Cal Berkeley's Health Plan Lets Down Student, State
By Brian Leubitz
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal featured an article about student health plans.One of the cases studied was Paula Villescaz, a student at Berkeley and somebody that I have met through my participation in the California Young Democrats. She has been involved with CYD and the College Democrats for a while now, and has really been a rock star of involvement.
Unfortunately, as outlined in the article, when she got sick and actually needed health coverage, Berkeley's student health plan failed her.
Paula Villescaz, a senior at the University of California at Berkeley, says she never looked closely at the Anthem Blue Cross insurance policy she got through her college. The plan has a $400,000 ceiling, but also has some important limitations, as Ms. Villescaz found out recently.
Latinos Boosting Democratic Voter Enthusiasm
By Randy Shaw
With polls showing Republican gains in November dependent on a depressed Democratic turnout, activists are focusing on mobilizing the Democratic base. Among the most dispirited Democratic constituencies has been Latinos, but the latest weekly tracking poll from Latino Decisions shows Latinos’ positive perceptions of Democrats sharply rising in the wake of the Party’s unsuccessful effort to enact the DREAM act last week. The percentage of Latino voters who felt Democrats were ignoring or blocking immigration reform fell from 61% to 53.8%, and those who felt Democrats were actively working on immigration reform increased from 25% to 30%. This shift reflects a broader “return to the base” Democratic trend caused by a combination of Tea Party successes and President Obama’s increasingly partisan rhetoric to galvanize the Party’s core constituencies. The question is whether this trend has emerged too late.
Greenlining’s Guide to November Ballot Propositions: Corporations Trying to Buy Our Democracy -- Yet Again
By The Greenlining Institute
NO on Proposition 23 and Dirty Oil
It’s getting to be a depressingly familiar pattern: A ballot crowded with confusing propositions, one or more of which were placed there by corporate interests looking to pad their own pockets at the expense of taxpayers. Here we go again.