"A labor showdown between the California State University system and its faculty union was averted Tuesday with a
tentative accord on a new contract that provides a guaranteed pay hike of 20.7 percent over four years for professors, lecturers, coaches and librarians," reports Jim Doyle in the Chron.
"Negotiators for the CSU administration and faculty reached the agreement after 23 months of labor talks and mediation, as well as a series of threatened strikes on the system's 23 university campuses.
"The California Faculty Assocation plans to put the proposed contract to a vote of its 12,000 dues-paying members later this month, union president
John Travis told reporters. If ratified by the faculty, CSU's governing Board of Trustees will vote on it.
"'We expect our members to ratify this. We think it's a good deal,' Travis said. "We pretty much got everything that we asked for."
"The university system's top executive, Chancellor
Charles Reed said, 'This agreement strikes a realistic balance between providing deserved raises to our faculty and our limited financial resources.'"
Meanwhile, "[t]he Schwarzenegger administration
has made a new contract offer to the state correctional officers union, proposing a pay raise that would amount to 14.3 percent over three years -- but only in exchange for the state regaining control of what it characterized as "management rights," writes the Bee's Andy Furillo.
"Over the life of the deal, it would increase the annual base salary of top-step correctional officers from $73,700 to $83,000, including pension coverage. Under the union's current agreement, health benefits and a package of incentives can add as much as $16,000 more to an officer's total compensation package, not counting overtime.
"California Correctional Peace Officers Association Vice President
Chuck Alexander expressed reservations about the offer, the administration's first financial proposal to the union since the CCPOA's contract expired last July. He said it could result in his union losing ground to pay raises granted last year to the California Highway Patrol, an assertion the administration denied."
"The Bush administration
has reopened California's stalled petition seeking to control greenhouse gases after the Supreme Court's ruling this week that the government can regulate emissions from cars.
"The action by the Environmental Protection Agency breathes life into California's effort to become the first state to cut tailpipe emissions from cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles. It also could influence the outcome of an auto industry lawsuit in California to block the state regulations, contained in a 2002 state law.
"'We've reviewed the issues within the waiver request,' EPA spokeswoman
Jennifer Wood said Tuesday. 'We're moving forward to the next steps of the process.'
"The agency next will schedule a public comment period and public hearing."
"A small but growing movement to promote nuclear power construction, dormant for three decades,
is working to overturn the state's ban on new reactors as worries about climate change have softened voters' opposition to new plants," writes the Chron's Matthew Yi.
"A legislator from Southern California has introduced a bill to lift the state's ban on new nuclear power plants. The bill would give a boost to plans by investors to bring nuclear power to the heart of the San Joaquin Valley.
"Assemblyman
Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, says lifting the moratorium on new nuclear power plants even before the federal government builds a permanent storage facility for spent fuel rods is necessary to meet the state's demand for power.
"A revival of nuclear power, which doesn't burn fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases, also will help in the fight against global warming, he said.
"Skepticism about nuclear power abounds among environmentalists and in the Democrat-controlled state Legislature, but recent polls show that California voters are quickly changing their views on nuclear power in light of global warming. Likely voters are evenly split over the need to build more nuclear power plants."
Meanwhile, an expert says
converting to nuclear would be too expensive. "After painstakingly analyzing the costs of U.S. nuclear power plants built decades ago, energy experts caution that a resurrection of nuclear power could bring along some financial risk and surprisingly high electricity costs," reports Ian Hoffman in the Oakland Tribune.
"Researchers reporting in the most recent edition of the journal Environmental Science & Technology found that construction costs varied by as much as 500 percent before the last U.S. nuclear power station was built almost 30 years ago.
"'There is no other (energy) technology we're looking at where the range in cost is a factor of five,' said
Dan Kammen, professor of energy and resources and of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. 'It means that if the nuclear industry doesn't manage itself much better than in the past, we are likely to still get this large range of costs.'"
"Five California counties
are seeking $2.4 billion from the federal government to recover Medicare underpayments to physicians across the country who receive up to 25 percent less than those in nearby counties for the same services," writes David Whitney in the Bee.
"The counties contend that the pay disparity, which allegedly took place from 2001 to 2007, is nudging doctors out of the Medicare business in those areas and forcing elderly and disabled people to travel long distances to find providers who will treat them.
"'We have patients who can't find doctors,' said
Michael Reedy, a San Jose attorney involved in filing a claim over the pay disparity last month with the Department of Health and Human Services. 'Baby boomers are beginning to enter the Medicare system. You think the problem is bad now, wait another five years.'
"If Health and Human Services turns down the claim, as Reedy said he anticipates, the case likely will be refiled in federal court, where class-action status will be sought."
Matier and Ross provide another update for our
Spring Break File: "Rookie San Francisco state Assemblywoman
Fiona Ma isn't wasting any time making tracks.
"Ma is one of six state lawmakers in France this week for a fun fact-finding tour of that nation's high-speed rail system. It was her third trip in the last year -- she also traveled to China on the dime of a nonprofit and to Morocco as a guest of that government. This time, she's using campaign funds -- and what a journey it's been.
"Ma was tagged to ride the French commuter train Tuesday when it broke the speed record, calling it "an exhilarating experience.''
"But nothing compares to the trifecta Ma put together to cap off the trip: A visit to Bordeaux to participate in a conference on the effects of global warming on the wine industry.
"A perfect blend of political correctness, public relations and party, to boot."
Finally, from our
This is Your Brain on Drugs File: "
Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all. In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist
said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine.
"'
The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father,' Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.
"'He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared,' he said. '... It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive.'
"Richards' father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84."