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November 2010
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1. GSPP in
November 4,
2010, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
University of
Registration
Fee: $10.00 per person. Reservation deadline: October 29, 2010; more info
2. 32nd
Annual APPAM Research Conference: “Making Fair and Effective Policy in
Difficult Times”
GSPP’s Alumni
Reception at APPAM, hosted by Dean Henry
Brady
November, 5,
2010, 5:45 p.m. - Hyatt Regency Hotel, One Avenue de Lafayette,
3. CAPH’s
2010 Annual Conference: “Fulfilling the Promise of Health Care Reform”
December 1st
- 3rd. Claremont Hotel,
Featured
speakers:
Susan Ehrlich (MPP 1984/MD), CEO, San
Mateo Medical Center & Chair, California Health Care Safety Net Institute
Wendy Jameson (MPP/MPH 1989), Director,
California Health Care Safety Net Institute
To register
or for further information, please click here
4. “
December 7,
2010, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sheraton
Grand Hotel,
Featured
participant: Robert Reich, Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public
Policy
Presented by
the Public Policy Institute of
ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS
1. “The Nightly Business Report” (PBS, October 29, 2010); interview with TRACY GORDON (MPP 1996/PhD 2001).
2. “Net Neutrality Vote by FCC Unlikely Before January Meeting” (Communications Daily, October 26, 2010); story citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).
3. “Public Housing Repairs Can’t Keep Pace with Need” (New York Times, October 25, 2010); story citing WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999); http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/nyregion/25repairs.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
4. “Best people, ideas to move San Francisco forward” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 24, 2010); editorial endorsements citing CARMEN CHU (MPP 2003) and candidate advised by DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/24/IN0K1FVJC3.DTL#ixzz13PlJ3zYj
5. “Economic study funded by Prop. 23 backers questioned” (Sacramento Bee, Oct. 24, 2010); story citing BENJAMIN ZYCHER (MPP 1974/PhD) and DAN KAMMEN; http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/24/3125692/economic-study-funded-by-prop.html
6. “Healthy S.F. plan’s enrollment up 24%” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 22, 2010); column citing TANGERINE BRIGHAM (MPP 1990) and CARMEN CHU (MPP 2003); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/22/BAKR1G0387.DTL#ixzz13PpyBs7F
7. Perspectives: “Is There Anything You Need? Anat Shenker-Osorio often receives parenting advice as unwelcome as it is unsolicited” (KQED public radio, Oct 21-24, 2010); commentary by ANAT SHENKER-OSORIO (MPP 2005); Listen to this Perspective
8. “Firm:
9. “Community colleges not preparing
10. “McClatchy reports drop in third-quarter profits” (Sacramento Bee, Oct. 20, 2010); story citing GARY PRUITT (MPP 1981/JD 1982); http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/20/3117206/mcclatchy-reports-drop-in-third.html#ixzz12uoQ1srY
11. “In
12. “Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius Holds a News Conference on the Affordable Care Act and Consumer Assistance Programs” (CQ Transcriptions, All Rights Reserved, October 19, 2010); event featuring KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
13. “Oakland Tribune editorial: We recommend Elsa Ortiz, Jeff Davis, Gavin Wilgus and Joel Young for AC Transit board. AC TRANSIT BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Ortiz, Davis, Wilgus and Young are capable of combating financial hardships” (Oakland Tribune, October 18, 2010); editorial endorsement citing JEFF DAVIS (MPP 1982); http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_16350582
14. “Slightly more Yolo kids living below poverty line” (Davis Enterprise, October 17, 2010); story citing JACKIE HAUSMAN (MPP 1993); http://search.davisenterprise.com/display.php?id=70723
15. “Gateway High benefit lunch matters” (San Franciso Chronicle, October 17, 2010); column citing DON FALK (MPP 1981); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/17/LVSM1FQBJ9.DTL#ixzz13Q0ieBdN
16. “Free Press Blasts Fox for Blocking Online Content in Cablevision Dispute” (States News Service, October 16, 2010); newswire citing S. DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).
17. “Fueling a Debate; Letter-Grade Idea Gets Mixed Reviews; Public Input Sought on New Labels” (The Baltimore Sun, October 16, 2010); story citing LUKE TONACHEL (MPP 2004).
18. “Modern demands on EU budget will drive post-2013 CAP debate” (Farmers Guardian, October 15, 2010); story citing JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999).
19. “New option: Don’t tax the rich. Tax the really rich” (CNNMoney.com, October 13, 2010); story citing SEAN WEST (MPP 2006).
20. “Study: Prop. 19 won’t hurt Mexican cartels unless Californians export pot” (Sacramento Bee, October 13, 2010); story citing BEAU KILMER (MPP 2000); http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/13/3100144/study-prop-19-wont-hurt-mexican.html#ixzz12G236snP
21. “Pentagon going green, because it has to” (Agence France Presse – English, October 13, 2010); story citing DOROTHY ROBYN (MPP 1978/PhD 1983).
22. “Trouble brewing in workers’ comp system” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 12, 2010); story citing FRANK NEUHAUSER (MPP 1993); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/12/BUNE1FR7OM.DTL
23. “
24. “Wall Street puts its chips on Republicans in elections” (Agence France Presse, October 11, 2010); newswire citing SEAN WEST (MPP 2006).
25. “Focus on GSE Multis” (National Mortgage News, Pg. 1 Vol. 35 No. 3, October 11, 2010); story citing MAUREEN FRIAR (MPP 1990).
26. “An ugly, temporary answer to
27. “Pop The
28. “
29. “The Quest for ‘Deeper Learning’” (Education Week, October 6, 2010); article by BARBARA CHOW (MPP 1980).
30. “Raise Your Hand if You See Stalemate Coming” (Roll Call, October 5, 2010); commentary by STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
31. “The Arab lobby; In an excerpt from his new book,
Mitchell Bard explores the invisible alliance that undermines
32. “Economic Policy Institute Holds a Conference on Strengthening the Economy, Panel 6” (Copyright 2010 CQ Transcriptions, LLC All Rights Reserved, Financial Markets Regulatory Wire, October 5, 2010); event featuring STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
33. “Crassus Was an Honorable Man: The Loss of State Services” (Calitics, October 5, 2010); blog by BRIAN LEUBITZ (MPP 2007).
34. “California enacts landmark foster care legislation extending the system to age 21” (San Jose Mercury News, October 4, 2010); story citing AMY LEMLEY (MPP 1998); http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_16237965
35. “We Have a Drive to Drive” (The Columbus Dispatch, October 4, 2010); story citing JOE CORTRIGHT (MPP 1980); http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/10/04/we-have-a-drive-to-drive.html
36. “The
37. “PUBLIC HEALTH; Centralized health care more cost-effective, offers better access to preventive services” (NewsRx Health & Science, October 3, 2010); story citing ARTURO VARGAS-BUSTAMANTE (MPP/MPH 2004/PhD 2008).
38. “District 10 candidates face diverse challenge” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 3, 2010); story citing DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/03/BAA71FN0LI.DTL#ixzz13PwN8uG4
39. “Pentagon gives wind projects green light” (The Oregonian, October 2, 2010); story citing DOROTHY ROBYN (MPP 1978/PhD 1983); http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/10/pentagon_oks_new_oregon_and_wa.html
40. “ADDICTION MEDICINE;
41. Editor’s Choice: “Center For Resource Solutions; AB 32 Could Save Billions in Energy Costs” (Energy & Ecology, October 1, 2010); story citing CHRIS BUSCH (MPP 1998/MS ARE 2000).
42. “NHTSA may require 62 mpg by 2025” (Detroit News, October 1, 2010); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://detnews.com/article/20101001/AUTO01/10010427/NHTSA-may-require-62-mpg-by-2025
43. “ChinaSF to open office in
44. “Coloradans want more oil and gas regulations, new NWF poll finds” (The Colorado Independent, October 1, 2010); story citing DAVE METZ (MPP 1998); http://coloradoindependent.com/63173/coloradans-want-more-oil-and-gas-regulations-new-nwf-poll-finds
45. “ARB Punts Key Issues on Clean Energy Rule to Stakeholder Group” (Inside Cal/EPA, Vol. 21 No. 39, October 1, 2010); story citing LAURA WISLAND (MPP 2008).
46. “The Folly of Age; Older but wiser? Don’t count on it. New brain research shows exactly how much help sixtysomethings need with financial decisions, and it’s a lot” (Bank Investment Consultant, October 2010); story citing NICOLE MAESTAS (MPP 1997/PhD Econ 2002).
47. Governor Ignores Doctors and Experts, Vetoes HIV Prevention Bill” (States News Service, October 1, 2010); newswire citing LAURA THOMAS (MPP/MPH 1995).
48. “Today’s Events in
49. “Administration’s Proposed Fuel Efficiency Plan Shows Promise” (Targeted News Service, October 1, 2010); newswire citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992) and LUKE TONACHEL (MPP 2004).
50. “MALDEF and Other Groups File Amicus Brief Opposing Arizona’s Racial Profiling Law” (Targeted News Service, October 1, 2010); newswire citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
51. “Senators Back Trade Treaties with
52. “Bank of
53. “Entrenched Republican Faces Test” (
54. “‘Merchant of Death’ Viktor Bout Will Never Be Extradited
To
55. “Restoring confidence is key to economic growth” (Journal
Inquirer (
56. “Big plans for
57. “Letters / Health care, state trade, racism” (Sacramento Bee, September 15, 2010); Letter to Editor by KELLY ABBETT HARDY (MPP/MPH 2004).
58. “John Ford’s ‘lost film,’ ‘Upstream,’ looks good after restoration. Screening at AMPAS reveals hard work of restoration team paid off; more films await repair” (Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2010); story citing ANNETTE MELVILLE (MPP 1992); http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-ford-film-20100903,0,5646533.story
59. “UW-Madison Researchers Release Wisconsin Poverty Report: New Measure Tells New Story” (States News Service, September 2, 2010); newswire citing JULIA BIXLER ISAACS (MPP 1985).
60. “The 4th Annual Condé Nast Traveler World Savers Awards” (Condé Nast Traveler, Pg. 141 Vol. 45 No. 9 ISSN: 0893-9683, September 2010); story citing KARA HARTNETT HURST (MPP 1998).
61. “Seattle Port CEO receives glowing review, declines 4% raise” (Seattle Times, August 25, 2010); story citing HOWARD GREENWICH (MPP 1999); http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012712459_taypay25m.html
62. “The Definition of Patient Centered Health Care, Courtesy of Health Affairs” (Disease Management Care Blog, August 15, 2010); blog citing CARA LESSER (MPP 1994).
63. “Democracy in
64. “Congress should approve additional Medicaid money for states” (Seattle Times, June 18, 2010); commentary by REBECCA KAVOUSSI (MPP 2001); http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2012154194_guest19trupin.html
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
1. “Fed’s fake-jobs program won’t work” (San Francisco Chronicle October 31, 2010); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/31/INFT1G2FN4.DTL#ixzz144XO9VQl
2. “Tea Party purists lose sight of art of compromise” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 31, 2010); commentary citing AARON WILDAVSKY; http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-10-31/opinion/24799976_1_tea-party-purists-supporters
3. “Rich getting too much of the pie, says
ex-labor secretary” (Providence Journal-Bulletin (
4. “US ties with
5. “Divided states of
6. “Op-Ed: Why Business Should Fear the Tea Party” (Wall Street Journal (*requires registration), October 29, 2010); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304173704575578200086257706.html?KEYWORDS=Berkeley
7. “
8. Dot Earth Blog: “World Bank Pushes to Include Ecology in Accounting” (New York Times Online (*requires registration), October 28, 2010); blog citing DAN KAMMEN; http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/world-bank-pushes-to-include-ecology-in-accounting/?partner=rss&emc=rss
9. Robert Reich’s Blog: “Democracy’s price tag: only $4.2 billion? In this midterm election, campaign contributions have reached a record $4.2 billion, thanks largely to the Supreme Court’s decision to lift many contribution restrictions” (Christian Science Monitor Online, October 28, 2010); commentary by ROBERT REICH; http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich-s-Blog/2010/1028/Democracy-s-price-tag-only-4.2-billion
10. “All eyes on
11. “Maritime National Park Association marks 60” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 27, 2010); column citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/27/DD2S1G1O4P.DTL
12. “Quest Means Business:
13. “Citigroup Claims No ‘Robo-Signings’ Despite Using Foreclosure King” (ABC Online, October 20, 2010); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://abcnews.go.com/Business/citigroup-claims-robo-signings-hiring-fla-firm/story?id=11920732
14. “The Georgetown University Law Center holds a Thomas F. Ryan lecture on ‘Diplomacy and the Use of Force to Prevent Nuclear Weapons Proliferation’” (The Washington Daybook, October 20, 2010); event featuring MICHAEL NACHT.
15. “I.B.M. Rides Global Focus on Services to Deliver a 12% Increase in Profit” (New York Times, October 19, 2010); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/technology/19blue.html
16. “‘You Don’t Need Politicians for This.’ The Copenhagen climate talks failed, the U.S. Senate punted—but all is not lost when it comes to greenhouse reductions” (Newsweek, October 18, 2010); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/18/why-there-s-still-hope-for-cutting-carbon.html
17. “Gene-synthesis rules favour convenience; But synthetic DNA standards offer little protection, critics say” (Nature, October 18, 2010); story citing STEPHEN MAURER; http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101018/full/467898a.html
18. “
19. “Governor Schwarzenegger criticizes Republicans” (KGO TV, October 17, 2010); features commentary by HENRY BRADY.
20. “Climate Watch Conversation” (This Week in
21. “Sharing Online, but With More Than 140 Characters” (New York Times & International Herald Tribune [*requires registration], October 14, 2010); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/technology/personaltech/14basics.html?scp=4&sq=Berkeley&st=nyt
22. “Recession-Hit Areas Lag for Years Afterward” (Wall Street Journal [*requires registration], October 14, 2010); story citing STEVEN RAPHAEL; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704763904575550551840906966.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
23. “Public pensions and public unions” (The Reality-Based Community, October 13, 2010); blog by MICHAEL O’HARE.
24. “Across the
25. “Lessons learned at recent symposium on energy” (The Berkeleyan, October 12, 2010); story citing DAN KAMMEN, program co-designed with CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000), and Center for Environmental Public Policy visiting scholar ROBERT COLLIER; http://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/energy/symposium/conference-proceedings
26. “World Bank energy chief aims to speed clean power” (Reuters, Oct 12, 2010); interview with DAN KAMMEN; http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69B68520101012
27. I.H.T. Special Report: Energy: “World Bank Pressured on Clean Energy” (New York Times & International Herald Tribune, October 11, 2010); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/business/energy-environment/12iht-renworld.html?src=busln
28. “Jerry Brown’s Environmental Record Runs Deep” (New York Times Online [*requires registration], October 9, 2010); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/10/08/08greenwire-jerry-browns-environmental-record-runs-deep-44334.html?pagewanted=print
29. “Need To Know: A special report on the jobs crisis” (PBS, October 8, 2010); features guest commentary by ROBERT REICH; watch the program
30. Robert Reich’s Blog: “
31. “California Seeks Fine Line in GHG Permitting of Bioenergy Plants” (Inside Cal/EPA, Vol. 21 No. 40, October 8, 2010); story citing MICHAEL O’HARE.
32. Robert Reich’s Blog: “Will weakening the dollar create jobs?” (Christian Science Monitor Online [*requires registration], October 5, 2010); commentary by ROBERT REICH; http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich-s-Blog/2010/1005/Will-weakening-the-dollar-create-jobs
33. “Ex-Labor Secretary Reich backs Prop. 24” (San Francisco Business Times, October 4, 2010); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/10/04/daily8.html?t=
34. “A persistent, destructive gap” (The Virginian-Pilot, October 2, 2010); op-ed citing DAVID KIRP.
35. “Book Review: Color of Money Book Club selection: Robert Reich’s ‘Aftershock’” (Washington Post, October 2, 2010); review of book by ROBERT REICH; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/02/AR2010100204100.html
36. “Propping Up
37. “Education experts say Gov. Christie’s teacher merit pay can do more harm than good for students” (The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), September 30, 2010); story citing JESSE ROTHSTEIN (MPP/PhD Econ 2003); http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/nj_educators_say_gov_christies.html
38. “Customer Discrimination” (Review of Economics & Statistics, August 2010); study citing STEVEN RAPHAEL and JESSE ROTHSTEIN (MPP/PhD Econ 2003).
… DARREN GERSH:
TRACY GORDON, VISITING FELLOW, BROOKINGS: Oftentimes, voters try to influence the budget process because they feel like they’re not sure how they got into this situation.
GERSH: To make sure they don’t get into another budget bind, five states are considering setting up or expanding rainy day funds for emergencies. But Gordon says ballot measures that set rules of the budget debate are different than the actual decisions on what and where to cut.
GORDON: Sometimes these kinds of measures can just distract attention from the hard choices that need to be made….
2. “Net Neutrality Vote by FCC Unlikely Before January Meeting” (Communications Daily, October 26, 2010); story citing DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).
--Howard Buskirk, Adam Bender
An FCC vote on net neutrality principles proposed by Chairman Julius Genachowski in September 2009 appears unlikely before the January open meeting, industry and some agency officials said. Genachowski in particular appears ready to give Congress one last chance to approve net neutrality and broadband reclassification legislation during an expected lame-duck session, though congressional action seems unlikely….
If Republicans take control of the House, as several late polls predict, Genachowski would face considerable pushback from the Hill. House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, and three other Republicans vying for the top job on the committee next year, have opposed Genachowski’s “third way” reclassification plan…
“There are several dockets at the FCC that are ripe for action—special access, wireless data roaming, retransmission consent, just to name a few,” said Derek Turner, Free Press research director. “It’s far past time for this chairman to stop worrying about the politics, and make the long-overdue policy decisions that are needed to help consumers and promote competition.” The message from Congress that the FCC should reassert its authority over broadband has been clear, Turner said. “What’s unclear is how long the commission will continue to kick the can down the road and hold up necessary decisions on responsible public policy.” …
3. “Public Housing Repairs Can’t Keep Pace with Need” (New York Times, October 25, 2010); story citing WILL FISCHER (MPP 1999); http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/nyregion/25repairs.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
By Cara Buckley
Aixa Torres sweeping chips from the growing hole in her ceiling, which now leaks. A plasterer is scheduled to come in May 2011. Meanwhile, the drip is yet to be fixed. (Ed Ou/The New York Times)
Public housing is falling apart around the country, as federal money has been unable to keep up with the repair needs of buildings more than half a century old.
Over the last 15 years, 150,000 of the nation’s public housing units have been lost, officials said, as agencies have sold or torn down decrepit properties. An additional 5,700 units are pending removal from federal public housing programs.
In
All told, the country’s housing authorities still need $22 billion to $32 billion to rehabilitate their buildings, said David Lipsetz, a senior adviser in the Office of Public and Indian Housing with the Department of Housing and Urban Development — an average of $25,000 for each of the 1.175 million public housing units….
... Elsewhere in the
country, notably in
But Will Fischer, a senior policy analyst who focuses on low-income housing at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research group, said vouchers could be harder for some populations to use successfully, especially the elderly, as not every landlord accepts them. He also found that in the long run, vouchers cost the government more money than preserving existing housing.
“The buildings are already there,” Mr. Fischer said, “It’s just a matter of renovation.”
4. “Best people, ideas to move San Francisco forward” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 24, 2010); editorial endorsements citing CARMEN CHU (MPP 2003) and candidate advised by DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/24/IN0K1FVJC3.DTL#ixzz13PlJ3zYj
Carmen Chu*
SUPERVISOR, DIST. 6
Theresa Sparks [advised by David Latterman]
SUPERVISOR, DIST. 8 …
5. “Economic study funded by Prop. 23 backers questioned” (Sacramento Bee, Oct. 24, 2010); story citing BENJAMIN ZYCHER (MPP 1974/PhD) and DAN KAMMEN; http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/24/3125692/economic-study-funded-by-prop.html
By Rick Daysog
The report had a tantalizing hook: “Proposition 23 will create 1.3 million jobs by 2020,” including 150,000 jobs next year.
Proponents of the campaign to roll back the state’s landmark greenhouse gas reduction law touted the nonprofit Pacific Research Institute’s study in an Oct. 5 news release as “good news for California’s more than 2.2 million unemployed and good news for the state’s economy.”
What they didn’t say is that the Yes on 23 campaign paid for that study.
Campaign filings show the Yes on 23 committee paid the Pacific Research Institute $40,000 on Sept. 2.
The institute’s report was the second economic study paid for by backers of the ballot measure….
Opponents of the
rollback say the payments undermine the Yes on 23 campaign’s assertion that
“They are paying for the desired result,” said Steve Maviglio, spokesman for the No on 23 committee. He said his committee did not pay for economic reports but relied on independent studies….
Ben Zycher, author of the Pacific Research Institute report, said he “wasn’t paid by the oil companies to do this paper.”
Zycher said his study, which was reviewed by outside experts,
provides an accurate account of the impacts of
“I have no idea who funded it, but I do know I wasn’t paid $40,000,” said Zycher. “If they think I was a prostitute, let them point to an error in the paper.” …
Zycher’s report goes to the heart of Proposition 23’s theme: that the climate change law will lead to higher energy prices and result in massive job losses.
Zycher argued that unemployment in
And because AB 32 will lead to higher electricity and fuel prices, Zycher predicted that the job losses will be as high as 1.3 million by 2020….
Daniel Kammen, director of the University of California, Berkeley’s
Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, recently examined the hiring
plans at 200 of the larger clean tech companies in
One key driver is a piece of the law requiring power companies to obtain up to a third of their energy supplies from clean sources such as natural gas, solar and wind.
That requirement will likely boost hiring at solar providers, wind energy companies, energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage and other green companies as local utilities seeks to find new, clean-energy sources to deliver to their customers.
“AB 32 is a net job creator and these are relatively high value, sustaining jobs,” Kammen said….
6. “Healthy S.F. plan’s enrollment up 24%” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 22, 2010); column citing TANGERINE BRIGHAM (MPP 1990) and CARMEN CHU (MPP 2003); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/22/BAKR1G0387.DTL#ixzz13PpyBs7F
--Heather Knight, Rachel Gordon
Like any thriving 3-year-old, the city’s universal health care program is bounding along. A new annual report for 2009-10 shows Healthy San Francisco, created in 2007 as the first of its kind in the nation, is having positive effects on patients’ health and the city’s bottom line.
There are currently
53,400 city residents enrolled in
Costly emergency department visits remained the same year-over-year at 164 visits per 1,000 Healthy San Francisco patients, compared to 275 E.R. visits for 1,000 residents statewide.
This all happened in a health department with less money due to the city’s continued budget deficits. The department had a $1.47 billion budget last year, down $10 million from the previous year.
“From our perspective, Healthy San Francisco is moving the way we want,” said the program’s director, Tangerine Brigham….
A haunting request: … For the third year in a row, Supervisor Carmen Chu, who represents the city’s Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods, is collecting Halloween costumes for kids in need.
Last year, her office
distributed more than 200 costumes. Donation locations include Chu’s City Hall
office; Taraval police station on
For
But
7. Perspectives: “Is There Anything You Need? Anat Shenker-Osorio often receives parenting advice as unwelcome as it is unsolicited” (KQED public radio, Oct 21-24, 2010); commentary by ANAT SHENKER-OSORIO (MPP 2005); Listen to this Perspective
By Anat Shenker-Osorio
If it didn’t take so long to make smoothies at the vegan, raw food, Jamaican stand—I wouldn’t have gotten stuck in conversation. That conversation—where an all knowing, well-meaning, stranger delivers parenting advice.
My baby, 3 months old at the time, was sucking his pacifier like it was his job.
“You know, plastic leeches toxins.”
I told the man that, yes, I knew and had received the rubber pacifier at the hospital.
“Ohhh....you had a hospital birth?”
And so it is daily for parents. Loads of unsolicited advice, delivered with a hefty side of judgment….
8. “Firm:
By Jacob Adelman, Associated Press Writer
Los Angeles—Home sales in California plunged 17.5 percent last month to reach their lowest level for a September in three years, as historically low mortgage rates and bargain prices failed to draw new buyers during a shaky economy, a tracking firm said Thursday.
San Diego-based MDA DataQuick said 33,176 homes sold in the state last month, down from 40,216 in September 2009. Sales fell 3.1 percent from 34,239 in August.
Last month’s sales were the slowest for a September since 2007, when 24,460 homes sold, and were 25.1 percent lower than the month’s average since 1988 of 44,310.
“In an ordinary
marketplace, this much low-priced inventory would be sopped up immediately,”
said Larry Rosenthal, who directs the
[This story also appeared in the <a href=“http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/21/3121952/firm-calif-home-sales-drop-18.html”>Sacramento Bee</a>]
9. “Community colleges
not preparing
By Carla Rivera,
Bryan Guillermo, a psychology major on campus at
Seventy percent of
students seeking degrees at
Conducted by the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Cal State Sacramento, the report, released Tuesday, found that most students who failed to obtain a degree or transfer in six years eventually dropped out; only 15% were still enrolled.
In addition, only about 40% of the 250,000 students the researchers tracked between 2003 and 2009 had earned at least 30 college credits, the minimum needed to provide an economic boost in jobs that require some college experience.
There were also significant disparities in the outcomes of black and Latino students. Only 26% of black students and 22% of Latino students had completed a degree or certificate or transferred after six years, compared to 37% of whites and 35% of Asian Pacific Islanders.
Latino students were half as likely as white students to transfer to a four-year university — 14% versus 29% — and black students were more likely than others to transfer to private, for-profit institutions without obtaining the credits needed for admission to the University of California or Cal State.
The findings point to a troubled college system that needs drastic revamping, said study coauthor Nancy Shulock, executive director of the higher education institute.
“It’s not an
understatement to say that the future of
The study comes as
increasing state and national attention is being focused on the critical role
played by community colleges in filling occupations that require some college
education.
Students face many barriers, including not being prepared for college-level study, as well as financial, work and family constraints. Black and Latino students, the study notes, are more likely to have attended segregated and overcrowded elementary and high schools and to have had less access to highly qualified teachers and counselors. But some community college campuses do a better job than others, and the research found that students who pass college-level math and English early in their college careers and complete at least 20 credits in their first year of enrollment had higher rates of success.
The study encourages community colleges to improve data collection about enrollment patterns and student progress and also calls for a new state funding model that rewards schools when students complete degrees and transfer….
[Read the full report at http://www.collegecampaign.org/assets/docs/stds/Divided_We_Fail_Final.pdf ]
[Another story citing Nancy Shulock appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle (October 20, 2010); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/10/20/MNN41FUHQH.DTL#ixzz12uteyTPm ]
10. “McClatchy reports drop in third-quarter profits” (Sacramento Bee, Oct. 20, 2010); story citing GARY PRUITT (MPP 1981/JD 1982); http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/20/3117206/mcclatchy-reports-drop-in-third.html#ixzz12uoQ1srY
By Dale Kasler
Still fighting the
industry-wide downturn in newspaper advertising, The McClatchy
Sacramento-based McClatchy, owner of The Bee and the nation’s third largest newspaper chain, said the slump isn’t as severe as it was a year ago. Ad sales fell 6.4 percent, while a year ago the company reported declines of 25 percent to 30 percent. Total revenue fell 5.7 percent from the third quarter of 2009 – to $327.7 million.
But the trend turned somewhat gloomier in September, the last month of the quarter, erasing some of the company’s earlier optimism.
Ad sales fell 7.3 percent in September compared with about 6 percent in July and August.
“We believe the
September advertising results reflect the uneven nature of the economic
recovery,” said Chairman and Chief Executive
Gary Pruitt in a call with investment analysts. The
When various one-time adjustments are factored out, profits fell only slightly – to $10.6 million, or 12 cents a share, from last year’s $11 million a year, or 13 cents a share. This year’s results beat analysts’ forecasts by a penny….
At McClatchy, Pruitt was encouraged by a 1.8 percent gain in help-wanted classified advertising – the segment “that reflects cyclical trends in the economy the most,” he said. Online ad revenue grew 1.6 percent during the quarter.
11. “In
By Leslie Kaufman
Captain Powerstrip, right, a k a Jerry Higgins, a school principal
in
“Don’t mention global warming,” warned Nancy Jackson, chairwoman of the Climate and Energy Project, a small nonprofit group that aims to get people to rein in the fossil fuel emissions that contribute to climate change. “And don’t mention Al Gore. People out here just hate him.”
Saving energy, though, is another matter.
Last Halloween, schoolchildren here searched for “vampire” electric loads, or appliances that sap energy even when they seem to be off. Energy-efficient LED lights twinkled on the town’s Christmas tree. On Valentine’s Day, local restaurants left their dining room lights off and served meals by candlelight.
The fever for reducing
dependence on fossil fuels has spread beyond this city of red-brick
Eisenhower-era buildings to other towns on the
Town managers attribute the new resolve mostly to a yearlong competition sponsored by the Climate and Energy Project, which set out to extricate energy issues from the charged arena of climate politics….
If the heartland is to
seriously reduce its dependence on coal and oil, Ms. Jackson and others
decided, the issues must be separated. So the project ran an experiment to see
if by focusing on thrift, patriotism, spiritual conviction and economic
prosperity, it could rally residents of six
The project’s strategy seems to have worked. In the course of the program, which ended last spring, energy use in the towns declined as much as 5 percent relative to other areas — a giant step in the world of energy conservation, where a program that yields a 1.5 percent decline is considered successful.
The towns were featured
as a case study [coauthored by Mark
Zimring] on changing behavior by the Department
of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. And the Climate and
Energy Project just received a grant from the Kansas Energy Office to
coordinate a competition among 16
[Read the report by researchers [including Mark Zimring] at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory called “Driving Demand for Home Energy Improvements.” ]
12. “Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius Holds a News Conference on the Affordable Care Act and Consumer Assistance Programs” (CQ Transcriptions, All Rights Reserved, October 19, 2010); event featuring KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
… KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: I
want to introduce Karen Pollitz, our
deputy director for consumer support in the Office of Consumer Information and
Insurance Oversight—OCIIO. Karen has dedicated her career to standing up
for health care consumers, and she’s part of a great team of consumer advocates
helping us implement this law. Karen is joining us from
KAREN POLLITZ: Thank you. Good morning, Madam Secretary. And I am also very excited about this new program and very excited to be talking about it today from the meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, because many of the programs that are receiving grants today will be housed in state insurance departments.
When Congress wrote this program into the Affordable Care Act, they had two purposes in mind. One is direct assistance to consumers. As you have mentioned, Madam Secretary, these programs will take complaints. They’ll file appeals for people when they’ve had claims denied. And they’ll help them navigate their insurance choices, understand the fine print, and understand the rights and protections that are there for them under the new law.
I myself am a mother of two, and … I’m a cancer survivor, so I understand how important it is to have health insurance to be there for you when you need it most and also how, when you’re using your insurance, it can be especially difficult to deal with your insurance problems.
Even as an insurance expert, I needed help trying to unravel some of my insurance problems, because I just wasn’t feeling up to myself, and you really do need help in these troubled times. So the direct consumer assistance is an incredibly important piece of this program.
A number of our grantees today are already established and have been in the business, and they’ve got a track record of collecting millions of dollars in health benefits for consumers, health benefits and coverage that they’re entitled to under their plan. So we’re going to keep that track record going.
These programs are also important, because they’ll have a sentinel effect. They’ll help protect consumers in the marketplace. The Affordable Care Act requires these programs to collect data and to report back to HHS and to state regulators about the kinds of problems and questions consumers are encountering and how effectively those problems can be resolved.
And that will help us to strengthen oversight. It’ll have a multiplier effect. Instead of just solving one problem at a time, it’ll be possible to kind of dig deeper into the source of the problems and maybe correct it for multiple people, even those who didn’t approach the assistance programs. And because there’ll be a watchdog of the marketplace, I think everyone will be a little more accountable and a little more careful to provide the coverage that consumers are entitled to do….
13. “Oakland Tribune editorial: We recommend Elsa Ortiz, Jeff Davis, Gavin Wilgus and Joel Young for AC Transit board. AC TRANSIT BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Ortiz, Davis, Wilgus and Young are capable of combating financial hardships” (Oakland Tribune, October 18, 2010); editorial endorsement citing JEFF DAVIS (MPP 1982); http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_16350582
THE RACES for the AC Transit board come down to a choice between trimming employee overtime and generous benefits, or reducing bus service once again.
While we appreciate the hard work of the drivers and other employees, they are well-compensated. With the district on the financial edge, with riders paying higher fares for less service, it’s time for the employees to kick in.
It’s critical that voters support candidates who understand this. For that reason, we strongly endorse the re-election of Elsa Ortiz in Ward 3 and Jeff Davis in Ward 5. We also back newcomer Gavin Wilgus in Ward 4 and cautiously endorse Joel Young for the at-large seat.
... The historically pro-labor Board of Directors, struggling to close a $56 million deficit, asked for $15.7 million in concessions from 1,750 drivers, maintenance employees, janitorial workers, clerks and purchasing agents.
The request is modest: Work rule changes to reduce overtime, a 10 percent employee contribution to health care and reduced pension benefits only for new employees. The district, generously, would continue to pay the full cost of employee pensions.
That’s more than fair in this economy, especially considering that the district currently pays the average driver a base salary, before overtime that most receive, of about $53,000 a year plus a whopping $45,400 for benefits and pension. The employees pay nothing toward health care premiums or their pension benefits….
In Ward 5, incumbent
14. “Slightly more Yolo kids living below poverty line” (Davis Enterprise, October 17, 2010); story citing JACKIE HAUSMAN (MPP 1993); http://search.davisenterprise.com/display.php?id=70723
By Anne Ternus-Bellamy;
There’s good news and
bad news about
The bad news: The
percentage of children in
All of the poverty
figures remain lower — and in some cases significantly lower — than the period
from 2005-07 when the poverty rate for
In
The advocacy group Children Now recently reported that number has dropped further in 2010, putting Yolo in the top third of counties statewide in terms of the number of children with health insurance….
It’s no surprise to
folks from First 5 Yolo and the Yolo County Children’s
That success is largely the result of excellent collaboration throughout the county, according to Jackie Hausman, program coordinator for First 5 Yolo, which covers Healthy Kids’ premiums for children under age 5 through tobacco tax proceeds….
“We have great partnerships and collaboration with social services and other agencies,” Hausman noted.
In particular, she cited
the efforts by Maria Romero of the Children’s
“Maria has done an excellent job with outreach,” Hausman said….
In fact, both women
said, there should not be a single child in
[Hausman] adds, though, that she is certain the number of children who have lost a parent’s employer-based insurance is on the rise in this down economy…..
15. “Gateway High benefit lunch matters” (San Franciso Chronicle, October 17, 2010); column citing DON FALK (MPP 1981); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/17/LVSM1FQBJ9.DTL#ixzz13Q0ieBdN
--Catherine Bigelow
Former TNDC Director Bro. Kelly Cullen (left) with TNDC Director Don Falk and Sen. Mark Leno.
… Splish-splash: It was a balmy 73 degrees poolside at the Phoenix Hotel Tuesday night—the perfect temp for tossees taking the plunge to raise $200,000-plus for the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. during the 18th Celebrity Pool Toss.
Philanthropist Jim Losi and famed foodie Tori Ritchie co-chaired, to the tunes of bandleader Bud E. Luv. SFFD Chief Joanne Hayes-White and crew burned up the stage with an impromptu dance number as Luv & Co. fired up “Burn, Baby, Burn.”
CBS-TV “Eye on the Bay” host Liam Mayclem upped the ante for chef Hubert Keller by stirring in chef Roland Passot and a promise to strip to his skivvies if more green was bid….
Which was not a problem for TNDC Director Don Falk.
“We now own 30 buildings with 25,000 units for 3,000 low-income, elderly and disabled tenants,” said Falk. “Four thousand children live in the Tenderloin. They face challenges we can’t imagine. But every day in our center, 250 children find refuge from the Tenderloin streets.” …
16. “Free Press Blasts Fox for Blocking Online Content in Cablevision Dispute” (States News Service, October 16, 2010); newswire citing S. DEREK TURNER (MPP 2006).
WASHINGTON, DC -- Reports indicate that Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of News Corporation, is blocking Cablevision high-speed Internet customers from accessing Fox.com and Hulu content. Fox’s actions raise important questions about the future of the online video market and the public interest obligations of broadcasters.
Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner issued the following statement:
“This is a very disturbing, anti-consumer move by Fox. Consumers should have the right to watch online content, and this access should not be tied to a dispute over cable television carriage arrangements. This discrimination against Cablevision high-speed Internet customers is particularly egregious because all other online viewers who do not purchase any cable television service currently have unfettered access to Hulu and Fox.com content.
“This move is also an example of a major user of public spectrum abusing the public interest. Fox’s willingness to harm Internet users as a side effect of their dispute with Cablevision over broadcasting content is a disturbing escalation of the retransmission battles, one where consumers are caught in the middle.
“This highlights the rocky future ahead for so-called “cord-cutters” who use online video services as a way to break free from the expensive and restrictive cable distribution model. We call on policymakers to dig deep into this anti-consumer tying of content and act to ensure the online video market is not destroyed in its infancy.” …
17. “Fueling a Debate; Letter-Grade Idea Gets Mixed Reviews; Public Input Sought on New Labels” (The Baltimore Sun, October 16, 2010); story citing LUKE TONACHEL (MPP 2004).
By Gregory Karp, Tribune Newspapers
It might not be as much fun as voting for your favorite performers on “American Idol” or “Dancing With the Stars,” but the federal government wants your input on new fuel-economy labels for cars.
The sticker that consumers find on new-car windows is more than 30 years old and focuses on fuel consumption and annual fuel costs.
But the miles-per-gallon information isn’t an effective measure anymore because some electric models, for example, don’t use any gallons of fuel at all.
So the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are looking at two label designs, both of which would provide additional information on fuel economy and emissions to help consumers compare makes and models, be they electric, plug-in hybrids, gas or diesel….
The most controversial component of that design is a prominent letter grade ranging from A+ to D that takes up nearly half the label and reflects the vehicle’s fuel economy and tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions.
Electric vehicles that get 117 mpg or more would rate the highest, A+, under the proposal, while a car like Ferrari’s 612 Scaglietti at 12 mpg would earn the lowest, a D, according to Bloomberg.
During a public hearing
Thursday in
But environmental advocates argue letter grades would be a simple evaluation system that all consumers understand.
“Letter grades boil down global-warming pollution and fuel consumption into a single metric that everyone understands,” said Luke Tonachel, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council….
A high-tech addition to both proposed labels is a QR Code, an interactive tool similar to a bar code that smart phones can use to access additional information online, giving consumers the ability to personalize estimates based on their own driving habits and current fuel costs….
18. “Modern demands on EU budget will drive post-2013 CAP debate” (Farmers Guardian, October 15, 2010); story citing JACK THURSTON (MPP 1999).
WHILE the debate rages over exactly how CAP money will be spent after 2013, one thing is crystal clear—the current £ 48 billion budget will be vastly reduced.
The proportion of EU money spent on the CAP has been declining steadily for more than 25 years. In 1985, three quarters of the EU budget was spent on agriculture—this year that figure has dropped to 42 per cent.
Admittedly the EU budget is fatter than 25 years ago, but the proportion of money spent on agriculture is set to slide even further to 39.3 per cent by 2013.
The trend is unlikely to be reversed in the current economic climate. Speaking at a Westminster Forum on the future CAP this week, Jack Thurston, who campaigns for transparency in the CAP, warned budget cuts of up to 30 per cent by 2020 were ‘realistic’….
19. “New option: Don’t tax the rich. Tax the really rich” (CNNMoney.com, October 13, 2010); story citing SEAN WEST (MPP 2006).
By Jeanne Sahadi, senior writer
President Obama has drawn a line on the Bush tax cuts: $250,000…..
Obama has said repeatedly that he wants to make the cuts permanent for households making below $250,000 and individuals making less than $200,000. He favors letting them expire permanently for anyone making above those amounts, arguing the economic recovery won’t be harmed by a tax increase on the wealthiest.
But many Democrats–in both the House and Senate–worry that it might and are suggesting a higher income threshold.…
And in September, 31 House Democrats, many of whom are also running for re-election, wrote a letter to the Democratic leadership calling for the temporary extension of the tax cuts for everyone.
Sean West, a U.S. policy analyst at Eurasia Group, told CNNMoney that he wouldn’t be surprised to see a compromise struck near $1 million. His reasoning: Obama, in many recent speeches, has made a point of saying the country can’t afford to borrow $700 billion “to give a tax cut worth an average of $100,000 to millionaires and billionaires.”
To West, that suggests some space for compromise to offer tax cuts to people making up to a million.
Raising the income threshold “is the type of deal that could give both sides cover,” West wrote in a recent research note. Obama would still be able to say he was raising taxes on the richest of the rich, and Republicans who say that many small businesses would get hit by the $250,000 threshold could “come on-board.”
Both West and Anne Mathias, research director at Concept Capital’s Washington Research Group, believe that whatever compromise is ultimately struck, it won’t involve the word “permanent.”
A one- to two-year fix is more likely, they say, in part because of the high cost of making the cuts permanent.
20. “Study: Prop. 19 won’t hurt Mexican cartels unless Californians export pot” (Sacramento Bee, October 13, 2010); story citing BEAU KILMER (MPP 2000); http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/13/3100144/study-prop-19-wont-hurt-mexican.html#ixzz12G236snP
By Peter Hecht
Legalization of marijuana in
Those are conclusions of a Rand Corp. report examining whether passage of California’s Proposition 19 on Nov. 2 can put a dent in Mexican marijuana trafficking or reduce drug violence south of the border.
Tuesday’s report by
Rand’s International Programs and
The report said
legalizing pot beyond medical use in
But researchers said
that could change if
Under that scenario, they said, Mexican traffickers could lose more than two-thirds of the American marijuana market – and one-fifth of their total illicit drug revenues….
Researchers from the
renowned
But researchers expressed skepticism that pot-sampling tourists would become interstate marijuana mules or that Californians would profit off 5-by-5-foot home gardens allowed under Proposition 19.
The chance that pot
legalization in
“With respect to whether
marijuana legalization in
21. “Pentagon going green, because it has to” (Agence France Presse – English, October 13, 2010); story citing DOROTHY ROBYN (MPP 1978/PhD 1983).
In the wake of a spate
of deadly attacks on tankers carrying fuel to foreign troops in
Last month, 150 Marines
from India Company, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, were the first to take
portable solar panels, solar-powered electricity generation systems, insulated
tents and energy-saving lights to the battlefield in
Other initiatives
underway range from developing hybrid tactical vehicles, deploying a
solar-powered microgrid to
The Pentagon’s push to develop alternative energy could also reduce costs for the average consumer as the military becomes a steady customer of such products.
Officials speaking at
National Energy Awareness Month events said getting access to more sources of
renewable energy would also improve national security because too much oil
consumed by the
“This is raw self-interest on our part,” Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment Dorothy Robyn told AFP. “We care about improving our energy performance because it will improve our ability to carry out our mission.”
She noted the push was part of President Barack Obama’s pledge to help build a new green economy, a “night and day” difference compared to the more staid approach of ex-president George W. Bush....
22. “Trouble brewing in workers’ comp system” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 12, 2010); story citing FRANK NEUHAUSER (MPP 1993); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/12/BUNE1FR7OM.DTL
--Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
One of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s crowning achievements, the overhaul of workers’ compensation, is in danger of unraveling as employers begin to face rising costs even though disabled workers now get less in benefits.
One sign of trouble is the state Department of Insurance hearing scheduled for today at which the group representing workers’ compensation insurers will argue that they need a 27.7 percent rate increase….
Meanwhile, injured-worker representatives say those who need this coverage most are being hurt by rule changes that have cut average awards for permanent disability in half since 2005….
Employers clearly benefited. Since 2003, when Republican Schwarzenegger ousted former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in a recall election, total outlays for workers’ comp insurance have fallen from $19.6 billion to $9.1 billion last year—savings enjoyed by every business in the state….
Frank Neuhauser, a research professor at UC Berkeley, said the medical overhauls seem to have been accomplished with minimal harm to injured workers, getting them back on the job faster than had been the case before, which is generally regarded as the best outcome for both worker and employer.
But the disability benefit cuts have engendered persistent opposition, and not just from worker advocates….
23. “
Editor’s Pick [for 5 of
10 finalists]: Amina Luqman,
... Although
my BA is in Political Science (Vassar) and my Masters is in public policy (UC
Berkeley), my passion rests with my keystrokes and my opinionated temperament.
I work part-time for an education non-profit. My voice comes from my
experiences as a professional African American woman raised Muslim, progressive
and from less than privileged circumstances. My writing delves into the American conversation around race, gender
and class….
“Black in Obama’s
By Amina Luqman | October 11, 2010; 12:00 AM ET
It can be tough to be
Black in Obama’s
However, on the eve of Obama’s inauguration there was clarity. We believed. Pew reported, in 2008, African Americans had the highest in voter turnout, up 4.9%. Among youth, Blacks had the highest increase in turnout, a whopping 8.7%. For a time we cast aside our gnawing wisdom that Obama, like every other President in recent history, would likely be unwilling to focus a political agenda on the disproportionately high needs of the Black community. We buried the thought that we might one day need to raise the issue and hold him accountable. Instead, in that moment we surrendered our personal selves to the joy of the political moment. To what his election could mean for the nation, for history, for everyone.
Since then the political water has grown muddy….
24. “Wall Street puts its chips on Republicans in elections” (Agence France Presse, October 11, 2010); newswire citing SEAN WEST (MPP 2006).
Whether to punish the Democrats for unpopular financial policies or simply out of a desire to back the winners, Wall Street is largely leaning this year towards the Republicans, judging by campaign contributions.
“Wall Street is trying
to curry favor with who they think is coming back to town,” said Sean West,
“It is as much a bet on who you think is going to win as it is a representation of whether they are pleased with the policy proposals.” …
Companies are hoping to cash in their support of Republican candidates by getting direct access to the apparent future key decision makers.
“You want to donate to the people who are going to be in power so that they answer your phone calls,” said West.
“If you think the Republicans are going to win, you definitely want to be friends with Spencer Bachus who could be the chair of the House Financial Services Committee or with John Boehner who could be speaker and prevent any bill that would punish Wall Street from getting to the floor.” …
25. “Focus on GSE Multis” (National Mortgage News, Pg. 1 Vol. 35 No. 3, October 11, 2010); story citing MAUREEN FRIAR (MPP 1990).
To date, the GSEs have made headline news because their single-family programs are drowning in red ink-but their multifamily portfolios are healthy.
The percentage of multifamily mortgages 90 days or more past due is under 1%. Freddie’s serious delinquency rate is only 32 basis points. But like the single-family business, the GSEs-along with the Federal Housing Administration-are responsible for over 90% of the multifamily loans originated in the U.S. (Of course, multifamily volumes are dwarfed by single family.)
“The soundness of the GSEs’ existing book of multifamily business opens up a range of policy options that merit consideration for more effectively meeting the nation’s current multifamily housing needs,” the NHC says in a new policy statement.
Fannie and Freddie have been in conservatorship for 25 months, and the Treasury Department’s task is to come up with a plan that will eventually liquidate their giant portfolios and create a new mortgage financing system….
The NHC wouldn’t mind if Treasury chooses to resolve the multifamily finance system first-even before it tackles single-family.
“Multifamily housing finance must be addressed directly and separately from single-family finance,” said NHC president and chief executive Maureen Friar.
“That is the only way to ensure that renters have an adequate supply of multifamily properties with affordable rents,” Friar said about the issue….
26. “An ugly, temporary
answer to
By Evan Halper
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger discusses the budget at a news conference Friday morning, after legislators approved the state’s spending plan in an overnight session. (Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press / October 7, 2010)
As the sour economy has limited lawmakers’ will to take bold action, the public is increasingly confused about what their taxes are paying for and what sacrifices would help bring the state into the black.
In a survey of 1,000
Californians conducted in June by the
The authors went to Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger’s former budget director, for some perspective.
“Reality hasn’t caught up with the voting public,” Genest told them. “Politicians have made it sound like there are other alternatives, like we can simply get rid of fraud, waste and abuse and [have] a spending freeze and ... have the same kind of government we’ve always had. ... That’s just not true.” …
27. “Pop The
By Stan Collender
In previous years we would have been breaking out the champagne on this news: The monthly budget review released yesterday by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the federal budget deficit fell by $125 billion from 2009 to 2010. This by far is the biggest one-year nominal drop in the deficit that has ever occurred.
There were two primary reasons there was no cheering yesterday.
First, it’s not at all
clear that reducing the deficit was the correct fiscal policy given the slow
growth in the
Second, in the current political atmosphere even a 50 percent reduction would have still left lots of room for those who want to do so to use the deficit as an issue. To those folks, the $125 billion reduction simply isn’t as important as the $1.29 trillion deficit that’s available for campaign fodder….
28. “
--Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer
“
In fact the state’s economy is already benefiting, the report said, because pioneering energy-efficiency efforts started in the 1970s have reduced costs for businesses and consumers.
“For energy productivity—GDP per unit energy—we’re 68 percent higher than the rest of the nation,” said Doug Henton, CEO of Collaborative Economics. “That’s a very important measure of green innovation’s impact on the economy. Increased productivity promotes competitiveness.”
Manufacturers are reining in their greenhouse gas emissions. “For every dollar of GDP generated in 2008, the state’s economy requires 32 percent less carbon than it did in 1990,” the report said….
The report disputed some common assumptions that the state suffers from high costs and an inhospitable business climate.
It’s not true that businesses are fleeing the state, Henton said. Adding up the numbers of businesses that started up compared with those that closed or moved elsewhere showed that the state gained a net average of 58,500 new businesses each year from 1995 to 2008, the report said.
[Another story citing this report was published in the Sacramento Bee (October 7, 2010): http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/07/3085807/green-jobs-rise-in-state-study.html ]
29. “The Quest for ‘Deeper Learning’” (Education Week, October 6, 2010); article by BARBARA CHOW (MPP 1980).
When I joined The William
and Flora Hewlett Foundation last year as the director of its education
program, my colleagues and I took a hard look at public education in the
Our answer was to focus on a set of skills and knowledge that reinforce each other and together promote rigorous and deeper learning….
The real world rarely offers us multiple-choice questions. Employers clamor for staff members who can solve problems by designing their own solutions and then telling co-workers how they did it. To thrive in an increasingly complex and dynamic world where routine manual and cognitive tasks are being assumed by machines, those emerging from school must be able to think analytically, find reliable information, and communicate with others.
Recent studies debunk old theories that students must first learn the basics before developing critical-thinking skills. The answer to the long-standing debate about whether to teach content or analytical skills is “yes”—students need both to succeed in the new century.
To be sure that we will work toward specific outcomes, the Hewlett Foundation has set as its goal that at the very least 15 percent of public school students will be assessed for mastery of these skills by 2017….
Every so often, an
important inflection point arrives in the never-ending debate about how to
educate our children to prepare them for the world in which they will live. The
movement for national goals and accountability was one. Growing evidence
suggests to us that this is another. With carefully targeted, and relatively
modest, investments, we think this is a time when significant change can occur.
We want to be part of that movement. With clear goals and determination, the
Barbara Chow is the director of
the education program at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, in
30. “Raise Your Hand if You See Stalemate Coming” (Roll Call, October 5, 2010); commentary by STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
By Stan Collender
As someone who for more than three decades has watched, participated in and commented on the annual debate in Washington over spending, revenues and deficits, I have a hard time believing anything positive is in store for the federal budget next year. I don’t just think a stalemate is in the offing; I see a stalemate that starts with hardened positions that get even more entrenched, bad feelings that get even more extreme, a debate that will be in worse shape when it’s over than it was at the start and one or more government shutdowns in our not-too-distant future….
First, unless something very unexpected happens Nov. 2, there will be smaller majorities in the House and Senate than have existed the past two years. Small majorities generally make legislating difficult because a handful of Members can scuttle any deal, and the extreme emotions that already exist about federal spending and taxes will make work on the budget especially challenging. Given the hardened, inconsistent and sometimes incomprehensible starting positions on the budget, factions are likely to use this power on everything including the ground rules for deficit reduction negotiations, budget resolutions, individual spending and revenue bills. They will almost certainly be prepared to withhold their participation and votes if they don’t get what they want.
Second, it’s hard to imagine that the politics of obstruction that worked so well the past two years will be abandoned in 2011….
It also means that, rather than legislative initiatives, the only changes in the federal budget outlook in 2011 will be the result of new estimates of previous actions, such as still-lower Troubled Asset Relief Program costs, and revised economic forecasts. That will mean that the projected deficit will be close to the baseline level of about $1 trillion and that a deal on the federal budget will be no closer than it is now.
Stan Collender is a partner at Qorvis Communications and founder of the blog Capital Gains and Games. He is also the author of “The Guide to the Federal Budget.”
31. “The Arab lobby; In
an excerpt from his new book, Mitchell
Bard explores the invisible alliance that undermines
By Mitchell Bard, Special to the National Post
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama made clear that one component of his agenda would be to give a high priority to pursuing Arab-Israeli peace….
Within a few weeks of taking office as the nation’s 44th president, however, Obama seemed to pick a fight with the Israeli government over its settlements policy….
The Obama policy, however, seems to fly in the face of the conspiracy theorists who have long believed in an all-powerful Jewish/Israeli lobby that controls U.S. Middle East policy to the detriment of the national interest.
How can this be explained?
The Arab lobby has
demonstrated its power by ensuring that the
- From the book THE ARAB LOBBY: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America’s Interests in the Middle East by Mitchell Bard. Copyright © 2010 by Mitchell Bard. Reprinted by arrangement with Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
32. “Economic Policy Institute Holds a Conference on Strengthening the Economy, Panel 6” (Copyright 2010 CQ Transcriptions, LLC All Rights Reserved, Financial Markets Regulatory Wire, October 5, 2010); event featuring STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).
DAVID WALKER, PETER G. PETERSON FOUNDATION
CINDY WILLIAMS, MIT
CARL CONETTA, PROJECT ON DEFENSE ALTERNATIVES
COLLENDER (Moderator): … And knowing that there are some representatives of people who do business with the Pentagon sitting in the room, I don’t want anyone to take this personally, all right? Everything you said is terrific and interesting, but isn’t there also an additional question, which is reducing military expenditures or expenditures by the military reduces profits for and revenues to companies and therefore reduces employment?
I mean, in fact, can’t
we even broaden in that further? In the current environment, how do you get
people out of
COLLENDER: You know, … Martin Feldstein had an op-ed—I think it was the Wall Street Journal probably back in January—saying that the best way to stimulate the economy would be to spend more money on defense. It was an op-ed that I took … my professional career in my own hands by (on my blog) disagreeing with a Nobel Prize winner.
Oh, well, then he said he says he did. But anyway....
(LAUGHTER)
In any case, David, … let me put you in a difficult spot, and then I’m going to ask the other two. Secretary Gates announced there’s a bunch of changes in the defense budget several months ago. It looks like to preempt what would have otherwise been some … of the people proposing changes in the defense budget.
Notice I said “changes,” not “reductions,” just for everyone’s point of view. But he announces eliminating the Central Command in …Virginia, eliminating 6,000 jobs, and the entire Virginia congressional delegation basically, including many who are big deficit hawks, went berserk, opposing it, signing letters. Should he have done it differently.... ?
33. “Crassus Was an Honorable Man: The Loss of State Services” (Calitics, October 5, 2010); blog by BRIAN LEUBITZ (MPP 2007).
By Brian Leubitz
… Firefighters in rural
Of course, this is the point of government services. They are best done by spreading the risk across all of us. Having fire departments is an expense that for years, we have all been willing to pay through our taxes, yet now we see that these services are coming in the crosshairs for Norquistian “drown the government” calls. The irony is that the right-wing calls of property as sacrosanct comes into conflict with their anti-government tendencies.
We all lose when
government is dysfunctional. And to some extent, the Tennesee community made
its bed by consistently electing politicians who told the community that this
is exactly what they should expect, a smaller and worthless government. At some
level, you get what you pay for, and if you tell your politicians that you
don’t want to pay for government, that’s exactly what they’ll give you. A
broken government. But, we’re not that hard up in
Drivers in
More than two dozen fire agencies, struggling for ways to boost sagging budgets, have begun tallying service charges at crash sites and sending bills to drivers or their insurance companies….
We shouldn’t be surprised at just how far our own government has come to resemble the lack of structure that the Romans faced 2100 years ago. That’s exactly what much of the state is asking for here too. Of course, this is just a more dramatic example, but the same situation is cropping up in the context of health services, where we are telling people that we won’t provide them in-home services anymore, or cutting off prescription coverage, or eliminating MediCal coverage. These things matter, and they are a matter of life or death for some in our state….
34. “California enacts landmark foster care legislation extending the system to age 21” (San Jose Mercury News, October 4, 2010); story citing AMY LEMLEY (MPP 1998); http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_16237965
By Karen de Sá kdesa@mercurynews.com
Aiming to improve the dismal outcomes for thousands of 18-year-olds who leave the foster care system each year alone and impoverished, California will soon provide support through age 21 via a bill described as the most significant piece of foster care legislation in two decades….
Assembly Bill 12, written by Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, and recently signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will offer far more support. The new law takes affect in January 2012, making California one of a handful of states extending full foster care benefits through age 21….
... Within two years of leaving foster care, one in four teens lands in jail. And with high school graduation rates of less than 50 percent, more than half are unemployed. Close to one in four ends up homeless within 18 months.
But a study released
last year by child welfare researchers at the University of Washington and the
University of Chicago estimated that extending foster care can change those
outcomes—and result in cost savings for California. The multiyear report
tracking young people exiting the foster care system compared Illinois—a rare
state allowing foster care through age 21—with states lacking such support.
It’s vital that the expanded foster care system be flexible, said Amy Lemley, policy director for the San Francisco-based John Burton Foundation, which was a central force behind the bill. The young adults can be free of the system for a while—and then come back—”the same way the average 18-year-old can change his or her mind and their families don’t desert them,” Lemley said.
Yet the change is not universally celebrated.
“What it does is just keep kids trapped in the government programs for several more years,” said Camille Giglio, director of the conservative group California Right to Life….
Lemley disagreed. “We can help more young people have a loving family,” she said, “and we can also help the young people we have not achieved that goal for.
35. “We Have a Drive to Drive” (The Columbus Dispatch, October 4, 2010); story citing JOE CORTRIGHT (MPP 1980); http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/10/04/we-have-a-drive-to-drive.html
By Doug Caruso, The
The mean travel time dropped in 2009 in central
The car remains king in
central
Columbus-area commuters were more likely to drive to work alone in 2009 than they were in 2008, according to numbers the U.S. Census Bureau released last week from its American Community Survey.
Rates of carpooling, bicycling and riding public transit to work all declined slightly….
For all of those commuters, the drive might have gotten easier: The mean travel time to work dropped by half a minute, from 23 minutes to 22.5 minutes, between 2008 and 2009.
That could be a function of the recession, starting late in 2007, and high gas prices in 2008, which led to Americans driving fewer miles. Higher unemployment also could mean fewer cars on the road at rush hour, experts say.
“The recession is affecting different folks differently,” said Joe Cortright, an economist who studies transportation issues for CEOs for Cities, a group that advocates compact urban development.
“If there’s less traffic, people say, ‘I’ll drive to work because it’s just not congested now.’” …
36. “The
PARTICIPANTS: Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley; Frank Sesno, director of GWU’s School of Media and Public Affairs; Reginald Dale, director of the Transatlantic Media Network; Sean Aday, director of GWU’s Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication; Arnaud de Borchgrave, senior adviser to CSIS; Robert Entman, professor at GWU’s School of Media and Public Affairs; Matthew Hindman, assistant professor of GWU’s School of Media and Public Affairs; Ginna Lindberg, U.S. correspondent at Swedish Radio; and Edward Luce, Washington bureau chief of the Financial Times….
37. “PUBLIC HEALTH; Centralized health care more cost-effective, offers better access to preventive services” (NewsRx Health & Science, October 3, 2010); story citing ARTURO VARGAS-BUSTAMANTE (MPP/MPH 2004/PhD 2008).
Families from rural
The findings are published in the September issue of the Journal of Social Science and Medicine and are currently available online.
The data were drawn from
a comprehensive survey of 8,889 rural families from seven states in
“We find that the Mexican experience can be useful to other developing countries in Latin America (e.g. Chile or Brazil) and other areas of the developing world (e.g. China, Iran, Turkey) where relatively professional centralized governments have considered decentralization as a policy mechanism to reform their national health systems,” said Arturo Vargas Bustamante, the study’s lead investigator and an assistant professor of health services at the UCLA School of Public Health….
The study suggests that decentralization may be less effective because state governments do not always match the public resources that are taken away by the federal government.
The researchers note that the single advantage enjoyed by those served by decentralized clinics is access to health campaigns. These are useful in providing basic interventions such as vaccinations, screenings and health education. The study suggests that decentralized providers could reduce users’ out-of-pocket costs by offering more mobile health services and strengthening the network of clinics where follow-up treatments would be available to people reached by health campaigns.
38. “District 10 candidates face diverse challenge” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 3, 2010); story citing DAVID LATTERMAN (MPP 2002); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/03/BAA71FN0LI.DTL#ixzz13PwN8uG4
--John Wildermuth, Chronicle Staff Writer
When Malia Cohen, a
graduate of historically black
The district, which also
includes Bayview-Hunters Point, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch and Portola, has long
been a center of
“It’s an extraordinarily diverse area that’s a lot more Asian than it was 10 years ago,” when Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, the only African American supervisor, was first elected, said David Latterman, a San Francisco political analyst. “But whoever is elected will be shepherding big changes, and they better be ready for it.” …
39. “Pentagon gives wind projects green light” (The Oregonian, October 2, 2010); story citing DOROTHY ROBYN (MPP 1978/PhD 1983); http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/10/pentagon_oks_new_oregon_and_wa.html
By Scott Learn, The Oregonian
Pentagon officials said
Friday that they have approved eight
Radar settings at the Fossil surveillance station, opened in 1958, were tweaked in September to reduce interference. The station also will be the military’s key test site for technological upgrades designed to address interference problems that have threatened to stall wind-energy projects nationwide, said Dorothy Robyn , deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment….
Upgrades to be tested at the Fossil station include an auxiliary processor and an “adaptive clutter map” to better edit out false targets, Robyn said. If those interim steps don’t work well enough, the military could add supplemental stations or replace the station entirely.
Going forward, the Pentagon will raise concerns earlier in the wind farm application process, Robyn said. Defense officials also are talking with the wind industry about sharing the costs of improving, augmenting or replacing radar stations to reduce interference.
Upgrading technology costs roughly $1 million to $2 million a station, Robyn said, and replacing a station costs in the tens of millions.
40. “ADDICTION MEDICINE;
On a vote of 7 to 3
today, public health and safety triumphed as
The ordinance is
“Even though Mayor Newsom has a conflict of interest from his wine sales, he can still legally veto the ordinance,” stated Bruce Lee Livingston, executive director of Marin Institute, the alcohol industry watchdog. “So fee advocates are now calling on Mayor Newsom to recuse himself and do nothing, that will save lives.” If the mayor takes no action on the measure, it becomes law….
41. Editor’s Choice: “Center For Resource Solutions; AB 32 Could Save Billions in Energy Costs” (Energy & Ecology, October 1, 2010); story citing CHRIS BUSCH (MPP 1998/MS ARE 2000).
The
The study, “Shockproofing Society: How California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) Reduces the Economic Pain of Energy Price Shocks,” calculates the savings from added protections against energy price spikes achieved from implementing AB 32 through effective standards adopted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Savings occur from reduced demand for and dependence on imported oil and natural gas through a suite of standards that result in more efficient cars that cost less to drive, greater alternative fuel options, more renewable energy, better-planned neighborhoods that give people transportation options, and buildings that use less energy….
The study considered scenarios for “moderate” and “large” price shocks on two different spending conditions: 1) direct savings to consumers on transportation fuels, such as drivers purchasing gasoline, and industrial consumers buying oil and natural gas products; and 2) savings on imports that follow from reduced reliance on crude oil and natural gas. Essentially, these are two ways of looking at the same savings.
Chris Busch, report author and Policy Director at the Center for Resource Solutions noted that, “Since the 1970s, American political leaders and the public have recognized the problem of our dependence on imported oil. Yet, our reliance on these imports has only gotten worse. In our report, we give the first assessment of how AB 32 will protect consumers from the volatile prices of oil and natural gas. And we found that the savings are significant.”
[To read the study, go to www.resource-solutions.org/publications , or www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1229 , or www.einow.org . ]
42. “NHTSA may require 62 mpg by 2025” (Detroit News, October 1, 2010); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://detnews.com/article/20101001/AUTO01/10010427/NHTSA-may-require-62-mpg-by-2025
--David Shepardson /
The administration said it is considering annual increases in fuel efficiency ranging from 3 to 6 percent between 2017 and 2025, which equates to a fleetwide average of 47 mpg and 62 mpg by the period’s end. The range of costs per vehicle is $770 to $3,500, depending on the stringency….
But the Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say under all scenarios, consumers would save money over the lifetime of ownership…..
The governors of New York, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Washington also want the administration to boost the efficiency of medium- and heavy-duty trucks by at least 35 percent when they set the first ever standards for those larger trucks, as required under a 2007 energy law….
“The problem with
setting the bar at just a 3 percent improvement per year is that it puts the
43. “ChinaSF to open
office in
--Andrew S. Ross
Ginny Fang, ChinaSF. (Photo: Michael
Micael / DP&A Inc.)
San Francisco’s foreign trade office is
spreading its wings.
ChinaSF, a
public-private initiative launched by Mayor Gavin Newsom two years ago in
While the San
Francisco-Shanghai connection has resulted in the opening of 10 Chinese company
branches in
The
44. “Coloradans want more oil and gas regulations, new NWF poll finds” (The Colorado Independent, October 1, 2010); story citing DAVE METZ (MPP 1998); http://coloradoindependent.com/63173/coloradans-want-more-oil-and-gas-regulations-new-nwf-poll-finds
By David O. Williams
A young buck in West Vail on Friday. (Photo
by David O. Williams)
A new poll released Thursday by the National Wildlife Federation found that nearly two-thirds of Coloradans surveyed favor more oversight of the states oil and gas industry, as well as mandatory requirements for best technological practices to better protect public health and wildlife habitat….
Addressing reporters on a conference call the same day U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced tougher new offshore drilling regulations, John Gale, regional representative of the National Wildlife Federation, said onshore drilling regulations are just as critical, if not more so….
The new bipartisan NFW poll was a telephone survey of 462 Coloradans of different backgrounds and political persuasions. It asked the respondents to choose between two statements.
‘‘We poll for Democrats in partisan races, said Dave Metz of the public opinion research firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, ‘‘and we partnered with Public Opinion Strategies, which polls for Republicans in partisan races, to make sure that the research had a bipartisan perspective….
Here are the statements presented to respondents in the NWF telephone survey:
33 percent agreed with this statement:
The oil and gas industry continually strives to build upon its record of safety and to develop the advanced technology necessary to supply Americans with the energy they need safely, efficiently and with the least environmental impact possible. Adding new regulations or slowing down permitting will only end up costing jobs and raising prices.
62 percent agreed with this statement:
Oil and gas drilling can
be done safely, but not if we simply trust oil and gas companies to police themselves.
Whether drilling occurs in our oceans or here in
45. “ARB Punts Key Issues on Clean Energy Rule to Stakeholder Group” (Inside Cal/EPA, Vol. 21 No. 39, October 1, 2010); story citing LAURA WISLAND (MPP 2008).
The California air board Sept. 23 adopted its controversial 33% renewable energy regulation, but not before deferring a critical debate over implementation and enforcement issues to an informal stakeholder working group expected to battle over how renewable energy credits (RECs) can be used for compliance and how penalties will be enforced under the rule.
In an attempt to appease utilities, labor unions, environmentalists and others, the board amended the rule before adoption to establish the stakeholder group, ease penalties for non-compliance and reevaluate a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) decision limiting the amount of RECs used for compliance.
But environmentalists at last week’s meeting expressed concerns about the board’s decision to defer key implementation issues to a new stakeholder working group overseen by the board. Utility representatives, meanwhile, raised concerns about the board’s desire to harmonize the rule with the CPUC decision on RECs….
The CPUC proposed decision earlier this year put a 25% limit on the amount of out-of-state RECs that utilities may use to comply with the state’s existing renewable portfolio standard law….
Laura Wisland of the Union of Concerned Scientists said the last-minute resolution language to harmonize the CPUC and ARB policies “opens the door to resolving our concerns on over-reliance on RECs.”
However, Wisland also described the regulation as “a stopgap measure and not an alternative to a law,” in reference to the fact that environmentalists strongly prefer a 33% standard to be enacted under statute instead of through an executive order….
46. “The Folly of Age; Older but wiser? Don’t count on it. New brain research shows exactly how much help sixtysomethings need with financial decisions, and it’s a lot” (Bank Investment Consultant, October 2010); story citing NICOLE MAESTAS (MPP 1997/PhD Econ 2002).
By David E. Adler
… Research into how the elderly make decisions is one of the hottest areas of behavioral finance right now. The conclusions are often counterintuitive and even unsettling. The aging brain puts even the most detail-oriented, accomplished seniors at ease with impulsive moves and therefore leaves them vulnerable to scams as well as plain old poor decisions. Everything will work out, they tell themselves-they got this far, didn’t they? Therefore, it behooves advisors to familiarize themselves with these very new findings from neuroscientists and other researchers in order to help their elderly clients.
What is the defining characteristic of the elderly client? “Vulnerability,” says Nicole Maestas, an economist at the Rand Corporation, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based think tank. “A 40-year-old could easily have problems handling complex financial decisions, but the problems are much worse in a 65-year-old, and the difference is clearly age-related,” she says. We are not talking about Alzheimer’s or dementia here, but about fully functioning individuals. Maestas studied people’s ability to navigate the Medigap insurance market. These plans are highly standardized, and yet people pay wildly different prices. Maestas calls the disparity “puzzling.” According to standard economics, people should buy the lowest cost product, she says, but that wasn’t the case.
Why not? According to Maestas, the decision is so complex that people turn to insurance agents for help, and whether the advice is bad or good, they take it. The price variation “shows the vulnerability of the elderly when facing agents” as well as their inability to determine the lowest-cost policy on their own. Medigap purchasers tend to be the affluent and well educated, yet even these consumers are making poor decisions and are vulnerable to their agents’ sales pitches, Maestas adds.
At the same time, as Maestas points out, “there is heterogeneity in the pace of the decline.” Not all the elderly are equally marked by diminished decision-making ability, with the highly educated tending to be more resilient. Nonetheless, in general, the old are different….
47. Governor Ignores Doctors and Experts, Vetoes HIV Prevention Bill” (States News Service, October 1, 2010); newswire citing LAURA THOMAS (MPP/MPH 1995).
SB 1029, authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), would have brought California in line with every other state in the nation (except two) to no longer prohibit pharmacists from selling a syringe without a prescription. Most states amended their laws in light of overwhelming evidence that criminalizing access to sterile syringes led drug users to share used ones, and that sharing syringes spread HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases that can live in a used syringe….
“It’s tragic and
infuriating that 30 years into the AIDS epidemic, that there are still
politicians like Schwarzenegger who would rather ignore the scientific evidence
and the recommendations of public health experts when it comes to needle
exchange and syringe access through pharmacies,” said Laura Thomas, Deputy
California State Director for Drug Policy Alliance. “It is an irrational
attachment to drug war hysteria, at the expense of human life and fiscal
responsibility to the
48. “Today’s Events in
White House: …
49. “Administration’s Proposed Fuel Efficiency Plan Shows Promise” (Targeted News Service, October 1, 2010); newswire citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992) and LUKE TONACHEL (MPP 2004).
Natural Resources Defense Council Transportation Program Director
Roland Hwang said the higher standard will lead to greater reductions in
harmful emissions while making the
“The
50. “MALDEF and Other Groups File Amicus Brief Opposing Arizona’s Racial Profiling Law” (Targeted News Service, October 1, 2010); newswire citing KAREN TUMLIN (MPP 2003/JD 2004).
SAN FRANCISCO -- MALDEF and a coalition of civil rights groups today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, urging the court to keep in place an injunction blocking the core provisions of SB 1070, Arizona’s racial profiling law….
The coalition’s brief illustrates the serious harms that the Friendly House plaintiffs and other individuals would suffer if the blocked sections of SB 1070 were to go into effect, including improper questioning and detention, racial profiling, and curtailment of lawful activity. The friend-of-the-court brief also supplements the legal analysis presented by the parties in earlier court filings and arguments….
Karen Tumlin, Managing Attorney,
51. “Senators Back Trade
Treaties with
By Michael Bruno
After three years of
negotiations within two White House administrations and two full sessions of
Congress, a key Senate committee has forwarded groundbreaking export licensing
treaties with
For starters, the deals are being accompanied by new Foreign Relations legislation that tries to address long-standing balance-of-power concerns that have held up the treaties so far.
To become law, legislation must pass both chambers of Congress and at least not be vetoed by the president. Treaties, by comparison, only require presidential signature and Senate ratification. If doubting senators demand enactment of the legislation first, House members will get to play an unscripted role in ratifying the treaties.
Advocates at the Washington-based Arms Control Association are calling for the Senate to shelve the deals because they want a more holistic—and more congressional—framework.
“The Senate should indefinitely defer consideration of these treaties because they would create country-specific exemptions from export licensing of military items, which invites opportunities for diversion and misuse,” says ACA Executive Director Daryl Kimball,
Moreover, ACA Deputy Director Jeff Abramson says
the House deserves more say in the matters. “In negotiating these treaties, the
Bush administration sought to circumvent the House of Representatives, which
plays a vital role in monitoring
Over the summer, British
officials openly advertised their disappointment that the
But ACA’s Abramson argued last week that even more consideration is needed. “Leaders in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have done a good job of attaching useful strings, but this treaty approach remains deeply flawed.”
52. “Bank of
CHARLOTTE, NC and SAN DIEGO, CA -- Aiming to help create more jobs, Bank of America has collaborated with CDC Small Business Finance to assemble the nation’s first pool of U.S. Small Business Administration 504 first-mortgage loans for sale under SBA’s new secondary market program. Bank of America’s purchase of these loans allows loan originators to make more credit available to small businesses.
Through the first-mortgage pooling program, Bank of America initially purchased $27.2 million in SBA-504 loans and created an SBA guaranteed pool of $25.6 million for distribution to investors. The SBA-504 program is intended to provide financing for the purchase of fixed assets, such real estate, buildings and equipment. Bank of America was the largest bank 504 lender last year.
“The secondary market
for SBA-504 loans has been frozen for two years,” said Kurt Chilcott, president of CDC Small Business Finance, the largest
CDC SBA-504 lender in the
53. “Entrenched
Republican Faces Test” (
By Zusha Elinson
Fang at a recent BART meeting. (Thor Swift/The Bay Citizen)
Out of
That is James Fang, who has served on the Bay Area Rapid Transit board for 20 years, overseeing the trains that each day carry more than 300,000 commuters over 104 miles of track. The pugnacious, well-connected son of the powerful Fang family, which once published the San Francisco Examiner and Asian Week, has been re-elected for five straight terms.
“It’s muscle memory: The
Fang family is known in
54. “‘Merchant of Death’
Viktor Bout Will Never Be Extradited To
The
Since then, the stakes have been huge. Russia has made Bout’s release a keystone of its foreign policy—Vladimir Kozin of the Russian Foreign Ministry has warned American officials that the “reset’ of Russian-American relations won’t happen if Bout is sent to America.
No one is sure what influenced
the appeals court’s decision to allow the extradition, but the success of the
“The decision won’t stop the Russian efforts to get him back,’ said Jeff Abramson, deputy director of the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan Washington-based group that studies arms proliferation around the world. “They will find a way to continue to let him go.”…
55. “Restoring
confidence is key to economic growth” (Journal Inquirer (
Mickey Levy is Bank of America’s chief economist, Mickey D. Levy analyzes and forecasts national and international economic performance and financial market behavior and conducts research on monetary and fiscal policies. Levy, a widely quoted economic observer, is also an adviser to several Federal Reserve Banks….
Harlan Levy: … What should be done?
MICKEY LEVY: With regard to the government budget deficits, we need a long-term plan that will eventually cut deficits without doing so immediately. That will build credibility with the public and restore confidence that we’re getting back on track.
It’s widely acknowledged by experts on both sides of the political aisle that in order to achieve long-run fiscal responsibility the entitlement programs must be cut. What is needed is a meaningful compromise that combines spending cuts that require restructuring benefit schedules and tax increases that are implemented with a lag, so they do not affect near-term economic conditions. Restoring confidence is a key factor that would help the current economic environment and reduce some of the uncertainty that’s hanging over household and business decision-making.
State and local governments must also address their massive fiscal problems. I fully recognize the political obstacles to doing so, but unsustainably generous public-sector pensions must be adjusted for future generations of workers.
H.L.: What are some specific things to do?
MICKEY LEVY: Extensions of unemployment compensation are humanitarian and necessary obviously in these difficult economic times. People need support, and the government should provide it.
We all know that many households need to save more and reduce their debt levels, and that will constrain the rate of growth of consumer spending. That makes the job of stimulating growth difficult.
So I would like to see more government spending on infrastructure projects that actually add to our productivity and productive capacity. I’m not talking about political patronage jobs or other such wasteful projects. I would like to see a true efficient upgrade of our energy policy and energy grid. I would also like to see more permanent government subsidies for research and development, and I would like to see fewer disincentives for exporting companies….
56. “Big plans for
--John Coté
By the numbers: There’s good news for next year’s budget—if you call a roughly $460 million hole good news.
But it is less than the $522 million budget gap that was closed this fiscal year, and far less than the $712 million that had been projected for fiscal 2011-12 before this year’s deficit was filled….
“This is easily dealt with,” Mayor Gavin Newsom said earlier this week after addressing a gathering of business leaders, where he ticked off recent fiscal successes like preserving the city’s bond rating and balancing the budget without raising taxes or laying off police and firefighters….
City fees were raised on everything from catering service to ambulance rides, and labor unions for city staff agreed to more than $200 million in concessions over two years and the layoff of up to 425 workers, although only 134 have been given pink slips so far.
Those union givebacks are projected to cut about $62 million from next year’s deficit, part of at least $250 million the city expects to see chopped off the $712 million shortfall projected earlier, says a recent memo from Newsom’s budget director, Greg Wagner, that The Chronicle obtained….
57. “Letters / Health care, state trade, racism” (Sacramento Bee, September 15, 2010); Letter to Editor by KELLY ABBETT HARDY (MPP/MPH 2004).
A way to help
Re “Federal health
reform is hardly sitting idle” (Editorial, Sept. 13): The editorial rightly
observes that children will be among the new health care law’s early winners.
But the opportunity for
More than 700,000
Sacramento-area residents can become part of the solution by asking their kids’ principal or child care provider, or their PTA president, faith leader or boss to let parents know that they can call (877) KIDS-NOW for help and information. And area lawmakers can help by committing to a budget that keeps Medi-Cal and Healthy Families strong.
With their leadership, kids won’t have to wait for the health care they need to grow and thrive.
-- Kelly Hardy,
58. “John Ford’s ‘lost film,’ ‘Upstream,’ looks good after restoration. Screening at AMPAS reveals hard work of restoration team paid off; more films await repair” (Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2010); story citing ANNETTE MELVILLE (MPP 1992); http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-ford-film-20100903,0,5646533.story
By Susan King
Nancy Nash and Earle Foxe costarred in “Upstream.” (Margaret Herrick Library)
The audience’s
anticipation was palpable Wednesday evening at the
How did it hold up? More than 80 years after its original premiere, the silent movie still provoked frequent laughs from the appreciative audience. At the finale, there was thunderous applause….
“Upstream” was one of 75
American silent films on highly combustible nitrate stock that had been stored
at the New Zealand Film Archive. In June, it was announced that the National Film Preservation Foundation
and the archive had formed a partnership to preserve and make these films
available. The five silent film archives—the Academy Archive, George Eastman
House, the Library of Congress, the
After the screening there was an onstage discussion about the discovery of the films with Mike Pogorzelski, director of the Academy Film Archive: Schawn Belston, senior vice president, library and technical services at Fox Filmed Entertainment; Annette Melville, director of the National Film Preservation Foundation; and Frank Stark, chief executive of the New Zealand Film Archive….
59. “UW-Madison Researchers Release Wisconsin Poverty Report: New Measure Tells New Story” (States News Service, September 2, 2010); newswire citing JULIA BIXLER ISAACS (MPP 1985).
Produced by the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the report issued today (Sept. 2) uses a more complete accounting of both resources and need to determine the state poverty rate than traditional measures….
Most areas within the state have poverty rates that are slightly higher than the official poverty rate. The statewide poverty rate would be even higher, however—2.0 percentage points higher—but for the financial resources provided by tax credits, nutrition assistance, public housing and energy assistance, the report says….
The report’s authors say
its findings demonstrate that the official poverty measure, while useful, is
not providing an accurate tally of Wisconsinites whose basic needs outweigh
their resources, nor does it tell policymakers what they need to know to gauge
the effectiveness of public programs such as nutrition assistance (FoodShare in
The official measure does not consider work-related expenses, such as transportation and child care, or out-of-pocket medical expenses, the authors say, which reduce income that could be spent on food, housing and other basic needs, whereas all of these are accounted for in the Wisconsin measure….
Poverty experts, including many IRP researchers, have called for these changes on the national level for many years. IRP researchers incorporated many of those recommendations into the Wisconsin Poverty Measure as well as policies and priorities unique to the state.
The Wisconsin Poverty Measure was developed by [Tim Smeeding, director of the IRP] with Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution; Joanna Young Marks, an IRP researcher; and the IRP programming team….
60. “The 4th Annual Condé Nast Traveler World Savers Awards” (Condé Nast Traveler, Pg. 141 Vol. 45 No. 9 ISSN: 0893-9683, September 2010); story citing KARA HARTNETT HURST (MPP 1998).
There is a cornucopia of wonderful travel experiences on the following pages—but they have another quality. Increasingly, we are looking for authenticity, connection, and, most important, the chance to help (or at least not to harm) the places that give us pleasure. This is what global citizenship is all about. The companies recognized in these, our annual World Savers Awards, have been creative in protecting, conserving, and supporting natural environments and local communities….
How, exactly, are these awards judged? Eight industry sectors can enter: small hotel chains (fewer than 20 properties), large hotel chains, city hotels, small resorts (fewer than 50 rooms), large resorts, tour operators, cruise lines, and airlines. All are assessed on how they exhibit social responsibility in five areas: Education Programs, Health Initiatives, Poverty Relief, Preservation (Environmental/Cultural), and Wildlife Conservation….
THE JUDGES
DAVID ALPORT, senior director of corporate strategic partnerships, Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
DOMINIQUE CALLIMANOPULOS, founder, Elevate Destinations
BILL CHAMEIDES, dean,
PAMELA CONOVER, CEO, Yachts of Seabourn
ANDREW COSSLETT, CEO, InterContinental Hotels Group
LAURIE DAVID, co-producer, An Inconvenient Truth
KEVIN DOYLE, news editor, Condé Nast Traveler
DORINDA ELLIOTT, deputy editor, Condé Nast Traveler
MARCIA GAY HARDEN, actor, environmental activist
ERIKA HARMS, executive director, Tourism Sustainability Council
MARILU HERNANDEZ, co-founder, Grupo Plan; president, Fundacion Haciendas del Mundo Mayas
MARTHA HONEY, co-director, Center for Responsible Travel
KARA HARTNETT HURST, vice president, Business for Social Responsibility
RON MADER, president, Planeta.com
HITESH MEHTA, sustainable hotel designer, author
BRIAN MULLIS, president, Sustainable Travel International
GILLES PELISSON, CEO, Accor
KATE ROBERTS, vice president, Population Services International
FRITS VAN PAASSCHEN, CEO, Starwood Hotels and Resorts
DARRELL WADE, CEO, Intrepid Travel
TENSIE WHELAN, president, Rainforest Alliance
GARY WHITE, executive director, Water.org
61. “Seattle Port CEO receives glowing review, declines 4% raise” (Seattle Times, August 25, 2010); story citing HOWARD GREENWICH (MPP 1999); http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012712459_taypay25m.html
By Keith Ervin:
But with rising public concern about pay and benefits for public employees, it wasn’t clear how many of the five Port commissioners would have voted for the raise….
Even without a raise, Yoshitani, who was hired in 2007, earns far more than Gov. Chris Gregoire, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine, all of whom are paid under $200,000….
Among those who opposed
the proposed raise was Howard Greenwich,
research director of
“I can’t say I talked to anybody who wasn’t outraged and found it preposterous at this time, particularly with every other top public official turning down cost-of-living adjustments and salary raises,” he said.
62. “The Definition of Patient Centered Health Care, Courtesy of Health Affairs” (Disease Management Care Blog, August 15, 2010); blog citing CARA LESSER (MPP 1994).
By Jaan Sidorov
When Disease Management Care Blog readers were wondering just what the literature had to say about the catchphrase “care management,” they were in luck. When readers wanted to know more about the policy underlying Accountable Care Organizations, the DMCB responded. Health insurance exchanges?
No problem. The same is now true for the term “patient centered (medical) healthcare,” courtesy of Ronald Epstein, Kevin Friscella, Cara Lesser and Kurt Strange writing in the August issue of Health Affairs.
Quoting the IOM’s Quality Chasm report, the authors define it as any care that is “respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values, and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.”
This means the system has to promote doctor-patient relationships that are:
1) a two way relationship, where the patient’s responsibility is to learn about the disease and share his/her preferences, while the providers have to embrace the patient’s values, beliefs, hopes and ways of dealing with adversity. Ultimately, consensus is achieved.
2) enriched by teaming, since no single provider can manage it all.
3) reliant on “framing,” in which the health care providers “tailor” the information they provide in response to patient literacy, concerns, beliefs and expectations
4) deliberative, because expectations and circumstances change over time.
Why is this necessarily a good thing? The authors argue it’s not only the “right thing to do,” but quote studies suggesting that it is associated with improved care (quality), improved well-being (quality of life), reductions in disparities, lower costs, fewer allegations of malpractice and increases in patient safety….
[Ronald M. Epstein, Kevin Fiscella, Cara S. Lesser and Kurt C. Stange: Why the nation needs a policy push on patient centered health care. Health Affairs, 29, no. 8 (2010): 1489-1495]
63. “Democracy in
By J.P.P
WHEN it comes to
criminal justice, Winston Churchill’s saying that Americans can be relied on to
do the right thing after they have tried everything else has to be modified:
the right thing tends to get its day only when states run out of cash. A squeezed
budget is one reason why
With some unlikely people now receptive to the idea that it would be good to imprison fewer people, a new book looking at failed experiments in criminal justice over the past decade or so is well timed. The premise of “Learning from Failure” by Greg Berman and Aubrey Fox of New York’s Center for Court Innovation is that research into criminal justice suffers because so much attention is paid to programmes that succeeded and so little to the flops. The effect is familiar to pharmaceutical companies: a handful of successful drug trials get headlines while thousands of failures, with all the promising hypotheses they entail and data that they can yield, are forgotten.
The authors try to correct this bias by examining six programmes that excited lots of interest from fellow researchers (and even from the White House) but ultimately failed. A handful of problems recur, killing off the best experiments: …
“Learning from Failure”
aims to prompt changes in
64. “Congress should approve additional Medicaid money for states” (Seattle Times, June 18, 2010); commentary by REBECCA KAVOUSSI (MPP 2001); http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2012154194_guest19trupin.html
By Remy Trupin and Rebecca Kavoussi, Special to The Times
THE debate in
Do we want to help families struggling to stay afloat in a devastating national recession? Or do we want to turn them away — damaging the economy and threatening this fragile recovery in the process?
In a June 13 editorial
[“State shouldn’t bank on Medicaid money”], The Seattle Times editorial board
argued that Congress should not approve a measure that would provide
But it’s not the amorphous “state” that’s going to have to live without. The people struggling in this recession are those who are going to go without — possibly without health care, without the quality of education we all want for our children.
Without the nearly $500 million, there would have to be even more state budget cuts on top of those we’ve made. And those cuts have been deep….
... In all, we’ve already cut $4 billion out of the budget this recession.
Those cuts have harmed our children’s education by not reducing classroom sizes as much as voters demanded. We’ve allowed the list of people waiting to get on the state’s Basic Health Plan to grow longer than the number of people actually receiving health coverage. And the cuts have meant thousands of lost jobs for teachers, nurses and other service providers.
We’ve already “lived without.” …
In the midst of this recession, we should be able to agree to band together and protect investments like education and health care. And that we should lend a hand to those who are looking for work.
Remy Trupin, is executive director of the
1. “Fed’s fake-jobs program won’t work” (San Francisco Chronicle October 31, 2010); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/31/INFT1G2FN4.DTL#ixzz144XO9VQl
--Robert Reich
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke. (Photo: Ahn Young-joon / AP)
The Fed’s jobs program is designed to keep interest rates low by pumping even more money into the economy (“quantitative easing” in Fed speak). The Fed will buy up lots of Treasury bills and other long-term debt to reduce long-term interest rates. The Fed believes low long-term rates will generate more jobs because companies will expand, exports will increase and consumers will refinance their homes.
Unfortunately, the Fed’s jobs program won’t work. It will just pump up another speculative bubble.
Lower interest rates would boost the economy under normal circumstances when consumers aren’t deeply in debt. But Americans are still beaten down by the Great Recession. Without a real jobs program that puts them back to work, cheaper money doesn’t help….
So if the Fed’s easy money won’t create more jobs and won’t find its way into the pockets of most Americans, where will the money go? Into another stock-market bubble….
© 2010 Robert Reich. Robert Reich, former
2. “Tea Party purists lose sight of art of compromise” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 31, 2010); commentary citing AARON WILDAVSKY; http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-10-31/opinion/24799976_1_tea-party-purists-supporters
By John H. Bunzel
(Credit: Joshua Lott / Getty Images)
The
battle raging among Republicans, as the “righter-than-thou” Tea Party reformers
fight to take control of the party, revives memories of the unique Goldwater
Republican Convention in 1964.
In what is often recalled as one of the great
mysteries of recent American politics, the convention delegates nominated Barry
Goldwater as their presidential candidate, fully aware that the outspoken
senator from
The Goldwater phenomenon marked the first time that insistence on ideological conformity was regarded as far more important than winning. To maintain the purity of their convictions, the delegates made clear they would rather “lose the election and be right.” As the late UC Berkeley political scientist Aaron Wildavsky observed, the distinguishing characteristics of the purists were their “adherence to internal norms” (to what they believe “deep down inside”), their rejection of compromise, and their “lack of orientation toward winning”—in short, “integrity, consistency, and the possession of private principles” they will not bargain away....
3. “Rich getting too much of the pie, says
ex-labor secretary” (Providence Journal-Bulletin (
By Donald D. Breed, Special to the Journal
It is a moral scandal that while the real incomes of low- and middle-income Americans have declined, incomes of the very rich have continued to soar. And it’s obscene that billionaire hedge fund operators pay federal taxes at a lower percentage than ordinary workers.
To Robert
Reich, it’s even worse than that. The increasing disparity of incomes, he
says, is slowing down the
Reich
was secretary of labor in the Clinton Administration and now is professor of public policy at the
He looks back on what he calls The Great American Prosperity, 1947 to 1975, when the top marginal tax rate was as high as 94 percent (91 percent in the Eisenhower administration), labor unions were strong and good jobs were available.
He calls this the Basic Bargain: If American
middle-class consumers are paid enough a fair share they will be able to
consume what the nation is capable of producing. But if the bargain is broken,
as it is now, and too much goes to the super-rich, the economy will lag.
Because for all their multiple seaside mansions and expensive
Reich proposes a series of reforms, starting with a reverse income tax for lower incomes, lower tax rates for middle incomes and higher rates for the rich. He also proposes a carbon tax to pay for the shortfall. And there are other features, including Medicare for all (instead of the new health plan) and a reemployment plan under which people who take lower-paying jobs would get most of the difference back as a subsidy.
4. “US ties with
--Tom Raum, Associated Press
Washington (AP) — In these angry political times,
Democrats and Republicans agree on next to nothing.
Democrats and Republicans are accusing each other
of cozying up to
In a recent NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, 53 percent
of those surveyed said free-trade agreements have hurt the
“Think of it. The ground troops for both parties —
tea party Republicans and union Democrats — believe free trade is bad,”
suggests Robert Reich, who was labor
secretary in the
[This story appeared in more than 100 sources nationwide, including <a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/money/topstories/2010-10-30-865189518_x.htm“>USA Today</a>, <a href=“http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16476904“>San Jose Mercury News</a>, <a href=“http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/30/3144988/china-bashing-is-bipartisan-in.html“>Sacramento Bee</a>, and <a href=“http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_16476904“>Contra Costa Times</a>]
5. “Divided states of
By Simon Mann
… Just two years after the country swung wildly to the Democratic cause the political pendulum is poised to swing all the way back—and some—in Tuesday’s midterm elections as a Republican Party being driven sharply to the right by the populist no-holds-barred Tea Party reclaims the language of political triumphalism: “We’re taking back the country,” they cry. And from a “socialist”, no less!
… Whither
As [Fareed] Zakaria tells it, Americans are worried beyond the current debate over whether fiscal stimulus or deficit reduction is the right remedy. “[Americans] fear that we are in the midst not of a cyclical downturn but a structural shift, one that poses huge new challenges to the average American job, pressures the average American wage and endangers the average American Dream.” …
Reich agrees that this is no cyclical phenomenon, that the middle class is under siege and that “something structural is going on”. New technologies and globalisation have allowed US jobs to be shipped offshore, crimping opportunities for ordinary Americans; safety nets that might have been funded by imposts on the rich have not been expanded to compensate. In fact, the reverse is true, leading to widening disparities between rich and poor. The root of such fierce divisions in American society, of increasingly extreme positions and growing anger, according to Reich, is that disparity, though taking such a position risks being branded a socialist, no less….
6. “Op-Ed: Why Business Should Fear the Tea Party” (Wall Street Journal (*requires registration), October 29, 2010); op-ed by ROBERT REICH; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304173704575578200086257706.html?KEYWORDS=Berkeley
By ROBERT B. REICH
Ryan Inzana
America’s
business leaders have not exactly shied away from offering political views.
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg has accused President Obama of creating a hostile
environment for investment and job-creation, while General Electric’s Jeff
Immelt says the administration is out of sync with entrepreneurs.
All of which makes particularly curious the deafening silence of business leaders about the tea party that’s now taking over the GOP and about to take over a chunk of Congress. Maybe business leaders see it as a relatively harmless fringe group advocating the fiscally responsible small-government positions most CEOs agree with. Business leaders should take a closer look....
Beyond fiscal rectitude and less spending, tea
party candidates are targeting the central institutions of American government.
The GOP Senate candidate from
Another tea party target is the Internal Revenue Service. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, who has emerged as the Senate’s leading tea party incumbent, says that his “main goal in the Senate will not only be to cut taxes, but to get rid of the IRS.” …
History has shown that people threatened by losses of jobs, wages, homes and savings are easy prey for demagogues who turn those fears into anger at major institutions, as well as individuals and minorities who become easy scapegoats—immigrants, foreign traders, certain religious groups. Were it not for their economic stresses, Americans wouldn’t be receptive to abolishing the Fed and the IRS, or believe that government and big business were conspiring against them, or turn isolationist.
Business leaders should be standing up to this dangerous idiocy, while actively supporting policies to relieve the economic stresses that fuel it. Their silence in both regards is bad for business and threatens the stability of our economic and political system.
Mr. Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, former U.S. secretary of labor, and author, most recently, of “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future” (Knopf, 2010).
[An election-related blog by Professor Reich also appeared in the <a href=“http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich-s-Blog/2010/1029/Vote-Halliburton-and-Goldman-Sachs“>Christian Science Monitor</a>]
7. “
By Rick Daysog
With voters headed to the polls Tuesday to decide
the fate of
The California Air Resources Board today will unveil new rules and regulations for a cap-and-trade program. It will set a ceiling on the amount of carbon that refiners, power companies and major manufacturers can emit each year.
While details of the regulations aren’t yet available, ARB officials have already indicated that they plan to take a pro-business approach. They will initially give companies pollution allowances for free, rather than selling them at auction….
The cap-and-trade program essentially places a cap on the amount of carbon emitted by the state’s 500 largest polluters. Companies that pollute less then their limit – to be set by the state – can sell their unused allowances to companies that pollute heavily, creating market incentives for the companies to reduce emissions voluntarily.
The cap-and-trade program is set to begin operating in January 2012. But it could be put on hold if Proposition 23 passes Tuesday….
Michael Hanemann, an economist and public policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said the go-slow approach provides flexibility for companies to adjust to the new regulations.
A big company can’t make the necessary fixes overnight. Switching to renewable fuel sources or installing energy efficiency retrofits will cost millions of dollars and will take a lot of time to install, he said.
“It’s important to have the time to ramp up …
because it affects such a wide swath of
8. Dot Earth Blog: “World Bank Pushes to Include Ecology in Accounting” (New York Times Online (*requires registration), October 28, 2010); blog citing DAN KAMMEN; http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/world-bank-pushes-to-include-ecology-in-accounting/?partner=rss&emc=rss
By Andrew C. Revkin
This is certainly a novel, and hopeful,
development. At the 10th conference of parties to the Convention on Biological
Diversity, in
The natural wealth of nations should be a capital asset valued in combination with its financial capital, manufactured capital and human capital…. National accounts need to reflect the vital carbon storage services that forests provide and the coastal protection values that come from coral reefs and mangroves.
I’ll believe it when I see it, given the bank’s
incredibly slow shift within its own practices toward lending with the
environment in mind. But this is one of several recent moves by the bank,
including luring a topnotch energy
analyst, Daniel Kammen, from the
9. Robert Reich’s Blog: “Democracy’s price tag: only $4.2 billion? In this midterm election, campaign contributions have reached a record $4.2 billion, thanks largely to the Supreme Court’s decision to lift many contribution restrictions” (Christian Science Monitor Online, October 28, 2010); commentary by ROBERT REICH; http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich-s-Blog/2010/1028/Democracy-s-price-tag-only-4.2-billion
By Robert Reich
The great bulk of campaign money is coming from a narrower and narrower circle of moneyed interests, resulting in elected representatives acutely sensitive to the needs of Wall Street bankers, hedge-fund managers, and the executives of big pharma, big oil and the largest health insurance companies. (Illustration / Kurt Strazdins / Newscom / File)
This, from the Washington Post’s conservative pundit George Will: … “Is it … worrisome that Americans spend on political advocacy — [a record $4.2 billion in this two-year cycle] — much less than they spend on potato chips …?”
In a word, Mr. Will, yes.
The number of dollars spent isn’t the issue; it’s the lopsidedness of where the dollars come from. Even if the total were only $1000, democracy would be endangered if $980 came from large corporations and wealthy individuals. The trend is clear and worrisome: The great bulk of campaign money is coming from a narrower and narrower circle of moneyed interests….
... This is not because these individuals and interests are particularly worthy or specially deserving. It is because they are effectively bribing elected officials with their donations. Such donations are not made out of charitable impulse. They are calculated investments no less carefully considered than investments in particular shares of stock. They are shares in our democracy….
This figure, by the way, leaves out the tens of billions of dollars dedicated to lobbying, lawyering, and public relations — all of which deliver specific legislative outcomes the campaign money fuels….
Indeed, a full accounting of the cost of the flow
of money into our political system would also include the carnage and roadkill
in its path — the public’s increasing cynicism about democracy, and
Robert Reich is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Clinton….
[Professor Reich also participated in a live online Q & A on the economy in the <a href=“http://live.washingtonpost.com/singletary-102810.html“>Washington Post Online</a>]
10. “All eyes on
By Jim Giles, San Francisco
Like most people in his line of work, Jesse Porter used to oversee modest harvests of marijuana....
...When he swung open the door to an unmarked
warehouse in
He is not alone in that vision. ... When Californians go to the polls next week, they may decide to make sale and possession of marijuana for recreational use legal throughout the state.
The plan, known as proposition 19, would be the
most radical experiment in drug policy since prohibition in the first half of
last century. And if
In
That would put
11. “Maritime National Park Association marks 60” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 27, 2010); column citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/27/DD2S1G1O4P.DTL
--Catherine Bigelow
… Vote early, vote often: Bright and early … last week, almost 1,000 politicos, power players and students filled the cavernous Moscone South conference center for the Willie L. Brown Jr. Institute Breakfast Club.
Hosted by Da Mayor Willie Brown, this annual civic affair benefited the institute he founded for students of politics and public service.
A lively panel (moderated by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, now the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley) on the economy and California’s election featured campaign strategist Garry South and former legislator Jim Brulte….
12. “Quest Means Business:
Richard Quest, Host: In just a moment, why Keynes was right and
how printing money is like pushing on a wet noodle. Robert Reich, the former
Robert
Reich served as the U.S. Labor secretary under Bill Clinton. He’s an
academic, a playwright and an author. His latest book is called “Aftershock:
The Next Economy and
ROBERT
REICH, professor of public policy,
QUEST: But as you look within the
REICH: Yes, at some point. But remember, the key issue is not the deficit per se. It’s the ratio of the debt to GDP—the ratio of the debt to the entire national economy. If we grow our economies quickly again—get back on the track of rapid growth, then the deficit and debt shrink as a percentage of the total national economy….
13. “Citigroup Claims No ‘Robo-Signings’ Despite Using Foreclosure King” (ABC Online, October 20, 2010); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://abcnews.go.com/Business/citigroup-claims-robo-signings-hiring-fla-firm/story?id=11920732
By Ray Sanchez and Bill McGuire
Despite doing business with a controversial
“We have not found evidence of robo-signing,” John Gerspach, Citi’s finance chief, told reporters this week. “We are fairly confident we have not relied on robo-signers.”
But former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, doubted that Citigroup and other banks did not take shortcuts when confronted with the rising foreclosure tide.
“Citi was competing with every other mortgage lender,” Reich said. “Money was cheap. Lenders were lending it out to almost anybody who could stand up straight and doing it in an extraordinarily rapid and careless way. I would be very surprised if Citi’s practices were substantially different from everyone else’s.” …
14. “The Georgetown University Law Center holds a Thomas F. Ryan lecture on ‘Diplomacy and the Use of Force to Prevent Nuclear Weapons Proliferation’” (The Washington Daybook, October 20, 2010); event featuring MICHAEL NACHT.
PARTICIPANTS: Hans Blix, chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission; Joseph Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund; and Michael Nacht, professor of Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley….
15. “I.B.M. Rides Global Focus on Services to Deliver a 12% Increase in Profit” (New York Times, October 19, 2010); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/technology/19blue.html
By Steve Lohr
The leading high-technology industrial companies like Intel, General Electric and I.B.M., which have reported quarterly results in the last several days, are seen by analysts and economists as bellwethers of the economy, because their chips, equipment and services are used in so many industries.
But the quarterly scorecards from such giants of
corporate
“The success of large corporations that are
headquartered in the
16. “‘You Don’t Need Politicians for This.’ The Copenhagen climate talks failed, the U.S. Senate punted—but all is not lost when it comes to greenhouse reductions” (Newsweek, October 18, 2010); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/18/why-there-s-still-hope-for-cutting-carbon.html
by Sharon Begley
Left: A
… A year ago, CEOs, greens, and policy wonks were
all insisting that to make any progress on greenhouse emissions, the world
needed to “put a price on carbon.” … So last year, when the
It didn’t. For a long list of reasons, ranging from saving money to saving soldiers’ lives, business and government are cracking down on carbon…. The motivations driving CO2 reductions: ….
Peak oil. Although investors fled solar and wind after oil plunged from its $145-a-barrel high of 2008, “there is still an expectation on the part of investors that things will get worse” as we reach peak oil, says Jigar Shah, CEO of the Carbon War Room. Awareness of future supply problems creates an implicit price on carbon and thus an incentive to invest in renewables. In addition, he argues, “solar is inevitable not because of carbon but because it is the most effective way to reach the unelectrified poor.” …
Which is not to say the world can sit back and hope these factors avert a climate disaster. As long as fossil fuels are subsidized, renewables will not expand as quickly as needed to reduce greenhouse emissions enough to avert ruinous climate change (Pakistani-size floods, anyone?)—namely, cuts of 90 percent from today’s levels by 2050, says Daniel Kammen of the World Bank. “Without a price on carbon, we’re fighting with only one hand,” he says. But at least we’re fighting….
17. “Gene-synthesis rules favour convenience; But synthetic DNA standards offer little protection, critics say” (Nature, October 18, 2010); story citing STEPHEN MAURER; http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101018/full/467898a.html
--Heidi Ledford
Before the
The US Department of Health and Human Services
(DHHS) in
But in achieving that level of comfort, the DHHS has drastically restricted the guidelines’ reach. The rules apply only to double-stranded DNA, for example, and not to single-stranded fragments — a decision that has puzzled even proponents of the guidelines....
Stephen
Maurer, a public-policy researcher at the University of California, Berkeley,
adds that the guidelines call for an initial automated screen of sequences by
computer, a less stringent survey than getting employees to analyse each order
as it comes in, as many companies already do. “You have a strange situation in
which the
18. “
--Robert Reich
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan. (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)
… Republicans have a long history of turning fears into resentments that animate voters. (Remember Willy Horton? Sen. Joe McCarthy?) For years, Fox News, yell radio and other outlets of the Republican right have built followings on hatefulness.
As the Great Jobs Recession continues, they have more fertile ground. Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich are given megaphones by Fox News to bash immigrants and Muslims and to question the president’s patriotism.
Yet Democrats are entering the same terrain when
they blame
Democrats must know that high unemployment in
If Democrats (or Republicans, for that matter)
want to blame something, blame
I’m not suggesting Democrats blame the rich for their success. Most came by their high earnings and wealth honestly. And surely a vibrant economy requires that entrepreneurs be rewarded for hard work and valuable insight.
But Democrats should admit that America’s economic structure has become dangerously unbalanced—more unbalanced than it’s been in 80 years—and the imbalance is making it difficult if not impossible for the nation to emerge from recession. For these reasons, Democrats should recommit themselves and the nation to redressing that balance….
© 2010 Robert Reich
Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at UC Berkeley and the author of the new book “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future.” ….
19. “Governor Schwarzenegger criticizes Republicans” (KGO TV, October 17, 2010); features commentary by HENRY BRADY.
Reported by Amy Hollyfield
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was so upset with fellow Republicans for blocking his pension reform measure that he brought it up in his weekly radio address: “Maybe these Republicans just simply sold out because they got campaign contributions from the state prison guard unions,” Schwarzenegger said.
Schwarzenegger singled out six Republican
lawmakers by name, including GOP Senate leader Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga,
Sen. Sam Blakeslee of
HENRY
BRADY, Goldman
20. “Climate Watch Conversation” (This Week in
Climate
Watch senior editor Craig Miller talks with Dan Kammen, a top UC Berkeley energy expert who’s been named the World
Bank’s new renewable energy “czar.” As Chief Technical Specialist for
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, Kammen
will help shape policy and set overall energy strategy for the next 10 years.
Craig Miller: What have you learned from your
experience in
DAN
KAMMEN, UC Berkeley/World Bank:
That’s really the fun part because California has been on the cutting
edge with its Greenhouse Gas law AB 32, and lots of detailed measures you don’t
hear about—standards to have cleaner fuels, standards that utilities can make
more money by selling less energy if they provide more services, emphasizing
energy efficiency—lots of things that were tried out here because we really
wanted to make a difference that are now ready to go. And because the World Bank is not first and
foremost a research group, it needs to build on things that have been tried,
and
21. “Sharing Online, but With More Than 140 Characters” (New York Times & International Herald Tribune [*requires registration], October 14, 2010); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/technology/personaltech/14basics.html?scp=4&sq=Berkeley&st=nyt
By Paul Boutin
The singer and guitarist John Mayer, whose prolific posts on Twitter drew nearly four million followers, shocked fans in mid-September by closing his account.
But Mr. Mayer hasn’t gone away. He’s switched from Twitter to Tumblr, a free blogging service that has become a hit among Internet enthusiasts. ...
The allure of Tumblr and a similar service called Posterous is in their social features and their simplicity. They are only slightly more complicated than Twitter to figure out. Yet they allow you to go well beyond 140 characters of text per post, and to include photos, videos and excerpts from other users’ posts. ...
Tumblr’s ad hoc community of users includes Robert Reich, the former labor
secretary, who is now a professor of
public policy at the
22. “Recession-Hit Areas Lag for Years Afterward” (Wall Street Journal [*requires registration], October 14, 2010); story citing STEVEN RAPHAEL; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704763904575550551840906966.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
By Sara Murray
Communities hit hardest during the recession could continue to fall behind the rest of the country for decades, research released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project suggests….
To avoid repeating the scenario that followed the
1980s downturn, papers commissioned by the Hamilton Project—formed by some
Among the proposals: a government-sponsored bank
that would provide loans of up to $10,000 for people who have been laid off in
the past five years and are looking to move. The cost would run the government
between $500 million and $800 million annually, estimated the
But, they noted, roughly a fifth of unemployed workers are underwater homeowners—meaning their mortgages exceed the value of their homes. For someone in that case, $10,000 likely wouldn’t be enough to free them from their homes….
23. “Public pensions and public unions” (The Reality-Based Community, October 13, 2010); blog by MICHAEL O’HARE.
By Michael O’Hare
… First, there’s no shame in civil servants demanding outrageous employment terms, whether pay or pensions. That’s how negotiations are supposed to work: the dealer starts with a loaded model at full sticker price, you come in looking for a bargain that will put his kid’s orthodontist on the street, and you make a deal in between. The deal that will staff government at the right price can be a range of combinations of pension and upfront salary; of course if money is shifted from the latter to the former, it has to be more for the workers to be indifferent. But the government side of this negotiation has a short time horizon: pension costs are NIMTOs [Not In My Term of Office] and “Wow, I wish I had voted against Mayor Giveawaythestore twenty years ago” butters no parsnips. If the pension is a defined-benefit package, all the investment and actuarial risk is on the government side, and this is getting very technical and hard to put before voters, in fact I’m getting a headache myself. “We can avoid a strike two months before the election at no cost to me? Sign it; next agenda item, please?” Indeed, public sector salaries (corrected for education and experience) seem to be about 4% below private sector pay, but total compensation including benefits is about the same: compensation is shifted toward pensions.
The size of the package itself, counting pay, benefits, and job security, is biased towards being too big because public employee unions are groups with high individual stakes, who know each others phone numbers and addresses, who contribute to campaigns and who tend to live and vote in the jurisdiction, while the other side of the table (government service consumers) are often passing through or commuting, are more numerous, and have lots of issues that vary across their membership and are larger for any one of them than the tax hit from the current pay deal. They tend to vote on potholes and current taxes, and have no clue about labor contracts….
24. “Across the
By Michael Powell and Motoko Rich
A retail and office condo in
… Born of a record financial collapse, this recession has been more severe than any since the Great Depression and has left an enormous oversupply of houses and office buildings and crippling debt…. Put simply, the national economy has fallen so far that it could take years to climb back….
At the current rate of job creation, the nation would need nine more years to recapture the jobs lost during the recession. And that doesn’t even account for five million or six million jobs needed in that time to keep pace with an expanding population. Even top Obama officials concede the unemployment rate could climb higher still….
This dreary accounting should not suggest a
nation without strengths. Unemployment rates have come down from their peaks in
swaths of the
After plummeting in 2009, the stock market has spiraled up, buoying retirement accounts and perhaps the spirits of middle-class Americans. As a measure of economic health, though, that gain is overstated. Robert Reich, the former labor secretary, notes that the most profitable companies in the domestic stock indexes generate about 40 percent of their revenue from abroad….
25. “Lessons learned at recent symposium on energy” (The Berkeleyan, October 12, 2010); story citing DAN KAMMEN, program co-designed with CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000), and Center for Environmental Public Policy visiting scholar ROBERT COLLIER; http://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/energy/symposium/conference-proceedings
--Lynn Yarris,
… “The provision of sustainable energy is the
defining problem of the 21st century, one that presents a challenge of
unprecedented scale. Decisions we make now will influence the planet for
thousands of years, and dictate our quality of life in both the near and long
term,” said Graham Fleming, Vice Chancellor for Research at the
“In 2008,
Daniel
Kammen, UC Berkeley professor of energy and resources, public policy and
nuclear engineering, endorsed Grueneich’s message and discussed some of the
strategies that can sell consumers on energy efficiency. Among these is the
program he helped[with Cisco DeVries]
design for the city of Berkeley, called PACE (Property-Assessed Clean Energy)
financing, which involves city loans to homeowners to pay for efficiency
upgrades and paid off over 20 years through property taxes. The program
expanded throughout the state and the nation after its introduction in 2007.
PACE provides a cautionary tale about government
policy, however. While DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency are gung-ho
about the program, the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance
Agency are concerned that it conflicts with mortgage contracts, and have joined
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in halting the program. The state of
As of Oct. 1, Kammen will take a job with the World Bank as their first renewable energy “czar,” where he will shape policies and guide lending worldwide to spread renewable energy policies on a global scale.
Robert
Collier, a former reporter with the San
Francisco Chronicle and a visiting
scholar at the Center for Environmental Public Policy in the
“Climate communications will do us a lot of
damage if we don’t pay attention,” he said. “If Prop 23 wins, for example, this
will be a national message the even
26. “World Bank energy chief aims to speed clean power” (Reuters, Oct 12, 2010); interview with DAN KAMMEN; http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69B68520101012
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even before he became the World
Bank’s clean energy chief, Daniel Kammen
had a lustrous list of accomplishments: professor
of energy, public policy and nuclear engineering at the
So why take on the formidable dual tasks of seeing that the world’s poor get better access to energy while curbing the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change?
“We need to make a clean energy transition and we need to do it in a way that is inclusive and supportive of the poor, and not for the wealthy first and the poor second,” Kammen told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit on Tuesday.
“There’s no place on earth that has the reach and the concern and the distribution team of the World Bank,” he said. Because the growth in energy use is largest in developing countries, he said, “if you want to impact the system, both on the technology side and the policy side, the market side, really developing countries are where it’s at.” …
One of the bank’s, and Kammen’s, key tasks is to scale up development of clean energy, from village to region to country.
“We have to scale up because we are a carbon-intensive global economy today and in only four decades we have to be a carbon non-intensive economy. That means re-creating a new industrial revolution in 40 years.
“If we don’t scale up, we don’t get there in terms of the twin goals of development and environment.” …
27. I.H.T. Special Report: Energy: “World Bank Pressured on Clean Energy” (New York Times & International Herald Tribune, October 11, 2010); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/business/energy-environment/12iht-renworld.html?src=busln
By Jack Duffy
Both plants, which will rank among the world’s
largest sources of greenhouse gases — together producing about as much carbon
dioxide as nations like
For its part, the bank says that it has had an
“unprecedented demand” for loans for renewable energy and energy efficiency and
that it has responded by appointing its first clean energy chief, Daniel M. Kammen, an energy policy expert
at the
In an interview, Mr. Kammen, who was appointed last month, acknowledged that the World Bank had long focused on big energy projects, many based on fossil fuels, but he insisted that this was changing.
“There are a lot of things coming together now that make this a critical moment for change,” he said. “We have new technologies that are commercially competitive, new financing tools and a great deal of interest and momentum in donor countries to make this transition to an economy-based renewable energy happen.”
He said World Bank lending in fiscal 2010 was “a bit of an anomaly” because of the South African project and that the bank’s financing for renewable energy and energy efficiency has been growing at faster percentage rates than lending for fossil fuels….
“We have a lot of examples already of innovative projects based on wind and solar being done,” he said. “My mandate is to identify and expand those opportunities.”
Mr. Kammen
said his focus at the bank would be to help develop a broad portfolio of clean
energy technologies that could be adapted to many different local situations,
especially to poor rural communities in places like Africa and
“Work I have done in rural East Africa, rural
He noted, for example, that energy efficiency
could have the greatest effect among the world’s poorest people, who may spend
30 percent of their income on energy, compared with only about 2 percent in the
He said he hoped to develop a suite of metrics to measure not only carbon emissions but to assign values to things like the environmental and social damage produced by a particular energy system.
“We are creating a new economy that does not just look at the dollar bottom line but at a wider set of things we care about,” he said….
28 “Jerry Brown’s Environmental Record Runs Deep” (New York Times Online [*requires registration], October 9, 2010); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/10/08/08greenwire-jerry-browns-environmental-record-runs-deep-44334.html?pagewanted=print
By Colin Sullivan of Greenwire
Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown’s 41 years in politics have seen more bumps and bruises than an Olympic mogul run. ...
But in Brown’s long record of public service, one area stands out where he has arguably put in the most time and had the most effect: the environment. Brown for four decades has collided with oil companies, blocked offshore drilling, sought solutions to the state’s water-supply puzzle, advocated for clean energy, pressed appliance and efficiency standards, barred nuclear development, and, most recently, taken his belief in greenhouse gas emissions limits to state courts.
From 2007 until the end of the George W. Bush
administration, [as
Dan Kammen,
[UC Berkeley professor on leave] chief technology specialist at the World
Bank and an expert on
“Far too many environmental efforts are long on promises and short on delivery,” Kammen said. “Not so of Jerry. He can spot a good idea and will be relentless in digging to the bottom of it.”...
29. “Need To Know: A special report on the jobs crisis” (PBS, October 8, 2010); features guest commentary by ROBERT REICH; watch the program
This week on Need
to Know, we bring you a special hour-long focus on jobs, with an in-depth
look at the unemployment crisis through the perspectives of different people
struggling to find work. And in between each segment, our hosts Jon Meacham and
Alison Stewart are joined by Robert
Reich, former labor secretary in the
ROBERT REICH, professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, and author of Aftershock: We didn’t get here just from Wall Street’s excesses. We got here after three decades when the median income of Americans did not rise….
Early in the
30. Robert Reich’s Blog: “
By Robert Reich, Guest blogger
Storm clouds carrying heavy
rain and hail move across downtown
Not only is income and wealth in
Hundreds of millions of secret dollars are pouring into congressional and state races in this election cycle. The Koch brothers (whose personal fortunes grew by $5 billion last year) appear to be behind some of it, Karl Rove has rounded up other multi-millionaires to fund right-wing candidates, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is funneling corporate dollars from around the world into congressional races, and Rupert Murdoch is evidently spending heavily.
No one knows for sure where this flood of money is coming from because it’s all secret…..
Last week, when the Senate considered a bill to force such disclosure, every single Republican voted against it – thereby revealing the GOP’s true colors, and presumed benefactors….
In the meantime we face an election that marks an even sharper turn toward plutocratic capitalism than before – a government by and for the rich and big corporations — and away from democratic capitalism….
What can you do? …
[Another version of this commentary was published
as “
31. “California Seeks Fine Line in GHG Permitting of Bioenergy Plants” (Inside Cal/EPA, Vol. 21 No. 40, October 8, 2010); story citing MICHAEL O’HARE.
California regulators are negotiating a fine line between competing interests to both support the deployment of new bioenergy plants while also ensuring that they employ “safeguards” to avoid emitting greenhouse gases (GHG), thereby satisfying both state and federal regulations. The state officials are under competing pressures—on one hand, from companies and municipalities looking to gain renewable energy and low-carbon fuel credit with the plants; on the other, from environmentalists and academics who argue many of these facilities are far from “carbon-neutral” and must be stringently permitted….
Dan Pellissier, deputy cabinet secretary for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), is recommending EPA consider not placing bioenergy facilities under the GHG regulation, saying that the source of the biomass being combusted and the conversion process itself are critical in determining whether plants emit excess GHG emissions….
Pellissier’s position is being challenged by some University of California (UC) researchers and professors, as well as many environmental organizations.
UC Berkeley professors Richard Plevin and Michael O’Hare urged EPA to include bioenergy plants in the pending GHG regulation….
32. Robert Reich’s Blog: “Will weakening the dollar create jobs?” (Christian Science Monitor Online [*requires registration], October 5, 2010); commentary by ROBERT REICH; http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich-s-Blog/2010/1005/Will-weakening-the-dollar-create-jobs
By Robert Reich, Guest blogger
Weakening the dollar hurts us at home and abroad. This political cartoon first ran in The Christian Science Monitor on Oct. 2, 2007, suggesting that the weaker-dollar strategy is hardly a new one. (Illustration: Clay Bennett / The Christian Science Monitor / File)
I keep hearing the only way we’re going to get jobs back any time soon is with a weak dollar….
But using a weak dollar to create American jobs is foolish, for two reasons.
First, no other country wants to lose jobs because its currency becomes too high relative to the dollar. So a weak dollar policy invites currency wars. Everyone loses….
Here’s the other problem. Even if we succeed, a
weak dollar makes us poorer. Imports are around 18 percent of the
It’s no big accomplishment to create jobs by getting poorer. You want to know how to cut unemployment by half tomorrow? Get rid of the minimum wage and unemployment insurance, and make everyone who needs a job work for a dollar a day….
… The goal isn’t just more jobs. It’s more jobs that pay enough to improve our living standards….
[Another version of this op-ed was published in The San Francisco Chronicle (October 10, 2010) as “Pay cuts not the answer to lost jobs”: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/10/INPT1FPQS6.DTL ]
33. “Ex-Labor Secretary Reich backs Prop. 24” (San Francisco Business Times, October 4, 2010); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/10/04/daily8.html?t=
By Ron Leuty
A November ballot proposal to roll back three
corporate tax breaks has picked up an endorsement from
Proposition 24, which is backed largely by the California Teachers Association and other labor unions, would do away with tax credits that can be shared among a corporation’s subsidiaries, eliminate the ability of companies to carry forward or carry back annual profits to reduce their annual tax bill and stop businesses with operations in several states from lowering their income tax in California…..
Reich, a
professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman
School of Public Policy and labor secretary under President Bill Clinton,
said in a press release Monday that Prop. 24 “moves
34. “A persistent, destructive gap” (The Virginian-Pilot, October 2, 2010); op-ed citing DAVID KIRP.
By Fred McKissack
THIS WEEK marks a pivotal moment in our country’s
history of personal liberty: the admittance of James Meredith to the
On Oct. 1, 1962, Meredith, who would later earn a
law degree from
I can’t think of a more troubling fact than that almost 50 years after the integration of one of the South’s most prestigious centers of higher learning, more black teenage males are on the school-to-prison track than the school-to-university track.
There remains an achievement gap among the races.
The Schott Foundation for Public Education reports that fewer than half of all
black males graduate from high school. By eighth grade, just 8 percent of black
males are “proficient in reading.” The achievement gap is the driver of the
school-to-prison train, according to
“Nationwide, (black males) are twice as likely to be left back or assigned to dead-end special education and three times as likely to be kicked out of school as white males,” he noted in a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed. “All too often they’re on what educators privately dub ‘the prison track.’” …
35. “Book Review: Color of Money Book Club selection: Robert Reich’s ‘Aftershock’” (Washington Post, October 2, 2010); review of book by ROBERT REICH; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/02/AR2010100204100.html
By Michelle
Aftershock:
The next economy and
By Robert B. Reich (Knopf, 192 pp. $25)
So what are we to do about an economy that is so badly broken?
We have to look at where we’ve been, figure out what went wrong and be open to new ways of doing things.
That’s what Robert
B. Reich does in “Aftershock: The Next Economy and
But I’m warning you. This isn’t the type of book you take to the beach or set by your nightstand, eagerly awaiting the hour when all of the children are in bed. It’s academic. And yet Reich’s historical look at the economic crisis is a good read.
So, yes, you might roll your eyes at this selection. But focus anyway on Reich’s analysis on how to fix our economy.
Reich,
secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton and now a professor of public policy at the
36. “Propping Up
By John Wildermuth
(Pad
McLaughlin)
… [Howard] Jarvis made no bones about his goals. He wanted to slash the soaring property taxes that were threatening to price many seniors out of homes they had lived in for decades and then make it harder for politicians at every level to raise taxes again.
Jarvis, however, also expected that the business of government would go on much as it had before, with local governments learning to live within their new, sharply reduced means, perhaps with a bit of help from the state. But when cities, counties, and schools were suddenly faced with the need to slash social and health services—including libraries, school programs, and public safety jobs—then-Gov. Jerry Brown not only used the state’s multi-billion-dollar surplus to help make up for that lost property tax money, but also joined with the Legislature to set up new rules that kept local government looking to Sacramento for help….
That’s the last thing the conservative older
voters who were Jarvis’s strongest supporters wanted to see, said Henry Brady, dean of the
With the Jarvis-Gann initiative slashing property
tax revenue,
Since money from the income tax rises and falls with the economy, substituting that volatile source of revenue for the far more stable property tax opened the door for the boom and bust cycle that has whipsawed the state budget for more than a decade. “That cycle lets the Legislature spend money when it’s there, even though they don’t want to make cuts when it’s not,” Brady said….
But Californians looking for some reform magic
that will keep state coffers endlessly filled at no cost to taxpayers will need
to face reality. “In 1960,
37. “Education experts say Gov. Christie’s teacher merit pay can do more harm than good for students” (The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), September 30, 2010); story citing JESSE ROTHSTEIN (MPP/PhD Econ 2003); http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/nj_educators_say_gov_christies.html
By Jessica Calefati, Star-Ledger Staff
Governor
Christie unveils his package of education reforms at the
Gov. Chris Christie’s plan to separate educators who deserve raises from those who deserve pink slips using student achievement data will not improve test scores and could force effective teachers out of the profession, according to education experts and two recent reports….
A report published by the Economic Policy Institute and authored by a slew of education reform heavyweights says Christie’s proposal to rely on student test score data for at least 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation is “unwise.”
“There is broad agreement among statisticians, psychometricians, and economists that student test scores alone are not sufficiently reliable and valid indicators of teacher effectiveness to be used in high stakes personnel decisions,” the paper says….
Because students are not randomly assigned to
classrooms, test scores are a poor measure of teachers’ performance, said Jesse Rothstein, an associate professor at
the
“[Value-added measurements] are capturing which students you get, not just how effective you are at teaching them,” Rothstein said. “With this type of evaluation, people will get merit pay because they get the right set of students.”
38. “Customer Discrimination” (Review of Economics & Statistics, August 2010); study citing STEVEN RAPHAEL and JESSE ROTHSTEIN (MPP/PhD Econ 2003).
By Jonathan S. Leonard; David I. Levine; Laura Giuliano
… The empirical literature suggests that employers in the retail and service sectors often act as if customers discriminate, even though the evidence of customer discrimination is mixed…. More broadly, employers as different as federal agencies … and restaurants … have been shown to hire workforces that approximate characteristics of their clients. However, not all studies reach this conclusion. For example, Raphael, Stoll, and Holzer (2000) find that the probability that blacks experience hiring discrimination is not greater in the (whiter) suburbs than in central cities.
There is much less evidence regarding the impact of such a hiring strategy on business performance. Although the judicial record makes clear that some employers act as if customers discriminate, few academic studies measure how customer discrimination affects sales. 4 …. In the market for housing, consumers’ preferences for own-race neighbors are shown in a number of studies, including those by Vigdor (2003) and Card, Mas, and Rothstein (2008)….
Bibliography: References
Card, David, Alex Mas, and Jesse Rothstein, “Tipping and the Dynamics of Segregation,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 123 (2008), 177-218….
Raphael, Steven, Michael Stoll, and Harry Holzer, “Are Suburban Firms More Likely to Discriminate against African-Americans?” Journal of Urban Economics 48 (2000), 485-508….
Sept. 27 “Grading the Teachers: Measures, Media and Policies,” a public forum cosponsored by the UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, the Berkeley School of Law and the Goldman School of Public Policy, Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), Stanford University and the University of Southern California.
Oct. 8-9-11 Robert Reich’s talk on “
Oct. 9 Robert Reich commented on the latest jobs report and the effectiveness of the Obama’s stimulus program on CNN’s “Situation Room” (hosted by Wolf Blitzer).
Oct. 12 Robert Reich spoke at Rice University’s
Baker Institute for Public Policy on the subject of his his new book,
“Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future,” Houston, TX.
To view a complete list
of GSPP videos, visit our Events Archive at: http://gspp.berkeley.edu/events/webcasts
Recent events viewable on UC Webcast: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events.php?group=The+Richard+%26+Rhoda+Goldman+School+of+Public+Policy
If you would like further information
about any of the above, or hard copies of cited articles, we’d be happy to
provide them.
We are always delighted to receive your material for inclusion in the Digest. Please email the editor at wong23@berkeley.edu .
Sincerely,
Annette Doornbos
Director of External Relations and Development