Oil magnates think Tribune newspaper business wasn’t economically viable

by Brian Leubitz

In the end, their desire to make a buck overcame their desire to control the press in LA, Chicago and other cities.

Billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch have scrapped their efforts to buy the Los Angeles Times and other Tribune Co. newspapers, a Koch Industries spokeswoman said.

*** **** ***

The Kochs’ decision not to pursue the newspapers was first reported by the Daily Caller, a news website founded by conservative pundit Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel, former advisor to former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The website, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the proceedings, said the Kochs conducted due diligence and determined that the newspapers were “not economically viable.” They have not been interested in buying the newspapers for “a couple months,” the website reported. (LA Times)

Well, I suppose they could have let the cat drift out of the bag sooner, but perhaps they enjoyed seeing progressive organizations get riled up on the matter. Or not.

Groups like the Courage Campaign and the California Labor Federation had been preemptively fighting any sale of the Times to the Koch brothers since word leaked out months ago. The Koch Brothers funding of anti-labor organizations worried many progressives that the sale would skew the editorial direction of the paper far to the right. Needless to say, many excited press releases went out today. Here is the statement from the Labor Federation:

“Today’s news that the Koch Brothers won’t buy the LA Times and others Tribune Co. newspapers is a major victory for proponents of a free and democratic press.

“For months, the California Labor Federation, media watchdogs and progressive groups have raised serious concerns about the effect of handing control of major news outlets over to the Kochs. The Kochs’ interest in the Tribune Co. was no doubt fueled by a desire to further their anti-worker, anti-environment agenda by using those media outlets as a megaphone for their extreme ideas.

“Journalistic integrity is vital to free society. The power of a free press is essential to providing the checks and balances needed to protect democracy. We’re pleased that the Tribune Co. won’t fall under the control of the Kochs, and we remain vigilant in our efforts to protect journalistic institutions from being corrupted by those who want to use them to serve their own agendas.”

Audit raises questions about Prop 63 spending

by Brian Leubitz

So-called “ballot box budgeting” comes in waves. California voters tend to draw back from spending money in bad economic times, and will fund more programs in the heydays. 2004’s Prop 63 hit as we were clearly on the upswing after the 2001 recession. The real estate bubble was rapidly building, making everybody feel wealthy. And Prop 63 went for an undeniably good cause, protecting some of the most ignored in California, people with mental health issues.

As both president and governor, Ronald Reagan went about slashing money for social services, especially mental health. The results are written everyday on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and many other cities across the state and nation. Mental health institutions closed down, and the homeless population went up. California spent about $5 billion before the measure, but could certainly use the additional resources.

But after the measure went into place a number of things happened. As you can tell from the date, we are talking peak of the real estate bubble. Once the bubble burst, mental health spending got slashed from that $5b high. Although Prop 63 wasn’t intended to serve as backfill for cut dollars, it ended up serving those purposes.

Recently, the state auditor released a report on Prop 63 spending, which criticized the state for a lack of spending oversight on those funds. But the news that was getting all the headlines, perhaps because the auditor highlighted them because they sound juicy, were some of the more effective programs. Programs like yoga and gardening were shown to have good outcomes for the mentally ill and to have both therapeutic and preventative value.

On KQED’s Forum today, some of the original authors of that measure debated how the money has been spent. Much of the debate is a little technical, depending on how you define prevention and early treatment, etc. There can be questions of effectiveness, and clearly the state needs to do a better job of consolidating outcome data. But, the question of whether we need to make more substantive changes is still out there.

All that being said, mental health services are still underfunded, as most social services are in this state. But we can always do more to ensure that our dollars work as effectively as possible.

Hope to put student protections to a vote

by Brian Leubitz

There is a lot of misinformation going around about Asm. Ammiano’s transgender student equality law.  Since Gov. Brown signed it last week, the rightwingers have been stirring themselves into a frenzy online. If you are really intent on wading into the sewers, you can always google “transgender equality free republic” and you can find such nonsense as:

So all a guy has to do is say is that he believes he is a woman trapped in a mans body but that that woman is a lesbian so that he can use the girls-room and it’s open season?

So this is what we are dealing with as we seek to protect some of the most bullied students in our educational system. Unemployment rates in the transgender community are more than double the general population. If we are serious about protecting our students, this is a critical step that we must take.

AB 1266 is a short bill, but it is definitely not a simple bill. The bill allows students to “use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.” Implementation of the law is up to local officials for the time being, but this will not be an easy process. Gender identity has a meaning far deeper than a teenage prankster will really care to carry the joke. Gender identity is all pervasive in our lives, kids are simply not going to fake it. That’s a red herring that the right wing just can’t seem to get over.  And because of that, they have plans for the legislation:

Republican lawmakers denounced the move on social media, and Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, said he would pull his children from public school.

On Friday, some of those detractors filed a referendum to overturn the law, which they have dubbed the “the co-ed bathroom bill.”

“We respect that some students are struggling with their own sexual identity, but we ask for respect for the other students who will be humiliated when a boy walks into the (girls’) locker room,” said Karen England, who is executive director of the Capitol Resource Institute and the contact point on paperwork submitted to the attorney general’s office. “This is a privacy issue, a safety issue, and a common sense issue.”(SacBee)

There is really very little to be surprised at in this statement. Karen England is uninformed and afraid of what she does not understand. The “boy” that will be treated like a female student will not be some horny kid looking for jollies. It will be children fighting to understand themselves, just looking for the same rights to safely participate as every other student.

You may recognize Karen England’s name. She also tried to put SB 48 to a referndum. That bill included LGBT Californians in our educational curriculum, and she just couldn’t handle that either.  England wasn’t successful in signature gathering for that measure, and likely won’t be for this measure either. She is merely spitting into the winds of progress. And as for Donnelly, well, my guess is that his threat rings hollow on any number of levels.

Hope to put student protections to a vote

by Brian Leubitz

There is a lot of misinformation going around about Asm. Ammiano’s transgender student equality law.  Since Gov. Brown signed it last week, the rightwingers have been stirring themselves into a frenzy online. If you are really intent on wading into the sewers, you can always google “transgender equality free republic” and you can find such nonsense as:

So all a guy has to do is say is that he believes he is a woman trapped in a mans body but that that woman is a lesbian so that he can use the girls-room and it’s open season?

So this is what we are dealing with as we seek to protect some of the most bullied students in our educational system. Unemployment rates in the transgender community are more than double the general population. If we are serious about protecting our students, this is a critical step that we must take.

AB 1266 is a short bill, but it is definitely not a simple bill. The bill allows students to “use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.” Implementation of the law is up to local officials for the time being, but this will not be an easy process. Gender identity has a meaning far deeper than a teenage prankster will really care to carry the joke. Gender identity is all pervasive in our lives, kids are simply not going to fake it. That’s a red herring that the right wing just can’t seem to get over.  And because of that, they have plans for the legislation:

Republican lawmakers denounced the move on social media, and Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, said he would pull his children from public school.

On Friday, some of those detractors filed a referendum to overturn the law, which they have dubbed the “the co-ed bathroom bill.”

“We respect that some students are struggling with their own sexual identity, but we ask for respect for the other students who will be humiliated when a boy walks into the (girls’) locker room,” said Karen England, who is executive director of the Capitol Resource Institute and the contact point on paperwork submitted to the attorney general’s office. “This is a privacy issue, a safety issue, and a common sense issue.”(SacBee)

There is really very little to be surprised at in this statement. Karen England is uninformed and afraid of what she does not understand. The “boy” that will be treated like a female student will not be some horny kid looking for jollies. It will be children fighting to understand themselves, just looking for the same rights to safely participate as every other student.

You may recognize Karen England’s name. She also tried to put SB 48 to a referndum. That bill included LGBT Californians in our educational curriculum, and she just couldn’t handle that either.  England wasn’t successful in signature gathering for that measure, and likely won’t be for this measure either. She is merely spitting into the winds of progress. And as for Donnelly, well, my guess is that his threat rings hollow on any number of levels.

1978 law caps pain and suffering damages unreasonably low

by Brian Leubitz

$250,000 is a lot of money, right? If somebody asked you to eat a nasty bug for a quarter of a million dollars, you would at least give it a thought. But would you trade four of your limbs and a lifetime of phantom pain for $250,000? That’s basically what happened to Alan Cronin.

As you can see in the video to the right, Mr. Cronin’s story is devastating. After a routine hernia surgery, he quickly developed pain at the surgery site and eventually went to the hospital. Doctors were not able to find open the site for two more days, whereupon he was already in toxic shock from a massive staph infection. Though he was given only a 5% chance of survival, he made it. But he lost all four of his limbs to the infection, and is now in constant pain. Because of this medical negligence, his life was never the same.

For all that, he can collect $250,000 of pain and suffering damages. In tort law, damages were traditionally meant to make the victim of the tort whole. Or, to attempt as best as possible to reasonably compensate victims for their damage. With real estate, damages are easy to compute. You drove your car into a building? Well, it will cost X amount of dollars to fix it, you have to pay X amount of dollars.

But with a subjective injury, like losing four limbs and experiencing pain every day of your life, how much is that worth? Put it another way, would you take $250,000 to give up your four limbs, even putting aside the constant pain? Of course not.

But that it was MICRA does. The Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975 has not been adjusted for nearly forty years, and was never adjusted for inflation. What was once at least a sizable amount of money has lost around 75% of its value. The legislation now creates perverse incentives while putting patients at risk.

Alan Cronin knows only too well just how much this simple sounding law can impact a life.

WWII Vet was first openly gay candidate in American history

by Brian Leubitz

Jose Julio Sarria was a trailblazer in the LGBT community. That word is tossed around lightly sometimes, but it would be hard to imagine a more perfect moniker for Mr. Sarria. And the LGBT community has lost a legend today.

One of America’s gay rights pioneering leaders, José Julio Sarria, passed away quietly in his home in New Mexico this morning. He was 91.

Mr. Sarria was a proud World War II veteran and the very first openly gay candidate to run for public office in North America. He was a candidate for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1961. Mr. Sarria’s candidacy was the start of true gay political power and gave voice to gay people who were tired of being treated like second class citizens. San Diego City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez, a close friend of Mr. Sarria’s and a long time Latino Gay Activist stated “José Julio Sarria was indeed the Rosa Parks of the gay rights movement as an activist in the 1950s and 1960s.” (GLAAD)

Sarria formed the Imperial Court System, a kind of gay version of the Rotary Club…with a lot more makeup. The system now has chapters in over sixty cities across North America, where it continues to give back to local communities.  As you can see from this 9 page bio (PDF), Sarria had a long history of breaking barriers both for the Latino and LGBT communities.

Leaders who are unafraid of creating change, and are dedicated to fighting for the future and the rights of those who come after them, are rare. José Julio Sarria lived an amazing life, and during his 91 years he saw much. And he helped make the world a better place, both through hard work and humor.

Group of measures would increase gun safety in California

by Brian Leubitz

The optimal result on gun safety legislation would be sweeping reform at the federal level. However, the NRA has put the hammer down on that, so the California “LIFE Act” becomes what we can do today to make our communities safer.  The Lifesaving Intelligent Firearms Enforcement (LIFE) Act is made up of seven bills each based on scientifically proven strategies to reduce gun violence. Each bill is compliant with Supreme Court rulings on the 2nd Amendment, however backward they may be.

The Assembly Committee on Public Safety hearing offered a preview of that battle, as dozens of gun-control advocates — including some who have lost loved ones to violent crime — faced off against gun-rights supporters who believe that a basic freedom is threatened.

“This entire package is not focused on trying to prohibit or limit law-abiding citizens from having guns,” state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, told the committee. “It seeks to close loopholes that were never supposed to exist.” But National Rifle Association lobbyist Ed Worley scoffed at that notion.(Josh Richman / BANG)

The Assembly Public Safety Committee voted to pass Senate Bill (SB) 47 today, prohibiting the future sale of assault rifles with a “bullet button,” which allows for the easy removal and replacement of magazines.

Currently, many assault rifles sold in California have a feature known as a bullet button that allows a magazine to be replaced in mere seconds. Yee’s SB 47 will prohibit the use of the bullet button and other devices that allow for easily changeable magazines on all military-style assault weapons, such as AR-15s. Under SB 47, featured weapons would only be allowed to have 10-round ammunition magazines that could not be changed without dissembling the weapon. Essentially, bullets could only be loaded one-by-one from the top of the gun.

“California’s Assault Weapons Ban has protected the public for decades,” said Yee. “SB 47 will allow it to continue to keep Californians safe from military-style weapons.”

Six of the seven LIFE Act bills have now made it through the public safety committee, with the seventh expected to get a full floor vote as well. The NRA and their allies are not giving up on weakening or killing these bills. You can contact your legislators through the Courage Campaign’s Life Lantern website.