When David Muhammad became the Chief Probation Officer for Alameda County six months ago, he had big ideas about how to change the system for the better. “Departments around the country have been good at messing with people and not so good at helping people,” Muhammad said. That’s something he wants to change in Alameda County, especially when it comes to getting low-level offenders integrated into the community after they are released, instead of seeing them land back in prison.
With its operations budget reduced by millions of dollars, Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) is being forced to make cuts. More than a dozen bus routes are slated for frequency reductions and one will be eliminated. The proposed changes will start later this year, leaving public transit riders with less options and more waiting. Senior Monterey County residents, who ride for half price, will be among those affected by pending transit route cuts.
Legislation pending in California would give prison inmates sentences to life without possibility of parole for crimes they committed while a minor a chance at resentencing and parole. Supporters say inmates who committed crimes as minors should eventually have a chance to redeem themselves. Opponents say the measure would be an unfair burden on crime victims.
Environmentalists fighting to roll back the approval of a controversial pesticide released documents Thursday that they said show regulators put politics before science when they approved methyl iodide for use in California agriculture last December.
California’s unprecedented Medicaid expansion in advance of national health care reform is a crucial opportunity to improve care for the homeless, advocates say. The $10 billion program, called California’s Bridge to Reform, includes increases in health care subsidies for the indigent, including the state’s estimated 134,000 homeless.
A Sacramento hospital and a community clinic have teamed up in a successful program to help the chronically ill homeless get healthy and housed while reducing the number of visits to local emergency rooms. T3, which stands for triage, transport and treatment redirects Sutter ER patients who don’t require urgent care to one of the Effort’s clinics or community services that can better treat them.
California’s population is getting older, and advocates say seniors will be unable to easily remain mobile, active and independent if policymakers don’t make public transportation a priority. In the Central Valley town of Merced, seniors are already feeling the pinch of too few options.
State policy and independent activism have combined to produce a little known good news story for California: serious injuries to children have declined dramatically over the past decade.
“This is just going to be a quick prick,” outreach worker Yves Gibbons said. He squeezed the index finger of a woman in her thirties and took a fast jab with a tiny needle – the first HIV test of the evening.
As President Barack Obama struggles to implement — and defend — the health care reform he signed last year, he is finding that the public does not understand how the program is supposed to work, and based on what they do know, many voters doubt the overhaul will help them in the end.