As Sen. Richard Pan’s (D-Sacramento) bill to end many vaccine exemptions approaches another committee vote on Wednesday, opponents gear up for the fight. If SB 277 passes, they threaten to homeschool their children rather than submit to vaccination. From Tracy Seipel at the San Jose Mercury News.
“Parents like San Jose resident Elaine Shtein are being encouraged to bring a son or daughter to stand with them before the eight-member Senate Education Committee on Wednesday with a warning: If the bill passes, they pledge to yank their children out of public and private schools, and home-school them, something they believe will deprive both the state and private school systems of money for every student enrolled….
“Most public school districts depend on state funding -- at least $6,000 per student. However, many school districts in areas with high property values receive relatively little state funding, and actually could financially benefit by drops in enrollment.
"’I think pulling students out of school for whatever reason only hurts the students being pulled from class,’ said Benjamin Picard, superintendent of the Sunnyvale School District.”
The ACLU and other activists rallied at the capitol yesterday to spotlight bills that would increase oversight when police are involved in the death of a suspect or racial profiling. Jeremy White has the story at the Sacramento Bee:
“Monday’s rally preceded the American Civil Liberties Union’s Sacramento lobby day and spotlighted two bills sponsored by the ACLU and carried by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego.
“Assembly Bill 619 would require the attorney general’s office to send the Legislature a report, and publish it publicly, on how many people die in police custody. Assembly Bill 953 seeks to shine a light on racial profiling by establishing a Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board and requiring local police departments to report information on traffic and pedestrian stops to the California attorney general’s office.”
The ACLU also supported SB 411, a bill by Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) that would clarify the public’s right to photograph and record police officers.
A San Juan Capistrano court case challenging tiered water rates could upset the Governor’s 25% water reduction mandate if an appeals court confirms a lower court decision against the city. A ruling is expected next week. Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times:
“State law prohibits water agencies from charging more for water than the cost of producing and delivering it. A group of San Juan Capistrano residents has challenged the city's tiered rate structure, arguing that it resulted in arbitrarily high fees...
“An appeals court is expected to issue a decision in the case this week. If the court publishes its opinion, water lawyers say the decision could have major implications for agencies that use or are considering adopting tiered rates."
And speaking of water, Southern California’s largest water wholesaler gave preliminary approval Monday to a 15% cut in deliveries. From Bradley J. Sikes, U-T San Diego:
“The proposed "Condition 3" reduction goes before the entire Metropolitan board on Tuesday, where approval is expected. A motion for a deeper cut made by a representative from San Diego County's main water supplier, the San Diego County Water Authority, was rejected.
“If adopted by the full board, the cut will be enforced by penalty surcharges on member agencies that don't reduce their water use by the goal.”
Freshman Assemblywoman Patty Lopez (D- San Fernando Valley) was the talk of the town last year when she ousted Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra in a stunning upset that no one (not even Paul Mitchell!) saw coming. Now she’s finding that winning the election was the easy part.
Melanie Mason, LAT: “Five months after the election, detractors in her northeast San Fernando Valley district are waging a campaign against her, pressuring her to resign. Meanwhile, Lopez, a political novice, has chafed against the practices at the Capitol and has strained relationships with those working to help her.
“Calling her critics bullies, Lopez rejects the calls to step down.
"’The people put me in this place,’ she said….
[Meanwhile] Bocanegra is already gunning for a rematch. He formed a committee for a 2016 campaign last December, just weeks after his loss.
"’I've had a lot of encouragement from people to run again for 2016,’ Bocanegra said. ‘I've still got that fire in the belly.’"
A new poll finds that the public strongly supports teachers – but teacher tenure? Maybe not so much. In light of last summer’s Vergara Decision limiting tenure, public sentiment on the issue could have a big political impact. John Myers, KQED:
“The poll released this past weekend by the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles Times finds 73 percent of those surveyed would pick some kind of tenure system other than the one that now exists for the state’s teachers. And the single largest bloc of Californians — 38 percent — said that teachers should have no tenure system at all.”
Unsurprisingly, teachers’ unions are unimpressed with the poll results.
Howard Blume, LAT: “The wording of poll questions and limited public awareness on these issues skewed the results, they said.
“’We believe that when people have a chance to hear these issues presented more fully they are far more likely to see the value in current due-process protections and layoff procedures,’ said Frank Wells, a spokesman for the California Teachers Assn.”
Capitol Weekly’s Samantha Gallegos looks at the challenges facing four bills to legalize online poker currently making their way through the legislature. The most contentious issue? Horse tracks.
“After years of diminishing attendance, declining revenue, and racetrack closures, the struggling industry sees operating Internet poker websites as a golden opportunity to build upon its already existing online presence.
“’This is, in fact, a new form of gaming and horse racing just wants to be treated equal to card rooms and tribal interests,’ lobbyist Robyn Black said.”
Many tribal leaders disagree.
“’Unfortunately, it’s a dying industry and they have their own struggles,’ said Jeff Grubbe, chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. ‘They’ve got to come up with their own ways to fix that business. I don’t think they should rely on or open up gaming to find that answer because that negatively impacts what we have going.’”
And if you’re planning a trip to the track or the casino this summer, we’ve got good news for you: California’s summer gas prices are expected to be the lowest they’ve been in 10 years.
The state Senate voted Monday to request that the statue of Father Junipero Serra now enshrined in the U.S. Capitol be replaced with a statue of astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. The resolution now heads to the Assembly.
President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated 150 years ago today, April 14, 1865.
To mark the anniversary, the San Francisco Chronicle offers up 10 things you probably didn’t know about Lincoln’s death, including that his body was nearly ‘kidnapped’ in 1876….
