PETER GOLDSTEIN (MPP 1981); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/29/MNT81NC78J.DTL#ixzz1ntDXtH5C
--John Wildermuth
The Summit Reservoir in
The neighborhood
reservoirs that supply
In a city desperate for open space, the huge, concrete-topped storage facilities and their surroundings may be opened up for additional uses that range from community gardens to hiking trails.
“The primary use always will be a utility function because that’s our mission,” said Steven Ritchie, assistant general manager of water enterprise for the city’s Public Utilities Commission. “But with this land, there can also be other community uses.” ...
Balboa Reservoir, on
While
But after a decade of discussion, PUC officials agreed to let the college expand to the never-used reservoir, with the water department hanging on to its part of the facility for future use. A multiuse building for child-development and health care programs was completed in 2010, with groundbreaking for a performing arts center slated for May, Goldstein added....
45. “Report: Community colleges should handle adult ed” (Fresno Bee, March 1, 2012); story citing STUART DROWN (MPP 1986).
By Heather Somerville –
The
A report released
Tuesday by a state watchdog agency highlights shortcomings in
The report by the Little Hoover Commission mirrors many of the changes proposed in a January report by the community college system’s Student Success Task Force.
Both groups call for improving basic skills and career technical education, preparing more students to transfer to a four-year university and ensuring that students who receive fee waivers are making acceptable grades.
One area where the two groups differ: the Little Hoover Commission wants community colleges to take over adult school programs from school districts.
Adult education would help underprepared students get the basic skills they need to pursue a college degree or improve their job prospects, according to the report.
The commission called on the state to provide community colleges with money to take over adult education....
The Little Hoover Commission started looking at ways to improve community colleges in November 2010, said executive director Stuart Drown. He said commissioners were concerned about the downturn in the economy, repeated cuts to higher education budgets and pressure as more students choose community college over state universities.
Ensuring that students leave college with the skills employers want is critical to turning around the state’s lagging economy, Drown said.
The study found that thousands of students left school without a degree or certificate, and thousands more could not get into the classes they needed for their majors.
“They weren’t meeting their own goals,” Drown said.
He said the community college system should be open to students of all backgrounds and education levels, but students need to move more quickly toward their degree. The state’s budget crisis has prompted colleges to cut courses, creating more competition for classes and longer waitlists....
Drown added that the state should be more transparent in how it splits funding between school districts and community colleges.
46. “Arizona ‘model’ would hurt immigrants - Politics - Law earns strong support from Romney and Santorum” (The Telegraph (Nashua, NH), March 1, 2012); column citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
By Andres Oppenheimer –
The
If Mitt Romney becomes
the next president of the
In the Feb. 22
Republican debate in
The 2010
“The central problem is
that it opens the door to widespread racial profiling based on what individuals
look like or sound like,” Karen Tumlin, an attorney with the
47. “EarthTalk:
Progress on smog in
... Dear EarthTalk: I read that car makers had agreed to up fuel
economy standards to an average of about 55 miles per gallon by the year 2025,
and that specifics were due to be hammered out by the end of 2011. Did this
happen and where do things stand now? -Scott Ellis,
After years of wrangling on the issue, auto companies, regulators and policymakers have finally come to terms on increased Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for vehicles plying American roads. According to the plan as formulated by the Obama administration, automakers will double the average, unadjusted fuel-economy rating of their car and light truck vehicle fleets to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 from today’s standard of 27 miles per gallon....
According to the White House, the higher standards will likely lead to price increases of some $2, 000 per vehicle to cover the costs of more expensive technology, but drivers should save an average of $6, 600 in gas over the life of a vehicle.
Environmental advocacy
groups allied as the Go60mpg Coalition report that the new rules will create
almost half a million new jobs while cutting domestic oil consumption by 1.5
million barrels or more a day by 2030. “The standards are going to lead to
large investments and a rebirth of the U. S. auto industry [as] global leaders
in innovation,” says Roland Hwang,
director of the Transportation program at the Natural Resources Defense Council,
one of the six environmental groups (along with Environment America, the
National Wildlife Federation, the Safe Climate Campaign, the Sierra Club and
the Union of Concerned Scientists) behind Go60mpg. Hwang figures the new rules will generate $300 billion in extra
revenue to the
48. “Pizarro: Michael Miller jumps from leading San Jose Jazz to Children’s Musical Theater” (San Jose Mercury News, February 29, 2012); column citing BRENDAN RAWSON (MPP 1995).
By Sal Pizarro spizarro@mercurynews.com
In another round of
Brendan Rawson, the director of cultural participation at 1stACT Silicon Valley, will become acting executive director of San Jose Jazz this month....
Rawson knows a thing or two about live music and downtown
Ultimately, the good relationship between 1stACT and San Jose Jazz helped everything along.
The two groups formalized a relationship this week that has been going on for more than a year.
It resulted in a lot more live music downtown, like San Jose Jazz’s shows at Eulipia restaurant during the South First Fridays art walks. And the people from each group working together on that partnership were Miller and Rawson.
Mike Warner, the chairman of San Jose Jazz’s board, says the collaboration is a way to build the group’s programs in a fiscally prudent way. And he’s excited to keep Miller on the board while gaining Rawson....
49. “Marin planners OK huge Lucasfilm project” (Oakland Tribune, February 27, 2012); story citing JOY DAHLGREN (MPP 1977).
By Nels Johnson, Marin Independent Journal
(Artist rendering of
Lucas’ Grady Ranch project.)
Filmmaker George Lucas’ plan for a huge digital
production studio on the old Grady Ranch in Lucas Valley won a unanimous vote
of approval from Marin County planning commissioners Monday as officials agreed
the project was in line with a master plan approved more than a decade ago—and
will have little impact on the environment....
Lucas wants to transform 52 acres into a three-story digital technology production center flanked by two towers rising amid 187 acres of open space. Plans feature 51,000 square feet of film stages, 27,918 square feet of screening rooms, a 4,381-square-foot cafe, a 1,151-square-foot kitchen, 20 units providing 11,228 square feet of guest quarters, a general store and a gym. The building will top underground parking for 202 cars and 24 bicycles.
Outside, plans include nine bridges spanning creeks, as well as a 4,000-square-foot cave to age casks of wine from the filmmaker’s 35 acres of vineyards. Excavated material will be used to build a knoll hiding the project from neighbors, and to shore up, raise and restore Miller, Grady and Landmark creeks.
Neighborhood residents called the large commercial structure with a footprint bigger than two football fields an aberration in their quiet residential community. They expressed worries about noise, traffic and night lighting, grading and creek erosion, and complained the project was being rushed without adequate environmental study—and, in the case of downstream sedimentation and related issues, little apparent study at all....
Others expressed concern about what will happen after Lucas’ holdings pass on to his heirs. “Could it become a theme park? ... A resort hotel? A wine tasting establishment?” wondered Joy Dahlgren....
50. “20-Something Visionary Promotes Obama’s Higher-Education Goals” (The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 26, 2012); story citing AMY LAITINEN (MPP 2003).
By Kelly Field
Fast forward to today. The department is still very much alive, and Zakiya Smith, now 27, has not only worked there but moved on—to the White House, where she’s in charge of shaping and promoting the president’s higher-education proposals. It’s a role that requires policy expertise and sales skills, vision and pragmatism. And it’s a role that, lately, has her defending accountability measures and cost controls that make some colleges very nervous....
Amy Laitinen, a former policy adviser to Martha Kanter, under secretary of education, spent so many hours working with Ms. Smith on those proposals [including the president’s First in the World program—a Race to the Top-type program for college affordability—and his American Graduation Initiative, which called for $12-billion for community colleges] that she referred to Ms. Smith as her “work spouse.” Ms. Laitinen said Ms. Smith is “incredibly focused” on achieving the president’s policy goals.
“She lets personal politics roll off her back,” said Ms. Laitinen, who now works as a senior policy analyst at Education Sector. “In this area, with all the egos and personalities, it’s easy to get distracted. She doesn’t—she really stays focused.”
Ms. Laitinen, who is in her late 30s, said she and her other work friends joke that they can’t compare their career trajectories to Ms. Smith’s because “it’s too demoralizing—we’ll just feel bad about ourselves.”
At age 27, Ms. Smith knows “the players, the programs, and the politics” of higher-education policy better than most 40-year-olds, Ms. Laitinen added....
51. “3.8 Billion Years in Sustainability R&D” (San Francisco Examiner, February 26, 2012); story citing MICHAEL KOBORI (MPP 1995).
The subtitle of his latest book, “The Truth About Green Business”, summarizes Gil’s advice to businesses.
Gil Friend helps companies and governments design, implement and measure profitable sustainability strategies. Leading the giant elephants, he turns the greatest ship toward a safe horizon focusing on sustainable solutions and the areas chewing up resources and realigning them to the path of least resistance.
Visionary leaders at the corporate level such as, Michael Kobori of Levi Strauss & Co, have hired Gil to work with international management teams to develop corporate sustainability strategies from the supply chain to the market....
52. Agencies Spent
Public Money on
By Ashly McGlone, U-T
Macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi at
Wall
Street executives partying in
The Watchdog sought records from 47 agencies, including the county, courts, cities and those that provide water, transportation, schools, colleges and fire protection.
They spent more than $749,000 in the past two years on end-of-year holiday parties, recognition events and employee gifts. They paid using public funds and auxiliary money available at their discretion....
Whether spending on the events is appropriate or lavish is a matter of local judgment, said JoAnne Speers, executive director of the Sacramento-based nonprofit Institute for Local Government.
“I think it is up to the community,” Speers said. “Many agencies are being especially attentive to issues of morale given the budget cuts that have occurred in recent years, given that workloads have increased.” ...
53. “How One Community Foundation Funded a New Journalism Powerhouse” (States News Service, February 24, 2012); story citing HANS DEKKER (MPP 1991).
By Lisa Williams, Circuit Rider, Knight Community Information Challenge
But could a small organization—with a website and a staff of four—really make a difference?
Reporter John Mooney,
who had spent many years covering
Only a week after the site launched, the Spotlight reporting team published a story about misuse of funds at a public utility company that triggered a state Attorney General investigation.
Success had its own rewards and challenges, says Dekker. “One of the challenges of funding a journalism organization is that you might end up funding coverage that makes some donors uncomfortable.” ...
Dekker said that an early agreement of editorial independence for the new site was critical....
The combination of
experience and independence has had real impact. Among grantees of the Knight
Community Information Challenge, NJ
Spotlight is one of the leaders when it comes to monthly visitors, and after
only eight months in existence, won an Online Journalism Award for its
continued coverage of government and public policy in
54. “NERC sets up system for analyzing events faster, identifying trends, ‘lessons learned’” (Electric Utility Week, February 20, 2012); story citing ALLEN MOSHER (MPP 1978).
By Tom Tiernan
Emphasizing that it wants to give the power industry timelier “lessons learned” from power grid events, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. approved a plan this month to speed the analysis of smaller events....
The event analysis plan also lays out steps for involving NERC and government agencies when major events occur, such as a large blackout or loss of a lot of generation capacity within a region....
Analysis of such events, which may present reliability-standard violations, has been a concern among utilities and others in the power industry with respect to their view that NERC “wears two hats” — one of its roles is to enforce any reliability standards and compliance issues resulting from an event, the other is to share information and help the industry avoid major events that harm grid reliability....
That tension still remains for municipal utilities, said Allen Mosher, vice president of policy analysis and reliability standards at the American Public Power Association and chairman of NERC’s standards committee. He added, however, that the event analysis plan approved by the NERC board is a productive outcome to lay out the rules and responsibilities for all involved. APPA supports the plan, he said.
55. “Cruising 55” (Commonwealth Club of California, February 13, 2012); event featuring ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); Listen to this program
Shad Balch, Environment and Energy Communications, General Motors
Roland Hwang, Director of Transportation Programs, NRDC
Mary Nichols, Chair,
Chris Paulson, VP of Strategy, Coda Automotive
In a striking change from
years past,
[This discussion was broadcast on NPR stations, e.g. KQED radio, March 22-23, 2012.]
56. “
By Peter Hegarty
Now they are offering residents a chance to suggest what programs to save and where to cut through an interactive survey that was posted Wednesday on the city’s website.
The “Budget Challenge” provides an overview of the city’s General Fund and allows participants to choose how much they would trim from police, fire, public works and other departments, as well as a choice to spare a department from any belt-tightening.
The cuts range from 2.5 percent to 10 percent. The survey also includes an option to raise the sales tax amount.
With each selection, participants learn how much they have saved and the amount still needed to bridge the projected shortfall.
“Your goal is to erase the deficit,” Assistant City Manager Lisa Goldman said....
Goldman said she likely will brief the council on the initial survey results during a Feb. 23 budget presentation at City Hall....
57. “The 18th Assembly District: This Year’s Most Competitive Race; The contest to replace Swanson features four candidates - Rob Bonta, Abel Guillen, Joel Young, and Kathy Neal - who each have a legitimate shot at winning” (East Bay Express, February 8, 2012); story citing ABEL GUILLEN (MPP 2001).
By Steven Tavares
... Although the
official nomination period does not start until February 13, the race already
includes four major candidates: Alameda Vice Mayor Rob
Bonta, Peralta
Community College Trustee Abel Guillen, AC
Transit board member Joel Young, and Kathy Neal, a former
The campaign also promises
to be close because the candidates are cut from a similar political cloth—all
are Democrats. Each also has been well-received by the
Guillen’s base of support also appears to be expanding. According to his most recent campaign fundraising report filed late last month with the Secretary of State’s Office, more than five hundred of his contributors were small donors. Guillen said that most are people who have never contributed to a campaign in their lives. Because many of his donors are still well below the fundraising limit, Guillen hopes that they will open their checkbooks again in the future. “We think they will probably donate again,” he said. Guillen’s end-of-year report shows his campaign with a respectable $107,000 in cash on hand, strengthened by more than $66,000 in donations during the last three months of the year.
Guillen also has tapped into the
message of the 99 Percent. Late last year, he won plaudits from the Occupy movement
for his plan to explore the feasibility of moving the community college
district’s assets from large financial institutions to local credit unions and
community banks. “I have a commitment to myself and my job at the
Other local agencies and
communities are picking up on the Peralta board’s lead. The Berkeley City
Council is contemplating a move of its assets from Wells Fargo to local
institutions. Guillen
said
58. “Despite improved dialogue, experts see lingering strain between NERC and FERC” (Inside F.E.R.C., February 6, 2012); story citing ALLEN MOSHER (MPP 1978).
By Esther Whieldon
Nearly two years after a set of FERC reliability orders triggered controversy over whether the commission was attempting to control the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s standards development process, power industry sources said tensions between NERC and FERC have eased but still simmer under the surface....
The general agenda of the power industry now “is to get NERC, industry and the commission all pulling in the same direction,” said Allen Mosher, APPA vice president of policy analysis and reliability standards. What was “disturbing” about the March 2010 orders, said Mosher, was that Gerry Cauley had just become CEO of NERC “and tried to set out a new direction. And then out came this series of orders, which were interpreted by some as almost a slap against him,... as if saying FERC is in charge.” But that was “purely speculative” because it could have just been an issue with timing, said Mosher, who is chairman of the NERC standards committee.
“There were clearly some issues the commission was concerned about,” including NERC’s lack of progress on developing certain standards to respond to FERC directives, Mosher said. “And we managed to reach an accommodation with some changes in the rules of procedure that addressed the FERC underlying concern.”
The Federal Power Act divides the responsibility for mandatory electricity reliability standards between FERC and its designated ERO, which NERC became in July 2006. The ERO is tasked with proposing new or revised standards, ensuring the rules are obeyed and advising the industry when there are mistakes to learn from. FPA requires FERC to give due weight to the ERO’s technical expertise.
As for its oversight of standards, the commission can approve or remand a standard/or direct the ERO to propose a new or modified requirement to address a specific concern. The commission’s authority stops there, however, and leaves the job of crafting the details of the standard to NERC.
“This balance, though awkward, serves to balance the companies’ and the public’s interest because the grid is complicated and industry technical expertise” is needed to understand what is necessary to ensure reliability, Mosher said. FERC commissioners “are looking for a sort of a level of NERC leadership here of setting out these reliability objectives and accomplishing them,” he said....
59. “Romney should show
concern for the poor” (Daily News (
By Ruth Marcus
WASHINGTON — The problem with Mitt Romney’s latest boneheaded statement – “I’m not concerned about the very poor” – isn’t the ammunition it gives political opponents eager to yank the candidate’s words out of context.
The deeper problem is that
Romney’s remarks betray a trio of fundamental misunderstandings: of the nature
and scope of poverty in
“I’m not concerned about
the very poor. We have a safety net there,” Romney told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien.
“If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich,
they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of
But Romney seems implicitly to be suggesting that the middle class somehow has it worse than the poor. “The middle-income Americans, they’re the folks that are really struggling right now,” he said....
... He seems heedless of the unpleasant fact that the poverty rate in 2010, the most recent year for which figures are available, was 15.1 percent. Even more disturbing, more than one in five children – 22 percent – was living below the poverty line, $22,314 for a family of four.
This is not a phenomenon that any would-be president should wave off, as Romney did. “We will hear from the Democrat party the plight of the poor,” he sniffed, “and there’s no question, it’s not good being poor and we have a safety net to help those that are very poor.”
The breadth of current poverty and its long-term implications merit more than this dismissive treatment. Growing up in poverty makes it more likely that you will be stuck there as an adult. According to research by the Brookings Institution’s Julia Isaacs, 42 percent of sons born to parents in the bottom fifth of the income distribution remain at the bottom, twice as many as would be expected by chance alone....
60. “Privatizing dorms raises concerns - Feasibility, accountability are key issues as UK considers privatization” (Lexington Herald-Leader, February 5, 2012); story citing LARRY OWSLEY (MPP 1973).
By Linda B. Blackford
The
Lots of questions about
the plan remain unanswered as
One reason that colleges turn to private developers for housing is that they need new beds quickly, and private developers often can deliver a faster process than one governed by state rules.
That was the case for U
of L in 1997, when it hired EdR to build new dorms as
part of an effort to turn
EdR built three new residence halls at U of L, and it currently manages four, including Minardi Hall, the athletics dorm. That means EdR does all the maintenance and manages student life issues, such as helping freshman adjust to college life and creating living student communities.
“We all became very comfortable that this process was good for us,” said Larry Owsley, U of L’s vice-president for business affairs. “That was because of all the due diligence we did.”
Each year, EdR gets a 4 percent management fee from U of L—$264,000 this fiscal year. If there is money left over, EdR returns it to the university. In years past, that’s been about $500,000 a year, Owsley said....
61. “The Case for More
Privatization in
One paper, authored by John Nellis, examines privatization from an international perspective; the other, authored by Anthony Boardman and Aidan Vining, takes a strictly Canadian perspective. Both arrive at a common conclusion: the overall impacts of privatization have been largely positive.
Boardman and Vining look at examples of Canadian firms that have been privatized and quantify the impacts on those firms’ operating performance. They conclude “that the privatization of entities operating in competitive markets has been social welfare-improving. Indeed, our major policy conclusion is that this kind of privatization is a no-brainer.” ...
[Read “A Review and Assessment of Privatizaton in Canada“ by Anthony Boardman and Aidan Vining.]
62. “CalSTRS may cut forecast again - Consultant: Fund Outlook Still Too Rosy” (Sacramento Bee, February 1, 2012); story citing ED DERMAN (MPP 1978); http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/01/4229555/calstrs-may-cut-forecast-again.html
By Dale Kasler
CalSTRS is thinking of cutting its investment forecast for the second time in barely a year, a move that acknowledges the increased financial strain on the pension fund.
Pension funds are reluctant to adjust their investment forecasts. After months of hand-wringing, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System cut its forecast by a quarter point in December 2010—the first adjustment in 15 years.
Now it might do so again, just a week after CalSTRS revealed that its earnings for calendar 2011 came to just 2.3 percent.
The timing is coincidental, pension officials said. The latest recommendation is part of a typical review that takes place every four years, said Ed Derman, CalSTRS’ deputy chief executive.
What happened in 2010 was unusual, and was a reaction to the extraordinary losses suffered in the 2008 market crash, he said.
CalSTRS gets more than $5.5 billion a year in contributions from the state, school districts and teachers. It says it needs at least $4 billion a year more to eventually get healthy. With the lowered investment forecast, that requirement would grow by an additional $500 million a year, Derman said.
Toward that end, CalSTRS’ staff plans to present the Legislature with six different scenarios for raising contributions. The increases wouldn’t begin until 2016, which Derman said is partly a bow to political reality as the Legislature deals with a huge deficit....
63. “Tax-share program
receives scrutiny” (Star Tribune (
By David Peterson; Katie Humphrey; Laurie Blake; Staff Writers, Star Tribune (Mpls.-St. Paul)
Rising impatience in tax-rich Twin Cities suburbs over a regional program that takes millions from their budgets and awards it to less affluent communities will result this week in the most intense official scutiny the plan has ever received.
A state report due out within days will examine whether the 40-year-old program known as “fiscal disparities,” which quietly shifts $500 million in tax base from one community to the next, is doing what it was designed to.
... Launched in 1971,
it’s intended to promote orderly business development and narrow the gap
between haves and have-nots by spreading the wealth from the Bloomingtons and
But as budgets tighten and aid dries up, questions about the program’s effects and unintended side effects are growing. Among them: Lavish subsidies for tiny places that might not otherwise exist.
Landfall, in
This year, fiscal disparities accounts for $267,000 of Landfall’s $859,000 budget while property owners paid in $285,556....
64. “Recession’s effects
on children felt more in
--News-Democrat
Following a recent
report from the Heartland Alliance about the adverse affects of the recession
on
The newest report, The Recession’s Ongoing Impact on American’s Children: Indicators of Children’s Economic Well-Being Through 2011, from First Focus, looked at how children have fared through the recession and the ongoing consequences of the recession on children. First Focus is a Washington, D.C.-based bipartisan advocacy organization that focuses on making children and families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions.
The report, written by Julia Isaacs, a child and family policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, examined the number of children living with an unemployed parent, the number of those who rely on food stamps and the number who live in poverty.
In
Nationwide, 8 million
more children relied on food stamps than in 2007, bringing the total number of
children on food stamps to 21 million, or about one in four. More than one in
five, or 16 million children live in poverty in the
The report noted that a parent’s unemployment and poverty have both immediate and long-lasting effects on a child’s development. Near-term effects include psychological stress and academic performance, and even increased incidences of abuse and neglect. Lasting consequences include diminished career aspirations and earnings as an adult.
“The economy may have begun its slow recovery, but conditions are not yet improving for children in the most vulnerable families,” Isaacs stated.
[The entire report is available at www.firstfocus.net/news/children-of-the-recession .]
65. “Election could
change face of
By Matthew Artz –
With council members Jane Brunner and Nancy Nadel not seeking re-election after 16 years in office and Council member Ignacio De La Fuente uncommitted to seeking a sixth term, aspiring politicians aren’t wasting time throwing their hats into the ring for the November election....
Also considering running
are Richard Raya, policy director with
the good government organization
66. “In
By David Frum – CNN Contributor
Saturday’s
The state’s unemployment rate is 9.9%, eighth worst in the country....
Despite the grim economic numbers, Newt Gingrich’s first TV attack ad focused on Mitt Romney’s record on abortion, not economics.
Why?
Perhaps for this reason:
Those
And of all the country’s demographic groups, it is white seniors who have suffered least from the economic crisis. Generous social programs shelter the elderly from the slump.
Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution calculates: “Public spending on children averaged $8,942 per child under age 19 in 2004 according to estimates presented in the paper. In the same year, public spending on the elderly was $21,904 per elderly person, or 2.4 times as high as that on children. The tilt toward the elderly is much higher if one looks just at the federal budget, with an elderly person receiving $7 for every dollar received by a child.” ...
67. “House Democrats Urge Obama to Replace FHFA’s DeMarco ‘Immediately’” (The Frontrunner, January 12, 2012); story citing WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999).
Center On Budget Scholars: Block Grants Would Cut Housing Funds.
In a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (1/11) paper, Douglas Rice and Will Fischer say Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) has proposed “an unlimited expansion of the Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration, which now exempts 35 housing agencies from nearly all federal housing laws and regulations so they can experiment with alternative ways of administering low-income housing aid” that “risks deep cuts to housing assistance over time” because “a very large share of the nation’s 3,900 state and local housing agencies” would have an incentive “to convert their Housing Choice Voucher and public housing funding streams to Moving to Work block grants.” While such a change may offer more flexibility, experience from “the four major housing block grant programs—the Native American Housing Block Grant (NAHBG), HOME Investment Partnerships program, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), and Public Housing Capital Fund” shows a decline in funding “over the past decade” losing “fully 38 percent of their value since 2001.”
68. “KELL Partners Reaches New Milestone, Engages with Nonprofits on More than 300 Convio Common Ground and Convio Luminate Projects” (Marketwire, January 10, 2012); newswire citing TOM KRACKELER (MPP 1998).
“KELL Partners has consistently proven to be a valuable Convio partner, and we applaud their milestone of reaching more than 300 deployment projects for our leading CRM solutions for nonprofits,” said Tom Krackeler, Convio’s Vice President of Common Ground. “The company’s deep knowledge and expertise with our Common Ground and Luminate solutions helps ensure that Convio clients have access to five-star service as they deploy their new CRM systems and begin to drive stronger levels of engagement with their constituents.” ...
69. “With $150 million [in debt], we’re really not concerned with the European market. You can go to three to four banks and get it done” (Power, Finance and Risk, January 9, 2012); story citing PAULA ZAGRECKI (MPP 1992).
“With $150 million [in
debt], we’re really not concerned with the European market. You can go to three
to four banks and get it done.” – Paula Zagrecki, Diamond
Generating director of finance in
70. “Hewlett Foundation Sponsors Prize to Improve Automated Scoring of Student Essays” (States News Service, January 9, 2012); newswire citing BARBARA CHOW (MPP 1980).
The software competition is intended to begin to solve the problem of the high cost and the slow turnaround resulting from the time consuming and expensive task of hand scoring thousands of essays for standardized tests. These obstacles typically mean that many school systems exclude essays in favor of multiple-choice questions, which are less able to assess students’ critical reasoning and writing skills. The problem is that critical reasoning is one of a suite of skills that experts believe students must be taught to succeed in the new century. The Hewlett Foundation makes grants to educators and nonprofit organizations in support of what it calls “deeper learning,” which embraces the mastery of core academic content, critical reasoning and problem solving, working collaboratively, communicating effectively, and learning how to learn independently.
“Better tests support better learning,” says Barbara Chow, Education Program Director at the Hewlett Foundation. “Rapid and accurate automated essay scoring will encourage states to include more writing in their state assessments. And the more we can use essays to assess what students have learned, the greater the likelihood they’ll master important academic content, critical thinking, and effective communication.” ...
71. “Scientists fine-tuning plans to improve Missisquoi Bay - Study reveals path to efficiency” (St. Albans Messenger, January 5, 2012); story citing KARI DOLAN (MPP 1990).
By Michelle Monroe; Messenger Staff Writer
SWANTON - A study of the
Targeting the most sensitive tracts of land is two to three times more effective than simply introducing best management practices randomly within the watershed, as is done now, said Julie Moore of Stone Environmental, which conducted the study.
More than half of the sediment and phosphorous is coming from just 10 percent of the land, according to the study....
Forested land produces the least amount of phosphorous and sediment run-off per acre, according to the study, and there is a 20-fold difference between forested land and fields in a soybean and corn rotation....
“This information is very useful to us,” said Kari Dolan, head of the Ecosystem Restoration Project, formerly the Center for Clean and Clear.
Information from the study will be used to make changes to better target those funds, according to Dolan. “This is, in fact, going to be incredibly useful for us in getting the ground practices in place,” said Dolan....
Although the study focused on identifying sources of phosphorous and sediment on the land, it confirmed data from another, parallel study, which found that 40 percent of the phosphorous and sediment reaching the Missisquoi Bay is coming from the stream themselves, primarily via erosion of banks....
Funding wasn’t available to examine practices to reduce in-stream phosphorous contributions, said Dolan, but one of the practices would be restoring the flood plains for the streams.
As long as streams are unstable, they will continue to incise, or cut into the land around them, contributing to phosphorous loading in the lake, explained Dolan....
72. “
By Harold Meyerson
“Over the past three years, Barack Obama has been replacing our merit-based society with an Entitlement Society,” Mitt Romney wrote in USA Today last month. The coming election, Romney told Wall Street Journal editors last month, will be “a very simple choice” between Obama’s “European social democratic” vision and “a merit-based opportunity society—an American-style society—where people earn their rewards based on their education, their work, their willingness to take risks and their dreams.”
Romney’s assertions are
the centerpiece of his, and his party’s, critique not just of Obama but of
American liberalism generally. But they fail to explain how and why the
American economy has declined the past few decades—in good part because they
betray no awareness that
The best way to measure a nation’s merit-based status is to look at its intergenerational economic mobility: Do children move up and down the economic ladder based on their own abilities, or does their economic standing simply replicate their parents’?
Sadly, as the American
middle class has thinned out over recent decades, the idea of
As a paper by Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution has shown, sons’ earnings approximate those of their fathers about three times more frequently in the United States than they do in Denmark, Norway and Finland, and about 1 1/2 times more frequently than they do in Germany. The European social democracies—where taxes, entitlements and the rate of unionization greatly exceed America’s—are demonstrably more merit-based than the United States....
1. “SolFocus to help
--David R. Baker
(Photo: Courtesy SolFocus)
With its relentless sunshine and open desert
spaces,
But even as solar spreads across the world at
breakneck speed, it has largely bypassed
Now a
“It’s ideal,” said Daniel Kammen, a UC Berkeley professor who recently spent a year at the World Bank working on renewable energy projects and policy. “And there’s a lot of open land. So you would think there would be more solar.”
The Mexican government, Kammen said, has recently taken
an interest in the technology, particularly after the 2010 international
climate change conference in
“
2. “Oakland City Council members’ actions face audit” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 29, 2012); story citing LARRY ROSENTHAL (MPP 1993/PhD 2000); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/28/BAHC1NRFNB.DTL#ixzz1qWSOWqHc
--Matthai Kuruvila, Demian Bulwa
Oakland City Auditor Courtney Ruby said
Wednesday that she has launched an audit into how often City Council members
violate
The actions by Ruby and [City Attorney Barbara]
Parker come on the heels of a Feb. 24 report by City Administrator Deanna
Santana that raised questions about an after-school program for teens in
Many Bay Area cities have similar laws
prohibiting council interference in administrative affairs.
The strict positions taken by Ruby and Parker,
though, set up a potential conflict at the top levels of
Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente on Wednesday listed an array of projects in which he said he had directed staff, saying council pressure can be important, particularly when the city’s administration fails to abide by the council’s legislative direction....
Council President Larry Reid Reid said he calls city staff on issues like illegal dumping at least 10 times a week.
Larry
Rosenthal, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy,
said the Charter provision seeks to guarantee a separation of powers, which has
been a defining principle of
Rosenthal said that simple communications, as in Reid reporting illegal dumping, is good and efficient government. But there are limits.
Charter restrictions on noninterference “are not a muzzle,” he said. “What it doesn’t allow is coercion and the imposition of undue influence.”
3. “Kosovo counting on the
--Daniel M. Kammen
A miner walks atop a coal mine conveyor belt in Obilic, 6 miles northwest of Pristina, Kosovo. (Visar Kryeziu / ASSOCIATED PRESS)
...[O]nce “expensive” clean energy costs have fallen dramatically
while “cheap” fossil fuels are increasingly expensive in economic, health and
environmental terms. As a result, in many parts of the world, wind is the
least-cost source of electricity. In addition, in the sunniest parts of the
The clean-versus-dirty debate is also playing
out in
The
Daniel M. Kammen is a professor of energy at UC Berkeley in the Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy. He serves the U.S. State Department as a Clean Energy Fellow to the Americas.
4. “New Research Suggests Cap and Trade Programs Do Not Provide Sufficient Incentives for Energy Technology Innovation” (The Berkeleyan, March 27, 2012); story citing MARGARET TAYLOR; http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2012/03/15/cap-and-trade-programs-do-not-provide-sufficient-incentives/
--Allan Chen
Cap and trade programs to reduce emissions do not inherently provide incentives to induce the private sector to develop innovative technologies to address climate change, according to a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In fact,
said author Margaret Taylor, a
researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) who conducted
the study while an assistant professor
at the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy,
the success of some cap and trade programs in achieving predetermined pollution
reduction targets at low cost seems to have reduced incentives for research and
development that could help develop more appropriate pollution control targets.
“Policymakers rarely see with perfect foresight
what the appropriate emissions targets are to protect the public health and
environment—the history is that these targets usually need to get stricter,”
said
The cap-and-trade programs
But this low-price message did not cause the
policy targets in the CTPs to change, despite
evidence that it would not only be cheaper than expected to meet these targets,
but it would also be more important to public health to tighten the targets,
based on scientific advances. The lower-than-expected price signal did cause
emissions sources to reassess their clean technology investments, however, and
led to significant cancellations,
Meanwhile, the low price also signaled to innovators working to develop clean technologies – which are often distinct from the emissions sources that hold allowances – that potential returns to their research and development programs, which generally have uncertain and longer-term payoffs, would be lower than expected....
5. “Immersed in Race, Gingrich Stays in Despite Setbacks” (Reuters, March 26, 2012); story citing JACK GLASER; http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/03/26/us/politics/26reuters-usa-campaign-gingrich.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=Berkeley&st=nyt
By REUTERS
“He is enjoying himself and it doesn’t bother
him that a lot of people are spending time, money, and emotion trying to get
him votes that are moot,” said Jack
Glaser, associate professor at the University of California Berkeley’s Goldman
School of Public Policy, adding that
“Gingrich and Paul may have convinced themselves that they are trying to save the country, while being less inclined to recognize or acknowledge that they’re enjoying the attention and perks. They both do seem to be having a good time.”
Although he might still harbor hopes that Santorum or even Romney could begin to lose momentum, Gingrich may also be keeping himself in the campaign as long as possible to boost sales of his many books and improve his already lucrative public speaking opportunities....
“It seems like the big parts of his life (at least his public life) are giving speeches, writing books, lobbying, and fundraising. Running for president is complementary to the other activities and this is peak season, so why not get a good run out of it?” Glaser said.
6. “Rep. Mike Honda presents his ‘Budget for All’ as counter to GOP plan” (San Jose Mercury News, March 26, 2012); analysis citing JOHN ELLWOOD; http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_20253586/rep-mike-honda-presents-his-budget-all-counter
By Josh Richman
Two vastly different visions of how the government should spend its money were introduced in Congress this past week....
Most of the national buzz was about the “Path to Prosperity” plan put forth Tuesday by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. It’s a conservative blueprint that would reshape Medicare; make deep cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and other programs for the poor; and cut the top tax rates paid by the wealthy and corporations....
Then there’s the Ryan plan’s photo negative: the “Budget for All” plan unveiled Wednesday by the Congressional Progressive Caucus and its budget task-force chairman, Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell....
Honda’s plan includes “$2.4 trillion in job-creating investments.” It not only would end the Bush-era tax cuts, but also create new tax brackets for millionaires and billionaires in keeping with the “Buffett rule.” Named after multibillionaire Warren Buffett ... the rule posits that the nation’s richest shouldn’t pay a lower percentage of income in taxes than less-affluent Americans. It ends what critics call “corporate welfare” for fossil-fuel industries, includes public funding of election campaigns and provides more aid to homeowners facing foreclosure.....
Even without a presidential election this year, neither plan would have a snowflake’s chance in Hades of passing as is....
“Budgets are not just accounting documents; they’re also documents about philosophy. And what you have here are philosophies from almost the two ends of the spectrum, left and right,” said UC Berkeley public-policy professor John Ellwood, an expert in the politics of the budgetary process who served on the staffs of the Congressional Budget Office and the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.
Ultimately, he said, Ryan and the Republicans are being less honest about the consequences of their proposed cuts, while Honda and the Democrats are being less honest about the costs of their spending. This is particularly true when it comes to health care, a major driver of government spending that accounts for a world-topping 17.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, he said.
With Americans patently unwilling to pay for the level of government services they’ve become accustomed to, both parties are likely to “play fear” for this year’s election, “and nothing’s going to happen until after the election,” Ellwood said....
7. “Morality crisis is in the boardrooms, not bedrooms” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 25, 2012); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/23/INT61NNGDJ.DTL#ixzz1qGL9n2xF
--Robert Reich, © 2012 Robert Reich
Republicans have morality upside down. They’re condemning same-sex marriage, abortion, access to contraception and the wall separating church and state.
But the moral crisis in
Twice before, reformers have saved capitalism from its own excesses by appealing to public morality and common sense. First in the early 1900s, when the captains of American industry monopolized the economy into giant trusts, American politics sank into a swamp of patronage and corruption, and many factory jobs were unsafe - requiring long hours of work at meager pay and often exploiting children. In response, we enacted antitrust laws, civil service reforms and labor protections.
And then again in the 1930s, after the stock market collapsed and a large portion of the American workforce was unemployed, we regulated banks and insured deposits, cleaned up the stock market and provided social insurance to the destitute.
It’s time once again to save capitalism from its own excesses—and to base a new era of reform on public morality and common sense.
Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at UC Berkeley ....
8. “Blog: Fired Up! A Thank You to Paul Ryan for the Republican Budget” (Huffington Post, March 21, 2012); blog by JENNIFER GRANHOLM; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-m-granholm/paul-ryan-budget-_b_1369892.html
--Jennifer Granholm
... I so love it when choices are clear! [Paul Ryan] has done us a great favor by putting it all on the table.
So, here is your choice,
▪ Guaranteed health care benefits for seniors, or tax cuts for the wealthy?
▪ Food for poor children, or no taxes on offshore profits for multinational corporations?
▪ Increases in defense spending, or 48 million Americans keeping health care?
The trade-offs are very straightforward. Mitt Romney, of course, has endorsed, full-throated, the Ryan plan....
Now for the reality check: this budget has absolutely no chance of becoming law. Everyone knows it will never see the light of day in the Senate.
So, Mr. Ryan, remind me: why you did this again?
Oh, of course, silly me, I forgot: you want to be on the Republican ticket as vice president!
Well, call me crazy, but I’m just not sure that putting the GOP nominee in the position of supporting huge cuts to medicare is the way to help your chances.
But hey, what do I know? I’m just a gal who’s grateful for the right to choose.
Jennifer M. Granholm is former Governor of Michigan, Faculty at UC Berkeley, Host of “The War Room with Jennifer Granholm” on Current TV.
9. “Economists offer more pessimistic view on manufacturing in upcoming report” (Washington Post, March 19, 2012); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/economists-offer-more-pessimistic-view-on-manufacturing-in-upcoming-report/2012/03/19/gIQAKSpZNS_story.html
By Peter Whoriskey
Feb. 17, 2012. In Holland,
Mich., Shane Headley, a production team leader for Trans-Matic,
sets up a machine to produce one of the metal components of an oxygen sensor
for Bosch.Manufacturing jobs have gone high skill,
meaning that the high school graduates and dropouts who typically get such jobs
are no longer qualifying and, ironically, there are many job openings at
Siemens and GE but no one to fill them. (T.J. Hamilton
/ For The
During the 2000s, as
The paring of the manufacturing workforce, which
shrank by a third over the decade, actually represented good news, they said.
It meant that
“What happened to manufacturing? In two words,
higher productivity,” Robert Reich, who
served as labor secretary in the
[Rob Atkinson of the Information Technology and
Innovation Foundation] and other critics of the productivity story concede that
indeed, some of the job loss was caused by increasing productivity.... But he
thinks the primary cause of the job loss was that
... And Reich,
now at the
Regardless of what caused the job loss, Reich said, “it’s difficult to see a huge number of jobs coming back in manufacturing.”
10. “Economic pie grows, but workers’ slice shrinks” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 2012); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/16/INAV1NK18P.DTL#ixzz1pagvddeJ
--Robert Reich, © 2012 Robert Reich
First, the good news. The economic pie is growing again. Growth in the fourth quarter last year hit 3 percent on an annualized rate. February’s 227,000 net new jobs marks the third month in a row of job gains well in excess of 200,000.
Here’s the bad news. The share of growth going to American workers is at a record low.
Although the nation is producing more goods and services than it did before the slump began in 2007, we’re doing it with 6 million fewer people....
True, some of the productivity gains have been widely spread in the form of lower prices and higher value. (My 3-year-old granddaughter gets more out of an iPhone in five minutes than my 98-year-old father ever got out of reading the daily paper.) But most of the gains are distributed narrowly in the form of higher profits to owners and fat compensation packages to the “talent.”
The share going to everyone else in the form of wages and salaries is now the smallest since the government began keeping track in 1947. If the trend continues, inequality will become ever more extreme....
While productivity gains are indubitably good, the real challenge ahead is to distribute those gains more widely....
Regressive right-wingers want Americans to believe we’ve been living beyond our means and can no longer afford to do any of these things. The truth is just the reverse. Most Americans’ means haven’t kept up with what the economy could provide if productivity gains were more widely shared....
Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at UC Berkeley....
11. “Stanford now ahead of UC Berkeley in world academic rankings” (Digital Journal, March 17, 2012); story citing DAVID KIRP and HENRY BRADY.
The Times
Higher Education magazine issued its annual rankings of universities
worldwide on Thursday. It placed Stanford fourth ahead of UC Berkeley, fifth.
Harvard, MIT and
The relative rankings of Stanford and Berkeley are a reverse of last year’s. The Daily Californian reports Stanford’s score on the rating scale was 72.1 and UC Berkeley, 71.6. This difference was described as “minuscule.” ...
According to the editor of Times Higher Education Phil Baty, state
funding cuts may have affected the rankings of some of the public universities.
The Daily Californian reports he
said: “A large number of
David Kirp, professor of public policy at Berkeley, said: “I think it’s amazing given the cuts we’ve had that we’ve been able to retain our reputation internationally and nationally - against the odds we’ve retained our preeminence. However, it’s a fragile perch...further cuts are going to cost us.”
Henry Brady, dean of UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, said: “Public education is facing severe and dramatic cuts and...we’re still neck and neck with Stanford. We’re still Cadillac quality but people are paying Chevy prices for what we do, that’s pretty impressive.” ...
12. “The conservative mind” (Lake County Record Bee, March 14, 2012); column citing JACK GLASER.
By Tim Snider
Four researchers analyzed 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism.
Assistant Professor Jack Glaser of the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and Visiting Professor Frank Sulloway of University of California, Berkeley joined lead author, Associate Professor John Jost of Stanford University’s graduate school of business, and Professor Arie Kruglanski of the University of Maryland at College Park, wrote their findings in an article, “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,” recently published in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Bulletin.
They report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include:
- Fear and aggression
- Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity
- Uncertainty avoidance
- Need for cognitive closure
- Terror management
... The researchers said that conservative ideologies, like virtually all belief systems, develop in part because they satisfy some psychological needs, but that “does not mean that conservatism is pathological or that conservative beliefs are necessarily false, irrational, or unprincipled.”
They also stressed that their findings are not judgmental.
“In many cases, including mass politics, ‘liberal’ traits may be liabilities, and being intolerant of ambiguity, high on the need for closure, or low in cognitive complexity might be associated with such generally valued characteristics as personal commitment and unwavering loyalty,” the researchers wrote.
[Prof. Glaser] acknowledged that the team’s exclusive assessment of the psychological motivations of political conservatism might be viewed as a partisan exercise. However, he said, there is a host of information available about conservatism, but not about liberalism....
13. “Why Coal-Rich Kosovo Can Lead on Clean Energy, with Forward-Looking International Cooperation” (National Geographic, March 12, 2012); op-ed by DAN KAMMEN; http://www.greatenergychallengeblog.com/blog/2012/03/12/coal-rich-kosovo-can-lead-on-clean-energy/
--Daniel M. Kammen
An old coal plant in Kosovo.
Over
the past decade, plans for 160 new coal fired power plants in the United States
have been scrapped, largely due to rising costs and an inability to compete in
today’s energy markets. That’s because the cost of once-”expensive” clean
energy has fallen dramatically, while “cheap” fossil fuels are increasingly
expensive in economic, health, and environmental terms....
Today ... I see a critical decision point where the World Bank, the U.S. government, and other international players can chart a path suitable for the 21st Century, and empower political leaders to lead the charge for a clean energy future for the Kosovar people – or we can collectively fumble a chance to usher in a new secure and sustainable energy economy.
Kosovo is a very poor country that suffers hours
of power cuts every day, and yes, it sits on vast reserves of lignite coal....
It is considered the lowest rank of coal in terms of energy content, so it is
burned in high volume, releasing even more carbon dioxide than combustion of
higher grades of coal. The full costs of
this high-carbon energy option are too high for the people of Kosovo, and the
international community has the resources and opportunity to assist in charting
a different path.
My own research team at the
Daniel M. Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy, where he directs the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. From 2010 to 2011 he was the inaugural Chief Technical Specialist for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the World Bank. His Kosovo analysis can be found at http://rael.berkeley.edu/kosovoenergy .
14. “College spells success, except in Santorum’s mind” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 11, 2012); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/09/ING31NGN8H.DTL#ixzz1ovW16pFe
--Robert Reich
Rick Santorum called the president “a snob” for wanting everyone to get a college education. (In fact, Obama never actually called for universal college education but only for a year or more of training after high school.)
Santorum needn’t worry.
Public higher education has been the gateway to
the middle class, but that gate is shutting—just when income and wealth are
more concentrated at the top than they have been since the 1920s and when
Most Americans still believe in the ideal of equal opportunity. And most harbor the patriotic notion that we have responsibilities to one another as members of the same society.
The two principles lead to an obvious conclusion:
A pending initiative in
© 2012 Robert Reich Robert Reich, former
15. “Pat Robertson backs legal marijuana. Will other conservatives follow?” (Christian Science Monitor, March 9, 2012); story citing ROBERT MACCOUN.
By Daniel B. Wood, Staff writer
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has become the lightning rod for a fresh, national dialogue over legal marijuana. He says the government’s war on drugs has failed and so marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol....
Robertson’s status as a high-profile conservative ... makes his remarks symbolically important and indicative of wider shifts, say some academic observers.
“He’s wrong about many things, but the fact that
he is someone who usually represents the extreme conservative point of view
makes the coming legalization debate more wide open now,” says Robert MacCoun a
professor at the
Noting that Colorado and Washington have ballot measures this fall that would allow people under 21 to possess a small amount of marijuana and allow for commercial pot sales, Professor MacCoun says the Robertson comment helps break up polarized discussions.
“We can now have a more grown up discussion about what are the tools in the tool box – rather than just hyperlatives hurled at each side from the extremes,” he says....
16. “Morning Edition: Is
By John Ydstie
A worker hangs from an oil
derrick near
Rising gas prices have been the big energy story
of the past several weeks. But many energy experts say that’s a sideshow
compared with the really big energy event — the huge boom in oil and natural
gas production in the
There are skeptics, however, such as Dan Kammen, a
professor in the energy and resource group at the
“Just simply mining our fossil fuel resources to try to get to 100 percent ... in a decade or two decades — I think really takes us in the wrong direction,” Kammen says.
For instance, he says that although some natural gas is much cleaner than coal, it’s not all created equal. Some gas has a dirty environmental footprint when mining techniques are factored in, and he says there’s a better and cleaner way to get an economic boost.
“The real question is can we build the industry base so that we are not only using our own solar, wind and other renewable resources, but we’re exporting those technologies; and that’s where the big economic prize is,” he says.
Furthermore, even if the
17. “Students rally in
By Roibín Ó hÉochaidh, NewsCenter
Students marched on the state capitol in support of public education. (Roibín Ó hÉochaidh photo)
BERKELEY, Calif. -- An estimated 8,000 students, educators and supporters from across California, including a busload from Berkeley, flocked to Sacramento Monday to stage a mass demonstration in support of California’s public universities and colleges.
Frustrated by the rising cost of education and ongoing deep cuts in state funding, the army of sign-wielding protesters marched on the state capitol to demand that legislators restore funding to public higher education....
Tuition costs at California’s public universities and colleges have skyrocketed by more than 300 percent over the last decade as lawmakers have slashed education funding by more than 20 percent—part of the effort to close ongoing massive state budget deficits.
“Students, faculty, staff, administrators—we are all on the same side in wanting to maintain a strong university, and there was real consensus among the deans that taking the bus to Sacramento today would be a good thing to do,” said Kim Voss, Berkeley’s acting dean of social sciences who rode the bus to Sacramento.
In a campuswide email, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau had urged students, faculty and staff to participate in the rally. Several other deans, including Henry Brady, Carla Hesse, Keith Gilless, Steve Martin and Mark Richards, also boarded the bus....
18. “To stay fiscally healthy, state’s hospitals want fewer patients” (Los Angeles Times, March 4, 2012); story citing RICHARD SCHEFFLER; http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-hospital-changes-20120305,0,5184223.story
By Anna Gorman,
Emergency room physician
Philip Schwarzman, left, examines patient John
O’Brien at
To survive the unprecedented challenges coming
with federal healthcare reform,
Hospital executives must adapt rapidly to a new way of doing business that will link finances to maintaining patients’ health and impose penalties for less efficient and lower-quality care.
It’s too soon to know precisely how the changes will affect patients. But experts say more will be treated in clinics and doctors’ offices than in hospitals. And when they are admitted, their hospital stays could be shorter....
Smaller hospitals will be among the hardest hit because they are on their own in paying for administrative costs and negotiating rates with insurance companies, said Richard Scheffler, a UC Berkeley health economics professor. The ones that join larger health systems are more likely to survive, he said. “Mom-and-pop hospitals have two choices: disappear or join the party,” he said....
19. “Gas prices rise on Wall Street’s bets” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 4, 2012); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/02/IN2P1NDBAQ.DTL#ixzz1oGopSkJU
--Robert Reich, © 2012 Robert Reich
Nothing drives voter sentiment like the price of gas—already up nearly 30 cents from the start of the year and hitting $4 in many places....
And nothing energizes Republicans like rising energy prices. House Speaker John Boehner is telling Republicans to take advantage of voters’ looming anger over rising prices at the pump....
But the current surge in gas prices has almost
nothing to do with energy policy. It doesn’t even have much to do with global
supply and demand. It has most to do with
Oil supplies aren’t being squeezed. More than 80
percent of
But Wall Street is betting on higher oil prices.....
Financial speculators historically accounted for about 30 percent of oil contracts, producers and end users for about 70 percent. But today speculators account for 64 percent of all contracts....
In other words, a relatively few players with very deep pockets are placing huge bets on oil—and you’re paying....
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is trying to limit how much speculators can bet in oil futures—a power it was given by Dodd-Frank. It issued a rule in October, but it won’t take effect for another year. Meanwhile, Wall Street has gone to court to stop the rule....
Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at UC Berkeley....
20. “The 1% Solution. Robert Reich speaks up for everyone else” (California Magazine, Spring 2012, Vol. 123, No. 1); interview with ROBERT REICH; http://alumni.berkeley.edu/news/california-magazine/spring-2012-piracy/the-1-percent-solution
By Glen Martin
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Glen Martin: Our economy is hobbled by debt—first corporate, now sovereign—and little is being done to address it. Our government representatives pander to their bases, but most Americans are centrist by nature and feel they’ve been hung out to dry. Can we break this impasse? Or is it a classic “wicked” problem, one with no practical solution?
Robert Reich: Reducing the deficit long-term will require budget cuts and tax increases. And those tax increases should be particularly targeted to the wealthiest Americans. The richest 1 percent by income is now receiving the largest share of total income in 80 years—and they are also enjoying the lowest tax rate in three decades. From the end of World War II to 1981, the top marginal income tax rate never fell below 70 percent. During the Eisenhower administration, it was 91 percent. Today, it’s 35 percent. And most of the income for the richest Americans is capital gains, which typically is taxed at 15 percent. The wealth of the 400 richest Americans exceeds all the assets of the 150 million Americans in the bottom income bracket. Think of that! And yet they (the 400 richest) pay an average tax of 17 percent, because so much of their income is from capital gains.
At the same time, we need to create more income tax brackets. Currently, the top bracket is $375,000. So you have professionals like doctors and lawyers paying the same rate as a CEO making $20 million a year. That is patently unfair....
21. “Rensselaer Research Vice President Francine Berman Appointed Co-Chair as National Academy of Sciences Board on Research Data and Information Names New Members” (States News Service, January 31, 2012); newswire citing HENRY BRADY.
The new Board members are:
Francine Berman, Co-chair, vice president for research, professor of computer science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Clifford Lynch, Co-chair, executive director, Coalition for Networked Information
Philip Bourne, professor of pharmacology and associate director, RCSB Protein Data Bank, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego
Henry
Brady, dean, Goldman School of Public Policy,
Mark Brender, executive director, GeoEye Foundation
Sayeed Choudhury, associate dean for library digital programs, The Johns Hopkins University
Keith Clarke, professor, University of
Kelvin Droegemeier, vice president for research, The University of Oklahoma
Clifford Duke, director of science programs, Ecological Society of America
Stephen Friend, president and CEO, Sage Bionetworks
Ann Wolpert, director of libraries, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
March 3 “The Atlantic Meets the Pacific: Exploring Energy” – The Atlantic’s Steve Clemons leads a provocative session on energy issues with panel including Dan Kammen of the World Bank and UC Berkeley. Broadcast on UCTV; view video
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