"Kashkari’s ad is playing off the recent Vergara v. California court decision, in which a Los Angeles judge found that the state’s system of teacher tenure violates the constitutional rights of children in poorer school districts by making it all but impossible to fire incompetent instructors."
Capitol Weekly's Samantha Gallegos looks at the problems Prop 45 has created for the state's Democrats, who are widely split on the issue.
"Opponents include Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown’s top health-care adviser, an array of medical, organized labor, insurance and business groups, including the California Chamber of Commerce, various HMOs, the State Building and Construction Trades Council, the California Medical Association, SEIU, and retiring Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez. The state’s largest newspapers have editorialized against the initiative. Three health care insurers – Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Wellpoint and Blue Shield – donated $36.3 million alone to fight the measure.
"The California Democratic Party and U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats, support Proposition 45, as do the California National Organization for Women, the Consumer Attorneys of California and the California Consumer Federation. The pro-Proposition 45 coalition has raised about $3.5 million."
Consumer Watchdog, the same organization that proposed Prop 45 (and 46), is demanding that Attorney General Kamala Harris investigate Covered California's no-bid contracts and reported coziness between Peter Lee, the organization's Executive Director. and some contractors. Jim Miller reports in the Sacramento Bee:
"The demand by Consumer Watchdog, a main supporter of Proposition 45, came after The Associated Press reported that Covered California had awarded $184 million in contracts without competitive bidding. The total included millions of dollars in contracts to firms or people that had professional ties to Covered California executive director Peter Lee, according to the report.
"...'This isn’t about speed. This is about being opaque,' said Consumer Watchdog president Jamie Court, rejecting Covered California’s claim that it needed uncompetitive contracts to meet the tight deadlines to carry out the state version of the federal Affordable Care Act. 'For $4.2 million to flow to a former associate without any oversight is the antithesis of open government and good government.'”
Eryn Baldrica-Guy reports in the Fresno Bee that a group of Fresno community leaders will make the case that Central Valley workers need more training to prepare for High-Speed Rail jobs at today's meeting of the California High-Speed Rail Authority board in Sacramento.
"About 30 people from churches, community groups and the Service Employees International Union, calling themselves the Voice of Including Community Equitably or VOICE, gathered Monday night at the West Fresno Family Resource Center to express their frustration that more hasn’t been done to train unemployed disadvantaged Valley residents for the project.
OK everyone, you can calm down: Russia is NOT, we repeat not, outlawing "tramp stamps."
Proposed legislation would require tattoo parlors to warn women that lower back tattoos could interfere with epidural anesthesia during child birth - but fans and foes alike are viewing the legislation as an attempt to dissuade women from getting inked. From Globalvoicesonline.org:
"The legislation... is billed as a consumer protection regulation, but many—if not most—Russians seem to interpret it as the latest in a series of laws aimed at curbing supposedly immoral behavior. Reactions have been even more animated because several Russian news outlets misleadingly describe the initiative as an effort to ban outright lower-back tattoos for women."