You know the drill:

• There will be a big No on Prop 98 press conference at noon tomorrow at San Francisco City Hall. (Beyond Chron event listing) The SF Tenants Union recommends you wear a carboard box to help San Franciscans visualize their future with Prop 98.
• It looks like the Common Cause redistricting initiative has succeeded in signature gathering, or at least they are going to say they are. There's a press conference scheduled at 11 today with a “major announcement regarding signature gathering.” As this is a constitutional amendment, they need about 1.1 million signatures to be reasonably sure that they'll make it on the ballot. 
  • Apparently Gray Davis will be there to play nice with Arnold and attempt to get some credibility back.  Too bad it's a fundamentally flawed system giving Republicans say over apportionment that they never earned at the ballot box.  Sure, it won't make a huge difference in reinvigorating the fading CA GOP, but I'm just not sure why this redistricting board doesn't look like the voters of California, but instead some idealized 3-way tie between Dems, Reps & DTS.
• We're almost out of cash (SacBee). Normally we have a few billion socked away in some account or another. however, Judy Lin reports that we may be completely out of cash by mid-summer. We need a budget on-time this year.  So, Republicans if you would just get on board with the will of the majority, that would be great. Thanks.
• Dan Walters notices the tiff between John Garamendi and Steve Poizner.  Garamendi sent out a letter(PDF) last week stating that he would not stand by quietly while Poizner hacks through the consumer protections that he built as Insurance Commissioner without at least the courtesey of some public comment. Poizner responds that since the press got it first, it must be a gimmick. Of course, because Garamendi has so many levers of power as Lite Guv that he can use tools besides the media.  Poizner knows how the game is played, he just doesn't like it when it is turned against him.
• Republicans find it very tough to pass legislation, so this is what they turn to: banning pets from the laps of drivers. So much to say about Bill Maze's (R-Visalia) legislation which just passed the Assembly, but I'll just leave it up to your imagination.
• Sen. Perata and Chief Justice Ron George want to fix our courthouses. The legislation calls for about $5 Billion in bonds to modernize California's court facilities. Anybody who has been to a court building recently will understand why this is a good idea.
• Three Elephant Seals were ruthlessly, and illegally killed near San Simeon over the weekend. There's not much in the way of clues or motive. The seals are protected by federal law and don't eat any endangered fish in the area. 

When I was an undergrad at Berkeley in the late ’90s we paid around $4400 in “student fees.” It was higher than it should have been given the cost of living at the time, but the state of California had held UC costs at a fixed level from 1995 to 2001.

Of course, during the 1960s the state and the UC system actually held to the promises of the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which included a promise to never charge students for the cost of instruction. In the 1960s when state treasurer Bill Lockyer attended UC Berkeley his total cost – for all 4 years – would have been $880. Figuring inflation and that’s $5,808 in 2007 dollars.

That’s going to be less than the per-year charge under a new UC fee increase plan being floated:

UC tuition will rise $490 to $7,126 plus campus fees, which average $881 this year. The tuition would reach $8,180 if raised to the 10 percent total.

Hume said students at UC’s nine undergraduate campuses can expect a more difficult time registering for some classes, larger class sizes, and cuts in student services.

“We will be less efficient. They will take longer to graduate. They will not be able to get classes. They will not be able to get their majors,” Hume said.

The CSU is following suit with a 10% increase of its own:

CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said during the same editorial board meeting that he is recommending that the CSU Board of Trustees approve a 10 percent tuition increase next week but that he will not go back for more later in the year. Fees at CSU will rise by $276 to $3,048 plus campus fees, which were an average of $749 per student this year.

These increases are going to make it even more difficult for qualified Californians to attend college, improve their earning power, and strengthen the state economy. With the credit crunch reducing the availability of student loans these increases leave me wondering whether this isn’t a sly way to drive students away – applications and freshman classes have been soaring year after year.

It’s also a further step in the privatization of our higher education system. With decreasing public support the onus is now on students to self-finance their education, which is in direct contravention to the principles of the UC and CSU systems as laid out in the 1960 Master Plan. If California is to have an economic future in the 21st century – if we are to keep pace with European and Asian economies – we need trained and skilled Californians able to handle the tasks of a 21st century civilization. Instead the state of California is abandoning that mission – for the sake of preserving the 20th century, we are going to sacrifice the 21st.

There’s a confluence of high-profile laswsuits against the state today, on big topics with far-reaching consequences.  First, the medical community is suing over Medi-Cal payments:

Doctors, hospitals and health care providers filed a class-action lawsuit Monday seeking to block the state from cutting payments to them for treating the poor.

The lawsuit argues that an upcoming 10 percent rate cut to Medi-Cal — the state-run health insurance program serving 6.5 million low-income residents — will exacerbate a shortage of doctors, dentists and pharmacists willing to treat poor patients because payments are so low.

“Medi-Cal already doesn’t cover the cost of providing care,” said Dr. Richard Frankenstein, president of the California Medical Association, which led the lawsuit. “If these cuts take effect, Medi-Cal patients will be forced to seek care in already overcrowded hospital emergency rooms, which undermines access to care for all Californians.”

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, seeks an immediate injunction to block the reduction from taking effect July 1.

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom has been at the forefront of criticizing these payment cuts, and when he talked to bloggers at the CDP convention he predicted this lawsuit would be successful.  The future of emergency room care and Medi-Cal really hangs in the balance: if the payments are inadequate, hospitals and doctors might turn these patients away, straining the ER system and increasing the crisis in health care access.

In a separate lawsuit, a taxpayer group is suing to block $12 billion in prison construction bonds.

Even though the state is facing a $20 billion dollar deficit and our high schools, colleges, universities, health care facilities, and food banks alike are threatened with billions of dollars of reduced funding, the Governor and our Legislative leaders want to build 53,000 new prison and jail beds. We already have 170,000 prisoners in California. We don’t need more prison beds — we need sentencing reform and better support in the community for recovering drug addicts, people with mental illness, and parolees.

That’s why we are filing our lawsuit today to stop the Governor from borrowing $7.4 billion in lease revenue bonds to build new prison beds, at a total cost of over $12 billion including interest payments. Operating these new prison beds will cost at least $1.5 billion each year, or a staggering total of $37 billion over the next 25 years. Our lawsuit argues that the $7.4 billion in lease revenue bonds violates the requirement in the California Constitution that all significant long term debts be approved by the voters. The lawsuit aims to force the state to ask its voters whether they want to build the 53,000 prison and jail beds proposed in AB 900. The New York Times has dubbed AB 900 as “the single largest prison construction program in the history of the US.” Not only is AB 900 a tremendous waste of government resources, it also threatens the very premise of democracy by shutting voters off from their constitutional rights.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  And considering that a year after passage of AB 900, not one bed has been constructed, I’d say that this is a money pit and taxpayers need to step in to stop the digging.  We have better solutions in the way of sentencing reform, and while Democrats in both chambers of the legislature play politics over which sentencing bill will become the primary one (Sen. Romero’s clearly should, IMO), the crisis grows.  And given that these construction bonds are little more than a boondoggle, California will probably end up following the lead of several states and release a mass of inmates early.  There are real solutions to be had here, but pissing away $12 billion dollars is not one of them.

As if the state didn’t have enough problems…  

(I’m proud to be working on this for SEIU, there’s great energy here on the picket line! – promoted by Bob Brigham)

There is a three-day strike starting today at Kaiser Permanente hospitals in California.  1800 security guards are striking for three days in an “unfair labor practice” action.  This strike is not against Kaiser and is not to ask for money or benefits; it is not even to form a union in the first place.  This strike is just to ask that our laws please be enforced.  This may be a lot to ask for in today’s corporate-dominated system, but they’re asking for it anyway.

Here is some background:  

Rather than directly employ security guards Kaiser contracts with a company called Inter-Con Security Systems, Inc.  Inter-Con hires and manages the security guards for Kaiser, paying them very little and giving them few benefits – not even sick leave.  So these security guards, even though they work at Kaiser, (some for many years), are paid far less than other security guards at Kaiser facilities in other states, and receive few benefits.  Kaiser is one of the more responsible, unionized companies for its workers, which makes this situation even worse for these workers.

These security guards have been trying to form a union for three years and Inter-Con is trying to stop them.  It is legal to form a union but Inter-Con has violated civil rights by “threatening, intimidating, and spying on workers who were trying to form a union for better conditions” and that is illegal.  

“…They’re pulling us aside to ask us who is going to picket or strike, who’s a union supporter,” said Angelito Morales, an Inter-Con officer at Kaiser Union City Medical Center, near the Hayward facility.

That’s illegal.  Many other occurrences of i9llegal anti-union practices led the security guards to file a complaint with the (Bush) National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging that Inter-Con managers have:

   * Ordered employees to inform management when individuals at the job site were engaging in union activities.

   * Interrogated employees, asking them to disclose the names of individuals who intend to engage in union activities.

   * Spied on employees, photographing and/or otherwise recording employees as they participated in union activities such as picketing.

   * Interrogated at least one worker about planned strike activities, asking whether or not the worker was planning on participating in the strike.

   * Promised workers improved benefits (healthcare), to deter them from engaging in further union activities.

All of these are against the rules, but the NLRB has not acted.  

Please visit Stand For Security, SEIU’s website covering this strike and the security guards’ fight to form a union.

Don’t get caught up in arguments about whether it is a good thing or a bad thing for employees to go on strike for money or benefits.  That is not what this strike is about.  This strike is about asking that laws be enforced, so the security guards can go about the legal business of forming a union to represent their interests.

These are the only workers at Kaiser — subcontracted or not — who do not have a union.  Janitors and others are subcontracted but have unions.  And being in a union makes a huge difference.  For example, these are the only Kaiser workers without paid family health care.  Inter-Con employees must be full time to get any health coverage, while other Kaiser workers get it for working part time.  (And of course Inter-Con has lots of ways to make sure employees don’t get classified as full-time, like having an “on-call” status that doesn’t count.)  

They don’t even have paid sick leave.  These security guards have to restrain patients, work in the psychiatric ward, etc., and some have been attacked, but they do not even get sick pay! And, of course, there is a dramatic pay difference between these Inter-Con contractors and the other Kaiser employees and contractors.

Rather than turn this into a comprehensive, 12-page essay I’m goign to write more over the next several days, as this strike unfolds.  For now, please visit Stand For Security, SEIU’s website about this situation.

I am proud to be helping SEIU spread the word about this strike.

Update – Construction workers building a wing at the Oakland Kaiser site have shut down to honor the picket line there.

Pics from Oakland:

     

Update – Just got a report that an Alhambra truck with a Teamster driver is refusing to cross the Oakland picket line, and in Hayward the IBEW workers will not cross.

Manuel Perez is bringing a socially conservative, economically progressive county back to the Democrats.  Imperial County is one of the poorest in California.  It’s part of the California 80th  Assembly District, which reaches from Palm Springs to Mexico and Arizona.  dday gives the best brief of it here.   It’s not on the radar of some of the wealthy liberals in the west of the district, which is one of the reasons why we’ve lost this race to Bonnie Garcia over and over.  Imperial County has been voting against registration and handing victory to the Republicans, but it’s looking up in 2008.  Voters in Riverside and Imperial Counties have a winning progressive this year.

Manuel Perez was raised in both Coachella and Calexico, he does not dismiss the voters in Imperial County.  

“Manuel Perez has demonstrated the integrity, honesty and due diligence to bring forth the true representation of Assembly District 80.” — Victor Carillo, Supervisor District #1

  “I’m supporting Manuel Perez for State Assembly because he is the most qualified candidate and he is well versed in the Imperial and Coachella Valley.  I am confident that Manuel will keep the interests of the Imperial Valley at heart in the California State Assembly.” — Tony Tirado, Imperial County Democratic Central Committee Chair.

His healthcare priorities come from his binational research on the health of women farm workers, and his work with Borrego Community Health Foundation.  

The California Medical Association PAC and SEIU healthcare workers and nurses recently endorsed Perez, touting his healthcare advocacy and efforts to provide healthcare for all the residents in the 80th Assembly District.

Manuel Perez also earned the endorsement of the California Nurses Association.

“Manuel Perez is on the front line of the healthcare crisis, making sure kids see pediatricians and seniors receive needed medicine,” said Zenei Cortez, RN President California Nurses Association.  “He’ll provide fresh ideas and needed leadership in solving the state’s healthcare challenges.”

His education priorities come from his Schools not Jails experience and his budget battles on behalf of the students of the Coachella Valley Unified School District.  

The New River, and its toxic threat to the health of local residents, informs his environmentalism.   A grassroots organizer is running for state office, as a citizen, a teacher, a healthcare provider, and advocate for social justice.  The only Democrat in the race who speaks Spanish, the only Harvard graduate in the race who also knows poverty firsthand.  

Our most critical unions, key legislators, and advocates like Alice Huffman of the NAACP and Dolores Huerta, co-founder of UFW support Manuel Perez, which means he’ll actually get to take that information to the state legislature and get things done.  But it’s also going to take grassroots support of the currency persuasion.

On to the 2/3 majority.  Act Blue page for Manuel Perez -for California Assembly.  

Crossposted at dKos