New America in California: Publications, Events and More

The Little Unions That Couldn't

Erin Drankoski — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:35:00 -0500

The Perfect Lieutenant Governor: Me

Erin Drankoski — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:07:00 -0500

Dear Gov. Schwarzenegger,

I hear you're searching for a new lieutenant governor. If I may be so bold, I can think of one Californian who is the right fit for the job.

Me.

Now that Lt. Gov. John Garamendi is vacating the office to take a seat in Congress, I know you're considering smart politicians of both parties. But selecting a proven leader would be a terrible mistake. Someone with real experience in government would be frustrated by the utter powerlessness and insignificance of the lieutenant governor's office.

California's Revolutionaries | Le Monde

Erin Drankoski — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:05:00 -0500

On the docket: "Proposition 13," the referendum by which the people of California, in 1978, voted to amend the constitution of the state to limit taxes. The text of the referendum caps the property tax to 1% of property value. To raise taxes, there needs to be a super-majority vote of two thirds in the legislature. "California is the only state where it takes a two-thirds majority vote to pass a budget and raise taxes, comments Steven Hill

'Change Has Come' ... or Has It?

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:07:00 -0500

"We thought we were getting a man of action. Instead, we got someone who'll spend six hours chasing a white ball around a park," Joe Mathews, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, said, with tongue planted only partly in cheek. "If voters had known about the golf, they would have been less surprised by his lack of urgency on many issues." ... Original Article

Newsom's Departure Is All About Brown | San Francisco Business Times

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:55:00 -0500

Forget the issues with cash and the polls, says New America Foundation senior fellow Joe Mathews, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s decision to leave the Democratic race for governor boils down to one thing. ... Original Article

US Health Care Reform Could Leave Implementation to States | California Healthline

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:22:00 -0500

... medical care," Micah Weinberg, a senior research fellow in the California Program of the New America Foundation, argues in a Sacramento Bee opinion piece...

Replenished Ethnicity

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:14:00 -0500

Unlike the wave of immigration that came through Ellis Island and then subsided, immigration to the United States from Mexico has been virtually uninterrupted for one hundred years. In this vividly detailed book, Tomás R. Jiménez takes us into the lives of later-generation descendents of Mexican immigrants, asking for the first time how this constant influx of immigrants from their ethnic homeland has shaped their assimilation. His nuanced investigation of this complex and little-studied phenomenon finds that continuous immigration has

Pop Up Magazine: Magazines Live! | 7x7

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:05:00 -0500

San Francisco writer Douglas McGray (an Irvine fellow at the New American Foundation), a contributor of social-policy narratives for The New Yorker and the acclaimed public-radio show, This American Life, is Pop-Up's editor in chief. "Branching out into radio opened my eyes to all the ways a story can be told," says McGray, 34. Despite what he calls the "awkward phase" that journalism is currently suffering, the Maine native claims that Pop-Up Magazine is not a reaction to a floundering print-media industry.

Don't Count Illegal Immigrants? That Doesn't Add Up

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:50:00 -0500

Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, has introduced legislation that, if passed, would instruct the U.S. Census Bureau not to take into account illegal immigrants and other noncitizens in the 2010 census. I'm all for it. Furthermore, I propose that the government no longer recognize deficits in budgets, record violent crimes in police reports, acknowledge casualties of war or count -- let alone give proper names! -- to hurricanes in weather reports.

Election Week | New York Times

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:22:00 -0500

“This fact should have been disclosed during the campaign,” wrote Joe Mathews, a senior fellow at the New American Foundation. “We thought we were getting a ...

Cut Health Costs? Here's A Prescription | Sacramento Bee

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:34:00 -0500

According to the New America Foundation, premiums in California have grown seven times faster than median household income. Even being the very best, ...

The Conversation: Cut Health Costs? Here's A Prescription

Erin Drankoski — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:58:00 -0400

There is widespread agreement that if federal health care reform passes, making it work will depend in great part on getting a handle on spiraling medical costs that already consume nearly one of every five dollars spent in the United States.

Banking Development District Initiative Advances in Los Angeles

Elizabeth Wu — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:22:00 -0400

For Immediate Release

Banking Districts Proposed for Low Income Areas | San Fernando Valley Business Journal

Erin Drankoski — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:28:00 -0400

According to the New America Foundation, more than 300,000 Angelenos lack basic checking and savings accounts. "But this is a reality in too many low-income communities throughout Los Angeles and across the state, where banks and credit unions are nonexistent," said Olivia Calderon, California legislative director of the Asset Building Program at the foundation. ... Original Article

CA EVENT: The Future of Early Education Systems in California (Pre K-3rd)

Elizabeth Wu — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
10/29/2009 - 11:30am

As California struggles to close persistent achievement gaps, it is increasingly apparent that these gaps exist at school entry and that efforts to improve the early education systems (PreK-3rd) are warranted. Please join us in the release of "On the Cusp in California: How PreK-3rd Strategies Could Improve Education in the Golden State," a policy paper from New America's Early Education Initiative that highlights key strategies for creating a more seamless system for early learning in California.

Romania's Amnesia-induced Ambivalence

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:35:00 -0400

Three weeks ago, when the Nobel committee awarded its literature prize to Romanian writer Herta Muller, it lauded her courageous and unflinching fictional portraits of "daily life in a stagnated dictatorship" in communist Romania. What they did not mention, however, was Muller's ongoing nonfictional critique of the leadership of post-communist Romania.

CA's System of Initiative and Referendum | KOGO

Erin Drankoski — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:01:00 -0400

CA EVENT: Updating California's Poverty Measure

Elizabeth Wu — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:41:00 -0400

A New America Event
10/14/2009 - 12:00pm

The California Asset Building program hosted a policy roundtable discussion Wednesday October 14 in the State Capitol on updating the antiquated and misleading way we measure poverty. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Director of Poverty Research, Mark Levitan, led Assembly and Senate staff in the in-depth discussion (view his presentation here). Last year, New York City enacted an updated and improved poverty measure based on recommendations made by the National Academy of Sciences.

Direct Democracy | The Oregonian

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:04:00 -0400

Yet there are some interesting reform ideas now floating around California. In an oped in Monday's Los Angeles Times, Joe Mathews, a senior fellow at the New American Foundation, offers several possible changes in California's system. Here are three of Mathews' proposal. ... Original Article

Amending California's Direct Democracy

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:32:00 -0400

In a recent speech to the Academy of Arts and Sciences, California Chief Justice Ronald M. George became the latest sharp critic of the state's system of direct democracy. "Frequent amendments -- coupled with the implicit threat of more in the future -- have rendered our state government dysfunctional," he said.

The chief justice isn't the first state leader to take aim at the way ballot measures are enacted in California, and he won't be the last.