Rhode Island town uses Kickstarter approach to government

by Brian Leubitz

While not strictly California news, with the number of California cities in bankruptcy right now, the story of a town in Rhode Island looking to crowdfunding is worth a read:

Central Falls, Rhode Island went bankrupt in 2011 after promising overly generous pensions to city employees. The city pulled itself out of bankruptcy last year and must now stick to a penny-pinching plan with no room for error or for luxuries like trash cans and public art. As a result, the impoverished city is getting creative: it’s now raising $10,044 on the civic crowdfunding platform Citizinvestor in order to clean up its main public park. It’s raised $245 so far. ([The Verge ])

Lest we think this is all very far away, San Mateo County is using the site to ask for money for fire rings at a county park and several other projects. The site is a bit spartan now, but it seems to be a growing business.

At one point in our history, taxes were used as the “crowdfunding” in order to purchased shared goods and services. Now that we have decided low taxes are more important than a government that can meet our needs, “luxuries” like bike parking and fire rings are supposed to be paid for out of your own good will.

Now, the service does allow for tax deductions, but shouldn’t we be focused on fixing the problems that are at the heart of these problems? For years, the “waste, fraud, and abuse” line was trotted out at every turn, with very little actual evidence as taxes were slashed. And now we are dealing with the ramifications, municipalities are forced to seek “out of the box” solutions that rely on good will alone.

It seems a risky proposition, at the very least.

Firefighters used precision data to protect water sources

by Brian Leubitz

The Rim Fire in and around Yosemite is almost fully contained. (84% to be exact], you can get daily Rim Fire updates at thye Sierra Sun Times.) It has cost nearly $125 million since it began on August 17, burning 3 commercial buildings and 11 residences plus a lot of other outbuildings. But some of the biggest risks it presented was to our water supply. As it was building near several reservoirs, including the grand Hetch Hetchy reservoir that provides water to much of the Bay Area, firefighters couldn’t necessarily just dump fire retardant wherever worked best for fire containment.

To put it simply, they had to be far more precise, both in dumping their payloads and targeting relief assistance. Over at the Verge, they take a look at company called ESRI who helped process mapping and other data to help fight the fires and help those in need. Read the whole story over there to get an idea of how firefighters are using technology these days.

Principal says “We’re proud of the message from home of the Vikings has been one of equity, acceptance, tolerance and respect.”

by Brian Leubitz

The historic Vikings weren’t very tolerant or understanding, but that’s not the case for the Vikings of Marina High School in Huntington Beach. Over the weekend, Marina High chose Cassidy Lynn Campbell as its homecoming queen. What makes that notable is that Cassidy is a transgender student living in a pretty conservative area of Orange County. While she knows there is still a lot of hate left in the community, Cassidy is a proud leader:

Cassidy Campbell says she has dealt with some negativity since she decided to run for homecoming queen. She says it’s all fueled by ignorance.

“They think that I’m just a boy doing this for fun, and I’m just a boy dressing up as a girl and trying to win a crown when that is completely the opposite of what it is,” she said. “I’ve always seen myself as a girl.”

She hopes her courage will inspire other transgender teens to live life without hiding who they are.(KABC – 7 LA)

With the passage and Jerry Brown’s signature of Asm. Ammiano’s School Success and Opportunity Act, transgender students will have the freedom to pursue every opportunity that other students have. Equality takes a fight, but with positive signs like this, it is clear that justice is winning.

Congratulations Cassidy!

Longtime pending reform moves ahead, enforcement still far from clear

by Brian Leubitz

The FPPC has been looking at regulating “bloggers” and social media for a while now. For a good review of some of their early discussions, see Julia Rosen’s post from their 2010 hearing on the subject. But yesterday they passed the new regulations:

Bloggers and others who are paid to post political messages online are subject to new disclosure rules under regulations the Fair Political Practices Commission approved Thursday.

Campaign committees will now have to report who they pay to post “favorable or unfavorable” content on blogs, social media or online videos on their campaign finance statements, and report the name of the website where the content appears.

“The purpose overall is to let the public know that they can go compare what the campaign is paying for to what is showing up online,” said FPPC attorney Heather Rowan.(SacBee)

I don’t doubt that the FPPC’s heart is in the right place, but as Steven Maviglio points out, the system is unworkable from any number of levels. And as former Schwarzenegger aide Rob Stutzman is quoted in the Bee, the system creates regulatory road blocks without actually helping voters discern what is paid for communication.

Now, I should also point out that I am occasionally paid by campaigns, but I’ve been using disclosures on each and every post associated with those campaigns. Not to be too self-congratulatory here, but I think it is just the right thing to do. However, these regulations don’t require that, but rather require reporting to the FPPC. That could be useful if somebody follows up on those FPPC forms in some database, but there are certainly no guarantees of clarity.

Furthermore, the devil is in the details. The current regulation leaves a lot of room for interpretation. How will campaign employees twitter accounts be regulated? How will they manage enforcement of occasionally pseudonymous or anonymous internet postings? And are these regulations constitutional under the Supreme Court’s (rather extreme) First Amendment jurisprudence?

Those questions will likely be answered during the next campaign cycle or two. The risk is that by the time those questions are answered, a whole new set will have taken their place.

Latest round of HIV infections stirs new round of debate

by Brian Leubitz

California is world famous for its big budget Hollywood blockbusters. However, every day, the state churns out volumes of adult content. Current law requires very frequent HIV testing, but the logistics of those tests and the lag in detection mean that HIV isn’t always detected on time.  Of course, there is a way to make the business safer by using condoms, and many production studios require safe sex in their movies.

However, there is a lot of money in the business, and many studios who are a little more lax, or even outright opposed, in their condom usage. The County of Los Angeles passed Measure B last year, and that measure was upheld by a judge this year http://www.businessweek.com/ar… However, many studios simply moved their productions out of the traditional hub of such filmmaking in LA County’s San Fernando Valley and into neighboring counties.

Assemblyman Isadore Hall (D-Compton) tried in a couple different ways to get similar legislation at the state level. But ultimately, that legislation was blocked, allegedly by lobbyists for the adult film industry and Asm. Mike Gatto(D-Hollywood).

But in the last few days, a series of four adult performers have been found to be positive for HIV, likely caught through their work. The LA-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation is none too pleased. And in a press conference yesterday, some of those performers spoke about their experiences.

Last week, Cameron Bay, one of the adult film actors who recently contracted HIV, called for more porn producers to encourage the use of safe sex on set.

The actress says she was naive to trust industry STD tests and said other performers told her not to ask for condoms.

‘I learned that there’s always someone younger and sexier, willing to do something you’re not,’ Bay told the Huffington Post. ‘I think we need more choices because of that. Condoms should be a choice.'(Daily Mail UK)

The legislation is dead for this year, but it is sure to come back next year. And the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and their allies are vowing to bring more public pressure to bear next year. See the flip for the TV news story.

Mitchell will take seat once results are certified, another special election will ensue

by Brian Leubitz

Asm. (soon to be Sen.) Holly Mitchell was the big winner on Tuesday, as she took over 80% of the vote in what was SD-26 and will be SD-30. She’ll be sworn in once the final vote is certified.

Of course, Mitchell’s victory means that the wheel keeps on turning. Her assembly seat will need a special election later in the year. Gov. Brown will set that date once Mitchell is sworn into the Senate.

In the other election, over in AD-45, Matt Dababneh was the leading Democratic vote getter at 24.6%. He will face off against Republican Susan Shelley in a run-off in the highly Democratic district.

Multiple strategies employed to lower birth rate to teens

by Brian Leubitz

There are few more coupled variables in societal statistics as poverty and teenage pregnancy. For better or worse, poverty leads to teenage pregnancy, which leads to poverty. It is a vicious circle, but one that we have some very potent tools to prevent.

And California has been doing much to combat teenage pregnancy. Consider the following:

In 2011, the birthrate for teenage girls in California dropped to its lowest level since 1991, a state report released Wednesday announced.

Twenty-eight children were born in the state for every 1,000 teenage girls, a sharp decline from 1991 when the rate peaked at 70.9 births for every 1,000 teenage girls. (LA Times 7/17/13)

In addition to comprehensive sex education programs in our schools, the state has been making efforts to reach youth using new tools and where they are. But even more than that, California has adapted its programs to general best practices. Amanda Marcotte looks at what works and what doesn’t, it shouldn’t really surprise too many people if they think about it for a minute.

What works: Comprehensive sex education that doesn’t flinch from addressing specifics. California has been a major success story on the teen birth front, getting their birth rate down from 70 births per 1,000 in 1991 to 28 in 2011. A huge part of their success has been implementing comprehensive sex education across the state, requiring schools not just to educate students about the existence of contraception but also explain the specifics of how to use it. …

What works: Youth programs designed specifically with teens’ actual needs in mind. Another part of California’s success was implementing various programs, often outside of schools, that reached teenagers on their own level. (Daily Beast)

We still have a ways to go before we catch up with Canada or Western Europe, but California is on the right track. We could always use more money to reach more children, but our goals and our methods are sound. The results speak volumes for evidenced based social programs, and the sound public policy results we can get if we spend a little money up front.

Around 40% of registrations came online since September 17, 2012 kickoff of online registration

by Brian Leubitz

The elections carousel keeps on chugging around, as two more districts follow up from LA City Council elections. The two districts in play are AD-45, where a huge crowd of candidates seeks to replace Bob Blumenfield, and SD-26, where Holly Mitchell and Mervin Evans are looking to replace Curren Price.

In AD-45, the race will likely go to another round, as seven Democrats, three Republicans, and 1 NPP are vying for the race. The district is heavily Democratic, so the risk of having one of those strange upset races because of too many candidates in one party shouldn’t be that high. I mentioned the race a while back, but with as many variables in play, who knows what will happen. However, it appears that Damian Carroll and Matt Dababneh are the two strongest progressive Democrats.

Meanwhile in SD-26 (soon to be SD-30), Asm. Holly Mitchell is looking to move down the hall to the Senate, and is the strong frontrunner.

It is appropriate that voters should be going to the polls as we approach the anniversary of the online voter registration. In the 12 months since Secretary of State Debra Bowen launched the online voter registration application on September 19, 2012, more than 911,145 Californians have registered for the first time or updated their voter record using this online system.

“The Internet replaced the mailbox for about 4 out of every 10 people who registered or updated their voter record since California began offering online voter registration last year,” said Secretary of State Debra Bowen, California’s chief elections official. “Registering to vote has never been easier and with the many options available, there are no excuses not to.”

You can register to vote at registertovote.ca.gov/.