Californians Know Better
By Annie NotthoffNatural Resources Defense Council
A bunch of the dirtiest oil refiners from Texas are trying to derail landmark California legislation that will cut greenhouse gas pollution and jumpstart the state’s emerging green economy.
The cabal, led by Texas-based Valero Energy Corp., Tesoro Corp., Tower Energy Group and World Oil Corp, is spending millions of dollars to pay professional signature gatherers to circulate petitions to qualify the “California Jobs Initiative” for the November ballot. They’ve already upped the payment to $2 per name – more than 4 times the going rate. That just shows how unpopular their dirty energy proposition is and how determined the polluters are to pay whatever it costs to get it on the ballot.
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At the Tea Party: Minutemen and Birchers, yes; Birthers no
By Peter SchragThe organizers of last Thursday’s Tea Party event in Pleasanton, one of scores of similar affairs held in connection with this year’s income tax deadline, pointedly dis-invited Orly Taitz, the mother of all birthers. They seem to be working hard to show, and telling anyone who asks, that they’re just traditional American activists, not kooks.
And from the looks of the star-spangled 10,000 or so who showed up Thursday at the Alameda Fairgrounds, the scariest things about them, notwithstanding some of their bizarre 18th century costumes, is their ordinariness. Nice everyday folks. As the national surveys have shown elsewhere – they’re overwhelmingly white, older than average, better educated, as measured in college degrees, and better off. Sixty-three percent, told a New York Times survey that their prime source of news is Fox, nearly triple the national number.
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President Directs HHS to Enforce Basic Protections in Hospital Stays for LGBT Families
By Dan AielloCalifornia Progress Report
By signing friday a memorandum directing Health and Human Services to ensure the advanced medical directives of a patient are respected and followed, President Obama demonstrated his support for the visitation and healthcare decision-making rights of gay and lesbian Americans who sought the administration's intervention following one Florida couple's tragic experience last year that galvanized the community behind the issue.
Partners Lisa Pond and Janice Langbehn, despite having an advanced healthcare directive in place, found Pond's wishes ignored by the staff of Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami following Pond's last admission. Langebahn, along with the couple’s children, were refused admission to Pond's room and kept from her bedside as she lay dying.
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