California’s “Health in All Policies” Could Revolutionize Health Care
Editor’s note: We’re happy to welcome Dan Weintraub to the Fox&Hounds Team!
Even as Republicans and Democrats fight over the future of health care reform in Washington, California is quietly laying the groundwork for what could be a revolutionary change in the way government policy keeps people from needing health care in the first place.
The effort, known as “Health in all Policies,” is roughly comparable to California’s response to the 1970s energy crisis. While others focused on drilling for more oil, mining more coal or securing alliances with foreign energy producers, California embarked on an aggressive initiative to reduce the state’s use of energy, especially electricity.
The energy efficiency focus sometimes makes California the subject of ridicule, as when it recently adopted new standards for big-screen televisions. But overall, the changes have paid off: Since 1975, electricity consumption per person in the rest of the nation has increased by 50 percent while it has remained nearly flat in California.
Movies as the Messenger
The Oscars are over. I actually went to the movies instead of watching the award show. I like movies but I’m not a fan of the celebrity-fest. But then I know I’m out of touch with this celebrity stuff. I’m still surprised that a short court hearing for actress Lindsay Lohan gets two or three times the number of TV cameras than come out to cover Governor Jerry Brown’s first visit to Southern California to discuss the budget mess, as happened a couple of weeks ago.
Movies can and do play a role in political debates.
The Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend that Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon visited with Hollywood bigwigs asking them to take up the fight against global warming. Specifically, the Secretary General wants movie and television writers and producers to educate the public on the issue by putting messages in their work or dramatizing the issue.
1.800 Sue Your Boss
Recently, the the White House and the U.S. Department of Labor announced that they were getting into the legal referral business. I guess the government does not have enough on their hands so they needed to team up with the American Bar Association (ABA) to get them some more business.
Roughly 40,000 workers contact the U.S. Department of Labor every year with complaints about their bosses. Due to budget cuts, the Department cannot answer all the calls. So instead of throwing a little more money at the Department, they decided to form a new “alliance” with the ABA.
Instead of helping businesses create jobs, the Department of Labor seems more focused on creating more lawsuits. In 2009, Kiplinger reported that the 10 largest wage and hour settlements totaled nearly $364 million. That was 44% higher than the ten largest in 2008. One lawyer who was quoted in the article as saying that these cases are easy to win and involve big payouts, especially when you are looking at “two or three years of back pay and benefits.” If only the employees knew what they are getting into.
Billions to Spend: Waste throws wrench into Los Angeles community colleges’ massive project
Cross-posted at RonKayeLA.
Poor planning, frivolous spending and shoddy work dog the sprawling system’s bond-financed construction program. Those are the headlines online on Part One of the LA Times powerful week-long investigate series by reporters Michael Finnegan and Gale Holland who examined what LA Community College District have done with the nearly $6 billion in taxpayer construction bonds.
The series is backed by interactive map, graphic on what each college got and a chart of the to 10 contractors and how much money they have donated to board members and to get the bond issues approved by voters.
With the election for four of the seven LACCD Board seats coming March 8, the series is a bombshell that ought to guide voters to cast ballots for fiscally responsible candidates like Lydia Gutierrez, Joe Essavi, Joyce Burrell, Erick Aguire and write-in candidate Mark Isler instead of the slate of candidates backed by the unions and developers.
They are Mona Field, Steven Veres, Miguel Santiago and Scott Svonkin. They must be held accountable or we are complicit in the waste, efficiency and corruption.