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Tuesday, November 23, 2010
California's civic health better ranked than Texas'
It was Ben Franklin who, upon leaving the Constitutional Convention in 1787, famously replied to Mrs. Powel's inquiry regarding the product of those deliberations: "A Republic, if you can keep it." The response clearly illustrated the caution many of the founders possessed regarding the future of a nation, which extended unknown freedoms to many of its citizens. Implicit in Franklin's statement, is the responsibility placed on its citizens to participate in the civic life of the country -- from voting to volunteering.
Few stories have cast such a bright light on the consequences of disengaging from these duties as the fiasco in Bell, Calif. Most know by now, that while wrongdoings committed by the city's staff and elected officials deserve condemnation and prosecution, the course toward the debacle was charted in a voting booth, where less than 1 percent of Bell's population voted for charter status.
Until recently, evaluating California's civic participation has been difficult, but in 2007, the congressionally chartered National Conference on Citizenship, following the release of its National Civic Health Index, produced the first edition of the report for California with the consultation of political scientists Robert Putnam, Bill Galston and Peter Levine. Now in its third year, the 2010 California Civic Health Index has just been published, and the results show that while Californians have some room for improvement in an array of civic activities, compared with other large states like New York and Texas we perform very well, and our trend lines since that 2007 report are very positive.
Read More 'California's civic health better ranked than Texas'' »| Nov 23 at 06:33 PM
Saving at the pump during that Thanksgiving drive
The long drive to grandma's house for Thanksgiving is invaluable for family bonds but tough on the pocketbook in these recessionary times. What if your car got 60 miles to the gallon instead of the current 22.4 miles per gallon?
The Obama administration is developing new fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks for the 2017-2025 model years with the goal of curbing pollution and saving your pocketbook. California has been a leader in energy efficiency. Since California passed its California Clean Cars law in 2002, 14 other states have passed stronger laws limiting tailpipe emissions.
Fuel efficiency has increased in the United States for the past six years. An EPA report released last week finds that fuel efficiency has increased and carbon pollution has decreased, reversing a long period from 1987 through 2004 when efficiency was down and pollution was up.
Environment California and other environmental advocates are pushing the 60 mpg standard as discussions on the new standards begin. At that level of efficiency, Californians would save $30 million at the pump this Thanksgiving -- about $13 per family -- and 9.5 million fewer gallons of oil would be consumed in California, according to Environment California's new report "Gobbling Less Gas for Thanksgiving."
Sen. Fran Pavley, author of California's Clean Car law, said, "This report clearly shows that it just makes sense to have stronger national fuel efficiency standards. Such standards are a win, win, win. Consumers will save money at the pumps, we will reduce our dangerous reliance on foreign oil -- which according to top military leaders is a significant national security risk, and we will help protect our environment by cleaning up our air and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. Here in California we have seen both the public and the business community embrace the multiple benefits of clean energy policies. I believe it's time for the federal government to take action."
| Nov 23 at 08:00 AM
Saving at the pump during that Thanksgiving drive
The long drive to grandma's house for Thanksgiving is invaluable for family bonds but tough on the pocketbook in these recessionary times. What if your car got 60 miles to the gallon instead of the current 22.4 miles per gallon?
The Obama administration is developing new fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks with the goal of curbing pollution and saving your pocketbook. California has long been a leader in energy efficiency. Since California passed its California Clean Cars law in 2002, 14 other states have passed stronger laws limiting tailpipe emissions.
Fuel efficiency has increased in the United States for the past six years. An EPA report released last week finds that fuel efficiency has increased and carbon pollution has decreased, reversing a long period from 1987 through 2004 when efficiency was down and pollution was up.
| Nov 23 at 08:00 AM
Friday, November 19, 2010
GOP challenges signatures on provisional ballots
By Lois Kazakoff
As ballot counting goes into triple overtime for the California Attorney General and 11th Congressional District races, the Democrats in both races are pulling ahead. Democrat Kamala Harris' lead over rival Republican Steve Cooley appeared when election officials began counting the vote-by-mail and provisional ballots.
So it's disconcerting when the California Republican Party announced Wednesday that it will pursue a lawsuit against Contra Costa County over whether election count observers have the right to challenge signatures on the mail-in and provisional ballots. Contra Costa County is most likely chosen because Contra Costa County Registrar Steve Weir is recognized as a national leader on election procedures.
Weir's view: You don't change the rules after the votes are cast. And, as he interprets California law, only poll workers can challenge the signature. "A voter who is challenged then has the opportunity to speak," he told the Contra Costa Times. "We cannot allow a 'casual' observer to challenge a voter's right to participate when he or she is not present."
The challenge heightens voters' already widely held concerns that their votes don't count, making the suit of note.
As of Friday, according to the California Secretary of State's Office, Harris had 46 percent of the vote to Cooley's 45.5 percent, giving Harris a narrow lead of 43,050 votes.
In the 11th Congressional District, incumbent Jerry McNerney, with 47.9 percent of the vote, has declared victory, but his Republican challenger David Harmer, with 47 percent, has not conceded the race.
Election officials must complete their tallies by Nov. 30.
| Nov 19 at 05:44 PM
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Human rights defenders honored
Ali Thanawalla/SFGate.com
Dr. Steave Nemande, founder of Alternatives -- Cameroon, was honored by Human Rights Watch as a 2010 "defender" of human rights.
By Lois Kazakoff
Dr. Steave Nemande works daily to help gay men -- especially young gay men -- exercise their rights and obtain justice in a country where homosexuality is a criminal offense. When he began Alternatives - Cameroon in 2006 to fight for the human rights of LGBT people in Cameroon, homosexuality was underground. "It was described as a 'Western lifestyle, imported to Cameroon'," said Nemande, an openly gay medical doctor who runs an HIV/AIDS clinic in Douala.
When two men were arrested at a bar frequented by gay men and thrown into jail for 13 months, 50 gay men were outed -- all working in government ministries. "That started the conversation in Cameroon," he said.
Homosexual acts are illegal in much of Africa -- including five countries where homosexuality is punishable by death -- and culturally taboo, even if legal, in many others. The conversation that started in Cameroon was derided by other nations. The African press called Cameroon a "homocracy," Nemande said.
But thanks to the courageous work of Nemande and other grassroots activists in Africa, the conversation continues.
For this work, Human Rights Watch has named Nemande a "defender" of human rights. Dinners held here in San Francisco tonight, and earlier this week in Los Angeles and other cities, honor the commitment, courage and creativity Nemande and others exhibit in their human rights advocacy.
Also honored by Human Rights Watch is Liu Xiabao, the Nobel laureate who has challenged traditional Chinese views in his quest to help China evolve to a pluralistic democracy where free expression in welcomed. Liu, who the Chinese government has jailed, is represented at the defender celebrations by a friend and acolyte, Yvonne Tong.
| Nov 18 at 06:06 PM
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Pension reform -- a national trend
By Lois Kazakoff
Pension reform has swept California and the rest of the nation as states struggle to bring their retirement promises to state employees in line with public savings and revenues.
The Pew Center on the States research shows 19 states made changes to their public employee pension benefits, as compared to 11 in 2009 and eight in 2008.
With the biggest pension system (CalPERS) in the nation, California arguably has the most work to do. The state took action this year to curb retirement benefit increases, require greater contributions from employees and raise the retirement age for most employees from 55 to 60.
Yet the state's $25.4 billion budget deficit and "structural deficit" (spending exceeds income long-term) will require more cutbacks to pension benefits, as well as other spending.
To read the Pew report, click here.
| Nov 17 at 03:17 PM
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Viktor Bout gets the boot
By Marshall Kilduff
After months of legal and diplomatic wrangling, one of the planet's all-time bad guys is being shipped from a Thai jail cell to New York to face gun-running charges.
Viktor Bout, whose storied career as a weapons peddler earned him the title of "Merchant of Death," was led aboard a jet today headed for the United States. It took two convoys, 50 cops and sharp-shooters on building tops to get the prisoner transfer done.
Bout had fought extradition to New York after he was arrested in a sting operation staged by U.S. and Thai authorities. Bout, who looks like a young Charles Bronson with mop hair and a droopy mustache, claimed he was an innocent businessman running an air transport company. But the rap on him is extensive and long, detailed in a book and a lousy Nicholas Cage movie, "Lord of War."
In these recounts, Bout bought up surplus Soviet-bloc weapons ranging from assault rifles to missiles and sold them to rebel groups across the globe using old Soviet warplanes that landed on dirt runways. His biggest clients included Liberian leader Charles Taylor, now on trial for war crimes, and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.
Read More 'Viktor Bout gets the boot' »| Nov 16 at 01:31 PM
Monday, November 15, 2010
Deadline to act on San Joaquin Valley air pollution is today
Michael Macor/The Chronicle 2002
The San Joaquin Valley has some of the worst air quality in the United States.
By Sarah Sharpe
I grew up in Fresno, and like so many people living in California's San Joaquin Valley, I have asthma. For as long as I can remember, the air here has been killing people. Pollution from cars, trucks, field burning, and agricultural equipment mixes with gases from oil production, pesticides, and the valley's hundreds of mega-dairies to form ozone -- more commonly known as smog.
Many people don't realize that California is still home to the worst air pollution in the country. L.A.'s smoggy skyline is infamous. And anyone who has driven through the Central Valley has seen (and probably smelled) the thick, brown haze that hangs over the mostly rural region I call home.
For us, the reality of living in this polluted air is terrifying. It is losing sleep as we sit up all night with children struggling to breathe. It is skyrocketing medical bills for prescription medicines and for emergency room visits when the rescue inhalers and nebulizers are not enough. It is being too tired or sick to go to work, but having to go anyway for fear of losing a job and the health insurance that may come with it. It is our children falling behind in school because of too many missed days. And it is watching helplessly as our grandparents suffocate from recurring bronchitis or pulmonary disease exacerbated by high levels of ozone pollution.
In 1990, Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendments and promised us that even the worst-polluted areas of the country would meet the federal air pollution limit for ozone by no later than today -- Nov. 15, 2010.
But the air in the San Joaquin Valley is still so dirty that schools and government buildings have to fly color-coded flags warning us to keep our children inside. Today, we aren't even close to meeting the ozone limit EPA adopted over 30 years ago.
This is largely because the agencies in charge of protecting us -- such as the local air district and the Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco -- have repeatedly failed to do what was necessary to clean things up. Since Congress amended the Clean Air Act, the San Joaquin Valley has seen 20 years of excuses, delays and acquiescing to the status quo. These agencies have failed us. And now, on the day when we were promised clean air at last, it looks like the EPA will once again turn its back on us.
They tell us that meeting the ozone limit today isn't worth their time and resources. They tell us that we should wait 14 more years -- another whole generation -- until the deadline for meeting the next ozone standard comes to pass.
I say: We are literally sick of waiting. I want my babies to breathe clean air now. I refuse to hand them inhalers and ask them to wait until they are in high school to breathe easy. By then it may be too late.
So today, on the day we should be celebrating clean air, my organization, together with many others representing people all across the San Joaquin Valley, have submitted an official plea to the EPA in San Francisco, which is responsible for air quality in the valley. We are asking them not to turn a blind eye to our suffering. We pray they will finally listen.
Sarah Sharpe is the environmental health director for Fresno Metro Ministry, a faith-based organization that promotes social and economic justice, and she is the mother of two beautiful little boys.
| Nov 15 at 01:20 AM
Friday, November 12, 2010
Singapore -- where East meets West
Lois Kazakoff / The Chronicle
The Marina Bay hotel, casino, mall and convention center looks like an ocean liner sitting atop three 55-story towers. It perches at the southern edge of Marina Bay, the gateway to Singapore.
By Lois Kazakoff
Singapore's role as a major trading center in early times to the effects of the monsoons, which blew out of the north in the spring and then out of the south later in the year. Sailing ships, that had traveled on the backs of the spring winds, were obliged to wait until the wind turned to return home.
That role was accentuated when Sir Stamford Raffles, the British nobleman who signed the 1819 treaty to create a British outpost in the region, declared the new city a duty-free zone.
Today, Singapore is a world-class city adjacent to two of the world's rising economic powers -- China and India. It's geopolitical importance has only grown.
Singapore rose from an impoverished island to one of the world's wealthiest countries in 50 years. It recovered from three years of brutal occupation under the Japanese during World War II, when many of the community's Chinese leaders were imprisoned or executed.
The city today is the realization of the vision of Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore. At 87, he is Singapore's "mentor minister" and his son heads the government.
Singapore's culture is as diverse as one can imagine. There are four recognized languages -- English, Mandarin, Tamil and Malay -- and national holidays recognize every religion. There are Hindu holidays, Buddhist holiday, Muslim holidays and Christian holidays. The population is 77 percent Han Chinese, and there are tensions among the ethnic groups, but the government largely enforces tolerance.
Real estate, on a small island with a 3.5 million population, is expensive. A well-appointed but modest 1,000-foot condo might sell for $1 million. A tiny government-built HDB unit could be priced at $375,000 or more. That said, Singapore’s home ownership rate of more than 90 percent eclipses the U.S. rate of about 67 percent.
Like every mature industrial economy, Singapore's manufacturing jobs are being offshored to less expensive places like China and Vietnam. The government is working to diversify the economy, and has opened two world-class "integrated" resorts in the past two years. Integrated, in this case, means casinos, one at Sentosa Island and the other at Marina Bay, a 55-story, three tower hotel, convention center and mall that looks like it has an ocean liner atop it. (The "ocean liner" is actually a rooftop deck, garden and infinity pool that gives swimmers amazing, if not terrifying, view of the cityscape.)
At the same time, the paternalist Singaporean government is worried about the harmful effects of gambling on its citizens, so entrance to the casinos is tightly controlled. Singaporeans only must pay a 75 Singapore dollar cover fee. A passport only gets other patrons in.
You can read my personal perspective on Singapore and the role of American power in the region here.
Lois Kazakoff / The Chronicle
The "fine city" of Singapore does employ social engineering with sometimes harsh consequences for bad behavior. Littering will cost the litterbug 300 Sing dollars (about US$230).
| Nov 12 at 05:38 PM
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Cut Medicare, cut military spending, raise taxes -- any other ideas?
By Lois Kazakoff
Months in the making, two former Washington heavyweights released details today of how to trim the national debt.
The plan released by the leaders of the bipartisan federal deficit commission, Erskine Bowles and retired Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., takes on the spending myths of both Democrats and Republicans and puts the onus on the electorate to help America live within her means.
What do you think? Higher taxes, cuts in military spending, retirement at 69? Is this the smaller government we want?
To read the draft report, click here.
| Nov 11 at 04:27 PM
Backstories, insights and unofficial musings from The Chronicle's opinion pages.
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