Redistricting Commission tries to repeal One Person, One Vote
In one of its first acts, the new Citizens Redistricting
Commission has decided to ignore the United States and California Constitutions
by in effect repealing the historical "one person one vote" rule that has been
law in America for 47 years.
They did this by telling their staff to draw districts that
will clearly violate constitutional population standards. This is so their final maps can over
represent liberal areas of California that are losing population, such as Los
Angeles and the Bay Area, and then under represent the more conservative inland
areas of California that are growing.
In his famous "one person – one vote" ruling in 1964, Chief
Justice Earl Warren said this was unconstitutional. "Legislators represent people, not trees or
acres; legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities." This is the heart of equal representation,
districts must be equally populated. No
one questioned this for 47 years until the Commission voted to ignore it last
Thursday night.
Feinstein Announces Bin Laden’s Death
Speaking to an audience gathered in Santa Monica last night to commemorate the life of late political consultant Kam Kuwata, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein concluded her praise for her long time friend with a surprise announcement. She said she had to keep a lot of secrets as the chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, but she added, she was going to share one secret. At 7:30 pm tonight, she went on, the president is going to come on television to announce Osama Bin Laden had been killed.
There were gasps from the audience, and after another sentence or two from the senator, applause. About 200 people attended the event including a number of state and local officials such as Former Governor Gray Davis and state Controller John Chiang.
Her announcement actually occurred a little after 7:30 pm by my watch, but the president would not get to make his speech for another hour or so.
Get Well Soon, Jerry Brown
One benefit of having a political system as stuck as
California’s is that Gov. Jerry Brown should be able to think of his health
first and take as much time as he needs to rest up and recover from the removal
of a cancerous growth – the very common basal cell carcinoma — on his nose.
Get well soon, governor. Though your office says you’re still working — but
not going out in public for a few days – you should feel no shame about getting
whatever rest you need. Everyone, from your
allies to Republican legislators, will be in the very same place that you left
them when you get back.
That said,
I am a little bit curious how much attention will be paid to the way the
administration handled this announcement.
A couple
Thursdays ago, on April 21, Brown made an appearance in Santa Clarita with a
small bandage on his nose. This was the first Brown event I’d been to in a
couple weeks, and I asked reporters if this was new. It was. When a Sacramento
Bee reporter asked about the bandage, Anne Gust Brown said the governor had had
something removed but it wasn’t cancerous.
Prescription Mandate Is Bad Policy For California
Today, in California, workers and families are struggling in way they have not in recent memory. With 12% unemployment – second highest in the nation – many workers cannot find jobs to pay the mortgage and cover basic expenses like food and clothes. In addition, nearly seven million Californians are uninsured meaning few families can afford the medical care they need and many do not have access to doctors outside those in hospital emergency rooms.
In light of this, legislation that requires a prescription to purchase common cold and allergy medications with pseudoephedrine (PSE) is misguided and would punish those who need care the most. Making basic medications like Claritin-D and Sudafed accessible only after seeing a doctor would unnecessarily increase costs and place burdens on those who can least afford it. A prescription mandate would force students and workers who depend on these medicines to miss days in the classroom and hours on the job exacerbating already difficult situations.
And for those without insurance, the inability to obtain routine medicines they and their family depend on would result in ailments turning to sicknesses requiring immediate care, which would place additional strains on local hospitals, many of which are reeling from recent budget cuts. During allergy season, these numbers could grow significantly and impact Californians suffering from asthma and allergies.
McDonald’s Hiring in Northern California
On April 19, McDonald’s franchises across the nation held a
National Hiring Day with the goal of hiring 50,000 workers nationwide,
including around 2000 in Northern California. Scott Rodrick is the owner of 10
McDonald’s in San Francisco. His experience on this Day sheds light on the current state of the economy in California, and on the role of
McDonald’s jobs in the state’s labor market.
Rodrick grew up in a
McDonald’s family ("I have ketchup in my blood"). His father purchased a McDonald’s franchise in Florida in
1965. Scott’s first job was in a McDonald’s. After attending Dartmouth as a
undergraduate and working for a time in finance, Scott purchased his first
McDonald’s store in 1989. At present he owns 10 of the 19 McDonald’s in San
Francisco.
Rodrick estimates that each of his McDonald’s employs an
average of 50 workers. Roughly, 35 of
these workers are full-time, 15 part-time. Each store has 5-6 management staff,
with the bulk of the line workers
cross-trained to handle kitchen duties, cash register, and maintenance.