Daily Archives: July 2, 2007

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Prisons

Is The Term Limit Initiative Destroying This Legislative Session?

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I don’t think it’s any secret that there’s been a growing disquiet from progressives with how the California Legislature is doing business.  We won’t know the final tallies until the end of the session in September, of course, but just in the past couple months, Democratic leaders have given the Governor the ability to build 53,000 new beds for prisons without addressing rehabilitation programs that are the only way to cut costs and reduce recidivism.  They approved a shockingly anti-worker set of tribal gaming compacts, with only token protections in the side deals, and then tried to make the dishonest claim that they didn’t negotitate the deals in the first place so they can’t be blamed for them (um, then don’t approve them and force the Governor to start over, you have the power to do that, you know).  They combined their healthcare bills to negotiate with the governor without them even including guaranteed issue, meaning that insurance companies can continue to deny coverage to patients for pre-existing conditions (a separate state-run system would be set up to provide for these ill patients, which would make insurers even more loath to spend money on care, given the crutch afforded them by the parallel system for sick people).  And they allowed hostile amendments on patient-dumping to pass the Assembly Health Committee.  We don’t yet have a state budget, as it passed its deadline, and progressives are crossing their fingers that this trend won’t continue and some of the worst cuts for the needy preferred by the Governor won’t be allowed to remain.

So what is going on here?  Why is a Legislature with wide majorities in both houses, sufficient to pass pretty much everything but the budget and tax measures, seemingly caving in on all sides?  One article in the SF Chronicle offers a compelling explanation:

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez’s decision this week to end an impasse with Indian gaming tribes and ratify new gambling compacts is designed to help pass a proposed ballot initiative that would allow him and other lawmakers to keep their jobs longer, his critics and political observers said Thursday.

For Núñez, the compacts landed him between the state’s two major special interest forces — wealthy Indian tribes that want to greatly increase the number of slot machines on tribal lands and labor unions that pressed for provisions that would make it easier for workers to organize at casinos.

The standoff between the two groups had placed Núñez in a politically precarious position of having to choose between his political base in labor or mollify tribes that have not been shy about using their deep pockets to buoy or sink political campaigns […]

“I think what (Núñez) wants to do is to make sure there is no opposition to term limits, not necessarily building support for it,” said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonprofit research group in Los Angeles. “He may have just removed a major monied interest against the measure.”

If this is the motivating interest, then this term limits measure is killing the state, and the ability to make any progress for Californians.  And there’s even more evidence for this.

Schwarzenegger, however, is not alone in squeezing Núñez, et al. An even more blatant threat came from the Professional Peace Officers Association, an umbrella group for rank-and-file police who bitterly oppose a bill that would allow public access to police disciplinary proceedings.

The measure, Senate Bill 1019 by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, cleared the Senate but was stalled in the Assembly after John R. Stites, president of the police association, sent messages to legislators that were the bill to be passed, the union would oppose the term limit modification and added ominously, “Ensure that it be understood that this will only be the beginning.” Thereafter, the Assembly Public Safety Committee held the bill without a vote — an action that had to have leadership blessing.

Legislative leaders doubtless cringe at the vision of having their term limit measure denounced in television commercials by uniform-wearing cops. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the union that represents prison guards, contributed to Núñez’s term limit drive, but he angered union leaders by helping Schwarzenegger enact a prison construction-reform program.

You can read more about how SB 1019 was bottled up in an Assembly Committee.

Obviously, Democratic leaders don’t want the Governor against them when the term limits measure comes up for a vote in February, and so the budget and the health-care debate may suffer in the process.  But they also appear to be determined to silence any potential interest group that may criticize the measure and fund its opposition.  Therefore you see these caves on sunshine for police disciplinary actions and the tribal compacts, and perhaps the homeless dumping bill as well.

This fits with a consistent pattern that is doing nothing but angering Democratic activists.  The vast majority of the public isn’t paying attention to such matters, due in no small part to the fact that media outlets are abandoning their Sacramento bureaus.  But progress in California has completely stalled in this legislative session, perhaps out of a small-minded desire to stay in power for an extra six years.  It calls into question why such “leaders” would want to remain in power in the first place.  But we can all surmise the answer to that one.

Uncategorized

We Need Your Help for New Plastic Bag Recycling Law to be a Success

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(We flat out banned them in SF’s largest supermarkets, but plastic bags are very recyclable, so this is a good start. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Paper or plastic? It seems like an innocent enough question, doesn’t it? But, when you stop and think about where all the grocery bags we use end up, the question no longer seems quite so simple – particularly in the case of plastic bags.

The numbers are astounding: Californians use more than 19 billion plastic grocery bags each year, creating 147,038 tons of waste in our landfills. With Californians throwing away over 600 bags per second, they are creating enough waste every year to circle the planet over 250 times.

In Los Angeles County, an estimated 6 billion plastic grocery bags are distributed annually, of which only 1 percent are recycled. County supervisors voted just last month to study the issue of paper vs. plastic and whether to enact a ban on standard plastic bags, similar to one imposed in San Francisco.

As an avid runner I witness the problem first-hand. Running along the Los Angeles River, I come across thousands of plastic bags on the river banks, in trees, and floating in the river itself.  My anecdotal experience was confirmed by the facts: During a recent Los Angeles River cleanup, plastic bags and film constituted 45 percent of the volume of litter collected – this is because they are so easily carried by wind from uncovered trash cans and dumpsters, vehicles, and solid waste facilities including landfills. This all amounts to more litter to collect on our beaches and state highways, which costs the state $303.2 million each year.

It quickly became clear to me that we needed to do something. That’s why I authored Assembly Bill 2449, which became law yesterday. This measure requires grocery and retail stores to take back and recycle plastic grocery bags, making California and Rhode Island the only states in the U.S. with such a program.

Under the terms of the new law, more than 7,000 retail stores in California will be required to prominently display plastic bag recycling bins and fund an educational campaign to raise awareness of plastic bag recycling and the use of reusable bags. The legislation also requires each store to make reusable bags available for customers to purchase.

And all these conditions are vital, because while volunteer coastal cleanups and public education efforts have been helpful in keeping California’s coastlines clean, more needs to be done. To reduce marine debris the amount of waste generated on land must be reduced and disposed of properly.

Each year millions of seabirds, sea turtles, fish, and marine mammals become entangled in marine debris or ingest plastics they have mistaken for food. According to recent U.S. EPA estimates, marine debris has had a negative impact on at least 267 species around the world. The plastic can constrict an animal’s movements and kill marine animals through exhaustion – these unfortunate circumstances will only continue if we don’t have a multi-pronged program such as AB 2449.

We can accomplish much by making some modest changes in our behavior, and I need your help with the following things that will help make AB 2449 a success:

  * Recycle your plastic bags at your grocery store;
  * Ask your local store about its plastic bag recycling program;
  * Buy reusable canvas shopping bags;
  * Refuse a plastic bag;
  * Get stores to offer cash credits when bringing in your own bags; and
  * Lobby for plastax – a plastic bag tax.

If these simple things are done, all Californians can make an impact and play an instrumental role in helping to implement this important measure.

California

Affordable housing and NIMBYism, a statewide problem

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As I was strolling the newspapers of our fine state, I kept coming up on a theme of “affordable housing is great, but Not In My BackYard (NIMBY)”.  It’s something that we’ve addressed on these virtual pages, and it’s not to hard to find others talking about the subject.  But, how do we deal with NIMBYism?

So, take this one, from the Eureka Times-Standard:

A proposal by Danco Communities to build 56 affordable housing apartments on Moore Avenue has some neighbors rankled and ready to take their case to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. (Eureka Times-Standard 7/2/07)

Or this one from the San Jose Merc:

Almost two weeks after Santa Clara leaders approved rezoning the city’s last 17 acres of farmland for housing, activists who want the land preserved as open space started walking around their neighborhoods collecting signatures for a referendum.

“People are tired and fed up with high-density housing and they want to do something about it,” said Brian Lowery, who spent about six hours collecting signatures this week.(San Jose Merc 7/2/07)

Kindly turn to the extended…

Of course, there are plenty more stories just like this in practically every city of mid-large size.  Housing activists want affordable housing, open space advocates want um…open space, and NIMBYs want pretty stuff in their neighborhood.  Satisfying everybody become nearly impossible to accomplish.

But clearly some of this work must be accomplished. We cannot continue to keep driving people further and further away from where they work. Gas prices aren’t getting any cheaper (nor should we really want them to be if we value our environment), but yet nobody wants that high-rise in their neighborhood.  But, at some level we all acknowledge this might happen.  Somehow people need to suck it up and figure out how we can set up a more efficient process to get affordable housing in all of California’s cities.

San Diego

San Diego Public Schools Grapple with Muslim Prayer

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San Diego’s Carver Elementary School finds itself in the middle of 21st Century America this week.  It has been thrust to the forefront of an evolving debate over how to assimilate Islam into American society, in this case by taking on prayer in schools.

Carver Elementary recently took on about 100 Muslim students when a nearby charter school closed, adding Arabic to the curriculum and sparking debate over allowances for Muslim prayer in schools after a substitute teacher spoke out publicly in opposition to the policy.  According to the Union Tribune, “[a]fter subbing at Carver, the teacher claimed that religious indoctrination was taking place and said that a school aide had led Muslim students in prayer.”

The UT lays out the two sides:

Some say the arrangement at Carver constitutes special treatment for a specific religion that is not extended to other faiths. Others believe it crosses the line into endorsement of religion.

Supporters of Carver say such an accommodation is legal, if not mandatory, under the law. They note the district and others have been sued for not accommodating religious needs on the same level as non-religious needs, such as a medical appointment.

There are a number of flashpoints here and nearly all of them have been lighting up the phonelines of conservative talk radio lately.  On one hand you have the fear and distrust of all things Muslim.  The ridiculous belief that all Muslims are spending their waking hours sowing murderous anti-American sentiment and desperately trying to undermine freedom and democracy the world over.  On another hand you have all the angry Christians who believe that the U.S. government has been persecuting them for decades by not allowing the Christian faith to govern every aspect of the country.  And on yet another hand you have plenty of well-meaning defenders of the Constitution who throw around all sorts of definitions of “Freedom of Religion” but who seemingly haven’t actually read much of the Constitution itself.  Reading the comments that UT readers have left on this story, you get heaping portions of all three.

But it seems to me that all of the above groups are simply seizing upon this as an excuse to push their agendas without actually addressing the issue at hand.  If a teacher’s aide was leading prayer, that’s really got to be revisited as acceptable policy.  But what seems to be absent in all the religious hysteria is that these Muslim students are required by law to be at school when their religion requires them to practice.  As the article notes, Jewish students can take Yom Kippur and other religious holidays off, and Christians can take Good Friday off.  Or, more to the point, if the school schedule interferes with the reasonable practice of a student’s faith, accomodations are made.

This is a great opportunity for all sorts of people to peddle fear and hate, and they’re off and running out of the gate already.  But let’s not forget that along with this country being about freedom, it’s about not just allowing, but celebrating, differences.  This particular policy may be flawed (if allegations are true), but it has nothing to do with the religions involved.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup, California, Environment, Health Care

July 2, 2007 California Blog Roundup

Blog roundup from over the weekend is over the fold: A couple more week-in-review posts, a couple health care posts, land and water in the Central Valley, Peter Schrag on the recent gutting of Brown, and a couple more items. If I missed something nifty and lefty over the weekend, toss it into comments.

A Couple More California
Weeks-in-Review

Health Care

Environment

More California Stuff