By Caitlin O’Neill
ACLU of Northern California

We all know someone who has suffered from an alcohol or drug problem, whether it be a family member, friend, or acquaintance.  

Through these personal experiences, we also know that the path to recovery can be incredibly difficult. The California Society of Addiction Medicine, along with nearly 100 other organizations, agrees that this path should begin with treatment, community support, and the necessary life tools that allow for successful rehabilitation. That’s why these organizations – from drug treatment to civil rights to law enforcement – all support Senate Bill 1506.

By Dick Meister

The right of U.S. workers to organize and bargain collectively with their employers unhindered by employer or government interference has been a legal right since the 1930s.  Yet there are workers who are unaware of that, and employers who aim to keep them unaware, meanwhile doing their utmost to keep them from exercising what is a basic civil right.

Many employers often claim working people are in any case not much interested in unionization, noting that less than 15 percent of workers currently belong to unions.

But as anyone who has looked beneath the employer claims has discovered, it's the illegal opposition of employers and the failure of government regulatory agencies to curtail the opposition that's the basic cause of the low rate of unionization.

By Reshma Shamasunder
New America Media

Yesterday was the last day to register to vote in the June 5th election in California. Even though voter registration deadlines come and go each year, for immigrant communities in California this one is critical because there’s probably more at stake this election year for immigrants and their families than ever.

Yesterday hundreds of immigrants from across California converged on Sacramento to urge policy-makers to pass legislation that supports immigrant workers and their families. Immigrants in California have a reason to be hopeful. In 2011, the state passed landmark legislation benefiting immigrant communities, ranging from providing undocumented students financial assistance to changes in car impoundment policies. This show of civic engagement at the state level is important to our state as our national election nears.

By Richard (RJ) Eskow

When Jamie Dimon revealed that JPMorgan Chase had lost billions through risky and legally questionable trading, he said the losses would be about $2 billion and maybe more. Apparently it is more - a lot more. People in a position to know are saying the real figure is probably in the $5-7 billion range.

The JPMorgan Chase scandal - and yes, it is a scandal - shows us why we need to break up the big banks as quickly as possible.

But that won't happen unless we can get our hands around the real scope of the problem, which is probably far greater than we're being told. That means cutting through the enveloping shroud of jargon, euphemisms and double talk - "crap," if you will - that keeps us from seeing the situation as it really is.

Here's why we need to do it, and here's how.

Talk Talk

By Peter Schrag

There are lots of good reasons to support Proposition 29, the tobacco tax initiative on the June 5 ballot, not least those named Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds. Together, the two tobacco giants have so far kicked in about $40 million to the sleazy campaign to defeat it. If you count the nearly $700,000 that the Republican Party contributed to their cause you have yet another reason.

They call themselves Californians Against Out-Of-Control Taxes and Spending but it’s probably easier to remember them as the Friends of Lung Cancer.

But because Proposition 29, another instance of ballot box budgeting, takes a revenue source off the table, and because the feds are already funding cancer research to the tune of some $5 billion annually, the issue is not all that simple.

By Conner Everts, Southern California Watershed Alliance, and Adam Scow, Food & Water Watch

Last week Food & Water Watch, Southern California Watershed Alliance, and Green LA Coalition challenged the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) for its opposition to an independent cost-benefit analysis of the proposed multibillion-dollar Peripheral Canal or Tunnel project.

Who would get the water and who would pay the bill, which is now estimated to be $20 billion to upwards of $50 billion? MWD opposes an independent cost-benefit analysis. But it’s MWD customers and other water district ratepayers in the southland who would pay the bill.

By Mike Odeh, Children Now and Michele Stillwell-Parvensky, Children’s Defense Fund-California

Yes, times are tough for California. But tough times don’t justify putting kids at the back of the line, and yet that’s what exactly what Governor Brown’s recently released May Revision budget proposal would do when it comes to children’s health.

We know that children with health insurance get better preventive care, do better in school, and live healthier overall. But health coverage is only half the story; children also need meaningful and timely access to health care services and providers.

By Alan Jenkins

One by one, the excuses have fallen. Yet Edward DeMarco, acting head of FHFA, the agency that runs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, still fails to offer the most effective relief available to American homeowners struggling with mortgages held by those entities. Economists, housing experts, and members of DeMarco’s own staff have concluded that reducing to affordable levels the principal owed on at-risk mortgages is effective in reducing foreclosures and their destructive fallout. But, inexplicably, he’s been unmoved by the mounting evidence.

Two weeks ago, after hinting at a possible change of heart, DeMarco punted on the question, saying it needed more study and stating that such a policy question “should be determined by Congress.” But the evidence is too clear, and the stakes are too high, for further delay. It’s time for Mr. DeMarco to either act in the nation’s interest or get out of the way.

By Dan Bacher

The Klamath Riverkeeper (KRK) Thursday filed a federal lawsuit over the harm caused to endangered coho salmon by Dwinnell Dam and a series of water diversions operated by Montague Water Conservation District (MWCD) on the Shasta River.

The Karuk Tribe also said it would file its own 60-day notice of intent to litigate on the same grounds on Friday, May 18.

The legal filing by the citizens group follows a 60-day notice period during which KRK offered MWCD an opportunity to negotiate a settlement outside the courtroom, according to a press release from KRK and the Tribe.

The March KRK letter stated, “Klamath Riverkeeper is interested in discussing effective remedies for the violations noted in this letter. If you wish to pursue such discussions in the absence of further litigation, we suggest that you initiate those discussions within the next 20 days so that they may be completed before the end of the 60‐day notice period."

By Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield

SACRAMENTO – In this Democratic weekly radio address, Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield (D-San Fernando Valley) discusses the California budget deficit and Governor Jerry Brown’s recently revised budget proposal. Blumenfield, Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, notes that a slow recovery and court decisions blocking previous cuts have contributed to the $16 billion deficit. Blumenfield also points to the need for Californians to pair new revenues with the cuts that must be made.

This week’s English language address is 2:05
http://www.asmdc.org/audio/20120518RadioAddressEnglishBlumenfieldMayRevise.MP3

This week’s Spanish language address is 3:38.
http://www.asmdc.org/audio/20120518RadioAddressBlumenfieldMayRevisedBudgetSpanish.MP3