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"content": "\u003cp>You can call your city council member because your garbage didn't get picked up, or because your basement is flooding in a storm. But don't ask for help with your parking ticket, let alone a city job. You can get the council member in big trouble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such trouble emerged on Thursday when City Auditor Courtney Ruby issued a report accusing two council members of interfering in city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From Ruby's press release:\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_46643\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 225px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2011/11/09/oakland-city-councilmembers-shouted-down-by-protesters-at-press-conference/cropoccupyprssrreid_110911/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-46643\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-46643 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2011/11/cropOccupyPrssrReid_110911-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Reporters interview City Council Member Larry Reid\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">City Council Member Larry Reid (Kelly Wilkinson/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Specifically, the audit found two Councilmembers directing staff to work with one contractor (Turner Group Construction) on the Oakland Army Base demolition and remediation contract worth approximately $2 million dollars. Other areas of interference included a Councilmember interfering in the operations of two recreation centers and threatening to have an employee removed from a project, as well as a Council Aide directing staff to fix the Aide’s parking tickets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The audit confirmed interference at the Rainbow Teen Center by a Councilmember who selected\u003cbr>\ncontractors to provide services, as well as negotiated the agreements and established the\u003cbr>\ncontract terms for the City. Additionally, the Councilmember pressured staff to get a vendor paid immediately, set project deadlines, and hired nine individuals to work at the recreation center. Further, the individuals began working at the recreation center despite their lack of drug and criminal screening – requirements mandated prior to working with children and youth.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter included with the report, Larry Reid, one of the council members in question, denies interfering in the Army Base \"or any other Development Project with in the City of Oakland.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>From my understanding, there was a contract that was awarded to a local firm that was then rescinded, and awarded to a firm that was not local nor considered to be minority owned or women owned. the concerns of many of us was to re-issue a new RFP so that all local firms could compete and that this would level the \"playing field\" for all locally owned firms. At no time did I direct staff to issue any RFP's for any one company located in Oakland, and for the record, this was a discussion that was to be considered for a new RFP process for all local firms.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>No statement from the other councilmember, Desley Brooks, was included in the report, and she could not be reached for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interfering in city contracts is a misdemeanor violation of the city charter, Ruby notes in the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here's the report:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca title=\"View Oakland City Auditor Report_130321 on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/131863460/Oakland-City-Auditor-Report-130321\">Oakland City Auditor Report_130321\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"http://www.scribd.com/embeds/131863460/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "You can call your city council member because your garbage didn't get picked up, or because your basement is flooding in a storm. But don't ask for help with your parking ticket, let alone a city job. You can get the council member in big trouble. Such trouble emerged on Thursday when City Auditor Courtney",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You can call your city council member because your garbage didn't get picked up, or because your basement is flooding in a storm. But don't ask for help with your parking ticket, let alone a city job. You can get the council member in big trouble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such trouble emerged on Thursday when City Auditor Courtney Ruby issued a report accusing two council members of interfering in city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From Ruby's press release:\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_46643\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 225px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2011/11/09/oakland-city-councilmembers-shouted-down-by-protesters-at-press-conference/cropoccupyprssrreid_110911/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-46643\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-46643 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2011/11/cropOccupyPrssrReid_110911-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Reporters interview City Council Member Larry Reid\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">City Council Member Larry Reid (Kelly Wilkinson/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Specifically, the audit found two Councilmembers directing staff to work with one contractor (Turner Group Construction) on the Oakland Army Base demolition and remediation contract worth approximately $2 million dollars. Other areas of interference included a Councilmember interfering in the operations of two recreation centers and threatening to have an employee removed from a project, as well as a Council Aide directing staff to fix the Aide’s parking tickets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The audit confirmed interference at the Rainbow Teen Center by a Councilmember who selected\u003cbr>\ncontractors to provide services, as well as negotiated the agreements and established the\u003cbr>\ncontract terms for the City. Additionally, the Councilmember pressured staff to get a vendor paid immediately, set project deadlines, and hired nine individuals to work at the recreation center. Further, the individuals began working at the recreation center despite their lack of drug and criminal screening – requirements mandated prior to working with children and youth.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter included with the report, Larry Reid, one of the council members in question, denies interfering in the Army Base \"or any other Development Project with in the City of Oakland.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>From my understanding, there was a contract that was awarded to a local firm that was then rescinded, and awarded to a firm that was not local nor considered to be minority owned or women owned. the concerns of many of us was to re-issue a new RFP so that all local firms could compete and that this would level the \"playing field\" for all locally owned firms. At no time did I direct staff to issue any RFP's for any one company located in Oakland, and for the record, this was a discussion that was to be considered for a new RFP process for all local firms.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>No statement from the other councilmember, Desley Brooks, was included in the report, and she could not be reached for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interfering in city contracts is a misdemeanor violation of the city charter, Ruby notes in the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here's the report:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca title=\"View Oakland City Auditor Report_130321 on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/131863460/Oakland-City-Auditor-Report-130321\">Oakland City Auditor Report_130321\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"http://www.scribd.com/embeds/131863460/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Stockton Is Broke - But Is It Bankrupt?",
"title": "Stockton Is Broke - But Is It Bankrupt?",
"headTitle": "News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>Stockton, California, lays claim to a lot of undesirable superlatives: it’s America’s foreclosure capital, \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mli45hdlg/11-stockton-calif/\">an annual contender on the Forbes “Most Miserable” list\u003c/a>, and the United States’ largest bankrupt city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_92020\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/?attachment_id=92020\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92020\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-92020\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/Stockton_skyline-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"Stockton built its downtown up on borrowed money\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stockton built its downtown up on borrowed money\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the city might lose that last claim, depending on the outcome of a federal court hearing scheduled to begin Monday. Stockton would still be broke if a judge rules against it. It just wouldn’t be officially bankrupt. A group of bond insurers is arguing Stockton didn’t do everything it could to balance its books before declaring for Chapter 9 protection last June. Therefore, they say, it violated state bankruptcy laws. The insurers want the city to raise taxes and cut pension payments, among other steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How the federal judge rules – and how the city pays off the hundreds of millions of dollars it owes – will provide clues for how other financially stressed municipalities across California and the country will deal with pensions and employee benefit programs they can no longer afford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How Stockton Got Here\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you visit Stockton, it isn’t always obvious you’re in America’s largest bankrupt city. The city of 300,000 boasts a gleaming riverside arena and baseball stadium. Last weekend, fans decked out in St. Patrick’s Day outfits streamed into the downtown entertainment complex to watch the Stockton Thunder hockey team take on the Bakersfield Condors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_92021\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/?attachment_id=92021\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92021\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-92021\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/stockton_library-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"Stockton closed its Fair Oaks library branch in 2010, to save money\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stockton closed its Fair Oaks library branch in 2010, to save money\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Drive a couple of miles from downtown, though, and it’s a different picture. The Fair Oaks Public Library sits abandoned and forgotten. Its doors are boarded up, its signs are whited out, and neighbors say its parking lot attracts homeless people at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city closed Fair Oaks Public Library in 2010. The closure has more in common with the downtown hockey arena than you might think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things were going pretty well for Stockton in the early 2000s. Revenue was up after a decade-long slump, and property values were exploding. Median home values jumped from around $100,000 to more than $400,000. It felt like a renaissance, so the city borrowed more than $100 million to build the arena, the adjoining baseball stadium, and a brand new waterfront.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were all excellent projects,” said City Councilwoman Kathy Miller, “but it was a huge amount of debt. “\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The borrowing – along with employee benefits that grew more generous by the year – put Stockton on the hook for a lot of money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then the bottom fell out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The recession hit and revenue plummeted,” said Miller. “We went from a high of about $205 million to, last year, around $155 million. So no matter how you slice it that is a huge reduction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton's leaders slashed and slashed, cutting $90 million from the budget between 2010 and 2012.They reduced employee pay and benefits. They shuttered the Fair Oaks Library, and cut hours at other library locations. City officials cut the police department’s staff by a quarter, and laid off more than 30 fire fighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last year, Stockton still faced a $26 million dollar deficit. So it declared bankruptcy, becoming the largest American city to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“You Expect That To Hold Water”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton’s decision attracted international attention. Al Seibel worked for Stockton for 33 years, maintaining the city's parks and golf courses. One recent morning, he searched his shelves for a DVD as he talked to a reporter about the city’s bankruptcy. He was looking for the recording of his recent interview with a French television station. Seibel has also talked to journalists from Belgium, Japan and Switzerland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The international press wants to talk to Seibel because he’s one of more than 1,000 Stockton retirees who suddenly lost their health insurance when the city declared bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1990s, Stockton started offering lifetime health care benefits to city employees as part of a bargaining strategy aimed at keeping salary increases down. But Stockton never set aside the money required to properly fund the health care program. When the recession hit, it couldn’t afford the plan, and the city council voted to eliminate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we were to properly fund the program and make it available to everyone, we need to immediately set aside 30 percent of our payroll now and into the next 30 years,” read city manager Bob Deis’ letter to Stockton retirees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city allowed retirees to stay on its plan for another year, at a much higher rate. So Seibel had two options: pay a monthly premium of more than $1,100, for health care, or go without insurance. At age 61, Seibel is still years away from receiving health coverage through Medicare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I only get $2,100 a month [in pension payments],” said Seibel, who has heart and ulcer problems. “By the time I’d pay that insurance and my mortgage I’d have nothing left. It really wasn’t a choice. It was forced on me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision left Seibel and other retirees outraged and unprepared. Mark Anderson, who worked for the Stockton police department for 22 years, said his health care plan now boils down to “hoping we’re OK.” His wife Joni recently fell down the stairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Luckily all I ended up with was some bruising,\" she said. \"If I would have required surgery or something without having medical care, it would have killed us. Financially we would have lost everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“If I had known 20 years before I retired, 'OK, I’m not going to have medical,' I would have started an account putting money away.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“When you’re given something in a written contact that you’ve worked for 33 years, you expect that to hold water,” said Seibel. “If I had known 20 years before I retired, 'OK, I’m not going to have medical,' I would have started an account putting money away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton’s city manager and mayor both turned down repeated requests for interviews. Councilwoman Kathy Miller voted to eliminate the retiree health care. She says the city didn’t have any other option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that, more than any other decision, was the toughest for the council to make,\" she said. \"That was a budget expense that was going to go from $9 million to $14 million in 12 months and just grew exponentially.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>A Court Challenge\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton justified eliminating retirees’ health care by saying it was the only way to protect pension payments, which weren't cut. But the insurance companies that are holding the bag on the hundreds of millions of dollars that Stockton owes in bond payments are now challenging the city’s decision to keep pensions intact. In a federal court filing, the insurers claim that before the city filed for Chapter 9 protection, it should have cut pension payments and raised taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their argument boils down to this: the state’s public employee retirement system, CalPERS, is Stockton’s largest creditor. By refusing to negotiate reduced payments into the retirement system, Stockton is negotiating in bad faith with its other creditors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What the bond insurers want to say is you can't do anything to us unless you're making cuts everywhere you can,” explained University of Pennsylvania Law School professor David Skeel, a bankruptcy expert. “And the elephant in the room is Stockton's pensions, which they have suggested they're not going to cut.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>Stockton pays into three CalPERS-administered pension plans. These obligations totaled a bit less than $24 million in 2011, \u003ca href=\"http://www.stocktongov.com/files/2011_CAFR.pdf\">the last year a full financial report is available for the city\u003c/a>. Stockton and CalPERS’ legal response to the creditors’ argument: CalPERS acts as a trustee, not a creditor, and the city has a legal obligation dictated by “a well-developed, substantial body of state law” to continue its payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bond insurers are using the dispute to challenge Stockton’s eligibility for bankruptcy. Skeel doesn’t expect the argument to prevail at next week’s hearing, but thinks the insurers may be able to force the city to cut pension payments during later negotiations. Skeel said the insurers are pressing the issue hard, because they're worried about the growing number of cities going broke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you're a bond insurer,\" said Skeel, \"you say, ‘Oh my, I didn't think this could happen. It's happening in a significantly-sized city -- Stockton; it could happen almost everywhere.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if a federal judge ultimately rules cities can scale back pension benefits for retirees – a move legally prohibited for decades – other financially troubled cities may take similar steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skeel said local governments across the country should “take note as carefully as they can” while Stockton sorts through the major issues at the heart of its problems, and looks for solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When is it OK to go back on promises that you made to these employees?\" mused Skeel. \"What limitations ought there be on that? Who should be held responsible and how widely should the sacrifice be shared? These are big questions, I think.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Stockton continues to negotiate with its numerous creditors.\u003ca href=\"http://www.stocktongov.com/files/News_2013_2_26_CityAmbacAgreement.pdf\"> It agreed on a $22 million repayment plan with a bond insurer last month\u003c/a>, and people involved in talks say an agreement on a more limited retiree health care plan isn’t out of the realm of possibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day nobody’s going to be happy,” said former City Manager Dwane Milnes, who has represented retirees in negotiations. “You just hope they’re all equally unhappy. I think that really is the best outcome.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Stockton, California, lays claim to a lot of undesirable superlatives: it’s America’s foreclosure capital, \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mli45hdlg/11-stockton-calif/\">an annual contender on the Forbes “Most Miserable” list\u003c/a>, and the United States’ largest bankrupt city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_92020\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/?attachment_id=92020\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92020\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-92020\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/Stockton_skyline-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"Stockton built its downtown up on borrowed money\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stockton built its downtown up on borrowed money\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the city might lose that last claim, depending on the outcome of a federal court hearing scheduled to begin Monday. Stockton would still be broke if a judge rules against it. It just wouldn’t be officially bankrupt. A group of bond insurers is arguing Stockton didn’t do everything it could to balance its books before declaring for Chapter 9 protection last June. Therefore, they say, it violated state bankruptcy laws. The insurers want the city to raise taxes and cut pension payments, among other steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How the federal judge rules – and how the city pays off the hundreds of millions of dollars it owes – will provide clues for how other financially stressed municipalities across California and the country will deal with pensions and employee benefit programs they can no longer afford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How Stockton Got Here\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you visit Stockton, it isn’t always obvious you’re in America’s largest bankrupt city. The city of 300,000 boasts a gleaming riverside arena and baseball stadium. Last weekend, fans decked out in St. Patrick’s Day outfits streamed into the downtown entertainment complex to watch the Stockton Thunder hockey team take on the Bakersfield Condors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_92021\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/?attachment_id=92021\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92021\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-92021\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/stockton_library-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"Stockton closed its Fair Oaks library branch in 2010, to save money\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stockton closed its Fair Oaks library branch in 2010, to save money\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Drive a couple of miles from downtown, though, and it’s a different picture. The Fair Oaks Public Library sits abandoned and forgotten. Its doors are boarded up, its signs are whited out, and neighbors say its parking lot attracts homeless people at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city closed Fair Oaks Public Library in 2010. The closure has more in common with the downtown hockey arena than you might think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things were going pretty well for Stockton in the early 2000s. Revenue was up after a decade-long slump, and property values were exploding. Median home values jumped from around $100,000 to more than $400,000. It felt like a renaissance, so the city borrowed more than $100 million to build the arena, the adjoining baseball stadium, and a brand new waterfront.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were all excellent projects,” said City Councilwoman Kathy Miller, “but it was a huge amount of debt. “\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The borrowing – along with employee benefits that grew more generous by the year – put Stockton on the hook for a lot of money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then the bottom fell out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The recession hit and revenue plummeted,” said Miller. “We went from a high of about $205 million to, last year, around $155 million. So no matter how you slice it that is a huge reduction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton's leaders slashed and slashed, cutting $90 million from the budget between 2010 and 2012.They reduced employee pay and benefits. They shuttered the Fair Oaks Library, and cut hours at other library locations. City officials cut the police department’s staff by a quarter, and laid off more than 30 fire fighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last year, Stockton still faced a $26 million dollar deficit. So it declared bankruptcy, becoming the largest American city to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“You Expect That To Hold Water”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton’s decision attracted international attention. Al Seibel worked for Stockton for 33 years, maintaining the city's parks and golf courses. One recent morning, he searched his shelves for a DVD as he talked to a reporter about the city’s bankruptcy. He was looking for the recording of his recent interview with a French television station. Seibel has also talked to journalists from Belgium, Japan and Switzerland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The international press wants to talk to Seibel because he’s one of more than 1,000 Stockton retirees who suddenly lost their health insurance when the city declared bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1990s, Stockton started offering lifetime health care benefits to city employees as part of a bargaining strategy aimed at keeping salary increases down. But Stockton never set aside the money required to properly fund the health care program. When the recession hit, it couldn’t afford the plan, and the city council voted to eliminate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we were to properly fund the program and make it available to everyone, we need to immediately set aside 30 percent of our payroll now and into the next 30 years,” read city manager Bob Deis’ letter to Stockton retirees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city allowed retirees to stay on its plan for another year, at a much higher rate. So Seibel had two options: pay a monthly premium of more than $1,100, for health care, or go without insurance. At age 61, Seibel is still years away from receiving health coverage through Medicare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I only get $2,100 a month [in pension payments],” said Seibel, who has heart and ulcer problems. “By the time I’d pay that insurance and my mortgage I’d have nothing left. It really wasn’t a choice. It was forced on me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision left Seibel and other retirees outraged and unprepared. Mark Anderson, who worked for the Stockton police department for 22 years, said his health care plan now boils down to “hoping we’re OK.” His wife Joni recently fell down the stairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Luckily all I ended up with was some bruising,\" she said. \"If I would have required surgery or something without having medical care, it would have killed us. Financially we would have lost everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“If I had known 20 years before I retired, 'OK, I’m not going to have medical,' I would have started an account putting money away.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“When you’re given something in a written contact that you’ve worked for 33 years, you expect that to hold water,” said Seibel. “If I had known 20 years before I retired, 'OK, I’m not going to have medical,' I would have started an account putting money away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton’s city manager and mayor both turned down repeated requests for interviews. Councilwoman Kathy Miller voted to eliminate the retiree health care. She says the city didn’t have any other option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that, more than any other decision, was the toughest for the council to make,\" she said. \"That was a budget expense that was going to go from $9 million to $14 million in 12 months and just grew exponentially.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>A Court Challenge\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton justified eliminating retirees’ health care by saying it was the only way to protect pension payments, which weren't cut. But the insurance companies that are holding the bag on the hundreds of millions of dollars that Stockton owes in bond payments are now challenging the city’s decision to keep pensions intact. In a federal court filing, the insurers claim that before the city filed for Chapter 9 protection, it should have cut pension payments and raised taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their argument boils down to this: the state’s public employee retirement system, CalPERS, is Stockton’s largest creditor. By refusing to negotiate reduced payments into the retirement system, Stockton is negotiating in bad faith with its other creditors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What the bond insurers want to say is you can't do anything to us unless you're making cuts everywhere you can,” explained University of Pennsylvania Law School professor David Skeel, a bankruptcy expert. “And the elephant in the room is Stockton's pensions, which they have suggested they're not going to cut.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>Stockton pays into three CalPERS-administered pension plans. These obligations totaled a bit less than $24 million in 2011, \u003ca href=\"http://www.stocktongov.com/files/2011_CAFR.pdf\">the last year a full financial report is available for the city\u003c/a>. Stockton and CalPERS’ legal response to the creditors’ argument: CalPERS acts as a trustee, not a creditor, and the city has a legal obligation dictated by “a well-developed, substantial body of state law” to continue its payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bond insurers are using the dispute to challenge Stockton’s eligibility for bankruptcy. Skeel doesn’t expect the argument to prevail at next week’s hearing, but thinks the insurers may be able to force the city to cut pension payments during later negotiations. Skeel said the insurers are pressing the issue hard, because they're worried about the growing number of cities going broke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you're a bond insurer,\" said Skeel, \"you say, ‘Oh my, I didn't think this could happen. It's happening in a significantly-sized city -- Stockton; it could happen almost everywhere.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if a federal judge ultimately rules cities can scale back pension benefits for retirees – a move legally prohibited for decades – other financially troubled cities may take similar steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skeel said local governments across the country should “take note as carefully as they can” while Stockton sorts through the major issues at the heart of its problems, and looks for solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When is it OK to go back on promises that you made to these employees?\" mused Skeel. \"What limitations ought there be on that? Who should be held responsible and how widely should the sacrifice be shared? These are big questions, I think.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Stockton continues to negotiate with its numerous creditors.\u003ca href=\"http://www.stocktongov.com/files/News_2013_2_26_CityAmbacAgreement.pdf\"> It agreed on a $22 million repayment plan with a bond insurer last month\u003c/a>, and people involved in talks say an agreement on a more limited retiree health care plan isn’t out of the realm of possibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day nobody’s going to be happy,” said former City Manager Dwane Milnes, who has represented retirees in negotiations. “You just hope they’re all equally unhappy. I think that really is the best outcome.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Prop. 8: How We Got Here (Video)",
"title": "Prop. 8: How We Got Here (Video)",
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"content": "\u003cp>You might say the long journey of Proposition 8 began May 15, 2008, when a ruling came down from the California Supreme Court declaring that gay and lesbian couples had a legal right to get married.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_92119\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/22/proposition-8-how-we-got-here/gay-marriages-begin-in-bay-area/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92119\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-92119 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/RS2614_81594706-300x203.jpg\" alt=\" San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom (R) marries same-sex couple Del Martin (R) and Phyllis Lyon (L) during a private ceremony at San Francisco City Hall June 16, 2008. (Marcio Jose Sanchez-Pool/Getty Images)\" width=\"300\" height=\"203\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom (R) marries same-sex couple Del Martin (R) and Phyllis Lyon (L) during a private ceremony at San Francisco City Hall June 16, 2008. (Marcio Jose Sanchez-Pool/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mayor Gavin Newsom celebrated at City Hall with a crowd of thrilled San Franciscans, “This door’s wide open now. It’s gonna happen whether you like it or not. This is the future, and it’s now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a historic ruling, but not a done deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling infuriated supporters of traditional marriage, including Randy Thomasson, with \u003ca href=\"http://protectmarriage.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Protect Marriage\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It will spur Californians to go to the polls to override the judges and protect marriage licenses for one man and one woman in the California constitution,” Thomasson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two weeks later Protect Marriage had submitted more than a million signatures for a ballot measure, Proposition 8, to do just that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Race to the Polls\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the months leading up to the November election, same-sex couples rushed to get marriage licenses. Tens of thousands of gay and lesbian couples were legally married in California before Prop. 8 hit the polls in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time Proposition 8 proponents organized and \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R810070850/b\" target=\"_blank\">fundraised\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_92120\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/22/proposition-8-how-we-got-here/anti-gay-marriage-ballot-initiative-sparks-activism-on-both-sides/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92120\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-92120 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/RS3698_83424955-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Supporters of Proposition 8 rally during a 'Yes on 8 bus tour' stop at St. Frances X Cabrini Church on October 24, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. ( David McNew/Getty Images)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supporters of Proposition 8 rally during a 'Yes on 8 bus tour' stop at St. Frances X Cabrini Church on October 24, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. ( David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Less than a month before Election Day, the Calvary Christian Center sponsored an event that got thousands of people on the lawn of the State Capitol in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not about a civil rights issue,” said Reverend Philip Goudeaux to the crowd. “It’s a moral issue. It’s about right and wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proponents of Prop. 8 spent more than $80 million dollars and aired campaigns targeted at scaring parents on the consequences for their children if Prop. 8 failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On election night, opponents of gay marriage claimed a narrow victory, 52 to 48 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Into the Federal Courts\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the fight didn't end there. Same-sex marriage supporters immediately asked the California Supreme Court to overturn Prop. 8. But, in 2009, the court upheld the measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling was the end of the road in state court, but it marked the beginning of a new journey through federal court. A male couple from Los Angeles and two lesbians from Berkeley filed a lawsuit against the measure in federal district court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not asking to be tolerated or accepted. What we’re asking for is a basic civil right,” said Paul Katami, one of the plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two high profile attorneys led the legal team for their case. Theodore Olson, a conservative stalwart, jointed the tean saying: “The case we filed is not about liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. This case is about the equal rights guaranteed to every American under the United States Constitution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The battle continued in August of 2010, following a two-week trial in San Francisco, federal Judge Vaughn Walker issues a sweeping decision declaring Prop. 8 unconstitutional. He wrote that preventing gay and lesbian marriages violated equal protection under the law guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case then went to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where opponents asked for Judge Walker’s decision to be overturned. That didn’t happen. A three-judge panel \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/02/07/prop-8-appeals-court-decision/\" target=\"_blank\">voted 2-1 to uphold it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Heading to the Supreme Court\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to Tuesday, when the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/02/28/california-poll-finds-widespread-support-for-same-sex-marriage/\" target=\"_blank\">recent poll\u003c/a> shows that California voters feel differently now than they did in 2008, by a wide margin, most say that they support same sex marriage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People on both sides of this historic case will be paying close attention on Tuesday, for a chance to witness history. The justices will issue their decision later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Video\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch the clip from KQED's \"\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/thisweek/watch/archive/266864/a\">This Week in Northern California\u003c/a>\" explaining how we got here.\u003cbr>\n[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scZUPDsj8Oc]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "You might say the long journey of Proposition 8 began May 15, 2008, when a ruling came down from the California Supreme Court declaring that gay and lesbian couples had a legal right to get married.\r\n\r\n\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/?attachment_id=92119\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92119\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-92119 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/files/2013/03/RS2614_81594706-300x203.jpg\" alt=\" San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom (R) marries same-sex couple Del Martin (R) and Phyllis Lyon (L) during a private ceremony at San Francisco City Hall June 16, 2008. (Marcio Jose Sanchez-Pool/Getty Images)\" width=\"300\" height=\"203\" style=\"padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px\" align=\"left\" />\u003c/a> \r\n\r\nMayor Gavin Newsom celebrated at City Hall with a crowd of thrilled San Franciscans, “This door’s wide open now. It’s gonna happen whether you like it or not. This is the future, and it’s now.”\r\n\r\nIt was a historic ruling, but not a done deal.\r\n\r\nThe ruling infuriated supporters of traditional marriage, including Randy Thomasson, with \u003ca href=\"http://protectmarriage.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Protect Marriage\u003c/a>.\r\n\r\n“It will spur Californians to go to the polls to override the judges and protect marriage licenses for one man and one woman in the California constitution,” Thomasson said.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You might say the long journey of Proposition 8 began May 15, 2008, when a ruling came down from the California Supreme Court declaring that gay and lesbian couples had a legal right to get married.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_92119\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/22/proposition-8-how-we-got-here/gay-marriages-begin-in-bay-area/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92119\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-92119 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/RS2614_81594706-300x203.jpg\" alt=\" San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom (R) marries same-sex couple Del Martin (R) and Phyllis Lyon (L) during a private ceremony at San Francisco City Hall June 16, 2008. (Marcio Jose Sanchez-Pool/Getty Images)\" width=\"300\" height=\"203\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom (R) marries same-sex couple Del Martin (R) and Phyllis Lyon (L) during a private ceremony at San Francisco City Hall June 16, 2008. (Marcio Jose Sanchez-Pool/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mayor Gavin Newsom celebrated at City Hall with a crowd of thrilled San Franciscans, “This door’s wide open now. It’s gonna happen whether you like it or not. This is the future, and it’s now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a historic ruling, but not a done deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling infuriated supporters of traditional marriage, including Randy Thomasson, with \u003ca href=\"http://protectmarriage.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Protect Marriage\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It will spur Californians to go to the polls to override the judges and protect marriage licenses for one man and one woman in the California constitution,” Thomasson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two weeks later Protect Marriage had submitted more than a million signatures for a ballot measure, Proposition 8, to do just that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Race to the Polls\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the months leading up to the November election, same-sex couples rushed to get marriage licenses. Tens of thousands of gay and lesbian couples were legally married in California before Prop. 8 hit the polls in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time Proposition 8 proponents organized and \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R810070850/b\" target=\"_blank\">fundraised\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_92120\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/22/proposition-8-how-we-got-here/anti-gay-marriage-ballot-initiative-sparks-activism-on-both-sides/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92120\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-92120 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/RS3698_83424955-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Supporters of Proposition 8 rally during a 'Yes on 8 bus tour' stop at St. Frances X Cabrini Church on October 24, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. ( David McNew/Getty Images)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supporters of Proposition 8 rally during a 'Yes on 8 bus tour' stop at St. Frances X Cabrini Church on October 24, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. ( David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Less than a month before Election Day, the Calvary Christian Center sponsored an event that got thousands of people on the lawn of the State Capitol in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not about a civil rights issue,” said Reverend Philip Goudeaux to the crowd. “It’s a moral issue. It’s about right and wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proponents of Prop. 8 spent more than $80 million dollars and aired campaigns targeted at scaring parents on the consequences for their children if Prop. 8 failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On election night, opponents of gay marriage claimed a narrow victory, 52 to 48 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Into the Federal Courts\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the fight didn't end there. Same-sex marriage supporters immediately asked the California Supreme Court to overturn Prop. 8. But, in 2009, the court upheld the measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling was the end of the road in state court, but it marked the beginning of a new journey through federal court. A male couple from Los Angeles and two lesbians from Berkeley filed a lawsuit against the measure in federal district court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not asking to be tolerated or accepted. What we’re asking for is a basic civil right,” said Paul Katami, one of the plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two high profile attorneys led the legal team for their case. Theodore Olson, a conservative stalwart, jointed the tean saying: “The case we filed is not about liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. This case is about the equal rights guaranteed to every American under the United States Constitution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The battle continued in August of 2010, following a two-week trial in San Francisco, federal Judge Vaughn Walker issues a sweeping decision declaring Prop. 8 unconstitutional. He wrote that preventing gay and lesbian marriages violated equal protection under the law guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case then went to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where opponents asked for Judge Walker’s decision to be overturned. That didn’t happen. A three-judge panel \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/02/07/prop-8-appeals-court-decision/\" target=\"_blank\">voted 2-1 to uphold it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Heading to the Supreme Court\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to Tuesday, when the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/02/28/california-poll-finds-widespread-support-for-same-sex-marriage/\" target=\"_blank\">recent poll\u003c/a> shows that California voters feel differently now than they did in 2008, by a wide margin, most say that they support same sex marriage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People on both sides of this historic case will be paying close attention on Tuesday, for a chance to witness history. The justices will issue their decision later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Video\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch the clip from KQED's \"\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/thisweek/watch/archive/266864/a\">This Week in Northern California\u003c/a>\" explaining how we got here.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/scZUPDsj8Oc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/scZUPDsj8Oc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Tech Companies' Push to Expand Skilled Worker Visas Rankles Critics",
"title": "Tech Companies' Push to Expand Skilled Worker Visas Rankles Critics",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>by Sam Harnett\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Technology companies in California say they can't find enough U.S. programmers to fill jobs. So they're pushing hard for I-Squared, the Immigration Innovation Act, in the U.S. Senate that could more than triple the number of visas for high-skilled foreign workers from 85,000 a year to as many as 300,000. But some in the industry fear expanding the visa program would allow companies to replace more American workers with foreigners like Kriti Bajaj.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_92135\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/22/tech-companies-push-to-expand-skilled-worker-visas-rankles-critics/harnett-h-1b-reform-photo/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92135\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-92135\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/Harnett-H-1B-Reform-photo-300x225.jpeg\" alt=\"Kriti Bajaj hopes to get hired on an H-1B visa after attending App Academy, an intensive coding course. (Sam Harnett/KQED)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kriti Bajaj hopes to get hired on an H-1B visa after attending App Academy, an intensive coding course. (Sam Harnett/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bajaj graduated from Stanford University with a degree in biology. Originally from India, she decided to head home after finishing school and pursue a PhD. But Bajaj soon realized she'd made a big mistake. Academia just wasn't for her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were too many unknowns,” she said, “Nothing was working. I was in this dark little cell in the middle of nowhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajaj decided to return to the Bay Area and try to restart her life as a computer programmer. She came back on a tourist visa, which meant that she had just 90 days to learn how to program and get hired as a web developer. That led her to App Academy -- one of many new, intensive coding camps that teaches web development from scratch. The course is nine-weeks long, just right for Bajaj.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajaj hopes the skills she’s learning at App Academy will help her get hired on an H-1B, the visa for skilled foreign workers. But she’s fighting the clock: the visas start getting allotted on April 1st and they can run out fast. If Bajaj doesn’t get a job offer before then she’ll have to return to India and wait another year to apply. Some say that if she does succeed in getting an H-1B, she'll be robbing a job from an American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If she's being hired for an H-1B visa based on nine weeks of programming work – Are you kidding me? – then it's an abuse of the visa,” said Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->Matloff claims companies use H-1B visas to replace older U.S. programmers with younger, cheaper foreigners like Bajaj.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The abuse is widespread across the board,” he said. “Everybody from the mainstream, household-name firms are abusing the program…. The central issue is wage and mobility.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matloff argues that since employers sponsor workers for H-1Bs, it’s tricky for foreigners to negotiate higher salaries or switch jobs. They effectively get handcuffed to their employer at lower wages. That's why businesses want more H-1Bs, Matloff says. But tech companies have a different story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lobbying firm TechNet got 100 technology companies to sign a letter to President Obama and Congress, urging them to expand the H-1B program. Dan Turrentine, a vice president at TechNet, says the companies’ main complaint is that they can't find enough American employees to fill their job openings. The cap of 85,000 H-1Bs a year hasn't kept up with the demand for skilled tech workers. “That cap was set back in the ‘90s,” said Turrentine, “when the economy was much less dependent on technology.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies like Facebook, Google, and Hewlett-Packard all signed the letter. But the truth is, most H-1B holders aren’t found at these companies. And they aren’t at start-ups either.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003cstrong>More on immigration in California\u003c/strong>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/04/05/on-immigration-high-tech-and-ag-dont-meet-literally/\">On Immigration, High Tech and Ag Don't Meet, Literally\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/21/is-silicon-valley-losing-its-foreign-talent/\">Why Silicon Valley Is Losing Foreign-Born Talent\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Nearly half work at places like Infosys and Wipro – the multi-national information technology workhorses that churn out the unglamorous connective tissue of all modern business: boilerplate coding, user support and network maintenance. These businesses place workers in their U.S. offices on H-1Bs to improve the interface between their American client companies and their vast workforces in India.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics say the H-1B program has thus become a vehicle for global I.T. firms to outsource tech work that used to be done in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frustration with the program doesn't just come from professors like Matloff, or from older, out-of-work American programmers. It can also be heard from H-1B holders themselves, including Ardit Bajraktari. The 32-year-old from Albania says participating in the visa program feels like indentured servitude.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajraktari is a mobile developer who has worked in Silicon Valley for a decade. He's been programming phones since the early 2000s, years before the first iPhone hit the market. Like many programmers in the Bay Area, Bajraktari has hopped around, working at places like MobiTV, Yammer and Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you want to keep your skill set up to date,” he said, “you have to move companies.”\u003cbr>\nBut every time Bajraktari switches jobs, he loses his H-1B visa sponsorship and risks deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's like you have a sword on your neck,” he said. “You have to find a job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajraktari came to the United States at 17 and graduated from Radford University in Virginia. Ever since he started working, a decade ago, Bajraktari has been trying to get a green card, the document granting legal permanent residence. Without it, he said, he will always feel the threat of that sword—deportation. With each new job, though, he must persuade the employer to petition for a green card for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajraktari said his worst green card experience was at Amazon. He says the company promised him a visa during the job negotiations, which motivated him to take the position. Then, he says, it took nearly two years to start moving on the paperwork. It reminded Bajraktari of being in Albania under communism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To make things move forward you have to threaten your company that you’re not going to work anymore,” he said. “It becomes a weird, weird situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The I-Squared bill now in the Senate has some provisions to address the challenges of H-1B job mobility. It would give employees a 60-day grace period between positions. But employers would still control the green card process. If the government really wants to stop companies from abusing H-1B visas Bajraktari says, it should give workers some control over their green card applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Senate continues to debate what to do with the H-1B visa, and the proposals in the I-Squared bill are also being considered by a bi-partisan group of senators preparing comprehensive immigration legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the bi-partisan group, has been urging reforms to address the outsourcing issue and compel companies to search first for American workers. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has been pushing to ensure that H-1B employees are paid competitive wages. The two have worked together in the past to try and reform the H-1B program. Whether the final agreement this time will contain these provisions remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the deliberations proceed in Washington, Bajraktari keeps chasing a green card. He says he'd like to found his own company – the Silicon Valley start-up dream. But that's nearly impossible on an H-1B. Another proposal in the Senate would offer start-up visas and green cards to entrepreneurs. If enacted, that could work for Bajraktari. In the meantime, he's still depending on an employer to sponsor him for permanent residency. Only then would he have the same job freedoms as his U.S. colleagues.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>by Sam Harnett\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Technology companies in California say they can't find enough U.S. programmers to fill jobs. So they're pushing hard for I-Squared, the Immigration Innovation Act, in the U.S. Senate that could more than triple the number of visas for high-skilled foreign workers from 85,000 a year to as many as 300,000. But some in the industry fear expanding the visa program would allow companies to replace more American workers with foreigners like Kriti Bajaj.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_92135\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/22/tech-companies-push-to-expand-skilled-worker-visas-rankles-critics/harnett-h-1b-reform-photo/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92135\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-92135\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/Harnett-H-1B-Reform-photo-300x225.jpeg\" alt=\"Kriti Bajaj hopes to get hired on an H-1B visa after attending App Academy, an intensive coding course. (Sam Harnett/KQED)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kriti Bajaj hopes to get hired on an H-1B visa after attending App Academy, an intensive coding course. (Sam Harnett/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bajaj graduated from Stanford University with a degree in biology. Originally from India, she decided to head home after finishing school and pursue a PhD. But Bajaj soon realized she'd made a big mistake. Academia just wasn't for her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were too many unknowns,” she said, “Nothing was working. I was in this dark little cell in the middle of nowhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajaj decided to return to the Bay Area and try to restart her life as a computer programmer. She came back on a tourist visa, which meant that she had just 90 days to learn how to program and get hired as a web developer. That led her to App Academy -- one of many new, intensive coding camps that teaches web development from scratch. The course is nine-weeks long, just right for Bajaj.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajaj hopes the skills she’s learning at App Academy will help her get hired on an H-1B, the visa for skilled foreign workers. But she’s fighting the clock: the visas start getting allotted on April 1st and they can run out fast. If Bajaj doesn’t get a job offer before then she’ll have to return to India and wait another year to apply. Some say that if she does succeed in getting an H-1B, she'll be robbing a job from an American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If she's being hired for an H-1B visa based on nine weeks of programming work – Are you kidding me? – then it's an abuse of the visa,” said Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->Matloff claims companies use H-1B visas to replace older U.S. programmers with younger, cheaper foreigners like Bajaj.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The abuse is widespread across the board,” he said. “Everybody from the mainstream, household-name firms are abusing the program…. The central issue is wage and mobility.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matloff argues that since employers sponsor workers for H-1Bs, it’s tricky for foreigners to negotiate higher salaries or switch jobs. They effectively get handcuffed to their employer at lower wages. That's why businesses want more H-1Bs, Matloff says. But tech companies have a different story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lobbying firm TechNet got 100 technology companies to sign a letter to President Obama and Congress, urging them to expand the H-1B program. Dan Turrentine, a vice president at TechNet, says the companies’ main complaint is that they can't find enough American employees to fill their job openings. The cap of 85,000 H-1Bs a year hasn't kept up with the demand for skilled tech workers. “That cap was set back in the ‘90s,” said Turrentine, “when the economy was much less dependent on technology.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies like Facebook, Google, and Hewlett-Packard all signed the letter. But the truth is, most H-1B holders aren’t found at these companies. And they aren’t at start-ups either.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003cstrong>More on immigration in California\u003c/strong>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/04/05/on-immigration-high-tech-and-ag-dont-meet-literally/\">On Immigration, High Tech and Ag Don't Meet, Literally\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/21/is-silicon-valley-losing-its-foreign-talent/\">Why Silicon Valley Is Losing Foreign-Born Talent\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Nearly half work at places like Infosys and Wipro – the multi-national information technology workhorses that churn out the unglamorous connective tissue of all modern business: boilerplate coding, user support and network maintenance. These businesses place workers in their U.S. offices on H-1Bs to improve the interface between their American client companies and their vast workforces in India.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics say the H-1B program has thus become a vehicle for global I.T. firms to outsource tech work that used to be done in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frustration with the program doesn't just come from professors like Matloff, or from older, out-of-work American programmers. It can also be heard from H-1B holders themselves, including Ardit Bajraktari. The 32-year-old from Albania says participating in the visa program feels like indentured servitude.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajraktari is a mobile developer who has worked in Silicon Valley for a decade. He's been programming phones since the early 2000s, years before the first iPhone hit the market. Like many programmers in the Bay Area, Bajraktari has hopped around, working at places like MobiTV, Yammer and Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you want to keep your skill set up to date,” he said, “you have to move companies.”\u003cbr>\nBut every time Bajraktari switches jobs, he loses his H-1B visa sponsorship and risks deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's like you have a sword on your neck,” he said. “You have to find a job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajraktari came to the United States at 17 and graduated from Radford University in Virginia. Ever since he started working, a decade ago, Bajraktari has been trying to get a green card, the document granting legal permanent residence. Without it, he said, he will always feel the threat of that sword—deportation. With each new job, though, he must persuade the employer to petition for a green card for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bajraktari said his worst green card experience was at Amazon. He says the company promised him a visa during the job negotiations, which motivated him to take the position. Then, he says, it took nearly two years to start moving on the paperwork. It reminded Bajraktari of being in Albania under communism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To make things move forward you have to threaten your company that you’re not going to work anymore,” he said. “It becomes a weird, weird situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The I-Squared bill now in the Senate has some provisions to address the challenges of H-1B job mobility. It would give employees a 60-day grace period between positions. But employers would still control the green card process. If the government really wants to stop companies from abusing H-1B visas Bajraktari says, it should give workers some control over their green card applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Senate continues to debate what to do with the H-1B visa, and the proposals in the I-Squared bill are also being considered by a bi-partisan group of senators preparing comprehensive immigration legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the bi-partisan group, has been urging reforms to address the outsourcing issue and compel companies to search first for American workers. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has been pushing to ensure that H-1B employees are paid competitive wages. The two have worked together in the past to try and reform the H-1B program. Whether the final agreement this time will contain these provisions remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A federal grand jury has indicted a former official of California's largest state employee retirement fund, the Department of Justice has announced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here's the press release:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>A federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted Alfred J. Villalobos, of Reno, Nevada, and Federico R. Buenrostro, Jr., aka Fred Buenrostro, of Sacramento, California, on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, engaging in a false scheme against the United States, and conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced. Mr. Buenrostro was also charged in the same indictment with making a false statement to the United States and obstruction of justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/08/31/how-californias-new-pension-legislation-affects-you/calpers/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-74988\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-74988\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/08/CalPERS-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"CalPERS\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>According to the indictment, Mr. Villalobos, age 69, and Mr. Buenrostro, age 64, conspired to create and transmit fraudulent documents in connection with a $3 billion investment by the California Public Employee Retirement System (“CalPERS”) into funds managed by Apollo Global Management (“Apollo”), a private equity firm based in New York City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARVCO Capital Research LLC (“ARVCO”), a financial services firm founded and managed by Mr. Villalobos, acted as a placement agent in helping Apollo to secure these investments by CalPERS. In each instance, Apollo required ARVCO to obtain an Investor Disclosure letter from CalPERS prior to paying ARVCO any fees for its efforts in securing CalPERS’ investments into Apollo-managed funds, citing, among other reasons, Apollo’s obligations under the securities laws.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After CalPERS’ legal and investment offices declined to sign a certain Investor Disclosure letter documenting ARVCO’s legal relationship with Apollo, Mr. Villalobos and Mr. Buenrostro conspired to create a series of fraudulent Investor Disclosure letters that were transmitted to Apollo. Apollo paid ARVCO a total of approximately $14 million dollars in fees after receiving the fraudulent letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARVCO transmitted the last fraudulent Investor Disclosure letter in June 2008, a few weeks before Mr. Buenrostro retired from CalPERS. On July 1, 2008, Mr. Villalobos hired Mr. Buenrostro to work for ARVCO. When civil and later criminal investigations were opened into the operations of ARVCO and its role as a placement agent in connection with CalPERS’ investments in Apollo-managed funds, both defendants made false statements to, and concealed information from, the SEC, the USPIS, and the FBI, about the authenticity of the Investor Disclosure letters in order to defeat and obstruct the lawful functions of those agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mr. Villalobos and Mr. Buenrostro made their initial appearance in federal court in San Francisco on March 18, 2013, and are currently out on bond. Mr. Buenrostro’s next scheduled appearance is Monday, March 25, 2013, at 9:30 a.m., for identification of counsel and review of the terms of his bond. Mr. Villalobos’ next scheduled appearance is April 9, 2013, at 9:30 a.m., for review of the terms of his bond. Both defendants are scheduled to appear before in District Court on May 8, 2013, at 2:00 p.m., before Judge Breyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The maximum statutory penalty for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud is 20 years imprisonment, $250,000 fine or twice the amount of gain or loss, whichever is greater, three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. The maximum penalty for each count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, false scheme against the United States, false statement to the United States, and obstruction of justice is five years of imprisonment, $250,000 fine or twice the amount of gain or loss, whichever is greater, three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. Restitution may also be ordered as to each of the five counts. However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Timothy J. Lucey is the Assistant United States Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Laurie Worthen and Maryam Beros. The prosecution is the result of a two-and-a half year investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with substantial assistance from the Los Angeles Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the United States Secret Service.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A federal grand jury has indicted a former official of California's largest state employee retirement fund, the Department of Justice has announced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here's the press release:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>A federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted Alfred J. Villalobos, of Reno, Nevada, and Federico R. Buenrostro, Jr., aka Fred Buenrostro, of Sacramento, California, on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, engaging in a false scheme against the United States, and conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced. Mr. Buenrostro was also charged in the same indictment with making a false statement to the United States and obstruction of justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/08/31/how-californias-new-pension-legislation-affects-you/calpers/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-74988\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-74988\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/08/CalPERS-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"CalPERS\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>According to the indictment, Mr. Villalobos, age 69, and Mr. Buenrostro, age 64, conspired to create and transmit fraudulent documents in connection with a $3 billion investment by the California Public Employee Retirement System (“CalPERS”) into funds managed by Apollo Global Management (“Apollo”), a private equity firm based in New York City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARVCO Capital Research LLC (“ARVCO”), a financial services firm founded and managed by Mr. Villalobos, acted as a placement agent in helping Apollo to secure these investments by CalPERS. In each instance, Apollo required ARVCO to obtain an Investor Disclosure letter from CalPERS prior to paying ARVCO any fees for its efforts in securing CalPERS’ investments into Apollo-managed funds, citing, among other reasons, Apollo’s obligations under the securities laws.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After CalPERS’ legal and investment offices declined to sign a certain Investor Disclosure letter documenting ARVCO’s legal relationship with Apollo, Mr. Villalobos and Mr. Buenrostro conspired to create a series of fraudulent Investor Disclosure letters that were transmitted to Apollo. Apollo paid ARVCO a total of approximately $14 million dollars in fees after receiving the fraudulent letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARVCO transmitted the last fraudulent Investor Disclosure letter in June 2008, a few weeks before Mr. Buenrostro retired from CalPERS. On July 1, 2008, Mr. Villalobos hired Mr. Buenrostro to work for ARVCO. 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Both defendants are scheduled to appear before in District Court on May 8, 2013, at 2:00 p.m., before Judge Breyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The maximum statutory penalty for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud is 20 years imprisonment, $250,000 fine or twice the amount of gain or loss, whichever is greater, three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. The maximum penalty for each count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, false scheme against the United States, false statement to the United States, and obstruction of justice is five years of imprisonment, $250,000 fine or twice the amount of gain or loss, whichever is greater, three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. Restitution may also be ordered as to each of the five counts. However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Timothy J. Lucey is the Assistant United States Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Laurie Worthen and Maryam Beros. The prosecution is the result of a two-and-a half year investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with substantial assistance from the Los Angeles Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the United States Secret Service.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s move-in day. You’re sitting in the great new condo you just bought. And suddenly you catch a whiff of cigarettes coming from next door. If you’re a healthy-living type, your home-buyer happiness may be gone in a puff of smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now California Assemblyman Mark Levine, D-Marin, is trying to address that problem with a statewide ban on smoking in multiunit housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What would the bill do?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_746&sess=CUR&house=B&author=levine\">AB 746, \u003c/a>currently in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, would ban smoking in “any residential property containing two or more units with one or more shared walls, floors, ceilings, or ventilation systems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would be one of the toughest smoking laws in the country, and affect some 12 million Californians, Michael Krasny explained on KQED’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201303130900\">Forum\u003c/a> Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why is the bill being proposed?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we sent our children to school, we send them to a smoke-free environment,” said Levine on the show. “When we go to work we have protections because of state law to work in a smoke-free environment. Where we should feel safest in our own homes, where we sleep each night, is not protected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Surgeon General says there is no safe level of exposure to the smoke, but 4.6 million-4.9 million Californians are exposed to it in multiunit housing against their wishes. The smoke can pass through walls as well as ventilation, said Levine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not trying to stop people from smoking here, what we’re trying to do is protect the people who want to breathe clean air from having to breathe this toxic air contaminant,” said Levine.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!--more-->\u003cbr>\nOne caller to the show from Miami, Fla., wished there was a similar law where he lived:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>My wife and I recently bought a condo in Miami where there are no such laws, and we discovered after we bought that our next door neighbors are a couple of great guys, very respectful and are aware that their second hand smoke permeates into other units and into the hallways. But they are addicted. They are smokers. There is not really much we can do about it. So the one thing I would like to say is if you are considering buying an apartment or a condo be very careful who you are buying next to.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>That point of view is shared by most people in multiunit housing, said Levine. He cited a poll by the American Lung Association showing that 82% of California renters would prefer to live in an apartment complex where they don’t have to breathe second-hand smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law is consistent with others on the books, such as those that restrict playing loud music late at night, or smoking in a car with a baby, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Who opposes it?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill is raising concerns not only among smokers but also among landlords who fear they will be liable for renting to smokers, said Debra Carlton, senior vice president of public affairs for the California Apartment Association. “We can’t enter the unit without the tenants’ agreement,” she said. “But at the same time it tells landlords you are responsible for the actions of your tenants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Apartment Association acknowledges that second-hand smoke is a problem and has not officially opposed the bill, but wants closer scrutiny of its implications. “We want to make sure we do this right in not putting people out in the streets, but at the same time we’re not harming the tenants next door who don’t want to breathe second-hand smoke,” said Carlton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How would it be enforced?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One caller to the show, Ned, saw the bill as an invasion of privacy: “Are we going to put cameras in people’s homes to make sure they’re not smoking? I mean this is ridiculous. Don’t you have anything better to do than to go to people’s homes and tell them what to do?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carlton said landlords will run into particular problems enforcing the regulation in jurisdictions with rent control because it’s so difficult to evict tenants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levine responded that already 40 local jurisdictions, and 18 housing authorities have passed some sort of prohibition on smoking in multiunit housing. “I was part of passing this in San Rafael where we had a 100% ban. Enforcement has not been a problem at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ray, a Sonoma County landlord, phoned the show to say enforcement is very much a problem there. He said one county ordinance restricted smoking near doorways and windows, then another prohibited smoking indoors. That has put him in an awkward position with his smoking tenants. “I can’t evict my people,” he said. “They’ve been living here for years. What am I supposed to do, go and chase them around?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What about medical Marijuana?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other callers worried that medical marijuana smoker would lose access to their medicine, but Levine said the law would apply only to tobacco smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s move-in day. You’re sitting in the great new condo you just bought. And suddenly you catch a whiff of cigarettes coming from next door. If you’re a healthy-living type, your home-buyer happiness may be gone in a puff of smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now California Assemblyman Mark Levine, D-Marin, is trying to address that problem with a statewide ban on smoking in multiunit housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What would the bill do?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_746&sess=CUR&house=B&author=levine\">AB 746, \u003c/a>currently in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, would ban smoking in “any residential property containing two or more units with one or more shared walls, floors, ceilings, or ventilation systems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would be one of the toughest smoking laws in the country, and affect some 12 million Californians, Michael Krasny explained on KQED’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201303130900\">Forum\u003c/a> Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why is the bill being proposed?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we sent our children to school, we send them to a smoke-free environment,” said Levine on the show. “When we go to work we have protections because of state law to work in a smoke-free environment. Where we should feel safest in our own homes, where we sleep each night, is not protected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Surgeon General says there is no safe level of exposure to the smoke, but 4.6 million-4.9 million Californians are exposed to it in multiunit housing against their wishes. The smoke can pass through walls as well as ventilation, said Levine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not trying to stop people from smoking here, what we’re trying to do is protect the people who want to breathe clean air from having to breathe this toxic air contaminant,” said Levine.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!--more-->\u003cbr>\nOne caller to the show from Miami, Fla., wished there was a similar law where he lived:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>My wife and I recently bought a condo in Miami where there are no such laws, and we discovered after we bought that our next door neighbors are a couple of great guys, very respectful and are aware that their second hand smoke permeates into other units and into the hallways. But they are addicted. They are smokers. There is not really much we can do about it. So the one thing I would like to say is if you are considering buying an apartment or a condo be very careful who you are buying next to.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>That point of view is shared by most people in multiunit housing, said Levine. He cited a poll by the American Lung Association showing that 82% of California renters would prefer to live in an apartment complex where they don’t have to breathe second-hand smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law is consistent with others on the books, such as those that restrict playing loud music late at night, or smoking in a car with a baby, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Who opposes it?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill is raising concerns not only among smokers but also among landlords who fear they will be liable for renting to smokers, said Debra Carlton, senior vice president of public affairs for the California Apartment Association. “We can’t enter the unit without the tenants’ agreement,” she said. “But at the same time it tells landlords you are responsible for the actions of your tenants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Apartment Association acknowledges that second-hand smoke is a problem and has not officially opposed the bill, but wants closer scrutiny of its implications. “We want to make sure we do this right in not putting people out in the streets, but at the same time we’re not harming the tenants next door who don’t want to breathe second-hand smoke,” said Carlton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How would it be enforced?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One caller to the show, Ned, saw the bill as an invasion of privacy: “Are we going to put cameras in people’s homes to make sure they’re not smoking? I mean this is ridiculous. Don’t you have anything better to do than to go to people’s homes and tell them what to do?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carlton said landlords will run into particular problems enforcing the regulation in jurisdictions with rent control because it’s so difficult to evict tenants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levine responded that already 40 local jurisdictions, and 18 housing authorities have passed some sort of prohibition on smoking in multiunit housing. “I was part of passing this in San Rafael where we had a 100% ban. Enforcement has not been a problem at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ray, a Sonoma County landlord, phoned the show to say enforcement is very much a problem there. He said one county ordinance restricted smoking near doorways and windows, then another prohibited smoking indoors. That has put him in an awkward position with his smoking tenants. “I can’t evict my people,” he said. “They’ve been living here for years. What am I supposed to do, go and chase them around?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What about medical Marijuana?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other callers worried that medical marijuana smoker would lose access to their medicine, but Levine said the law would apply only to tobacco smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>by Aaron Glantz, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baycitizen.org/profile/aaron-glantz/\">The Bay Citizen\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Veterans Affairs has\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>failed to provide\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>key information to Congress and the public that shows\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the agency’s ability to quickly provide service-related benefits has virtually collapsed under President Barack Obama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Infographic: \u003ca href=\"https://www.baycitizen.org/news/veterans/infographic-vets-wait-longer/\" target=\"_blank\">Veterans waiting longer\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.baycitizen.org/news/veterans/infographic-vets-wait-longer/\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cimg src=\"https://yeti-cir-test.s3.amazonaws.com/uploaded/images/2013/3/infographic-thumb-vets-waiting-longer/original/vets-wait-longer-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280px\" height=\"345\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Internal VA documents, obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting and authenticated by the agency, reveal that delays newly returning veterans face before receiving disability compensation and other benefits are far longer than the agency has publicly acknowledged. The documents also offer insight into some of the reasons for those delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency tracks and widely reports the average wait time: 273 days. But the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612900-budget-performance-split.html\" target=\"_blank\">internal\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>data\u003c/a> indicates that veterans filing their first claim, including those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, wait nearly two months longer, between 316 and 327 days. Those filing for the first time in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612975-avgprocessingdays.html\" target=\"_blank\">America’s major population centers\u003c/a> wait up to twice as long – 642 days in New York, 619 days in Los Angeles and 618 days at the Oakland office, which serves Northern and Central California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ranks of veterans \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612895-waiting-oneyear.html\" target=\"_blank\">waiting more than a year\u003c/a> for their benefits grew from 11,000 in 2009, the first year of Obama’s presidency, to 245,000 in December – an increase of more than 2,000 percent.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a candidate, Obama had promised to revamp a “broken VA bureaucracy,” but the documents reveal that many of the administration’s attempts – including efforts to boost staffing and computerize claims processing – have fallen apart in the implementation. Calls to the White House press office were not returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite agency promises to eliminate the claims backlog by 2015, the internal\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>documents show the VA expects the number of veterans waiting – currently about 900,000 – to continue to increase throughout 2013 and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612897-va-strategic-plan-jan-2013.html\" target=\"_blank\">top a million\u003c/a> by the end of this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about what’s due to you, about being taken care of physically and mentally,” said Aundray Rogers, an Army veteran of the Iraq War and president of the veterans club at City College of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rogers, who waited more than two years for the VA to grant his disability claim for post-traumatic stress disorder, said he regularly has flashbacks of explosions and carnage while on campus and in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is in the process of appealing the VA’s decision that he is 20 percent disabled. The low rating, which entitles him to $255 a month, “takes away from the validity” of his wartime experience, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Washington, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said he was not surprised that the VA’s internal documents painted a much gloomier picture than the agency’s public pronouncements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the biggest oversight challenges we’ve encountered is just getting VA to engage in an honest conversation,” Miller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s biggest problem, he said, is a “culture of complacency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VA downplayed the importance of the internal documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency still intends to meet its goal of resolving nearly all claims within four months by 2015, VA spokesman Joshua Taylor said. He blamed the skyrocketing delays on a 50 percent increase in the number of claims filed, a combination of an uptick in returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and Vietnam veterans requesting compensation, for illnesses newly connected to Agent Orange. The VA also has made it easier for veterans to file claims for PTSD and Gulf War illness, Taylor said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a separate emailed statement, the agency argued that it “consistently provides our numbers during Congressional hearings and briefings. What is not available online or in these reports is generally available on request.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VA typically takes months to respond to the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Freedom of Information Act requests, often stating that information requested must be manually tabulated. Yet\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the internal documents show the agency tracks its performance at an extremely granular level of detail. The agency also failed to provide this information to attorneys in Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki, a federal class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. The lawsuit died when the Supreme Court refused to review the appeal in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have a lot more detailed information than we were led to believe,” said Ryan Hassanein, a partner at Morrison & Foerster, the law firm that represented the veterans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers who have been working on the issue said they hadn’t seen the documents before. Rep. Barbara Lee, an Oakland Democrat, who met senior VA officials Feb. 27 to discuss problems at the Oakland office, said she was informed that the agency was making slow but steady progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to be an apologist for the president or the VA, but this was a long festering mess when they came in,” said Rep. Mike Thompson, a St. Helena Democrat and Vietnam veteran who attended the same meeting. “I think they have made improvements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VA’s internal documents tell a different story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, 16 members of Congress sent VA Secretary Eric Shinseki a letter demanding that the agency “send immediate help” to the Oakland office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, the number of veterans waiting more than a year for their benefits from the Oakland office has increased by nearly 6,000, to 19,077, and the average wait has increased from 326 days to 441, according to internal documents. The typical wait time for Northern California veterans filing new claims, including those returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, increased from 521 days to 618.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During that time, the total volume of claims pending also dropped slightly as the agency began mailing thousands of local veterans’ claims to offices in Nebraska and Oklahoma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The documents obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting shed light on why the agency is failing to make headway despite public and political pressure and its own promises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They show that while the agency has spent four years and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612897-va-strategic-plan-jan-2013.html\" target=\"_blank\">$537 million\u003c/a> on a new computer system, 97 percent of all veterans’ claims remain on paper. Since those numbers were tallied by the agency in January, the VA’s two top technology officers have announced their resignations, saying they had accomplished their goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 27, the agency’s principal deputy undersecretary for benefits also announced he was quitting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In interviews, workers at five VA offices said they were exhausted by the ever-growing piles of paperwork, with files becoming so thick that employees frequently have asked veterans to resend medical records or military service documents simply because the claims workers could not locate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cindy Indof, who handles appeals at the VA office in Columbia, S.C., said it is not uncommon for her to see the same medical information in a veteran’s claim repeated two or even three times. The growth in paperwork, she said, is compounded by a points system that gives performance bonuses to workers for sending letters to veterans but not for spending extra time reading a claims file.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor, the VA spokesman, said the computer system would be launched at all regional offices by the end of the year. “The transition is under way. We’re at the midpoint. We’re not at the endpoint yet,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s public pronouncements about hiring 3,300 additional claim processors since 2010 to cope with the influx of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans also were misleading, the documents show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of turnover and the loss of more than 2,000 workers temporarily paid through stimulus funds, staffing at the VA’s 58 regional offices actually has increased by fewer than 300 people since September 2010 – even as the volume of new claims increased dramatically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a majority of the regional offices – including Oakland– the VA employs fewer people than it did two years ago, according to the VA’s internal documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have a workforce that is completely burnt out, and there is no help in sight,” said Darren Foster, a Gulf War veteran who worked for the VA for 15 years before leaving in October. He now processes workers’ compensation claims for the Labor Department, in an office that he says is more efficient and better managed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a hard decision to leave,” Foster said. “I love helping veterans. But I just couldn’t do it anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was edited by Amy Pyle and copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "by Aaron Glantz, The Bay Citizen The Department of Veterans Affairs has failed to provide key information to Congress and the public that shows the agency’s ability to quickly provide service-related benefits has virtually collapsed under President Barack Obama. Infographic: Veterans waiting longer Internal VA documents, obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting and authenticated",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>by Aaron Glantz, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baycitizen.org/profile/aaron-glantz/\">The Bay Citizen\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Veterans Affairs has\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>failed to provide\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>key information to Congress and the public that shows\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the agency’s ability to quickly provide service-related benefits has virtually collapsed under President Barack Obama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Infographic: \u003ca href=\"https://www.baycitizen.org/news/veterans/infographic-vets-wait-longer/\" target=\"_blank\">Veterans waiting longer\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.baycitizen.org/news/veterans/infographic-vets-wait-longer/\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cimg src=\"https://yeti-cir-test.s3.amazonaws.com/uploaded/images/2013/3/infographic-thumb-vets-waiting-longer/original/vets-wait-longer-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280px\" height=\"345\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Internal VA documents, obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting and authenticated by the agency, reveal that delays newly returning veterans face before receiving disability compensation and other benefits are far longer than the agency has publicly acknowledged. The documents also offer insight into some of the reasons for those delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency tracks and widely reports the average wait time: 273 days. But the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612900-budget-performance-split.html\" target=\"_blank\">internal\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>data\u003c/a> indicates that veterans filing their first claim, including those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, wait nearly two months longer, between 316 and 327 days. Those filing for the first time in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612975-avgprocessingdays.html\" target=\"_blank\">America’s major population centers\u003c/a> wait up to twice as long – 642 days in New York, 619 days in Los Angeles and 618 days at the Oakland office, which serves Northern and Central California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ranks of veterans \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612895-waiting-oneyear.html\" target=\"_blank\">waiting more than a year\u003c/a> for their benefits grew from 11,000 in 2009, the first year of Obama’s presidency, to 245,000 in December – an increase of more than 2,000 percent.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a candidate, Obama had promised to revamp a “broken VA bureaucracy,” but the documents reveal that many of the administration’s attempts – including efforts to boost staffing and computerize claims processing – have fallen apart in the implementation. Calls to the White House press office were not returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite agency promises to eliminate the claims backlog by 2015, the internal\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>documents show the VA expects the number of veterans waiting – currently about 900,000 – to continue to increase throughout 2013 and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612897-va-strategic-plan-jan-2013.html\" target=\"_blank\">top a million\u003c/a> by the end of this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about what’s due to you, about being taken care of physically and mentally,” said Aundray Rogers, an Army veteran of the Iraq War and president of the veterans club at City College of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rogers, who waited more than two years for the VA to grant his disability claim for post-traumatic stress disorder, said he regularly has flashbacks of explosions and carnage while on campus and in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is in the process of appealing the VA’s decision that he is 20 percent disabled. The low rating, which entitles him to $255 a month, “takes away from the validity” of his wartime experience, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Washington, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said he was not surprised that the VA’s internal documents painted a much gloomier picture than the agency’s public pronouncements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the biggest oversight challenges we’ve encountered is just getting VA to engage in an honest conversation,” Miller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s biggest problem, he said, is a “culture of complacency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VA downplayed the importance of the internal documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency still intends to meet its goal of resolving nearly all claims within four months by 2015, VA spokesman Joshua Taylor said. He blamed the skyrocketing delays on a 50 percent increase in the number of claims filed, a combination of an uptick in returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and Vietnam veterans requesting compensation, for illnesses newly connected to Agent Orange. The VA also has made it easier for veterans to file claims for PTSD and Gulf War illness, Taylor said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a separate emailed statement, the agency argued that it “consistently provides our numbers during Congressional hearings and briefings. What is not available online or in these reports is generally available on request.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VA typically takes months to respond to the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Freedom of Information Act requests, often stating that information requested must be manually tabulated. Yet\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the internal documents show the agency tracks its performance at an extremely granular level of detail. The agency also failed to provide this information to attorneys in Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki, a federal class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. The lawsuit died when the Supreme Court refused to review the appeal in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have a lot more detailed information than we were led to believe,” said Ryan Hassanein, a partner at Morrison & Foerster, the law firm that represented the veterans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers who have been working on the issue said they hadn’t seen the documents before. Rep. Barbara Lee, an Oakland Democrat, who met senior VA officials Feb. 27 to discuss problems at the Oakland office, said she was informed that the agency was making slow but steady progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to be an apologist for the president or the VA, but this was a long festering mess when they came in,” said Rep. Mike Thompson, a St. Helena Democrat and Vietnam veteran who attended the same meeting. “I think they have made improvements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VA’s internal documents tell a different story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, 16 members of Congress sent VA Secretary Eric Shinseki a letter demanding that the agency “send immediate help” to the Oakland office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, the number of veterans waiting more than a year for their benefits from the Oakland office has increased by nearly 6,000, to 19,077, and the average wait has increased from 326 days to 441, according to internal documents. The typical wait time for Northern California veterans filing new claims, including those returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, increased from 521 days to 618.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During that time, the total volume of claims pending also dropped slightly as the agency began mailing thousands of local veterans’ claims to offices in Nebraska and Oklahoma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The documents obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting shed light on why the agency is failing to make headway despite public and political pressure and its own promises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They show that while the agency has spent four years and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612897-va-strategic-plan-jan-2013.html\" target=\"_blank\">$537 million\u003c/a> on a new computer system, 97 percent of all veterans’ claims remain on paper. Since those numbers were tallied by the agency in January, the VA’s two top technology officers have announced their resignations, saying they had accomplished their goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 27, the agency’s principal deputy undersecretary for benefits also announced he was quitting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In interviews, workers at five VA offices said they were exhausted by the ever-growing piles of paperwork, with files becoming so thick that employees frequently have asked veterans to resend medical records or military service documents simply because the claims workers could not locate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cindy Indof, who handles appeals at the VA office in Columbia, S.C., said it is not uncommon for her to see the same medical information in a veteran’s claim repeated two or even three times. The growth in paperwork, she said, is compounded by a points system that gives performance bonuses to workers for sending letters to veterans but not for spending extra time reading a claims file.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor, the VA spokesman, said the computer system would be launched at all regional offices by the end of the year. “The transition is under way. We’re at the midpoint. We’re not at the endpoint yet,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s public pronouncements about hiring 3,300 additional claim processors since 2010 to cope with the influx of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans also were misleading, the documents show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of turnover and the loss of more than 2,000 workers temporarily paid through stimulus funds, staffing at the VA’s 58 regional offices actually has increased by fewer than 300 people since September 2010 – even as the volume of new claims increased dramatically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a majority of the regional offices – including Oakland– the VA employs fewer people than it did two years ago, according to the VA’s internal documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have a workforce that is completely burnt out, and there is no help in sight,” said Darren Foster, a Gulf War veteran who worked for the VA for 15 years before leaving in October. He now processes workers’ compensation claims for the Labor Department, in an office that he says is more efficient and better managed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a hard decision to leave,” Foster said. “I love helping veterans. But I just couldn’t do it anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Foster Care Advocates Fight Plan to Eliminate Statewide Program",
"title": "Foster Care Advocates Fight Plan to Eliminate Statewide Program",
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"content": "\u003cp>Anteus Stinson, 22, entered California's foster care system when he was three. Since then he's lived in a lot of different places and gone to a lot of different schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_91285\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 225px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/%3Fp%3D91282/2013-03-12-08-38-10/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-91285\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-91285\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/2013-03-12-08.38.10-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Anteus Stinson says he pushed himself to learn, but his situation did not make it easy. (Courtesy Anteus Stinson)\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anteus Stinson says he pushed himself to learn, but his situation did not make it easy. (Courtesy Anteus Stinson)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\"I was actually in high school in Merced, Modesto, Stockton and then finally here in San Jose,\" Stinson says. \"The curriculum kept changing. I never really caught up to the classes, and never really understood. I always just jumped into a class.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was the disruptive reality that California's \u003ca href=\"http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/pf/fy/\" target=\"_blank\">Foster Youth Services\u003c/a> program was meant to end, and now the program is often held up as a model for other states. But Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to give local school districts more control over state revenue would also eliminate the $15 million statewide program, delivering that money and responsibility directly to school districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most foster care students share Stinson's experience, says Karen Scussel, executive director of \u003ca href=\"http://www.bemyadvocate.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Child Advocates\u003c/a> of Silicon Valley. That's why the Legislature established Foster Youth Services in the first place, she says. The program provides counseling and academic support and acts as an advocate for individual kids. The program also makes sure kids' records follow them from school-to-school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In years past, sometimes [foster students] would be out of school for a couple of weeks until records were transferred, until everything was put in place in terms of registering for the new school,\" Scussel says. \"So Foster Youth Services ensures that those records are transferred. They make sure that the schools understand their obligations, making sure that the foster youth are getting the education that they need and that they deserve.\"\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Youth Services is one of about 60 categorical programs that will be eliminated under the governor's plan. But advocates for keeping the program say that without the same infrastructure, foster youth are more likely to be neglected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That's an argument that could be made for any number of categorical programs that we are including into the formula,\" says H. D. Palmer, a spokesman with the state Department of Finance. \"Broadly speaking the governor believes that it is far better to give greater authority, greater accountability and greater responsibility down to the level that is closest to the students that are being taught. And that's at the school district level.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palmer says that the special status of foster youth is why the Governor added them to the list of students receiving supplemental funding, along with low income students and English learners.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"The likelihood that they're going to implement a system to make sure they're keeping track of these kids is very unlikely.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://fosteringmediaconnections.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Heimpel\u003c/a>, a long-time advocate for foster youth, is not convinced. He worries school districts are simply not ready to take on the responsibilities previously handled by education offices in each country. Those county offices currently coordinate foster care advocates with the juvenile justice system and other child welfare agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The likelihood that they're going to implement a system to make sure they're keeping track of these kids is very unlikely,\" he says. \"I'm concerned because you have a 30-year-old program that's a gold standard in the nation in terms of educating foster youth that only costs $15 million that you're essentially throwing away.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the San Jose Unified School District, Chief Business Officer Stephen McMahon disagrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We have 32,000 students,\" he says. \"Is it possible students are lost in the shuffle? Yes. Are we conscious of it? Extremely so. And I think when your mission statement specifically addresses closing the opportunity gap, it ensures that our district specifically is much more focused on the needs of all students, especially the ones who have been traditionally under served. We wouldn't be doing our job and we wouldn't be fulfilling our own mission if we lost sight of these students.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates worry though that not all school districts are as aware of the problem, and that the added flexibility will ultimately be at the expense of the 42,000 children in the state's foster care system - kids, they say, who already face overwhelming challenges just to survive.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "Anteus Stinson, 22, entered California's foster care system when he was three. Since then he's lived in a lot of different places and gone to a lot of different schools. "I was actually in high school in Merced, Modesto, Stockton and then finally here in San Jose," Stinson says. "The curriculum kept changing. I never",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Anteus Stinson, 22, entered California's foster care system when he was three. Since then he's lived in a lot of different places and gone to a lot of different schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_91285\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 225px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/%3Fp%3D91282/2013-03-12-08-38-10/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-91285\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-91285\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/2013-03-12-08.38.10-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Anteus Stinson says he pushed himself to learn, but his situation did not make it easy. (Courtesy Anteus Stinson)\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anteus Stinson says he pushed himself to learn, but his situation did not make it easy. (Courtesy Anteus Stinson)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\"I was actually in high school in Merced, Modesto, Stockton and then finally here in San Jose,\" Stinson says. \"The curriculum kept changing. I never really caught up to the classes, and never really understood. I always just jumped into a class.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was the disruptive reality that California's \u003ca href=\"http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/pf/fy/\" target=\"_blank\">Foster Youth Services\u003c/a> program was meant to end, and now the program is often held up as a model for other states. But Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to give local school districts more control over state revenue would also eliminate the $15 million statewide program, delivering that money and responsibility directly to school districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most foster care students share Stinson's experience, says Karen Scussel, executive director of \u003ca href=\"http://www.bemyadvocate.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Child Advocates\u003c/a> of Silicon Valley. That's why the Legislature established Foster Youth Services in the first place, she says. The program provides counseling and academic support and acts as an advocate for individual kids. The program also makes sure kids' records follow them from school-to-school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In years past, sometimes [foster students] would be out of school for a couple of weeks until records were transferred, until everything was put in place in terms of registering for the new school,\" Scussel says. \"So Foster Youth Services ensures that those records are transferred. They make sure that the schools understand their obligations, making sure that the foster youth are getting the education that they need and that they deserve.\"\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Youth Services is one of about 60 categorical programs that will be eliminated under the governor's plan. But advocates for keeping the program say that without the same infrastructure, foster youth are more likely to be neglected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That's an argument that could be made for any number of categorical programs that we are including into the formula,\" says H. D. Palmer, a spokesman with the state Department of Finance. \"Broadly speaking the governor believes that it is far better to give greater authority, greater accountability and greater responsibility down to the level that is closest to the students that are being taught. And that's at the school district level.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palmer says that the special status of foster youth is why the Governor added them to the list of students receiving supplemental funding, along with low income students and English learners.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"The likelihood that they're going to implement a system to make sure they're keeping track of these kids is very unlikely.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://fosteringmediaconnections.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Heimpel\u003c/a>, a long-time advocate for foster youth, is not convinced. He worries school districts are simply not ready to take on the responsibilities previously handled by education offices in each country. Those county offices currently coordinate foster care advocates with the juvenile justice system and other child welfare agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The likelihood that they're going to implement a system to make sure they're keeping track of these kids is very unlikely,\" he says. \"I'm concerned because you have a 30-year-old program that's a gold standard in the nation in terms of educating foster youth that only costs $15 million that you're essentially throwing away.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the San Jose Unified School District, Chief Business Officer Stephen McMahon disagrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We have 32,000 students,\" he says. \"Is it possible students are lost in the shuffle? Yes. Are we conscious of it? Extremely so. And I think when your mission statement specifically addresses closing the opportunity gap, it ensures that our district specifically is much more focused on the needs of all students, especially the ones who have been traditionally under served. We wouldn't be doing our job and we wouldn't be fulfilling our own mission if we lost sight of these students.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates worry though that not all school districts are as aware of the problem, and that the added flexibility will ultimately be at the expense of the 42,000 children in the state's foster care system - kids, they say, who already face overwhelming challenges just to survive.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "democrats-hope-to-retain-supermajority-in-senate-races",
"title": "Democrats Hope to Retain Supermajority in Senate Races",
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"headTitle": "Democrats Hope to Retain Supermajority in Senate Races | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>By Don Thompson, Associated Press\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)—Primaries for two open state Senate seats being held Tuesday carry consequences that could be more significant than in a typical legislative race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_86590\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/01/21/calpers-stops-giving-workers-double-jobs/capitol-dome-4/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-86590\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-86590\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/capitol-dome1-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Democrats won two-thirds majorities in both houses of the Legislature last fall, but there is a chance at least one chamber may lack a supermajority for the rest of the year. The uncertainty is caused by three open Senate seats—and possibly a fourth—and the musical chairs among Assembly members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Senate Democrats currently are one seat short of the 27 they need to raise taxes, pass emergency legislation, override gubernatorial vetoes and put constitutional amendments before voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They would regain that margin Tuesday if Democratic Assemblyman Ben Hueso of San Diego wins a majority in the 40th Senate District and avoids a runoff, as expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A May 14 runoff is likely in the 32nd Senate District, although Democratic Assemblywoman Norma Torres of Pomona remains the favored candidate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democrats make up nearly half the voters in both districts, with about 28 percent registered Republican and a fifth of voters having no party preference.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If both current Assembly members win, either Tuesday or in May, Assembly Democrats will be temporarily short of the 54 seats they need for a supermajority. Moreover, they will lose Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, D-Sherman Oaks, in July, when he leaves to join the Los Angeles City Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assembly Democrats are unlikely to regain their supermajority until shortly before the Legislature adjourns in mid-September. Depending on the outcome and timing of special elections, they could lack their full two-thirds until early next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an opportunity for the taxpayers to breathe a little bit easier for a couple of months,” said Assembly Minority Leader Connie Conway, R-Tulare. “I think it makes a tremendous difference, in as much as even if they get there eventually, for right now we’re able to hold them off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The game of musical chairs merely postpones the inevitable, said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re all Democratic seats. There’s no risk. It’s just a matter of when,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s election is to fill the seats vacated when Democratic Sens. Gloria Negrete McLeod of Chino and Juan Vargas of San Diego resigned to take seats in Congress, which they won last fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Senate Democrats also have a surprise vacancy created when Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Bakersfield, resigned last month to take a job with Chevron. The special election in the Central Valley’s 16th Senate District will be May 21, with a special runoff election on July 23 if no candidate wins a majority in the primary election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also could lose Sen. Curren Price, D-Los Angeles, in July if he wins a May 21 runoff election for a Los Angeles City Council seat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conway and Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, conceded that Hueso is likely to win a majority on Tuesday, but both said Ontario Mayor Paul Leon, a well-financed Republican, could force a runoff with Torres in the 32nd Senate District. There are four Democrats in the race, including Torres and San Bernardino County Auditor-Controller Larry Walker of Chino, and two Republicans including Leon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huff said Republicans also hope they can field a strong candidate to replace Rubio. Although about half the district’s voters are Democrats, he said they have generally favored more limited government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, agreed that Senate Democrats will regain their supermajority soon enough to advance any bills or constitutional amendments they choose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez said the possible loss of the Democrats’ supermajority in the Assembly will not affect his emphasis on working with Republicans to improve the state’s economy and creating jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Obtaining the supermajority didn’t change the world; temporarily losing the supermajority won’t change the world,” Perez said in a statement. “With or without the supermajority, I will continue to seek bipartisan support for major legislation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, which analyzes legislative and congressional campaigns, said the Assembly includes relatively conservative Democrats who will face tough re-election fights and are unlikely to support raising taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The supermajority was more of a psychological boost more than anything,” he said. “It’s more a reflection of how weak Republicans are in the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democrats in both chambers will regain their two-thirds margins this fall or early next year, Hoffenblum said, just in time for next year’s campaigns to begin.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>By Don Thompson, Associated Press\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)—Primaries for two open state Senate seats being held Tuesday carry consequences that could be more significant than in a typical legislative race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_86590\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/01/21/calpers-stops-giving-workers-double-jobs/capitol-dome-4/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-86590\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-86590\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/capitol-dome1-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Democrats won two-thirds majorities in both houses of the Legislature last fall, but there is a chance at least one chamber may lack a supermajority for the rest of the year. The uncertainty is caused by three open Senate seats—and possibly a fourth—and the musical chairs among Assembly members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Senate Democrats currently are one seat short of the 27 they need to raise taxes, pass emergency legislation, override gubernatorial vetoes and put constitutional amendments before voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They would regain that margin Tuesday if Democratic Assemblyman Ben Hueso of San Diego wins a majority in the 40th Senate District and avoids a runoff, as expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A May 14 runoff is likely in the 32nd Senate District, although Democratic Assemblywoman Norma Torres of Pomona remains the favored candidate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democrats make up nearly half the voters in both districts, with about 28 percent registered Republican and a fifth of voters having no party preference.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If both current Assembly members win, either Tuesday or in May, Assembly Democrats will be temporarily short of the 54 seats they need for a supermajority. Moreover, they will lose Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, D-Sherman Oaks, in July, when he leaves to join the Los Angeles City Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assembly Democrats are unlikely to regain their supermajority until shortly before the Legislature adjourns in mid-September. Depending on the outcome and timing of special elections, they could lack their full two-thirds until early next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an opportunity for the taxpayers to breathe a little bit easier for a couple of months,” said Assembly Minority Leader Connie Conway, R-Tulare. “I think it makes a tremendous difference, in as much as even if they get there eventually, for right now we’re able to hold them off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The game of musical chairs merely postpones the inevitable, said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re all Democratic seats. There’s no risk. It’s just a matter of when,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s election is to fill the seats vacated when Democratic Sens. Gloria Negrete McLeod of Chino and Juan Vargas of San Diego resigned to take seats in Congress, which they won last fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Senate Democrats also have a surprise vacancy created when Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Bakersfield, resigned last month to take a job with Chevron. The special election in the Central Valley’s 16th Senate District will be May 21, with a special runoff election on July 23 if no candidate wins a majority in the primary election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also could lose Sen. Curren Price, D-Los Angeles, in July if he wins a May 21 runoff election for a Los Angeles City Council seat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conway and Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, conceded that Hueso is likely to win a majority on Tuesday, but both said Ontario Mayor Paul Leon, a well-financed Republican, could force a runoff with Torres in the 32nd Senate District. There are four Democrats in the race, including Torres and San Bernardino County Auditor-Controller Larry Walker of Chino, and two Republicans including Leon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huff said Republicans also hope they can field a strong candidate to replace Rubio. Although about half the district’s voters are Democrats, he said they have generally favored more limited government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, agreed that Senate Democrats will regain their supermajority soon enough to advance any bills or constitutional amendments they choose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez said the possible loss of the Democrats’ supermajority in the Assembly will not affect his emphasis on working with Republicans to improve the state’s economy and creating jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Obtaining the supermajority didn’t change the world; temporarily losing the supermajority won’t change the world,” Perez said in a statement. “With or without the supermajority, I will continue to seek bipartisan support for major legislation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, which analyzes legislative and congressional campaigns, said the Assembly includes relatively conservative Democrats who will face tough re-election fights and are unlikely to support raising taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The supermajority was more of a psychological boost more than anything,” he said. “It’s more a reflection of how weak Republicans are in the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democrats in both chambers will regain their two-thirds margins this fall or early next year, Hoffenblum said, just in time for next year’s campaigns to begin.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301baylights/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90573\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90573\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301baylights.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301baylights\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>Artist Leo Villareal controls the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/02/26/watch-video-light-sculpture-to-brighten-the-bay-bridge/\">Bay Lights\u003c/a> with his laptop. (Cy Musiker/KQED)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301shorebirds/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90574\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90574\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301shorebirds.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301shorebirds\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>On Wednesday, author and photographer Elaine Miller Bond captured this shot of \"hundreds, probably thousands, of seabirds (mostly cormorants) \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/02/28/sitting-on-the-dock-of-the-bay-birds-throng-berkeley-pier/\">sitting on the old pilings \u003c/a>at the far end of the Berkeley Pier.\" A reader suggested they were on a herring run. (Elaine Miller Bond/\u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/\">Berkeleyside\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301chineseny/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90575\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90575\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301chineseNY.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301chineseNY\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>Crowds swarm Grant Street in San Francisco's Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year on Saturday, Feb 23. (Jason Winshell/\u003ca href=\"http://sfpublicpress.org/\">SF Public Press\u003c/a>)\u003cbr>\n\u003c!--more-->\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301airporttower/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90576\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90576\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301airporttower.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301airporttower\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>The air traffic control tower at San Carlos Airport could close as part of federal budget cuts related to the sequester. (Scott Shafer/KQED)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301warbler/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90577\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90577\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301warbler.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301warbler\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>The protester known as \"Warbler\" watches a Caltrans truck from her perch 71 feet up a Ponderosa pine near the Mendocino County town of Willits. Warbler, who has been tree-sitting for more than a month, is protesting Caltrans' plan to build a bypass for U.S. 101. Critics says the project will have dire environmental consequences. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301blackhistory/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90578\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90578\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301blackhistory.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301blackhistory\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>A new black history museum at Woodside Plaza in Redwood City features 11,000 square feet of history and memorabilia. (Kate Abbott/\u003ca href=\"http://peninsulapress.com/\">Peninsula Press\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301kimchi/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90580\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90580\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301kimchi.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301kimchi\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>Kimchi, pickles--and Korean food in general--are hot right now in the East Bay, not least at \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/02/28/sunhui-changs-korean-cooking-makes-sparks-fly/\">FuseBOX, a popular spot in West Oakland run by chef Sunhui Chang \u003c/a>and his partner Ellen Chang. Here Sunhui makes kimchi by hand. (Anna Mindess/\u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/\">Berkeleyside\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301baylights/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90573\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90573\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301baylights.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301baylights\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>Artist Leo Villareal controls the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/02/26/watch-video-light-sculpture-to-brighten-the-bay-bridge/\">Bay Lights\u003c/a> with his laptop. (Cy Musiker/KQED)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301shorebirds/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90574\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90574\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301shorebirds.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301shorebirds\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>On Wednesday, author and photographer Elaine Miller Bond captured this shot of \"hundreds, probably thousands, of seabirds (mostly cormorants) \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/02/28/sitting-on-the-dock-of-the-bay-birds-throng-berkeley-pier/\">sitting on the old pilings \u003c/a>at the far end of the Berkeley Pier.\" A reader suggested they were on a herring run. (Elaine Miller Bond/\u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/\">Berkeleyside\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301chineseny/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90575\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90575\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301chineseNY.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301chineseNY\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>Crowds swarm Grant Street in San Francisco's Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year on Saturday, Feb 23. (Jason Winshell/\u003ca href=\"http://sfpublicpress.org/\">SF Public Press\u003c/a>)\u003cbr>\n\u003c!--more-->\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301airporttower/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90576\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90576\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301airporttower.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301airporttower\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>The air traffic control tower at San Carlos Airport could close as part of federal budget cuts related to the sequester. (Scott Shafer/KQED)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301warbler/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90577\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90577\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301warbler.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301warbler\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>The protester known as \"Warbler\" watches a Caltrans truck from her perch 71 feet up a Ponderosa pine near the Mendocino County town of Willits. Warbler, who has been tree-sitting for more than a month, is protesting Caltrans' plan to build a bypass for U.S. 101. Critics says the project will have dire environmental consequences. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301blackhistory/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90578\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90578\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301blackhistory.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301blackhistory\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>A new black history museum at Woodside Plaza in Redwood City features 11,000 square feet of history and memorabilia. (Kate Abbott/\u003ca href=\"http://peninsulapress.com/\">Peninsula Press\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/news-pix-bay-area-faces-sequester-cuts-bay-lights-magic-and-birds-of-berkeleys-marina/photoweek130301kimchi/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90580\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-90580\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/PhotoWeek130301kimchi.jpg\" alt=\"PhotoWeek130301kimchi\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>Kimchi, pickles--and Korean food in general--are hot right now in the East Bay, not least at \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/02/28/sunhui-changs-korean-cooking-makes-sparks-fly/\">FuseBOX, a popular spot in West Oakland run by chef Sunhui Chang \u003c/a>and his partner Ellen Chang. Here Sunhui makes kimchi by hand. (Anna Mindess/\u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/\">Berkeleyside\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Deliberations in Bell Corruption Trial Hit a Snag ",
"title": "Deliberations in Bell Corruption Trial Hit a Snag ",
"headTitle": "News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>By Rachael Marcus\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jury deliberations over the fate of six former Bell City Council members accused of corruption began anew today after the dismissal of a juror.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_90475\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/bell-corruption-verdict-due-soon/district-attorney-announces-arrests-in-city-of-bell-corruption-scandal/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90475\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-90475\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/02/BellArrests-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"District Attorney Announces Arrests In City Of Bell Corruption Scandal\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley looks at a display of arrested former city of Bell council members during a news conference in 2010. Cooley said the eight officials misappropriated more than $5.5 million. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The case went to the jury last Friday, but yesterday, the court dismissed a juror for admitting she looked up information online. She also said she had her daughter look up the definition of \"jury coercion,\" the Associated Press reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former council members face charges of misappropriating public funds by giving themselves nearly six-figure salaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bell, a blue-collar town in Los Angeles County, made national headlines in 2010 when \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em> reporters discovered that City Council members were drawing the highest salaries of any local officials in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ensuing scandal resulted in two criminal suits. The first suit is against the former council members. The second suit is against the former city manager and assistant city manager for misappropriation, falsifying public documents, conflict of interest and other charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trial of the council members began in January. KPCC's Sharon McNary spoke to Bell residents last month about the effects of the scandal on the city (listen to the full report \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201301220850/a\">here\u003c/a>):\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The city, now under new leadership, has racked up legal expenses nearing $2 million since the scandal broke two years ago -- about triple the amount a similar-sized city would have. It's mired in about 40 lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the city also opened its books, adopting an ambitious open-government policy. A new website lists every contract and city employee salary, and a list of every check the city writes is available at council meetings.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>In similar-sized cities, a council member would make about $400 a month for part-time work, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bell-council-interactive,0,5213462.htmlstory\">\u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Council members in Bell paid themselves nearly $100,000 each for their part-time work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A vote eight years ago paved the way for Bell officials to receive exorbitant salaries. Bell voters approved becoming a charter city. This move exempted Bell from certain state laws, including a new law that capped the pay of council members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the scandal broke, allegations of voter fraud ensued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Attorney General, now-Gov. Jerry Brown spoke out in 2010 about how the vote changed the city. Listen to more about the fateful vote on \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201008100850/a\">The California Report\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>More Bell coverage from KQED and NPR:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2010/09/25/34254/how_the_la_times_broke_the_bell_corruption_story?source=npr&category=u.s.\">How the L.A. Times Broke the Bell Corruption Story\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201008200850/c\">Other Cities Will Pay for Bell's High-Ticket Pensions\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201102090850/a\">Bell Fraud Prompts Statewide Legislation\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>By Rachael Marcus\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jury deliberations over the fate of six former Bell City Council members accused of corruption began anew today after the dismissal of a juror.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_90475\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/01/bell-corruption-verdict-due-soon/district-attorney-announces-arrests-in-city-of-bell-corruption-scandal/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90475\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-90475\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/02/BellArrests-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"District Attorney Announces Arrests In City Of Bell Corruption Scandal\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley looks at a display of arrested former city of Bell council members during a news conference in 2010. Cooley said the eight officials misappropriated more than $5.5 million. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The case went to the jury last Friday, but yesterday, the court dismissed a juror for admitting she looked up information online. She also said she had her daughter look up the definition of \"jury coercion,\" the Associated Press reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former council members face charges of misappropriating public funds by giving themselves nearly six-figure salaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bell, a blue-collar town in Los Angeles County, made national headlines in 2010 when \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em> reporters discovered that City Council members were drawing the highest salaries of any local officials in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ensuing scandal resulted in two criminal suits. The first suit is against the former council members. The second suit is against the former city manager and assistant city manager for misappropriation, falsifying public documents, conflict of interest and other charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trial of the council members began in January. KPCC's Sharon McNary spoke to Bell residents last month about the effects of the scandal on the city (listen to the full report \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201301220850/a\">here\u003c/a>):\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The city, now under new leadership, has racked up legal expenses nearing $2 million since the scandal broke two years ago -- about triple the amount a similar-sized city would have. It's mired in about 40 lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the city also opened its books, adopting an ambitious open-government policy. A new website lists every contract and city employee salary, and a list of every check the city writes is available at council meetings.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>In similar-sized cities, a council member would make about $400 a month for part-time work, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bell-council-interactive,0,5213462.htmlstory\">\u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Council members in Bell paid themselves nearly $100,000 each for their part-time work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A vote eight years ago paved the way for Bell officials to receive exorbitant salaries. Bell voters approved becoming a charter city. This move exempted Bell from certain state laws, including a new law that capped the pay of council members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the scandal broke, allegations of voter fraud ensued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Attorney General, now-Gov. Jerry Brown spoke out in 2010 about how the vote changed the city. Listen to more about the fateful vote on \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201008100850/a\">The California Report\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>More Bell coverage from KQED and NPR:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2010/09/25/34254/how_the_la_times_broke_the_bell_corruption_story?source=npr&category=u.s.\">How the L.A. Times Broke the Bell Corruption Story\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201008200850/c\">Other Cities Will Pay for Bell's High-Ticket Pensions\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201102090850/a\">Bell Fraud Prompts Statewide Legislation\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Mayor Ed Lee's choice of Katy Tang looks like a safe bet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday Lee appointed the 29-year-old aide to Supervisor \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfbos.org/index.aspx?page=2067\">Carmen Chu\u003c/a> as the new supervisor for District 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_90187\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 274px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/02/26/san-francisco-mayor-ed-lee-appoints-katy-tang-as-new-supervisor/katy-tang-official-photo/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90187\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-90187 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/02/Katy-Tang-official-photo-274x300.jpg\" alt=\"Katy Tang (official photo)\" width=\"274\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Katy Tang (official photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tang takes over from Chu, who was appointed by Lee earlier this month to be the city's assessor-recorder. Phil Ting vacated that position when he was elected to the state Assembly in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District 4 spans the Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods on the western side of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tang has not been in the public eye and was not available for interviews after the press conference announcing her selection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The future of a supervisor is never guaranteed. Lee's last appointment to the Board of Supervisors, Christina Olague, lost her first election, as did Rodrigo Santo, Lee's appointment to the Community College Board of Trustees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this appointment isn't likely to stir controversy, says University of San Francisco research associate David Latterman, who tracks San Francisco politics. \"There has been no real opposition,\" he told KQED. \"This was the logical pick. It made perfect sense.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tang has worked for years in the district, getting to know constituents and their needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tang speaks Mandarin and is Chinese American, an ethnic identity shared by about 40 percent the voters in the district. Past elections have suggested that San Francisco Chinese prefer to elect someone from their own ethnicity, Latterman said.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also grew up in San Francisco, attending Lowell High School before getting her bachelor's degree from the University of California, Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later she worked in the office of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom focusing on a community justice center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tang is likely to follow Chu's lead and focus on practical needs. \"It's a district that cares about quality of life: schools, economic development, potholes,\" Latterman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The press release announcing her appointment lists her work on a storefront improvement project on Noriega and Taraval streets and efforts to help small businesses comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chu herself was appointed to the supervisor seat in 2007 after working in the mayor's office of budget and finance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chu replaced former Supervisor Ed Jew, who was suspended and later convicted of several state and federal charges including mail fraud and bribery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chu has been categorized as a moderate on the board, but the traditional division between moderates and progressives is losing its meaning, along with the city's bohemian tradition, Latterman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This has been an expensive boutique city for a long while.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Mayor Ed Lee's choice of Katy Tang looks like a safe bet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday Lee appointed the 29-year-old aide to Supervisor \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfbos.org/index.aspx?page=2067\">Carmen Chu\u003c/a> as the new supervisor for District 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_90187\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 274px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/02/26/san-francisco-mayor-ed-lee-appoints-katy-tang-as-new-supervisor/katy-tang-official-photo/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90187\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-90187 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/02/Katy-Tang-official-photo-274x300.jpg\" alt=\"Katy Tang (official photo)\" width=\"274\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Katy Tang (official photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tang takes over from Chu, who was appointed by Lee earlier this month to be the city's assessor-recorder. Phil Ting vacated that position when he was elected to the state Assembly in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District 4 spans the Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods on the western side of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tang has not been in the public eye and was not available for interviews after the press conference announcing her selection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 3
},
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious",
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}
},
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"id": "bbc-world-service",
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"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
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"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
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}
},
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
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},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
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"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"code-switch-life-kit": {
"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"
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},
"commonwealth-club": {
"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/forum",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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}
},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Fresh-Air-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
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"cuisine": {
"key": "Restaurant Cuisine",
"filters": [
"Any Cuisine"
]
}
},
"restaurantDataById": {},
"restaurantIdsSorted": [],
"error": null
},
"userAgentReducer": {
"userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)",
"isBot": true
},
"requestOutcomesReducer": {
"notFound": []
}
}
