Talk about the high cost of medicine: The head of the voter-created California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
-- otherwise known as the stem cell agency -- wants another $3 billion from the public, despite concerns about the agency's high salaries
and lack of medical breakthroughs. The Los Angeles
Times' Jack Dolan has the story.
"But California's stem cell agency
quickly found itself mired in another form of politics: legislators and
government watchdogs criticized the program for paying
its president more than
twice the governor's salary, distributing nearly $1 billion to universities
with representatives on its board of directors and
overselling the promise of
stem cell cures."
"Unfortunately, the campaign fell into sound bites
and most
people voted for it with the expectation that there
were going to be stem cell
cures in a year, that Superman would walk again," said
John Simpson of the
Santa Monica based Consumer Watchdog. Moreover, with the Obama administration having restored
federal
support for stem cell research, a separate state program
may no longer attract
as much voter support."
The changing landscape of election rules and redistricting
may make California's congressional Democrats -- and others, too -- more vulnerable, reports Justin Ho and Kyle Sporleder of the North
County Times.
"California House Democrats, thrust back into the minority
by the midterm election, now face serious threats to
their long-held seats. A confluence of changes to California's election rules
and congressional boundaries makes the nation's largest
Democratic delegation especially vulnerable in the
2012 election and beyond."
"Preservation of incumbents isn't going to happen,''
said Gary Jacobson, a congressional expert and political
science professor at UC San Diego. "There won't be
any gerrymandering, and senior incumbents may find
themselves knocked off."
Meanwhile, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders says he wants
all public employees except police and firefighters
to have 401(k)-style pension plans -- and he'll push a local initiative to get it done.
From CalPensions' Ed Mendel: "The mayor’s announcement that he plans to put an
initiative on the next city ballot is the most far-reaching proposal to emerge
so far after voters approved seven of eight local pension
reforms this month..."
"At the state level, two reform groups are talking
about
an initiative. University of California Regents may
act on pension reform next
month. State worker union holdouts will test incoming
Gov. Jerry Brown in
negotiations for new contracts."
In the Central Valley, a number of farmers are selling water to Los Angeles at astronomical
prices, and there are concerns about the impact of the sales
on the farm belt.
The Fresno Bee's Mark Grossi reports: "Two Kings farmers last month announced a pending
water
sale involving nearly $12 million. Another farmer last year sold some of his
state water allotment for $73 million. Up to 3,500 acres of tree crops could go
out of production because of the transfers."
"The irrigation water comes from the troubled Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta, where protections for dying fish
have forced cutbacks in
pumping. The result has been uncertain deliveries -- only 40 percent of State Water
Project allotments this year."
And more on the environment: A group of academics, business people and environmentalists want Jerry Brown to set up a high-level panel in his office to focus on global warming,
reports the LAT's Margot Roosevelt.
"In
a report to be released Monday, the 23-member California Adaptation Advisory
Panel, a group convened by the Los Angeles-based Pacific Council on International Policy calls
for stepped-up data-gathering, monitoring and coordination among state
agencies
and in the private sector to prepare for a steep sea
level rise, diminishing
water supplies and the spread of wildfire, as studies
have predicted."
"Adaptation to climate change has been virtually ignored,"
said panel
Co-chairman William K. Reilly, a former administrator
with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."
And as we come to the end of the morning's briefing,
we open our "Krusty the Clown" file to read about the woman who was mugged by a
man in a clown mask -- while was sitting on the toilet.
"Cutright said the clown robber stole her car and escaped
with $28 and about $1,000 worth of costume jewelry. "He demanded to know where she kept her drugs and money. "I said, 'Boy, did you break into the wrong
house," Cutright said."
"She feared the robber was going to take a silver
bracelet a friend gave her...(the robber) fled in Cutright's Ford Escort after 2 hours of
ransacking her home. But he crashed the car, crawled
out a window and allegedly
confessed to officers, police said."
"I thought about doing ninja stuff to him,"
Cutright said, "but I thought, 'No, he's faster than
I am.' So, I more or
less just sat there on the lid."
