State legislative leaders yesterday announced “Immigrants Shape California,” a package of bills designed to protect undocumented immigrants living in the state, backing legislation to offer Medi-Cal and other services. From Melody Gutierrez at the San Francisco Chronicle:
“’California has grown into the greatest state in the nation and the world’s seventh largest economy on the backs of settlers from all over this country and immigrants from many others,’ said state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles. ‘Our infrastructure, our railroads, our roads and bridges were built by immigrants. … Immigrants shape California.’
“SB4 by state Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens (Los Angeles County), would extend Medi-Cal to low-income immigrants living in the country without documentation. In addition, such immigrants would be able to buy health insurance from the Covered California exchange at unsubsidized rates available to others in the state, if a waiver is granted by the federal government. SB4 directs the Health and Human Services Agency to seek a waiver from the federal government…
“Last year, a similar bill by Lara to expand Medi-Cal stalled due to the $1.3 billion a year cost. Lara said he’s been working with officials in Washington, D.C., on a federal waiver to expand Medi-Cal coverage to immigrants, and on ways to limit the cost of the expansion.
Recently released records paint a grim picture of the care offfered in the state’s five centers for the developmentally disabled. Since 2002, thirteen deaths have resulted from errors or neglect; six more deaths occurred in situations so dangerous they should never have been allowed to continue. Rachel Bale reports for the Center for Investigative Reporting:
“The documents paint a disturbing portrait of life inside California’s five developmental centers, where 1,115 patients are housed at taxpayer expense because their guardians are unable to provide round-the-clock care or the patients have no family at all. Few populations are more vulnerable to abuse – many are unable to form sentences or communicate clearly – or more difficult to supervise.
“For years, the details surrounding these deaths have remained hidden from public view. The Center for Investigative Reporting sued the public health department in 2012 after it refused to release the documents over patient privacy concerns. In February, the state Supreme Court sided with CIR, compelling the department to make the records public.
“Together, these violation citations provide the most detailed accounting yet of the poor treatment some residents have faced inside these homes. They show that the centers often not only failed to protect residents from harm, but also had an active hand in resident mistreatment and deaths.”
SB 128, a controversial bill that would allow terminally ill patients access to lethal drugs passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday on a party line 4-2 vote.
SB 277, the even more controversial bill to eliminate the exemption some parents use to avoid vaccinating their children gets a hearing today at the Senate Health Committee. Opponents of the bill, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will hold a rally on the west steps. Kennedy yesterday hosted a showing of a film that argues for a link between vaccines and autism – a claim that scientists and health advocates say has long-been disproven. And, yes, Kennedy used the “H” word, calling mass vaccinations “a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”
Legislative analysts reviewing projected incomes have noted that California’s funding formulas could result in budget problems in the coming months. The problem? Too much money, not enough flexibilty. Chris Megerian at LAT:
“[The] Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown could be faced with an influx of revenue that leaves them with less flexibility in state spending, rather than more.
“Legislative analysts presented a variety of potential income scenarios in their report, ranging from $3.85 billion to $8.1 billion more revenue than the governor estimated through June 2016. Depending on how much money flows into state coffers and when it arrives, the result could be a budget gap in excess of $1 billion or a surplus of a few hundred million dollars.”
AB 243 would add a new wrinkle to the state’s water code – it would regulate water use by marijuana farmers. David Downs has the story for the East Bay Express.
“At first glance, Humboldt County Assemblymember Jim Wood's proposed regulation bill, the "Marijuana Watershed Protection Act" looks innocuous: It would add a single paragraph to the state's water code, and one to the health and safety code. But, in truth, AB 243 represents a groundbreaking new vision for the future of California cannabis agriculture — especially when it comes to water use.
“Under the proposed law, pot farms would have to follow the same environmental regulations that govern other farmers. Regional water boards would issue permits to pot farms, and then legal farms would operate in largely self-policing cannabis agriculture districts that would function much like ones that involve almond growers or other specialty, regional agriculture.
The proposed regulations are earth-shattering, said Hezekiah Allen, president of the Emerald Grower's Association. ‘In and of itself, [AB 243] is relatively short and sweet, but what you're seeing is absolutely huge.’”
As municipalities prepare to deal with sweeping drought restrictions, some communities, including Santa Barbara and Monterey are looking to the sea – or, like Cambria, even at their own grey water. John Howard has the story at Capitol Weekly.
“[With] the Pacific Ocean, the mother of all water sources, pounding against 1,100 miles of California coastline, it’s not surprising that desalination is getting renewed scrutiny.
“’I’m fully supportive of it (desalination), especially in coastal cities, said Assemblymember Katcho Achadjian, a Republican, 40-year resident of San Luis Obispo County and a former county supervisor. ‘Cambria has no other choice. It was a necessity,’ he said. The locals already had dramatically lowered water consumption by 44 percent, he added, ‘but there was still not enough water for emergencies,’ such as wildfires.
“Desalination has been around for more than five decades globally, half of it in the Middle East, and around the world some 9.8 billion gallons of water is desalinated daily, according to desalination advocates.”
Everyone loves a comeback – remember when Tina Turner had her first hit in over a decade with “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” When Pulp Fiction restarted John Travolta’s all but dead career? And, ahem, Jerry Brown?
Well they’ve got nothing on this big lizard: 150 million years later, Brontosaurus is back, baby!
After a century of being dismissed as just a bigger version of Apatosaurus (a similar long-necked Dinosaur) Brontosaurus has been reclassified as a distinct species.
“The only animal ever used by Bedrock’s famous Fred Flintstone as a crane at the Slate Rock and Gravel company (not to mention a handy and very high seat at the drive-in) and one of the largest creatures that ever roamed the actual Earth, the herbivore had been banished to the back room of history due to a bit of a scientific mix-up.
“Brontosaurus won a paleontology popularity contest against the awful Apatosaurus: A new and exhaustive study by paleontologists from Portugal and the United Kingdom has found that the bones of the two extinct giants are different enough to classify as separate and that the Brontosaurus should no longer be dismissed as a big Apatosaurus…
"’We're delighted that Brontosaurus is back,’ says Jacques Gauthier, of the Yale Peabody Museum. ‘I grew up knowing about Brontosaurus — what a great name, “thunder lizard” — and never did like that it sank into Apatosaurus.’”
