Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell is a single mom and until last month was CEO of a non-profit agency that manages state-subsidized child care in Los Angeles. Now she is a legislator fighting to restore funding to a child care program she says is crucial to keeping former welfare moms in the workforce. Listen to Daniel Weintraub’s interview with Mitchell about the program.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal calls for deep cuts in health and social service programs that form California’s safety net. Brown wants to cut $1.7 billion from Medi-Cal, 1.5 billion from CalWorks, and $750 million from the Department of Developmental Services. Brown would limit access to Medi-Cal services, including prescription drugs and place stricter time limits on welfare. He also proposes to limit reimbursements for home care for people who need help with daily living so they can remain in their homes and not in an institution.
When Gov. Jerry Brown unveils his first proposal to deal with the state’s $28 billion budget shortfall this week, he probably won’t be offering many new ideas. But he will be hoping that a new approach and a different kind of leadership will help him get his plans through a Legislature and a public that were often hostile to his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to end his second and final term as California’s chief executive Monday, his public approval ratings are at an all-time low, the media are beating him up for his record in office, and few if any of his fellow politicians are rising to his defense. Schwarzenegger deserves much of the flogging that he’s been absorbing in his final days on the job. But the real story of his seven years as governor is more complex than it appears at first glance. And historians may view his tenure in a better light than those who are judging him based only on the condition of the state and its economy on the day he leaves office.
A link between intimate violence and unintended pregnancy and STDs may help clinicians identify patients suffering from abuse. Dr. Elizabeth Miller, a UC Davis professor and researcher, has completed new research that shows how simple, no-cost interventions can help women escape abuse and take back control of their reproductive health.
California’s fiscal outlook is even worse than legislators and most Capitol observers assumed when lawmakers patched together a budget in October 100 days after the start of the current fiscal year. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s office, widely respected for its work on budget issues, projected Wednesday that the state will face a $25 billion shortfall in the budget for the fiscal year that begins next July. And the problem could be worse, if court cases break against the state or Congress and President Obama extend estate tax relief that would indirectly cost California’s treasury nearly $3 billion.
Fix the DMV. That’s my advice to Gov.-elect Jerry Brown. Why start with the Department of Motor Vehicles, when there is so much wrong in state government, so many problems, up to and including another massive budget deficit? Because nothing could do more to instill confidence in government among Californians, starting with teenagers who are still too young to vote.
With 93 percent of the vote counted this morning, the biggest landslide on the California ballot was the vote against a measure to suspend the state’s landmark global warming law. On a day when Republicans won across the nation by calling for smaller government and even Californians voted against tax increases and made it harder for the Legislature to raise fees, voters here gave a huge endorsement to perhaps the most controversial environmental protection law ever enacted in the nation.
California is about to get a new governor, but the situation in the state Capitol is not likely to change much in the months ahead. If Jerry Brown becomes the state’s next chief executive, as Tuesday night’s returns suggest will be the case, he will inherit a budget shortfall that will probably be about $15 billion to $20 billion on a $90 billion general fund. And he will be trying to work with a deeply divided Legislature, with Democrats holding strong control but Republicans still able to block any tax increases, which require a two-thirds vote for passage.
Five years after the state began collecting and releasing data on deaths associated with heart bypass surgery, the mortality rate associated with the procedure is 27 percent below where it was before, according to a new study by UC Davis researchers.