Posts Tagged: million

The leaders of two local pension reforms, former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, are working with a coalition on a statewide initiative to help local governments make cost-cutting pension reforms. During a break at the Reason Foundation’s third annual Pension Summit in Sacramento last week, the two men said they are “on the same page” and working with a coalition on the details of a proposed initiative for the November 2016 state ballot.

The drought — with a grain of salt

A parched lake bed at Lake Oroville, about 60 miles north of Sacramento. (Photo: sddatta, via Shutterstock)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 04.08.2015

As drought-parched California withers, salt water captures attention – again. Santa Barbara, which built a desalination plan more than 20 years ago and then abruptly shut it down because of costs, is considering upgrading and restarting the project and provide the city of 91,000 with about a fourth of its drinking water. The tentative price tag is $40 million. In Sacramento, the State Water Resources Control Board is poised to adopt new regulations in May governing desalination.

Critical priority: Dental care for low-income children

A youngster on his visit to the dentist. (Photo: Wavebreakmedia, via Shutterstock)

by WENDY LAZARUS posted 03.19.2015

It is not often that dental professionals, health care providers, advocates, and legislators from both sides of the aisle all agree on an issue, but that is precisely what happened at a hearing this week on the state’s dental program for low-income children. Testimony and discussion honed in on the sobering results of a December 2014 state audit, which found that millions of children enrolled in Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program) were not getting the dental care they need.

Latino majority in California? Not so fast …

Latinos taking the Pledge of Allegiance in Los Angeles. (Photo: Spirit of America)

by ANTHONY YORK posted 03.12.2015

California is no longer on track to become a majority Latino state – at least not before 2060, according to projections from the state Department of Finance. Demographic estimates are constantly updated, but recent projections about the state’s population had us becoming a majority Latino state before the middle of this century.

Central Valley: A U.S. Senate battleground?

The sprawling Central Valley of California, the world's richest farm belt. (Photo: ).

by SAMANTHA GALLEGOS posted 02.09.2015

As state attorney general, Kamala Harris has given key issues of the Central Valley particular attention, which could play politically well for her 2016 run for Sen. Barbara Boxer’s soon-to-be vacant seat. Rich in Latinos, most of whom are Democrats, the Central Valley could prove to be a decisive battleground, especially if a Latino enters the fray.

UC: Butting heads in a committee of two

On the campus of UC Berkeley, Sather Gate. (Photo: cdrin via Shutterstock)

by SAMANTHA GALLEGOS posted 01.25.2015

Forty years later, the parsimonious Brown is still butting heads with the UC system’s president over money. The issue is simple: The state wants to know in detail how UC spends its money, the first step if the state is to give the system more money in the 2015-2016 budget.

Under the radar: Resentencing prison inmates

Inmates in a crowded area at the state prison in Lancaster, Los Angeles County. (Photo: Associated Press)

by DOROTHY MILLS-GREGG posted 11.03.2014

The statewide battle in the airwaves over Tuesday’s ballot propositions has been dominated by health insurance regulation, water works and drug testing doctors, but one measure that would have a far-reaching effect on judicial policy is flying under the radar. Proposition 47 would resentence thousands of California prison inmates imprisoned for nonserious or nonviolent crimes.

Two tribes have put $1 million each into the campaign to block another tribe from opening a casino-hotel off Highway 99 near Madera. The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, based in Temecula, and the Table Mountain Rancheria, which operates a casino in Friant, contributed $2 million to oppose Proposition 48, according to financial disclosure reports at the secretary of state’s office.

Two weeks before the November election, a major casino-owning tribe in Southern California has launched a campaign against Proposition 48 to block another tribe’s establishment of a new casino in the Central Valley.

OPINION: That’s why our organizations, the California Medical Association and the Central Valley Health Network, strongly oppose Proposition 46 on the November 2014 ballot. We have joined a broad coalition that includes doctors, community health centers, hospitals, local governments, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, business and labor groups and many others to fight this misleading ballot measure.