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eDIGEST December 2007

UPCOMING EVENTS

QUICK REFERENCE LIST

In addition to the print media referenced below, broadcast media coverage includes numerous interviews with DEAN NACHT by KRON TV, KGO TV and KTVU, among others.

ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS

1. “Is Bush Ready to Talk Pullout?” (Washington Post, November 30, 2007); column citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/11/30/BL2007113001226_2.html

2. “Wall St. Soars on Hopes of Rate Cut. Fed Official’s Speech Notes Risk of Slump” (Washington Post, November 29, 2007); story citing MICKEY LEVY (MPP 1974); http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/28/AR2007112800863.html

3. “No affordable answer to California health care” (Contra Costa Times, November 26, 2007); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP/MPH 1989); http://www.contracostatimes.com/bayandstate/ci_7560886

4. “Who pays the deputy chiefs? And what do they do?” (State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL), November 25, 2007); op-ed citing STEVE FRENKEL (MPP 2000).

5. “Gov. finds himself in a bigger budget bind” (Los Angeles Times, November 24, 2007); story citing MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-crisis24nov24,1,5717764.story

6. “Ex-child soldier and best-selling author takes on new role advocating for children in conflict” (The Associated Press, November 22, 2007); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

7. “Lack of sanitation kills millions, UN says” (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 21, 2007); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

8. “EU farm plan ‘a boon for lawyers’” (The Daily Telegraph (London), November 21, 2007; story citing JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999); http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/21/weu121.xml

9. “The catch in GOP contenders’ health plans. As cancer survivors, 3 key candidates probably couldn’t get insurance under current proposals” (San Francisco Chronicle, November 21, 2007); story citing KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/21/MNU7TFVFF.DTL

10. “Governor’s bill targets public units. Legislation provides funding for maintenance, creation of homes” (Daily News Tribune (Waltham, MA), November 19, 2007); story citing ALEX MARTHEWS (MPP 2001).

11. “Enriching Our Lives, In Ways Big and Small” (Washington Post, November 18, 2007); column citing BETHANY ROBERTSON (MPP 2001); http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/17/AR2007111701392.html

12. “Congress passes water bill that will aid delta. Money for levee projects next step, official says” (Capital Press (Salem, OR), November 16, 2007); story citing AUSTIN PEREZ (MPP 1999); http://capitalpress.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=36930&SectionID=67&SubSectionID=&S=1

13. “Fiscal woes becoming ever deeper” (Sacramento Bee, November 15, 2007); column citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/story/492988.html

14. “California State Budget Crisis” (Forum, KQED-88.5 FM, November 16, 2007); program features commentary by ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); Listen to the program

15. “‘Fiscal crisis’ edict sought. Republicans insist governor use belt-tightening system OK’d by voters in 2004” (Sacramento Bee, November 28, 2007); story citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/525989.html

16. “Farmers to fall under scrutiny of ‘green spies’ on internet” (The Times (London), November 15, 2007); story citing JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999).

17. “California fighting global warming with technology, greenbacks” (San Francisco Chronicle, November 14, 2007); story citing DOUG HENTON (MPP 1975); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/14/MNFHTBKMA.DTL

18. “Income Gap Widens For Black Families - Incomes Among Black Men Have Declined In The Past Three Decades” (Wisconsin State Journal, November 13, 2007); story citing JULIA BIXLER ISAACS (MPP 1985); http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/wsj/2007/11/13/0711130134.php

19. “Outrage grows as critics blast spill agencies” (Marin Independent Journal, November 10, 2007); story citing LINDA SHEEHAN (MPP/JD 1990); http://www.marinij.com//ci_7424916?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com

20. “Governor blamed over spill. Perata says key agency undercut” (Sacramento Bee, November 13, 2007); story citing LINDA SHEEHAN (MPP/JD 1990); http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/story/487371.html

21. “S.F. Bay oil spill illuminates flaws in response plans” (Sacramento Bee, November 16, 2007); story citing LINDA SHEEHAN (MPP/JD 1990); http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/496760.html

22. “Man behind GSU’s rise to step down” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 9, 2007); story and profile about CARL PATTON (MPP/PhD 1976); http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/11/09/patton1109.html?cxntlid=inform

23. “Berkeley lawmakers OK home solar power plan. City will provide up-front cost of panel systems to homeowners” (Oakland Tribune, November 8, 2007); story citing CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000) and DAN KAMMEN; http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_7403483

24. “Technology in India and China: Leapfrogging or piggybacking? The economies of India and China are not as sophisticated as they appear” (The Economist, November 8, 2007); story citing GREG LINDEN (MPP 1995); http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10053145

25. “EU leaders want to try again with subsidies; Wealthy landowners stand to lose most from suggested cuts” (International Herald Tribune, November 8, 2007); story citing JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999); http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/07/europe/union.php

26. “Report finds EU agricultural reforms go a bit awry” (International Herald Tribune, November 14, 2007); story citing JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999); http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/13/business/cap.php

27. “Progress in California on curbing emissions” (Christian Science Monitor, November 7, 2007); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1107/p03s01-wogi.html

28. “Panel to discuss how families make end meet” (Times-Herald (Vallejo, CA), November 6, 2007); story citing DAVID CARROLL (MPP 2000); http://www.timesheraldonline.com//ci_7384326?IADID=Search-www.timesheraldonline.com-www.timesheraldonline.com

29. “Why innovators have a key role in lifting Scotland’s growth rate” (The Scotsman, November 6, 2007); column citing RICHARD HALKETT (MPP 2005).

30. “Our choices - A roundup of Record endorsements” (The Record (Hackensack, NJ), November 4, 2007); editorial citing ROBERT GORDON (MPP 1975); http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNCZmZ2JlbDdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5NzIxNjM2Mg==

31. “District 38 results” (The Record (Hackensack, NJ), November 7, 2007); story citing ROBERT GORDON (MPP 1975); http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3MjE4NDQ2

32. “Child molesters should receive life sentences” (Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), November 7, 2007); Letter to the Editor citing ROSS CHEIT (MPP 1980/PhD 1987).

33. “Embattled Mayor Poised for 2nd Term” (South Florida Sun-Sentinel, November 4, 2007); story citing DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002).

34. “Anything shy of landslide a problem for Newsom” (San Francisco Chronicle, November 6, 2007); column citing DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002).

35. “Newsom: Daring moves ahead” (Oakland Tribune, November 8, 2007); story citing DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_7403499?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

36. “UNICEF Executive Director lauds cooperation between the organization and Sudan” (Suna News Agency, November 4, 2007); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

37. “State sets ambitious goals for fuel. Plan calls for replacing gas and diesel with cleaner alternatives” (San Francisco Chronicle, November 2, 2007); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/02/BUQPT4PU9.DTL&hw=baker&sn=005&sc=667

38. “South’s public school children are now mainly low income” (Christian Science Monitor, November 1, 2007); story citing CYNTHIA BROWN (MPP 1986); http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1101/p01s01-usgn.html?s=hns

39. “Media ownership action may stall” (Seattle Times, November 1, 2007); story citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006); http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=fcc01&date=20071101&query=%22media+ownership%22

40. “Joint pilot project to focus on Indy’s carbon emissions” (Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN), October 31, 2007); story citing KEVIN GURNEY (MPP 1996).

41. “Shortage of doctors hits Valley patients - As Sacramento struggles to pass health reform, ‘there are a lot of pieces missing’” (Fresno Bee, October 29, 2007); story citing RUTH LIU (MPP 1999).

42. “Scaring up some money. Halloween Town seeks to entertain kids (and help them)” (MetroWest Daily News, (Framingham, MA), October 26, 2007); story citing NORMAN STEIN (MPP 1982).

43. “Will Israel survive?” (Jerusalem Post, October 25, 2007); interview with MITCHELL BARD (MPP 1983/PhD 1987).

44. “People Watch” (Morning Call, The (Allentown, PA), October 25, 2007); story citing ROBERT ENTMAN (MPP/PhD 1980).

45. “City Offers Health Care to Neediest” (Los Angeles Times (LATWP News Service), October 24, 2007); story citing TANGERINE BRIGHAM (MPP 1990); http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-healthysf22oct22,1,6245603.story

46. “Long-time universal health care debate rages on in U.S.—With Mass. taking the lead in national health care reform, other states look to build their own mosaic from that model” (Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA), October 24, 2007); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP/MPH 1989).

47. “Tornadoes hit Jefferson, Bullitt” (Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), October 20, 2007); story citing LARRY OWSLEY (MPP 1973).

48. “County’s unemployment at 4%” (San Mateo County Times, October 20, 2007); story citing DOUG HENTON (MPP 1975); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_7234420?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

49. “Easing transition from foster care” (Reporter (Vacaville, CA), October 19, 2007); story citing DEANNE PEARN (MPP 1998) & FIRST PLACE FOR YOUTH, co-founded with AMY LEMLEY (MPP 1998).

50. “Price not right on health care bill. House fails to override veto of bill to expand coverage for children. The issue: The bill called for spending $60 billion over five years. Bush wants to spend half that” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO), October 19, 2007); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP/MPH 1989).

51. “Committee tasked with using $8M. Applications being accepted for Community Preservation funds” (Daily News Tribune (Waltham, MA), October 17, 2007); story citing ALEX MARTHEWS (MPP 2001).

52. “Protecting the Salmon - Delta squeeze could get tighter. Federal judge who helped the smelt now will consider further limits to help salmon” (Contra Costa Times, October 2, 2007); story citing MARIA REA (MPP 1988).

53. “Cinderella supervisor gets out in the district” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 2007); story citing CARMEN CHU (MPP 2003); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/29/BAR2SGB0A.DTL&hw=carmen+chu&sn=005&sc=490

54. “U of L touts its new alert system. Programs notify students of risks” (Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), September 22, 2007); story citing LARRY OWSLEY (MPP 1973).

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

1. “On the road to new fuel economy rules?” (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], November 28, 2007); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; Listen to the story

2. “Your Job: Start networking—now” (Time Magazine, November 28, 2007); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1688825_1688834_1688835,00.html

3. “Energy Dept. says greenhouse gases have declined” (KGO TV News, November 28, 2007); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/environment&id=5790838

4. “Telecoms should fight illegal orders” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], November 28, 2007); Listen to the commentary

5. “Europe looks to draw power from Africa. Sahara Desert could become home to solar-power plants” (Nature News [UK], November 27, 2007); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071127/full/450595a.html

6. “‘Foolish mistake’ won’t be repeated, mayor-elect says. Some in Vallejo seek recall after unofficial winner’s arrest, while opponent wants recount” (Contra Costa Times, November 23, 2007); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_7538956?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com

7. “Looking east for PC power source D” (Austin American-Statesman, November 19, 2007); story citing ROBERT REICH.

8. “Are we backing the right fix for global warming?” (San Francisco Magazine, November 2007); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://sanfranmag.com/content_areas/home/view_printable.php?story_id=1838

9. “Haas publication attains middle age” (East Bay Business Times, November 16, 2007); story citing DAVID VOGEL; http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2007/11/19/story7.html?t=printable

10. “e2 energy” (PBS TV, November 16, 2007); program featuring DAN KAMMEN; http://www.pbs.org/e2/energy.html

11. “Inside Innovation Conference to Showcase Faculty Research on Innovation at UC Berkeley” (Ascribe Newswire, November 13, 2007); story citing DAVID VOGEL.

12. “Two Meals With Robert Reich” (Forbes, November 15, 2007); interview with ROBERT REICH; http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/11/robert-reich-supper-forbeslife-food07-cx_mw_1113reich_print.html

13. “Oil Giant BP to Give $500 Million to UC Berkeley for Biofuels Research” (Democracy Now, Free Speech TV, November 12, 2007); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; listen or watch this segment

14. “UC Berkeley, BP finally sign contract for research project” (San Francisco Chronicle, November 15, 2007); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/15/BAABTCDKK.DTL&type=printable

15. “Smart politicians of all stripes embrace children’s issues” (San Jose Mercury News, November 12, 2007); op-ed by DAVID KIRP; http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_7439838?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1

16. “Book Review: Why quality preschool matters now - and later” (San Francisco Chronicle, November 11, 2007); review of book by DAVID KIRP; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/11/RVBET434U.DTL&type=printable

17. “Corporate Capitalism Gets Clear-Eyed Examination” (Wichita Eagle (KS), November 11, 2007); review of book by ROBERT REICH.

18. “The Energy Challenge: Fuel Without the Fossil” (New York Times, November 9, 2007); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/business/09fuel.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

19. “Galt leaders to discuss state-mandated housing” (Lodi News-Sentinel, November 8, 2007); story citing LARRY ROSENTHAL.

20. “World Bank, in report co-authored by UC economists, urges more agricultural investment” (Berkeleyan, November 8, 2007; story citing ALAIN DE JANVRY; http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2007/11/08_worldbank.shtml

21. “Governor teeters on edge of deficit abyss. He talked about the state living within its means, but nothing changed. Now a crisis threatens” (Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2007); story citing JOHN ELLWOOD; http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gov7nov07,1,1299210.story

22. “New report by UC Berkeley Petris Center outlines status of California’s county mental health programs” (UC Berkeley, November 6, 2007); story citing RICHARD SCHEFFLER; http://petris.org/Press_Releases/status_county_mental_health_progs.htm

23. “Syrian ambassador talks about nuclear site bombing. Blasted Vice President Cheney” (ABC7 TV News, Nov. 6, 2007); story citing MICHAEL NACHT; http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5747548

24. “Capitalism vs. democracy” (News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), November 4, 2007); review of book by ROBERT REICH.

25. “CLIMATE CHANGE: California Stirs a $600 Million Pot of Solutions” (Science 2 November 2007: Vol. 318. no. 5851, p. 730); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5851/730b

26.“Who’s Fueling Whom? Why the biofuels movement could run out of gas” (Smithsonian Magazine, November 2007); column citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/presence-biofuel-200711.html?page=1

27. “Bay Area rebuffs real estate slump. Slowdown less thanks to region’s economy, draw as place to live” (Modesto Bee, October 30, 2007); story citing LARRY ROSENTHAL (MPP 1993/PhD 2000); http://www.modbee.com/2154/story/106737.html

28. “Too much federal aid goes to corporations, wealthy” (Post-Crescent (Appleton, WI), October 27, 2007); opinion citing ROBERT REICH.

29. “How the ‘California effect’ forces manufacturers to seek higher product standards across the US” Financial Times (London, England) October 13, 2007); letter to the Editor citing DAVID VOGEL.

ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS

By Dan Froomkin - Special to washingtonpost.com

President Bush spent yesterday afternoon making empty threats about the Pentagon layoffs and operations cutbacks he says he’ll have to make unless Congress passes a no-strings-attached defense appropriation….

Speaking of Appropriations

Respected budget expert Stan Collender writes in his NationalJournal.com column that he’s been “wondering why the White House rejected a proposal by congressional Democrats to cut in half the $22 billion in additional spending they want for domestic programs.

“This has been the major point of contention on the budget over the past six months and the primary reason the FY08 appropriations process has been so protracted. As a percentage of total spending, the $22 billion was so close to what the president requested that he could have declared victory from the start. And getting Democrats to agree to cut that in half would have allowed the White House to claim it had an even larger impact on the debate.

“But the deal apparently was never seriously considered.

“As far as I can tell, there are two reasons why the Bush administration dismissed out of hand what would normally have been viewed as an appropriate compromise: Because it could, and because it wanted to.

“The ‘could’ part is relatively easy to explain. Congressional Democrats seem to be in disarray on appropriations and have failed to effectively communicate why the additional funds are needed. This means the president and his allies in Congress haven’t paid a political price for their opposition to the spending….

“The ‘wanted to’ part is not as understandable and, as a result, far more discomforting.

“A deal would have allowed the FY08 appropriations process to move forward and for everyone involved to do what they were elected to do: govern. But governing obviously isn’t the Bush administration’s goal. If it were, the White House would have felt some responsibility to get together with congressional Democrats, and this would have been settled months ago….

“As the administration’s dismissal of the appropriations deal clearly shows, the White House’s primary objective is to disrupt the process even when an accommodation might be possible and in its interest.”…

By Neil Irwin; Washington Post Staff Writer

A top Federal Reserve official yesterday acknowledged that a downturn in financial markets over the past months has increased the chances of a serious economic slump—and the stock market soared, as investors took his words to mean that the central bank will cut a key interest rate further.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 331 points, or 2.6 percent, on top of a 1.7 percent rise Tuesday. That makes for the best two-day span for the Dow in five years, though it is still down 6.2 percent since an October high.

“The Fed is saying it will ease as necessary to restore order to the financial markets and avoid a recession,” said Mickey Levy, chief economist of Bank of America….

3. “No affordable answer to California health care” (Contra Costa Times, November 26, 2007); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP/MPH 1989); http://www.contracostatimes.com/bayandstate/ci_7560886

By Laura Kurtzman - ASSOCIATED PRESS

SACRAMENTO -- To bring about universal coverage in California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says people must start thinking about health insurance the way they do auto insurance—as a responsibility everyone must shoulder to make the system work….

But a look at how mandatory insurance has fared in other places, from Switzerland to Massachusetts, shows it will not be easy to put into practice in California.

The reason is mainly the cost.

Health care is a lot cheaper in the countries that have succeeded at imposing mandates. The average Dutch person paid half what the typical American spent in 2005, and the average Swiss resident paid 70 percent….

In Massachusetts, which passed a mandatory insurance law last year, high costs are forcing the state to let more than 10 percent of the uninsured off the hook because they won’t be able to afford the premiums….

That’s why California unions have been so suspicious of compulsory insurance and have pushed Democrats to demand higher subsidies for the nearly 5 million residents who have no insurance on any given day.

Half those people live on less than twice the federal poverty level, about $20,000 for a single person and $41,000 for a family of four—nowhere near enough to afford the cost of comprehensive health coverage.

Employers spend, on average, $4,500 a year to insure a single person and $12,100 for a family of four.

“If you really are going to make insurance affordable for all of the Californians who are uninsured, given these demographics, it’s an expensive proposition,” said Marian Mulkey, an analyst with the California Health Care Foundation. “And that’s why they’re having this difficult conversation about who should be subsidized.”…

4. “Who pays the deputy chiefs? And what do they do?” (State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL), November 25, 2007); op-ed citing STEVE FRENKEL (MPP 2000).

…The deputy chiefs of staff [in the Blagojevich administration] include:

* STEVE FRENKEL, 38, of Wilmette directs the governor’s energy and environmental policy and oversees the Environmental Protection Agency, departments of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Agriculture, the Illinois Finance Authority and the Pollution Control Board. Before becoming a deputy chief of staff, he was the governor’s director of policy development and senior policy advisor on environmental issues. He has a master’s degree from the University of California-Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and a bachelor’s from Macalester College in St. Paul. He has been a public radio reporter, community organizer and policy analyst ….

By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could soon come to regard the epic budget mess he inherited four years ago as a minor nuisance compared to the challenge he faces now.

As he prepares the budget blueprint that he will release in January, the governor is in a bind. There isn’t as much red ink this time, or an emergency cash shortage—at least not yet. But deals he made to keep the state afloat earlier in his tenure now hamper his ability to take on a rapidly swelling deficit that early projections show will hit at least $10 billion.

Those deals, made when the deficit was substantially larger, put a lock on billions of dollars. Large pots of money that lawmakers have tapped to patch past budget deficits are no longer available to them. The prohibitions are even etched into California’s Constitution, thanks to ballot measures championed by Schwarzenegger.

“There is no question this budget will be tougher” than when the deficit was $14 billion, said Mike Genest, the governor’s budget chief. “A lot of options we had before have been removed.”…

Sometimes it’s lawmakers who restrict what can be cut. The governor and legislators placed on the ballot the measures that voters ratified prohibiting the government from touching transportation and local government money.

They did so after taking billions of that money to help narrow the deficit a few years ago. Then they said they would never do it again. But they need money again.

Genest said the governor has no regrets.

“It’s like saying we no longer have the option of robbing banks,” Genest said. “Why should we balance the budget by taking money that belongs to someone else? ... The government will take from local government, transportation, anyone it can in lieu of making hard decisions.”

Now is the time, Genest said, for hard decisions.

“The governor made these deals fully aware that the day would come when some of us would say we wish we had more options,” he said….

6. “Ex-child soldier and best-selling author takes on new role advocating for children in conflict” (The Associated Press, November 22, 2007); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS -- Former child soldier and best-selling author Ishmael Beah has taken on a new role showing children caught in conflict that there can be a better life after war and urging government leaders to help fund their return to society.

Beah, a 27-year-old survivor of Sierra Leone’s civil war, was appointed UNICEF’s first Advocate for Children Affected by War on Wednesday, saying he wants to show that his story of redemption need not be unique.

“For many observers, a child who has known nothing but war, a child for whom the Kalashnikov is the only way to make a living and for whom the bush is the most welcoming community, is a child lost forever for peace and development. I contest this view,” Beah said. “For the sake of these children it is essential to prove that another life is possible.”

Beah said he wants to generate the “political will” necessary to persuade world leaders not only to fund rehabilitation programs for children caught in conflict but to adopt laws that bar the recruitment of child soldiers and to ensure that those who make youngsters fight are held accountable.

UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said Beah’s book, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,” and his many public appearances, already have drawn public attention to the problem.

“He has helped to raise awareness like almost no one has been able to do and so it is only appropriate that UNICEF should give him this more formal role to continue to speak strongly about the issue of child soldiers,” she said.

Wednesday marked the 18th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international treaty created to help prevent the kind of suffering that Beah endured.

“I think the issue of child soldiers has been largely an untold story what it does to children, what happens to children,” she said….

7. “Lack of sanitation kills millions, UN says” (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 21, 2007); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

New York -- The United Nations will announce an International Year of Sanitation on Wednesday in an effort to warn of problems encountered by 2.6 billion people worldwide who have no proper sanitation facilities.

Each year, an estimated 1.5 million children die because of lack of access to water, sanitation and proper hygiene. Women and girls are vulnerable to violence at night when they are forced to search for sanitation….

“Clean, safe and dignified toilet and hand-washing facilities in schools help ensure that girls get the education they need and deserve,” said Ann Veneman, the executive director of the UN Children’s Fund….

The UN has called for the investment of 10 billion dollars a year in order to halve the number of people without sanitation by 2015. It said if the investment is sustained over a period of time, proper sanitation could be provided to the entire world within one or two decades.

By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels

PLANS by Brussels to cut European Union farm subsidies worth pounds 56 million to Britain’s wealthiest and largest landowners, including the Queen, will benefit “lawyers and accountants’’ not taxpayers, officials said yesterday.

Under the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) some of Britain’s richest people and largest landowners pocket large sums of money to subsidise farms on their estates.

Britain will oppose the cuts because the Government fears that farmers or landowners seeking to minimise the cuts to subsidies will find ways to break up ownership of large farms, leading to a decline in agricultural productivity and a bonanza for lawyers. “The subsidy cap will not bite and economies of scale for big farms could be lost while lawyers and accountants end up receiving CAP money,’’ said a British official….

But campaigners for reform to farm subsidies have accused the Labour Government of double standards.

“Support for the farm subsidy fat cats goes against the grain of Gordon Brown’s belief in targeting welfare state benefits at the people in greatest need,’’ said Jack Thurston of www.farmsubsidy.org and a former Government adviser.

“It beats me why the Government won’t apply the same principles used for income support to the wealthiest people in the country.’’

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson had lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system.

Washington - When Rudy Giuliani’s prostate cancer was diagnosed in spring 2000, one thing he did not have to worry about was a lack of medical insurance.

Today, the former New York mayor joins two other cancer survivors in seeking the Republican presidential nomination: Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has been treated for melanoma…,and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who had lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system.

All three have offered proposals intended to help the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance….

But under the plans all three have put forward, cancer survivors such as themselves could not be sure of finding health insurance—especially if they were not already covered by a government or job-related plan and had to seek insurance as individuals….

Even if coverage is offered, it often comes with restrictions, or high premiums that many find unaffordable.

In the individual market, coverage rules “are really quite fussy,” said Karen Pollitz, a Georgetown University research professor who specializes in the field. “Most companies won’t touch you if you have a cancer history within five years, and with some companies ... if you’ve ever had cancer, you can’t get coverage.”

Pollitz surveyed 22 companies to see if they would cover a hypothetical breast cancer survivor five years after being successfully treated. Eleven companies said they would deny coverage, and six said they would issue a policy at standard rates. One company said it would charge double the usual premium. Another said it would issue a policy but exclude future cancer treatment. Three insurers did not respond….

Because the Republicans’ approach to the health care issue focuses on giving federal tax breaks to help individuals and families buy insurance on the individual market, health care experts say the problem of insuring those in less-than-perfect health can’t be ducked….

By Nicole Haley; Daily News Staff

WALTHAM - Local officials and housing advocates applauded Gov. Deval Patrick’s $1.1 billion bond bill to support the creation and preservation of affordable housing on Friday.

Under Patrick’s proposal, almost half of the money would go toward upgrading state-owned public housing developments….

The bill also proposed $200 million for the state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, set up to create and preserve affordable housing projects throughout the state. Alex Marthews, executive director of the Waltham Alliance to Create Housing, said this money could help nonprofits like his move forward with projects they applied for years ago.

‘‘Increasing the Affordable Housing Trust Fund has a major effect on decreasing project delays,’’ said Marthews, who praised Patrick for keeping affordable housing promises he made during his campaign for governor. ‘‘If we are committed to trying to solve the problem of affordable housing in our communities ... then state subsides are an indispensable part of the mix.’’

By Marc Fisher

…Thanksgiving is a time to offer gratitude to a selection of people who make life a bit better…

Thanks also to Bethany Robertson and Peter Murray, who were of the age to attend all too many weddings in which couples get caught up in spending way too much money and guests feel compelled to buy too many expensive bowls and ice buckets. So Robertson and Murray launched the I Do Foundation, a District-based operation that makes it easy for engaged couples to create online registries that channel their guests’ generosity away from crystal and toward all manner of good works….

By Elizabeth Larson

Congress’ override of President Bush’s veto on a water resources bill will help agriculture exports in the Midwest and address California’s crumbling Bay-Delta levees….

The bill authorizes hundreds of flood control and habitat restoration projects, according to the bill’s text….

The most direct impact of the bill on agriculture will be found along the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers, said Austin Perez, director of regulatory relations for the American Farm Bureau.

In that area there are a series of locks and dams built in the 1930s that are key to commodity transportation, Perez said.

The locks average about 600 feet in length, while the typical barge measures about 1,100 feet in length, Perez said.

“It takes an extra month to get a barge down the Mississippi River because the locks haven’t been modernized,” he said.

Grains—including corn and wheat—are among the products shipped down the river to New Orleans, Perez said. “Once we get those projects, we’ll be able to maintain our competitiveness better.”

13. “Fiscal woes becoming ever deeper” (Sacramento Bee, November 15, 2007); column citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/story/492988.html

By Dan Walters

Elizabeth Hill, legislative analyst, says many options once used for budget balancing have been exhausted or are no longer available. Associated Press photo by Rich Pedroncelli

Elizabeth Hill, the Legislature’s long-serving budget analyst, is the epitome of a low-key civil servant. Her dry, if authoritative, reports on state finances reflect that diffident demeanor.

When, therefore, Hill italicized some of the key words in her latest appraisal of the state’s worsening fiscal dilemma Wednesday, it was her equivalent of shouting. And to translate those shouting words into everyday language, the state is in deep doo-doo, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature are running out of gimmicks, and they’d better get serious before it becomes a full-blown debacle.

Specifically, Hill says this year’s budget—the one that Schwarzenegger crowed was balanced with a $4.1 billion reserve—is already upside down, thanks to some fiscal trickery that misfired and a slowing economy, including the bursting of the housing bubble, that has dampened revenues.

The $4.1 billion reserve has already morphed into a $1.9 billion deficit for the year, Hill projects, and the state can look forward to another $8 billion gap between income and outgo in 2008-09 unless the governor and lawmakers slash spending and/or raise taxes.

The Legislature “will need to develop a budget plan that provides almost $10 billion in solutions,” Hill wrote. “Addressing the state’s current budget problems is even more urgent because we forecast a continuing gap between revenues and expenditures. Without permanent budget solutions, the state will continue to face annual budget problems. A plan to permanently address the state’s fiscal troubles must involve ongoing solutions.” Some of Hill’s italicized shouts are in that passage….

14. “California State Budget Crisis” (Forum, KQED-88.5 FM, November 16, 2007); program features commentary by ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); Listen to the program

According to the latest report from the state’s budget analyst, Elizabeth Hill, California will face a 10 billion dollar shortfall by July, 2008. Forum examines the current crisis and the legislative debate on tax increases vs. spending cuts.

Guests:

· Elizabeth Hill, legislative analyst at California’s Legislative Analysts Office, a non-partisan fiscal and policy advising office

· Christopher Thornberg, principal, Beacon Economics

· Dan Walters, columnist, Sacramento Bee

By Judy Lin

Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill, who has forecast a $9.8 billion deficit for the next fiscal year, chats Tuesday before testifying at a Senate budget hearing. Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee

Top Republican lawmakers on Tuesday called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a “fiscal crisis” to deal with California’s looming budget problem, but administration officials said such a move would be premature.

Sen. Bob Dutton, a Republican from Rancho Cucamonga who refused to vote for the current budget because it spent too much, said the governor should use a special authority voters assigned him during the last budget crisis to tackle a budget deficit forecast to be nearly $10 billion.

Under Proposition 58 passed in 2004, the governor could declare a fiscal emergency if he determines revenue is “substantially below” what was anticipated in the budget and summon the Legislature into special session….

Lawmakers were trying to get a jump-start on the state’s finances amid a $9.8 billion projected shortfall for the next fiscal year. A recent report by the Legislature’s budget analyst found that state spending continues to outpace tax revenue….

Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill told legislators that she believes lower revenue and questionable assumptions will wipe out the state’s $4.1 billion reserve. She estimated the state will now end the fiscal year with a $2 billion deficit….

16. “Farmers to fall under scrutiny of ‘green spies’ on internet” (The Times (London), November 15, 2007); story citing JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999).

By Valerie Elliott - Countryside Editor

People will be able to keep a check on farmers, including the Queen and her private Sandringham estate, in order to establish their “green” ratings.

The amount of money paid to each farmer for looking after the landscape and wildlife is also to be made public for the first time. The information is to be released today on the website of Natural England, the Government’s landscape adviser.

Users will be able to type in the name of a village, parish or postcode and find out which farmers in the area have signed up to environmental stewardship schemes and the cash that they receive….

Jack Thurston, co-founder of the website, www.farmsubsidy.org which campaigns for greater openness on the money paid under the [Common Agricultural Policy], supported the idea of community oversight. “It will praise the farmers who are doing a great job and shame those on the make,” he said.

--David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer

California is leading the way in the fight against global warming as its investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into green technology companies and its citizens have cut per-capita emissions of greenhouse gases by nearly 10 percent in recent years….

The California Green Innovation Index, due to be released Wednesday by a local public-policy group and an economic consulting firm, shows progress on a number of fronts.

The amount of greenhouse gases emitted per capita in California has dropped 9.8 percent since 1990, although total emissions continue to rise along with the state’s population. California has become the nation’s biggest hub for green tech companies, which are developing new fuels and smarter ways to use energy. Those companies employ 22,000 Californians and are soaking up more venture capital money than similar businesses in other states, about $884 million in 2006.

Perhaps most important, the report’s authors found that California has the right political environment for more progress.

The state’s government says it is committed to fighting global warming and has passed laws to cut emissions and increase the use of renewable energy. Many Californians support the effort and have shown willingness to change their habits as a result, according to the report. They are buying energy-efficient appliances and are driving less—a stunning change in a state known for its car-centric culture.

“California is a model,” said F. Noel Perry, founder of the Next 10 policy group, which commissioned the report. “The people of California are very forward-looking, and they like to solve problems.”

Perry’s nonpartisan group, which looks for solutions to statewide problems, worked with some of California’s most prominent energy experts from government, academia [including UC Berkeley’s Dan Kammen and Michael Hanemann] and private industry to draft the report. Collaborative Economics, a consulting firm that has a long history of tracking Silicon Valley’s ups and downs, conducted the research….

“There are some policymakers who look at the economic side, and there are some who look at the environmental side,” said Collaborative Economics President Doug Henton. “What we really need to do is look at both.”…

Author: Stephen Ohlemacher - Associated Press

Decades after the civil rights movement, the income gap between black and white families has grown, says a new study that tracked the incomes of some 2,300 families for more than 30 years.

Incomes have increased among both black and white families in the past three decades—mainly because more women are in the work force. But the increase was greater among whites, according to the study being released today.

One reason for the growing disparity: Incomes among black men have declined in the past three decades, when adjusted for inflation. They were offset only by gains among black women.

Incomes among white men, meanwhile, were relatively stagnant, while those of white women increased more than fivefold.

“Overall, incomes are going up. But not all children are benefiting equally from the American dream,” said Julia Isaacs, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Isaacs wrote a series of three reports that looked at the incomes of parents in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and of their grown children 30 years later.

Parents have long hoped that their children would grow up to be more successful than they were. Hopes were especially high for black children who came of age following the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

The reports found that about two-thirds of the children surveyed grew up to have higher family incomes than their parents had 30 years earlier.

Grown black children were just as likely as whites to have higher incomes than their parents. However, incomes among whites increased more than those of their black counterparts.

The result: In 2004, a typical black family had an income that was only 58 percent of a typical white family’s. In 1974, median black incomes were 63 percent those of whites….

Perhaps most disturbing, middle-income black families do not appear to be passing on higher incomes to their children in the same way that white families have, Isaacs said.

She found that only one in three black children from middle-income families grew up to have higher incomes than their parents.

“That means a majority ended up slipping down,” Isaacs said.

Among whites, about two-thirds of the children from middle-income families grew up to have higher incomes than their parents, she said….

Isaacs compiled the reports for the Economic Mobility Project, a collaboration of senior economists and researchers from four Washington think tanks that span the ideological spectrum. The project is funded and managed by the Pew Charitable Trusts….

[Julia Isaacs’s study was widely reported in national and international newspapers. Julia Isaacs was interviewed on Morning Edition (NPR, Nov. 13) and featured on Talk of the Nation (NPR, Nov. 14).]

By Richard Halstead

A load of plastic bags filled with oil-soaked sand is dumped into a truck at Rodeo Beach on Friday. IJ photo/Jeff Vendsel

Environmental groups say officials muffed procedures for reporting and responding to Wednesday’s fuel oil spill—and that the state office overseeing such disasters lacks the resources it needs.

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. William Uberti said Thursday that six emergency vessels from the Coast Guard and Marine Spill Response Corp. were on the scene within an hour after the 65,131-ton Cosco Busan hit the Bay Bridge at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, ripping a hole in its fuel tank.

But Segal Choski, director of programs at San Francisco BayKeeper, said her organization had a boat in the water at 3 p.m. Wednesday, “and there were no booms in the water near the Bay Bridge where the incident occurred.”…

The Office of Oil Spill Prevention was created by state legislation passed in 1990 on the heels of the Exxon Valdez spill, which dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil off the coast of Alaska. The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act requires all oil tankers, as well as nontank vessels over 300 gross tons, to have state-approved oil spill contingency plans.

OSPR oversees these plans. It also is supposed to conduct unannounced drills to test the capabilities of the firms hired by ship owners or operators to clean up after spills….

Linda Sheehan, director of California Coastkeeper Alliance, a Fremont nonprofit, said the state agency carries out far too few unannounced drills. Sheehan said the office was promised more money and staff several years ago but never got it.

“The results of that is showing up now,” Sheehan said.

By Kevin Yamamura and Matt Weiser

A cleanup crew collects oil-fouled sand Monday on Rodeo Beach in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco. Jim Wilson / New York Times

As oil spill cleanup continued Monday on the San Francisco Bay, state Senate Leader Don Perata rebuked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for undermining the state agency charged with spill response.

Perata, D-Oakland, seized upon a 2005 state audit that determined the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, or OSPR, was understaffed despite having a funding surplus. He said the situation has hindered the agency’s ability to deter oil spills in advance and react quickly when disasters arise….

The spill occurred after the container ship Cosco Busan struck the Bay Bridge on Wednesday and leaked 58,000 gallons of oil, closing beaches and killing seabirds….

OSPR is authorized by law to conduct surprise annual inspections on the shippers and the cleanup companies. But Ted Mar, chief of the marine safety branch at OSPR, told The Bee that his agency inspects less than 1 percent of the cargo ships each year, and has never conducted surprise annual inspections of the cleanup companies….

Surprise inspections are vital to ensure that cleanup companies can rapidly muster the personnel and equipment necessary to contain an oil spill, said Linda Sheehan, a Senate appointee to a technical committee that advises OSPR. These companies are expected to respond first to any oil spill, not the Coast Guard or Fish and Game.

Sheehan said that, ironically, Schwarzenegger’s Department of Finance refused to hire more spill prevention staff, even though it also wrote the audit that uncovered that problem.

“For some reason, the state has held back on allocating the staff that’s needed even though there’s funding there to do that,” said Sheehan, who is also executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance. “So in fact, it’s never been adequately staffed.”…

21. “S.F. Bay oil spill illuminates flaws in response plans” (Sacramento Bee, November 16, 2007); story citing LINDA SHEEHAN (MPP/JD 1990); http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/496760.html

By Matt Weiser and Carrie Peyton Dahlberg

California has long been recognized for maintaining one of the world’s toughest oil spill prevention and response systems. But last week’s spill into San Francisco Bay revealed a number of flaws that may have turned a modest incident into a disaster….

As of Thursday, more than 20 Bay Area beaches remained closed, more than 830 birds had died, and crab fishing was halted between San Mateo and Point Reyes. On Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a full state investigation.

Experts say the 120 minutes after any oil spill are the most critical. A week later, many involved agreed the first two hours after this incident were misspent.

“It’s really clear there was just a fundamental failure of what was supposed to be a world-renowned response system,” said Linda Sheehan, executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance, who also sits on a committee that advises the state Office of Spill Prevention and Response.

A key rupture in the response was that local cleanup crews under contract to the Cosco Busan were not notified about the incident until 50 minutes after the impact, at about 9:17 a.m., according to various accounts….

The case also highlights another flaw in the state’s system of regulations: The Office of Spill Prevention and Response, according to a wide variety of observers, does not have the manpower to police the industry….

OSPR has only nine inspectors to oversee [more than 7,400 ships], said Bud Leland, the department’s deputy administrator. Less than 1 percent of those ships are subjected to unannounced drills….

In the latest state budget, the Schwarzenegger administration agreed to add $7.3 million and 9.2 positions to the department.

But Sheehan said more personnel are needed. During the budget process, she said, the department said it needed 34 people for an “adequate” program….

By Andrea Jones - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia State President Carl Patton has led the university for 16 years.

Two decades ago, a Georgia State University football helmet in the president’s office would have signaled just one thing—a joke. Heck, you might as well have suggested the sleepy commuter school build student housing on its campus.

That was before Carl Patton.

The energetic urban planner took the helm at Georgia State University 16 years ago. He began building the school into a research institution where dorms and even a football team are realities and transforming downtown into a place where streets bustle with student life.

Patton, whose mantra that the school should “be a part of the city, not apart from it” resonated in the community, will retire this June, the chancellor of the university system announced Thursday.

A.J. Robinson, the president of Central Atlanta Progress, a downtown booster group, called Patton’s influence on the city “immeasurable.”

“He’s meant everything to downtown Atlanta,” Robinson said.

With his background in urban planning, “Carl was at that nexus at understanding how cities work and understanding what’s good for a university,” Robinson said.

The blue Panthers helmet sits under a glass table in Patton’s office now. If the Board of Regents approves, the football team could be just a couple of years away. On the wall behind his desk hangs a framed rendering of GSU’s latest accomplishment—a massive student apartment complex that now houses 2,000 students in the city.

Patton, 63, said he’s proud of what the institution has become—a “real university downtown” buzzing with student life day and night….

It was during his tenure that the school launched its first capital campaign—raising more than $127 million for academic programs. Patton opened his own wallet for GSU—he and his wife [Gretchen] have donated more than $275,000 over the years…. There are 14 new or renovated buildings [on the GSU campus]….

The school’s most recent freshman class recorded the highest SAT and freshmen index scores and grade point averages in the university’s history….

Mike Gerber, the head of the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education, said Patton seized on the school’s unique Atlanta location and started building.

“He utilized the city as an asset and has taken every possible challenge and turned it into an opportunity,” he said. “And he’s done it all with a smile.”

Chancellor Erroll Davis praised Patton for his leadership Thursday.

“His clear vision of how a vibrant university should be a contributing member of the community has created an outstanding academic experience for students and has revitalized the central city,” Davis said in a statement. “His vision and his energy will be missed.”…

THE CARL PATTON FILE

v He received a Ph.D. and master’s degrees in public policy from the University of California at Berkeley, master’s degrees in urban planning and public administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a bachelor’s degree in community planning from the University of Cincinnati….

—Kevin Duffy

By Kristin Bender, Staff Writer

BERKELEY — Getting energy-saving solar panels on your house or business without going broke is set to get a lot easier in Berkeley.

Lawmakers unanimously approved a first-of-its kind program Tuesday night to help property owners install solar energy systems by tacking the cost on to their property tax bills over a 20-year period.

“This program has the potential to once again be a leader in the nation,” said Stephen Compagni Portis, director of special projects at the University of California, Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, which does analysis and research in renewable energy. “It’s a model that is simple and yet really powerful in terms of allowing cities across the country to build a base of solar power.”

There are still details to work out, but the new plan is a giant step forward in meeting the city’s lofty goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, said Cisco DeVries, Mayor Tom Bates’ chief of staff.

DeVries developed the idea and crafted the plan after more than 80 percent of voters last November approved Measure G, making Berkeley the first city in the nation to ask every man, woman and child who lives or works in Berkeley to do their part to reduce their carbon footprint….

“(The solar plan) provides he financing tools to help people meet their obligations. Everyone is looking for new ways to get property owners to get to work on reducing their emissions and this provides an incentive,” DeVries said….

A solar energy system on a 1,500-square-foot home using roughly $140 worth of electricity monthly would cost about $20,000. However, people are sometimes reluctant to take such a loan for something that isn’t absolutely necessary, city leaders and experts said.

“This is a loan that is much more accessible,” said Dan Kammen, director of UC Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory.

“I think the mayor’s assessment is right, that if the up-front cost goes away, we’re going to see a huge wave of solar energy and efficiency projects.”…

“This proposal has generated more interest from around the country and world than any other policy that the city has worked on since I’ve been here (in five years),” DeVries said….

…China’s evolution also has its peculiarities. In 1964, recently estranged from its Soviet patron, it devoted a larger share of its GDP (1.7%) to R&D than it ever has since....

Now, according to Dani Rodrik of Harvard University, China’s exports are as sophisticated as those of a country three times richer. The goods it sells to America overlap to a surprising extent with the merchandise America buys from members of the OECD, a club of rich democracies, argues Peter Schott of Yale. By this measure, China’s exports are more highly evolved than those of Brazil or Israel....

Thanks to its prodigious output of electronic gear, China is now the biggest market for integrated circuits in the world…. But China’s foundries can satisfy only a tiny fraction of that demand. Their supply amounts to $3.1 billion, whereas China’s demand is $62 billion….

This gap is one reason why Lee Branstetter of Carnegie Mellon University and Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute for International Economics caution economists like Mr Rodrik not to overestimate China. China’s firms have not managed “to leapfrog ahead and bend or even suspend the law of comparative advantage”. China is where electronic goods are made, not where much of the value is added.

As is so often the case, Apple’s iPod is the best example. The 30-gigabyte video version was manufactured in China by Inventec, a Taiwanese company. It sold for about $224 wholesale in 2005. But where did that money go? Three economists—Greg Linden of the University of California, Berkeley, together with Jason Dedrick and Kenneth Kraemer of the University of California, Irvine—have peered into the white box to find out. Of the iPod’s 424 parts, they reckon 300 cost one cent or less. The display module was worth about $20, but that was made in Japan by Toshiba-Matsushita. China did assemble all these bits and pieces and test them. But that accounted for just $3.70 of the iPod’s value. The largest bite was claimed by Apple: about $80 in gross profit....

By Stephen Castle - The New York Times Media Group

BRUSSELS—Queen Elizabeth II of England and the owners of East Germany’s Communist-era collective farms are among those who stand to lose out from new plans to curb EU farm subsidies to Europe’s largest landowners.

The proposal, to be submitted by the European Commission to the member states later this month, marks a renewed effort to reform one part of the bloc’s system of agricultural subsidies whose beneficiaries include some of the richest people in Britain and on the Continent.

Under the plans, payments would be scaled back once they reached a certain level, most probably €100,000, or $146,000, thereby hitting the biggest landowners….

A report in The Guardian newspaper said that the queen and Prince Charles received a total of more than £1 million, or $2.1 million, in EU farm subsidies over two years.,,,

Jack Thurston, co-founder of farmsubsidy.org, which campaigns for greater transparency over payments, said his calculations showed the commission proposal would affect only 1.7 percent of spending on direct farm aid.

‘‘It is a less ambitious proposals than the previous one,’’ he said, ‘‘though clearly it has a certain level of sophistication because of the sliding scale. This would diminish the incentive for people to artificially divide their farms.’’

Thurston added that the reform would be symbolic rather than real ‘‘since the kind of figures being talked about are so modest.’’

His analysis of the impact of the proposals suggests the commission’s latest plans would hit Germany hardest because of the number of very large farms in the former Eastern Germany where agriculture was collectivized under Communist rule.

Thurston said that 5,310 German farms would be affected—1.6 percent of the total—and total subsidies would be cut by €270 million, or 5.4 percent. Other countries that would be affected include Britain, with 6,100 farms affected and savings of €78.5 million, and Italy, where 2,290 farms would lose out at a saving of €62.5 million.

EU agriculture subsidies amount to €55 billion out of a total EU budget this year of €116 billion….

By Stephen Castle - The New York Times Media Group

BRUSSELS—Railroad companies, horse-breeding businesses and golf courses are among those receiving European Union farm subsidies after changes that were meant to modernize the bloc’s agricultural support policy….

For years the program was infamous for producing mountains of unwanted grain and butter. The change was supposed to reduce the incentive to overproduce and encourage farms to concentrate on quality rather than quantity. The EU now links rewards to the area of land farmed.

But this switch has also prompted a large jump in those applying for subsidies, often for land that was not formerly cultivated but meets requirements intended to maintain the countryside in ‘‘good agricultural and environmental condition.’’

Auditors noted a big jump in the number beneficiaries to whom direct aid is paid. For Germany the figures increased to 386,237 in 2005 from 330,640 claimants in 2004; for England the rise was to 116,500 from 70,031….

Britain was criticized for paying aid to landlords ‘‘not engaged in farming who let out their land for most of the year.’’ In Northern Ireland more than 176,000 such payments, worth 13.8 million, were made, according to the report….

Jack Thurston, co-founder of farmsubsidy.org, which campaigns for greater transparency over payments, said the findings increased the need for more information about payments. ‘‘The more we find out about where the money goes the less it seems to be reflecting public priorities,’’ he said….

27. “Progress in California on curbing emissions” (Christian Science Monitor, November 7, 2007); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1107/p03s01-wogi.html

By Daniel B. Wood and Alison Tully Staff writer of The Christian Science

Emissions tour: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with the UN’s Ban Ki Moon at a firm that helps others cut greenhouse gases. Paul Sakuma/AP/file

One year after California vowed to cut industrial and auto greenhouse-gas emissions 25 percent by 2020 to combat global warming, the state is groping its way toward answers about how exactly it will attain that goal - and who will bear the costs.

Along the way, resistant officials have resigned or been fired, businesses and manufacturers have griped, and consumer groups have complained that oil companies aren’t doing enough to pony up. But as other states and other nations watch, California is clearing major hurdles—including passage last month of a bill allocating $125 million a year to develop alternative transportation fuels and vehicles and another $80 million a year to improve air quality.

Environmental activists, in particular, are satisfied with the state’s efforts thus far.

“California is off to a great start,” says Roland Hwang, vehicle policy director of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in California. The recent funding to begin implementing the greenhouse-gas cuts takes the emissions-cutting plan from drawing board to reality, he says, and “shows that several big pieces are being put into place.”

Even business groups, which a year ago were warning that companies would flee if California pushed ahead with global-warming rules, are engaged in the implementation….

Still, a major piece of California’s plan to curb such emissions is contingent on action in the nation’s capital. The state is waiting to hear whether the Environmental Protection Agency will allow it to require automakers to achieve fuel-efficiency standards for new-model vehicles sold in California that are higher than current federal standards….

Collectively, the standards would cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 392 million metric tons by 2020—the equivalent of taking 74 million cars off the road for one year….

“The administration’s decision will either lead the issue of global warming or block us from reaching our goals,” says NRDC’s Mr. Hwang….

SUISUN - The Solano County Children’s Alliance will hold a panel discussion on “Making Ends Meet for Solano Families” noon Wednesday at the Joe Nelson Community Center in Suisun.

California Budget Project’s David Carroll will discuss the report “Making Ends Meet: How Much Does It Cost to Raise a Family in California,” and United Way director and program officer Aimee Durfee will talk about preventing poverty and strengthening community services….

29. “Why innovators have a key role in lifting Scotland’s growth rate” (The Scotsman, November 6, 2007); column citing RICHARD HALKETT (MPP 2005).

By Bill Jamieson

Does Scotland have a problem in encouraging innovation? And, if so, what can be done? This evening the David Hume Institute is holding a seminar in Edinburgh on the importance of innovation across all business sectors as… “the lack of innovation in the Scottish private sector is a marked cause for concern”….

The two speakers at the seminar will be Richard Halkett, a key researcher at the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), and the redoubtable Charlie Woods, former senior director of strategy and chief economist at Scottish Enterprise….

Such occasions are of value because there is a constant tendency to overlook or marginalise the importance of innovation in economic development….

… In truth, there is a huge amount of innovation work that is micro in scale, and this is where help and support is most needed. For example, NESTA Investments has provided funding and support for a project called Seedcamp, a Europe-wide initiative to support the next generation of technology entrepreneurs by providing seed funding plus access to the collective experience of mentors….

38th District

[Robert] Gordon, Voss, Wagner: This capable Democratic slate deserves election. Assemblyman Robert Gordon of Fair Lawn, running to replace a senator under federal investigation, has earned a reputation for substance and integrity….

By Scott Fallon

Democrats swept the 38th District legislative contest with Assemblyman Robert Gordon going to the Senate….

With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Gordon was leading Republican challenger Robert Colletti by a 3-2 margin….

Gordon was chosen by Democratic committee members to replace [Sen. Joseph] Coniglio on the ballot [after Coniglio bowed out of the race while under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office]….

The only significant moment came when Colletti charged Gordon with planning to close small suburban schools and bus students to urban schools.

Gordon said it was a ridiculous assertion and critics lambasted Colletti for playing the race card.

Gordon, 57, of Fair Lawn, has been in the Assembly since 2004. He was a Fair Lawn councilman from 1986-95….

32. “Child molesters should receive life sentences” (Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), November 7, 2007); Letter to the Editor citing ROSS CHEIT (MPP 1980/PhD 1987).

I am responding to a letter titled “Tougher laws needed against child molesters” that was published Oct. 22.

Over 3,000 children are molested each year. Although the United States government has taken action in reducing this number—like ordering sex offenders to be registered—they need to take it one step further.

Most people think that if a person is found guilty of child molestation, they will serve a serious sentence. This, however, is hardly the case.

Past studies of criminals who have been convicted of committing sexual acts on children say that the average sentence is five to six years.

Investigator Ross Cheit performed an electronic analysis about sex offenders. He found that of all the convicted sex offenders from 1985-1993 that were found guilty, 70 percent did not serve jail time….

--Gabrielle Lohr, Normal

33. “Embattled Mayor Poised for 2nd Term” (South Florida Sun-Sentinel, November 4, 2007); story citing DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002).

By Lisa Leff - The Associated Press

Eight months after admitting he had a drinking problem and an affair with a close aide’s wife, Mayor Gavin Newsom stands poised to win his second term without breaking a sweat.

In any other city, Newsom’s personal problems could easily have ended his political career. But in San Francisco, they weren’t enough even to attract a serious challenger.

When hundreds of the city’s left-wing power brokers met in June to nominate a candidate, no one could be persuaded to run against Newsom, who is best-known for opening City Hall to same-sex weddings six weeks into his first term.

“The things that Newsom has done wrong haven’t really affected the greater city,” said political analyst David Latterman, noting that the mayor’s approval ratings have consistently hovered around 70 percent. “The fact is, he is popular. He is not going to lose.”…

34. “Anything shy of landslide a problem for Newsom” (San Francisco Chronicle, November 6, 2007); column citing DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002).

--C.W. Nevius

Gavin Newsom’s political strategist Eric Jaye jokes that he already knows what the analysis of today’s mayoral election will be.

“However many votes we get,” Jaye says, “We know the Bay Guardian will say it wasn’t enough.”

He’s got a point. In most elections, pundits try to pick the winner. That’s already been handled in this one. Newsom will certainly win a second term as mayor in a cakewalk over a group of offbeat candidates. That’s not in doubt….

That could be awkward, because some seem to think that a landslide may be tough to come by for Newsom.

For starters, this is an off-year election, meaning there will be a lower turnout. The gloomiest prediction is that only 20-some percent of voters will turn out. Jaye thinks it will be higher, in the 30 percent range, but he admits it is still a worry….

Or as David Latterman, president of Fall Line Analytics, puts it: “The freaks are going to get votes. And there are a lot of them.”

Again, the worry in the Newsom camp isn’t that there will be an upset defeat, but that the win won’t live up to expectations….

“He has to win in the first round,” Latterman says. “If not, that would be bad.”…

By Lisa Leff, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Now that voters have overwhelmingly re-elected him, Mayor Gavin Newsom has a tough act to follow—his own.

The Democrat who made worldwide headlines when he opened City Hall to same-sex weddings six weeks into his first term acknowledged the expectations surrounding his second when he told supporters his agenda includes initiatives no less daring….

But according to local political observers, the real job confronting Newsom, particularly if he has ambitions for higher office, may be eschewing attention-generating moves in favor of the day-to-day drudgery of municipal government, such as cleaning up the streets and addressing crime….

Taking a get-tough approach on homelessness helped Newsom get elected in 2003, and it remains the issue against which his effectiveness as mayor will be judged four years from now, according to David Latterman, a local political analyst.

It’s a dicey position for him because the city’s visible homeless population has vexed a succession of mayors, Latterman said. Making progress at this point may require the kind of police intervention Rudy Giuliani employed when he was mayor of New York—tactics that would be politically hard to pull off in liberal San Francisco, he said.

“Let’s face it: the visual blight is as bad as ever, and it’s beginning to encapsulate San Francisco,” Latterman said. Newsom “will have to start rousting people, he will have to do what every other major city does, but in this city, it’s complicated because there are entrenched interests that are interested in keeping the homeless where they are.”…

36. “UNICEF Executive Director lauds cooperation between the organization and Sudan” (Suna News Agency, November 4, 2007); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

Khartoum (SUNA) - UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman has lauded the level of the existing cooperation between the organization and Sudan in the field of children protection and welfare.

Speaking in a press conference at Khartoum Airport before concluding her visit to Sudan Sunday, UNICEF Executive Director pointed to the progress realized in the field of children education and increase of the rate of their enrollment in schools in southern Sudan after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

UNICEF Executive Director said during her visit to the country she visited South Sudan and Darfur, where she inspected the situations of children at Abu-Shouk and Naivasha Camps, commending the services being extended by UNICEF and the NGOs to the children in the fields of health and education, calling for more efforts for increasing education opportunities and protection of children in Darfur.

Ann Veneman assumed the leadership of UNICEF on May 1, 2005, becoming the fifth Executive Director to UNICEF.

By David R. Baker; Chronicle Staff Writer

Use of alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel could displace 26 percent of the gasoline and diesel used in California by 2022 and more than 50 percent by 2050, under an ambitious plan approved by state energy regulators this week….

In particular, the plan would require perfecting ways to turn different kinds of waste—such as crop stubble—into fuels like ethanol. Consumers would then need easy access to those fuels and vehicles that can burn them. That poses a problem for some of the more exotic fuels included in the plan, particularly hydrogen….

California officials want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to 80 percent below their 1990 level. To make such a deep cut, the state also would need to curb the number of miles that Californians drive, probably by building more compact, dense communities and offering more mass transit. And the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks would need to improve.

Environmentalists acknowledge the problem’s complexity. But Roland Hwang, a vehicles specialist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the commission’s fuel goals are feasible.

“It’s absolutely necessary for us to have a plan to diversify the fuel supply,” said Hwang, whose organization consulted on the plan. “If we’re going to solve global warming, we have to kick the oil habit.”…

By Patrik Jonsson - Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Atlanta -- The plight of the South’s school-reform movement now hangs on kids from families that make less than $36,000 a year.

For the first time in 40 years, two new studies show, more than half of public school students in the South are eligible for free or reduced lunch—a watershed moment in a 15-year wealth slide that comes amid resurging racial and economic inequalities in the former Confederacy. The rise is part of a nationwide surge: Low-income students now represent 12 percentage points more of the student body than in 1990.

In response, schools from the Delta’s cypress region to the Carolina pine flats face a struggle: How to continue to improve test scores, attract good teachers, and reduce dropout rates amid growth of a group of students whom studies show have greater difficulty reaching grade-level benchmarks?...

This is not to say that lower income automatically equals lower grades…. But in aggregate, the disparities are apparent. In Alabama, for instance, 43 percent of low-income students scored below basic, the lowest passing classification, on the 2007 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) math test, compared with 14 percent of students with incomes above $36,000.

What’s more, studies show that low-income students are more likely to be held back in first and second grade and more likely to drop out of high school.

Those who do graduate from high school are less likely to go on to get a college degree.

“I think this data brings home why progress has been slow in improving education achievement in the South,” says Cynthia Brown, a school policy expert at the Center for American Progress….

Scott Wallace - Staff

By Jim Puzzanghera; Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON—A plan by the head of the Federal Communications Commission to consider major changes to media ownership rules by year’s end could be derailed by growing calls for the agency to complete a long-running study of how broadcasters serve their local communities.

FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin took a major step toward wrapping up the study, begun in 2003, by holding the last public hearing on the localism issue Wednesday.

At the hearing, most witnesses, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson [and Derek Turner], urged the FCC to go slowly, echoing recent concerns by some lawmakers after learning of Martin’s proposal to try to vote on media ownership changes Dec. 18….

A poll released Wednesday by the Media and Democracy Coalition, an alliance of groups opposed to media consolidation, found that 70 percent of respondents thought media consolidation was a problem and 57 percent said it should be illegal for a company to own a newspaper and TV station in the same market….

Derek Turner, research director of Free Press, a media-overhaul group, said at Wednesday’s hearing that its analysis of FCC data found markets where companies had waivers to own newspapers and TV stations had less local news than markets that didn’t….

40. “Joint pilot project to focus on Indy’s carbon emissions” (Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN), October 31, 2007); story citing KEVIN GURNEY (MPP 1996).

Author: Brian Wallheimer

Purdue University and the city of Indianapolis announced Tuesday a partnership that will track and quantify carbon emissions in the city. The project is possible through technology developed in Purdue’s Climate Change Research Center.

The system, called Hestia, will quantify fossil fuel-based carbon dioxide emissions in the city, down to the neighborhood and roadway where it is being emitted. Every hour a reading will be taken.

It will use a high-resolution, 3-D computer visual environment to track the cause of the emissions as well….

Hestia will provide analysis and visualizations of emissions all over the city. It will be used to show future climate scenarios caused by the carbon dioxide emissions.

The project will be a pilot for technology that could be used throughout the world to monitor carbon emissions.

“In the end, we will provide the city of Indianapolis with a real picture—a literal visual representation—of carbon emissions in the city, which will include information about neighborhoods, factories and vehicles,” said Kevin Gurney, the Purdue assistant professor of earth and atmospheric science who leads the project.

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson said he sees a lot of potential for the technology in helping city decision-makers.

“This project will help us understand which activities in Indianapolis are contributing the most to global climate change,” Peterson said. “It also will enable us to simulate the impact changes in zoning, traffic patterns or industrial emissions would have on our overall CO2 contribution.”

By E.J. Schultz - Bee Capitol Bureau

When it comes to finding a doctor, Robyn Flores of Visalia has a leg up on most people. She works at a health care company, after all, and has “great insurance.”

But when her family doctor recently left the South Valley for Northern California, Flores struggled to find a replacement. She finally found a new doctor.

But her husband still is searching, and she had to send her mother to a rural health clinic.

“I’ve never had this problem before, finding a family physician,” said Flores, a grant writer for Kaweah Delta Health Care District. “We’re having to piece our health care together.”

As Gov. Schwarzenegger and lawmakers debate ways to lower the ranks of the uninsured, San Joaquin Valley health leaders say the effort will fall short unless the state fixes one of the region’s biggest health care problems—a doctor shortage that is reaching a crisis….

Schwarzenegger’s plan would require all California residents to have insurance. But nothing in the plan guarantees access to doctors. Rather, the administration is counting on increased Medi-Cal rates to entice more physicians to see low-income patients….

Administration officials say the governor’s plan would be phased in so that providers would not be overwhelmed with new patients. Also, the plan could help clinics by allowing nurse practitioners to do more work. Today, a physician is prohibited from supervising more than four nurse practitioners.

Under the plan, doctors could supervise up to six practitioners.

Still, officials acknowledge that there are work force issues that still need to be addressed. A task force is looking at what might be needed, said Ruth Liu, associate secretary for health policy at the state Health and Human Services Agency.

“We do need to make sure we have the proper capacity—especially in underserved regions,” she said….

42. “Scaring up some money. Halloween Town seeks to entertain kids (and help them)” (MetroWest Daily News, (Framingham, MA), October 26, 2007); story citing NORMAN STEIN (MPP 1982).

By Francis Ma; Gatehouse News Service

It’s Sunday night in a small dance studio in Westford and a group of dancers are performing the zombie dance from Michael Jackson’s ‘‘Thriller’’ with professional precision. Later on … two actors lose themselves in Charles Schultz’s forever-iconic characters Linus and Sally as they improv the ‘‘Great Pumpkin’’ scene….

It’s all in the name of Halloween Town, an event put on by the Boston Medical Center (BMC) and iParty that is all about helping kids, both by giving them a safe place to celebrate the ghoulish holiday and by the proceeds going to the BMC’s Kids Fund….

It’s been a successful fundraiser for the past two years, bringing in more than $300,000 both times and about 10,000 patrons….

The event raises money for the Kids Fund at the Boston Medical Center. The fund provides clothes, medical equipment and prescriptions to any of the 25,000 children who enter the BMC each year. …[M]ost of these children come from low-income homes. Some worry about being homeless the next day, while others are at risk of being malnourished.

Officials are hoping to raise $500,000 this year. According to Norman Stein, vice president of development at BMC, a lot of that money comes from the mobile program in stores like Staples, Shaws Supermarket and iParty in the form of a $1 paper pumpkin for sale, which comes with coupons for other retailers.

‘‘We don’t get a lot from ticket sales from the event,’’ says Stein. ‘‘In fact, we give out about 4,000 tickets to the community, through the Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA. We really try to get kids from everywhere to this event.’’

43. “Will Israel survive?” (Jerusalem Post, October 25, 2007); interview with MITCHELL BARD (MPP 1983/PhD 1987).

By Ruthie Blum

‘The challenges Israel faces are real, acknowledges American foreign policy analyst and Middle East historian Mitchell Bard explaining the purpose of his recently released book Will Israel Survive?: to show why the Jewish state is not really in existential jeopardy.

Bard—who heads the US-based organization the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise and the on-line encyclopedia, the Jewish Virtual Library (www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org)--ought to know.

The author of 18 books and hundreds of articles relating to the Jews Israel and US policy in relation to both the 48-year-old married father of two from Maryland laughs when asked how he “got into the Israel business.”

“When I was in college in the late 1970s-early ‘80s I was like the typical Jewish student today who hears criticism of Israel and doesn’t know how to respond to it,” he says. “Then one day I received a copy of AIPAC’s Myths and Facts and it gave me the answers.”

Hungry to learn more Bard—who several years later would become the editor of the AIPAC newsletter, Near East Report—began to delve more deeply into the issues which ultimately led to his doing a Ph.D. in political science….

On a visit here earlier this month—in the framework of a project his organization created to combat what he deems a shocking lack of Israel-related scholarship in American academia—Bard gave The Jerusalem Post his take on what we Israelis call “the situation.”…

Q: To whom are you addressing the question of—and answer to—whether Israel will survive?

BARD: Mostly to Americans though it partially was a takeoff on polls conducted in Israel that showed surprisingly high percentages of Israelis questioning their future….

Q: How do you explain the fact that the existence of other young countries in the … isn’t constantly called into question, while Israel is considered to be on the brink of extinction whenever a problem arises? Why is the Jewish state still viewed as some kind of experiment, whose results aren’t conclusive?

BARD: There are two schools: the negative—those who question Israel’s legitimacy in general, and don’t believe there’s any purpose or reason for it to exist; and the alarmist—those who recognize the right of a Jewish state to exist, but who are very concerned both by the threats it faces and by the negative school that doesn’t believe it has a legitimate right to exist….

Q: Looking at external challenges, such as Iran, how is Israel’s survival not at stake?

BARD: Well, you’ve picked the toughest case. That’s the one challenge that actually could threaten Israel’s survival. However, at the same time, there’s enough of a recognition, even on the international level, of the dangers of a nuclear Iran—even the French are saying it’s intolerable!—that Israel can probably expect others to work hard enough to prevent it from having a nuclear weapon.

But even if Iran does achieve it, it’s still at least conceivable that Israel could live with a deterrent posture. The big question—one I feel I can’t answer—is: Can any Israeli leader take that chance?…

44. “People Watch” (Morning Call, The (Allentown, PA), October 25, 2007); story citing ROBERT ENTMAN (MPP/PhD 1980).

By Bill Tattersall of The Morning Call

Gillian McHale, a senior at George Washington University, is one of 85 Presidential Fellows for the 2007-08 academic year at The Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington, D.C….

McHale has chosen to explore media framing of the 9/11 attacks and how it affected public policy; professor Robert Entman, a nationally recognized political analyst, has agreed to be the university representative on her mentorship team….

By John M. Glionna

SAN FRANCISCO -- Forget the driver’s license and credit cards. The most important piece of plastic in Cheng Wang’s wallet is his new medical identification card featuring a picture of a heart and this city’s signature skyline.

Wang, who has diabetes and other ailments, says the Healthy San Francisco program saved his life.

When he immigrated here in May to be closer to his elderly mother, the 64-year-old Taiwan native brought enough pills to last seven months. When those ran out, he didn’t know what to do. He had no medical insurance. And it scared him.

Then he learned about a groundbreaking city health plan that provides a network of care to residents regardless of their ability to pay, immigration status or existing medical conditions. Wang, a proud man with oversized glasses, said it’s important to him that the program is not purely a handout. It’s a bona fide medical plan offering care free of charge to those who can’t pay and on a sliding scale to those who can afford to contribute to their care. When he finds work, he’ll pay, he said….

The goal of Healthy San Francisco is simple: Get involved earlier in preventive care for city residents before chronic illnesses become serious enough to require hospital care at the county’s expense.

“Our system didn’t serve the population,” said program director Tangerine Brigham. “It was easy for people to do episodic care or seek no care at all.

“The idea was, ‘Well, if I don’t have my own Marcus Welby, I might wait for trauma care.’ We’re trying to give everyone their own Marcus Welby,” Brigham added, referring to the fictional family doctor in a 1970s television drama….

Brigham said the program should cost $200 million the first year, and officials expect to finance it without a tax increase. They will also receive a federal grant of $24 million a year. In addition to membership fees and co-payments, the city will also receive money for the program from employers with more than 20 employees, who, starting in 2008, will be required to contribute a set amount to health care….

Brigham said that she has already heard from several cities considering such an approach, including New Orleans. “Things can still go wrong,” she said. “Maybe we haven’t effectively communicated our availability, so people won’t enroll. But we think we’re ready to make a difference in people’s lives here.”…

By Geraldine A. Collier

Want to hear a joke?

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy—a longtime advocate of improving access to health care—gets to Heaven and meets up with St. Peter.

“Tell me St. Peter, will there ever be universal health care in this country?”

“Yes my son,” replies St. Peter, “but not in my lifetime.”…

The presidential candidates—in particular the Democrats—talk about expanding health care coverage through a mixture of government and private insurers, but some governors and state legislatures aren’t waiting for 2009. Some are proposing sweeping health care reform measures; some are just chipping away at the problem from different angles….

Of all the states, California’s ideas for health care reform are probably the closest to [Massachusetts’s health care reform] plan, although some California proposals are unique to that state.

California’s uninsured population is much bigger than its counterpart in Massachusetts. Before health care reform kicked in, it was estimated that there were around 500,000 uninsured people in the Bay State.

California, on the other hand, has an estimated 6.7 million uninsured people,

“It’s a very different landscape here from Massachusetts,” said Marian Mulkey, senior program officer for the California HealthCare Foundation, an independent philanthropy.

Not only is the size of the state and the number of uninsured bigger, uninsured Californians “are more likely to have a lower income and are less likely to be employed by businesses who offer coverage,” said Ms. Mulkey. “The cost to subsidize (premiums) would be greater.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and the Democratic leadership of the California Legislature “have taken on the issue in a serious discussion,” said Ms. Mulkey. “They have invested their time and personal energy in getting something done on the problem. The big question is, Can they find common ground?”…

47. “Tornadoes hit Jefferson, Bullitt” (Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), October 20, 2007); story citing LARRY OWSLEY (MPP 1973).

By Sheldon S. Shafer - The Courier-Journal

One tornado touched down in Jefferson County and two in Bullitt County Thursday night during a series of storms that swept across the Louisville area, the National Weather Service said yesterday. No injuries were reported locally….

…The storms gave the University of Louisville an opportunity to put its new emergency notification system to the test.

University administrators had planned a comprehensive test of the Fast Alert system for Oct. 30, but decided that Thursday’s severe weather forecasts required using it sooner.

When the National Weather Service issued the first tornado warning for Jefferson County at 6:40 p.m., university emergency responders notified faculty, staff and students via school phones and e-mail accounts and cell phones for those who signed up for the alerts.

Larry Owsley, UofL vice president of business affairs, said, “It’s rewarding to see the system work in a real emergency.”…

By Tim Simmers, Business Writer

San Mateo County registered one of the lowest unemployment rates of any county in the state in September, propelled by steady job growth, a new report revealed Friday. The county’s unemployment rate of

4 percent tied for second among California’s 58 counties, according to the state Employment Development Department….

San Mateo County has maintained a low unemployment rate partly because of strong high-tech and biotech industry job growth. The rate has also stayed low due to a highly educated populace, as well as high cost of living and high household income, economists say.

“San Mateo County is in a position for strong job growth in the biotech and software fields,” said Doug Henton, president of Collaborative Economics in Mountain View.

Henton added that the county is also leading a high-tech export boom that’s being fueled by the falling dollar. When the dollar loses value, that means local medical devices, software and other technology services are cheaper for foreign buyers, Henton said….

49. “Easing transition from foster care” (Reporter (Vacaville, CA), October 19, 2007); story citing DEANNE PEARN (MPP 1998) & FIRST PLACE FOR YOUTH, co-founded with AMY LEMLEY (MPP 1998).

By Danny Bernardini/Staff Writer

Former foster youth Elizabeth Hobbs, right, and Brittany West get their kitchen organized Thursday afternoon as they move into their new apartment in Vallejo. (Mike Jory/Times-Herald)

In her six years in the foster-care system, 18-year-old Vallejo resident Elizabeth Hobbs was in and out of 40 homes. She admits she made some poor choices in her lifestyle along the way.

But last night, she and her new roommate cooked dinner in their first apartment. It also marked the first time the two women were on their own….

Hobbs and 18-year-old Brittany West are the latest clients of First Place for Youth, an organization that helps children transition out of the foster care program.

Based in Oakland and founded in 1998, First Place for Youth celebrated the opening of their first satellite office located on North Texas Street in Fairfield. Serving Alameda, San Francisco, Contra Costa and now Solano, the program serves about 30 kids a year who would otherwise be homeless, said Deanne Pearn, co-founder.

Foster children are released from care at age 18, or at the end of an 18-year-old’s last high school semester, Pearn said. She said about 5,000 are released in California every year.

“We want them to put a stake in the ground and say ‘This is mine,’” Pearn said. “We’ve literally had kids walk across the graduation stage and into homelessness.”…

The women won’t be completely on their own, however. They are assigned a youth advocate and an education and employment specialist to assist in finding a job or starting college. First Place provides assistance for two years. It helps by loaning enough money for a cleaning deposit and pays 90 percent of the first month’s rent. Every couple of months, tenants are responsible for paying more of the rent, Pearn said.

“As much as possible, we try and make it like real life,” she said….

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar - Los Angeles Times

House lawmakers’ failed to break a stalemate and override a veto of children’s health-care legislation Thursday, underscoring how difficult it will be to reform the larger insurance system, even though it is a national priority.

Insuring children was considered the easiest part of the health-reform challenge because children are cheaper to cover and public support for doing so is high.

But the debate bogged down on two key questions also at the heart of broader health reforms to cover the 47 million uninsured: costs and the role of government in helping middle-class families, not just the poor.

President George W. Bush earlier this month vetoed a measure expanding a popular program that provides health insurance for children of the working poor. As expected, Thursday’s attempt to override the veto failed [in a 273-156 vote]…. Despite a two-week campaign to pressure Republicans to switch, only 44 voted to override….

“The fact that this is stalled ... speaks to how hard it really is to move forward,” said Marian Mulkey, a senior policy analyst with the California HealthCare Foundation. “I am not ready to write off the federal conversation about kids, nor the broader conversation, but neither am I sanguine about the prospects.”…

By Nicole Haley; Daily News Staff

WALTHAM - The Community Preservation Committee heard suggestions from city officials and residents last night for how to spend more than $8 million on historic preservation, affordable housing and open space.

The committee will begin accepting grant applications today in an important step toward awarding money that has been accumulating in a fund since city voters approved the Community Preservation Act in November 2005….

As property values continue to rise, affordable housing becomes increasingly important, said Alex Marthews, executive director of the Waltham Alliance to Create Housing.

‘‘Creating some good, safe, decent high-quality affordable housing is the only way we’re going to be able to keep our families in Waltham long term and keep our seniors in good living conditions,’’ Marthews said.

Marthews asked the committee to also consider using CPA money to maintain Waltham Housing Authority public housing complexes, which have been under-funded by the state for decades. Deteriorating conditions could cause some of the housing to become uninhabitable within three to five years if no redeveloping plans are put in place, he said….

By Mike Taugher - Staff Writer

One month after a federal judge ordered sharp reductions in Delta water deliveries to protect a tiny fish, the same judge this week will consider further limits to aid salmon….

Among the salmon runs, the most endangered is the winter-run, which produced fewer than 200 spawning adults in the Sacramento River in 1991. Since then, its numbers have rebounded substantially with more than 15,000 fish returning in recent years.

Still, for unknown reasons, this year the winter-run numbers are way down—the third lowest since 1995, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“It’s a good reminder that we’re not in a recovered population by a longshot,” said Maria Rea, fisheries service supervisor at the Sacramento area office….

By Wyatt Buchanan; Chronicle Staff Writer

Carmen Chu, appointed interim supervisor for District Four by Mayor Gavin Newsom, is seen at a Sunset District park.

She is the accidental supervisor who started her week at a behind-the-scenes job in Mayor Gavin Newsom’s administration and now is cast in a leading role in San Francisco’s biggest political drama.

Carmen Chu, the 29-year-old budget wonk and now district representative, spent her first four days in office meeting with people from the Sunset District and from all parts of the city government.

In her first interview since she was appointed on Tuesday to fill in for suspended Supervisor Ed Jew … Chu avoided questions about the man she was appointed to replace….

“I really want to respect the folks out here in District Four,” said Chu, meeting for an interview at Parkside Square in her district, close to where she has lived for about a year and a half. “I want to get to know them, I want to spend some time to hear what they have to say. From that it will naturally guide me to what my policy priorities will be.”…

Chu, who earned a graduate degree in public policy at UC Berkeley and has worked three years for the mayor’s office, maintains that she will be an independent voice on the board, representing the interests of residents in her district, and not be a de facto vote for Newsom….

…[S]ome community leaders in the district said they had trouble getting their concerns heard when Jew was still in office and are happy that someone new is there, though the situation has caused division among residents of the district.

“You can have your opinion on whether he was railroaded or should have been gone a long time ago. But the bottom line is we have been divided and we haven’t had representation,” said Michael Funk, executive director of the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center, a community center for youth, families and adults.

Chu met with Funk and his staff for an hour earlier this week. He praised her and said she is already doing the right things to patch the division he sees….

54. “U of L touts its new alert system. Programs notify students of risks” (Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), September 22, 2007); story citing LARRY OWSLEY (MPP 1973).

By Jessie Halladay - The Courier-Journal

When emergencies happen on the University of Louisville campus—whether it’s a shooting or severe weather—officials will have two new ways to alert students, faculty and staff to the safety risks.

The university announced yesterday that it is ready to implement programs that will issue emergency alerts both through campus phones and cell phones….

“In today’s climate and with today’s technology, there is the capability to get information out to people much faster,” said Larry Owsley, U of L’s vice president for business affairs. “Getting the message out is important.”…

One of the technologies will allow campus officials to use all 8,900 phones on campus as speakers so that alerts can be broadcast throughout classrooms, offices and dormitories….

The cost of the system, known as Voice Over Internet Protocol, was an initial investment of $248,000, Owsley said.

In the second program, anyone with a U of L identification and password can register to have text messages sent to their cell phones during emergencies….

Text messaging has the advantage of reaching people quickly, particularly if they are not on campus at the time of the incident. Those messages could serve as a way to warn people away from an incident, Owsley said.

The text-messaging program will cost $25,000 annually, he said….

Since the shooting at Virginia Tech, Owsley said a committee has met several times at U of L to discuss strategies for emergency prevention, preparedness and response.

Because communication with students appeared to be a factor in what happened at Virginia Tech, Owsley said it became a priority for the committee to get these communication measures in place.

“Whenever you have a situation at another university ... we always ask ‘What if that happened here?’” Owsley said….

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

1. “On the road to new fuel economy rules?” (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], November 28, 2007); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; Listen to the story

(Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images)

Congress is close to requiring higher fuel economy standards. They would be tucked into a huge energy package, which could come to a vote as early as next week. Sam Eaton reports.

Sam Eaton: The deal would give automakers until 2020 to reach a fleet-wide average fuel economy of 35 miles per gallon. That’s about a 10 mile per gallon boost over the current standard—and according to some experts, it could save more than a million barrels of oil a day, or about half of the U.S.’s imports from the Persian Gulf.

That may seem like a lot, but U.C. Berkeley energy expert Dan Kammen says it hardly revolutionary.

Dan Kammen: Making our vehicles 35 miles per gallon or more by 2020, when much of Europe is already at 35 miles per gallon today, is not even really much of a catch-up step.

[Kammen] says it’s an even smaller step when you consider the drastic reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions needed to avert the worst effects of global warming….

2. “Your Job: Start networking—now” (Time Magazine, November 28, 2007); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1688825_1688834_1688835,00.html

By Barbara Kiviat

Illustration for TIME by Dan Page

If we learned anything from the past two recessions, it’s that the job market doesn’t work the way it used to. Before the 1990s, when a recession hit, layoffs spiked, but once the economy picked up, workers were hired back, often for the very same jobs. Since then, recession-related downsizing has tended to be less cyclical and more structural: jobs that appear during a recovery are different from the ones that disappear in the downturn….

In other words, you have to be ready for anything, even starting a second (or third) career in today’s rent-a-job culture. That might sound familiar. “There’s huge turnover in the labor force now, even in good times,” says former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley….

3. “Energy Dept. says greenhouse gases have declined” (KGO TV News, November 28, 2007); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/environment&id=5790838

By David Louie

In the past year, greenhouse gases have actually declined. The decline was 1.5 percent nationwide. The energy department did not break down the results by state or by cities….

It seems like the effects of global warming are really starting to wake people up. Grocery stores, hybrid auto makers, office workers, and high-rise building managers can all take credit for the decrease. Even factories and heavy industry plants made constant efforts to conserve energy and reduce harmful chemicals released into the air.

Professor Dan Kammen at U.C. Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group says last year’s weather also played a factor.

“The climate was good. It was a reasonably mild winter, so people used less home heating, oil, and gas. That contributed. We are seeing an increase in the amount of interest in renewables of solar, wind, and the use of municipal wastes.”…

However, vehicles running on gas and diesel produced a slight up tick of two-tenths of a percent. Energy researchers consider transportation a nagging problem.

“Higher energy prices curtail your emissions a little bit, which allow you to maybe think that things aren’t as bad as they are. In fact, what we’re likely to see is an overall increase in driving, as we’ve seen for the past couple of decades, as people adjust to the new price levels,” says Kammen….

The 1.5 percent decrease in greenhouse gases is encouraging. However, U.C. Berkeley’s Dan Kammen says it’s modest on a global scale, where the U.S. produces one-fourth of all the greenhouse gases….

4. “Telecoms should fight illegal orders” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], November 28, 2007); Listen to the commentary

The Senate is scheduled to take up an electronic surveillance bill next week that would give telecommunications companies immunity from lawsuits over wiretaps dating back to 9/11. Commentator Robert Reich says that’s a bad idea.

ROBERT REICH: You’d think anyone who remembered J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI and Nixon’s CIA, the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978—let alone the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution—might be concerned about the government illegally snooping on Americans.

But executives at the nation’s biggest telecoms didn’t blink an eye when the NSA, America’s biggest spy agency, came knocking. You want records of domestic phone calls? Sure, help yourself. Emails? Yeah, we got tons—they’re yours….

Corporate executives have a duty to disobey government orders when they have reason to believe those orders are illegal or unconstitutional, and make the government go to court to get what it wants. The duty to refuse is especially important when it comes to the nation’s telecoms, whose technological reach is extending deeper and deeper into our private lives….

RYSSDAL: Robert Reich was secretary of labor for President Clinton. His latest book is called Supercapitalism.

--Emiliano Feresin

Power sharing: how the proposed renewable-energy network might look (see map for a larger image).

The power needs of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa could be met by an ambitious idea to network renewable energies across the region. The cornerstone of the plan, developed by a group of scientists, economists and businessmen, involves peppering the Sahara Desert with solar thermal power plants, then transmitting the electricity through massive grids….

The vision is ambitious: it would require roughly 1,000 100-megawatt power plants, using mirrors to concentrate energy from the Sun’s rays, throughout the Middle East and North Africa to meet the region’s projected energy needs. A high-efficiency electricity grid, yet to be built, would then ferry the power around and across the Mediterranean Sea and northern Europe….

The European Union has a binding target to get 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, so the idea is gaining support in some areas…. But with a price tag of almost €400 billion (US$595 billion), it remains to be seen if DESERTEC will be adopted politically….

The DESERTEC group is asking parliamentarians to set up a €10-billion fund to finance the development of solar thermal plants over the next 7 years, and to establish a political framework for the idea. But although the project may not take off on the scale its supporters hope for soon, solar thermal power could still pick up elsewhere. “Right now, 1,000 megawatts of solar thermal energy are being built in California and Nevada deserts, and we are planning an additional 5,000 megawatts,” says Dan Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. “Exploiting solar energy from deserts is a good idea worldwide.”

By Sarah Rohrs - MediaNews Staff

A day after he emerged as the unofficial winner in Vallejo’s heated mayoral race, Gary Cloutier remained mum about his early weekend arrest this week for public intoxication in Palm Springs.

While Cloutier defended his silence about his arrest, a fledgling recall movement was being discussed on the Internet, as others were expressing hope that Vallejo can move quickly past the political controversy….

A public official’s immediate apology appears to be a crucial first step in rebuilding trust, said Henry Brady, professor of political science and public policy at UC Berkeley.

Cloutier should be able to withstand the controversy since the Bay Area shows it is more tolerant and willing to forgive than many places, Brady said.

For instance, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom won re-election after apologizing and promising to seek help for a drinking problem. His public apology came just days after disclosing his affair with a staff member married to a top political aide.

However, Brady said that Cloutier’s extremely thin margin [of 4 votes] is more significant. He should follow through with a strategy for reaching out to all voters, Brady said.

A case in point is the 2000 presidential election in which George W. Bush lost the popular vote but eventually was declared the winner in the Electoral College. Afterward, Brady said Bush failed to reach out to all voters.

“In a local election, that would be a dangerous thing to do. He (Cloutier) needs to find a way to reach out,” he said….

7. “Looking east for PC power source D” (Austin American-Statesman, November 19, 2007); story citing ROBERT REICH.

By Dan Zehr; American-Statesman Staff

SINGAPORE - …Asia is not only one of [Dell’s] most important markets; it has become one of Dell’s global power centers, a growing complex of manufacturing, design and administrative operations.

The company has 28,000 employees in the region, one-third of its worldwide total and roughly equal to its U.S. work force….

That shift is stirring some anxiety in Round Rock, where Dell has laid off several hundred employees since early August as part of a worldwide cost-cutting initiative. But for the company, the case for increasing its resources in Asia is straightforward: Sales are soaring there and plateauing in the United States….

Employees are drawing their own conclusions, accurate or not, as they watch their company’s accelerating growth overseas and the increasing number of responsibilities that are being shared with offices in Asia. A new buzz phrase has popped up among some current and laid-off workers: “You’ve been offshored.”

But Robert Reich, a former U.S. secretary of labor and an expert on jobs in the global economy, said the reality isn’t that simple.

“Globalization isn’t a zero-sum game in which every job created by U.S. companies overseas necessarily means one less job in America,” said Reich, now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “Globalization is good for America as a whole, and it leads to more jobs in the U.S., not less.”

But, he said, “the benefits and burdens of globalization aren’t evenly shared.”

“Dell’s shareholders, consumers and top executives reap great benefits,” he said. “Many of Dell’s lower-level employees bear the costs.”…

By Jaimal Yogis

… When the extraordinary news came out that UC Berkeley would receive half a billion dollars for bioenergy research from BP—an oil company desperate to ensure its future in a greening world—the groans could be heard across the land. Why was the world’s leading public university trying to fix global warming by getting in bed with an oil company that helped create the disaster in the first place?…

Advocates of the UC/BP lab are aware of all these controversies—Daniel Kammen, a renewable-energy and policy professor at Berkeley who has been actively involved in the ethics side of the lab, says the critics’ points are well taken—and they are trying to build safeguards into the deal. For example, one of the six key sectors of the UC/BP lab will focus on the “social issues and economics of biofuels,” considering how they might affect indigenous communities living where the fuels might be grown. “There are so many ways to develop biofuel systems that are not good for the poor, and far fewer success routes,” Kammen says. “Our job is to be vigilant throughout.” Although biofuels are the labs main focus today, he adds, its entirely possible that other alternatives such as turning plants into natural gas instead of ethanol may eventually take precedence….

For now, all the players seem well intentioned. But as the lab’s ethics overseer, Dan Kammen, tells me, “The risks are large, and greed is a real problem.”…

By David Goll

David Vogel, editor of the California Management Review. Stephanie Secrest | East Bay Business Times

A UC-Berkeley journal that describes itself as a “bridge of communication” between those who study management and those who practice it celebrates its golden anniversary this month.

The peer-reviewed, practitioner-oriented California Management Review was born in November 1957 when the school was called the School of Business Administration. It was renamed the Haas School of Business in 1989.

The Review is unique, one of only three such publications in the country, according to its editor, David Vogel. The other two are 3,000 miles away in Cambridge, Mass.

Besides Berkeley’s Review, Vogel said, the Harvard Business Review of Harvard University and MIT Sloan Management Review at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are the only other management publications still owned by their respective university business schools.

10. “e2 energy” (PBS TV, November 16, 2007); program featuring DAN KAMMEN; http://www.pbs.org/e2/energy.html

Series Overview: Global in scope and comprised of six 30-minute chapters filmed in HD, e² energy features the engineers, policymakers and innovations that are transforming energy availability and consumption. Each episode covers viable policy and technology alternatives to the fossil fuel culture. Episodes explore: California as a world leader in emissions control; transportation and the need for greater efficiencies; ethanol in Brazil and its future in the United States; distributed solar energy as a means to poverty alleviation in Bangladesh; community wind in Minnesota and its role in regional economic development; and the role of coal and nuclear power in our future energy mix. Solutions-oriented, the series illustrates the trials and trade-offs that any evolution in our global energy system will demand. e² energy is narrated by Morgan Freeman.

[This PBS series features UC Berkeley Professor Dan Kammen in Episode 5: “State of Resolve”. To see trailer, visit <a href=“http://www.pbs.org/e2/episodes/205_state_resolve_trailer.html“>State of Resolve</a> (Episode 5)]

11. “Inside Innovation Conference to Showcase Faculty Research on Innovation at UC Berkeley” (Ascribe Newswire, November 13, 2007); story citing DAVID VOGEL.

Berkeley business faculty will share their latest research, opinions, and insights on driving innovation in business at the inaugural Inside Innovation 2007 conference Saturday, Nov. 17, at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

The all-day conference celebrates the 50th anniversary of California Management Review (CMR), the Haas School’s peer-reviewed practitioner-oriented journal. CMR’s special anniversary issue on “Leading through Innovation” focuses entirely on Haas faculty research exploring innovation in business….

“We publish professors who are not only conducting research that is relevant to the practice of management, but who are also interested in writing for managers rather than exclusively for other academics,” says Haas Professor David Vogel, editor of the journal for 25 of its 50 years. “We’ve honed a distinctive competence in areas such as corporate social responsibility, knowledge management, strategy and organization, global competition, and high-tech startups and management.”

Past CMR articles with far-reaching implications have included:

- Management guru Peter Drucker arguing that the first social responsibility of business is to earn profits—or no other social responsibilities can be met;

- Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins’ assessment of the culpability that the market and watchdog agencies shared with Enron management and consultants in failing shareholders;

- A “battle guide” for waging and winning a standards war over competing technologies, by Haas Professors Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian, currently on leave as chief economist of Google….

To access the anniversary issue of California Management Review, go to http://cmr.berkeley.edu/subscriber_online_access.html .

Interviewed by Matt Woolsey

Robert B. Reich, 61, is the former U.S. secretary of labor and a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of 11 books, including, most recently, Supercapitalism.

What would be your last meal?

The worst-tasting food I can imagine—lima beans and tongue—so I won’t regret leaving.

What was your most memorable meal, and what made it so?

My most memorable meal was at the Chesapeake Restaurant in Knoxville, Tenn., on Oct. 18, 2007. I had a sudden and inexplicable yearning for a hamburger. The restaurant served one that was extraordinarily good. It’s memorable to me because, at my age, my memory span is about three weeks.

AMY GOODMAN: There is a controversy raging at the University of California, Berkeley, where British Petroleum … has promised to give $500 million to the university over the next ten years. The deal would fund the development of “sustainable, commercially viable, and environmentally friendly” sources of energy….

Critics at UC Berkeley point to the corporatization of academic research, the ecological dangers of biofuels, and BP’s long history of environmental irresponsibility, they say…. But supporters claim that the corporate—academic partnership allows the university to realize its renewable energy research agenda and provides the most effective and economical means of addressing the looming environmental crisis.

… Daniel Kammen is a professor of Energy and Resources, a professor of public policy and nuclear engineering. He directs the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory and is on the executive committee of the Energy Biosciences Institute, which will carry out much of the research under this deal. Kammen is generally supportive of the deal.

… Let’s begin with Professor Kammen. Why do you think this $500 million that BP has promised over the next ten years is good for the university?

DANIEL KAMMEN: Well, there’s a couple features. One is that we clearly need to learn more about biofuels, and we need to learn about them in a way that emphasizes the sustainability. The biofuel industry right now is taking off around the world, and it’s unfortunately being based largely on feed stocks that are bad on an energy balance and bad for many communities on a profit balance and bad for many communities in terms of trading off their food needs versus fuel needs. And so, the need to develop a serious research agenda to find out the better ways to do this or, in fact, whether we should do this at all, is in fact the reason why we need to begin these sorts of programs, not just at Berkeley, but hopefully around the world.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, the issue of BP giving this enormous sum of money, $500 million over the next ten years, is this of concern to you, the issue of the privatization of a public institution?

DANIEL KAMMEN: Well, I think that the size of the grant can be a concern, but not for the reasons that you’re raising. I actually think that this amount of money is relatively small change, both for the oil industries around the world and, in fact, for the amount of money it takes to bring new products to market. New cars and new drugs frequently take that much money—half a billion dollars—to bring them to market. And as a research pot of money to start with, I actually don’t regard it as that much money.

The chance, though, that this amount of money would alter what a university does is a concern to me, and the degree to which a university might see grants like this as a reason or as an excuse or as a mechanism to alter what they would work on—say, move away from some areas and move into others—is a concern if it was being done in a way that I thought that the company had that driving force.

And so far in the process here, I’ve been quite pleased with the degree to which the intellectual terms of the discussion, in terms of what to study, not the broader politics of biofuels, has been well represented… It’s going to take a degree of oversight to make sure that we don’t have corporate interests running essentially what US or other universities would do….

--Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer

BERKELEY -- The long-delayed contract for the nation’s biggest university-industry energy research project—a $500 million pact between oil giant BP and an academic partnership headed by UC Berkeley—has finally been signed, with at least one significant change.

The 10-year contract, unveiled by UC Berkeley officials Wednesday, establishes an Energy Biosciences Institute to discover better biofuels and other alternative energy breakthroughs. But it configures a different governing board than was presented after the plan was first announced in February.

The main oversight body, the governance board, will be have eight voting members with half coming from BP. The plan proposed by UC and presented to the public in the past called for five board members, with two from BP and three from the three academic partners: UC Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois….

Dan Kammen, a professor in the campus Energy and Resources Group and a member of the new executive committee who helped craft the proposal to BP, said he was surprised by the governing board alteration.

“I don’t full understand it,” he said. “It doesn’t strike me as a beneficial change. So far, I’ve been really impressed with BP to empower the scientific process here and to make the institute strong and let it call the shots.”

[Beth Burnside, UC Berkeley’s vice chancellor for research] said that with the executive committee [a body dominated by university representatives] deciding what specific projects are funded, BP is giving the academic partners far more authority in directing the research than industrial partners typically do. “It’s extremely unusual for industry to give up this much control,” she said.

The distribution of research results will be governed by the contract’s detailed intellectual-property and technology-transfer protocol that Kammen said “does not look different from the regular university agreements.”

Ownership would belong to the discovers or inventors…

By David L. Kirp

If you need evidence that Karl Rove is sorely missed at the White House, consider the protracted tug-of-war between Congress and President Bush over the children’s health insurance (SCHIP) legislation. Denying health care to middle-class children is not only a terrible idea—it’s also a prime example of what Rove, speaking of John Kerry’s apparent flip-flopping in the 2004 campaign, called “the gift that keeps on giving.” This time the Democrats are the beneficiaries.

When the president vetoed the SCHIP bill, 17 of California’s 19 GOP members of Congress stuck by him (one didn’t vote). That’s bad policy generally, and especially terrible for California. The state is one of a handful targeted by Bush because SCHIP reaches families earning more than twice the poverty level. The high cost of living is the reason; and because lots of children are enrolled, those federal dollars make a big difference.

Memo to wavering Republicans: Consider the fate of Arlene Wohlgemuth. In 2004, Wohlgemuth was the GOP candidate in Texas congressional District 17, one of the most conservative in the country. George Bush took nearly 70 percent of the vote (his Crawford ranch is located there), but Democrat Chet Edwards upset Wohlgemuth. SCHIP was the main reason.

Wohlgemuth’s proudest boast was that, as a state senator, she had saved Texas taxpayers $1 billion by slashing the health budget. But those cuts removed 150,000 youngsters from the health care rolls and denied half a million kids dental and eye care. A punchy TV commercial showcased a hardworking widow, fearful of what would happen if her child became sick; that image convinced thousands of life-long Republicans to vote against Wohlgemuth….

DAVID L. KIRP, a professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley, is the author of “The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics” (Harvard University Press, 2007)….

Amy Alamar

The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics

By David L. Kirp

Harvard University Press; 333 Pages; $26.95

From its amusing name, one would expect “The Sandbox Investment” by David L. Kirp to be a clever commentary on the ever-rising costs of preschool and the intensity of the application process. But one page in, and one realizes this is a very academic history of, and commentary on, the role of preschool in our nation’s social and economic well-being.

It’s a productive read for parents, teachers and policymakers alike, but too dense to digest all at once.

Kirp, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, paints a very detailed picture of the research in the area of early childhood education and makes a convincing argument in favor of it. He leaves his reader with no doubt that our country would be better off if every child had the opportunity to attend a good-quality preschool and walks the reader through the benefits with concrete examples to explain what universal, quality preschool involves. He also makes a clear distinction between quality education and the education our government is currently providing.

17. “Corporate Capitalism Gets Clear-Eyed Examination” (Wichita Eagle (KS), November 11, 2007); review of book by ROBERT REICH.

By Gaylord Dold

“Supercapitalism” by Robert B. Reich (Knopf, 288 pages, $25)

Robert Reich is a distinguished professor of public policy at the University of California. Having last served in government as Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor, he is well positioned to know the ins and outs of our postmodern economic system and the ills that beset both the capitalist system and our democracy.

In “Supercapitalism,” Reich sets out to examine modern turbo-charged corporate competition and its penetration of the political sphere, a penetration that has reduced most of government to a handmaiden for business interests and an arena for lobbyist and pressure group jockeying. The book succeeds brilliantly. Clear-eyed, well-reasoned and deeply insightful, “Supercapitalism “ is must reading for anyone interested in the fate of our country and its institutions….

Reich’s book suggests some startling and surprising answers to these difficulties. He explains why the legal fiction that a corporation has “rights” like a person must be ended. He argues that it is illusory to expect companies to have a “social conscience” or to be patriotic. Better that we as citizens recapture our rightful place in democracy by abolishing the corporate income tax (taxing shareholders instead), by holding individuals rather than corporations guilty of criminal offenses and by drastically altering our lobbying and PAC contribution laws….

By Matthew L. Wald

DENVER — …For years, scientists have known that the building blocks in plant matter—not just corn kernels, but also corn stalks, wood chips, straw and even some household garbage—constituted an immense potential resource that could, in theory, help fill the gasoline tanks of America’s cars and trucks.

Mostly, they have focused on biology as a way to do it, tinkering with bacteria or fungi that could digest the plant material, known as biomass, and extract sugar that could be fermented into ethanol. But now, nipping at the heels of various companies using biological methods, is a new group of entrepreneurs, including [Mitch Mandich of Range Fuels], who favor chemistry.

They believe techniques borrowed from oil refining and other chemical industries will allow them to crack open big biological molecules, transforming them into ethanol or, even more interesting, into diesel and gasoline. Those latter fuels could be transported in existing pipelines and burned in existing engines without fuss. Advocates of the chemical methods say they may be flexible enough to go beyond traditional biomass, converting old tires or even human waste into clean transport fuel….

The Bush administration is counting on biofuels to help limit the growth of petroleum demand, and environmentalists routinely include such fuels in their forecasts as a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But to date, no one has shown that fuels from biomass can be made profitably, even when competing with gasoline at $3 a gallon.

Daniel M. Kammen, director for the renewable and appropriate energy laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, said, “I suspect we will have a trickle of fuels from biomass in the next few years. But it will be only a trickle unless the government adopts quotas or offers additional support,” he said….

19. “Galt leaders to discuss state-mandated housing” (Lodi News-Sentinel, November 8, 2007); story citing LARRY ROSENTHAL.

By Chris Nichols - News-Sentinel Staff Writer

A state-required program that aims to create more affordable housing will be examined Thursday night by Galt leaders.

The so-called “density bonus” program provides developers with incentives to include affordable homes, apartments or duplexes in their projects.

If they add more affordable units, developers can build more overall units than typically allowed under city zoning laws….

While [Galt Councilwoman Barbara Payne] said two well-planned affordable housing projects were recently built, Payne said she has mixed feelings on whether the city should promote additional projects.

She noted that such projects can lower property values when added to a neighborhood.

A reluctance to build affordable housing projects in particular neighborhoods can lead to segregated cities, said Larry Rosenthal, a public policy lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley,

Rosenthal noted that affordable housing programs can be done right. Cities must work closely with developers, however, to ensure that not all projects are lumped in one neighborhood.

Too often, Rosenthal said, that never happens.

“There aren’t a whole lot of cities who think the concentration of poverty is a bad thing — in fact, a lot of them like it that way,” added Rosenthal, who is also executive director of the Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, based at the university. “(Affordable housing) is deemed to be a panacea. But designing it and implementing it is a challenge.”…

By Sarah Yang, Public Affairs

A renewed focus on agricultural development is critical to successfully reducing global poverty and hunger, according to a new World Bank report co-authored by Berkeley economists.

“World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development,” released last month at the World Bank’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., points out that 2.1 billion people earning less than $2 per day live in rural areas, and most of them depend upon agriculture for their livelihoods. However, only 4 percent of official development assistance to developing nations is earmarked for agriculture, down from 12 percent in 1990….

“What we’re hoping to do with this report is put agriculture back on the map,” says the report’s co-director, Alain de Janvry, professor of agricultural and resource economics and of public policy. “The agricultural sector in developing nations has been underfunded for the past two decades. The Millennium Development Goal of cutting poverty and hunger in developing nations by half by 2015 is not going to be achieved unless more attention is paid to where the world’s poor are and what they do.”…

“We are proposing that the shares of public investment and foreign aid to agriculture be increased from 4 to 10 percent in sub-Saharan Africa,” says de Janvry. “This is akin to the investment of resources in successful countries such as India and China.”…

“We also need to encourage farming systems that are less vulnerable to the effects of global climate change, including crops that are more flood- and drought-resistant,” says de Janvry. “Industrialized countries are the major contributors to global warming, so it is our moral responsibility to help reduce the impacts of climate change, which disproportionately affects poor farmers.” …

By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO—Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger swept into office in 2003 promising to end the state’s pattern of “crazy deficit spending,” cut up the government credit cards for good and force the state to finally live within its means.

So much for that….

[Under Schwarzenegger] the budget has grown by a staggering 40%….

“This is a guy who got elected by claiming he is not a politician and then acted exactly like a politician,” said John Ellwood, professor of public policy at UC Berkeley. “Now the chickens are coming home to roost.”

Ellwood credits Pete Wilson, who led the state from 1991 to 1999, with being the last governor willing to endure the pain involved in confronting a chronically unbalanced budget. Wilson, facing what was then one of the biggest budget crises in state history, demanded billions of dollars in spending cuts. But he also accepted a compromise with Democrats that included some tax hikes—something Schwarzenegger has ruled out.

The conservative wing of the Republican Party never forgave Wilson. A group of activists burned him in effigy at a state convention.

“The lesson there was you don’t get any credit for being responsible,” Ellwood said….

Berkeley — California’s county mental health departments spent most of their budgets on outpatient services, with low overhead and low spending on hospitalization, according to a new report released today by the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley.

The survey covers the structure, organization, and financing of county mental health departments in the 2004 fiscal year, providing baseline data on each county before voters passed the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) later that same year.

“The report provides a clear starting point for future measurements of how effectively the new funds and services resulting from the MHSA will improve the lives of mentally ill people in California,” said Richard Scheffler, UC Berkeley professor of health economics and public policy, director of the Petris Center, based at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and co-author of the report.

California has already had some success in improving the health and quality of life of people with a serious mentally illness with programs funded through California Assembly Bill 2034 (AB 2034), passed in 2000 to address the mental health needs of homeless adults….

However, there has been a major concern about implementing the MHSA-how to determine if the new funding would spark the intended transformation since there was no baseline measurement in many of the areas expected to change.

Part of this problem has been solved with the publication of the new report “California on the Eve of Mental Health Reform,” by the Petris Center….

By Alan Wang

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) – …[S]peaking… to ABC News on Tuesday, Syria’s ambassador to the United States] accused Vice President Cheney of fueling the media with more rumors of weapons of mass destruction.

“The whole story about this North Korean/Syrian cooperation on nuclear technology is a total, shear, absolute fabrication,” said Syrian Ambassador to the U.S. Dr. Imad Moustapha.

In September, Israeli planes bombed a Syrian target reported to be a partly constructed nuclear reactor.

ABC7’s Alan Wang: “If you could, what was the site bombed by Israel?”

“It was a military site and this is not the first air raid the history of the Syrian/Israeli conflict,” said Dr. Moustapha.

Professor Michael Nacht, who is the dean of UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, says everyone is keeping eerily quiet about the attack.

“The Syrian government didn’t really say anything about it. Bush refuses to talk about it. The Israeli government refuses to talk about it, and no Arab government has condemned Israel for it,” said Goldman School of Public Policy Dean Professor Michael Nacht.

[Dr. Moustapha was in Berkeley to give a talk at the Goldman School as part of its International Public Policy speakers series.]

24. “Capitalism vs. democracy” (News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), November 4, 2007); review of book by ROBERT REICH.

By Peter A. Coclanis; Correspondent

…In his smart and provocative new book, Robert Reich secretary of labor under Bill Clinton and now a professor of public policy at Berkeley creates a neologism of his own to refer to today’s economy: Supercapitalism…. In “Supercapitalism,” Reich traces the transition from an earlier era of democratic capitalism in the U.S. to our current era, details how and why this transition came about and proposes some reforms that would in his view allow us to retain the economic gains associated with supercapitalism without allowing it to kill off democracy in the United States….

Reich’s proposed responses to supercapitalism are at once bold and surprising (especially for a liberal). Unlike many liberals, indeed, many Democrats, he does not want to turn away from supercapitalism. He realizes that its benefits are far too great. Rather, he wants to find a way to retain the best features associated with it innovation, wealth generation and freedom while restoring to it some of the democratic features associated with American capitalism during the “Not Quite Golden Age.” While he personally favors many items on what might be construed as a progressive economic agenda—a more equitable tax policy, polices making it easier for unions to organize, moderate restrictions on financial capital, and greater investment in human capital—he is more concerned with getting corporations out of the political realm and in finding ways to get the American citizenry back in so that citizens rather than corporations can again begin to shape the contours of American economic and social life….

… As he has done in a number of other books over the years—”The Next American Frontier” (1983) and “The Work of Nations” (1991) come immediately to mind—Robert Reich challenges us in “Supercapitalism” to think deeply about political economy, something Americans, liberals and conservatives alike, could profitably do a lot more of….

--Robert F. Service

California researchers could soon be able to tap a 10-year, $600 million climate initiative. The project would create the California Institute for Climate Solutions to foster research so the state can meet strict greenhouse gas emissions limits enacted over the past 2 years. The president of the state’s public utilities commission (PUC), Michael Peevey, recently announced that PUC is looking at the proposed institute as a way to help meet the new targets. The commission is weighing a plan to finance it through a $1-a-month hike in electricity rates.

“This is really exciting to see,” says Daniel Kammen, an energy policy expert at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, who views the institute as a way to translate climate goals to action. “It will really put financial muscle behind the climate-change laws.” …

The institute’s design is still in flux. But Kammen and others say it’s likely to focus on a range of projects that offer near-term energy savings. A preliminary list, Kammen says, includes research centers for energy efficiency, solid-state lighting, carbon sequestration, and green buildings, and a policy center to mesh California’s climate regulations with those of other states and countries….

The new institute is not expected to fund new buildings, Kammen says, but rather will support and extend existing campus research efforts across the state….

26. “Who’s Fueling Whom? Why the biofuels movement could run out of gas” (Smithsonian Magazine, November 2007); column citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/presence-biofuel-200711.html?page=1

By Richard Conniff

Mitsu Yasukawa/Star Ledger/Corbis

I first started to think that the biofuels movement might be slipping into la-la land when I spotted a news item early this year about a 78-foot powerboat named Earthrace. In the photographs, the boat looked like a cross between Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose and a Las Vegas showgirl. Skipper Pete Bethune, a former oil industry engineer from New Zealand, was trying to set a round-the-world speed record running his 540-horsepower engine solely on biodiesel....

Over the past few years, biofuels have acquired an almost magical appeal for environmentalists and investors alike. This new energy source (actually as old as the first wood-fueled campfire) promises to relieve global warming and win back America’s energy independence: instead of burning fossil fuels such as coal or oil, which fill the atmosphere with the carbon packed away during thousands of years of plant and animal growth, the idea is to extract energy only from recent harvests. Where we now pay larcenous prices to OPEC, we’d pay our own farmers and foresters instead....

One problem with current subsidies is that they act as if all biofuels were created equal—while some may actually be worse for the environment than conventional gasoline. For instance, corn ethanol on average produces about 13 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline, according to Daniel Kammen, a public policy professor at the University of California at Berkeley. But when ethanol refineries burn coal to provide heat for fermentation, emissions are up to 20 percent worse for the environment than gasoline. Yet that ethanol still earns the full subsidy....

By John Holland

…The Bay Area’s median home price has dipped in the past few months, settling to $625,000 in September, according to DataQuick Information Systems, which tracks real estate. Still, the figure is up slightly from a year ago.

Several experts said the apparent stability in the median price could be misleading because a large number of luxury homes have sold in recent months. Below the median, the market is softer….

“I think buyers have every reason to believe that bargains are becoming more available in the Bay Area and that we haven’t hit the bottom yet,” said Larry Rosenthal, executive director of the Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy at the University of California….

Experts said home prices will rise over the long term because of the region’s resilient economy. In the past two decades, it has survived a major earthquake and wildfire, the loss of military bases, the dot- com bust and a drop in tourism after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Today, a new wave of Internet commerce is thriving. Biotechnology has taken off, and renewable energy could follow. The Bay Area remains a leading center for health care, education, finance and the arts. Its climate and scenery draw people, too.

“The economic fundamentals of the region are still outstanding,” Rosenthal said….

28. “Too much federal aid goes to corporations, wealthy” (Post-Crescent, The (Appleton, WI), October 27, 2007); opinion citing ROBERT REICH.

By Gavin Schmitt, Kaukauna

Talking about universal health care inevitably brings up the specters of “wealth redistribution” and “socialism.”

We’re reminded of the so-called untouchables of society (minorities and single mothers) who are said to leech off their hard-working neighbors. What is never said, however, is how much more those on the other end of the income spectrum are leeching.

The Boston Globe reports “an estimated $150 billion (annually) ... is funneled to American companies.” These subsidies are more than “the $145 billion paid out annually for the core programs of the social welfare state.” We pay more to successful companies than for student aid, low-income housing assistance, food stamps and other poverty-relieving programs combined….

…Farm subsidies, something our heartland takes personally, seem like a good idea. But [the Cato Institute] reports that “federal crop subsidy programs continue to fund the wealthiest farmers” over family farms.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says “nixing” unfair farm subsidies to “big agribusinesses” and cutting tariffs would “reduce global poverty, decrease the number of workers crossing our borders illegally, save American taxpayers money, and cut your supermarket bill.”…

Sir, It is always interesting to see British europhobes approvingly invoke US democracy and government practices without actually understanding them…

New Hampshire’s lack of interest in seat belts is irrelevant. No US consumer can buy a new car without them. In what my Berkeley colleague David Vogel has dubbed the “California effect”, if California (or one of the other very large states) passes a regulation that is more stringent than those in the rest of the country, manufacturers tend to find a way to comply, because they cannot afford to forgo the Californian market. The logic of economies of scale then ensures they usually change their entire production to comply with the higher standard.

These producers may then lobby for higher standards in other states across the US or in other countries, to ensure that competitors less focused on the Californian market face the same adjustment costs. But often there is not even such lobbying, since the competitors may all change their production for the same reason….

--Tim Buthe, Professor and Associate Director, Center for European Studies, Duke University

FACULTY SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS & EVENTS

Nov. 7 Michael Nacht moderated a talk by Syria’s Ambassador to the U.S., Imad Moustapha, “The U.S., Syria and the New Old Middle East: Confrontation or Cooperation?” at the Commonwealth Club of California, San Francisco; broadcast on KQED-FM, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, 2007; Listen to the program

Nov. 8 Dan Kammen testified before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Henry Waxman, in a hearing on the EPA’s approach to addressing greenhouse gas emissions in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA.

Nov. 14 Richard Scheffler spoke on “Forecasting the Global Shortages of Physicians: An Economic and Needs-Based Approach,” in the Industrial Relations Colloquium.

Nov. 15 Michael Nacht spoke on “The Future of American-Iranian Relations Discussion: How Should the US Respond to Iran?”, presented by Delta Phi Epsilon, UC Berkeley.

Nov. 15 Robert Reich addressed the annual Medical College of Wisconsin Health Care dinner, Milwaukee, WI.

Nov. 16 Michael Nacht spoke on “U.S. National Security: What Next?” at the 30^th Annual Real Estate and Economics Symposium, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.

VIDEOS & WEBCASTS

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

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

If you would like further information about any of the above, or hard copies of cited articles, we’d be happy to provide them.

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Annette Doornbos

Director of External Relations and Development