Pacific Coast Forage Fish Protection Strongest in the World
By D.B. Pleschner
Some people have the wrong impression regarding the Pacific Fishery Management Council's upcoming decision - on April 9 - to adopt the Pacific Coast Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP).
It's been implied that there is rampant overfishing of forage species - like sardines. The FEP will supposedly address this issue by reducing catch limits on these fish in order to maintain a food source for bigger species like salmon and albacore.
However, this simply isn't true.
The Council authorized development of the FEP to "enhance the Council's species-specific management programs with more ecosystem science, broader ecosystem considerations and management policies that coordinate Council management across its Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) and the California Current Ecosystem (CCE)."
Five New Reasons Not to Buy Matzah at Walmart
By Danny Feingold
If you're like me, right now you may be scrambling to stock up on all of your Passover essentials. So what if I told you that you could get 12 boxes of matzah - more than enough to cover the eight days and nights of breadless revelry - for just over $40 bucks?
Ah, but there's a catch: You'll have to buy this miracle matzah pak at Walmart. Moral dilemma? You bet.
Last year I provided a short list of reasons you might want to think twice about a Walmart matzah binge. I wish I could report that Walmart had cleaned up its act since then, but alas, the world's largest retailer has racked up a series of alleged corporate crimes and indiscretions that would make a pharaoh blush.
The Atrophied Conscience of Apartheid America
By Mark Naison
Little by little, we have created an apartheid nation, a place where a profound spatial and moral divisions separate the lives of the privileged and the unfortunate. The boundaries are not strictly racial - though those on the lower side of the divide are overwhelmingly people of color - nor are they marked by gates and walls and fences. Rather, they are enforced by a complex set of codes followed by law enforcement authorities who have acquired immense power to assure public safety since the imposition of the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, powers that have effectively prevented the poor from doing anything to prevent their marginalization, and which have given wealthy elites virtually immunity from threats to their well being coming either from political action, mass protest or street crime.
Why Isn't There a War on Easter?
By Tina Dupuy
Why haven't these clever secularists tried to take over Easter just like they've allegedly hijacked Christmas? What's taking them so long?
Bill O'Reilly deciphered the secret scheme to de-Christian Christmas. On his Christmastime program last year he said, "I absolutely agree 100 percent that the diminishment of Christianity is the target and Christmas is the vehicle because the secularists know the opposition to their agenda - legalized drugs is in that as well - comes primarily from the Judeo-Christian traditionalist people."
Legislature Moves Health Bills Forward with Bipartisan Support
By Linda Leu
Tuesday, the Assembly Health Committee met in regular session to consider a bill that would close a loophole in the Affordable Care Act, affirming the Legislature's commitment to improving upon the federal law.
Dr. Richard Pan's bill, AB314, addresses a loophole in the Affordable Care Act that exempts self-funded student plans from some of the important consumer protections of federal health reform. Notably, there is no prohibition on annual or lifetime benefit caps, meaning students that have high health care costs could see their insurance "run out" once the plan has paid a certain dollar amount toward their care.
Dolores Huerta to Be Inducted into California Hall of Fame
By Duane Campbell
On March 20, 2013, Dolores Huerta will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame for her lifelong contributions to labor and community leadership. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
Huerta has contributed to movements for union rights and social justice since the founding - along with Cesar Chaves, Philip Vera Cruz and others - of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union and continues through her current work in supporting union democracy, civic engagement and empowerment of women and youth in disadvantaged communities. The creation of the UFW changed the nature of labor organizing in the Southwest and contributed significantly to the growth of Latino politics in the U.S.
The Tea Party's Last Stand
By Victoria DeFrancesco Soto
It was a fierce battle. One that the Texan underdogs knew they would likely not survive let alone emerge from victorious. But the men who were holed up in the Alamo, led by William Travis, Davy Crocket, and Jim Bowie, took a stand for a cause they believed in regardless of the consequences.
The battle at the Alamo took place 177 years ago this week. And coincidentally, on its anniversary another group of men took their last stand on the floor of the U.S. Senate. A band led by Tea Party Senators battled to filibuster John Brennan's confirmation to serve as CIA director. There were no muskets or knives involved; instead it was a battle that relied on candy bars and strategic sips of water.
CHSRA Board Approves Blended Plan, Bond Sales
By Robert Cruickshank
The California High Speed Rail Authority board met Monday and took action on two rather significant items.
First, the board voted to approve the Memorandum of Understanding with Caltrain that allows the "blended plan" to move forward. Approval had been delayed earlier this month when Lynn Schenk voiced her concern that the "blended plan" wasn't workable and fell short of the Prop 1A guidelines. Other longtime HSR supporters welcomed the MOU and the "blended plan":
Fixing the Economy's Real Problem
By Robert Reich
"Our biggest problems over the next ten years are not deficits," the President told House Republicans Wednesday, according to those who attended the meeting.
The President needs to deliver the same message to the public, loudly and clearly. The biggest problems we face are unemployment, stagnant wages, slow growth, and widening inequality - not deficits. The major goal must be to get jobs and wages back, not balance the budget.
Paul Ryan's budget plan - essentially, the House Republican plan - is designed to lure the White House and Democrats, and the American public, into a debate over how to balance the federal budget in ten years, not over whether it's worth doing.
The American Dream: A Conspiracy Fact
By Tina Dupuy
I've been assured my in-laws don't read my column. However, because of their mix of shame, guilt and blame, I'll be vague on some details. They've fallen on hard times. No one wants to talk about it, let alone have it written about and syndicated.
But I think their story is illustrative:
My in-laws live in a generic suburb of modest mid-century tract homes in the middle of strip mall sprawl. They have a well-attended lawn; two mid-range cars in the driveway, a loyal Lab mix sleeping on the porch. They both worked in middle management in not-important-enough-to-name small businesses tangentially related to serving the housing industry for over 20 years each. They paid off their mortgage. Their son, my husband, was the first in their family to attend college. During the housing boom they looked at the massive amount their small three-bedroom home was worth and opted not to partake in the equity, but knew it meant they were secure. The future was bright.
In short: They were living every part of the real American Dream. Not the grandiose one where we're all millionaires or soon-to-be millionaires. The one where we all have a job, a home and our kids are better off than we were. My in-laws had that.
