[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Robert Cruickshank

As David Dayen noted yesterday, fires continue to burn across California, with the massive blazes in Goleta and Big Sur getting the focus of the state's attention. And as he and other outlets have mentioned, California's firefighting capacities have been strained beyond their limits.

More and more residents, especially in Big Sur, have noticed just how many fewer firefighters there seem to be for this blaze, as compared to previous fires in the area. As conservative demands for low taxes and budget cuts have helped slash available fire protection, residents in Big Sur increasingly feel they are on their own, though they appreciate the fire protection they have received. The legacy of Hurricane Katrina - when nobody came to help New Orleans - has led some residents to refuse to evacuate out of a belief that if they don't protect their homes, nobody will.

It's a frustrating and sometimes chaotic situation that is the direct product of conservative attacks on basic government services - they want people to fend for themselves, and often that is extremely difficult to do.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

With canes, wheelchairs and walkers, they participate in Danville’s Independence Day Parade and educate voters about proposed state cuts that would take away their independence

By Jessica Rothhaar
Northern California Organizer
Health Access California

With flags fluttering from theirs walkers and wheelchairs, carrying signs saying “We Love Our Independence, Too” and “We Are Your Sons and Daughters,” dozens of Contra Costa area residents with disabilities asked parade-goers to support funding for critical programs that enable them to live independently. Four days into the new fiscal year and with no budget resolution in sight, the advocates participating in today’s parade asked voters to call on Assemblymember Guy Houston (R-San Ramon) to work with his legislative colleagues from both sides of the aisle to find a resolution that will protect the state’s most vulnerable.

Disability advocates said today that the budget proposal put forward in May by Governor Schwarzenegger is unacceptable, saying it amounts to stripping seniors of the right to live independently and with dignity. In Contra Costa County, the Governor’s proposal would mean:

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Robert Cruickshank
California High Speed Rail Blog

The California Chronicle has two short articles about the State Senate's approach to high speed rail, focusing on Democrat Leland Yee of San Francisco and Republican Roy Ashburn, whose district sprawls across eastern California but is based in Bakersfield. The articles help explain the politics surrounding HSR in our state capital, and may give us a preview of what we can expect to unfold Monday morning at 10 at the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on AB 3034.

The Yee article focuses on his work to restore the "spine" of the HSR corridor, from SF to LA and Anaheim, which as you all know was threatened by AB 3034's provision for building smaller, potentially disconnected HSR corridors instead. The article quotes my comments from Tuesday in support of Yee's position, and includes this portion from a Yee press release:

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sam Gold
A California Injured Worker

The reality of current worker safety is that more Americans are killed at work each year than died in the twin towers on September 11th. Every day eighteen Americans die preventable deaths; preventable because mandated safety precautions go unheeded. When a preventable death occurs it means that someone, somewhere, dropped the ball. Possibly a safety measure was not followed by an employee or their supervisor. Or, an employer who has repeatedly and maliciously disregarded OSHA regulations has been allowed to literally “get away with murder!”

According to Webster’s Dictionary, an “accident” is defined as “an unexpected unusual event.” But, when an employer repeatedly breaks laws, there is nothing unusual or unexpected about an event that produces a tragic debilitating injury or death to an employee.

This is the dirty little secret of Workers’ Compensation: employers hold the ultimate “Get Out Of Jail FREE” card when it comes to their employee’s safety. Employers are immune from civil wrongful death actions and, for all practical purposes, criminal prosecution.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Carlos Mauricio, Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA) client and torture survivor, with CJA Executive Director Pamela Merchant at CJA's May 2008 Annual Dinner in San Francisco

By Pamela Merchant
Executive Director
Center for Justice and Accountability

Last week, a unique group of California-based NGOs convened in Sacramento to educate California lawmakers on the importance of state-sponsored support and advocacy for California’s population of torture survivors. Representatives from the California Consortium of Torture Treatment Centers, which shares information and best practices regarding the treatment of torture survivors living in California, held a press conference to promote recognition of the long-term psychological and physical effects of torture and the role treatment centers in California play in the recovery process. The June 26th conference marked the 21st anniversary of the 1987 Geneva Convention Against Torture and the 11th United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

• Democratic-supported budget would largely restore Medi-Cal rate reductions
• California Discount Prescription Drug Program continues
• Semi-Annual Reports and Healthy Families premium increases still in negotiations
• Conference Committee could close down as early as this Sunday, July 6th

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Peter Scheer
Executive Director
California First Amendment Coalition www.cfac.org

You know summer is here when hordes of paparazzi descend, locust-like, on southern California beaches, angering locals as they pursue money-shots of sun-tanning celebrities---while politicians, seeing an opportunity for self-promotion, promise new laws to tame the unruly photogs.

It has become a political rite of summer: Paparazzi behave badly, and elected officials suspend their reading of National Enquirer and X17online.com long enough to call for draconian legislation that would undermine free speech rights while doing little, if anything, to curb the excesses of the camera-wielding mobs.