• Finally, something San Bernadino Republicans and Democrats can agree on: recalling Bill Postmus. The leaders of the effort will be filing the Notice of Intention to Circulate Recall Petition form on Friday, and will be circulating petitions in no time. I’ll keep you updated on this story.

• Archbishop of Los Angeles Cardinal Mahony finds himself under federal investigation for his role in protecting child abuser priests during the recent Catholic church scandal.  The movie Deliver Us From Evil would be all prosecutors would need to convict.  Mahony shielded Father Oliver O’Grady from arrest by moving him from diocese to diocese.  He basically admitted it in the movie.  Let justice roll down like waters.

• On Tuesday, the legislative analyst issued a report calling for the realignment of the criminal justice department. One of the main proposals was removing the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) from the CA Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and back to the counties. The good folks at The Ella Baker Center’s Books Not Bars Project are very excited about the idea because these kids should not be treated as hardened criminals like their adult counterparts.  They need to be given a full opportunity to develop into productive Californians.

By the way, the LAO has been putting out a number of fascinating reports on potential changes to ease the budget crisis in addition to soome webcasts pointing out some changes.  I highly recommend checking out the LAO’s publications page to check these tremendous resources out.

• The wife and mistress of “America’s Sheriff” Mike Carona have escaped prosecution. The same cannot be said about Carona, who was convicted of felony witness tampering a few weeks ago.

• In yesterday’s Open Thread, I mentioned Dan Walters column about homecare workers.  Over the flip you’ll find a response from UDW Home Care Providers/AFSCME Local 3930.  

Targeting Home Care Will Only Make the Budget Crisis Worse

By Doug Moore

Governor Schwarzenegger has targeted the In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, one of the most humane, cost-effective programs in state government. Unfortunately, columnist Dan Walters has joined in the attack.  

IHSS keeps nearly a half million seniors and people with disabilities in their own homes and out of costly institutions. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), it costs less than $10,000 a year to provide home care to an individual under IHSS.  If that person can no longer obtain home care because of cuts in IHSS, he or she will be forced to go to a nursing home or other institution.  That will cost taxpayers $55,000 a year or more, according to the LAO.

Rather than focusing his attack on IHSS clients, who are among the most vulnerable California citizens, Walters chooses to blame the thousands of dedicated, unsung heroes who provide home care. These are the people who, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg recently told the Bee: “are doing God’s work.”

Their “crime”:  They belong to unions and, in some cases, make more than the minimum wage.  

The fact is that home care workers in the majority of California counties-such as Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and San Bernardino Counties–make less than $10 an hour, including benefits. For example, San Diego County, one of the state’s wealthiest, pays its home care providers $9.71 an hour, hardly an exorbitant salary for the work they do.

Yes, the IHSS program has grown significantly in recent years to keep pace with the growing number of elderly, blind and disabled Californians. But for the taxpayers it still remains a far cheaper alternative to institutional care.

Even Walters’ Bee colleague Daniel Weintraub, hardly a fan of government programs or unions, said recently: “I don’t know what the best mix of cuts and taxes might be, if there is such a thing. All of the choices seem bad. But after spending parts of two days last week with more than a dozen disabled people who depend on state aid to live on their own, outside of nursing homes, I know this: They are the last ones whose services and support should be cut.”

So why on earth would you attack a cost-effective program that helps a half million of our state’s citizens remain independent in their own homes and communities when the alternative will cost California at least six times more?

That’s not being fiscally responsible; it’s being penny wise and pound foolish.  And it’s exactly the kind of ideological, knee-jerk thinking that helped put our state in this financial mess in the first place.  

                                   ####

Doug Moore is Executive Director of the 60,000-member United Domestic Workers of America, California’s only union made up entirely of home care providers. He is also an International Vice President of the 1.4 million-member AFSCME.  

• The California State Bar is having their September state convention at the Manchester Hyatt.  Manchester gave $125,000 to the Yes on Prop 8 campaign, and other conventions throughout the state have shifted their conventions away from the Manchester Hyatt.  The state bar should honor the boycott. The alternative is to be forced to cross a picket line every day.

• Dan Walters takes a look at the growth of healthcare workers unions at the time of the big SEIU-UHW fight.

• 60 House Democrats, including 13 Californians, called on Secretary of State Clinton to intervene in the crisis in Gaza and release emergency funds to help rebuild.  Thanks to Reps. Farr, Lee, Watson, Filner, Loretta Sanchez, Eshoo, Stark, Woolsey, Waters, Miller, Thompson, Honda and Speier.  

• An appeals court ruled that the private California Lutheran High School in Riverside can expel students for having a lesbian relationship.  This is appalling and discriminatory, and the legal reasoning is unsound.  The progressive groups working for marriage equality ought to jump on this.  Injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

• Steve Poizner gives the insurance industry a 6% gift! Yay!

• Tim Herdt of the Ventura County-Star makes a strong argument to change the system of taxation of commercial properties.  I couldn’t agree more with the bulk of his argument.  Prop 13 in general needs to be repealed, but splitting the rolls between commercial and residential properties needs to be done as soon as possible.

• And finally, these are cool ads about getting to know LGBT families.

• The Alliance for Justice has some more information about the 501c3 status of the Mormon Church, vis a vis Proposition 8. I don’t think there is a lot to go on here, or that pushing on this is the best idea, but it is worth keeping an eye on.

• It is truly sad that the swelled ranks of the California jobless can’t get through to the unemployment office to file their claims.  I remember this being a problem the one time I used the state unemployment system several years ago, I can only imagine how impossible it is today.

• This CMR analysis touts “Obama’s hidden coattails” for Congressional candidates in California.  I believe they were hidden because there weren’t any.  Obama is the first Democrat to win the state without flipping a seat Dem since 1940.  

• The California Supreme Court made a big decision on health insurance today.  Basically the case says that ERs cannot go after patients in disputes with the insurance company. It is a big win for consumer advocates, who had argued that consumers were getting caught in the crossfire of the hospitals and the insurance companies.

• The trial of former OC Sheriff Mike “America’s Sheriff” Carona went to the jury today. We’ll let you know about the verdict just as soon as we hear.

• Expect even more stringent restrictions on smoking outside restaurant patios and doorways in Los Angeles.  It should be noted that the biggest public health benefit of the last 50 years has been cigarette taxes.  Anything that helps encourage people to quit using a substance that can kill them makes at least some sense to me, nanny-state considerations be damned.

• Newly Elected SF Supervisor David Chiu was elected Board President. He succeeds his predecessor, Aaron Peskin, in District 3 as well. Chiu was considered something of a consensus candidate. He’s a bit easier to get along with than Peskin, but will likely still take issue with the Mayor.    

Here we go with the tidbits:

• The Consumer Federation has released their 2008 Legislative Scorecard (PDF). The lowest score was Asm. John Benoit, who got a 7%, when you exclude Sharon Runner’s 0% due to the fact she missed most of her votes. Several legislators got a 100% score. Unsurprisingly they are all Dems, but more interestingly most are from Northern California.  

• Sen. Jeff Denham has declared for the 2010 Lieutenant Governor’s race on the Yacht Party side, and he rolled out the endorsements of the GOP leadership in the legislature as well.  Denham was termed out of his seat in SD-12, which will be a battleground race in 2010 (in the age after Perata, when such things exist).

• While Mary Nichols missed out on the EPA Administrator job in the Obama Administration, her leadership at the California Air Resources Board is an important position as well.  Today they adopted a comprehensive, long-term strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, across all sectors and impacting all walks of life.  More on this tomorrow.  It’s a big deal.

• Andrew Breitbart has a super-duper idea – get Republican lawmakers to give movie reviews at a blog called “Big Hollywood.”  Because their thoughts on the culture are in such national demand.  Should be fun to see what Mary Bono Mack thinks of “The Dark Knight”!

• Check out this SEIU California healthcare ballot which gives the workers a choice of one merger or another without an option of no merger.  The vote is advisory, as far as I can tell, but a crew of county supervisors and United Healthcare Workers-West leaders railed against it this morning.

• The marches against Prop 8 continue. You can always find more information about local rallies at Join The Impact. This week there were marches in San Diego against hotel tycoon Doug Manchester and Storage Tycoon Terry Caster for funding 8. Last night I ran into one such rally while I was hanging out at the SFYD Holiday Party. One of the cool things about this is that I know relatively few people at these things. It’s great to see people getting involved. Check the cool, but low quality, cell phone video.

• Anything else fun going on?

Tidbits Abound:

• It looks like Arnold and Mary Nichols think the AB 32 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scoping Plan is set to be approved by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) tomorrow. The plan is fairly thorough. It doesn’t do everything we’d like it to do, but this is a fairly big step. Here’s a PDF of the complete proposed plan.

• The director of Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Steven Chu, is set to be appointed the next Energy Secretary by President Elect Obama. Chu is a longtime academic, having been a professor at Stanford. It’s good to see somebody with a background in science, rather than in industry, leading a science-heavy Department.

• Of LA Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley, who was appointed to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, incoming CA League of Conservation Voters says “In summary, Nancy Sutley rocks! [She is] a rare, political/policy expert who really listens to all sides and doesn’t need to show off her superior knowledge in group situations.”

• Newsweek’s Lisa Miller makes the religious case for same sex marriage.

• Looking for you next hip T-Shirt? Walk right past your local Urban Outfitters.  The company pulled a shirt with “I support same sex marriage.” It is also owned by a right-wing Republican who gives a bunch o’ money to anti-gay legislators like Rick Santorum. I guess it is not true that “Everybody Loves a Bigot Guy.”