California Watch Daily Report

Major Medi-Cal changes raise questions

Christina Jewett — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:05:04 +0000

Christina Jewett

ideabug/istockphoto.com

Sweeping changes for the state’s medical program for the needy are taking shape, even as legislative advisers and advocates raise major questions.

Changes include more seniors being routed to managed care programs, a reinvention of how hospitals are paid and the collapse of two state agencies that currently serve beneficiaries.

On Friday, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office cautioned against Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to rapidly expand a pilot project that places patients who rely on Medi-Cal and Medicare into managed care programs. The pilot also would affect Medi-Cal beneficiaries with disabilities. Both groups include about 1.9 million people, the analyst's office estimates.

The governor’s office estimates that the change would improve care and save the state $679 million this year. It estimates the savings would total $1 billion in future years.

The analyst’s office urged lawmakers to reject a "premature" statewide expansion of a four-county pilot project that puts high-needs patients in managed care.

“We recommend the Legislature reject the governor's proposal to expand the demonstration statewide before the results from the demonstration have been properly evaluated, but proceed instead with the four-county demonstration,” the legislative adviser said.

During a legislative hearing on another matter yesterday, lawmakers heard testimony about plans to collapse most functions of state mental health and alcohol and drug departments into the Department of Health Care Services, the agency that oversees Medi-Cal.

Toby Douglas, director of the Department of Health Care Services, said the change would be a great opportunity. He said it would eliminate a “silo” approach and integrate physical, mental and drug rehabilitation treatments.

Douglas said the change also would bring California in line with the goals of federal health reform, which aims to encourage health providers to approach patients with physical and mental health needs in mind.

Some patient advocates who testified during the hearing criticized the plan as one that simply moves deck chairs around without cutting state costs. Others said it reduces the visibility and accountability of mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Dr. David Pating, co-chairman of the California Coalition for Whole Health, which coordinates several trade and advocacy groups, said the proposal was based on good ideas, but is coming at a time when too many other major changes require scrutiny.

Rose King, a former legislative aide and mental health advocate, pointed out that oversight of the Proposition 63 “millionaire’s tax” ballot initiative meant to fund mental health has not been properly overseen.

King said the proposed changes would not help matters and urged lawmakers to review the ballot initiative that voters approved in 2004, saying lawmakers “still have an obligation to meet what was voted for.”

On Friday, a joint hearing of the Senate and Assembly health committees will convene in Los Angeles to hear testimony about another major change the Medi-Cal program faces.

A law passed in 2010, SB 853, transforms the way [PDF] hospitals will be paid for treating Medi-Cal beneficiaries. Currently, hospitals negotiate flat daily rates with the California Medical Assistance Commission or, if they don’t have a contract, are paid through formulas.

The new system would be modeled after the way Medicare pays hospitals based on how sick patients are. The system is called a DRG, or diagnosis-related group, payment system.

California Watch has reported extensively about billing practices by Prime Healthcare Services, a Southern California-based hospital system, under Medicare’s DRG system. The chain has reported seeing high rates of rare and dire conditions that also generate lucrative bonus payments.

Prime has said its billing is appropriate. Michael Sarrao, Prime’s vice president and general counsel, is expected to testify.

Feds ask judge to drop Calif. postal records suit

Corey G. Johnson — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:05:03 +0000

Corey G. Johnson

Brigaid/Flickr

The battle lines have been drawn in an unusual public records spat between a state agency responsible for upholding election laws and the U.S. Postal Service.

The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday asked a federal court to dismiss a California Fair Political Practices Commission lawsuit accusing the U.S. Postal Service of withholding records.

The commission regulates the political activities of public officials, lobbyists and campaign committees and enforces California's campaign reporting and disclosure requirements, conflict-of-interest rules, and election laws.

It sued the post office last month after postal officials refused to provide unredacted copies of a school board candidate's mailing records. The commission is investigating whether the candidate, William Eisen, a former member of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District's board, violated election disclosure rules.

Justice Department attorneys argue that the state commission isn't "entitled" to the records and want the commission to repay the federal government's legal fees. According to the filing: "Defendant asserts that Plaintiff is not entitled to the relief requested, or to any relief whatsoever, and requests that this action be dismissed in its entirety with prejudice and that Defendant be given such other relief as this Court deems proper, including costs and disbursements."

The recent court filings highlight a rare information spat between a state regulatory office charged with guarding against political corruption and the federal Justice Department.

The state watchdog agency is investigating allegations that Eisen violated campaign disclosure rules in an attempt to stave off a bitter 2008 recall campaign. In particular, commission investigators wanted to know whether mass mailings sent in support of Eisen's re-election that purportedly came from the South Bay Taxpayers Association and the South Bay Republican Club were actually sent by Eisen.

Eisen has said he followed all laws. He said he asked the post office to protect his records out of concerns for his privacy.

"Have some government agency poking around in my mail? Of course I would object to it," Eisen said. "I have a right to privacy, just like any mailer or mailing house."

Commission officials have said their ability to investigate crime could be crippled if they are denied access to the mailing records, according to the lawsuit:

California, twelve other states, and the Federal Election Commission all regulate mailed political communications with regard to either the number of mailed pieces or dollar amount spent on the mail pieces before being categorized as a mass mailing.

Without compliance from the USPS, neither these 13 states, nor the federal government will be able to determine whether a mailing is in violation of their respective laws. The USPS denial of these claims will effectively shut down enforcement of state and federal laws regarding campaign communication disclosure on mass mailings, thereby depriving the public of the ability to identify and take action against persons in violation of these laws.

Earlier this month, Eisen filed documents with the court, arguing that the state sought to embarrass him and that the lawsuit was unnecessary to enforce campaign laws. The court has set a hearing in the case for April 2 at the federal courthouse in Sacramento.

State, USPS battle over postal records of former school board official

Lack of primary and preventive care sends thousands to hospitals

Bernice Yeung — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:05:03 +0000

Bernice Yeung

José Goulão/Flickr

Better access to primary health care and prevention programs could have kept thousands of California adults out of hospitals, according to a new statewide analysis.

According to new data released last week by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, there were more than 335,000 adult hospitalizations in California that could have been avoided if the patient had seen a doctor sooner.

According to the state agency, so-called “preventable hospitalizations” are an indication of systemic shortcomings related to access to quality primary care.

“These are people going into the hospital that probably shouldn’t be if they were getting good primary care up front,” said Michael Kassis, a research specialist with the office.

Poor environmental factors and a failure to follow medical treatment also could prompt these avoidable hospital stays, the agency said.

The latest figures are based on an analysis of 2009 hospital inpatient discharges by state-licensed facilities of 13 “prevention quality indicators,” or readily treatable medical conditions such as chest pains and dehydration.

There’s been a slight uptick in preventable hospitalizations in California since 2008, when there were 317,050 cases. In 1999, there were 399,113 cases.

The financial implications of these avoidable hospitalizations can be significant. A report [PDF] published last year by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services noted that 26 percent of all patients who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid had avoidable hospitalizations – at a cost of more than $7 billion to taxpayers in 2011.

California had fewer preventable hospitalizations among this population than the national average, and based on the new state data, avoidable hospitalizations cost the California-based health care system an estimated $3.6 billion per year.

Although these costs are associated with patients who are both publicly and privately insured, the state agency said avoidable hospitalizations ultimately affect all Californians.

“Outpatient care costs less than hospital care, resulting in significant cost savings for health plans/insurers, employers, government and the ultimate payer – all of us,” according to a 2010 report on preventable hospitalizations published by the office.

The new California data is also available by county, with rural counties like Del Norte, Glenn and San Joaquin experiencing among the highest five-year averages of preventable hospitalizations for bacterial pneumonia, diabetes-related amputations and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Los Angeles residents had rates of preventable hospitalizations above the state average for conditions such as long-term complications of diabetes, hypertension, congestive heart failure and adult asthma.

“The reason it’s good to have this data is that it forces us to look upstream and understand where there are missed opportunities to address these events and think about how we can develop systemic approaches to reducing them,” said Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the county's health officer.

Los Angeles is home to about 2.2 million [PDF] uninsured non-elderly adults and children, which Fielding said contributes to the area’s preventable hospitalizations.

“I think there needs to be more emphasis on primary care, but you can’t emphasize that unless you have the means to access it,” he said. “In the state as a whole, and particularly in Los Angeles County, there are too many adults who lack health insurance and don’t get the care they need in a timely fashion, so they result in preventable hospitalizations. Good access to primary care can help avert these hospitalizations."

Among children, there were an additional 53,897 preventable hospitalizations in 2009 related to five medical conditions, such as low birth weight and short-term complications from diabetes. Imperial County had high rates of pediatric gastroenteritis and urinary tract infections.

Jeremy Cantor of the Oakland-based Prevention Institute said these statistics illustrates the importance of prevention programs.

“All of these things are preventable to some extent, so the fact that the numbers are above zero means that there needs to be more focus on prevention,” he said. “What this means – not just in terms of health care costs, but also productivity and days that people have to take off work – has a huge impact on the state.”

But funds for prevention programs recently have become more scarce. Last week, Congress passed a bill that extends the payroll tax cut and forestalls payment cuts to doctors who accept Medicare by trimming about $5 billion from the federal Prevention and Public Health Fund over the next decade. In 2010, California received about $12 million [PDF] from the fund, which was created under the federal health reform law.

Cantor added that environmental and social factors that affect health can’t be overlooked.

“What can be misleading is that the implication is that these rates are determined by a patient’s experience in clinical settings,” he said. “That is far from the case. Part of the picture is access to quality clinical care. But it’s also related to exposures to toxins, and economic and educational opportunities, the lack of access to places to be physically active and a whole spectrum of factors that shape health outcomes.”

The data on preventable hospitalizations is not an indication of poor hospital care. But the 2009 data recently released by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development also examined patient safety [PDF] and found 334 incidents in which gauze or other surgical equipment was left inside the body during an operation and 8,230 cases in which patients were accidentally cut or punctured during their hospital stay.

As tobacco sales fall, state budget suffers

Kendall Taggart — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:05:03 +0000

Kendall Taggart

shira gal/Flickr

Fewer smokers is bad news for California’s budget. A major bond rating agency sounded an alarm this month, saying the state may have borrowed more than $4 billion against settlement money that might never materialize.

A little more than a decade ago, 46 state attorneys general reached a settlement with the four biggest tobacco companies. The companies agreed to pay an estimated $246 billion over a 25-year period to compensate states for tobacco-related health care costs. But there is one quirk: The settlement payments are not fixed, but linked to tobacco sales.

Rather than waiting for annual payments, the state and some local governments decided to borrow money against their anticipated future revenue. All told, they’ve issued $16 billion in bonds since 2001.

Major bond rating agencies and some municipal finance experts have warned for years that the number of smokers was decreasing more rapidly than expected.

In December, California had to dip into its reserves to cover bond payments. Dick Larkin, director of credit analysis at Herbert J. Sims & Co., said there were two reasons: fewer smokers and a dispute with the tobacco companies that has resulted in delayed payments.

As the state’s finances worsened, officials went back to investors. In 2007, California issued $4.4 billion in tobacco bonds. In order to pay back investors by 2047, it assumes that cigarette consumption will decline by about 1.8 percent per year, according to bond filings. But in the midst of increased taxes and antismoking laws, sales have dropped more quickly than predicted. As a result of the decline and the ongoing dispute with the tobacco companies, annual payments have been less than expected since the settlement was signed in 1998, according to Larkin.

If the bonds default, it wouldn’t be bad just for investors. California is one of only a few states that guaranteed a portion of its bonds with general fund revenue. If tobacco settlement money does not cover the debt, the state will have to pick up some of the tab. There are currently $2.9 billion in bonds outstanding that are backed by a state guarantee, according to the state treasurer's office.

Although that payment would be subject to legislative approval, it’s unlikely it wouldn’t be approved.

“No one would trust California anymore,” Larkin said. “Their name would be mud in the market.”

Unlike most other states, California split its settlement revenue between the state and local agencies – counties and four major cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco. Local governments receive about half of the state’s settlement payments.

Some local officials have elected to borrow against expected future payments but haven’t guaranteed to cover their debt with general fund revenue. While this could be bad news for investors, it might actually be good news for communities.

“The investor really has a slightly different view on everything,” said Peter Bianchini, senior municipal strategist at Mesirow Financial. Local governments aren’t on the hook if the tobacco settlement revenue doesn’t come through, so they may have been able to borrow more than they would have received if they had waited for the annual payments, he said.

Calif. weak on oversight of for-profit colleges, advocacy groups say

Erica Perez — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:05:03 +0000

Erica Perez

bo1982/istockphoto.com

California's recently formed Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education has significant weaknesses in its oversight of for-profit colleges, advocacy groups told lawmakers at a hearing this week.

The agency's lax approach limits its ability to police abuses in the for-profit sector, said Jamienne S. Studley, CEO of Public Advocates Inc., a nonprofit law firm and advocacy group in San Francisco.

During the joint information hearing of the Assembly Higher Education Committee and Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development, Studley recommended that the bureau strengthen its approval process, demand more disclosures from approved institutions, verify information received from colleges and more.

Nationally, for-profit colleges have the highest share of students who default on their student loans. The sector enrolls 1 in 10 college students in California, but receives more Cal Grant dollars from the state than all the community colleges combined.

A 2010 report from the College Board shows the six-year graduation rate for first-time, full-time students is 22 percent at four-year for-profit colleges, compared with 55 percent at public four-year institutions and 65 percent at private four-year colleges.

Studley, who has served as president of Skidmore College in New York and was deputy general counsel at the U.S. Education Department in the Clinton administration, compared some for-profit colleges with payday lenders.

"If our goal were to provide low-income neighborhoods and individuals with access to good banking services, we would not count opening more payday lenders as success," Studley said. "And so when our goal is increasing opportunity through educational attainment, the chance to go to institutions that graduate less than a quarter of their students, or that succeed in placing only a small number of students in secure jobs in the field for which they are trained, does not count as success."

The Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education was established in January 2010. Before its creation, the state's proprietary schools had gone more than two years with no oversight because former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger allowed the term of the previous regulator to expire.

The bureau is charged with approving private colleges to operate in the state. It then is supposed to enforce the law by investigating complaints and conducting annual site inspections.

But Studley noted that the bureau's patchwork jurisdiction leaves many students at risk. Only unaccredited schools are subject to the full scope of the agency's investigation, complaint and enforcement procedures.

Schools with national accreditation, such as the for-profit Art Institute of California-Los Angeles, for example, are automatically approved to operate by dint of their accreditation. Colleges that are regionally accredited are exempt from nearly all the state requirements. That includes Argosy University-San Francisco Bay Area in Alameda.

Because Argosy, for example, is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, it does not have to follow any of the state's disclosure requirements. Students at the school can't lodge a complaint with the bureau if they've been misled. And the bureau can't investigate the school or take action against any fraud or abuse, Studley said.

That means hundreds of thousands of California students in private institutions are not protected by the bureau. More than 250,000 students statewide attend regionally accredited private institutions – which includes a mix of private for-profit and nonprofit colleges.

Studley argued that the system leaves students in the cold, in part because accreditors focus on education programs, not on investigating fraud and abuse. She also said California is one of very few states that allow accreditation alone to stand in for any state approval, and the only other large state that does so is Texas.

"We strongly encourage the Legislature to closely examine the risks of relying on an external peer review process to effectively replace the state's consumer protection oversight for such a large segment of the private postsecondary sector," Studley said.

Aside from the patchwork coverage of the bureau's jurisdiction, Studley also said the agency relies too heavily on self-reported, unaudited information from the schools themselves. While state regulations require that institutions provide all prospective students with a school performance fact sheet that includes information on completion rates, job placement rates, license exam passage rates and more, the bureau doesn't verify that this information is accurate.

Studley recommended that the agency implement mandatory audits and independent verification for the fact sheets. She also proposed that the agency better define job placement rates so that the colleges can count only students who land permanent positions in the field in which they trained.

When it comes to investigating complaints and issuing sanctions, Studley said the bureau falls short. The Bay Citizen reported in December that the agency had a backlog of 200 investigations of schools that had been accused of violating state education code. One former student of the for-profit Institute of Medical Education told The Bay Citizen that when she complained to the bureau about the school, she was told the agency lacked the staff to investigate the claim. This week, the bureau announced it would shut down the Institute of Medical Education.

Debbie Cochrane, program director for the Institute for College Access and Success, told lawmakers that for-profit colleges find California to be a ripe market specifically because of the state's lax system.

"The combination of relatively weak oversight – including virtually no oversight for a few recent years – and an unusually generous state grant program have made the state an attractive place for for-profit colleges to do business," Cochrane said.

State looks at spending, regulations for SF Bay bar pilots

Will Evans — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:05:03 +0000

Will Evans

Courtesy of San Francisco Bar Pilots AssociationBar pilots board commercial ships to guide them into Bay Area ports.

California’s 56 bar pilots provide a vital service, boarding commercial ships as they approach a buoy west of the Golden Gate Bridge and guiding them through dicey Bay Area waters. A giant sandbar in the bay gives bar pilots their name and helps make the zone one of the most treacherous ports in North America.

Bar pilots also make a handsome living, splitting the spoils of a state-sanctioned monopoly that earns them about $400,000 a year each – costs borne by the shipping industry. They take business-class trips to France for training, which they sometimes combine with European vacations. And they work seven days on, seven days off – enough for one full-time pilot to spend more time working as a real estate agent, according to a legislative staff report [PDF].

This week, a legislative oversight committee considered some reforms to the state's Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun, which licenses and regulates the pilots. The goal of the Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee is to ensure that various government agencies are "still necessary and that they’re running as efficiently and effectively as they can," said the committee's chairwoman, Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, D-Lodi. The committee will vote on staff recommendations at its next hearing.

Committee staff noted that pilots continue to fly to France in business class, an expense that was criticized in a 2009 state audit as potentially "a misuse of state resources.” The training, which costs $17,600 per pilot plus about $3,000 and up for travel, is paid for by surcharges on the shipping industry.

Some pilots spent extra time in Europe, going through Rome or Munich, according to staff. The report noted that the latest business-class tickets were free upgrades but recommended that “to avoid future concerns about propriety” the board use the state’s standard system for purchasing tickets.

Board President K. Michael Miller, however, offered a full-throated defense of business-class travel at the hearing.

"At some point, you just gotta be a stand-up guy and you gotta say what you think, even if it ruffles some feathers," he said. "And what I’m going to say is going to ruffle some feathers."

"Sending someone on a 16-hour transit, through eight time zones, sitting up in what I like to call 'pretzel class,' in economy, guarantees that that pilot is going to be fatigued when he or she gets off the plane at the other end."

Miller said it was a "safety issue" to have a pilot tired from traveling go back to work in California. He noted that international business travel includes seats that recline all the way.

"If you like to sleep in a fetal position, which I do, you can bring your knees up to your chest," he said. "You get the opportunity for rest, and it mitigates the effects on your circadian rhythms."

Committee staff also recommended that the board competitively bid out its training contract, as there are a few other training facilities besides the one in France. Staff noted that when the board put out a bid for 2011 training, it included qualifications that only the French facility could meet.

"Everyone seems focused on our training in France, because that’s a grabber, because it’s France," board Executive Director Allen Garfinkle acknowledged at the hearing.

Garfinkle said he hadn't meant to exclude other bidders. He noted that of the two U.S. training facilities, the one in Louisiana had been closed and the one in Massachusetts was small and geared to military training.

"We are looking around for the best facility we can, 'cause you want the best training for the pilots in the bay that you can get," Garfinkle said.

Garfinkle said in an interview that the board signed a two-year training contract, instead of five years, because "we’re looking at the other providers more closely."

The most important committee recommendation, according to the shipping industry, is to implement rules making sure pilots don't maneuver ships while overly fatigued. Currently, voluntary standards for 12-hour rest periods between jobs are often violated, according to the staff report.

"It’s important to us ... that when a pilot gets assigned to our vessel that we have confidence that that pilot is as well rested and well trained as any other pilot," Mike Jacob of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association said in an interview. "What we would like is to have enforceable and publicly adopted standards."

A rigid rule, however, could result in perfectly capable pilots being prohibited from boarding a ship, slowing down port business, said Miller, of the Board of Pilot Commissioners.

"I’d rather have the pilots figure out how it’s going to work because they know their business," he said.

Committee staff also recommended putting an administrative law judge in charge of contentious hearings on rate increases, which raise surcharges on shippers. Bar pilots split their profits, so rate increases lead to higher pay. A battle over compensation last year ended with the Legislature nixing a rate increase recommended by the pilot board.

The issue popped up again this month with dueling op-eds between pilots and shippers in Capitol Weekly.

"What we find offensive is for them to say, 'For us to safely move your ship, we need more money,' " Jacob said.

But Mitch Zak, spokesman for the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association, emphasized that the job is extremely tricky and that the pilots are in an elite class of their own. He said pilots sometimes guide ships as far as Sacramento and Stockton.

"Imagine tipping the Empire State Building over, packing it full of these containers … and then having to steer that in a very narrow channel with all the currents," Zak said. "It is definitely one of the most difficult professions."

"Even though we’re disappointed in the stance of the shippers," he added, "we’re not going to let that affect our focus, which is the safety of the bay."

Bar pilots and the board that regulates them faced increased scrutiny after a ship hit the Bay Bridge in 2007, spilling 53,569 gallons of oil. A U.S. Coast Guard investigation blamed the pilot for navigating at an unsafe speed with near-zero visibility and noted that he had health problems.

The state Legislature instituted reforms in the wake of the accident. Still, the Board of Pilot Commissioners remains obscure. Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Montclair, said at the hearing that before this week, she hadn't known what a bar pilot actually was.

Negrete McLeod quipped that bar pilots should get the word out about what they do so that people don't think they are "pilots that sit at bars."

Pilots can earn less than airport window washers

Traffic officials following the few checkpoint rules that exist, auditor finds

Ryan Gabrielson — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:05:03 +0000

Ryan Gabrielson

versageek/Flickr

California traffic safety officials have followed the few rules that exist for overseeing sobriety checkpoints set up by hundreds of police departments, the state auditor reported yesterday.

No federal law or state statute governs what happens at the roadway operations, according to the auditor's report. And the California Office of Traffic Safety is not required to closely monitor what happens at checkpoints it funds, which now number more than 2,000 a year.

Chris Murphy, the traffic safety office’s director, said the audit validates that the state funds lawful, lifesaving checkpoints.

“It speaks volumes to the work that my staff and law enforcement is doing,” Murphy said. “The checkpoint program has been running very efficiently and effectively.”

Fatalities on California’s roadways dropped nearly 12 percent from 2009 to 2010, which Murphy partially attributes to checkpoints.

The traffic safety office spent $16.8 million for police overtime at more than 2,500 operations during the 2010 fiscal year. Auditors noted that those sobriety checkpoints resulted in almost 28,000 citations to unlicensed drivers, compared with roughly 7,000 drunken driving arrests.

California Watch reported two years ago that sobriety checkpoints were doing more than just taking unlicensed drivers off the road. Police took those motorists’ cars, too, often impounding them for 30 days.

With city release fees and tow charges, car owners often had to pay $1,500 or more to retrieve their vehicles. When owners could not afford that price, tow operators typically would sell the cars at lien sales.

Cities and firms generated an estimated $40 million in revenue from vehicle seizures at checkpoints. The majority of drivers losing their cars were illegal immigrants who are not permitted to have California licenses.

Auditors document that local governments have used impounds as a cash source through fees, as well as contracts with tow companies that require cities get a cut of car storage charges and lien sales.

“For example, the Los Angeles Police Department collects 7 percent of all gross revenue earned by tow contractors for police-related tows,” the report states. “Similarly, the cities of Oakland and Fresno receive $40 per towed vehicle as a franchise fee under their tow agreements.”

A new state law, enacted Jan. 1, restricts police officers’ authority to impound a car at a checkpoint if the driver’s only offense is unlicensed driving.

The disparity between the numbers of vehicle impounds and drunken driving arrests in recent years doesn’t “suggest that these checkpoints were performed improperly or are not achieving their intended outcomes,” auditors wrote.

Unlicensed drivers are riskier drivers. A study [PDF] last year by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that nearly a fifth of all fatal car collisions in the United States from 2007 to 2009 involved a driver with a suspended or revoked license or no license at all.

California’s traffic safety office is not required to observe the checkpoints or confirm that data it receives from police departments about the operations is accurate. Murphy said that level of oversight would be logistically impossible.

Instead, the agency informally has sent two retired police officers to watch 24 checkpoints over the past four years, the report said.

Foreclosure mediation could save billions

Kendall Taggart — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:05:08 +0000

Kendall Taggart

Jeff Turner/Flickr

New research says it pays to help struggling homeowners.

Thousands of Californians have lost their homes during the housing crisis, wreaking havoc on families, as well as state and local government property tax revenue. But there is an inexpensive solution, according to a report released last week by the National Consumer Law Center.

The study focuses on programs in 19 states that require mortgage companies to have supervised meetings with troubled homeowners and neutral third parties, such as housing counselors, before foreclosing on a property.

“Evidence shows that effective foreclosure mediation can keep paying borrowers in their homes for the long term while also saving billions of dollars for taxpayers and investors,” said Geoff Walsh, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center and author of the report.

California doesn’t mandate many of the protections that the report says are crucial for preventing fraud and abuse. State law requires a mortgage servicer to file a statement that says it tried to contact the homeowner 30 days before it files a notice of default. Unlike some other states, California does not require a third party to supervise discussions between a servicer and homeowner.

In addition to supervised meetings, Walsh notes that requiring mortgage companies to provide documentation proving they have assessed whether investors will get more money from a modification than foreclosure also helps ensure that investors’ interests are best served.

A 2011 study [PDF] from the California Reinvestment Coalition, a group that advocates for increased access to credit on behalf of low-income communities, estimated that foreclosures in California have resulted in more than $500 billion in direct and indirect costs. Foreclosures have caused a $424 billion loss in real estate values, resulting in an estimated $3.8 billion lost in property tax revenue, the study notes. Local government agencies have spent an additional $17 billion to absorb the cost of increased services to care for these properties.

Federal oversight of mortgage companies’ efforts to provide loan modifications has failed, Walsh said, leaving states with a greater responsibility to oversee the process. He hopes more states will implement effective programs and found that other states have been able to recoup the costs of the programs through fees that lenders pay to file foreclosure documents.

In addition to the 13 million families that already have lost their homes, Amherst Securities Group LP predicts 8 to 10 million mortgages are likely to default and enter foreclosure before the crisis is over.

California Watch reached out to homeowners in the state using the Public Insight Network, an engagement platform that connects journalists with people who want to share their knowledge and insights. Homeowners spoke of the challenges with trying to navigate the loan modification world.

Kevin Mims of Sacramento said he stopped making payments to Bank of America in October 2008. He assumed it was just a matter of time before the bank foreclosed on his home and he started looking for a place to rent. In July, the company told him that it would modify his loan if he made three monthly payments at a new rate. Despite making the payments, the deal never materialized, he said. With the help of an attorney, he finally was able to get a permanent modification 15 months later.

“It was kind of a turbulent period because they would call me every now and then and say, 'Well, you’ve never made a payment, so we’re going to foreclose on you.' And I said, 'I’ve made tons of payments, I’ve made every payment.' It was like one branch of the bank didn’t know what the other branch was doing,” Mims said.

Bank of America did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

A settlement agreement reached last week between major mortgage companies and state attorneys general is expected to provide some relief for current homeowners by reducing the amount of principal they owe on their mortgages. Mims, who now owes more on his two mortgages than his house is worth, hopes that he is eligible.

In Marin County, poverty exists alongside wealth

Patricia Leigh Brown — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:05:07 +0000

Patricia Leigh Brown

Patricia Leigh Brown/California WatchAn ice cream vendor sells treats after school at in San Rafael's Canal area in Marin County.

Those wanting to check the socioeconomic pulse of the Canal area of San Rafael need only peruse the bulletin board at The Canal Alliance, a nonprofit center serving the neighborhood’s largely low-income Spanish-speaking population.

“Diabetes y Su Salud,” reads one flier about diabetes and health. “Cuartos de Renta,” says an advertisement for rooms for rent. Many Canal-area residents live in crowded apartments shared by multiple families, in which living rooms equipped with microwaves often are rented as a separate space.

In “A Portrait of Marin,” a report released last month by the Marin Community Foundation, which measures education, health and income disparities in the county’s 51 census tracts, the Canal area ranked lowest in community well-being. Wedged between Highway 101 and the bay, the neighborhood is a densely populated triangle of land that is predominantly Latino.

The area’s low-lying 2½ square miles are home to about 12,000 people, as well as auto body shops and other light industries. The MS-13 street gang, dominated by Central American immigrants, has a criminal presence here, as does the 18th Street gang from Los Angeles. The typical Canal-area worker earns just a little more than $21,000 a year, roughly the same as the average earnings in the 1960s. Pickup trucks laden with ladders, rolls of carpet, paint tarps and other stuff of labor are a common neighborhood sight.

Ten minutes away, Christopher Martin, a council member for the Town of Ross, contemplated why his town ranked higher in well-being than any other community in Marin County.

“People here are very active,” he mused, referring to the town’s five parks, lake system and miles of walking paths astride Mount Tamalpais. “Because there is no mail delivery, people walk to the post office.”

In Ross, population 2,100, the police know most children in town by name. Martin estimates that more than half of the town’s residents, including many investment bankers, grow their own organic vegetables. They have the space: The typical residential lot in Ross is an acre or more.

That Marin County is a 1 percenters’ paradise is hardly breaking news. But the report, written and researched by the American Human Development Project, part of the Brooklyn-based nonprofit Social Science Research Council, explores Marin’s more subtle disparities, painting a nuanced portrait of poverty as well as wealth.

“We wanted to strike up a conversation,” said Thomas Peters, the community foundation’s president and CEO. “Marin stereotypes are held by many outside the county, but, insidiously, inside Marin as well.”

While civic boosters tout biotech and software as a way to stimulate economic recovery, the majority of the county’s job growth lies in low-wage service industries – laundry and dry cleaning, gardening, hair and beauty salons, pet care, and parking services. These are jobs for which the median pay is $23,500, “earnings that are roughly equal to the federal poverty line for a family of four,” according to the report.

In the Canal area, heavy on service workers, more than half the adults have not earned a high school diploma. Residents can expect to live 80½ years, 7½ years fewer than a resident of Ross, where 4 out of 5 adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education. Those opportunities are reflected in the town’s median individual earnings – $64,378, more than double the national average.

The report also found that although Marin has a higher preschool enrollment rate than any California county, the rate varies by race and ethnicity. Eighty-eight percent of white children attend preschool, compared with 47 percent of Latino children. A quality preschool education is widely considered a key factor in helping disadvantaged children enter elementary school on an equal footing with their peers.

Subsidized child care is another issue that seriously affects working families. Cheryl Paddack, executive director of the Novato Youth Center, which offers subsidized child care and other services, said state budget cuts are forcing difficult conversations with parents.

“For many families, especially parents working two or three jobs, subsidized child care is an essential service,” she said. With 58 percent of clients receiving the subsidies, “we’re now looking to have to release children,” she said. “These children are very vulnerable.”

To Michael Watenpaugh, superintendent of San Rafael City Schools, the Marin report is“ reflective of what we live every single day.” The majority of children in his district are poor students of color, half of them English learners.

That is why, beginning in elementary school, the district implements “No Excuses University,” a national college readiness network in which elementary school classes are “adopted” by a major college or university. Teacher diplomas are prominently displayed in the classroom, and students develop school loyalties, down to the fight songs. It is about raising expectations, he said.

“The first impression is that Marin is a wealthy community,” Watenpaugh said. “But if you dig in, you find a significant population of poor families here. And there is a very big need to address them.”

California Lost is an occasional series examining challenges facing neglected communities around the state.

Whitman, former finance chair for Romney, gives little funding this time

Lance Williams — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:05:02 +0000

Lance Williams

megwhitman2010/FlickrMitt Romney (left), Meg Whitman and former California Gov. Pete Wilson

Update: In a filing five days after this report was posted, Romney's Restore Our Future PAC reported a $100,000 donation from Whitman.

Back in the 1980s at Boston’s Bain & Co. business consulting firm, partner Mitt Romney mentored a promising young executive named Meg Whitman.

More than two decades later, when Whitman ran for governor of California, Romney and Bain gave her significant support.

Romney donated $25,900 – the maximum allowed by state law – and Bain executives pumped an additional $216,000 into Whitman’s losing campaign against Democrat Jerry Brown.

Now, Romney is battling to nail down the Republican presidential nomination. But so far at least, Whitman hasn’t proved a significant source of political money for Romney, records show.

The powerful California corporations with Whitman ties – online auction house eBay, where she was CEO before running for governor, and Hewlett-Packard, where she became CEO last year – haven't stepped up for Romney, either.

Federal Election Commission records show Whitman donated $2,500 to Romney’s campaign last year. She gave $5,000 more to his Free and Strong America PAC, through which Romney donates to Republican members of Congress, according to the records.

But Whitman, whose net worth when she left eBay was estimated at $1.4 billion, has not contributed to Restore Our Future, the super political action committee that is collecting as much as $1 million per donor to support Romney’s presidential bid.

Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard employees have donated only $3,500 to Romney – with $2,500 coming from Ann Livermore, a member of the board of directors. Employees of eBay have donated only $3,550 to the former Massachusetts governor, $1,000 of it from Deputy General Counsel Brian Levey.

The dynamic was far different in 2008, when Romney lost his bid for the GOP presidential nomination to John McCain. In that campaign, Whitman served as Romney’s finance chairwoman and raised $12 million for him, she wrote in her 2010 autobiography, “The Power of Many.”

After that, Whitman launched her campaign for governor and wound up spending more than $140 million of her own money in the losing effort. A Hewlett-Packard spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether Whitman planned to campaign for Romney.

Overall, Romney has raised $3.95 million in California – about 8 percent of the $50.3 million in individual donations he has obtained nationwide, records show.

California-based executives of Bain have proved the biggest single source of Romney’s individual donations: 48 have combined to donate $48,850. The total includes employees of both the consulting firm and the investment bank Bain Capital, where Romney served as CEO.

Nationwide, Bain executives have pumped almost $5 million into Romney’s political campaigns, past and present, the Center for Public Integrity has reported. That includes $96,000 that Whitman donated in 2006, according to the report.

Executives of the California offices of two New York investment banks also gave significant donations to Romney. Morgan Stanley officials combined to give $27,000, making the firm Romney’s second-biggest source of campaign cash in California. Employees of Goldman Sachs gave $26,500, ranking third.

As California Watch has reported, the Romney super PAC Restore Our Future has mined California for $2.3 million in donations. The biggest single donor was W/F Investment Corp. of Los Angeles, a private equity firm that says it “focuses on acquiring fiscally troubled public companies.” It gave $275,000.

Since California Watch's report, Restore Our Future has cleared up the mystery surrounding the identity of its second-biggest California donor. The super PAC’s initial filing reported that a Redwood City entity called Glenbrook LLC had donated $250,000. Glenbrook's address went back to an accounting firm, and the accountants refused to comment.

Then the Romney super PAC amended its filing, according to a report by the Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News.

The reference to Glenbrook was omitted. Instead, the super PAC reported receiving $125,000 from Jesse Rogers, a former Bain & Co. executive who now is managing director of Altamont Capital Partners, a Palo Alto private equity firm. It also reported a $125,000 donation from his wife. Rogers also donated $2,500 to Romney’s campaign, and Altamont Capital donated $10,000 to Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC.

In her 2010 book, Whitman described Romney as a longtime friend and “thoroughly decent human being” who had often given her sound career advice. When he sought the presidency in 2008, it was “for the right reasons,” she wrote.

“He wanted to bring in some of the rigors of business and financial analysis that we had both learned and seen work at Bain and put them to use in the cause of making government work more efficiently,” she wrote of Romney.

But Whitman said Romney’s campaign foundered because of the “scrutiny and attacks he was subject to” because of his Mormon faith.

“They were so intense and became so defining that he could not establish a coherent campaign message,” she wrote.

Romney abandoned the campaign after falling short in the Super Tuesday primaries in March 2008. Two weeks later, Whitman became a national co-chairwoman for McCain, who won the GOP nomination and later lost to President Barack Obama.

California Watch staff reporter Erica Perez contributed to this report.

Researchers to examine revamp of public health

Christina Jewett — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:05:02 +0000

Christina Jewett

BrianAJackson/istockphoto.com

As California continues to forge ahead implementing health reform, state Medi-Cal leaders and UC Davis researchers announced an agreement to examine public health system transformation efforts that may serve as models for the nation.

The researchers will evaluate public hospital systems as they revamp daily operations in ways meant to simultaneously reduce health costs and improve patient health.

New programs are taking shape under California’s Medi-Cal “waiver,” a $10 billion program that is part of the state’s effort to prepare for a major influx of beneficiaries who will be covered when the Affordable Care Act expands eligibility in 2014.

The waiver was adopted to set aside some federal Medicaid requirements so California can reshape systems, shifting from an emphasis on responding to health crises to preventing them altogether.

The Department of Health Care Services, which operates the Medi-Cal program, last week announced a $4.25 million agreement with the UC Davis Health System’s Institute for Population Health Improvement.

The institute will examine how the state’s 17 public hospital systems transform to meet the new goals, an effort that comes with $3.3 billion in federal funding. Leaders will be trying to figure out what works well and might be replicated across the state, according to the institute’s director, Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer, who led state health services under Gov. George Deukmejian.

“The opportunity is great,” Kizer said in an interview. “If we can make this work in California, then I think there’s a very high likelihood we can show the way for the rest of the country.”

Kizer will be focusing on quality across the Medi-Cal program and also on the Delivery System Reform Incentive Program, which provides $3.3 billion in incentive funds for public hospital systems. Those systems serve about 2.5 million people each year in California.

Kizer said the overarching idea is to shift the health systems from an emphasis on providing fee-based health services to exploring how they can help people stay healthy.

The focus at the public hospital systems will be on patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart failure and asthma. Research has shown that a small percentage of patients who end up in hospital emergency rooms with those conditions account for a vastly outsized percentage of medical costs.

So the goal is to adopt evidence-based methods to help people manage illnesses and keep symptoms under control. That way, they are less likely to land in the intensive-care unit in need of lifesaving and costly care.

“What the Affordable Care Act is trying to do overall is a fundamental mind shift for most of health care,” Kizer said.

Kizer said the impetus for the public hospital system change is the pending health reform implementation, which will add about 1 million people to California’s Medi-Cal program.

Melissa Stafford Jones, president of the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, said systems already are more than a year into their transformation plans. Each of 17 health systems sought and received state and federal approval for a change plan, she said.

Stafford Jones said there are four phases to the plans. Currently, she said, hospital systems are working on the first phase, which includes expanding hours, sites and staffs at primary care clinics.

She said health systems also are creating electronic disease management registries meant to track the health status, lab results and appointment histories of patients with chronic illnesses.

“That way, someone on the health care team isn’t waiting for someone (with diabetes) to show up in the emergency room because their blood sugar is off the charts,” she said.

Instead, a health care team might notice that the patient hasn’t been seen for several months and call the person to come in for an appointment.

Stafford Jones said the second phase encompasses how the health systems overhaul delivery of care, creating teams of doctors, nurses, health educators and social workers and connecting with patients.

She said the clinics also are trying to create links between the physical and mental health care delivered to patients. They’re exploring how connecting patients to care providers by telemedicine and e-mail might help them stay healthy.

Stafford Jones said the third phase of the plan involves examining population health status. The fourth calls on hospitals to reduce mistakes that injure patients and drive up costs, such as central-line infections and bedsores.

Stafford Jones said each hospital submitted detailed goals and milestones for achieving change and improved outcomes. If hospitals meet those goals, they will tap into $3.3 billion in federal funds over five years.

Kizer, who helped lead the transformation of the Veterans Affairs health system from 1994 to 1999, said UC Davis researchers will play an advisory role, looking for successful programs and approaches that bear replicating.

“Not everything has to be reinvented de novo every time you’re trying to solve a problem,” he said. “Maybe what works in San Diego or San Bernardino will work in Salinas.”

Under federal pressure, Mendocino pulls plug on marijuana program

Michael Montgomery — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:20:04 +0000

Michael Montgomery

Michael Montgomery/California WatchGeorge Unsworth holds a banner stenciled with his Mendocino County marijuana permit number at a remote farm near Covelo.

This week, officials in Mendocino County, Northern California, are expected to pull the plug on an unusual program that put pot growing under supervision of the local sheriff. It was the first effort of its kind in the nation and proved a success, at least in the eyes of many locals. But, as Michael Montgomery reports, federal prosecutors took a different view.

TRANSCRIPT:

Reporter Michael Montgomery: Call it weed détente. For years, Mendocino County, like other places in Northern California, struggled to contain an explosion in pot growing, especially since the state legalized the use of medical marijuana. So two years ago, officials decided to try something completely new – legalize medical marijuana production under strict conditions. And they gave the job to a barrel-chested sheriff's sergeant named Randy Johnson.

Randy Johnson: Prior to July, when the program started, what I knew about marijuana was chop it down and haul it to the evidence locker. (Crowd laughs.)

Reporter: That's Johnson speaking at a local library last year. It was one of dozens of meetings with growers aimed at coaxing them out of the shadows. Johnson tells the group they're allowed to cultivate enough medical marijuana to support a real business – but only if they follow environmental rules, submit to inspections by the cops and pay hefty fees.

Johnson: I haven't had a single complaint on any of your gardens, and I thank you for that. (Applause)

Reporter: The program has earned the sheriff's department more than half a million dollars and enlisted nearly 100 growers. One of them is George Unsworth. On a recent day, Unsworth walked down a narrow trail on his property, which is situated on a rugged mountain in a remote part of the county.

George Unsworth: We're on the north side of Round Valley.

Reporter: Unsworth says for decades, he grew marijuana guerrilla-style. Then he joined the county's cultivation program.

Unsworth: We're fallow now.

Reporter: At a large garden strewn with brown weeds, Unsworth pulls out his smartphone. He flicks to an image showing him standing at the same spot last year with a man in uniform.

Unsworth: See, that's where he is, and right there, and you see the plants behind him right here.

Reporter: That's you and a sheriff's deputy standing here on your land. And there's marijuana plants right behind you.

Unsworth: Yeah, see the plants behind.

Reporter: And you're both smiling.

Unsworth: Shaking the deputy sheriff's hand and looking over this incredible wilderness and not being on the ground, my feet facing the dirt and handcuffs and getting ready to go to jail. I cannot describe the joy of feeling that we were finally part of the county, not the outcasts.

Reporter: After California voters legalized medical marijuana use 16 years ago, the state never determined how pot should be produced, leaving such regulations to local authorities. So far, only Mendocino has taken on the challenge.

Unsworth: There we go.

Reporter: Unsworth unfurls a large banner stenciled with his county permit number. He uses it to notify aerial patrols that this is a legal farm. He says last season, it worked.

Unsworth: And so when the helicopters are flying over us, we could just wave. (Laughs)

Reporter: But in October, federal prosecutors went on the offensive against California's marijuana industry, closing dozens of storefront dispensaries and seizing properties.

Melinda Haag: The law has been hijacked by profiteers who are motivated not by compassion, but by money.

Reporter: That's the U.S. attorney for Northern California, Melinda Haag. She also warned cities and counties that marijuana licensing schemes were against federal law. Soon after, heavily armed DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agents raided a farm in Mendocino owned by one of the county's legal growers.

Protesters (chanting): DEA go away, DEA go away!

Reporter: The crackdown sparked protests in San Francisco during a visit by President Obama. The U.S. attorney's Office and the DEA declined to comment. Former federal prosecutor Joe Russoniello says allowing sick people to use medical marijuana is one thing, but it's quite another for a county like Mendocino to issue permits to marijuana growers and allow them to sell their product around the state.

Joe Russoniello: As soon as you cross county lines, packaging it, suggesting you have a client base or patients or members, you are basically a commercial enterprise for profit and in violation of state and federal law.

Reporter: But Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman says the feds were meddling in county affairs.

Tom Allman: It made me a little bit distrustful. I'm hoping this wasn't intentional saber rattling. I'm hoping they weren't saying, "Well, if we show Mendocino County that we mean business, then all these other counties are going to back off." Really?

Reporter: It wasn't just saber rattling. Last month, federal prosecutors gave Mendocino an ultimatum: End the program or face costly litigation and possible criminal action. The issue finally came to a head at a Board of Supervisors meeting. In a packed conference room, dozens of anxious growers spoke out against the feds and in support of the regulations, including George Unsworth.

Unsworth: I would like to say, supervisors ... I voluntarily would do anything to keep the program going. And I think I speak for most of the other people who were in my position, that would run in the woods when the helicopters came flying.

Reporter: But support wasn't universal. Dispensary owner Mike Johnson urged the county to abolish the program.

Mike Johnson: This ordinance has subjected the entire medical cannabis community of Mendocino County and the state of California to intense federal scrutiny, which we don't want or need. To me, it wasn't worth the trouble it caused.

Reporter: In the end, Mendocino officials concluded they couldn't afford a legal fight with the feds and agreed to gut the regulations. They're expected to formally end the program tomorrow. All this left county Board Chairman John McCowen exasperated.

John McCowen: It means it's going to go back underground. It's going to become more dangerous. It's going to become more profitable for the black marketeers. I just don't see that this represents progress.

Reporter: But the fight might not be over. A group of Mendocino growers is hoping to revive the program in time for the spring planting, but as a voluntary and private effort. For NPR News, I'm Michael Montgomery

This story was produced as part of a collaboration between member station KQED and the Center for Investigative Reporting's California Watch.

Prosecutors move to shut down Mendocino pot permit program

More California Watch coverage on marijuana

New rail leaders hope to 'make things right' in Central Valley

Tim Sheehan — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:20:03 +0000

Anonymous

California High-Speed Rail Authority

California High-Speed Rail Authority leaders acknowledge they have “a lot of damage to undo” with Central Valley farmers and property owners along the route of the proposed train system.

As political battles loom in Sacramento over issuing $2.7 billion in bonds to begin building the system later this year in the Valley, authority chairman Dan Richard said a new business plan and new leadership are focused on “what it’s going to take to make those things right” and rebuild the agency’s credibility.

Richard was joined yesterday by authority Vice Chairman Tom Richards, a Fresno developer and board member Michael Rossi, a former vice president of Bank of America, in a meeting with Fresno County transportation officials and leaders from the county’s cities about the $98 billion train project.

“All three of us are dealing with a history here that has not been good,” Richard said yesterday.

Richard and Rossi were named to the authority’s board last summer by Gov. Jerry Brown; Richards was appointed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in late 2010.

A major obstacle will be acquiring the right of way for the tracks from businesses, homeowners and farmers along the route – a challenge made greater by what Richard called the authority’s “ham-handed” discussions with worried landowners.

“I’m extremely unhappy with the kind of approaches that have been made to farmers and businesspeople along the potential alignments,” Richard said. “Those have not been right or fair or just.”

Yesterday was Richard’s third visit to the Valley in the past month. He met recently with farmers and property owners in Kings County, where frustration with the authority has resulted in lawsuits by residents against the agency and votes of opposition by the Kings County Board of Supervisors and the city councils in Hanford and Corcoran.

“One of the main problems that the High-Speed Rail Authority has had in the past is that it’s been mainly focused on building a train,” Richard said. “And when all you’re focused on is building a train, you tend to tell people to get out of the way because you’re coming through with the train.”

Richard said he believes treating owners honestly may overcome some of the built-up mistrust. Once the authority completes its environmental review and selects a final route through the Valley, it can begin negotiating to buy land.

“I think that as we are legally able to approach people, and particular if we come to them with the philosophy of making them whole as opposed to jerking them around, we hope that process will go more smoothly,” he said.

Frank Oliveira of Hanford, whose family has five farms that would be affected by a potential route east of the city, remains unconvinced that the authority’s new attitude will change opposition in Kings County.

“I think it’s a good thing they’re communicating better,” said Oliveira, who attended yesterday's meeting in Fresno. “But if that means they want to understand our concerns but they’re still going to devastate us, then all we have is an understanding devastator.

“If somebody shows up with some substance, then we can sit down and look at this. But I don’t see that happening.”

Farmers in Kings County worry about tracks that slice through the middle of their parcels. For more than a year, Oliveira said, they sought answers from the authority about how they could reach their land on the other side of the tracks, but felt they couldn’t get straight answers.

Now, Oliveira said, about the only option that would appease him and his neighbors is if the authority moved the tracks to the Valley’s west side, along Interstate 5, bypassing the cities along Highway 99.

But Oliveira acknowledged that is unlikely, given the schedule that the authority has to complete work on the first 130-mile stretch from Chowchilla to Bakersfield by fall 2017.

“Richard seems to be a little more into talking to us about it, and that’s good,” Oliveira said. “But if they stay on the same time schedule and don’t address the flaws in the project, I don’t know what talking is going to accomplish other than to stall us or waste more of our time.”

The authority also is battling public perception over the rising cost of the rail program. Richard said he was “very unhappy with the way the high-speed rail authority did its projections in the past; I don’t think that they were candid.”

A 2009 business plan projected the cost to build 520 miles of high-speed tracks from Los Angeles to San Francisco at about $46 billion. The newest plan presided over by Richard, a former chairman of the Bay Area Rapid Transit board, created considerable sticker shock when it was released in November with a cost estimate of $98 billion.

Now, that plan is going through revisions that may be unveiled in the next month or two, Richard said. The emphasis, he added, is to find ways to “do it better, faster and cheaper.”

A key challenge will be persuading state legislators to allocate money from Proposition 1A, a $9 billion bond measure approved by California voters in 2008 for high-speed rail construction.

The state’s auditor, legislative analyst and a Legislature-appointed peer review group all have raised concerns about the viability of the plan, particularly its reliance on federal contributions and the uncertainty of future funds from Congress.

The reporter can be reached at tsheehan@fresnobee.com or 559-441-6319. This story resulted from a partnership among California news organizations following the state's high-speed rail program, including The Fresno Bee, The Sacramento Bee, California Watch, The Bakersfield Californian, The Orange County Register, the San Francisco Chronicle, The (Riverside) Press-Enterprise, U-T San Diego, KQED, the Merced Sun-Star, The Tribune of San Luis Obispo and The Modesto Bee.

Stanford grad continues fight to get off no-fly list

G.W. Schulz — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:05:26 +0000

G.W. Schulz

Olastuen/Flickr

The federal appeals court ruling last week on gay marriage in California overshadowed other potentially big news in the legal community.

A quieter decision Wednesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has enabled Stanford University Ph.D. graduate Rahinah Ibrahim to clear another hurdle in her now years-long battle over the nation’s no-fly list, conceived to stop suspected terrorists from boarding airplanes.

The three-member panel ruled 2-1 that Ibrahim could continue to challenge [PDF] her 2005 detention at San Francisco International Airport, where police placed her in a holding cell for two hours. The ordeal eventually led to her being barred from re-entering the United States, a prohibition that continues today.

She’d arrived at the airport on Jan. 2, 2005, with her daughter and needed wheelchair assistance due to complications from a hysterectomy. The two were headed for Malaysia, where Ibrahim intended to present her doctoral research at a conference sponsored by Stanford.

Instead, officers from the San Francisco Police Department placed her in handcuffs and gave no reason for why she was being held. The government generally does not disclose if or why an individual is on one of its many watch lists.

“Unspecified persons,” according to court documents, told Ibrahim that her name had been removed from the no-fly list, but someone later told her it was still there. The following day, authorities permitted Ibrahim to leave the country on a new flight to Malaysia.

Since that time, she has not been allowed back into the country, despite continuing to work with Stanford on an effort to improve Malaysia’s construction industry.

Ibrahim is now seeking to challenge her inclusion on the government’s terrorist watch lists and to be erased from them completely. She already has settled a civil claim against city officials in San Francisco for $225,000 after contending she was falsely arrested, but the odyssey lives on in federal court.

Writing for the majority, 9th Circuit Judge William Fletcher spent much of the 36-page decision raising questions about the reliability of government databases designed to identify and track terrorism suspects.

The government has constructed a “vast, multi-agency counterterrorism bureaucracy” that monitors the activities of hundreds of thousands of individuals, Fletcher wrote. One way it does that is through the Terrorist Screening Database, which is used for determining who can board airliners and obtain visa entry into the United States. Federal, state and local law enforcement also have access to information in the system, as do some private companies and foreign governments.

The appeals court is troubled by flaws in the Terrorist Screening Database, which contains names of people submitted by the National Counterterrorism Center and the FBI.

“Tens of thousands of travelers have been misidentified because of misspellings and transcription errors in the nomination process,” Fletcher wrote, “and because of computer algorithms that imperfectly match travelers against the names on the list.”

An array of government watchdog reports have criticized the quality of the lists. One major airline reported that it had run into as many as 9,000 incorrect terrorist watch list matches every day during the month of April 2008.

The Associated Press reported earlier this month that the no-fly list had doubled over the last year alone to more than 20,000 people, among them 500 Americans who are prohibited from flying on a commercial airliner in the United States. Lower standards for inclusion explain some of the list’s growth.

The 9th Circuit ruling adds that the larger Terrorist Screening Database bulged with 1.1 million records by 2009, covering hundreds of thousands of individuals. The database is also used to maintain the selectee list, which doesn’t stop people from boarding planes but subjects them to secondary screening.

Fletcher’s ruling points out that the Transportation Security Administration – in an effort to avoid mistakenly singling out people – keeps a list of 30,000 people who are frequently confused with those on the no-fly and selectee lists. But few meaningful options for redress are available, he wrote.

While a lower court acknowledged that Ibrahim’s inclusion on the no-fly list might be a “monumental mistake,” it argued that she was not a U.S. citizen and had “left her constitutional rights at the water’s edge” by “voluntarily” leaving the U.S. for her native Malaysia.

Dissenting 9th Circuit Judge Kevin Duffy agreed, contending that if Ibrahim were permitted to mount such a legal challenge from outside the country, it follows that others not in the United States could feasibly do the same. He also defended efforts to keep the Terrorist Screening Database as accurate as possible.

“It seems to me that, if possible, the government would prefer to drop someone from the watch lists rather than have a possible airing (through costly and public litigation) of the mistakes made,” Duffy wrote. For that reason and more, he’s not sure Ibrahim’s placement on the no-fly list was a mistake.

Due to the nature of the screening database, however, no useful evidence appears in the 9th Circuit’s ruling to determine if Ibrahim has any ties to terrorism, poorly evidenced or otherwise.

Nearly $3B in energy loans could default

Daniel J. Goldstein — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:05:26 +0000

Daniel J. Goldstein

Robert Galbraith/Reuters

A report commissioned by the Obama administration to re-examine the Department of Energy's loans to clean energy companies after the bankruptcies of the first two loan recipients, including Fremont-based Solyndra, found that close to $3 billion in loans could be at risk for default, which is in line with the department's own internal estimate.

The report [PDF], by businessman Herbert Allison and released Friday, says $2.7 billion is needed for so-called credit subsidy cost, the reserve amount that is budgeted to cover the risk of non-payment to the government. In its initial estimate, the Department of Energy's own loan program office had estimated that the cost of the credit subsidy for the loans would be about $2.9 billion.

The department's loan program, which has been a lightning rod for criticism by Republicans, got its start under the Bush administration. It was given more than $36 billion in 2009 as part of the stimulus program, which had a September 2011 deadline of getting the money to applicants. The demand for swift loan turnaround worried the Government Accountability Office, which had criticized the loan program in a July 2010 report – even before Solyndra's bankruptcy and the bankruptcy of New York-based Beacon Power Corp., another loan recipient, in October 2011.

Allison, who led brokerage firm Merrill Lynch and the insurance company TIAA-CREF, was picked by the White House on Oct. 28 to review the department's energy loan portfolio in an effort to stem growing criticism over Solyndra's bankruptcy in August.

The report notes that of the $24 billion in loans that has been awarded by the Energy Department, only $8.3 billion actually has been drawn on by the debtor companies. The report calls for the department to create a position of "chief risk officer" at the Loan Programs Office to oversee more rigorous and continuous evaluation of all existing loans.

The report also calls for the creation of an early warning system to monitor loans like Solyndra's early and to be aware of financial difficulties of the recipients sooner. Energy Secretary Steven Chu testified to Congress in November that he was unaware that Solyndra's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, issued a "going concern" warning for the company, auditor-speak for impending bankruptcy, as early as March 2010. That was two months before President Barack Obama visited Solyndra and had called it a "true engine of economic growth."

Solyndra, the first recipient of the Energy Department's loan program, got $535 million in taxpayer money in March 2009 to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for its round-tube solar arrays. The company filed for bankruptcy in August 2011, laying off nearly all 1,100 of its employees. Shortly after, the company closed its doors, the FBI raided Solyndra's headquarters and a grand jury has been convened, which could result in criminal indictments against top executives.

The White House, hoping the report would put questions over the energy loan portfolio behind it, quickly praised Allison's report.

"The report confirms that the overall loan portfolio as a whole is expected to perform well and holds less than the amount of risk envisioned by Congress when they designed and funded the program," Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, said in an e-mail to California Watch after the report was released.

Salo Zelermyer, a former Department of Energy official who worked in the agency's Loan Programs Office under President George W. Bush, said the report helps the White House by allowing administration officials to adopt many of the report’s recommendations, which include more management and monitoring of existing loans rather than approval of applications.

They now "have a good talking point to say they have 'learned lessons' from Solyndra and have taken steps to protect taxpayers," Zelermyer, now an associate at the law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani, said in a e-mail.

Zelermyer cautioned that the Allison report doesn't explain what happened in the case of Solyndra, where Republicans claim that politics played a role in the company getting a $535 million loan from the Energy Department, a charge so far unproven. Solyndra's top investor was billionaire George Kaiser, a Oklahoma-based "bundler" for the Obama campaign who had raised more than $50,000 and had visited the White House multiple times before the loan was awarded.

The Allison report did not look at the Beacon Power loan, either. Beacon, based in Stephentown, N.Y., got a $43 million loan from the Department of Energy in October 2010. Just a year later, the company filed for bankruptcy. All told, the department has exposure to $567 million in impaired loans, the Allison report said. The Allison report also states what Republicans will likely seize on – that the White House didn't give Allison full access to data about existing and ongoing programs.

That "could compromise his risk analysis," Zelermyer said.

Air pollution might harm brain, study says

Susanne Rust — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:05:26 +0000

Susanne Rust

AVTG/istockphoto.com

It’s well established that dirty, sooty air is no good for your lungs and probably not great for your skin. But new research indicates it can damage your brain, too.

A study in the journal of the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that air pollution accelerates cognitive decline in women.

And with a new federal report showing Southern Californians are at the highest risk of death due to air pollution, this study adds to the growing body of grim evidence showing air pollution and healthy bodies don’t mix.

“We keep learning about more adverse effects (from pollution) than we thought possible,” said Jean Ospital, health effects officer with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, who was not involved with the current research.

“I’m not sure I find these results surprising,” he said, “but I’m also not sure I would have expected them if you’d asked me 10 years ago.”

The new research, conducted by a team of researchers from Chicago, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia, looked at the effect of coarse particulate matter in the air on the cognitive health of older women.

“We, as a society, are on the verge of dealing with an unprecedented number of people having dementia,” said Jennifer Weuve, lead author of the study and a researcher at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center. “We know relatively little about how to prevent dementia, but we do know cognitive decline is related to dementia.”

Weuve pointed to research showing a link between air pollution and cardiovascular disease.

“It turns out that cardiovascular disease may play a role in cognitive decline," said Weuve, who is a researcher at Rush’s Institute for Healthy Aging. "So if we understand how to prevent or delay these cognitive increments, maybe we can prevent or delay dementia.”

And not just at an individual level, she said.

“What’s interesting about air pollution," Weuve said, is that “other factors that may cause dementia are generally found at the more individual level – diet, weight, smoking. And we can help to try to prevent them at that level. But in this case, we’re looking at something that we can do to intervene at a broad scale, with society at large."

"It's a whole new way to think about prevention for dementia and cognitive decline," she said.

Weuve and her team turned to one of the largest epidemiological datasets and cohorts in medical research, the Nurses' Health Study, to begin looking for links between pollution and cognitive health.

The Nurses' Health Study, which researchers began in 1976, is a dataset based on information collected over time from 121,700 female registered nurses between the ages of 30 and 55 living in 11 different states.

Between 1995 and 2001, Weuve and her colleagues invited participants of the Nurses' Health Study to participate in a study of cognition. The team was able to get data from nearly 20,000 women.

To establish pollutant exposure, the team collected air pollution exposure data from the Environmental Protection Agency, which they correlated with the location of each woman's home and place of employment. Then they called each woman six times on the phone, over six years, and tested their cognitive abilities.

They found that higher levels of long-term exposure to air pollution particles was associated with significantly faster cognitive decline.

She said more research needs to be done. For instance, is the cognitive decline they observed due to cardiovascular issues, or are pollutants having a direct effect on the brain?

She said more research also will be needed to confirm her work.

"The bottom line," said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, "is that in Southern California, we have some of the highest levels of particulate matter in the country, and we are working as quickly as possible at reducing those levels."

Bus funds restored, but some schools lose more

Joanna Lin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:05:26 +0000

Joanna Lin

Bus Stop to Nowhere–Southern Humboldt Chapter/FacebookProtesters from the Southern Humboldt Unified School District fight transportation cuts at the state Capitol in January.

California schools will no longer lose $248 million in transportation funding under legislation Gov. Jerry Brown signed Friday – a move applauded by many education officials and school districts that had decried the loss as a disproportionate burden on rural schools.

But for some, the move is bittersweet at best: Hundreds of schools now stand to lose more money than they did before the law.

Instead of targeting school bus money, SB 81 allows school districts, county offices of education and charter schools to absorb the $248 million hit – a loss of about $42 per student – anywhere in their budgets. For districts that had little or no bus funding to begin with and for charter schools, which do not receive state transportation dollars, the shift means a bigger midyear budget cut.

So while the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District in Orange County will retain its $30 per student in school bus funding, it will give up a greater amount from its general fund. Still, said Superintendent Dennis Smith, the new cut is more fair.

"If the state is in a financial bind or crisis, which it is, it should probably apply the pain equally. And although it costs us more, I think that it's fair to apply it across the board," he said.

Mary Varner, superintendent of the Rio Dell Elementary School District in Humboldt County, agreed. Her district does not have a school bus program and was therefore unaffected by the original transportation trigger cut.

"Even though we don't have transportation, I fully understand the huge impact that would have been on districts like Southern Humboldt," she said.

The Southern Humboldt Unified School District, a neighboring district to Rio Dell, would have lost nearly $650 per student in transportation dollars.

"Not having buses here would have been the end of our community as we know it," said Superintendent Jim Stewart. "If they can't get their kids to school, they would have to do home schooling or move."

The district is prepared to absorb the revised cut because prior to the transportation cut, it had planned to lose as much as $300 per student.

Many of the state's 982 charter schools had planned to lose about the same amount, said Jed Wallace, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association. But many have since enacted budgets based on a much smaller reduction – the $13.30 per student all schools lost in December's trigger cuts.

"We know our members, in the seventh month of our fiscal year, are just not positioned to take the cut without incurring significant pain," he said.

Wallace said the cut exacerbates existing funding inequities that hurt charter schools. Charter schools last year received, on average, $395, or 7 percent, less per student in general purpose funding than did school districts, a recent report [PDF] by the Legislative Analyst's Office found.

"This issue could have been addressed in such a way as to not inflict pain on charter schools," Wallace said. "At this point, it's a decision that's been made. And the challenge before us now is to look at the future budgets and see what progress we can make."

School districts agree on the need to address future budgets. Even though the restoration of school bus funding was a victory for many districts, its relief is only temporary: Brown has proposed eliminating home-to-school transportation next year.

Without continued support from the state, Southern Humboldt will dip into its budget reserve to fund just 25 percent of its current bus services.

"That's all we'd be able to afford and still have programs and schools that it's worth getting kids to," Stewart said. "I've got to believe they (state lawmakers) are going to do something for transportation."

Schools won't know whether transportation is funded for several months, until the state passes a budget. In the meantime, Southern Humboldt is celebrating the fact that it can run school buses for at least a few more months. At Wednesday's school board meeting, 14 transportation employees who received layoff notices last month will eat cake and tear up their pink slips.

Rural schools struggle as timber payments end

Caltrain plan would fast-track electric rail

Michael Cabanatuan — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:47:45 +0000

Anonymous

Lucius Kwok/FlickrCaltrain is hoping to garner funding to electrify its tracks.

SAN FRANCISCO – The overhaul of California’s high-speed rail project could bring the Bay Area $1 billion to electrify Caltrain and lay the path for bullet train service between San Francisco and San Jose sooner than anticipated.

The San Francisco Chronicle has learned that officials with Bay Area transportation agencies are in negotiations with each other, and with the rail authority, to craft an agreement that would fund installation of an advanced train-control system, electrify the rails on the Peninsula and eliminate some of the rail crossings – perhaps as soon as 2016, five to 10 years earlier than earlier estimates.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to happen, and a lot of moving parts, but this is the closest we’ve been to seeing some real, tangible benefit to Caltrain from the high-speed rail project,” said Seamus Murphy, a Caltrain spokesman.

Proposition 1A, the $9.95 billion bond measure approved in 2008 that funded the high-speed rail project, would pay for the Caltrain improvements. But the Bay Area would have to match that money with a significant amount of local funds, perhaps as much as $1 billion. According to the plan, $600 million would come from bond money for high-speed rail service with another $400 million from bond funds dedicated to transit agencies providing connections to high-speed trains.

But there are still obstacles ahead. In addition to finding matching funds and proposing a package of improvements that would benefit Caltrain and high-speed rail, the Bay Area needs to convince the California High-Speed Rail Authority board to include the proposal in its business plan, which is expected to be passed in March, then hope the Legislature will release the bond money and include it in the state budget.

Dan Richard, a former Bay Area Rapid Transit director and new chairman of the rail authority board, confirmed discussions with Caltrain and Bay Area officials and said it’s an attempt to speed the plan to use commuter rail lines to help provide initial high-speed rail service.

“If we’re going to come up the Peninsula on those lines and use that right-of-way, then this would be advancing our investment in high-speed rail,” said Richard, who was appointed to the board by Gov. Jerry Brown as part of an effort to overhaul the authority.

As part of that shakeup, the authority released a new draft of its business plan that bluntly acknowledged it could take 13 years longer than expected to build a fast train line between San Francisco and Southern California and said it could cost $98 billion, more than twice the original estimate.

The draft plan also laid out a new phased approach, with the first stretch – the so-called spine of the system, where trains would reach speeds of 220 mph – to be built starting this fall between Chowchilla and Bakersfield. The Central Valley segment would next be extended either to San Jose or the San Fernando Valley by 2021, and high-speed trains would start to run while the other end of the line is constructed by 2026. Until the commuter lines could be electrified and tracks improved to accommodate high-speed rail, passengers would have to transfer to diesel trains to get to downtown San Francisco or Los Angeles.

But the authority is working in both the Bay Area and Southern California to accelerate improvements of the commuter railroads. Southern California officials already have agreed on a list of projects – most of them eliminating or improving rail crossings or adding additional tracks – and hope to get $1.3 billion from the high-speed rail bonds.

Under the plan being assembled, construction would still start in the Central Valley, but the upgrades to Caltrain and Southern California’s Metrolink system would take place simultaneously.

Caltrain officials have longed to electrify their railroad for decades and have completed plans but lacked funding. Electrification would allow Caltrain to run lighter, faster and cleaner trains, which officials believe would boost ridership. Along with an advanced train-control system, which has been mandated by federal rail officials for commuter lines, it also would lay the infrastructure needed to carry high-speed trains up and down the Peninsula without significant construction.

Preliminary results of a Caltrain study show that an electrified railroad could accommodate two high-speed trains an hour – at 110 mph – without building additional tracks.

Caltrain would likely use part of the money to eliminate some of the Peninsula’s 43 at-grade rail crossings by taking intersecting streets over or under the tracks, but building fully separated tracks, as on the BART system, won’t be required and could take place over time.

Murphy said Caltrain will also need to replace some bridges, tracks and rail ties to handle electrified and high-speed trains, and some of those improvements could also be included in a list of projects proposed to be funded by bonds.

Missing from the proposal is an extension to the Transbay Terminal. It’s still in the plans, said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area’s regional transportation planning agency, but with a $4.2 billion price tag, it would be too costly to fund along with electrification.

“We can include a lot of things, but it can’t be everything,” he said. “We’re trying to find the things that have the most impact.”

The commission and the Bay Area Council, a business group that helped rally transportation officials to push for the accelerated Caltrain funds, are working to get agencies to assemble their list of projects and forge a funding plan that will require compromises and shifting funding from other projects. It needs to be done within weeks.

“It’s not a done deal for the Bay Area yet,” said Rufus Jefris, a spokesman for the council. “We need to come together on this.”

This story resulted from a partnership among California news organizations following the state's high-speed rail program, including The Fresno Bee, The Sacramento Bee, California Watch, The Bakersfield Californian, The Orange County Register, the San Francisco Chronicle, The (Riverside) Press-Enterprise, U-T San Diego, KQED, the Merced Sun-Star, The Tribune of San Luis Obispo and The Modesto Bee.

Southern Californians at risk of death from air pollution, EPA says

Bernice Yeung — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:05:03 +0000

Bernice Yeung

jpeepz/Flickr

Southern Californians are among those at highest risk of death due to air pollution, according to recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency research published in the journal Risk Analysis.

The study, published last month, was conducted to “provide insight to the size and location of public health risks associated with recent levels of fine particles and ozone, allowing decision-makers to better target air quality policies,” the federal agency said in a statement responding to California Watch inquiries.

“While overall levels of fine particles and ozone have declined significantly in the past two decades, these two pollutants still pose a burden to public health,” the EPA statement said.

The study examined air pollution exposure based on 2005 air quality levels and projected there could be between 130,000 and 360,000 premature deaths among adults in coming years. The 2005 data was the best available for analyzing fine particulates and ozone, the EPA said. Among vulnerable populations like children, the EPA also estimates that fine particulate matter and ozone results in millions of cases of respiratory symptoms, asthma and school absences, as well as hundreds of thousands of cases of acute bronchitis and emergency room visits.

The analysis also found that Southern Californians and residents of the industrial Midwest experience the highest exposure to fine particulate matter, which has been found to exacerbate respiratory illnesses and increase heart attacks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among the most populated areas of the country, Los Angeles had the highest estimated rate of deaths attributable to air pollution, at nearly 10 percent; San Jose had the lowest at 3.5 percent.

See a county-by-county breakdown of premature death risk caused by these air pollutants here:

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District conducted a similar risk assessment last year and found that about 1,700 premature deaths can be attributed to fine particulate matter in the Bay Area each year, which is about 3.8 percent of all deaths.

Particulate matter is made up of extremely small particles and liquid droplets that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller – which means they have a width 30 times smaller than a human hair. Common sources of fine particulate matter, often referred to as PM 2.5, are forest fires and emissions from power plants, industrial sources and cars. Unhealthy forms of ozone are created when nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) react in the presence of sunlight; ozone is typically linked to byproducts from industrial facilities and electric utilities, car exhaust, gas vapors and chemical solvents.

Local air districts in Southern California and the Bay Area have attempted to limit fine particulate matter and ozone emissions through Spare the Air days by regulating wood burning and offering financial incentives to businesses to phase out the use of diesel engines.

Public health advocates say that the EPA study illustrates the importance of improving air quality and that these types of studies on the risks of air pollution have been used to determine federal regulations and inform local clean air plans.

“One of the hardest things to explain to the public is that while the air is cleaner, we continue to find that we have underestimated the health effects of breathing in air pollution,” said Joe Lyou, president and CEO of the Coalition for Clean Air and a governing board member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “Yes, we have made significant accomplishments, but we still have a long way to go. The public needs to understand that this is a life-and-death situation.”

The EPA’s research on air pollution and mortality have, however, been the subject of political and scientific debate.

James Enstrom, a researcher with UCLA’s School of Public Health, argues that while there is a connection between air quality and health effects, the EPA study fails to acknowledge regional nuances when it comes to the real risks of premature deaths.

“The question is whether there is enough epidemiological evidence to conclude that air pollution kills people,” Enstrom said. “Every piece of evidence for the state of California as a whole shows that there’s no effect (on mortality). There’s some effect in the Los Angeles basin, but that’s not a fair representation of absolute risk.”

Enstrom, who in the past has received research funding from industries opposed to stricter air quality regulations, said the costs of these regulations are “only justified if it’s killing people.” “The other morbidities associated with (air pollution) are lung problems, hospitalizations, asthma, and those don’t amount to enough to affect the cost-benefit ratios,” he said.

In a November letter to the Office of Management and Budget, U.S. Reps. Andy Harris, R-Md., and Paul Broun, R-Ga., both physicians, also challenged the agency’s “troubling scientific and economic accounting practices” that “appear designed to provide political cover for a more stringent regulatory agenda rather than to objectively inform policy decisions.”

But Dan Farber, a UC Berkeley law professor and co-director of the university’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, said the debates over the EPA's air quality findings are ultimately political.

“There is strong industry opposition to these regulations and strong opposition from groups who are ideologically opposed to regulation in general,” Farber wrote in an e-mail. “EPA's most important role in terms of economic impact and public health relates to air pollution. So it's not surprising that this is the area where EPA is being attacked.”

Assembly drops bill that would have helped hold polluters responsible

In industry’s shadow: After years of illnesses, family looks for answers

Californians fund super PAC that hounds GOP

Will Evans — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:05:02 +0000

Will Evans

Brian Snyder/Reuters

Everywhere Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney goes, he is followed by "trackers" with video cameras, hoping to catch him making an embarrassing gaffe.

The effort, run by a super political action committee, is funded in part by wealthy Californians. American Bridge 21st Century pulled in more than $1 million from California donors last year, more than from any other state, according to campaign filings.

American Bridge is a liberal research organization in hot pursuit of what is now known as a "macaca" moment. In 2006, then-Sen. George Allen, R-Va., used the term to refer to an Indian American volunteer tracker for Allen's opponent, contributing to the failure of his re-election campaign.

American Bridge's team of about 16 video trackers follows Romney and his Republican rivals to all their events and will become increasingly active in Senate and House races this year, said spokesman Chris Harris. About 25 researchers comb public statements, business records and campaign contributions, and a communications team works to get the message out "in the political bloodstream," Harris said.

The state’s biggest donor to American Bridge, with a $200,000 contribution, was Anne Earhart, an Orange County environmentalist, philanthropist and heiress to the Getty Oil fortune. Earhart is founder of the Marisla Foundation, which funds environmental causes and gave $15,000 to the Center for Investigative Reporting for environmental reporting in 2006.

Hollywood producer and Democratic megadonor Steve Bing – known for, among other things, a paternity dispute with actress Elizabeth Hurley – gave $150,000.

Several other big donations came from the San Francisco Bay Area. Susie Buell, co-founder of Esprit clothing company and longtime friend of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave $100,000.

So did David desJardins, a former Google software engineer.

American Bridge is "dedicated to making facts matter" by holding Republicans accountable for what they say, desJardins wrote in an e-mail. He wants American Bridge to catch Romney, for example, appealing to primary voters with more conservative rhetoric than what he would say in the general election.

"I don't care if he takes one position or another, but I don't think he should have his cake and eat it too – if he wants to tell one group what he stands for, then everyone else should hear the same thing," desJardins wrote.

Paul Zygielbaum, an anti-asbestos advocate and chief operating officer of a glucose monitoring device company, also gave $100,000. Stephen Silberstein, co-founder of a library technology company and former board member of the Sierra Club Foundation, chipped in $100,000 as well.

Several of American Bridge's donors are affiliated with the Democracy Alliance, a network of top-level liberal donors that strategically coordinates giving. The group's chairman, Taco Bell heir Rob McKay, gave $50,000 to American Bridge.

American Bridge works with other super PACs, like the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action, to provide research and video clips that can then be used in attack ads.

"They can spend their resources and their time doing what they do best, and we can focus on what we do best," Harris said.

In October, American Bridge accused Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., of plagiarism after it discovered a personal message on Brown's website matched a speech by former Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Brown's office blamed a staff oversight.

When Romney called his income from speaking fees "not very much," American Bridge raced out with an online video criticizing the comment.

The super PAC also provided research for a Los Angeles Times story on tax breaks for a steel company that Romney invested in when he was with Bain Capital.

The group was formed in 2010 by conservative-turned-liberal operative David Brock, who also founded Media Matters for America.

"After we got our butts kicked in the midterms, David Brock realized something needed to be done," Harris said.

The result is "the next iteration of technology impacting politics," said Barbara O’Connor, professor emeritus and former director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at CSU Sacramento.

"It’s the marrying of the irate grassroots folks who used to dog people and try to get them to say something they'd regret later ... combined with large amounts of money and staff," she said.

But O'Connor said the incessant focus on gaffes has a big downside.

"What it produces is candidates that are a lot more careful, don’t say anything and are vanilla, because they don’t want to be caught in that trap," O'Connor said. "And that makes voters even more unhappy."