The Bee's Aurelio Rojas
compares unions' reactions to the governor's health plan and Hilary Clinton's plan. "
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plans have a lot in common, but the labor unions that have attacked the governor's plan have been largely silent about Clinton's."
We could be crazy, but didn't the main opponent to the guv's plan,
California SEIU, just endorse John Edwards last week? But we digress...
Rojas continues, "Experts say politics is certainly a factor; Schwarzenegger is a Republican, and unions historically have backed Democrats."
While talk of a statewide healthcare deal sputters, LAT's John Gilonna takes a look at
San Francisco's health care expansion.
"The city's initiative is a first-of-its-kind local solution to what has become a pressing issue nationwide: how to provide the poor and middle class with affordable healthcare.
"Launched in July at two pilot clinics in Chinatown, Healthy
San Francisco now has 14 city health clinics and eight affiliated community clinics. More than 82,000 San Franciscans are without healthcare of any kind. Program managers hope to have enrolled all of them over the next two years by advertising the service in three languages at clinics and social service agencies.
"
Officials stress that their universal healthcare plan is not insurance. The program does not travel with members, who are only covered for visits to participating clinics and the public hospital in San Francisco. It also does not cover dental or eye care.
Those below the federal poverty level of $10,210 in annual income for a single person and $20,650 for a family of four pay no fees.
Starting next month, the plan will be open to individuals with incomes up to 500% of the poverty level."
The
guv gets a green report card, and like many others this year, he gets
a mixed, though generally positive, review. The LAT's Margot Roosevelt reports.
"On a Sunday evening this month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger quietly vetoed what environmentalists had deemed to be one of the most important global warming bills to reach his desk this year.
"The legislation, opposed by oil companies, would have required cleaner fuels for trucks and cars as part of the state's ambitious attempt to reduce greenhouse gases.
"On the same day, Oct. 14, the governor also deep-sixed three bills that would have set energy-efficient building standards and another that would have required landlords to offer recycling services to tenants.
"
Nationally and internationally, Schwarzenegger is known for championing a bold 2006 law that aims to reduce California's emission of carbon dioxide and other planet-heating gases to 1990 levels over the next 13 years.But as it comes time to implement strategies for meeting those targets, his critics say, the governor is proceeding cautiously."
The governor also got kudos from environmental groups for signing 19 of their 28 high-priority bills, including partial restrictions on lead bullets to protect condors, and a ban on several chemicals, known as phthalates, in baby and toddler toys."
George Skelton suggests we give up trying to govern California, and turn it over to the Philippines.
Or something like that.
"
The state Capitol is imploding. Negotiations over healthcare "reform" and upgrading water facilities have pretty much blown up. These were the top priorities for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislative leaders this year.
"Stakeholder" coalitions are splintering. Labor again is attacking the governor, this time over healthcare. Democratic mayors in the San Joaquin Valley are assailing Democratic legislative leaders over water.
Whatever Schwarzenegger meant in January when he heralded a new era of "post-partisanship"-- and the term did seem nonsensical -- this much we know: The governor was fantasizing.
This is a system geared for partisan gridlock, especially when there isn't strong leadership."
The Chron looks back on
four years of Mayor Gavin Newsom. "When he was elected in 2003, Newsom was the young, rich entrepreneur who made his political name with a plan to slash welfare checks to the homeless. He was expected to serve the downtown businesses that helped elect him and not disturb the patronage politics of his predecessor and political benefactor, Mayor Willie Brown.
"There was a characterization that was advanced during the campaign that was quite difficult for me, being painted as ... disconnected from the challenges of reality, real people," Newsom said.
"Four years later, San Francisco's youngest mayor in a century still contends with the Pacific Heights liberal label, thanks to his society wedding to prosecutor-turned-TV commentator
Kimberly Guilfoyle, his posing for fashion magazine photo spreads with her at the Getty mansion before their 2005 divorce, and the playboy-ish pursuits that have followed.
"
But Newsom has surprised observers by being far more politically progressive than many anticipated, displaying an eagerness to clear the air of cronyism and influence-buying that long hung over the mayor's office and showing a willingness to put his political future in jeopardy by taking a stance on same-sex marriage that, while popular in San Francisco, was eschewed by many, including key Democrats on the national scene."
Meanwhile, the city is also mourning
the death of the inventor of Rice-a-Roni.
"Vincent DeDomenico, the son of Italian immigrants who took a family recipe and turned it into Rice-A-Roni - "the San Francisco treat" - and later built and ran the Napa Valley Wine Train, died Thursday in his sleep at home in Napa."
And from our
Manhattan Files, a UCLA professor is
making the case for sleeping with his students.
"
Paul Abramson is sharply criticizing his own employer and colleges nationwide that have adopted restrictions -- and, in a few cases, outright bans -- on romances between faculty and students.
"Of course, sexual harassment should not be allowed and no one should supervise or give grades to a romantic partner, says Abramson, who has taught at UCLA for 31 years. But those concerns should not restrict the right of consenting adults to have a non-exploitative relationship, he argues in a new book.
"The rights to romance and to choose whom to love are as basic as the freedoms of speech and religion, Abramson writes in "Romance in the Ivory Tower: The Rights and Liberty of Conscience" (MIT Press). A university that suppresses such a choice "tramples the very nature of freedom itself," he declares.
"
Readers looking for sexy material will be disappointed by his 172-page volume, unless they get turned on by constitutional law and copious references to Jefferson, Madison and the 9th Amendment. There are no steamy scenes of stolen kisses in library cubicles."
OK, be honest. Who doesn't get turned on at the very mention of the 9th Amendment? That's the Constitutional right to bedposts, handcuffs and lingerie, right?
Meanwhile, we hear a University of South Carolina professor is preparing to make the case for sleeping with his cousins...