Millions depend on Obamacare

Dec 21, 2016

Despite the criticism of Obamacare, statistics show that millions of Americans are able to afford regular visits to their physician, whereas before their access was limited or non-existent.

 

NOAM N. LEVEY with LAT: "The Affordable Care Act’s historic expansion of health insurance coverage has brought medical care within reach of millions of Americans who previously couldn’t afford it, new research shows."

 

"The share of adults who skipped medical care because of costs dropped by nearly one-fifth between 2013 and 2015, according to a report from the Commonwealth Fund."

 

"The gains were even more dramatic in the states that have most expanded coverage through the federal healthcare law, often called Obamacare."

 

READ MORE related to Obamacare: CA prepares for health care battle --DOROTHY MILLS-GREGG with Capitol Weekly

California's Supreme Court has blocked legislation speeding up the death penalty for inmates amid a lawsuit from said legislation's opposition.

 

ALEXEI KOSEFF with Sacramento Bee: "A new voter-approved law intended to speed up California’s fractured death penalty system will not take effect while a court considers a lawsuit from its opponents."

 

"The California Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed implementation of Proposition 66 pending the outcome of the case. The measure, which also aims to resume executions in a state where none has taken place in more than a decade, won 51 percent of the vote and was certified on Friday."

 

"In a one-page filing, the court said it was providing “time for further consideration” of the legal challenge and “to permit the filing and consideration of papers in opposition to the petition.” Supporters of Proposition 66 must file their response to the lawsuit by Jan. 9, with the reply from the petitioners due two weeks later."

A scientist once working at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has been sentenced to nearly 2 years in prison.

 

KATRINA CAMERON with EBT: "A former research scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was sentenced to 18 months in prison Tuesday for turning in false data and reports to the federal government to receive funding over a four-year time period."

 

"S. Darin Kinion, Ph.D., 44, of Lafayette, plead guilty in June to submitting false data and reports to the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (or IARPA) of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to defraud the government out of funds intended to pay for research, according to the U.S. Department of Justice."

 

"Kinion reportedly admitted that he received millions of dollars from IARPA between 2008 and 2012 “to design, build, and test experimental components in the field of quantum computing at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,” federal officials said."

 

A $1.6B project to expand Interstate 405 -- the busiest highway in the U.S. -- could prove to be fruitless in the long run, according to some locals.

 

ADAM NAGOURNEY with NYT: "It is the very symbol of traffic and congestion. Interstate 405, or the 405, as it is known by the 300,000 drivers who endure it morning and night, is the busiest highway in the nation, a 72-mile swerving stretch of pavement that crosses the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles."

 

"So it was that many Angelenos applauded when officials embarked on one of the most ambitious construction projects in modern times here: a $1 billion initiative to widen the highway. And drivers and others put up with no shortage of disruption — detours and delays, highway shutdowns, neighborhood streets clogged with cars — in the hopes of relieving one of the most notorious bottlenecks anywhere."

 

"Six years after the first bulldozer rolled in, the construction crews are gone. A new car pool lane has opened, along with a network of on- and offramps and three new earthquake-resistant bridges."

 

A group of researchers have created a catalogue of victims who were sterilized while in state custody during a sordid time in California's history:  the era of eugenics.

 

MIKE MCPHATE with NYT: "Not terribly long ago, the sterilization of mentally ill patients was common practice in the United States."

 

"Of 32 states that had eugenics laws, none used the practice as much as California. (Virginia was a distant second.)"

 

"From 1919 to 1952, California’s state homes and hospitals sterilized about 20,000 people under eugenics laws that were intended to cure societal ills by halting the procreation of people deemed inferior."

 

The opioid epidemic isn't just for the young and vulnerable: older adults are succumbing to the virulent narcotic too. 

 

JENNY GOLD with California Healthline: "It took a lot of convincing for John Evard to go to rehab. Seven days into his stay at the Las Vegas Recovery Center, the nausea and aching muscles of opioid withdrawal were finally beginning to fade."

 

"Any sweats?” a nurse asked him as she adjusted his blood pressure cuff. “Last night it was really bad, but not since I got up,” replied Evard, 70, explaining that he’d awakened several times with his sheets drenched."

 

"Even for him, it was hard to understand how he ended up 300 miles away from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., at this bucolic facility in the suburbs of Vegas. “This is the absolute first time I ever had anything close to addiction,” he said. He prefers to use the term “complex dependence” to describe his situation: “It was, shall we say, a big surprise when it happened to me."

 

And speaking of the elderly, more prisoners are dying of old age while incarcerated then ever before, since record keeping began.

 

MELISSA BAILEY with California Healthline: "As the number of older prisoners soars, more inmates are dying in prison of diseases that afflict the elderly, new data from the Department of Justice show."

 

A total of 3,483 inmates died in state prisons and 444 in federal prisons in 2014, the highest numbers on record since the bureau started counting in 2001, according to data issued last week by the department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. In addition, 1,053 inmates died in local jails, where suicide is on the rise.""The greatest number of deaths in state prisons occurred in Texas (409), Florida (346), and California (317). But such deaths actually declined in California by 13 percent between 2013 and 2014, and in Texas by 7 percent."

 

Move over Tesla and Silicon Valley, Motor City wants in on self-driving technology.

 

NEAL E. BOUDETTE and BILL VLASIC with NYT: "In the race to develop self-driving cars, Michigan is suddenly aiming to give Silicon Valley a run for its money."

 

"The Motor City has been the center of the United States auto industry for more than a century. But as computer chips and software have become increasingly important in automobiles, Silicon Valley has seemed to take the lead, especially in the development of the supersmart cars of tomorrow."

 

"Google and Tesla, for example, have been at the forefront in creating cars with the ability to drive themselves. And many automakers have opened California outposts to become part of the high-tech scene. Uber and Lyft, the app-based ride-hailing services, are both based in San Francisco."

 

If you thought PEOTUS Trump's 'Access Hollywood' video was a nail-in-the-coffin for The Donald, actor Tom Arnold claims to have an even bigger atom-bomb in his possession: a foul-mouthed tirade from outtakes of 'The Apprentice' where every epithet and denigrating utterance imaginable is said by Trump.

 

LIBBY HILL with LAT: "Actor Tom Arnold is making waves with recent claims that he has outtakes from "The Apprentice" that feature President-elect Donald Trump using inflammatory language."

 

"Arnold, who rose to prominence in the 1990s after his highly publicized marriage to Roseanne Barr and a breakthrough role in "True Lies," appeared on Seattle radio program "The Dori Monson Show" on Friday and said he had footage of Trump "saying every dirty, every offensive, racist thing ever."

 

"Monson inquired why he hadn't leaked the tape, given the response to the Access Hollywood footage that resulted in the firing of Billy Bush."

 

Richard Spencer, white supremacist icon for the alt-right political movement, is 'considering' a run for a Montana congressional seat.

 

KURTIS LEE with LAT: "He'’s a white nationalist, and he’s pondering a run for Congress."

 

"Richard Spencer, whose National Policy Institute has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League, said he’s considering running for the Montana congressional seat expected to be vacated by Republican Ryan Zinke. Last week, Zinke was tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Interior."

 

"In an interview Tuesday, Spencer, a resident of Montana who also has a home and office space in the Washington, D.C.-area, said he’s “seriously” thinking about a run and would make a decision by early next year."

 

As unions across California issue raises for state workers, AFSCME is the latest to follow suit.

 

ADAM ASHTON with Sacramento Bee: "A mix of 5,000 California state social and health care workers will get an 11.5 percent raise over the next three years if they approve a contract their union announced this week."

 

"The raises in the proposed contract for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2620 are front-loaded, with all of its members receiving at least a 7 percent wage increase in 2017. Some members would gain as much as 17 percent next year, depending on their job categories."

 

"Their tentative agreement is the latest deal announced between Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration and a group unions whose contracts expired on July 1. At its peak, 14 of the state’s 21 labor contracts had expired."

 

The Berlin Christmas Market terror attack has Los Angeles on edge, ushering in beefed up security at public junctions for the holidays.

 

RICHARD WINTON with LAT: "Expect to see heightened security at Los Angeles shopping areas, farmers markets and other large gathering places in the coming days as authorities step up security measures in the wake of the Berlin Christmas market truck attack that killed 12 people this week."

 

"Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Michael Downing said Tuesday that his counter-terrorism bureau has been aware for some time of the potential danger from attackers using trucks or other large vehicles to run down pedestrians."

 

"In many places with heavy pedestrian traffic, concrete pillars are already in place to prevent someone from driving a truck onto the sidewalk. But, Downing said, additional barriers, including the use of large vehicles, can be deployed to block potential attackers from accessing open pedestrian areas."

 

CalPERS is going through financial fluctuations as they hammer out an agreeable investment forecast.

 

DALE KASLER with Sacramento Bee: "The cost of that government pension is about to go up again, for California taxpayers as well as some public employees."

 

"CalPERS moved to slash its official investment forecast Tuesday, a dramatic step that will translate into billions of dollars in higher annual pension contributions from the state, local governments and school districts."

 

"Employees hired after January 2013, when a statewide pension reform law took effect, will also have to kick in more money. Older employees could see higher contributions, too, although that would be subject to contract bargaining."

 

READ MORE related to Pensions: San Jose pension overpayment now includes 300 more workers and another $1 million -- RAMONA GIWARGIS with Mercury News

 

Sac Sheriff Scott Jones is pushing legislation streamlining the concealed carry permit process for valid applicants.

 

PHILLIP REESE and NASHELLY CHAVEZ with Sacramento Bee: "Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones has issued permits to carry concealed handguns at an unprecedented pace in the past six years. On Tuesday, he announced a series of policies that could result in his office issuing them even faster."

 

"It has been difficult to process as many applications each month as we receive,” Jones said in a written statement to The Bee. “This creates an untenable backlog that can get worse over time. This new system will hopefully eliminate that backlog.”

 

"When Jones ran for office, he promised to approve many more concealed carry handgun permits than his predecessors. He delivered, raising the total number of permits held in Sacramento County from about 350 in 2010 to about 8,000 today."

 

For four people displaced by a Sacramento area blaze, Santa Claus came dressed as a fireman.

 

CATHY LOCKE with Sacramento Bee: "Four people were displaced Tuesday evening after an attic fire damaged their Robla-area home, but Sacramento firefighters were able to save the family’s Christmas gifts."

 

"The fire in the 500 block of Claire Avenue was reported shortly before 7 p.m. Fire officials said the fire was confined to the attic and no one was injured. A video posted on the Fire Department’s Twitter account showed flames leaping from the roof."

 

"The department posted photos to Twitter showing a firefighter carrying wrapped packages from the home in a effort to save the family’s Christmas gifts. Crews also brought in salvage covers to protect furniture as the pulled down the ceiling to attack the fire."

 

An interesting study contrasts human altruism with that of chimpanzees, and the conclusion is: humans are the only primates with an evolved capacity for unadulterated compassion.

 

MELISSA HEALY with LAT: "Maybe the reason we call it “human kindness” is because that’s the only kind there is."

 

"We humans might find nothing more heartwarming than seeing other animals befriend and take care of each other. But new research suggests that, although they appear to perform random acts of kindness, chimpanzees, our primate relatives with the most complex social lives, do not actually act with the simple intention of pleasing one another."

 

"That conclusion will probably stir controversy, because chimps appear to engage in many kinds of social activities that would appear to require kindness. They groom one another — but is that kindness or just the opportunity for a delicious treat? They risk personal injury by keeping watch while others sleep — an act of selfless kindness or a bid to protect their genetic progeny? They console one another after fights erupt — again, kindness or self-protection against a riled-up friend or family member?"

 

As Ronnie Lott plots on how to keep the Raiders in The Town, experts seek to undermine his proposal.

 

DAVID DEBOLT with EBT: "As city and county officials last week cheered progress with NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott’s effort to keep the Raiders from moving to Las Vegas, a top NFL executive threw cold water on the plan, saying it was no better than an earlier failed Oakland stadium plan known as Coliseum City."

 

"But how similar — or different — is the new Lott-led proposal from the widely panned version floated by developer Floyd Kephart in 2015 that never got off the ground?"

 

"The San Diego-based developer’s $4.2 billion plan was criticized at the time for including parking garages the Raiders didn’t want, and relying on the team and the NFL to pay for a $900 million stadium, some of which would come from the sale of personal seat licenses.The team, not taxpayers, would have been on the hook if revenue from the licenses fell short."

 

Alameda County traffic commissioner has resigned amid potential scandal.

 

MALAIKA FRALEY with EBT: "A longtime Alameda County court traffic commissioner charged with mistreating defendants has resigned in the wake of allegations of judicial misconduct, the Commission on Judicial Performance announced Tuesday."

 

"Taylor Culver, 70, resigned from his position with the Alameda County Superior Court on Nov. 30, leading the commission to dismiss the formal inquiry into his conduct on the bench, the commission said."

 

"Culver was appointed to the Alameda County Superior Court in 2005 and was last hearing traffic cases at the Pleasanton courthouse"

 

A local Salvation Army volunteer shares his humbling experiences and encounters as a donation-bucket bell ringer.

 

KEVIN FAGAN with The Chronicle: "There’s redemption in ringing a bell. Jordan Broome has been finding it three times a week for the past month as he stands in front of storefronts, smiling at the world as he asks it for money."

 

"Broome, 36, is staffing Salvation Army red donation kettles in San Francisco this season, and he says it’s one of the happiest things he’s done in years. It shows in everything from the peace in his eyes to the panache he brings to wielding his bell at the kettle station, snapping the wrist with a one-two-three, one-two-three rhythm."