California’s Republican delegation celebrated as they gathered for the opening ceremonies of the 114th congress yesterday, taking control of both houses for the first time in nearly a decade. What next? From Kevin Freking of the AP:
"’We will send bills to the president, including the water bill,’ said Rep. Jeff Denham, a Republican who represents a Central Valley district that includes Modesto. ‘If he's going to allow the state of California to suffer through another drought and high unemployment, he'll have to explain that to (Gov.) Jerry Brown and the state of California.’"
Meanwhile, back in California, a proposed new bill would create a third party oversight of police shootings. Following nationwide controversy over a spate of police shootings – and the dramatic protests in response – freshly-minted Sacramento Assemblyman Kevin McCarty has introduced legislation to create an outside review for police shootings.
Jeremy White reports at the Sacramento Bee, “Under McCarty’s Assembly Bill 86, a law enforcement panel, likely within the California Department of Justice, would study each case of a California police officer shooting someone and issue a recommendation. The goal would not be issuing indictments but ensuring the community trusts that fatalities are thoroughly reviewed, McCarty said.
“’Whether or not there would be a subsequent criminal action regarding that, that’s totally a different conversation,’ McCarty said.”
Governor Brown, state and local officials, bullet train critics and the press gathered in Fresno yesterday for the groundbreaking of the state’s $68 billion High Speed Rail project. There was plenty of coverage, including Adam Nagourney of the New York Times, Ralph Vartabedian of the Los Angeles Times, and John Howard of Capitol Weekly.
The LA Times has nice gallery of photos of the event here – they give a nice sense of place - and, for those who haven’t been neck deep in all things bullet train related, AP has a helpful FAQ here.
In an extensive, sometimes gruesome article published this week, Kaiser Health News looks at problems with California’s In-Home Supportive Services program, the state’s in-home care program for lower income residents. From Anna Gorman:
“California’s frail elderly and disabled residents increasingly are receiving care in their own homes, an arrangement that saves the government money and offers many people a greater sense of comfort and autonomy than life in an institution. Yet caregivers are largely untrained and unsupervised, even when paid by the state, leaving thousands of residents at risk of possible abuse, neglect and poor treatment, a Kaiser Health News investigation found….
“California’s $7.3 billion IHSS program is the largest publicly funded caregiver program in the nation. The caseload has more than doubled since 2001 and now serves about 490,000 low-income clients throughout the state.
“Working behind closed doors for an average of about $10 an hour, these caregivers carry immense responsibility but are subject to little scrutiny, according to law enforcement officials, elder abuse investigators, senior care experts and court records. Their lapses sometimes lead to preventable injuries and death.”
And, on to happier thoughts: California’s tax revenue was up in December.
From Jim Miller at the Bee: “Preliminary income tax totals in December came in about $1.5 billion above what the budget projected for the month. Net corporation tax collections topped budget estimates by $500 million, according to the LAO. That total – for just one month – is almost as much as the $2.5 billion that the LAO recently projected state revenue would exceed budget estimates for all of 2014-2015.”
And, more good news: state water use is down 10%. Bad news: that’s still well below conservation goals. From Paul Rogers at the San Jose Mercury News:
“After two months in a row of declining conservation, Californians are doing better at saving water, but they remain far short of a goal set by Gov. Jerry Brown last January.
“Statewide, residents cut water use by 9.8 percent in November, compared with November 2013, according to new state figures released Tuesday. That's an improvement from October, when the reduction was only 6.8 percent. And it compares with the 11.5 percent savings in August, and 10.2 percent in September.”
And, it turns out that there were a lot of undocumented immigrants who wanted California driver’s licenses. From AP:
“California officials say 46,200 immigrants started applying for a driver's license in the first three days that the state began issuing licenses to immigrants who are in the country illegally.
“Department of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez said Tuesday that 970 licenses were issued Friday to immigrants who weren't required to take a road test because they previously had a license in California or another state.”
And finally: David Bowie’s teeth. We here at The Roundup had never given much thought to the pop singer/actor’s choppers. Apparently, we are in the minority.
A surprise to us, there are quite a number of people who have noticed Bowie’s dental evolution – from natural, crooked, yellowy teeth (he is English, after all) to perfect “Chiclet-esque” pearly whites.
Now, German artist Jessine Hein has gone one step further, recreating Bowie’s old teeth in denture form. Photos and more at Dangerous Minds:
“Well someone had to do it, right? Painter and sculptor Jessine Hein has created dentures of David Bowie’s old teeth because why not? They’re made of denture acrylics, plaster and acrylic paint…
“So far the denture sculpture is not for sale, but you never know…”
They would look nice in Liz Snow's office.
