eDigest March 2009

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Editors

eDIGEST March 2009

UPCOMING EVENTS

1. Film: ‘Osama,’ followed by Afghanistan discussion

Speakers: Daniel Cooney (MPP cand. 2010) (Rotary Peace Fellow and former Associated Press Correspondent in Afghanistan) and Debbie Rodriguez

March 3, 2009, 7:00 p.m. International House

Rotary Peace Fellows at Berkeley & International House Film Series.

Following the screening, Daniel Cooney, who spent two years in Afghanistan, first as the correspondent for Associated Press and then as a communications adviser to President Karzai’s government, and Debbie Rodriguez, author of New York Times bestseller “Kabul Beauty School,” will present their views on Afghanistan.

2. 2009 GOLDMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY CAREER FAIR

March 5, 2009, 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

UC Berkeley Campus, Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, Pauley Ballroom West (wheelchair accessible).

Event details and online registration

3. 2009 ANNUAL AARON WILDAVSKY FORUM

“Changing Inequality: What Produces and Changes Levels of Inequality?”

Dean Rebecca Blank, Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

March 12, 2009. 7:30-9:00 p.m.

Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel HallEngineering Center. More info

4. AARON WILDAVSKY PANEL DISCUSSION

March 13, 2009. 9-10 a.m., Room 355, GSPP West

Discussants: Rebecca M. Blank, Interim Dean Steven Raphael, Robert Reich.

5. “Transportation Policy and Environment” -- Goldman School of Public Policy Lecture

March 16, 12:30-1:30 p.m. (250 Goldman School)

Robin Chase, co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, will be speaking about innovation in the transportation sector.

Event co-sponsored with ERG and BERC

6. “The Challenge of Change: What to Expect from the Obama White House”

Faculty speakers: Henry Brady and Severin Borenstein

March 17, Pacific Athletic Club, Redwood Shores Parkway, Redwood City

6-7 p.m. Reception with light refreshments and no-host bar

7-8:30 p.m. Lecture and Q&A session

$20 per person. $25 at the door. To register or learn more, visit: http://discovercal.berkeley.edu/lectures/index.cfm?lid=55

7. Green California Summit and Exposition

“Green Solutions for Tough Economic Times”

March 16-18, 2009, Sacramento Convention Center, Sacramento, CA

Keynote speaker: Dan Kammen, Director, U.C. Berkeley Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory

Contact: 626.577.5700

8. “Meeting the California Climate Challenge: Clean Energy Choices, Global Warming Solutions”

Audrey Chang, Director, California Climate Program, Natural Resources Defense Council

March 19, 2009, 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m., Room 355 at Goldman School of Public Policy

The Center for Environmental Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy Spring 2009 Speaker Series

9. “Colombia: Working for Peace in the Middle of a Conflict”

Film: La Sierra

Speakers: Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter (MPP cand. 2010), Domingo Blanco, Veronica Guzman (MPP cand. 2009), Alejandra Rueda (All speakers are current Rotary Peace Fellows and are from Latin America—Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia)

March 19, 2009, 7:00 p.m. International House

Rotary Peace Fellows at Berkeley & International House Film Series. More info

10. GSPP’s Environmental Policy Group presents their 5th Annual Student-Alumni Dinner

April 2nd at 6:30 p.m., GSPP living room. Please RSVP by March 17 to gspp.epg@gmail.com .

After-dinner remarks by:

Steven Raphael, Interim Dean, Goldman School of Public Policy

Mark Trexler (MPP 1982/PhD 1989), Past Managing Director, Ecosecurities Global Consulting Services

Blas Pérez Henriquez (MPP 1992/PhD 2002), Executive Director, Center for Environmental Public Policy

Joseph Levin (MPP cand. 2009)

11. “Implementing San Francisco’s Universal Health Coverage Plan”

Tangerine Brigham (MPP 1990), Deputy Director of Health, San Francisco Dept. of Public Health

Nicholas C. Petris Center Symposium on Health Insurance Reform

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue

April 24. Program begins 1:00 p.m. Reception 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Tickets are no charge, but registration is required; register at www.petris.org

12. “The Challenge of Change: What to Expect from the Obama White House”

Faculty speakers: Henry Brady and Severin Borenstein

April 29, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Avenue, Fifth Floor Ballroom, Los Angeles

6-7 p.m. Reception with light refreshments and no-host bar

7-8:30 p.m. Lecture and Q&A session

$20 per person. $25 at the door. To register or learn more visit: http://discovercal.berkeley.edu/lectures/index.cfm?lid=55

QUICK REFERENCE LIST

ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS

1. “Bright future as Berkeley starts solar program” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 28, 2009); story citing program initiated by CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/02/28/MN8T166I2J.DTL

2. “Payment details handed to website” (Farmers Guardian, February 27, 2009); story citing JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999).

3. “The Environmental and Energy Study Institute and Working Group for Investment in Reliable and Economic Electric Systems (WIRES), and the American Wind Energy Association hold a briefing on ‘Electric Transmission 102: Policy Challenges to Grid Expansion’” (The Washington Daybook, February 27, 2009); event featuring ROB GRAMLICH (MPP 1995).

4. “Life science industry to be ‘golden’” (Reporter, The (Vacaville, CA), February 27, 2009); story citing DOUG HENTON (MPP 1975).

5. “The Obama budget’s big ambitions” (Christian Science Monitor, February 26, 2009); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/02/26/the-obama-budget%E2%80%99s-big-ambitions/

6. “Outlook grim for budget’s costly initiatives” (The Washington Times, February 26, 2009); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/26/outlook-grim-for-budgets-costly-initiatives/

7. “The Environmental and Energy Study Institute holds a briefing on ‘A Changing Climate: The Latest in Science, Policy, and International Negotiations’” (The Washington Daybook, February 25, 2009); event featuring NED HELME (MPP 1971).

8. “2009 spending bill is loaded with earmarks despite campaign rhetoric” (Miami Herald, February 23, 2009); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_11764084?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

9. “State budget closes gap with cuts, higher taxes” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 20, 2009); story citing MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/20/MNIN16191A.DTL&type=newsbayarea

10. “Carbon Dioxide Emissions Map Released on Google Earth” (Ascribe Newswire, February 20, 2009); newswire citing KEVIN GURNEY (MPP 1996); http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009a/090219GurneyVulcan.html

11. “Budget takes $8.4 billion from K-12 classes” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 20, 2009); story citing EDGAR CABRAL (MPP 2005); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/20/MN5A1615DV.DTL

12. “State Budget Deal Passes” (Forum, KQED public radio, February 19, 2009); features commentary by MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); Listen to the program

13. “Students, teachers protest impending cuts in Modesto City Schools” (Modesto Bee, February 19, 2009); story citing JANNELLE LEE KUBINEC (MPP 1997); http://www.modbee.com/local/story/604815.html

14. “Athletic fields vs. space at heart of battle over Piedmont’s Blair Park” (Alameda Times-Star, February 19, 2009); story citing ABE FRIEDMAN (MPP/JD 1998); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_11741686?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

15. “Stimulus adds tax credit for home solar panels” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 18, 2009); story citing program initiated by CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/18/BUHK15VO9T.DTL

16. “Federal Stimulus to the Rescue?” (California Report, KQED public radio, February 18, 2009); features commentary by MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R902180850

17. “As salmon go, so go the killer whales” (Sacramento Bee, Feb. 18, 2009); story citing MARIA REA (MPP 1988); http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1632840.html

18. “More California employers offer high-deductible health policies” (Ventura County Star, February 17, 2009); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP/MPH 1989); http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/feb/17/more-california-employers-offer-high-deductible/

19. “Senators to be grounded until tax bill OKd” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 17, 2009); story citing MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/17/MNEA15V22I.DTL

20. “Roadshow: Bay Area transportation leaders practice what they preach” (San Jose Mercury News, February 17, 2009); column citing STUART COHEN (MPP 1997); http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11719036?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com

21. “State colleges bear down on transfer shortage” (Contra Costa Times, February 16, 2009); story citing NANCY BOROW SHULOCK (MPP 1978); http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_11717823?nclick_check=1

22. “Counties Demand Payment” (Forum, KQED public radio, Feb. 16, 2009); features commentary by MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); Listen to the program

23. “COBRA aid soothes pain of the jobless” (Ventura County Star, February 16, 2009); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP/MPH 1989); http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/feb/16/cobra-aid-soothes-pain-of-the-jobless/

24. “Water agencies debate desalination” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 15, 2009); story citing LINDA SHEEHAN (MPP/JD 1990); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/02/15/MNJ115T0GA.DTL

25. “Pictures of the past” (The Progress-Index (Petersburg, VA), February 13, 2009); story citing AMINA LUQMAN-DAWSON (MPP 2001); http://www.progress-index.com/articles/2009/02/13/news/pi_progindex.20090213.a.pg1.pi0213dawson_s1.2301470_top2.txt

26. “The ongoing horrors of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo; DR-CONGO: How Many More Will Be Raped?” (IPS (Latin America), February 13, 2009); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

27. “Study: Regional, racial gaps plague education” (Davis Enterprise, February 13, 2009); story citing NANCY BOROW SHULOCK (MPP 1978).

28. “County has no authority in health district dispute, attorney says” (Oakland Tribune, February 13, 2009); story citing RICHARD WINNIE (MPP 1971/JD 1975); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_11701182?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

29. “Health benefits from stimulus” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 13, 2009); analysis citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP/MPH 1989); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/13/MN5Q15SVOV.DTL

30. The Prison Overcrowding Fix” (The New York Times, February 11, 2009); analysis citing STUART DROWN (MPP 1986); http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/us/11prisons.html?ref=us

31. “Mobile Phones can Call for Health, Education and Safety, UNICEF Says” (States News Service, February 11, 2009); newswire citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

32. “Park Dept. plans layoffs, parking meters” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 11, 2009); story citing CARMEN CHU (MPP 2003); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/10/BAEG15RN2D.DTL

33. “City Insider: A different kind of Valentine” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 10, 2009); story citing CARMEN CHU (MPP 2003); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=55&entry_id=35671

34. “Stimulus bill would greatly expand government’s role in economy” (Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, February 9, 2009); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).

35. “Novel S.F. program tries to cut new HIV cases” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 9, 2009); story citing MARK CLOUTIER (MPP/MPH 1993); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/08/BAH615P2I6.DTL

36. “Doctors sue to boost reimbursements for uninsured and Medi-Cal patients” (Ventura County Star, February 9, 2009); story citing TOBY DOUGLAS (MPP 2001/MPH 2002); http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/feb/09/complications-in-the-er/

37. “Qorvis Promotes Collender and Quint to Partner; Strong 2008 Results Leads to 16 Promotions at All Levels” (Marketwire, February 9, 2009); newswire citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).

38. “AWEA Statement on Joint Coordinated System Plan (JCSP) Transmission Study” (States News Service, February 9, 2009); newswire citing ROB GRAMLICH (MPP 1995).

39. “Tech for America” (Slate Magazine, February 9, 2009); story citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).

40. “How Nutter budget forecasts came up short” (The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 9, 2009); story citing STEVE AGOSTINI (MPP 1986); http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/39300632.html

41. “Stimulus maneuvers: First move in a long chess game” (Salon.com, February 9, 2009); column citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/02/09/budget_fun_and_games/index.html

42. “FAIR alternative for homeowners” (Cape Cod Times, February 7, 2009); story citing KEVIN BEAGAN (MPP/MPH 1988).

43. “598,000 workers lose their jobs in January” (Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2009); story citing MICKEY LEVY (MPP 1974); http://www.latimes.com/classified/jobs/career/la-fi-jobs7-2009feb07,0,4000139.story

44. “Internet Companies Vying for Stimulus” (PC Magazine.com, February 6, 2009); story citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).

45. “A perspective on a strengthening insurgency” (Berkeleyan, February 5, 2009); event featuring DANIEL COONEY (MPP cand. 2010).

46. “GM’s Volt to Debut in Washington, Bay Area” (The Washington Post, February 5, 2009); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020402680.html

47. “The American Chemical Society and the Senate Science and Technology Caucus hold a discussion on ‘Achieving our Energy Goals: Alternative Transportation Fuels’” (The Washington Daybook, February 6, 2009); event featuring ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992).

48. “Piedmont council braces for tighter fiscal times ahead” (Oakland Tribune, February 5, 2009); story citing ABE FRIEDMAN (MPP/JD 1998); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_11637180?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

49. “Societal Cost of Meth Use Is Gauged in New Study” (New York Times, February 4, 2009); story citing study coauthored by BEAU KILMER (MPP 2000); http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/05meth.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

50. “Health accounts are bad medicine” (Los Angeles Times, February 4, 2009); column citing KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982); http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-fi-lazarus4-2009feb04,0,4101321.column

51. “Briefing - The Kaiser Family Foundation” (The Washington Daybook, February 5, 2009); event featuring KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).

52. “Who’s saying what at the Davos roundtables” (South China Morning Post, February 4, 2009); column citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

53. “City, Homewise Join in Efficiency Effort” (Albuquerque Journal, February 3, 2009); story citing CHRIS CALVERT (MPP 1979).

54. “Health Visit” (Newcastle Evening Chronicle, February 3, 2009); story citing JACOB WEST (MPP 2004).

55. “Blue jobs, green jobs” (Oil & Gas Journal, February 2, 2009); story citing R. SKIP HORVATH (MPP 1976).

56. “Shelf Life: Stealing Home” (The Boston Globe, February 1, 2009); column citing MITALI PERKINS (MPP 1987); http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/02/01/stealing_home/

57. “Fewer S.F. residents without health insurance” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 1, 2009); column citing TANGERINE BRIGHAM (MPP 1990); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/01/BA1U15H8N7.DTL&hw=brigham&sn=002&sc=817

58. “Buyers to foot bill of Obama’s green cars” (The New Zealand Herald, January 31, 2009); newswire citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992).

59. “Amid the meltdown, concern for girls at Davos” (The Associated Press, January 31, 2009; story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

60. “Pushing Detroit onto a greener road” (Los Angeles Times, January 29, 2009); column citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik29-2009jan29,0,7499793.column

61. “UNICEF Head: Don’t forget developing world” (The Associated Press, January 28, 2009); newswire citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

62. “CCAP’s Helme reacts to Obama emissions move, previews House and Senate action” (E&ETV’s OnPoint, Vol. 10 No. 9, January 27, 2009); interview with NED HELME (MPP 1971); http://www.ccap.org/index.php?component=news&id=169

63. “California shows ‘green’ emerging as contributor to growth, group says. Eco-industry jobs are expanding faster than other areas, according to a report by Next 10” (Los Angeles Times, January 26, 2009); story citing DOUG HENTON (MPP 1975); http://www.latimes.com/classified/jobs/career/la-fi-greenjobs26-2009jan26,0,879694.story

64. “Under the Microscope: A New Regulatory Age Requires Increased Transparency” (PR News, Vol. 65 No. 4, January 26, 2009); story citing NEAL COHEN (MPP 1980).

65. “All-Electric Vehicles Bought for Airport” (The New York Times, January 25, 2009); story citing LUKE TONACHEL (MPP 2004); http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/nyregion/westchester/25airportwe.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22luke%20tonachel%22&st=cse

66. “California emission waiver looms for carmakers. Barack Obama is expected to allow California and other states to enforce tough air quality rules soon after taking office” (Los Angeles Times, January 19, 2009); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-fueleconomy19-2009jan19,0,3919639,full.story

67. “Former Genentech Associate Director and Wilson Sonsini Attorney, Stacy Feld, Joins Physic Ventures Team as Director” (Biotech Business Week, January 19, 2009); story citing SUSANNAH KIRSCH (MPP/MPH 2000).

68. “Learn How to Finance Energy Efficiency” (US States News, January 16, 2009); newswire citing CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000).

69. “Analysis: GOP urging restraint in stimulus debate” (Associated Press, January 11, 2009); analysis citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_11428708?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

70. “Unanimous votes show Council’s harmony. Temecula: But it’s not always like that at other municipalities, where dissent can arise” (Press-Enterprise, January 4, 2009); story citing JOANNE SPEERS (MPP/JD 1984).

71. “Street Parking without Rules Is Still a Trial” (The New York Times, December 31, 2008); story citing BRUCE SCHALLER (MPP 1982); http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/nyregion/31parking.html?scp=1&sq=%22bruce%20schaller%22%20AND%20fahim&st=cse

72. “Budget ax hits Washington Basic Health Plan” (The Associated Press State & Local Wire, December 3, 2008); newswire citing REBECCA KAVOUSSI (MPP 2001); http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/683956.html

73. “Community health centers worry about budget reductions” (The Olympian, December 4, 2008); story citing REBECCA KAVOUSSI (MPP 2001); http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/685594.html

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

1. “Solar Panel Drops to $1 per Watt: Is this a Milestone or the Bottom for Silicon-Based Panels?” (Popular Mechanics, February 26, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4306443.html

2. “Growing hate groups blame Obama, economy” (CNN, February 26, 2009); story citing JACK GLASER; http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/02/26/hate.groups.report/?iref=hpmostpop

3. “Reducing ratio of debt is the real issue” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR], February 25, 2009); Listen to this commentary

4. “PG&E announces major plan to develop solar energy generation” (San Jose Mercury News, February 25, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN;

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11775442?source%253Dmost_emailed.26978592730A3B8C7F471EACE0DA4EF2.html

5. “Untangling the mortgage-backed securities gridlock: Should Washington extend some liability protection to loan servicers who modify troubled mortgages? Christopher Thornberg and Richard K. Green debate” (Los Angeles Times, February 25, 2009); opinion citing JOHN QUIGLEY; http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-green-thornberg25-2009feb25,0,1294879,print.story

6. “El reto de la energía limpia” (La Jornada, February 24, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/02/24/index.php?section=economia&article=022n1eco

7. “The Rachel Maddow Show” (MSNBC, February 23, 2009); interview with ROBERT REICH; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29366023/

8. “The sun is a star when it comes to sustainable energy” (Berkeleyan, February 20, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/02/20_aaassolar.shtml

9. “The pluses and (mostly) minuses of biofuels” (Berkeleyan, February 20, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/02/20_aaasbiofuels.shtml

10. “California’s renewable energy goals feasible” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/19/BUH2160HP3.DTL

11. “California sees hope in mortgage rescue plan” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2009); story citing JOHN QUIGLEY; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/02/19/MN7D160F0F.DTL

12. “Look West, Obama. If the president wants an energy policy that creates jobs while protecting the environment, one state holds the answer: California” (Rolling Stone Magazine, February 19, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN and program initiated by CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000); http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/25833544/look_west_obama

13. “Americans make autos, not Big Three” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR], Feb. 18, 2009); Listen to this commentary

14. “Obama has new flag frenzy; White House embraces a backdrop of red, white and blue” (Washington Times, February 18, 2009); story citing JACK GLASER; http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/18/obamas-new-flag-frenzy/

15. “After Stimulus Battle, Liberals Press Obama. President Urged to Compromise Less on the Rest of Agenda” (Washington Post, February 17, 2009); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601149_pf.html

16. “With Green Energy’s Limitations, Scientists Hunt for Alternatives” (PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer, February 17, 2009); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june09/energy_02-17.html

17. “Cheaper Materials Could Be Key to Low-Cost Solar Cells” (States News Service, February 17, 2009); newswire citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/02/17_solar.shtml

18. “Despite early miscues, a good start for Obama” (International Herald Tribune, February 15, 2009); column citing Visiting Lecturer PETER HART; http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/15/america/letter.php?page=1

19. “Why is Brown so committed to free market? Meet the economists who have influenced his thinking” (The Guardian (London) February 14, 2009); analysis citing ROBERT REICH.

20. Science Friday: “Making America’s Electric Grid Smarter” (Talk of the Nation, NPR, February 13, 2009); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200902132

21. “BW Automobiles; Fuels for the Future” (BusinessWorld, February 13, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN.

22. “Ex-Labor Secretary Robert Reich criticizes stagnant wages” (Miami Herald, Feb. 12, 2009); interview with ROBERT REICH; http://www.miamiherald.com/business/v-print/story/899789.html

23. “Oakland’s BrightSource Energy signs ‘world’s largest’ solar deal with Southern California utility” (Mercury News, February 11, 2009); http://www.mercurynews.com/bizreports/ci_11679524?nclick_check=1

24. “Geithner’s Bank Rescue Pledges Greater Disclosure” (Bloomberg News, February 11, 2009); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=home&sid=artixsrUaOo8

25. “Presuming Prejudice” (Forum, KQED public radio, Feb. 11, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT MACCOUN; Listen to this program

26. “Selling the Stimulus” (Forum, KQED public radio, February 10, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT REICH; Listen to this program

27. “Open Forum: Head Start takes a back seat” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 9, 2009); op-ed by DAVID KIRP; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=42&entry_id=35601

28. “The Roundtable: Will Stimulus Work?” (This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC TV, February 8, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.

29. “‘Thrill is gone’: Obama feels heat; The $820 billion recovery package is under fire from both sides” (The Sunday Times (London), February 8, 2009); column citing ROBERT REICH.

30. “The rise and (almost) fall of America’s banks” (The Associated Press, February 8, 2009); story citing ROBERT REICH.

31. “Obama energy plan reaches for the sky. Achieving renewable energy goals among most costly, complex effort in U.S. history” (Chicago Tribune, February 7, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-clean-energy_tankersley_bdfeb08,0,1753908.story

32. “Global Smarminess” (Washington Post, February 7, 2009); letter to the Editor by JACK GLASER; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020603495.html

33. “Robert Reich joins 7.30 Report” (Australia Broadcasting Company, February 5, 2009); interview with ROBERT REICH.

34. “Survey Research Center marks half-century of data-based insight. Random sampling may sound bloodless, but SRC director Henry Brady seeks illumination — and artistry — in numbers” (Berkeleyan, February 5, 2009); story citing HENRY BRADY; http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2009/02/05_SRC.shtml

35. “Cal: If We Do a Study - You Won’t Believe Results” (MSNBC Online, February 5, 2009); story citing ROBERT MACCOUN; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29017531/from/ET/

36. “The best way to move the economy” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR], Feb. 4, 2009); Listen to this commentary

37. “Obama admits mistakes with nominees - ‘Did I screw up? Absolutely,’ he says” (Washington Times, February 4, 2009); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/04/obama-admits-mistakes-as-two-nominees-bow-out/?page=2

38. “‘Experiments of concern’ to be vetted online. Expert panel to offer advice on science with bioterror applications” (Nature 457, 643 (2009), 4 February 2009); story citing STEPHEN MAURER; http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090204/full/457643a.html

39. “Reich: Quick Jolt or Major Rebuild?” (OnPoint with Tom Ashbrook [NPR], WBUR public radio, Feb. 3, 2009); interview with ROBERT REICH; http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2009/02/stimulus-debate/

40. “Once the stimulus kicks in, the real fight begins” (Washington Post, February 1, 2009); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/30/AR2009013003116.html

41. “Obama’s Billions for Energy Fuel Stanford, MIT Research Dreams” (Bloomberg, February 2, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=azc_06_kZpMM&refer=us

42. “Many of nation’s green leaders from Bay Area” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 1, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/01/MNPB15EL62.DTL

43. “Funding services for the disabled could deter abortions” (Salt Lake Tribune, February 1, 2009); op-ed citing ROBERT REICH.

44. “Dellums: City to launch national search for chief” (Oakland Tribune, January 29, 2009); story citing STEVEN RAPHAEL; http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_11587080?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS

--Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer

Homeowner Jeanne Pimentel shows off her new solar panels to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. She’ll pay for them over 20 years in property taxes.

(02-27) 18:21 PST BERKELEY -- Two Berkeley homeowners received checks for their new solar panels on Friday, becoming the first to flip the switch on the city’s much-ballyhooed, closely watched solar financing program (initiated by Mayor Bates’s then chief of staff, Cisco DeVries).

“I’m a guinea pig, but there’s no way I could have afforded solar otherwise,” said Jeanne Pimentel, an editor who has 11 solar panels on her Allston Way home. “Because of this, I can help solve our energy problem without putting any money up front.”

Berkeley’s program allows property owners to pay for solar panels through a 20-year assessment on their property taxes. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. rebates and new tax breaks guaranteed in the federal stimulus package reduce the cost further, so most homeowners begin saving on electric bills immediately.

Twelve states, including New York, Washington and Colorado, and 50 California cities, including San Francisco and San Diego, are following Berkeley’s model and are closely watching how the program unfolds.

Palm Desert (Riverside County) has a solar financing plan for homeowners, but it relies on loans from the city’s general fund. Berkeley’s model does not involve city liability. The money comes from bonds sold by an Oakland financing company, Renewable Funding, which gives cash to the homeowner to pay the solar installer….

When Berkeley began accepting applications in the fall, the program sold out in nine minutes….

“This will be the city’s single biggest contribution to fighting climate change,” said Mayor Tom Bates. “We’re very proud to get this up and running.”

The program has been a windfall for solar installers, who handle the city and PG&E paperwork for the participating homeowners….

2. “Payment details handed to website” (Farmers Guardian, February 27, 2009); story citing JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999).

The Rural Payments Agency has this week released individual details of Single Payments made England from October 2005 to October 2007.

The agency has handed over the data to Jack Thurston, who runs the website http://farmsubsidy.org which campaigns for transparency on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

It was forced to do so after he won the right for the information to be published under the Freedom of Information Act last autumn.

In December 2008 the RPA released previously unpublished data relating to CAP payments made between October 1999 and October 2005, before the first single payments were issued, to Mr Thurston.

On Monday, it released further information, including on individual single payments, for the following two years. This includes the full name, address and postcode of the recipient and the amount, date and scheme the money was paid under, but not the Single Business Identifier (SBI).

The RPA stressed it was not publishing this new information, but was handing it over to farmsubsidy.org for it to use as it wishes. It is unclear when and how the information will be published on the website….

PARTICIPANTS: James Hoecker, counsel to WIRES and former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Garry Brown, chairman of the New York Public Service Commission; Rob Gramlich, policy director of the American Wind Energy Association; Jolly Hayden, vice president of NextEra Energy Resources; Nina Plaushin, vice president of federal affairs at ITC Holdings; and Michael Quinn, director of transmission development at Oncor….

4. “Life science industry to be ‘golden’” (Reporter, The (Vacaville, CA), February 27, 2009); story citing DOUG HENTON (MPP 1975).

By Richard Bammer

Striking notes against the ongoing thrum of sour economic news, the leader of a Bay Area business consulting firm said Thursday the life science industry is booming and poised for "golden" growth in Solano County and cited robust corporate earnings, rising incomes for local employees and increased federal research grants to make his case.

The industry—especially clustered in Vacaville, with companies such as Novartis, Genentech and ALZA making drugs, biotech products and medical devices—“is growing faster here than in other areas,” at an annual rate of 35 percent between 2000 and 2006, far outpacing the rest of the Bay Area, generally regarded as the industry's leader, said Doug Henton, chairman and CEO of Collaborative Economics.

As head of a firm that develops regional indexes and advises civic leaders throughout the world, he said the county likely will play an expanding role in the industry's “explosion of growth.”

But Henton … advised area business leaders and local elected officials about what they could do to make sure the industry keeps up its rosy profit numbers, job gains, research and development grants and plans for expansion….

He also stressed the need for local firms to develop relationships with major research institutions—such as the University of California, Davis and Berkeley in particular, Touro University on Mare Island—“to spur innovation and business start-ups” and to develop training programs. He also cited Solano Community College's biotechnology program as a source of future employees, especially those seeking to be biological or chemical technicians.

Aside from his major points, Henton …noted that employment in the industry is 60 percent higher in Solano County, with some 40 companies, than it is elsewhere in the state, where the Bay Area is a “global force” with a concentration of high-tech firms.

He held out hope for additional federal funding for research and development in the recently passed economic stimulus bill, noting that, between 2002 and 2008, the county received $3.4 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health, a 68 percent increase in funding over the previous seven years….

By Peter Grier | Staff writer

Ready to talk: President Obama went to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus Thursday to discuss his proposed federal budget for fiscal year 2010. (Charles Dharapak/AP)

WASHINGTON -- With his first proposed budget, President Obama is attempting to address some of the most difficult public-policy problems facing the United States….

From a down payment on universal healthcare to a proposed system of selling pollution permits to higher taxes on the wealthy, Mr. Obama’s fiscal 2010 budget outline contains a number of items that, if adopted, would represent major shifts in the direction of the federal government….

“You would expect this in the first budget of the first year of a new administration,” says Stan Collender, a longtime Congressional budget staffer who is now managing director at Qorvis Communications. “If you didn’t get it, by itself that would have been a shock.” …

The administration’s healthcare reserve fund, by itself, would represent a huge change in national direction, as it implies that the US will move towards some sort of universal healthcare system.

A cap and trade system similarly would be a matter of enormous import, by itself committing the US to an entirely new way of handling the economics of pollution.

Add in higher taxes [on the nation’s wealthiest] – always an item of contention in Congress – and Obama’s budget can be seen as just the beginning of a lengthy and contentious Washington debate….

“A lot of people will give the president a pass for increasing spending during a recession. But he’s assuming that a large expansion of government will occur after the recession,” says [Brian Riedl, chief budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank].

But people voted for change, points out Mr. Collender of Qorvis Communications. And, he argues, it is easy to exaggerate the degree to which Obama’s budget represents a permanent expansion of the federal government.

The budget contains a penciled-in increase of $250 billion to help fix troubled banks, for instance. It also contains continued spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, though the need for that spending is predicted to eventually diminish.

“On the domestic side, other than healthcare, the changes in this budget are relatively small,” says Collender.

By David M. Dickson

A new report reveals how difficult it will be for President Obama to increase spending on health care, energy and education while cutting the deficit in half.

Based on budget scenarios outlined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, federal budget deficits will average $870 billion for the next 10 years, according to a new analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The latest CBO deficit estimates do not include the costly policy initiatives in health care, energy and education that the president mentioned in his Tuesday speech before a joint session of Congress. Mr. Obama will detail some of those plans Thursday when he introduces his first 10-year budget blueprint.

The CBO’s estimates also do not include any extension of the temporary tax cuts that were contained in the $787 billion stimulus package that the president recently signed into law. Based on his campaign promises, Mr. Obama intends to extend several costly stimulus provisions well beyond 2011, when many of them are set to expire….

On the other hand, the CBO estimates also exclude hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue from a carbon cap-and-trade system that Mr. Obama wants to implement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“The CBO report shows that Obama’s goal of reducing the deficit to $533 billion in 2013 is doable, but it won’t be easy,” said Stan Collender, a longtime budget analyst who is now a partner at Qorvis Communications.

It will require a lot of discipline, he said, but cutting about $200 billion from CBO’s 2013 deficit estimate of $745 billion can be achieved if deficit reduction begins in earnest in 2011.

“The economy is the big ‘if,’” Mr. Collender said. “If it takes several years to get out of this economic mess, then deficit reduction won’t even start. Nor should it.” …

PARTICIPANTS: Michael MacCracken, chief scientist of Climate Programs at the Climate Institute; Ned Helme, president of the Center for Clean Air Policy; Richard Moss, vice president and managing director of climate change at the World Wildlife Fund; and Kathleen Frangione, professional staff at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee….

By William Douglas and David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers

During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidates Barack Obama and John McCain fought vigorously over who would be toughest on congressional earmarks.

“We need earmark reform,” Obama said in September during a presidential debate in Oxford, Miss. “And when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.”

President Barack Obama should prepare to carve out a lot of free time this week as Congress prepares to unveil a $410 billion omnibus spending bill that’s full of thousands of earmarks, despite his calls for restraint and efforts on Capitol Hill to curtail the practice.

The bill will contain about 9,000 earmarks totaling $5 billion, congressional officials say. Many of the earmarks—loosely defined as local projects inserted by members of Congress—were inserted last year as the spending bills worked their way through various committees….

“It will be a little embarrassing for the president if he signs a bill with that many earmarks on it,” said Stan Collender, a veteran Washington budget analyst. “He’ll say they’re left over from the Bush years, and he has to say that next year the bill will be clean.”…

9. “Carbon Dioxide Emissions Map Released on Google Earth” (Ascribe Newswire, February 20, 2009); newswire citing KEVIN GURNEY (MPP 1996); http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009a/090219GurneyVulcan.html

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A new high-resolution, interactive map of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels is now available on Google Earth.

With a few clicks on Google Earth, anyone can now view pollution from factories, power plants, roadways, and residential and commercial areas for their state, county or per capita. Individuals also can easily see how their county compares to others across the nation.

A team led by scientists at Purdue University developed the maps and system, named Vulcan after the Roman god of fire. The system quantifies all of the carbon dioxide emissions that result from burning fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline. It is available at http://www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/GEarth/ .

Kevin Gurney, who leads the project, said Vulcan helps demystify the connection between fossil fuel use and climate change.

“This will bring emissions information into everyone’s living room as a recognizable, accessible online experience,” said Gurney, who is an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences. “What was once the realm of scientists will now be provided directly to the public. We hope to eventually turn it into an interactive space where the public will feed information into the system to create an even finer picture of emissions down to the street and individual building level.”

The three-year project involved researchers from Purdue University, Colorado State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The project was funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy with additional support from the Purdue Showalter Trust and Indianapolis-based Knauf Insulation….

Carbon dioxide is the most important human-produced gas contributing to global climate change, Gurney said. The United States accounts for about 25 percent of the global emissions.

The Vulcan layer on Google Earth shows carbon dioxide emissions in metric tons at the state level, county level and per capita. It also breaks down emissions by the different sectors responsible for the emissions, including aircraft, commercial, electricity production, industrial, residential and transport….

The current emissions are based on information from 2002, but the Vulcan system will soon expand to more recent years. Gurney’s team would like to fill in information from 1985 to the present and then update the data every six months, he said.

“This is the first step,” Gurney said. “We’ll keep adding more information to enrich it. We hope to eventually get feedback from the public about energy use and activity that allows us to include even more detailed information. This would create a network of businesses and individuals that would become part of the Vulcan system and part of the scientific effort.”…

Gurney said the Google Earth content will continually grow as the detail of the data-gathering effort improves.

Next the team plans to gather even finer detail with the goal of being able to have emissions data at the street level. The team also plans to expand Vulcan to other countries, beginning with Canada and Mexico….

10. “State budget closes gap with cuts, higher taxes” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 20, 2009); story citing MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/20/MNIN16191A.DTL&type=newsbayarea

--Matthew Yi, Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, left, shakes hands with Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, for casting the deciding vote needed to pass the state budget, at the Capitol in Sacramento.

(02-20) 04:00 PST Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign an emergency spending plan into law today that promises to solve the largest deficit in California history after 106 days of contentious negotiations.

The spending plan, which the Legislature approved early Thursday after a Republican senator from Santa Barbara County cast a breakthrough vote, is intended to keep the state in the black through June 2010….

Recovery from the fiscal crisis will be gradual. Some state offices are closed again today as part of twice-a-month worker furloughs for the next 16 months; many construction projects remain on hold; thousands of state employees could be laid off; and state financial officials cannot say when tax refunds and other payments will begin flowing from Sacramento….

State Department of Finance director Mike Genest said the vote happened “just in the knick of time.” He acted quickly to tell state agencies Thursday not to halt 276 state-funded public works projects that Schwarzenegger had ordered stopped because the state was running out of cash.

Still, Genest spokesman H.D. Palmer said, it is “an open question” when the thousands of projects stopped in December will resume. He said it will likely take a few weeks before officials know when that will be….

--Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer

State lawmakers will cut $8.4 billion from the $58.1 billion budget for public education, lowering per-pupil spending from $8,784 to $8,404 over the next two years.

That’s $11,400 less for a typical K-12 classroom of 30 kids.

The education budget is shared by public schools and community colleges, but the colleges will see virtually no cuts, said Edgar Cabral of the state’s legislative analyst’s office.

Highlights

• Community colleges: Loses a cost-of-living adjustment of less than 1 percent.

• K-12: $8.4 billion, or $380 per pupil.

12. “State Budget Deal Passes” (Forum, KQED public radio, February 19, 2009); features commentary by MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); Listen to the program

This morning, California’s State Legislature approved a budget deal after almost four months of partisan wrangling. We discuss the details of the budget including its new taxes and cutbacks, and take a look at the state’s plan to hoist itself out of a $42 billion deficit. Host: Michael Krasny

Guests:

Michael Genest, director of the California Department of Finance

By Michelle Hatfield

With deep cuts coming to employees and programs serving Modesto City Schools’ 30,000 students, about 175 community members displayed signs and cheered speakers Wednesday night who urged trustees to keep the knife from music and arts programs and college counselors….

District officials plan on chopping $11 million from a $270 million budget for next school year….

Trustees also heard an hourlong presentation from consultant School Services of California about how the latest state budget proposal affects Modesto City Schools.

The consultants told trustees they had to cut spending while offering a high-quality education, focusing on results and addressing the needs of all students.

“We have no precedent for the type of rollbacks being considered by the state,” said Jannelle Kubinec of School Services, an advisory and lobby group for California school districts.

Kubinec urged trustees and staff to look at ways to increase revenue, such as increasing students’ daily attendance, increasing programs offered through independent study and luring back students who attend charter schools….

By Linda Davis

The last open public space in Piedmont — Blair Park — has become a hot spot, with neighborhood groups opposing development of the pristine canyon and sports groups clamoring for play fields.

Attention focused on Blair following a series of public meetings where the Piedmont school district considered putting portables on the 8.2-acre site off Moraga Avenue. Blair surfaced as a prime choice by parents to house students from the three elementary schools for three years while seismic work is done on each campus….

Currently, Blair Park is green open space, a popular spot for dog walkers and a nature habitat.

But in Piedmont’s new general plan under review, it is identified as a “special use” park, implying it could be developed in some way.

The sports groups argue that there is a great demand but little field space in Piedmont, a city smaller than 2 square miles. According to the Piedmont general plan, there are 59 acres of parkland in the city, although not all that land is used for sports. That averages to 5.4 acres per l,000 residents, below the average of 8.2 acres per 1,000 residents in other cities….

But Mayor Abe Friedman said more field space was listed as one of the top priorities in the general plan.

“I am strongly supportive of building new fields for our community,” Friedman said. “I think there is an exceptional demand for them and very deep community support for doing so. As to Blair Park specifically, I have worked very hard to ensure that we have an open and public process that will allow the city and the community to evaluate whether the development proposed is appropriate for that site.”

Friedman senses much support for the field plan, and he has offered to hold neighborhood meetings to discuss it.

“There is no question that there is an overwhelming demand in the community for the council to do something about (field space). We can pursue our civic center plan, we can pursue other improvements in the planning process, and we can pursue other enhancements to our community while also pursuing this. And we will,” he said….

--David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Solar installer Delmar Oliveira carries a panel to a new location on the roof of a home in Oakland. (Brant Ward / The Chronicle)

(02-17) 18:21 PST -- Homeowners interested in sticking solar panels on their roofs got a big boost from the $787 billion economic stimulus package signed Tuesday by President Obama.

Homeowners will now be able to get a federal tax credit worth 30 percent of the cost of their new solar system even if they’re also receiving state or local financing.

That could make a big difference in California, which offers rebates to homeowners who install solar systems. And Berkeley has a new solar financing program [initiated by Cisco DeVries] that lets homeowners pay the cost of their solar systems over 20 years, a program that San Francisco and other cities plan to emulate.

A typical home solar system generates about 3 kilowatts of power. The installation cost in California averages roughly $8.10 per watt, according to Adam Browning, executive director of the Vote Solar advocacy group, meaning the typical cost is $24,300.

The state rebate is now $1.55 per watt for homeowners in Pacific Gas and Electric Co. territory. So the average rebate is worth $4,650, bringing the overall cost down to $19,650. Although it’s unclear just how the stimulus provisions will work, several solar industry sources said they expect the federal tax credit to be based on a solar system’s price after the state rebate is subtracted. So for the typical California homeowner, the 30 percent tax credit will be worth $5,895, cutting the overall cost to $13,755.

Finally, the Berkeley program allows homeowners to borrow the cost of installation from the city’s Sustainable Energy Financing District and pay it annually on their property tax bills. So they’ll pay minimal up-front costs.

John Myers: Experts are still checking the final numbers of the federal stimulus package, but they believe more than $9 billion of that can be put directly towards erasing the state budget deficit.

MIKE GENEST: … We already have agreement with the legislation what the first call on that is.

Myers: Mike Genest is the governor’s budget director. The plan currently includes a risky proposal to borrow some $6 billion to cover the budget gap, but the federal money will allow that plan to be cancelled.

MIKE GENEST: No fiscal officer wants to see his state borrow money for ongoing current operations; that’s probably about the worst thing you can do financially, but we’ve gotten to a point where we’re going to have to do it. The federal money will prevent that from happening….

17. “As salmon go, so go the killer whales” (Sacramento Bee, Feb. 18, 2009); story citing MARIA REA (MPP 1988); http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1632840.html

By Matt Weiser

California’s degraded rivers and voracious water demand are not just a local problem. They threaten to exterminate a unique population of Pacific killer whales, federal scientists have found.

In a draft ruling, the National Marine Fisheries Service says the southern resident population of killer whales may go extinct because its primary food – salmon – is imperiled by the state’s vast network of dams and canals….

The fisheries service last month determined that Central Valley salmon populations will go extinct unless state and federal agencies change their water operations in California. After further study, it now believes killer whales will follow salmon into the grave.

“There’s so many parts of our (aquatic) system that depend on salmon,” said Maria Rea, Sacramento-area supervisor of the National Marine Fisheries Service. “It does really highlight the interconnected nature of what happens in the Central Valley and the Delta to the ocean.”

The California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation operate separate systems of dams, canals and pumps that are key to both urban and farm water supplies in the state. Though other factors contribute to the fish declines, including water pollution, the water projects have been targeted for much of the blame….

Rea’s agency is assessing the effect of California water operations on four protected species: winter- and spring-run salmon, Central Valley steelhead and green sturgeon. A key focus of the report is to minimize threats to these species caused by water diversions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub for 60 percent of California’s freshwater supplies….

Among the fixes the fisheries service is weighing, Rea said, is installation of fish ladders on major dams that sealed off hundreds of miles of salmon habitat in California rivers decades ago. One example is Folsom Dam….

Rea said the fisheries service also may propose new hatchery practices to enhance fall-run chinook salmon. It is the most populous Central Valley salmon species, and therefore, the most important to killer whales.

The fall run set a historic population low in 2008, prompting regulators to ban commercial salmon fishing in California and Oregon. A similar ban is likely again this year.

By Tom Kisken

The number of revenue-strapped California employers who offered health insurance with deductibles of at least $1,000 more than doubled in 2008 in a trend that means more costs for workers who need healthcare, according to a statewide survey.

About 38 percent of the private companies in the state offered high-deductible policies as an option in 2008, said authors of an annual report by the California HealthCare Foundation and the National Opinion Research Center. In 2007, about 18 percent of the employers offered policies with high deductibles.

“I think employers, like workers and everyone else, are looking for ways to keep their premiums as manageable as they can,” said Marian Mulkey, senior program officer for the foundation, which used a survey of nearly 800 companies. “There aren’t too many ways they can do that.”…

The survey … said premiums increased last year at a rate of about 8 percent. Co-pays for office visits increased slightly last year and could go up in many plans again this year.

“Employees are slowly finding that they’re getting less each year as healthcare costs rise steadily and constantly,” Mulkey said. “The benefits available at a given contribution level are slowly eroding.”…

About 25 percent of California workers with individual coverage with deductibles had to pay at least $1,000 for their coverage to kick in. About 49 percent of the families covered by policies with deductibles had to pay $1,000 deductibles and about 33 percent of the families paid $2,000.

Some observers point to bright spots in the survey: HMO premiums are lower in California than elsewhere, and about the same percentage of companies offered coverage in 2008 as in the previous two years.

“It’s hard to find really bright rays of sunshine,” Mulkey said….

--Matthew Yi, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

(02-17) 08:32 PST SACRAMENTO -- After a frustrating weekend of long, late nights without reaching a budget agreement, the state Senate will go into session this morning and not adjourn until the most controversial part of the budget deal is approved….

California’s top finance official warned state lawmakers Monday that without a budget agreement to fend off the state’s cash crisis, he will begin halting the remaining 276 public works projects that have been allowed to continue despite the state’s dwindling cash supply….

The end result will be tens of thousands of jobs lost as the construction projects come to a grinding halt, Department of Finance Director Mike Genest told a Senate committee hearing on the ramifications of a continuing budget delay.

In December, state finance officials said the state’s fiscal crisis was so dire that they needed to halt financing for 5,600 construction projects across the state. Then last month, they agreed to exempt 276 projects that were either too far along in construction or would cost the state too much to halt and restart later.

Now, those projects would have to be halted as well, Genest said….

Stopping and restarting construction could also cost the state additional $300 million to $400 million in the way of closing off and securing construction sites and even paying contract penalties to subcontractors, Genest and [Will Kempton, director of Caltrans] said….

By Gary Richards, Mercury News

San Jose Department of Transportation Director James Helmer, commutes to work on the 17 Express bus from Scotts Valley to San Jose five times a week, walks to his office from the bus stop Wednesday February 11, 2008 in San Jose. (Maria J. Avila / Mercury News)

… Roadshow contacted 42 transportation experts in Northern California, the ones who beg us to get out of our cars at least one day a week or drive in hybrids that emit mere traces of smog. Do they practice what they preach? …

Shock and surprise to Poole and me. Most follow the advice they want us to heed—15 take transit, bicycle or ride in van pools four to five days a week. Another six do so at least one day a week, and most of them more than that. Twelve drive hybrids. That’s 33 of 42.

Impressive? You bet, especially considering that less than 15 percent of Bay Area commuters use transit or carpool.

**** COMMUTES FOUR TO FIVE DAYS A WEEK

Grace Blakeslee, Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (bicycles)

John Brazil, San Jose DOT planner (bus, bicycle, light rail)

Stuart Cohen, executive director of TransForm (bicycles) …

By Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times

State education leaders are trying to overcome failures to improve the pathway from community colleges to public universities.

The University of California and California State University are working with the state’s vast community college system to boost the number of students who transfer from the two-year schools. Some are applauding, while others worry it could fail as past attempts have….

Rather than having a master blueprint that allows any community college student to transfer to a public university, California’s 110 community colleges have been largely responsible for drafting their own agreements with each of the state’s 32 UC and Cal State campuses that have undergraduates.

Some say the state will never improve transfer rates unless it overcomes a fear of standardization in higher education.

College educators highly value their unique curricula, said Sacramento State researcher Nancy Shulock, a co-author of a 2007 study that found only one in four community college students who planned to transfer to four-year schools actually did so within six years.

“We just fear statewide uniformity,” she said. “Somebody’s got to say, ‘We can’t cling to these assumptions of what works, because it isn’t working.’”

The issue that has hampered previous discussions is making sure that transferring students can actually use credit earned in community college courses. University faculty, particularly in the Cal State system, have resisted standardizing courses so they fit neatly into transfer-ready categories….

22. “Counties Demand Payment” (Forum, KQED public radio, Feb. 16, 2009); features commentary by MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); Listen to the program

Scores of California counties are suing the state, claiming that Sacramento is withholding millions of dollars in payments owed to them for social service programs. But the lawsuit is just one symptom of a larger battle between counties and state government over the flow of revenues. Host: Michael Krasny

Guests:

• Michael Genest, director of the California Department of Finance

By Tom Kisken

Federal relief that will temporarily cut her health insurance premiums by 65 percent might mean Linda MacKinnon can keep her phones and cable television.

MacKinnon, laid off in September, was facing a $409 monthly bill due on March 1 to keep her health coverage through a law called COBRA. Already dipping into her retirement funds to make her house payments, the 60-year-old Oxnard woman is renting out rooms and searching for other tourniquets to apply to her budget.

The economic stimulus package approved by Congress on Friday includes $24.7 billion for people covered by COBRA. That means Mac Kinnon’s premiums will shrink to about $143 a month….

The problem has always been price. The average monthly premium for a COBRA family plan in California is $1,079, or about 82 percent of a person’s average monthly unemployment insurance benefits, according to a Families USA study in January.

The average premium for individual coverage is $380. That’s just under one-third of unemployment benefits.

Experts say there’s no way to track the number of Californians on COBRA, although a report by the Commonwealth Fund suggested that in 2006, fewer than one out of 10 unemployed adults bought the plans.

Marian Mulkey of the California HealthCare Foundation estimated the stimulus might help 50,000 to 100,000 people in California. That, she said, might seem like a big number, until you consider the estimated 6.6 million people in the state without insurance.

The price is still a huge problem, even with the federal subsidy, said Mulkey. Many people still won’t be able to afford it….

--Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer

…From Marin County to San Diego, small and large projects that turn seawater into tap water are gaining favor, propelled by events unprecedented in California’s history: worsening drought, dwindling species of freshwater fish, crumbling plumbing systems and unyielding demand….

But critics argue that desalination is an expensive, environmentally questionable last resort in a sprawling state that misuses one of its greatest assets.

“People are looking for an easy solution, and they look to the ocean,” said Linda Sheehan, executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance, a watchdog group. “They’re ignoring the opportunities we have for conservation, storm water reuse and water recycling.” …

Saving water has a price advantage. A study last year by the Los Angeles Economic Development Council found that conservation would cost $210 a year per acre-foot, compared with more than $1,000 per acre-foot for desalination.

In addition, costly amounts of energy are needed to force seawater through the fine membranes that trap tiny salt and other particles….

“We need to change how we relate to water and not just dip straws into whatever water source is close by,” said Coastkeeper Alliance’s Sheehan. “We need to recognize the limitations to the environment and adjust our behavior. If we live in a desert climate, we need to act as though we live in a desert climate.”

By Markus Schmidt, Staff Writer

Amina Luqman-Dawson decided to write a book about the local history of African-Americans after moving to Petersburg in 2006. Patrick Kane/Staff Photo

PETERSBURG — Sometimes it takes an outsider to present a proper view of the inside. When California native Amina Luqman-Dawson first came to Petersburg in 2006, she was amazed at the city’s rich history. This year, she published “African Americans of Petersburg” — an illustrated narrative focusing on local black history.

“Petersburg was a real trailblazer for African-American history, especially politics,” she said.

Tonight, Luqman-Dawson will present her book at the Siege Museum and sign copies.

Growing up in greater Los Angeles, Luqman-Dawson wasn’t exposed to much African-American history. She went to graduate school in Oakland, where she met her husband Robert Dawson. After a short stint in Richmond, the couple eventually moved to Petersburg, where Dawson took a job as city attorney.

“When we lived in Richmond, I volunteered at the Black History Museum for a while, and I learned a lot about the history of this area,” Luqman-Dawson said. Upon her arrival in Petersburg, she soon decided that she would write a book about the local history of African-Americans. Her choice of format was the popular “Images of America” series by Arcadia Publishing….

Luqman-Dawson began to work on various topics that she wanted to write about. The book covers the early years of African-Americans in the Petersburg area, their service in the military, the churches in the city, the civil rights era, black businesses, education and community service….

“I found the early history of slaves and freed slaves especially fascinating,” Luqman-Dawson said. “When you look at pictures of these people, you will never forget their faces.”

A touching experience was to come across original emancipation documents.

“Some families still have them, and to be able to touch them was very special,” she said….

By Nergui Manalsuren

Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands women and girls have been brutally raped in the DRC, primarily by rebel groups vying over control of land and mineral resources.

More than five million people have been killed in the civil war following the overthrow of the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997….

A year ago, rebel groups signed a peace treaty with an ineffective DRC government accused of corruption and complicit in the rape of women. Despite the treaty, thousands of women and young girls in the eastern Congo have been raped in the region that borders Rwanda and Uganda where coltan and other valuable minerals are found.

Large-scale fighting resumed last July, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

This week, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF and the V-Day campaign launched a five-city ‘Turning Pain to Power Tour’, starting at U.N. headquarters in New York City and going on to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Washington, DC….

The joint initiative hopes to develop the ‘City of Joy’, a village for rape survivors in Bukavu, an area described by the head of UNICEF, Ann Veneman, as a place where ‘no one is safe’.

‘Simple everyday tasks like gathering water, fetching water, expose these women and children to a great danger,’ Veneman told reporters Wednesday.

‘I’ve heard [Dr. Denis Mukwege] say before that sometimes women dragged themselves to the hospital, being left to death in the villages or the forest. And he told me that one of the things he has to do is to treat them for malnutrition before even beginning to operate on them because they were so weakened because of being just left with no one,’ she said….

27. “Study: Regional, racial gaps plague education” (Davis Enterprise, February 13, 2009); story citing NANCY BOROW SHULOCK (MPP 1978).

By Cory Golden; Enterprise staff writer

California’s continuing slide in higher education opportunities and success varies widely depending on region and on race and ethnicity, according to a study released Thursday.

Researchers from the Sacramento State Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy found that areas of the state experiencing the most rapid population growth, like the Central Valley and Inland Empire, are faring worst.

It’s in those areas where groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education are often concentrated, the authors found. Those include young people who are the first in their families to attend college, low-income families and immigrants.

“Our future as a state depends on our ability to educate our growing populations of young people and to focus our attention on improving opportunities and outcomes,” said co-author Nancy Shulock, the director of the institute, in a news release. “We need to meet the challenges of our changing demographics.”

Where students grow up dramatically affects their chances of being competitive in a job market in which employers increasingly require an associate degree or better, the study found.…

The rate of those attending college varies from 72 percent along the Central Coast to 27 percent in the Superior region. For Sacramento-Tahoe, it is 63 percent.

Disparities by race and ethnicity remain pronounced, the authors found: About 47 percent of Asian adults and 38 percent of white adults have at least a bachelor’s degree, compared to 21 percent of black adults and 10 percent of Latino adults….

“The policies we adopt matter a lot to students and ultimately to the state,” Shulock said. “It matters how much we charge students, how well we assist low-income families with those costs, how we structure the funding of our education systems, and how well California’s education sectors work together to meet the needs of students and the state.” …

The full report can be found at http://www.csus.edu/ihe

By Karen Holzmeister, The Daily Review

CASTRO VALLEY — Vin Sawhney is still a director of the Eden Township Healthcare District, a position to which he was elected last November.

And, despite a request from his colleagues on the Castro-Valley-based panel, Alameda County supervisors still have no authority to review Sawhney’s eligibility for office — or whether he should be disqualified, county counsel Richard Winnie said.

The county’s Superior Court is the proper place for an election challenge to be filed, Winnie explained in a Feb. 3 written response to the review requested by directors in mid-December….

Rajendra Ratnesar … said Winnie’s legal opinion would be discussed at a future directors’ meeting….

--Victoria Colliver

Unemployed workers, like these people in San Jose, could get a discount on some employer-sponsored health benefits. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP)

How much money: $87 billion added to Medicaid funding over the next two years; $24.7 billion to subsidize unemployed workers by 60 percent for up to nine months to stay on their employers’ health plan…. California’s Medicaid program for the poor, known as Medi-Cal, could get an estimated $11.23 billion over the next 27 months. The provision that defrays the cost of benefits under COBRA, the federal law that allows people to continue their employer’s coverage, could mean roughly $2.5 billion in help for California’s jobless.

Who might benefit: Unemployed workers who can afford to cover 40 percent of the cost of their employer-sponsored health insurance policies.…

It’s unclear how many people will be able to take advantage of the COBRA subsidy. “Because people are going to have to decide whether they can afford the share they have to pay, we really won’t know whether people will opt for that,” said Marian Mulkey, senior program officer for the California HealthCare Foundation.

30. “The Prison Overcrowding Fix” (The New York Times, February 11, 2009); analysis citing STUART DROWN (MPP 1986); http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/us/11prisons.html?ref=us

By Solomon Moore

In San Francisco last week, a federal court was hearing final arguments in the prison overcrowding lawsuit that led Monday to an unprecedented decision to reduce the nation’s largest prison system by one-third. Just a few blocks away, a state appellate court was affirming a life sentence for Ali Foroutan, convicted of possession of 0.03 gram of methamphetamine.

Critics of California’s justice system say Mr. Foroutan’s sentence under the ‘‘three-strikes law,’’ which mandates 25 years to life in prison for three-time felons, is the kind of punishment that has made the state’s prisons the most overcrowded in the nation….

Decades of tough-on-crime laws coupled with a failure to finance prison programs have left prisoners stacked three bunks high in prison gymnasiums and hallways throughout the state. With few probation and parole programs available, about two-thirds of all ex-convicts return to prison within three years….

California is the only state in the nation that paroles 98 percent of released inmates, even if they have completed their sentences. About 70,000 parolees return to prison every year. Nationally, states parole an average of 40 percent of their released inmates….

But Stuart Drown, executive director of the Little Hoover Commission, a state-financed watchdog organization, said sentencing reform was the key to reducing prison population.

The Legislature, Mr. Drown says, has added thousands of new penalties for new and old crimes. ‘‘We don’t track how judges are sentencing people on a statewide basis,’’ he said. ‘‘We don’t have a sentencing policy.’’

In other states, sentencing commissions monitor penalties to help policy makers anticipate how many prisoners will be coming and for how long.

California has no such data, Mr. Drown said….

31. “Mobile Phones can Call for Health, Education and Safety, UNICEF Says” (States News Service, February 11, 2009); newswire citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

NEW YORK -- Cell phones can play an important role in education, crisis situations, and in monitoring health and nutrition, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stressed today at the opening of a conference on innovation.

The conference, called “Web4Dev: Innovation for Access” and hosted by UNICEF, brings together academics, experts in technology, UN officials and development professionals to explore the application of new and existing communication technologies to dire problems in poor and isolated areas of the world.

“The task here this week is to put innovation and technology at the service of humanity,” Ann Veneman, UNICEF’s Executive Director, said as she opened the three-day meeting in New York.

She cited as an example a health-monitoring initiative in Malawi, led by UNICEF and Columbia University, which allows rural health workers to use mobile phone technology to relay data on children’s health and nutrition and receive instant, expert advice on critical interventions….

--Seth Rosenfeld, Chronicle Staff Writer

(02-10) 19:48 PST -- Faced with a swelling budget gap, San Francisco’s park department plans to lay off dozens of staffers, lease out three clubhouses, charge visitors to enter the Botanical Gardens and install parking meters in some parks.

But those measures and other changes will allow the city to keep open all of its recreation centers and clubhouses and expand hours at many of them, interim General Manager Jared Blumenfeld said Tuesday….

Reaction is likely to be mixed. Supervisor Carmen Chu said the mayor’s final city budget won’t be submitted to the board until June 1, and things could change. She was wary of the proposal to install parking meters in parks—something the mayor has rejected in years past—saying once they are there they won’t be removed.

The mayor, Brodkin and Dufty, in happier times. Eric Luse / The Chronicle

A decorated Vietnam veteran who has mentored high school students for more than 25 years. A popular advocate for children and families in a city known for driving those groups to the suburbs.

You wouldn’t think they’d be controversial figures. You’d be wrong.

[The veteran, Col. Robert Powell,] will be out of a job come June, though, since the school board is axing the program. The children’s advocate is Margaret Brodkin, who was recently fired by the mayor.

So several supervisors decided to honor Powell and Brodkin recently. We’ll call it a different kind of Valentine directed at both the school board and mayor. Supervisor Carmen Chu honored Powell at Tuesday’s board meeting as part of a special Black History Month recognition, while Supervisor Bevan Dufty authored a commendation of Brodkin that also passed this week.

34. “Stimulus bill would greatly expand government’s role in economy” (Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, February 9, 2009); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).

By David Lightman; McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The Senate’s vote on—and the likely approval of—an $838 billion economic stimulus plan today will signal a decisive new expansion of the government’s role in the economy.

The package will include tens of billions of dollars to help states pay for health care, education and highways. It will provide tax breaks for new car and home buyers. It will help to computerize health records and invest heavily in 21st-century renewable energy technology….

In the next step, top lawmakers from both houses will meet to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate bills….

The negotiations promise to be tense but probably not hopeless, because the Democratic majorities in both houses will have voted to expand the government’s role in a wide variety of social and educational programs. Compromise should be on Democratic terms, because Republicans don’t have enough votes to impose their preference for less spending and bigger tax cuts.

“There certainly will be a change in direction compared to the previous administration,” veteran Washington budget analyst Stan Collender said….

Most Republicans, as well as some Democrats, remain concerned that the bills have too much spending and not enough tax cuts….

“Even if you believe the New Deal was helpful,” [Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman John Ensign of Nevada] said, “do we really want to take five, seven, 10 years to get out of the economic problems we have today? The New Deal never brought us out of the Depression.”

Such arguments ignore contemporary reality, countered budget analyst Collender, who noted that most of the proposed stimulus spending doesn’t create new agencies or programs but adds to those that already are running.

A big chunk aims to respond to anticipated future needs. Both bills have billions for renewable energy and energy-efficiency research and development. Each has about $4.5 billion to begin modernizing the electricity grid as well as billions to health providers to modernize their information technology systems. Money also would be provided to expand broadband access in remote areas of the country.

Such spending may not provide much immediate stimulus, but many analysts argue that it’s still worth doing. Just don’t expect miracles.

“The stimulus should provide some positive input,” Collender said. “But you just don’t get a single injection or operation and expect all the problems to be fixed.”

--Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer

(02-08) 17:04 PST -- This month, San Francisco is launching an innovative program designed to catch new HIV infections shortly after they occur - when the risk of transmission is the highest.

The goal of the two-year pilot project, the first of its kind in the nation, is to reduce by half the number of new HIV cases.

During the two- or three-month period after infection, the viral load is highest and the danger of transmission is also at its peak. As many as half of all new infections are estimated to occur during the acute phase.

“The virus gets in your body and starts to replicate at a very high rate before the natural immune responses of your body start to mobilize,” said Mark Cloutier, chief executive of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

The expanded testing, along with counseling, will take place at Magnet, a community health center for gay men in the Castro….

Testing will also be expanded elsewhere in the city, including the Tenderloin. One of the goals is to reach a segment of society that has been difficult to reach.

“We’re hoping to identify African American men who are having sex with other men,” Cloutier said. “The house is on fire for African American men who have sex with other men.”

The virus has shown a startling prevalence in young black men. A report in September by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the number of new infections in black gay and bisexual men 13 to 29 years old is approximately twice that of white or Latino gay men in the same age group.

The AIDS Foundation is also funding a new program to raise awareness about acute infections among transgender women. In San Francisco, the HIV incidence in that population is almost 25 percent….

By Tom Kisken

Dr. Rick Midthun talks with patient Juanita Weil in the emergency room at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. ER doctors contend the state’s reimbursement for patients covered by Medi-Cal is so low they lose money on their patients. (Photo by James Glover II)

The rock is Medi-Cal payments that may cover as little as 50 percent of costs. The hard place is a federal law requiring emergency rooms treat all patients.

In the middle, tired of getting squeezed, are emergency room doctors.

“We are required by law to see patients but no one’s required to pay us for them,” said Rick Midthun, an emergency room physician at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. “It’s a tax on us. Why should we as emergency room doctors be taxed simply because we’re providing care?”

ER doctors throughout the state are fighting - and suing - the state for better reimbursement in a battle they say exposes a huge crack in the foundation of an already broken healthcare system. They cite doctors being forced out of business and emergency rooms being shuttered while the ones that stay open try to cope with surges in patients who have lost their jobs and have no insurance or are covered by Medi-Cal….

Officials of the California Department of Health Care Services won’t comment on the lawsuit filed against the agency. But they don’t challenge the argument that ER doctors should be better paid. They blame legislators who two years ago defeated a healthcare reform package that included universal health insurance and increased reimbursement for doctors.

The state’s $42 billion shortfall is a culprit, too.

“Without healthcare reform, we don’t have the funding to increase Medi-Cal rates,” said Toby Douglas, chief deputy director of the California Department of Health Care Services….

37. “Qorvis Promotes Collender and Quint to Partner; Strong 2008 Results Leads to 16 Promotions at All Levels” (Marketwire, February 9, 2009); newswire citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).

WASHINGTON, DC -- Qorvis Communications, one of the largest independent integrated communications firms in the U.S., today announced 16 promotions including Stan Collender and Michael Quint to partner ….

“Stan and Michael exemplify Qorvis’ core values of hands-on, senior level involvement and legendary client service,” said Managing Partner Michael Petruzzello. “As partners, Stan and Michael will help to maintain Qorvis’ unique culture, which strongly emphasizes continuing education and personal development.”

Stan Collender, who joined Qorvis in 2006, is one of the most-prominent private sector experts on the federal budget, Congress, and Wall Street’s response to Washington tax and spending policies. He is also one of the top financial services communications professionals and has designed and implemented award-winning communications efforts for financial companies, Wall Street firms, trade associations and federal agencies….

38. “AWEA Statement on Joint Coordinated System Plan (JCSP) Transmission Study” (States News Service, February 9, 2009); newswire citing ROB GRAMLICH (MPP 1995).

WASHINGTON -- The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) welcomed results released today from the Joint Coordinated System Plan (JCSP) study concluding that an investment in the power grid to enable wind to supply 20% of the electricity needs of the Eastern U.S. would save consumers $12 billion annually, recovering capital costs in as little as seven years while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and making the power grid more reliable.

“AWEA is pleased to see that yet another study has found that upgrading our power grid to put the nation’s wind energy resources to use saves consumers money, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and makes the power grid more reliable,” said AWEA Policy Director Rob Gramlich. “The study reinforces what we’ve been saying for some time: upgrading the power grid to access our nations world-class wind power resources is a win-win for consumers and the environment.”

The wind resources brought online by the upgraded transmission network would reduce CO2 emissions in the Eastern U.S. by almost 3 billion tons per year, savings potentially worth tens of billions of dollars under a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system.

The study also found that the need for new coal-fired, baseload power plants would be cut in half under the wind and transmission scenario—dispelling the outdated assumption that renewable energy cannot reduce the need for such power. Moreover, the reliability of the power grid would be enhanced, reducing the likelihood of events like the August 2003 blackout that cost consumers and businesses billions of dollars.

Although the study did not calculate job creation or economic development benefits of the wind and transmission scenario, other studies like the Department of Energy’s 20% Wind Energy by 2030 report have shown that obtaining 20% of the nation’s electricity from wind power would create over 500,000 jobs and generate $80 billion per year in economic activity.

“A forward-looking investment in our nation’s power grid to access renewable energy is a powerful solution to the three largest challenges facing our country today: the economic downturn, decreasing energy security, and the urgent need to address climate change,” Gramlich added. “We look forward to the Administration and Congress taking up national transmission policy this spring.”…

39. “Tech for America” (Slate Magazine, February 9, 2009); story citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006); http://www.slate.com/id/2210835/

By Farhad Manjoo

Illustration by Mark Alan Stamaty.

About 10 percent of Americans today don’t have access to high-speed Internet service. The rest of us are pretty much stuck in the granny lane—on average, we get broadband speeds of less than 5 megabits per second, 10 to 20 times slower than what people in many other countries enjoy. Derek Turner, research director for the public policy group Free Press, dreams about America becoming a “broadband utopia.” In Turner’s paradise, you’d be able to order up a fast connection no matter where you lived. And not just that-several broadband providers would compete with one another to bring super-fast service to your door, a dynamic that would keep prices low and speeds very high (100 MBps downloads and uploads, a file-trading gamer’s promised land).

In a policy paper that Free Press put out in December, Turner and his colleagues called on the Obama administration to spend $44 billion to realize this dream. The broadband advocates argue that the money would boost short-term economic activity-we’d need tens of thousands of people to produce and maintain fiber-optic cables, routers, and other equipment; to dig trenches and climb poles to install the new broadband lines; to staff customer service and billing centers; and to train everyone to use the new stuff. The long-run effects of a national broadband plan are even rosier. More than any other investment, Free Press argues, Internet lines would stimulate activity broadly across the American economy, fostering innovation and new jobs in education, health care, retail, and high-tech businesses….

… A long history of poor telecom policies has left us with just two entities providing fast service—the big phone companies and the big cable companies. Verizon is the only company in America that has large-scale plans to deploy fiber-optic lines to homes-and only 6 million of them. That’s why, as Free Press argues, the government is the only entity that can bring truly high-speed broadband to the masses….

40. “How Nutter budget forecasts came up short” (The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 9, 2009); story citing STEVE AGOSTINI (MPP 1986); http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/39300632.html

By Patrick Kerkstra; Inquirer Staff Writer

The national economic crisis has made a lot of very smart people look very much like they don’t know what they’re doing.

At times, the Nutter administration’s budget experts have been no exception while trying to come to grips with Philadelphia’s fiscal deficit.

They have revised their figure constantly in the last five months, always in the same grim direction. From bad ($450 million) to worse ($850 million) to wretched ($1 billion) to the is-this-really-happening latest estimate, which calls for another $1 billion in cuts on top of the $1 billion that was slashed from the five-year spending plan in November.

The moving target has two major causes: the city pension fund’s battering on Wall Street and far-lower-than-expected tax collections.

Did Mayor Nutter’s budget experts have unrealistic revenue expectations for this fiscal year? Should they have seen this coming?

“I don’t see how it’s reasonable to expect that,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester. “This economic environment is unprecedented and startling. This is beyond anyone’s control.”…

“Given these circumstances, they’re doing as good a job as they can,” said Joel L. Naroff, chief economist at TD Bank, who was named the nation’s top economic forecaster last year by Bloomberg Business News.

In off-the-record sessions with experts from the Federal Reserve and local universities and with private-sector economists such as Zandi and Naroff, city budget officials have regularly received high-level advice on where the economy is going and its impact on city revenue.

In July, before the crisis struck, city Budget Director Steve Agostini presented the group with his economic forecasting model for Philadelphia’s total economic output and, from that, tax revenue. The model was the most sophisticated and extensive that Philadelphia had ever used. Some tweaks were suggested, but meeting participants said everyone had agreed the model was fundamentally solid.

Indeed, by all accounts, Nutter’s first budget and five-year spending plan were based on the most thoroughly vetted revenue forecasts in the city’s recent history….

There is no question that Agostini and his boss, Finance Director Rob Dubow, have plenty of company. At least 40 states and many more cities also face budget deficits, which means, in essence, they got their forecasts wrong as well.

The professionals and federal experts have fared no better.

In June, when the city’s budget was finalized, the consensus forecast of the nation’s top business economists was that the economy would grow 1.9 percent in 2009. Last month, the consensus had plummeted to a forecast that the economy would shrink 1.6 percent.

As recently as September, the Congressional Budget Office’s forecast - which the city uses as its base - was 1.1 percent growth in 2009. Now the office expects the economy to contract 2.2 percent this year.

With the national experts so flummoxed, Agostini and Dubow said, the city may have to revise its deficit estimate again.

“We’re still in the middle of all this. The fear I have is that the economy will worsen and the forecasts will change again, and that makes it very, very difficult to really peg a number and call it our final figure,” Agostini said.

However uncertain the economy is, the city must draft a budget, and to do so, Agostini and Dubow have to come up with new revenue projections….

By Andrew Leonard

Paul Krugman is glum. The compromises made by the Obama administration to get three Republican senators to sign on to the stimulus have gutted its potential effectiveness, he writes.

But Brad DeLong points us to Roll Call’s budget columnist, Stan Collender, who is considerably more optimistic, in a blog post titled “Disagreeing with Paul Krugman.”

Collender observes that there will be several opportunities in the near future to increase government spending on stimulus components, through the normal budget appropriations process. The key fact: these specific bills, including a “reconciliation” bill for the 2010 budget process, can’t be filibustered, which means the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate can do what they want.

Krugman acknowledged Collender’s thesis last night, calling it “cheerful.” Whether happy talk or not, Collender’s take definitely broadens the context for viewing the politics of the current stimulus bill. If the end result of Obama’s maneuvers is to make him look as if he was the one to reach out to the other party but got harshly rebuffed, while at the same time keeping some cards in his back pocket that maintain his administration’s freedom to act as necessary, that’s some smooth operating….

42. “FAIR alternative for homeowners” (Cape Cod Times, February 7, 2009); story citing KEVIN BEAGAN (MPP/MPH 1988).

By Sarah Shemkus

There may soon be a new option for more than 58,000 Cape and Islands homeowners who have been relegated to the FAIR Plan for their insurance coverage.

TD Insurance, the insurance affiliate of TD Banknorth, will announce Monday that it is introducing a new insurance program for Cape and Islands homeowners.

Homeowners switching from the FAIR Plan, which provides coverage for those unable to obtain it in the private market, can expect to save an average of $300 per year, said Joseph Fico, president and CEO of TD Insurance….

Homeowners insurance has been a significant concern on the Cape and Islands since 2004, when many private insurers began limiting their coverage in coastal areas or pulling out entirely….

Some companies serving the Cape and Islands do so selectively, said Kevin Beagan, director of the State Rating Bureau, which reviews insurance filings for compliance with regulations….

“We always welcome new competition coming in to give a choice,” Beagan said. “We’re always happy to hear that there are companies that are looking to come back into the Cape.” …

By Maura Reynolds, Walter Hamilton

An employment seeker reads a job posting at an Employment Development Department office in San Jose. Ever since the recession began in December 2007, the U.S. economy has shed 3.6 million jobs. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

WASHINGTON and NEW YORK-- Spooked by the deteriorating economy, businesses are continuing to shed jobs at an alarming pace, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.6%, its highest level in 16 years.

The government Friday gave its latest damage report: 598,000 jobs lost in January, the biggest for any single month since 1974….

“The recession has deepened and we’re in the worst part of it now,” said Mickey Levy, chief economist at Bank of America in New York….

Economists also say that the unemployment rate undercounts the number of idled workers. When “marginally attached” workers are included—those who are too discouraged to look for work and those who have taken part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time work—January’s unemployment rate comes in at 13.9%. That’s the highest rate since the Labor Department started calculating the “under-employment” rate in 1994.

Levy of BofA noted that the number of hours worked fell sharply in January, dropping 0.7% in the economy as a whole and 2.0% in goods-producing sectors. That means that even workers who haven’t lost their jobs are seeing their hours cut.

“Not only are jobs being shed, but part-time work is being cut and overtime is being cut,” Levy said. “This clearly affects everyone and every sector of the economy. There is no place to hide.”

44. “Internet Companies Vying for Stimulus” (PC Magazine.com, February 6, 2009); newswire citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).

--Reuters

WASHINGTON - Wireless and Internet service companies are looking to cash in as U.S. lawmakers hash out a $900 billion stimulus plan aimed at jump-starting the souring economy.

Nearly $10 billion in federal grants and loans and $100 million in tax credits could be spent extending high-speed Internet access to rural areas and poor neighborhoods, a goal outlined by President Barack Obama during his campaign.

Public interest groups say it is laudable the government is trying to help the poor while creating jobs but that a poorly implemented program could smack of corporate welfare.

“Even though we support tax credits, we don’t want them to ‘incentivize’ investments that would have taken place otherwise,” said Derek Turner, research director at the public interest group Free Press.

“We won’t be creating new jobs and we’ll just be paying for current investment.”…

45. “A perspective on a strengthening insurgency” (Berkeleyan, February 5, 2009); event featuring DANIEL COONEY (MPP cand. 2010).

A recently produced PBS Frontline documentary, The War Briefing, explores the challenges facing the Obama administration in Afghanistan. The documentary will screen on Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m. in International House’s Chevron Auditorium.

Following the screening, Associated Press reporter Daniel Cooney will discuss the two years he spent in Afghanistan, first as the correspondent for AP and then as communications adviser to President Hamid Karzai’s government. Afghanistan has become more violent than Iraq, the documentary contends, and Cooney will address the mistakes made there in international nation-building and how to improve the situation in the future….

By Kendra Marr; Washington Post Staff Writer

General Motors’ new plug-in electric car, the Chevrolet Volt, will go on sale in Washington and San Francisco first, the automaker announced this week, as it began laying plans to work with area government and power companies to ease the car’s introduction.

Ed Peper, GM’s North America vice president, made the announcement Tuesday at the Washington Auto Show. He said the cars should begin arriving in the two metropolitan areas in late 2010. In the meantime, the company is seeking policies and infrastructure, such as carpool lane access for Volt drivers and charging stations at work, to make the buyers’ transition from gas to electric easier.

The San Francisco Bay Area was an obvious choice to be one of the first plugged-in cities, said Britta Gross, GM’s architect of the plan. A warm climate combined with a wealthy, tech-savvy population has boosted sales of the Toyota Prius….

The D.C. region’s relatively high concentration of hybrid vehicles suggested people in this area were also willing to pay more for a vehicle with better fuel economy. Washington, along with Southern California and New York, is also testing GM’s hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles….

It also helps to have an iconic car like the Volt close to Washington’s power brokers, who will soon be considering additional federal loans for the struggling automaker, said Roland Hwang, vehicle policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. After all, when natural gas debuted, buses using the alternative fuel ran regular routes past California’s state capital in Sacramento.

“You want your clean technologies to be very visible and build trust with public policy makers, even if city isn’t the ideal in demographics or in terms of infrastructure,” he said.

Hwang added: “What we’re talking about is signaling to decision makers in Washington that the car is on its way to not just America, but to your garage.”…

PARTICIPANTS: Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.; James Smith, president of SAE International; George Eads, senior consultant at CRA International; Fred Mayes, senior technical adviser at the Energy Information Administration; Kathryn Clay, director of research at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers; and Roland Hwang, vehicles policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council….

By Linda Davis, Correspondent

The City Council took a hard look at waning revenues Monday night and supported belt-tightening wherever possible to ensure the city stays in the black.

Finance Director Mark Bichsel told the council there is $850,000 less revenue than projected for June, 2009. Sales of homes are drastically down in Piedmont, reducing the amount of property transfer tax revenues the city relies on. Income from property tax, building permits and fees and interest income are also down.

Many capital improvement projects will be deferred until the economic picture improves. Each department head was asked to supply a list of items that could be trimmed from their budgets without compromising the level and quality of services Piedmonters expect….

“There are real world impacts for us,” Mayor Abe Friedman said. “The city’s finances are still pretty strong with $2 million in reserve.

“Don’t feel a sense of panic, but we do need to address this.” …

49. “Societal Cost of Meth Use is Gauged in New Study” (New York Times, February 4, 2009); story citing study coauthored by BEAU KILMER (MPP 2000); http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/05meth.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

By Erik Eckholm

In the first effort to calculate the national price of methamphetamine abuse, a new study said the addictive stimulant imposed costs of $23.4 billion in 2005. While the authors [including Beau Kilmer], from the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., caution that many impacts were difficult to quantify, their study suggests that methamphetamine takes an economic toll nearly as great as heroin and possibly more.

Methamphetamine was named the primary cause of some 900 deaths in 2005, and the report estimates that premature mortality alone cost $4 billion. Its abuse has spread from Hawaii and rural areas of the West and South since the 1990s, slowly expanding to the Midwest and the East. In the process, it has wreaked havoc on addicts’ physical and mental health and on their families.

... About 400,000 Americans are believed to be addicted to methamphetamine, but a rising number are smoking it rather than taking it orally or snorting it. Smoking brings a faster, jolting high, quicker addiction and more ill effects….

Dr. Wilson Compton, a division director at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said the study’s major innovation was its effort to quantify the effects of addiction on the quality of life — how factors like poor health, anxiety and paranoia shrink the addict’s horizons and pleasure over time. Such estimates have been made for heart diseases and other major ones but not for illegal drugs, Dr. Compton said.

These intangibles proved to be the largest costs, with an estimated price of $12.6 billion. Other major costs included $4.2 billion in crime and criminal justice, $904 million for endangered children put into foster care as a result of parents’ use, $687 million in lost productivity, $545 million for drug treatment, $351 million for health care and $61 million for injuries and deaths at exploding meth labs and for cleaning up the toxic wastes they produce….

The study is available on the Web at methproject.org.

By David Lazarus

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s decision Tuesday to withdraw as nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services was a setback for President’s goal of reforming the U.S. healthcare system.

What could that mean for you? Three words: health savings account.

As healthcare costs for employers continue to soar, and as hopes fade for quick relief from Washington, a growing number of businesses are expected to stop offering costly insurance benefits and push workers instead into tax-free health savings accounts….

Critics of health savings accounts counter that the plans favor the healthy and wealthy, and can increase medical costs for everyone else by requiring people to take out high-deductible insurance policies that kick in only after thousands of dollars in healthcare expenses have been rung up….

Larger employers remain wary of saddling workers with high-deductible insurance plans, [Diamond Management & Technology Consultants] found, but smaller businesses are increasingly turning to health savings accounts as a way to ease runaway healthcare costs.

“Small employers want to do the right thing,” said Karen Pollitz, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. “They want to provide healthcare. But each year they have less money.”

Health savings accounts, she said, “give employers an opportunity to shift more healthcare costs onto employees.”

However, this also leaves employees increasingly at the mercy of insurance companies offering “HSA-compatible” policies….

Although [Sherman Oaks lawyer Ellen] Kornblum she was wary of the $3,500 deductible that came with the eligible policy offered by her insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, Kornblum was pleased that her annual premiums had been reduced to $2,544.

As of March 1, however, Anthem plans to raise rates for thousands of policyholders statewide. In Kornblum’s case, that will mean a whopping 25% increase to $3,192 in premiums….

… [Jerry Slowey, an Anthem spokesman] said, “We understand and share the concerns of our members over rising healthcare costs and higher premiums.”

That’s nice. But Pollitz at Georgetown University said insurers such as Anthem were just playing the odds.

“They sell you the policy on the assumption that you won’t make any claims right away,” she said. “But over time they know you will make claims. That’s why insurers don’t want you sticking around too long with lower premiums.” …

Just as most employers found pension plans to be unsustainable and have turned instead to 401(k)s to meet workers’ retirement needs, so too will they increasingly move away from group insurance policies and adopt health savings accounts….

“There’s a seductive notion that some healthcare is better than none,” Pollitz said. “But that’s not really the case. You wouldn’t say that part of an air bag is better than none. You need complete protection.” …

51. “Briefing - The Kaiser Family Foundation” (The Washington Daybook, February 5, 2009); event featuring KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).

SUBJECT: The Kaiser Family Foundation holds a briefing and panel discussion on a new report and companion video that illustrate holes in the healthcare system that can have devastating financial consequences for cancer patients.

PARTICIPANTS: Drew Altman, CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation; John Seffrin, national chief executive officer at the American Cancer Society; John Rowe, professor of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and former chairman and CEO at Aetna Inc.; Karen Pollitz, research professor at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute; Karyn Schwartz of the Kaiser Family Foundation; and Kristi Martin of the American Cancer Society….

52. “Who’s saying what at the Davos roundtables” (South China Morning Post, February 4, 2009); column citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

Compiled by Sara Yin

“Inter-generational poverty can be broken if we invest in girls.” Ann Veneman, executive director, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), reminds audience members that not all women around the world are given the equal opportunities of their male peers. “Girls are subject to sexual violence at a very early age in so many parts of the world ... and this has to stop,” she said….

53. “City, Homewise Join in Efficiency Effort” (Albuquerque Journal, February 3, 2009); story citing CHRIS CALVERT (MPP 1979).

--Journal Staff Report

A partnership between the city of Santa Fe and Homewise will make 550,000 in low-interest financing available to middle and low income home own ers for energy efficient improvements.

Loans will be doled out for projects such as energyefficient roof replacement, appliances, water heaters, stucco replacement, furnace replacement, solar domestic hot water, solar electric PV, solar thermal and solar air heating.

City Councilor Chris Calvert said the initiative would boost Santa Fe’s economy and the environment.

“I think that particular program serves so many of our goals and objectives,” Calvert said.

54. “Health Visit” (Newcastle Evening Chronicle, February 3, 2009); story citing JACOB WEST (MPP 2004).

POLICY advisers from the Prime Minister’s office visited staff working on a pioneering family nurse project in County Durham.

A delegation including Jacob West, who heads the Health Team in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Strategy Unit, and David Colin-Thome, National Clinical Lead for Primary Care, visited staff in Stanley.

The Family Nurse Partnership has been described as “a model we should be looking to emulate” by Beverley Hughes, Minister for Children, Young People and Families.

It was launched in 2007 as one of ten three-year pilot schemes to provide a new, intensive home visiting service for vulnerable first time mothers.

55. “Blue jobs, green jobs” (Oil & Gas Journal, February 2, 2009); story citing R. SKIP HORVATH (MPP 1976).

By Nick Snow, Washington Editor

Several congressional leaders are aggressively promoting “green jobs” as US President Barack H. Obama develops his New Energy for America plan. A leading oil and gas trade association executive thinks they should encourage what he calls “blue jobs” as well.

“Roughly 5.8 million Americans are employed in and supported by the natural gas and oil industries. We call these ‘blue jobs,’ taking that image from the blue flame that comes from clean-burning natural gas,” said Natural Gas Supply Association Pres. R. Skip Horvath.

“We fully support the creation of more ‘green jobs,’ but we’ll be wearing our ‘blue jobs’ buttons when we meet with political leaders in Washington this year. We want them to better understand how vital our industry is,” Horvath said Jan. 14 during a US Energy Association briefing.

“Solar and wind are the green energy forms everyone knows, but it takes blue to make green work. Fly-wheels, chemical batteries, compressed air, and elevated water are future technologies that may someday be able to help solar and wind store energy, but the technology that’s available now to back up these generation sources is natural gas,” Horvath said.

During fourth-quarter 2008, as the US economy contracted, oil and gas extraction firms added 16,000 jobs compared to the comparable 2007 period, Horvath said. He also cited figures from a study by ICF International for the American Petroleum Institute that indicated on Dec. 8 that opening domestic supply areas could create 160,000 jobs.

For every person directly employed in the oil and gas industry, another two work for companies that support the business, Horvath observed. “We are talking about approximately 6 million people employed directly or indirectly by natural gas and oil firms,” he said.

Gas also is a key US manufacturing component, Horvath said. “One third of America’s natural gas is used to create everything from trash bags and pantyhose to antifreeze and detergent,” he said….

56. “Shelf Life: Stealing Home” (The Boston Globe, February 1, 2009); column citing MITALI PERKINS (MPP 1987); http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/02/01/stealing_home/

By Jan Gardner

… On Valentine’s Day, 40 bookstores throughout New England will make it easy to say “I love you” with a signed children’s or young-adult book. More than 125 authors and illustrators will be signing books, demonstrating drawing techniques, and visiting with young readers from 10 a.m. to noon.

Kids Heart Authors Day is the brainchild of Mitali Perkins, a Newton author of young-adult books who will be appearing at Eight Cousins bookstore in Falmouth. At Village Books in Roslindale, the focus will be on authors who write for teenagers. For details on participating stores, visit www.kidsheartauthors.com .

--Heather Knight

Where did they go? How many residents of San Francisco lack health insurance? It’s an important statistic for Department of Public Health officials to know, considering they’re administering the nation’s first universal health care program. But pinning down that number is proving tougher than feeling comfortable in one of those paper robes at the doctor’s office.

When the Healthy San Francisco program began, the Health Department said 82,000 residents were uninsured. Then it said the actual number was 73,000. Now, it’s 60,000….

The department uses data from UCLA’s California Health Interview Survey, a telephone survey of adults, teens and children in all the state’s counties. Problem is, it’s conducted every two years and counties don’t receive quick results. The 60,000 number comes from the 2007 survey, and the Health Department just got the new figure.

But doesn’t it stand to reason that the dramatic plummeting of the economy since 2007 means there are more uninsured residents, not less?

“At this point, we don’t have that information and neither does the state,” said Tangerine Brigham, director of Healthy San Francisco.

The department is using the 60,000 figure for now, meaning it’s suddenly over halfway to reaching everybody because 35,000 residents are now participating. Brigham said that despite the city’s budget problems, there’s no indication the mayor will take any money away from the program, which has been a sacred cow at City Hall since its start in 2007.

58. “Buyers to foot bill of Obama’s green cars” (The New Zealand Herald, January 31, 2009); newswire citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992).

By The Associated Press

President Barack Obama wants United States carmakers to make greener cars at a time when General Motors and Chrysler are hanging by the thread of a massive government loan and car sales have plummeted to their lowest levels in more than two decades.

Obama’s plans could bring smaller cars, more hybrids and advanced fuel-saving technologies to showrooms but car shoppers will probably have to pay more upfront because the new rules are expected to cost the hamstrung industry billions of dollars….

Environmental organisations said Obama’s approach would help the companies in the long term, forcing them to produce fuel-efficient cars coveted by more consumers.

Roland Hwang, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, estimated a more efficient car would save its driver $1000 to $2000 in fuel costs over its lifetime, offsetting some of the upfront cost.

Even with the decline in petrol prices, Hwang said the regulatory programmes would “push them in a direction that’s going to make them more competitive, not less.

“Without California standards and without federal standards, there’s a real danger of Detroit falling back into their old gas-guzzling ways,” he said….

59. “Amid the meltdown, concern for girls at Davos” (The Associated Press, January 31, 2009; story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer

DAVOS, Switzerland -- For the first time, the World Economic Forum devoted one of its marquee sessions to the impact of educating girls in developing countries, an event four years in the planning that ended up coinciding with the world’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s….

UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said keeping girls in school is “so critical.”

She called for stepped up efforts to address the issues that keep girls out of school fetching water, working in fields, a lack of separate toilet facilities, and sexual exploitation.

“Girls are subject to sexual violence at a very early age in so many parts of the world with absolute impunity and this has to stop,” Veneman said. “They are the ones getting HIV/AIDS at higher risk than even males today, and part of this has to do with the sexual violence of teenagers.”

She said girls are also being sexually exploited and trafficked “for commercial gain,” and sometimes they agree to this exploitation because they need cash, clothes or a grade in school….

By Michael Hiltzik

I was listening the other day to a couple of American automobile executives complain to the president of the United States about emission regulations and all their other burdens—high wages, government safety mandates, unfair foreign competition. You know the list.

They said this stuff was killing the industry. “We are in a downhill slide, the likes of which we have never seen in our business,” one remarked. The Japanese, he said, “are in the wings ready to eat us up alive.”

Then they all started grumbling about Ralph Nader and the consumer movement, and that sounded a little, well, anachronistic. So I checked the tape, and darn if it wasn’t from April 1971 and the guy talking was Lee Iacocca, then president of Ford, and the president he was jawboning was Richard M. Nixon, who kindly taped the exchange for posterity….

Detroit has predicted that almost every regulatory mandate it faced would produce economic Armageddon. It was always wrong. In the 1970s, the carmakers said emissions standards would bankrupt them. Then came the catalytic converter, which enabled them to meet the standards easily. They said Americans would balk at safety devices like air bags. Instead, safety turned out to be a big selling point, so today they compete on who can fill a car with more side, front and curtain air bags.

Their biggest miscalculation was that fuel economy wouldn’t matter to the buyer. So they let Toyota and Honda beat them to market with hybrids—by years.

Continuing to fight the last war, they oppose the California regulations on the assumption that they’re more stringent than the federal rules. On the surface that’s true. Although the emissions rules aren’t the same as fuel economy standards, they’re closely related, and California’s rules, according to calculations by the Natural Resources Defense Council, would produce average fuel economy of about 40 miles per gallon by 2020, exceeding the federal goal of 35.

But the NRDC observes that as high fuel prices drive Americans to smaller, thriftier cars, the state’s system will benefit the industry by giving it more flexibility in meeting the standards, via credits for alternative-fuel vehicles and smaller cars.

“Under any realistic scenario they’ll be better off with the California regulations,” Roland Hwang, an NRDC transportation policy analyst, told me.

It’s certainly true that the only path to long-term viability for the American auto industry goes through advanced technology and more efficient products. We know this because the Big Three’s CEOs said so to Congress in December, when they came asking for billions in handouts....

61. “UNICEF Head: Don’t forget developing world” (The Associated Press, January 28, 2009); newswire citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

By John Daniszewski, Associated Press Writer

DAVOS, Switzerland -- UNICEF director Ann Veneman told The Associated Press Wednesday that global decision makers must keep the needs of the developing world in mind as they turn their attention to the worldwide financial meltdown.

Recently returned from a visit to Zimbabwe, where she witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by a valueless currency, failed government institutions and a cholera epidemic that has sickened more than 56,000 people and now killed more than 3,000, Veneman said at the World Economic Forum that the gathering cannot focus only on repairing the world’s developed economies.

“The clear message from those of us who work in the developing world is that this is the time that the developing world needs more help than ever,” she said.

Veneman, who on Tuesday made a public call for more than $1 billion in 2009 to care for the world’s destitute children and women, has been one of the few senior international official admitted to Zimbabwe in recent years.

During the Jan. 15-17 visit, she was struck by the failure of the Zimbabwean currency, which is making it extremely difficult for ordinary people to obtain necessities like food and transportation. She also witnessed open sewer lines and talked to some of the growing numbers of unaccompanied minors who have been fleeing to neighboring South Africa to survive….

Veneman warned of a little-noticed “youth bulge” in the developing world that has potentially grave implications for the future unless decision makers act now to provide basic food, health and education.

“Did you know that 50 percent of the Mideast population is 24 and under?” she asked. “What does it mean? Do we have jobs for them? If not, what happens to them?”

62. “CCAP’s Helme reacts to Obama emissions move, previews House and Senate action” (E&ETV’s OnPoint, Vol. 10 No. 9, January 27, 2009); interview with NED HELME (MPP 1971); video link

… During today’s OnPoint, Ned Helme, president of the Center for Clean Air Policy, previews this year’s House and Senate action on climate legislation and discusses expectations for Obama’s first address before a joint session of Congress. He also comments on the U.S. Climate Action Partnership’s emissions reduction plan….

Interviewer: With such a focus on the economy though, what do you think some of the president’s economic advisers like Larry Summers are saying to him about moving forward on a cap and trade?

Ned Helme: Well, they are very much on this idea of green jobs and the new green technologies, sort of building on that as a new growth opportunity. So the critique is … we made all our money in the last 10 years on playing games with derivatives and mortgages and not really building anything new. And here we’ve got a chance to grow our economy in a carbon friendly way that means new jobs and new investment and leadership in the world. So I think there’s a very positive economic message that can be played out here about climate change. The other thing to remember is we’re not talking about impacts before 2015. So the immediate crisis will be over ostensibly, hopefully, in a couple of years, and … we’re not talking about something that’s going to threaten us. This package is 2015, 2020, 2030….

By Marla Dickerson

Note to President Obama: Energy efficiency and clean technology can help jump-start the U.S. economy.

That’s the message of a report released today by Next 10, a nonprofit research group in Palo Alto, which says California’s experience underscores how the green sector is emerging as a key component of growth.

Among the findings: Green-collar jobs are growing faster than statewide employment. Clean-tech investment in the state hit a record last year, despite steep stock-market declines. California leads the nation in patent registrations for green technology. Efficiency measures pioneered here over the last three decades have created 1.5 million jobs and allowed California businesses to generate many more goods and services per unit of energy consumed than other states.

“California, like the rest of the nation and world, is caught in a financial perfect storm at the same time it has committed to dramatic reductions in global warming emissions,” said Doug Henton, co-founder of Collaborative Economics, a Silicon Valley firm that prepared the report for Next 10. “This [data] provides evidence that moving to cleaner and more efficient energy use must be part of the economic solution.”

The report contains the first detailed analysis of the number of “green” jobs in California. National estimates have varied widely. Working from a database of known firms, Collaborative Economics concluded that the Golden State had slightly more than 100,000 green jobs in 2007. That’s about as many as the biotech sector.

Those green jobs encompass a variety of occupations, including research scientists, wind-energy technicians and solar panel installers. Such positions are growing fast, the report showed. Green employment was up 10% between 2005 and 2007. Statewide job growth was 1% over the same period.

While the industry isn’t large enough to be the sole jobs engine that pulls California and the nation out of the ditch, investments in clean energy and efficiency will help spark growth, according to Noel Perry, a venture capitalist and founder of Next 10….

64. “Under the Microscope: A New Regulatory Age Requires Increased Transparency” (PR News, Vol. 65 No. 4, January 26, 2009); story citing NEAL COHEN (MPP 1980).

It was his first full day on the job and already President Obama was making quite an impression. In the first of what will surely be many sweeping policy changes, he swiftly set firm limitations for business and government alike, demanding more disclosure, not to mention something communications professionals know all too well: transparency. Indeed, in what he called “a clean break from business as usual,” Obama set a new tone for leadership. “For a long time now, there’s been too much secrecy in this city,” he said, referring to the nation’s capital. “Transparency and rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

This nod to the value of transparent communications will usher in a new era for business, which, after a period defined by greed and scandal, has been crippled by its own bad behavior. Now comes increased regulation, sharper oversight and tighter controls—all of which will (in theory) force companies to be more accountable for their actions.

But this transition will be riddled with land mines, and PR professionals should expect to assume responsibility for facilitating transparent communications in this new regulatory environment. “Communications professionals should be right in the middle of these matters,” says Neal Cohen, CEO of APCO Worldwide’s Americas region and worldwide COO. “To be transparent, you have to communicate positions and messages clearly, no matter the audience. Transparent communications gives businesses the most credibility with their stakeholders.”

To turn the challenges that will inevitably come with this era of regulation into opportunities, communications executives should take a proactive role in shaping and implementing the following strategies….

*Institute transparent reporting practices to all stakeholder groups. Traditionally, investors are the one audience that receives regular reports on the company’s financial status. Now, though, communications executives must facilitate open and ongoing dialogue with all stakeholder groups, even if it means instituting formal reporting practices. “I’d recommend broad and targeted strategies. ‘Broad’ in the sense that you often need to communicate to the broader public, and that is one set of messages to get your points across. ‘Targeted,’ because different audiences are focused on different angles,” Cohen says. “For example, financial stakeholders want to know how what you’re doing affects the company’s finances and, if public, share price; vendors to your company are interested in other issues as are the consumers who buy your product or service. So, you need to develop messages that speak directly to these audiences’ interests.” …

By Diana Marszalek

GOING GREEN An electric vehicle at Westchester County Airport, one of 25 pieces bought to reduce the toll on the environment. Susan Farley for The New York Times

WHITE PLAINS -- AS part of its continuing effort to reduce the Westchester County Airport’s toll on the environment, the county has replaced all of the airport’s motorized ground service equipment, like aircraft tractors, water trucks and baggage loaders, with electric versions.

Based on the current price of gasoline, the new equipment is expected to save the county about $200,000 a year in fuel costs, and it will eliminate the emission of 27,000 tons of greenhouse gases over the vehicles’ 14-year life span, county and environmental officials said. The previous equipment used about 121,000 gallons of fuel a year, they said….

LUKE TONACHEL, a vehicles analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City, said the airport’s switch to electric vehicles is a worthy step toward the larger goal of reducing harmful pollution.

‘‘It makes good sense,’’ Mr. Tonachel said, adding that reducing oil consumption, local pollution and emissions that contribute to global warming are all benefits and that ‘‘electric equipment is also likely to be cheaper.’’ …

By Ken Bensinger

EPA nominee Lisa Jackson vowed to quickly revisit California’s request for a waiver from federal rules. Jim Lo Scalzo / Bloomberg News

If the auto industry thinks it has problems now, wait until Barack Obama takes the wheel.

Not long after assuming the presidency, Obama is expected to grant a waiver allowing California and more than a dozen other states to enforce their own greenhouse-gas emission standards on autos.

That would completely change the landscape for vehicle regulation and obligate automakers to produce cars that are far more efficient than those called for under current federal standards—an average of 3 miles per gallon more by 2015, and 7 mpg more by 2020, according to some calculations.

Environmentalists and state regulators say that the rules are key to combating global warming and point to a series of court rulings backing their implementation….

Based on the restructuring plans submitted to Congress by GM, Ford and Chrysler in November, the Natural Resources Defense Council released a study that indicates all three would be able to comply with California emission standards with current technology.

But to do that, they would have to substantially change the way they do business, said Roland Hwang, senior policy analyst at the council.

“They’re going to have to find a way to make money on small cars, because it will be too hard to make the standards with big cars,” Hwang said….

Physic Ventures (www.PhysicVentures.com), the first venture capital firm dedicated to investing in consumer-driven health and sustainable living, announced it has appointed Stacy Feld, former Genentech, Inc., Associate Director of Business Development, as a Director of the firm. In this role, Ms. Feld will be responsible for sourcing and managing new investments in the areas of Personalized and Consumer Medicine, focusing on companies developing novel therapies and predictive diagnostics and offering innovative services to promote preventive and personalized healthcare….

Ms. Feld joins partners Andy Donner, Susannah Kirsch, Dion Madsen, William Rosenzweig and Andrew Williamson on the Physic Ventures team….

68. “Learn How to Finance Energy Efficiency” (US States News, January 16, 2009); newswire citing CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000).

DAVIS, Calif. -- The Davis Climate Action Team, the City of Davis, and Yolo County invite interested citizens to learn about affordable ways to finance solar energy and energy efficiency improvements for California communities.

Andrew Meredith, former mayor and current city council member of Galt will present his city’s Energy Sustainability Plan. Galt’s plan would reduce the community carbon footprint, serve as an economic catalyst, and stimulate reinvestment in existing housing stock. The plan includes:

Financing of the purchase and installation of photo voltaic power generation systems on existing homes

Financing of permanent energy efficiency upgrades to existing homes

Requiring 20% of all new residential subdivisions to be built to SMUD Solar SMART home standards

Cisco DeVries, former Chief of Staff to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, envisioned and led the initial development of Berkeley FIRST, a nationally recognized city program designed to allow property owners to pay for solar installations and energy efficiency projects as a voluntary line item on their property tax bill. Now with Renewable Funding, DeVries helps local governments around the country administer and finance similar solar and energy efficiency programs….

By Tom Raum - Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON—Out of power, Republicans appear to be retreating to familiar old ground. They’re becoming deficit hawks again.

GOP lawmakers didn’t seem to mind enjoying the fruits of government largesse for the past eight years while one of their own was in the White House. Now they’re struggling to regain footing at a time of economic rout, a record $1.2 trillion budget deficit and an incoming Democratic president claiming a mandate for change….

“Congress cannot keep writing checks and simply pass IOUs to our children and grandchildren,” says Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Asks House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio: “How much debt are we going to pile on future generations?”…

For Republicans, finding a politically sustainable position that balances the need for action with calls for fiscal discipline is a difficult balancing act.

“It’s hard to oppose fixing the economy right now,” said Stanley Collender, a former congressional budget analyst now with Qorvis Communications, a Washington consulting firm. Collender said the depth of the crisis makes it difficult for fiscal conservatives in either party “to say that deficits are something that should be addressed right now.”

“If you say that, you kind of lose credibility,” Collender said….

By Jeff Horseman, The Press-Enterprise

No matter what the issue, Temecula’s City Council almost always agrees.

And no matter what the issue, Colton’s council seldom does.

Unanimous votes are the norm in Temecula, to the point where no one can recall the last time there was a split vote.

“The goal is to make everyone happy,” said Councilman Jeff Comerchero, an 11-year council veteran….

“Basically, we act like grown-ups,” said Mayor Maryann Edwards, who has been on the council since 2005.

Then there’s Colton, where Mayor Kelly Chastain survived a recall election last summer. Three of the six council members ran against her….

This past election saw the ouster of two Colton incumbents in favor of candidates who promised to end the bickering….

JoAnne Speers, executive director of the Sacramento-based Institute for Local Government, said she doesn’t know how many city councils across the state consistently agree.

“If the unity comes from a common viewpoint and public input, it seems (Temecula) has achieved something others would want to emulate,” she said….

By Kareem Fahim

When the city suspended alternate-side parking regulations in Park Slope for two months last summer, residents feared the worst for their already crowded streets. As it turns out, however, outsiders did not dump their cars in the Brooklyn neighborhood, and the likelihood of easily finding a parking spot did not change—it remained fairly impossible.

Those conclusions are part of a study, released by the Department of Transportation on Tuesday, finding that traffic and parking patterns remained unchanged, for the most part, when the city suspended the rules while they were replacing 2,800 street-cleaning signs, despite what seemed like a radical makeover of the streetscape.

Some residents said they were worried that already scarce parking spaces would become harder to find, that trash would pile up and that invaders from other neighborhoods would take advantage and leave their cars.

Bruce Schaller, the deputy commissioner of transportation, said the suspension of parking rules ‘‘had no effect on how hard it is to find a parking place, and no effect on how often people used their cars.’’

The study, conducted specifically because of the community concerns, found that turnover rates for parking spots were virtually the same whether the rules were suspended or not, and that 45 percent of residents who filled out an Internet survey said the streets were not much dirtier (30 percent said they were)….

In the survey, the average length of residents’ searches for parking was 27 minutes, though a lucky 40 percent said they found parking in 10 minutes or less….

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian

OLYMPIA Wash.-- The state will begin to reduce the number of people on its Basic Health Plan starting Friday, a moneysaving move critics say couldn’t come at a worse time.

The plan, subsidized by taxpayers, covers 105,000 low-income people. The state Health Care Authority plans to lower that number by 7,700 over the next seven months….

The cuts are part of drastic spending reductions ordered by Gov. Chris Gregoire to help balance the state budget.

“We obviously appreciate the magnitude of the problem the state is facing, but feel very strongly that cutting basic health during a recession is exactly the wrong direction,” said Rebecca Kavoussi of the Community Health Network of Washington….

“We’ve been in this position to fight for these slots all along, and there has been no more critical time for the program,” Kavoussi said. “You have people losing their jobs, and very tight on cash. They’re more likely now than ever to use emergency rooms, which is more expensive.” …

73. “Community health centers worry about budget reductions” (The Olympian, December 4, 2008); story citing REBECCA KAVOUSSI (MPP 2001); http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/685594.html

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian

A new economic study says that community health centers that deliver care to low-income communities are a $1.2 billion a year benefit to the state’s economy that makes up for some of their cost to taxpayers….

Community health clinics provide low-cost or subsidized medical care to people who lack health insurance or have incomes below the poverty line. But a shortfall of roughly $5 billion in the state’s next two-year budget has led to spending cutbacks ordered by Gov. Chris Gregoire and could prompt reductions in spending across the board next year, including for clinics.

The report says Washington’s community health network …puts about $683 million directly into communities in 2006. That included pay for 5,100 health care providers who in turn purchased taxable goods and services.

The spending was multiplied by a factor of 1.77 in the state economy, bringing the total effect to $1.2 billion, according to the analysis by consultant Dobson DaVanzo & Associates. The report said the spending added nearly $41 million to the state’s tax rolls and more than $134 million to the federal treasury.

That’s just one piece of the argument for retaining funding for the centers, which rely on state and local funds for much of their work, activists say.

“I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of the funding sources for community health centers are at risk in the next legislative session. We don’t think they will be eliminated” but could be reduced, said Rebecca Kavoussi, director of government affairs for the Community Health Network of Washington….

The community health centers rely on Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program money for 51 percent of their revenue, as well as 12 percent from the state’s subsidized Basic Health Plan for the working poor, 9 percent from state, local and private grants, and about 8 percent from federal grants, Kavoussi said….

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

By Alex Hutchinson

(Photograph by Tim Robberts/Getty Images)

A long-sought solar milestone was eclipsed on Tuesday, when Tempe, Ariz.–based First Solar Inc. announced that the manufacturing costs for its thin-film photovoltaic panels had dipped below $1 per watt for the first time. With comparable costs for standard silicon panels still hovering in the $3 range, it’s tempting to conclude that First Solar’s cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology has won the race. But if we’re concerned about the big picture (scaling up solar until it’s a cheap and ubiquitous antidote to global warming and foreign oil) a forthcoming study from the University of California–Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that neither material has what it takes compared to lesser-known alternatives such as—we’re not kidding—fool’s gold….

The question, though, is whether First Solar or any other solar manufacturer would be able to handle the flood of orders that would ensue if they reached competitive cost. At that point, it comes down to a matter of having enough of raw materials. That is where the real limitations come to bear, according to a paper that will appear in the March issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology. In the paper, Wadia and colleagues Paul Alivisatos and Daniel Kammen evaluated the global supplies and extraction costs for 23 promising photovoltaic semiconductor materials and found that the three materials that currently dominate the market—silicon, CdTe and another thin-film technology based on copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS)—all have limitations when ordered in mass. While silicon is the second-most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, it requires enormous amounts of energy to convert into a usable crystalline form. This is a fundamental thermodynamic barrier that will keep silicon costs comparatively high. Both CIGS and First Solar’s CdTe rank poorly in abundance and extraction cost, with CdTe ranking dead last in long-term potential based on current annual extraction rates….

… But it may also pay to devote some federal R&D funds to research on alternative materials that are abundant, nontoxic and cheap.

To that end, Wadia and his colleagues found that iron pyrite—better known as fool’s gold—was several orders of magnitude better than any of the alternatives, based on both cost and abundance…

Kammen, who is the founding director of Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory and advised the Obama campaign on energy issues, still considers the First Solar dollar-a-watt announcement to be an exciting development. “It shows that the rapid and important expansion of the solar industry needs the sustained research and manufacturing expertise of globally leading companies like First Solar,” he says. “It also sets a new and critical bar for all companies to work to achieve.”

That good news wasn’t enough to save First Solar’s share price on Wednesday. But the message of the Berkeley study is that unlike the stock market, we need to think long-term, and plan for the solar power we want to see a decade or more in the future. And that means doing some painstaking basic research on neglected materials that, for now, cost a lot more than a dollar a watt.

[Another story on the study was published in Compound Semiconductor Magazine, Feb. 26, 2009, http://compoundsemiconductor.net/cws/article/lab/38027 ]

[The Berkeley study was also cited as an Editors’ Choice in Science Magazine, 27 Feb. 2009,
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/323/5918/1149c.pdf ]

2. “Growing hate groups blame Obama, economy” (CNN, February 26, 2009); story citing JACK GLASER; http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/02/26/hate.groups.report/?iref=hpmostpop

By Stephanie Chen, CNN

Don Black said he despises Barack Obama. And he said he believes illegal aliens undermine the economic fabric of the United States.

Black, a 55-year-old former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, isn’t the only person who holds such firm beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which today released its annual hate group report.

The center’s report, “The Year in Hate,” found the number of hate groups grew by 54 percent since 2000....

What makes this year’s report different is that hate groups have found two more things to be angry about—the nation’s first African-American president and an economy that is hemorrhaging jobs….

The image of a black man in the White House angers white racists, who fear nonwhites gaining too much power, said Jack Glaser, associate professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley.

But racist fears can also be more mundane and personal: Nonwhites in the White House could lead to nonwhites in their neighborhoods, which could lead to interracial dating, a great taboo among hate groups.

“Obama poses a large cultural threat to white racists,” Glaser said. “This may explain some of the uptick in hate groups.”...

3. “Reducing ratio of debt is the real issue” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR], February 25, 2009); Listen to this commentary

ROBERT REICH: We’re in a deepening recession, in case you hadn’t noticed. The biggest immediate challenge is to ramp up aggregate demand. If the slump gets worse, we’ll have to have a second stimulus. And if that’s not enough, a third. FDR’s biggest mistake was spending too little, at least until World War II….

The real issue here is the ratio of debt to the national economy. Today, debt is under 50 percent of GDP but it could be much higher six months from now. Getting that ratio down to a reasonable level depends not just on reducing long-term deficits but, more importantly, on getting the economy growing again.

And to get the economy growing, two things have to happen. First, the stimulus has to be big enough to create a lot of jobs and move the economy toward capacity. Second, the nation has to make the public investments necessary to enlarge that capacity—including investments in the health and education of our workforce.

Cutting the budget deficit in half by 2012 would be nice but it’s a sideshow compared to these two main events.

RYSSDAL: Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent book is called “Supercapitalism.”

4. “PG&E announces major plan to develop solar energy generation” (San Jose Mercury News, February 25, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN;

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11775442?source%253Dmost_emailed.26978592730A3B8C7F471EACE0DA4EF2.html

By Sue McAllister, Mercury News

California’s drive to produce more clean energy got a major boost Tuesday when Pacific Gas & Electric announced its largest-ever plan to build and invest in solar energy systems.

The estimated $1.4 billion plan would supply up to 500 megawatts of solar power for Northern and Central California by 2015, which is equivalent to the power needed for 150,000 homes, the company said. Half of the power will be developed by PG&E, and half will be developed by independent solar energy companies, from whom PG&E will purchase power....

Dan Kammen, a professor sith UC-Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, called the independent-developer component of PG&E’s plan “novel” and important.

“It sends the signal that they are going to open up the door to a bunch of big and small power providers,” he said. “The more you can diversify the providers, the more you can keep power prices down.”...

[This story also appeared in the <a href=http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_11775442 >Contra Costa Times</a>]

Today’s topic: Should the federal government protect loan-servicing companies that modify troubled loans against investor lawsuits, even if it means abrogating contracts between servicers and investors? …

The cram-down conundrum
Counterpoint: Richard K. Green

This is a very tough issue. ...[Part] of the problem is that different classes of securities holders have different interests, so no matter what the servicers do, they risk being sued. Part of the problem is that the trusts holding the mortgages are supposed to be passive entities, so servicers were unprepared to deal with de facto management issues. And part of the problem is that volumes of difficult mortgages have far outstripped the servicing infrastructure.

I think this is why cram-downs have become attractive to some. They allow bankruptcy courts to deal with the issue of who gets what and take the problem out of the hands of servicers. A cram-down is a court-ordered reduction of the secured balance due on a home mortgage loan. Basically, it reduces lenders’ collateral to the current value of the house, which is determined with an appraisal.

That said, I worry about the impact of cram-downs on the ability of borrowers to get mortgages going forward. UC Berkeley economist John M. Quigley wants the government to use “the FHA’s mortgage authority to force lenders to recognize the actual values of homes and thus to restructure loans accordingly.” This would again remove the servicer from the proceedings but would also abrogate contracts....

6. “El reto de la energía limpia” (La Jornada, February 24, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/02/24/index.php?section=economia&article=022n1eco

El sueño de Estados Unidos es sustituir el petróleo importado y otros combustibles fósiles con una economía de energía limpia impulsada por viento, sol y biocombustibles. Foto AP

Los planes del presidente Barack Obama para sacar a Estados Unidos (EU) de la recesión descansan, en parte, en una tarea mayor que el lanzamiento de una nave a la Luna y el Proyecto Manhattan juntos.

Su objetivo, en el cual los presidentes anteriores han gastado sin éxito más de 100 mil millones de dólares (mdd), es sustituir el petróleo importado y otros combustibles fósiles con una economía de energía limpia impulsada por viento, sol y biocombustibles….

Los expertos dicen que serviría destinar más dinero. El gobierno federal invierte casi la misma cantidad en investigación energética, ajustada a la inflación, que en 1968: alrededor de 3 mil mdd.

Apenas el año pasado, el sector privado comenzó a superar la inversión gubernamental en investigación energética, según un nuevo estudio de Daniel Kammen, director fundador del Laboratorio de Energía Renovable y Apropiada de la Universidad de California en Berkeley.

“La energía es el mayor rubro del gasto nacional –dijo Kammen en una entrevista– y la hemos descuidado.”…

7. “The Rachel Maddow Show” (MSNBC, February 23, 2009); interview with ROBERT REICH; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29366023/

Alison Stewart, Guest Host: …Joining me now is Robert Reich, the former labor secretary under President Clinton, and now, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley….

…[L]et me ask you—the president today announced some big goals to cut down the deficit, including rising tax rates on the wealthy, reducing our troops in Iraq. What else can he plan that could cut that deficit by so very much?

ROBERT REICH: … If everything goes absolutely right, if the economy turns around, if we don’t need another stimulus package, if we don’t need more bank bailouts, if, in fact, everybody gets paid back because the banks are doing better and the auto companies are doing better, if there is really sunny times ahead—then we can get it down to $500 billion or so….

… I think it makes sense politically, in the short term, for the president to make that promise, or show that aspiration, the audacity of hope, as it were, because he’s going to be unveiling his budget for next year, and Tim Geithner may be coming back to Congress wanting even more money for Wall Street and there are a lot of big bills coming out, a lot of money to pay. So, he’s got to get the support not so much of Republicans but of blue dog Democrats, conservative Democrats who are very concerned about budget deficits. And that was today’s performance. So, I think that’s what he is trying—those are the people he’s trying to reassure….

8. “The sun is a star when it comes to sustainable energy” (Berkeleyan, February 20, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/02/20_aaassolar.shtml

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations

In order for plastic solar cells with 8% efficiency to supply U.S. electrical energy needs, a land area of 58 million acres (shown as eight green blocks) would have to be covered by solar farms. The orange square in the California desert, however, could supply the state’s needs with 1% efficient solar cells, and the nation’s needs with 6% efficient photovoltaics. (Alivisatos lab/UC Berkeley image)

CHICAGO — At a national scientific meeting last week where biofuels – principally ethanol – were uniformly trashed as an environmental train wreck, one bright, carbon-free light gleamed in our energy future: the sun….

While the sun’s heat is already being harnessed to run steam engines … solar thermal and photovoltaics make up a paltry one-tenth of 1 percent of the nation’s energy supply.

At a Friday the 13^th[ American Association for the Advancement in Science] session, “Basic Research for Global Energy Security: A Call to Action,” … Paul Alivisatos, UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and interim director of the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and others described new research on solar cells, batteries and transmission systems that aims either to break through current limitations of our energy technologies or to find totally new and much more efficient systems….

“From the point of view of physics, if you are just trying to make electricity, this problem is solved,” Alivisatos said. But these efficient solar cells, made of crystalline silicon or semi-crystalline thin films of rare elements like tellurium and cadmium, are expensive to produce and, for now, affordable only in high-end applications like satellites.

Less expensive plastic solar cells of blended polymers can now convert sunlight to energy at 5 percent efficiency, Alivisatos said. Assuming this can be improved to 8 percent efficiency, he calculates that meeting the 3.2 terawatts of demand in the United States would require covering 60 million acres with plastic solar cells. That is one-quarter of all the agricultural land in the United States, although the plan is to use marginal land, even desert, instead of cropland or grazing land….

A new study by Alivisatos, LBNL post-doc Cyrus Wadia and UC Berkeley’s Dan Kammen shows that nanocrystal forms of some abundant and inexpensive materials – iron pyrite, or fool’s gold, for example – have potential as solar cell materials, with cost savings even if their efficiency is less than that of silicon.

“It turns out that some of the materials we most emphasize in our thin film industry today don’t scale to enough area to solve the whole problem (of supplying the nation’s electricity from sunlight),” Alivisatos said. “We need to keep our options open.” …

9. “The pluses and (mostly) minuses of biofuels” (Berkeleyan, February 20, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/02/20_aaasbiofuels.shtml

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations

Cornfield waste, or stover; perennials grown on marginal land; or municipal waste, ranging from kitchen scraps to cardboard, could be used as feedstocks to produce ethanol using cellulosic technology.

CHICAGO — Speakers at last week’s AAAS meeting presented abundant evidence that tropical rainforest destruction has accelerated in recent years, at least in part because of the worldwide push to produce more biofuels.

As Europe and America rush to supplant polluting fossil fuels with plant-derived fuels like ethanol, soy and palm oil, farmers in the tropics are accelerating forest clearing to plant more sugarcane, soybeans and palm trees to meet the demand. What should be carbon-neutral biofuels – the carbon dioxide these plants take in while growing is returned to the atmosphere when they’re burned… – end up spewing more CO2 into the atmosphere as forests are slashed and burned….

In the face of these reports that biofuels are worsening global warming, Dan Kammen, a UC Berkeley professor of energy and resources and director of the Renewable and Alternative Energy Laboratory, tried in a Feb. 14 session to put biofuels into perspective.

“No matter what people say about the good or bad aspects of a given fuel, whether it’s oil, tar sands, biofuels, solar or wind, the fact is, a large number of these will be used for economic reasons, based on subsidies, momentum, vested interests, whatever,” he said in his talk, “A Hunger for Power: The Global Nexus of Energy and Food.” The key, he said, is to design global models that will guide policy makers in making the right choices.

The country has to develop models that allow us to assess “biofuel demand from a global perspective. You can’t just look at it in terms of what happens on a hectare of land in Iowa, but also in terms of the conflicts between food, fiber, fuel and nature,” Kammen said….

From a global perspective, he said, it’s clear that “if we pursue the path we are on [with respect to biofuels], it is an environmental and food security loser.” Based on a soon-to-be-published study by Kammen and colleagues at Purdue University, no matter how sustainably the United States grows corn for ethanol, it will have a negative impact on greenhouse gases because of the growth of soy in tropics.

Research programs like UC Berkeley and LBNL’s Energy Biosciences Institute, funded last year by oil giant BP to the tune of $500 million over 10 years, are developing such models at the same time as they are pursuing next-generation biofuels. Cellulosic biofuels, made by more complete fermentation of biofuel feedstocks, won’t be commercially viable for 5-10 years, but they and other technologies, including algae, are attractive options that together may combine to produce as much as 10 percent of the nation’s energy needs, he said.

“None is a home run individually, but if together they could be done sustainably, they are big enough opportunities that there will be strong economic forces to develop a range of them,” said Kammen.

He held up California as an example of what the nation and the world can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions using biofuels as one part of a broad “energy portfolio.” …

--David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer

(02-18) 18:13 PST -- California’s goal of getting 33 percent of its electricity from the sun, the wind and other renewable sources by 2020 might be more feasible than previously thought, according to a new government report.

If all the renewable power projects proposed in the state last year were built, California would easily surpass that goal, according to a report issued Wednesday by the California Public Utilities Commission. All told, those projects would generate 24,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for 18 million homes.

That’s on top of the renewable power already flowing in California. According to the report, solar plants and wind farms built in California during 2008 can generate 516 megawatts of electricity, roughly as much as a midsize, fossil-fuel power plant. The previous year, the state only added 113 megawatts of renewable power.

“It’s taken a while for this process to get going, but it’s going now, and it’s starting to build momentum,” said Julie Fitch, director of the commission’s energy division….

“Even if some of these (proposed) projects don’t happen, this means there are a lot of good projects teed up and ready to go for the next round,” said Daniel Kammen, a professor in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. “It means that the pipeline is rich.”…

--Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer

Nadine Scott, who fell into foreclosure on her home, and subsequently into bankruptcy, after a disability forced her to retire early from her job, is among the millions across the country that may benefit from the foreclosure plan announced by President Obama. (Michael Macor / The Chronicle)

(02-18) 20:41 PST -- President Obama’s ambitious moves to halt housing’s downward spiral have special significance in California, the epicenter of boom-and-bust real estate….

Two facets of the three-fold plan - loan modifications for struggling homeowners and more capital for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help reduce mortgage rates - are likely to prove a much-needed boost for California and the Bay Area, experts said.

However, a third aspect - access to low-cost refinancing for people whose homes are dwindling in value - could be off-limits to many homeowners in California and especially the Bay Area, because it applies only to mortgages of less than $417,000.

“These refinances are all for mortgages that were originally issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” said John Quigley, professor of economics, public policy and business at UC Berkeley. “The California housing market had higher prices and was more overheated, so a much smaller fraction of mortgages in California were through Fannie and Freddie and under the conforming limits.” Until a year ago, conforming mortgages were those less than $417,000. “That means homeowners in California will not be advantaged by this program as much as those in lower-cost areas.”…

By Jeff Goodell

Illustration by Victor Juhasz

For the Bush administration, saving energy was not only a fool’s game — it was a threat to the American way of life. “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue,” former vice president Dick Cheney declared in 2001, “but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.”

In the world of politics, everyone knew exactly whom Cheney was mocking: California. ... Now, with Barack Obama in the White House, the state may turn out to be the template for a new national energy policy. California produces climate-warming pollution at half the national rate, leads America in solar-energy production and ranks second in wind energy. But its most stunning achievement is in the very area that Cheney ridiculed: Over the past three decades, while per capita electricity usage in America grew by more than 50 percent, California’s consumption stayed flat, even while the state’s economy doubled….

In other words, it’s clear that America’s energy future will be shaped in large part by Californians. The question is, what will that future look like?

First, expect a big push on efficiency. “That’s the big story in California,” says Dan Kammen, head of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at UC Berkeley. “It’s all about using less to get more.” ...

Pushing efficiency also creates jobs. All told, California’s policies have created an estimated 1.5 million new jobs, with a combined payroll of $45 billion. These are not traditional “green jobs” — installing solar panels, erecting wind turbines. These are jobs created by the simple fact that people have more money to spend on things other than energy bills. “When people save money on energy, they spend it outside the carbon supply chain, on local goods and services,” says Roland-Holst. “These are bedrock jobs that can’t be outsourced.”...

At this point, however, the main obstacle to a greener energy policy isn’t political will — it’s economic reality. ... But even here, California has innovative solutions. The city of Berkeley plans to offer homeowners funds to install solar panels and make efficiency improvements, then allows them to pay the money back over 20 years as a special tax added to their property bills [in a program initiated by Cisco DeVries]. “It takes away the biggest hurdle of getting renewable power deployed, which is upfront costs,” says Kammen of UC Berkeley, who helped design the program. Although the program is just getting under way, more than 1,000 cities around the world are already looking to duplicate it....

13. “Americans make autos, not Big Three” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR], Feb. 18, 2009); Listen to this commentary

ROBERT REICH: It’s said that America can’t afford to lose “its” auto industry. But the Big Three are shrinking so fast—cutting payrolls and shutting factories—that we’re already losing much of GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Last year, GM said it may have to cut its U.S. workforce by a whopping 30,000, and its plan to qualify for additional bailout money foresees a company that’s a miniature of its former self.

But why should we assume that the Big Three constitute the American auto industry, anyway? Foreign-owned automakers, producing cars here in the United States, now employ—directly or indirectly—hundreds of thousands of Americans….

Meanwhile, the Big Three have gone global. A Pontiac G8 shipped by GM from Australia contains far less American labor than a BMW X5 assembled in the United States. General Motors’ European subsidiaries include Opel and Saab. Ford also has operations around the world. It even owns Volvo.

I’m not arguing against an auto bailout. But its purpose ought to be to help American auto workers keep their jobs, regardless of whether they work for GM or Toyota or anyone else. Or if they lose their jobs, help them get new ones that pay almost as well.

Yet we seem to be on the road to doing exactly the opposite: paying the Big Three billions of taxpayer dollars to keep them afloat, while they cut tens of thousands of American jobs and slash wages….

Chiotakis: Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich teaches public policy at the University of California, Berkeley.

--Jennifer Harper

BANNER DAY: President Obama signs the $787 billion economic stimulus bill in Denver on Tuesday as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. looks on. ASSOCIATED PRESS

… Oh, say - can you see? Look. It’s President Obama, and he’s surrounded by American flags….

That’s the same president who once would not wear an American flag pin. Things have changed.

“The biggest factor is that Barack Obama is now the president,” said Jack Glaser, a social psychologist with the University of California at Berkeley.

“He’s around more flags now. They’re behind him or on the podium. That’s the reality. He’s not running around on the campaign trail.

“Now that he’s president, Mr. Obama most likely knows he’s an American symbol. So he wears an American flag pin. He appears before American flags. That’s part of the job.”

Mr. Glaser, who has plumbed the mysteries of public patriotism in his studies, urged people to put the phenomenon into perspective.

“I caution people to be careful about their own perceptions and judging these situations,” Mr. Glaser said.

“This does not have the same connotation as the shallow patriotism one might adopt during a political campaign.” …

By Alec MacGillisM Washington Post Staff Writer

As President Obama prepares to sign a $787 billion economic stimulus package today amid gales of Republican criticism of its cost, he is also facing quieter misgivings from liberal Democrats who say the bill does not go far enough—and who are already looking ahead to future legislation that they hope will do more….

Robert Reich, who was President Bill Clinton’s labor secretary, said the White House erred in letting congressional leaders write the bill, which resulted in the inclusion of several controversial elements that, while small, offered easy targets for Republicans.

“Had the administration been a little more vigilant, it might have been able to screen out some of the porklike bits that Republicans blew out of proportion to cast doubt on the bill,” Reich said. “It’s a delicate balance, but Obama probably overdid inclusiveness and conceded too much control.”

Obama also erred, Reich said, in expecting more Republicans to support the bill and in granting from the outset some of the GOP’s wishes for business tax cuts. “The strategic question that must be dominant in the White House now is: How many Republicans are really needed?” he said. “The public is still overwhelmingly with the president. White House advisers are probably telling him he doesn’t need to court Republican support as ardently in the future, and shouldn’t expect it. And he should never again offer them what they want before getting firm commitments from them.”…

SPENCER MICHELS: The question is, can wind and other renewables provide enough energy to replace a significant amount of fossil fuel? That’s a dilemma facing utilities nationwide, including Northern California’s Pacific Gas and Electric, which provides energy to 15 million customers….

No problem, says Dan Kammen, professor of energy at the University of California at Berkeley.

DAN KAMMEN, University of California, Berkeley: We’ve already seen a number of countries with resources poorer than ours hit higher targets. Denmark and Germany and Spain are all having wind alone being 20 percent….

MICHAEL PEEVEY, Utilities Commission Chairman: Wind is at least as cheap as natural gas today, in term of its generation costs. There’s no question about it. Solar is coming down rapidly in cost and soon will be there. On top of that, these don’t generate greenhouse gases.

SPENCER MICHELS: And Dan Kammen thinks the future favors renewables.

DAN KAMMEN: I think the real issue is that fossil fuel prices, they will go up. So if you diversify your mix towards clean energy, you can actually lower your energy bills over time.

SPENCER MICHELS: ... As for the rest of the country, Kammen says California could exert a lot of influence.

DAN KAMMEN: California is a large state, and so it makes a big difference in terms of reducing its own emissions, but it also sets a very important signal, because many states partner with California in terms of policies and many overseas governments look to California for what’s possible, what’s doable, as well as the federal government….

Solar power collectors, like these photovoltaic panels on a New Mexico high school roof, could be installed much more widely if they could be manufactured from less-costly materials. (U.S. Department of Energy photo)

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Unconventional solar cell materials that are as abundant but much less costly than silicon and other semiconductors in use today could substantially reduce the cost of solar photovoltaics, according to a new study from the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

These materials, some of which are highly abundant, could expand the potential for solar cells to become a globally significant source of low-carbon energy, the study authors said….

The analysis, which appeared online Feb. 13 in Environmental Science and Technology, examines the two most pressing challenges to large-scale deployment of solar photovoltaics as the world moves toward a carbon neutral future: cost per kilowatt hour and total resource abundance. The UC Berkeley study evaluated 23 promising semiconducting materials and discovered that 12 are abundant enough to meet or exceed annual worldwide energy demand. Of those 12, nine have a significant raw material cost reduction over traditional crystalline silicon, the most widely used photovoltaic material in mass production today.

The work provides a roadmap for research into novel solar cell types precisely when the U. S. Department of Energy and other funders plan to expand their efforts to link new basic research to deployment efforts as part of a national effort to greatly expand the use of clean energy, according to Daniel Kammen, UC Berkeley professor of energy and resources and director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory….

Finding an affordable electricity supply is essential for meeting basic human needs, Kammen said, yet 30 percent of the world’s population remains without reliable or sufficient electrical energy. Scientific forecasts predict that to meet the world’s energy demands by 2050, global carbon emissions would have to grow to levels of irreversible consequences.

“As the U.S. envisions a clean energy future consistent with the vision outlined by President Obama, it is exciting that the range of promising solar cell materials is expanding, ideally just as a national renewable energy strategy takes shape,” said Kammen, who is co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment and UC Berkeley’s Class of 1935 Distinguished Chair of Energy….

[This story was reported in another report on this study was seen on KGO-TV (Feb. 22, 2009); http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/drive_to_discover&id=6672335 ]

[Other stories on this topic appeared in InTech; http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cfm?Section=Technology_Update1&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=74613 ; <a href=“http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/February/26020901.asp“>Chemistry World</a> and <a href=“http://compoundsemiconductor.net/cws/article/lab/38027“>CompoundSemiconductor.net</a>]

By Albert R. Hunt, Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON: Barack Obama has transformed American politics. His honeymoon is over. Bipartisanship has been revived, or killed. The White House is dominating the Republicans; the president doesn’t engender any fear. His financial rescue plan is doomed, a “shock and ugh.”

This all after 25 days, according to conclusions by the Washington cognoscenti….

The best perspective on the early stages may be from thousands of miles away and from those who understand the inside-the-Beltway political culture. None are better than James Baker, a Republican former secretary of State and Treasury and White House chief of staff, and now a Houston lawyer; and Peter Hart, the pre-eminent Democratic pollster of the last generation, now teaching at the University of California at Berkeley.

Baker says Obama is off to a pretty good start; Hart says a very good start. Split the difference….

Hart, taking exception to charges that the new president seems weak, sees him providing “strong leadership” and says Obama continues to benefit from “the three words that are still driving public attitudes: accountability, transparency and unity.”…

19. “Why is Brown so committed to free market? Meet the economists who have influenced his thinking” (The Guardian (London) February 14, 2009); analysis citing ROBERT REICH.

Robert Reich

Brown was in awe. Reich came to prominence among British left as secretary of labour under Clinton, who was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford like him. Brown copied his moves to raise the minimum wage and confront sweatshop managers as part of programme to raise living standards of the poorest, paid for, in part, by taxes from Wall Street banks. Is now professor at California University….

There’s been plenty of attention paid in recent weeks to the idea of rebuilding our nation’s electric infrastructure using new technologies. Experts say it’s time to transform our aging electric grid into a “smart grid”. But what’s SMART about it? Just what is a ‘smart grid,’ how would one work, and is the idea realistic?

The concept of a ‘smart grid’ covers a variety of technologies. Some are very local, such as appliances that can communicate with your power meter about the best time to run. Others focus on the creation of a microgrid, distributing locally-produced power to consumers. And at the largest-scale level, improving grid technologies would allow for more efficient and reliable operation of the electricity distribution system nationwide.

Guests:

Dan Kammen

Goldman School of Public Policy

Department of Nuclear Engineering

Founding Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory

University of California, Berkeley

Prof. KAMMEN: [A smart grid is] designed to be the … superhighway of power—ideally, a lot of clean power, but power overall. But also, the other end of the spectrum is, if someone has a solar panel on their roof like I do, or someone has a fuel cell in the basement, we’ll often upload that power from a given home and step it up to transformers all the way to the big lines, and it could come down at your neighbor’s house. And so, in some sense, you’d like to be able to make smart decisions about routing power based on demand. And so, it really is a grid … with the brains of cell phones and neural networks and things built into it, but it means a lot of different things….

21. “BW Automobiles; Fuels for the Future” (BusinessWorld, February 13, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN.

By Anton Javier B. Dizon

... In 2007, the e-jeepney, a 12-seater jeepney that runs on batteries charged via an electric socket overnight, began plying the main thoroughfares of Makati City’s central business district. E-jeepneys are part of a comprehensive eco-friendly transport project called “Climate Friendly Cities,” an initiative of nonprofit organization Green Renewable Independent Power Producer Inc., (GRIPP). Yvonne Castro, project director of GRIPP, said that while the first e-jeepney was made in China, proponents of the project have begun looking into manufacturing it locally. At present, 70% of the electric jeepney’s parts are locally sourced.

The e-jeepney uses five kilovolt batteries - like the ones found in golf carts, but in banks of 12 - to run its electric motor. “It’s like an RC (remote control car) only supersized,” commented Ms. Castro. It has a recharge time of around eight hours and can travel at a rate of 65 to 90 kilometers per hour, fast enough to compete with its diesel counterparts. For its next course of action, GRIPP will be building recharging stations for the green public transport.

It is exploring other fuel sources, like biogas - made from biodegradable waste from wet markets, food establishments, and households - to power an environment-friendly transport system. “We’re also open to solar, wind, and hydroelectric power,” said Ms. Castro….

Dr. Daniel Kammen, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and host of Discovery Channel’s Ecopolis program, has picked the Climate Friendly Cities (CFC) project as one of the best initiatives with a real potential to reduce harmful emissions from the transport industry.

22. “Ex-Labor Secretary Robert Reich criticizes stagnant wages” (Miami Herald, Feb. 12, 2009); interview with ROBERT REICH; http://www.miamiherald.com/business/v-print/story/899789.html

By Scott Andron

To hear former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich tell it, huge as the current recession is, there’s a bigger problem facing America’s middle class: wages that have seen little real growth for decades.

Reich, secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton and a popular intellectual and speaker, will talk about both problems Thursday at a private fundraiser for the Jewish Federation of Greater Miami….

Reich, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said the stimulus package making its way through Congress will help turn things around, but it may prove insufficient.

‘‘My concern is that the stimulus is not large enough’’ to make up for the size of the shrinkage the economy has been undergoing, especially in consumer spending. ‘‘Consumers are going on strike,’’ he said. “...That’s why government has to step up to the plate. Government is a purchaser of last resort when consumers have stopped buying.’’

Reich said reduced consumer spending is a symptom of a broader problem: The relative stagnation of middle-class wages. Globalization and technological advances have destroyed a host of jobs, from gas-station attendants to bank tellers, Reich said. But the jobs that have seen growth don’t pay so well….

Reich said he will talk about possible ways to reverse the trend….

By Matt Nauman

Oakland’s BrightSource Energy, which already has a deal to build a series of huge solar power plants in the Mojave Desert for Pacific Gas & Electric, announced an even larger project Wednesday with Southern California Edison.

By 2016, the two companies said, BrightSource will build a series of solar-thermal power plants that will generate 1.3 gigawatts of electricity for Southern California Edison’s customers. That’s enough power for 845,000 homes, said Stuart Hemphill, the utility’s vice president of renewable and alternative power. He characterized the deal as “the largest set of solar agreements ever signed.” …

Daniel Kammen, an energy and public-policy professor at the University of California-Berkeley, said the groundbreaking deal takes solar-thermal from a niche technology to the mainstream.

“This technology is not super-complicated,” Kammen said. “The real issue is industrial capacity to build enough components fast enough.” …

By Matthew Benjamin and Rebecca Christie

Banks taking government aid to stay solvent must accept tougher business restrictions and disclose more about their operations under a new financial rescue plan announced yesterday by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Guidelines for transparency and accountability exceed those in the program devised by Geithner’s predecessor, Henry Paulson. Barack Obama’s administration has promised more oversight to make sure bailed-out banks use government money to increase lending. The plan also includes restrictions on acquisitions, dividends, and executive pay….

“The new conditions are all sensible,” said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. “But the proof is in the pudding.” Reich, a professor at the University of California in Berkeley who was an informal adviser to Obama’s campaign, said “the real question” will be “how tightly these regulations are going to be put into effect.” …

25. “Presuming Prejudice” (Forum, KQED public radio, Feb. 11, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT MACCOUN; Listen to this program

... In the second half hour, we turn to a new UC Berkeley study showing that when people learn about research findings that challenge their own beliefs on controversial topics, they’re likely to doubt the results and assume the researcher is biased. Host: Michael Krasny

Guest:

Robert MacCoun, professor of public policy, law and psychology at UC Berkeley whose study on perceptions of bias in policy research will be published in the February issue of “Political Psychology”

Robert MacCoun: “I don’t want to exaggerate the problems to say that we can learn nothing from surveys; we learn much that is useful from surveys.”

26. “Selling the Stimulus” (Forum, KQED public radio, February 10, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT REICH; Listen to this program

The U.S. Senate is expected to approve an $838 billion economic stimulus bill on Tuesday, and President Obama tried to seal the deal with the public Monday night at his first official prime time press conference. We discuss the status of federal economic recovery efforts, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s plan for a “massive overhaul” of the banking bailout. Host: Michael Krasny

Guests: …

• Robert Reich, professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and author of “Supercapitalism”

Robert Reich: “There is much more tax relief in the stimulus package than Democrats wanted, much more than the White House initially wanted…. So in the beginning bipartisanship was the word of the day…”.

“I have a theory that the Republicans have their eye on the midterm elections in 2010. They want to pull a Gingrich and make a national referendum out of Obama and the stimulus plan…”.

27. “Open Forum: Head Start takes a back seat” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 9, 2009); op-ed by DAVID KIRP; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=42&entry_id=35601

--David L. Kirp

Question: What do condoms, sod for the Capitol Mall and Head Start have in common?

Answer: They’ve all been attacked by critics of the economic recovery legislation….

Conservatives argued that Head Start should be kept out of the economic recovery package because it’s not an economic pump-primer. That’s flat-out wrong.

Early childhood programs employ lots of people—more, in some states, than retail apparel or construction. Every added Head Start dollar means new jobs for teachers, aides and staff, many of them poor women who are the economic anchors of their communities. Providing more Head Start slots also means that poor parents have time to find work or get the training they need to secure a decent job. The $1.05 billion that is in jeopardy of being cut would create thousands of teaching and staff positions, in addition to the jobs generated when Head Start centers start buying cribs, crayons, cookies and computers….

…Head Start is … a kids’ program, which offers the country’s neediest children the kind of cognitive and emotional support that middle-class families take for granted. Adding back $1.05 billion to its budget—roughly 1/800th of the economic recovery package—would enable more than 72,000 children to benefit. That is a sound investment….

…This week, as the legislators labor to resolve their disagreements, they will have one last shot at doing right for an ailing economy and doing right by thousands of poor kids.

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

28. “The Roundtable: Will Stimulus Work?” (This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC TV, February 8, 2009); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.

ROBERT REICH: … I think the big news this past week really is the intransigence of the Republican Party. I think the president did not anticipate the degree to which the Republicans would stick together in the House. Stick together in the Senate. And basically not play ball even though the president made all of these overtures….

Obama did reach out to the Republicans. Not only appointing three Republicans to his cabinet, but actually changing the bill, putting business tax provisions in the bill, doing whatever he could to get Republican votes. And I hope I’m not being too cynical when I offer this explanation. I think Republicans are being intransigent and sticking together because they realize that in two years, even with the stimulus, even with a big bank bailout, the economy is very unlikely to be better than it is today. If you don’t have a stimulus, it’s going to be much worse. But going into the midterms, I think a lot of Republicans would like to say, this was not our bill. This was not our bank bailout. If you had followed us with our tax cuts, we would not be in this position today. And they are going to want to do what you did in 1994 to nationalize the election.

GEORGE WILL: … Now, whether this is going to work, Bob doesn’t know, I don’t know, none of us knows….

ROBERT REICH: And George, that’s true. But we cannot underestimate how bad the economy is right now. It is falling off a cliff. I mean if there was ever a time for bipartisanship, people joining together and saying we don’t know that we have the right answer, but we’ve got to do something and this looks like it’s right direction, it is absolutely now. When I said before that by the midterm elections we’re probably not going to see an economy that’s better than now, I mean, not that the stimulus program will have failed. But that the stimulus program, even if it succeeds will not actually kick in…. Without the stimulus, the economy could be far worse in two years than it is now….

29. “‘Thrill is gone’: Obama feels heat; The $820 billion recovery package is under fire from both sides” (The Sunday Times (London), February 8, 2009); column citing ROBERT REICH.

By Sarah Baxter

THE $820 billion economic recovery plan proposed by Barack Obama will not be enough to save America from a deep recession, one of the president’s leading economic advisers warned this weekend.

A deal stitched together in the Senate to pass the stimulus bill ran into withering criticism from both left and right at the end of another troubled week for Obama, which also saw his mentor, Tom Daschle, withdraw from the nomination for health secretary over unpaid taxes, and the first signs of infighting between big name cabinet and White House appointments.

Senate Democrats and just three moderate Republicans agreed to the deal hours after it was announced that nearly 600,000 jobs had been lost in January, the biggest contraction since the recession of the early 1970s.

The agreement was hailed by Obama’s allies as a victory for his bipartisan approach, but most Republicans, including John McCain, the defeated former presidential candidate, intend to vote “no”….

However, Professor Robert Reich, an adviser to Obama who served on his high-powered economic transition team, said the president’s bid to win Republican support for the bill had gone too far.

“The danger is that the government is doing too little, rather than too much,” he said.

“The stimulus package is critically necessary, but I fear it is not enough.” Obama had veered towards “compromising too much”, warned Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and a former labour secretary under Bill Clinton.

“I want him to get as much bipartisanship as possible, but the stakes here are very high. If the stimulus package is not effective, the recession is going to get much worse,” Reich said….

30. “The rise and (almost) fall of America’s banks” (The Associated Press, February 8, 2009); story citing ROBERT REICH.

By Stevenson Jacobs and Erin McClam, Associated Press Writers

…[Banking] has grown from an almost quaint relationship between teller and customer into a massive, dizzyingly interconnected network that touches almost every adult in this country.

And right now, the federal government working without a road map, and without a net is putting together a plan to keep U.S. banks from collapsing.

Not just to get the banks lending again. To keep them alive….

Getting it wrong could trigger a replay of what happened after Lehman Brothers collapsed last fall the stock market in free fall, seizure of the credit markets, ripples of layoffs. Perhaps even a run on other banks so many customers rushing to pull out their cash that it would make the bank run in “It’s a Wonderful Life” look like, well, a feel-good holiday movie.

“The banks are at a terrible junction,” says Robert Reich, a labor secretary under President Bill Clinton. “The bottom is falling out. Almost every area of the credit markets, we’re finding people unable to repay their loans. That means many banks are basically insolvent.”

“If one big bank implodes,” he says, “the reverberations could be endless.” …

By Jim Tankersley, Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama’s plans to lead America out of recession rest in part on a task bigger than a moon shot and the Manhattan Project put together, as complicated as any feat of economic engineering in the nation’s history.

His goal, which past presidents have spent more than $100 billion chasing with limited success, is to replace imported oil and other fossil fuels with a so-called “clean energy economy” powered by the wind, the sun and biofuels.

The stakes are high. If Obama succeeds, he could spark a domestic jobs boom and lead an international fight against climate change. If he fails, he could cripple existing industries and squeeze cash-strapped Americans with higher energy prices….

Success hinges on whether Obama can nurture alternative energy sources to the point where they cost no more than fossil fuels—a feat that most experts say will require heavy doses of brainpower, cash and market manipulation.

To help renewable energy compete on price, [Energy Secretary Steven] Chu and others officials say, the administration wants to revamp energy research and spend more on it, starting with billions of dollars in the pending economic stimulus bill; to create demand for clean energy by forcing utilities to draw from renewable sources such as wind turbines and solar panels; to string thousands of miles of transmission lines to carry wind and solar power to consumers; and to levy a de facto tax on fossil fuels through a nationwide cap on greenhouse-gas emissions….

Renewable sources compose about the same sliver of America’s energy portfolio as they did three decades ago, while the nation’s reliance on imported oil has doubled.

Experts say more money would help. The federal government spends about the same amount on energy research today, adjusted for inflation, as it did in 1968. The private sector has only begun to outpace government spending on energy research in the past year, according to a new study by Daniel Kammen, who directs the University of California-Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory.

“Energy is the biggest chunk of our national expenditures,” Kammen said in an interview, “and we just neglect it.” …

32. “Global Smarminess” (Washington Post, February 7, 2009); letter to the Editor by JACK GLASER; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020603495.html

I found Dana Milbank’s treatment of Al Gore’s testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to be in very poor taste and a disservice to Gore and your readership.

Referring to him as “the Goracle,” Milbank attributed Gore’s “powers” to “his ability to scare the bejesus out of people.” I attribute it to the fact that Gore has been right when so many of his peers were wrong and way ahead of the curve on three crucial topics that may well define 21st-century American history: climate change, the Internet and the Iraq war. If this is whom Milbank mocks, I can’t imagine whom he would respect.

-- Jack Glaser

San Francisco

33. “Robert Reich joins 7.30 Report” (Australia Broadcasting Company, February 5, 2009); interview with ROBERT REICH.

KERRY O’BRIEN, PRESENTER: … Robert Reich is a formerly Clinton Cabinet Minister and was an economic advisor to President Obama during the campaign and the transition to Government.

He’s professor of public policy at Berkeley University, and author of a ‘The Work of Nations’ and ‘Super Capitalism’. I spoke to him at Berkeley earlier today….

PROFESSOR ROBERT REICH: … Is it enough, you ask. Well, I am not sure quite frankly. The gap between the amount of goods and services that the private sector is actually buying, including consumers … and the productive capacity of the country, if everybody or nearly everyone were employed and factories were going full tilt and offices were all being utilised, that gap is roughly a trillion... almost a trillion and a half dollars a year.

The stimulus package is in the range of $800 to $900 billion over two years, and so even if there’s a little bit of a multiplier effect, that is every dollar of Government spending creates more than a dollar of additional spending, by businesses or consumers, there still is going to be a short fall; this is not the cure all….

KERRY O’BRIEN: So, how far reaching will President Obama re-regulation of the US financial system be?

PROFESSOR ROBERT REICH: Well, I can tell you what I think should be done. Banks, for example, must have sufficient capital requirements and have to have limits on the amount of borrowing they do on the basis of those capital requirements.

They can’t go off balance sheets and do the kind of wild derivative speculative borrowing that they did before; that must be outlawed, that must be prohibited.

Number two; there’ve to be restrictions and eliminations of conflicts of interest on Wall Street. For example, the credit rating agencies that have been rating the issues of companies that pay the credit rating agencies cannot any longer have that form of payment. That is inherently a conflict of interest.

Number three, the compensation systems of Wall Street have to be reformed, and I’m not talking about simply placing a limit of $500,000 on executives.

I mean that the compensation systems as they have been for the last 10 years or so place a great premium on short term winning, in a kind of gambling situation in which those executives and traders don’t have to bear the responsibility for long term losses.

So there should be some sort of regulation requiring that Wall Street traders and executives have to get no more than, perhaps, a moving average of five year profits, or five year returns, rather than these kind of short term shenanigans they’ve been engaged in….

By Barry Bergman, Public Affairs | 05 February 2009

Henry Brady shows off some of the maps to the treasure. (Photo by Peg Skorpinski)

BERKELEY — “My wife claims that she once saw a note I’d written to my Aunt Lorraine, I think it was, after I’d been to New York City,” confides Berkeley political scientist Henry Brady. “And the note apparently begins something like this: ‘We went to New York City. We passed 22 gas stations, we passed seven restaurants, we passed three of this, four of that…’ And then at the end it said, ‘Love, Henry, XXXX — each X means 10 kisses.’ “

Brady’s pre-adolescent relish for numbers would find more sophisticated outlets in adulthood, but his fascination with data has never left him. Today, as director of the campus’s Survey Research Center — established, coincidentally, in 1958, around the time of young Henry’s Big Apple excursion — he presides, in what appears to be a labor of love, over one of the nation’s premier institutions for collecting, processing, and disseminating research data.

As the Survey Research Center prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary this month, Brady sees its mission in terms that might seem to belong more to the realms of art and archaeology than to math and statistics. Much as he once set out to describe New York in numbers, the SRC has spent a half-century illuminating American life through the innovative — and often pioneering — use of survey, administrative, and ethnographic information.

To Brady, Stiles, and their SRC colleagues — including field researchers in the Center for Urban Ethnography, one of its research units — numbers and statistics are anything but bloodless. Over the past five decades, the center’s data has been deployed to study corners of life in the United States ranging from anti-Semitism and racial discrimination to water quality and welfare. In the early 1980s, the SRC did groundbreaking research on AIDS that involved drawing not just information from interview subjects, but actual blood as well….

“We started doing AIDS studies before anybody knew what the virus was that caused AIDS,” Brady recalls….

“We found out there were behavioral correlates to AIDS,” says Brady. “Before anyone knew about the virus or anything else, we found out that sex had a lot to do with it, sharing needles had a lot to do with it — it turned out the type of sex you had mattered a lot.” …

Among the center’s ongoing studies is PACES — the Public Agendas and Citizen Engagement Survey — an election-year look at voters’ concerns overseen by political scientist J. Merrill Shanks. Brady calls it “the most extensive survey of people’s issues and concerns that is done in America,” and deems it an antidote of sorts to the quadrennial obsession with horse-race politics.

Pollsters and journalists “focus too much on the horse race, who’s ahead and who’s behind, and not enough on what’s behind who’s ahead and who’s behind,” he says. “If you really want to understand American public opinion, you can’t just ask a liberal/conservative question, a party-identification question, and something about abortion. You have to go beyond that. And when you do, you find out there are some real complexities out there. People are more nuanced in their perspectives than you might imagine.”

35. “Cal: If We Do a Study - You Won’t Believe Results” (MSNBC Online, February 5, 2009); story citing ROBERT MACCOUN; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29017531/from/ET/

By John Boitnott

Robert MacCoun (Photo by Peg Skorpinski)

BERKELEY, Calif. -- … A University of California, Berkeley, study shows that when people learn about research findings that conflict with their own beliefs about politically controversial topics, they not only doubt the conclusions, but also question the researcher’s objectivity.

“Findings that support our political beliefs are seen as objective facts about the world,” said Robert MacCoun, a UC Berkeley professor of public policy, law and psychology. “But study outcomes that conflict with our views are more likely to be seen as expressions of an ideological bias by the researcher.” …

MacCoun’s study will be published in the February issue of the journal Political Psychology and already is online.

“Our findings raise concerns about how social science researchers are seen by the public,” said MacCoun. “Because researchers’ ideological views are supposed to be irrelevant to their empirical results, even partial support for the attitude attribution effect is impressive and troubling,” he wrote in the journal….

More than half (56 percent) of the participants in MacCoun’s study speculated about the imaginary researcher’s politics and were almost twice as likely (21 percent) to assume the author to be liberal as they were to infer conservatism (12 percent)….

Besides being more skeptical about findings that contradicted prior beliefs, survey participants - especially those with conservative beliefs - tended to attribute studies with liberal findings to liberal researchers. They were less likely to conclude that conservative findings were due to a researcher’s conservatism….

In a 24-hour news cycle world where the general public - and even politicians and policymakers - rely on quick headlines, snapshots and commentators’ “punch lines,” policy researchers writing up their findings need to be sensitive to this suspicion and work harder to develop trust, said MacCoun….

“If we really want to inform citizens and affect public policy, American social scientists need to learn more about how conservatives view our research,” MacCoun said, “in order to root out hidden assumptions and communicate our research more effectively.”

[Another story on this topic appeared in <a href=“http://insidehighered.com/news/2009/02/04/qt“>Inside Higher Ed</a>]

36. “The best way to move the economy” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR], Feb. 4, 2009); Listen to this commentary

ROBERT REICH: Most economists agree that government spending has a bigger stimulative bang than do tax cuts. According to calculations by Mark Zandy of Economy.com, each dollar of spending generates about a dollar and a half of stimulus, while a dollar of tax cuts generates far less.

There are three reasons. First, most people who receive a tax cut don’t spend all of it….

Second, even that portion of a tax cut we might actually spend doesn’t necessarily go into the American economy…. By contrast, when government spends to repair a highway or build a school or help pay for medical services, the money and the jobs stay here in America.

Finally, those who say cutting taxes on businesses is the best way to create or preserve jobs forget about the demand side….

This isn’t a matter of more or less government. It’s just economics. When consumers and businesses can’t or won’t spend enough to keep the economy going, government has to be the spender of last resort.

Jablonski: Robert Reich teaches public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent book is “Supercapitalism.”

By Christina Bellantoni, The Washington Times

Two of President Obama’s nominees for critical government posts on Tuesday withdrew their names from consideration, forced by bad publicity over tax problems to step aside and hindering the Democrat’s efforts to usher in a new, drama-free political era.

Tom Daschle dropped out as health and human services secretary and also will not serve in his powerful appointed role of health care czar, dealing Mr. Obama’s agenda a major blow….

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote in his blog Tuesday he viewed the public outrage as a broader issue that included Mr. Daschle’s influence within the health care field and the speaking fees he earned consulting for major players.

“Typical Americans are hurting very badly ... [and] resent people who appear to be living high off a system dominated by insiders with the right connections,” he wrote “They’ve become increasingly suspicious of the conflicts of interest, cozy relationships, and payoffs that seem to pervade not only official Washington but our biggest banks and corporations.”

He said Mr. Daschle would have done a good job, “but the public wants change, real change, big change. There’s no tolerance any longer for the way things used to be done.” …

--Erika Check Hayden

What do you do if you have a great idea for an experiment, but are worried that the results could enable a potential biological weapon?

Soon you will be able to ask a panel of experts for advice through a website being developed at the University of California, Berkeley.

Stephen Maurer (photo: K. Anderson)

Spearheaded by Stephen Maurer of the Goldman School of Public Policy and the Boalt Law School, the website is part of a suite of measures he has developed with scientists and public-policy experts to minimize the risks of biology research being misused.

The website, expected to begin operating by the end of March, will provide biologists with advice about ‘dual-use research’ or ‘experiments of concern’ — research with innocent goals that could inadvertently arm terrorists.

Scientists will be able to enter information about proposed experiments, each of which will be reviewed by a different panel of three experts. The panels will include at least one security expert and one biologist. They will deliver a verdict on whether the work raises any security concerns, and if so, how those concerns might be addressed. The entire process should take about two weeks, says Maurer.

Maurer has lined up experiments to beta-test the site and, if those go well, the site could open for business as early as April. The portal is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic funding body.

Experiments of concern have long troubled scientists and policy-makers, not least because most security reviews of such experiments occur at a very late stage — when the work is already finished and ready to publish….

Some information about the submitted experiments will be displayed on the website, although Maurer says reasonable confidentiality measures will be undertaken, such as holding back proprietary information until the work is published.

Maurer admits that the portal’s success will depend on how many scientists use it. But he is optimistic because the idea came from the community that will use it, and many scientists have already agreed to serve as expert reviewers.

“There is an instinct in the community that if you think you’re talking about an experiment of concern, you should ask someone — but biosecurity people are scarce on the average campus,” he says. The portal is designed to be a help, rather than a burden, in these situations. “People have enough layers of paperwork in their lives,” says Maurer. “The idea is to make this as painless as possible.”

An epic debate in the U.S. Senate this week on the Obama stimulus plan. Epic scale. Epic stakes: to push back recession, to stave off a depression, if we can.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says the ultimate stakes are, and should be, greater even than that. Reich doesn’t want to just pop the economy back to where it was — with growth, but also with deep inequality, a struggling middle class, crumbling infrastructure, global warming.

He wants growth and to change those things. Growth on a new foundation….

Guest:

Robert Reich joins us from Berkeley, Calif. He was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton and is now a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley…. His most recent book is “Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life.”

By Robert B. Reich

… Those who support the stimulus as a desperate measure to arrest the downward plunge in the business cycle might be called cyclists. Others, including me, see the stimulus as the first step toward addressing deep structural flaws in the economy. We are the structuralists. These two camps are united behind the current stimulus, but may not be for long. Cyclists blame the current crisis on a speculative bubble that threw the economy’s self-regulating mechanisms out of whack. They say that we can avoid future downturns if the Fed pops bubbles earlier by raising interest rates when speculation heats up.

But structuralists see it very differently. The bursting of the housing bubble caused the current crisis, but the underlying problem began much earlier—in the late 1970s, when median U.S. incomes began to stall. Because wages got hit then by the double-whammy of global competition and new technologies, the typical American family was able to maintain its living standard only if women went into the workforce in larger numbers, and later, only if everyone worked longer hours.

When even these coping mechanisms were exhausted, families went into debt—a strategy that was viable as long as home values continued to rise. But when the housing bubble burst, families were no longer able to easily refinance and take out home-equity loans….

Other structural problems are growing as well. One is climate change and our dependence on oil. Another is the United States’ growing reliance on foreign capital, mostly from China, Japan and the Middle East. Neither is sustainable.

Meanwhile, our broken healthcare system drains more of our dollars yet delivers less care….

But I don’t think that our new president should wade into this debate right away. He has his hands full. He needs to implement the stimulus package and reverse the downturn….

Once the business cycle turns up, the public and its representatives may be less inclined to tackle the things that truly drag us down. Clinton was, after all, re-elected in 1996 on the wave of a cyclical upturn in the economy. But the structural problems that he failed to address—widening inequality, sagging median incomes, a broken healthcare system, crumbling infrastructure and global warming—are that much larger now, making the current crisis all the worse.

Robert B. Reich, secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton, is a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley.

[Another version of Robert Reich’s op-ed was published in the Contra Costa Times, Feb. 9, 2009.]

By Oliver Staley

In the basement lab of Nitash Balsara, at the University of California, Berkeley, are the ingredients of a lighter, more-potent battery to power the cars of the future. To build it, he needs President Barack Obama’s stimulus package to pass.

Balsara, a chemical engineer, has assembled a team of 15 scientists that applied for $25 million over five years from the U.S. Department of Energy to improve batteries by modifying their materials. Money for energy projects is part of an $819 billion stimulus, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, that Obama says is critical to saving the economy.

... The research dollars will produce jobs, reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and stem the production of greenhouse gases, according to the Association of American Universities, a group of 62 schools that conduct research.

Research funding at the Energy Department reached its peak in the Carter administration, which spent $7.5 billion (in 2008 dollars) on science in 1978 after oil-price shocks sent the cost of gasoline soaring….

Ultimately, the government should increase spending on energy research by billions of dollars annually, said Daniel Kammen, the director of Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory.

“It’s certainly not that much money, especially considering the numbers being thrown around today for an economic-stimulus package,” said Kammen, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which advanced knowledge about man-made global warming.

Kammen contrasted funding of energy research with U.S. spending on the National Institutes of Health, which doubled its annual budget from 1998 to 2003 and now gets $29 billion a year.

“We need research in every area” of energy, Kammen said. “There is no area that you would say is overfunded.” …

42. “Many of nation’s green leaders from Bay Area” (San Francisco Chronicle, February 1, 2009); story citing DAN KAMMEN and program iniated by CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/01/MNPB15EL62.DTL

--David R. Baker, Peter Fimrite, Jane Kay, Jim Doyle, Kelly Zito, Deborah Gage

… President Obama has promised sweeping changes to the nation’s energy grid, auto emission standards and oil import policies in an effort to reverse the damage of climate change, retool the U.S. economy and wean the nation from foreign fossil fuels….

But the Bay Area and California likely will figure prominently in the president’s move to harness wind power, cap carbon dioxide emissions and understand the economic and ecological impacts of climate change on our society.

These 10 people are among the brightest lights in their respective fields - from solar energy to venture capital to water policy to “smart” growth….

Daniel Kammen, energy efficiency

UC Berkeley Professor Daniel Kammen advised Obama on climate and energy issues during the campaign and leads a science team crafting California’s bold plan to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent.

“We have to move away from an economy based on fossil fuels and make sustainable energy the engine of economic growth. This is the moment,” said Kammen, founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. He succeeded Holdren as the Energy and Resources Group’s distinguished professor.

Kammen’s lab created the carbon calculator used by the state to help cities and households reduce emissions, and works on models for a renewable power transmission system.

The lab conducted the analysis for the city of Berkeley’s pioneer financing program [initiated by Cisco DeVries] that lets property owners avoid up-front costs of installing solar panels, water heaters or other efficiency measures by extending payment over 20 years. Clean Energy Municipal Financing has been picked up by other cities, and has been included in the House version of Obama’s stimulus package. - Jane Kay

43. “Funding services for the disabled could deter abortions” (Salt Lake Tribune, February 1, 2009); op-ed citing ROBERT REICH.

--Linda Smith

Certain legislators had planned to sponsor legislation to “ban abortion in Utah, period, end of story.” Now they are focusing on legislation to create a legal defense fund for a future court battle. They should redirect these efforts.

Most women consider abortion because they worry about the life they can give the child. We could deter abortions by addressing these fears….

Of course, a woman may also consider abortion when her own financial circumstances are insecure. What will we say to her? Two years, maximum, of cash assistance if she is poor and without an income. Maybe subsidized child care … maybe not. No state-supported preschool. And, again, the worst-funded public education system in the nation.

Wouldn’t it be better if we could say: “In Utah we invest in the future by putting our children first. We don’t just give lip service to family values—we put our money where our mouth is.”

The rest of the nation permits this temporary assistance for up to five years instead of two, and economist Robert Reich recommends that this be extended during the current financial crisis. Wouldn’t it be reassuring if Utah lawmakers also wanted to put poor children first? …

By Kelly Rayburn - Oakland Tribune

OAKLAND — … [Mayor Ron] Dellums said Monday … that he believes working with a Democratic presidential administration in Washington will benefit the city and that Oakland will see new federal funding for green initiatives, school construction and other infrastructure projects.

Dellums is scheduled to join Brunner; Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, D-Alameda; Steven Raphael, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy; Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and chief executive officer of PolicyLink; and others to discuss the economic issues facing Oakland and California on Feb. 19.

The event is called “A Progressive Perspective on the Economic Crisis” ….

FACULTY SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS & PUBLICATIONS

Feb. 5 Robert Reich gave an interview on radio KLAA (Los Angeles, CA), discussing how to help the unemployed and turning the economy around with the stimulus bill moving its way through Congress; audio link

Feb. 6 Robert Reich participated in a Teleconference on New Unemployment Numbers with Maryland Governor Martin O'’Malley and Senior Economist Heather Boushey, hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Feb. 10 Robert MacCoun gave a talk on “Citizens’ Perceptions of Ideological Bias in Research on Public Policy Controversies” in the Survey Research Center Colloquia/Seminars.

Feb. 15 Robert Reich participated in a press call on “Unions Are Good for Workers and the Economy in Every State” for the American Worker Project, Center for American Progress; http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2009/02/unions_workers.html

Feb. 24 Robert Reich gave a public lecture on “From Boom to Bust: Insights into the Current Economic Downturn—How can government and the private sector respond to the crisis?” as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute’s series, “From Boom to Bust: Insights into the Current Economic Downturn,” University of California at Berkeley campus; http://olli.berkeley.edu/programs/Winter2009-lecture-series.html .

“Materials Availability Expands the Opportunity for Large-Scale Photovoltaics Deployment” by Cyrus Wadia, A. Paul Alivisatos, and Daniel M. Kammen (Environmental Science & Technology, 13 February 2009); downloadable from http://pubs.acs.org

VIDEOS & WEBCASTS

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

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Annette Doornbos

Director of External Relations and Development