Wednesday, May 22, 2013
By Suzanne Potter
In the past two years, poverty rates in Riverside County rose from 12 percent to about 14 percent, according to the Community Action Partnership (CAP) Riverside, the agency charged with doing something about it.
Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats in the state Legislature are headed for a showdown over the way California pays for its public schools. Brown is proposing a revolutionary plan to give extra state aid to schools that teach large numbers of poor and immigrant children. But he is getting pushback from some in the Legislature who think his plan goes too far – at the expense of the general-purpose money that every school district receives. Daniel Weintraub’s weekly essay.
The state’s legislative analyst says Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget proposal is too pessimistic — to the tune of $3.2 billion. That’s how much more revenue the analyst expects by the end of the next budget year than the governor is forecasting. This shouldn’t be a big surprise. In good times, governors tend to take the most conservative approach to economic forecasting in an effort to keep money off the table for the Legislature. But the analyst says the governor’s forecast for capital gains taxes does not take into account higher taxes investors will pay on this year’s gains even if the stock market is flat for the rest of the year. The analyst strongly encourages the Legislature to use the extra money to pay down debt and start building a rainy day fund for the future. See the full report here.
By Alexia Underwood
More than one million people in California suffer from mental illness – the largest number of any state. When the final phase of the new health care law starts in January of next year, more California residents than ever before will be able to seek help for problems ranging from depression, anxiety, and addiction to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. But mental health providers in the state’s Central Valley are unprepared for an influx of thousands of patients.
By Lynn Graebner
After serving time in jail, a three-step program helps men in Santa Cruz county make a new life after a felony conviction.
By Robin Urevich
In 2000, California voters overwhelmingly approved Prop 36, a ballot measure that offers non-violent drug offenders treatment instead of jail. But now the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act is on life support, if not altogether dead, despite data that shows it has saved taxpayers money and tamped down recidivism among its participants.
By Callie Shanafelt
State prison reforms are supposed to reduce dangerously overcrowded prison populations and help to alleviate the state’s fiscal crisis. But trial courts in San Mateo are feeling the squeeze of the fiscal crisis and the reforms on the county.
By Chris Richard
As city planners consider lifting a five-year-old ban on new fast-food vendors in South Los Angeles, urban gardening activists say it’s especially important to promote healthy eating habits by planting publicly available produce gardens on front lawns and city parkways.
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Veteran California journalist Daniel Weintraub follows public policy so you don’t have to. Weintraub tracks the latest on public health, land use, community development, violence and more. Read his updates here at least daily.
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Issues
Fair Pay in Best Interests of Home Care Consumers
By Dorie Seavey and Eileen BorisCalifornia home care workers and consumers won a major victory when an agreement was reached to limit proposed cuts to service hours in the In-Home Supportive Services program for fiscal year 2014. Yet home care workers in California – and across the nation – still await another critical decision that will affect their paychecks and their dignity: whether a federal labor law will continue to exclude home care workers from minimum wage and overtime protections.
A chronic disease that targets women
By Barbara KasoffImagine being unable to do the things you love to do, like playing sports, writing, or holding hands with someone you love. For most of us, that seems unimaginable, but for those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) it’s a painful reality. That’s because RA systematically attacks the body joint by joint causing inflammation so bad, it’s often tough to even walk.
Futures At Risk: Preventing Children’s Exposure to Violence
By Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and Esta SolerPicture yourself walking through a forest. Now, imagine that you’ve come face to face with a large bear. Instantly, your emergency response system kicks into gear, flooding your body with stress hormones. Your pupils dilate, your heart starts beating fast, and your skin becomes cold and clammy. The executive, cognitive portion of your brain shuts off so you can focus only on two options-fight or flight.
Your body’s emergency response system could save your life-if a bear in the forest really is confronting you. But, what happens if that big bear is waiting for you when you get home every day? Or follows you as you walk down the street to the local store? Or threatens you in the schoolyard? In the face of such extreme and repeated danger, your emergency response can go from saving your life to damaging your health and well-being.
Around the country, this scenario is similar to the reality faced by millions of children who experience violence and trauma at home, in their schools, and in their communities. According to a report by the U.S. Attorney General’s Defending Childhood task force, our children are experiencing and witnessing violence on an alarming scale. The numbers are staggering. Approximately two out of every three children in the U.S. are exposed to violence.
By Robert K. Ross and Linda P.B. Katehi
Preventive measures and an active, healthy lifestyle are without question the best way to maintain good health and keep down health care costs for everyone, and the California Endowment and UC Davis want to spread that message far and wide.
The Endowment’s Health Happens Here campaign promotes the idea that people live longer, healthier lives when communities have access to healthy and affordable choices where they live, work, play and learn.
UC Davis is following the Health Happens Here model to help its students achieve healthy, vibrant lifestyles in an integrative wellness campaign that can be replicated at college campuses everywhere.