San Jose Mercury News

San Jose Mercury News | UCSC Grad Winning Kudos for 'Overtreated', A Health Care System Critique

Spending more on health care can be bad for our health, according to Shannon Brownlee, an award-winning medical journalist and UC Santa Cruz graduate who has earned widespread kudos for her book about the nation's sprawling health care system.

In "Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer," Brownlee challenges common medical practices. She depicts an uneven… more

San Jose Mercury News | Auction Takes 'First Step' to Open-Access Wireless

. . . Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, said Verizon's ability to subsidize certain handsets gives it enormous market power in determining which devices and applications will ultimately become popular with consumers.

But Calabrese said the auction did help achieve the goals of increased openness and innovation. "We need to extend these consumer protections, but this was an important first… more

Last week, a bill was proposed by a majority of Assemly Democrats to impose extra taxes on oil companies to help prevent pink slips for teachers. A March 12 vote, mostly along party lines, failed to garner the required two-thirds majority for passage of a tax increase.

But Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez has said he does not plan to give up on the idea.

Despite the importance of not laying off teachers, failure to pass was a good result. The bill, ABX3… more

Google CEO Will Take New America Foundation's Helm (San Jose Mercury News)

Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt has been named to be the next chairman of the New America Foundation, which researches issues such as health care and education.

Schmidt will become chairman June 1, the foundation said Thursday in a statement. He succeeds James Fallows, a writer for the Atlantic Monthly magazine and former speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter.

Schmidt will help the organization as the… more

An individual knows that if he is content with his spending, but struggles to pay for it, he needs to rethink his income stream. Perhaps his salary hasn’t kept up with inflation or he needs to retool and get a better job. An individual also knows that if he wants or needs to spend more -- get a finer car or raise another child -- he needs a raise, an extra job, or a better paying one.

California needs to do… more

SACRAMENTO - When Blue Cross sells health insurance to someone who isn't covered at work, the company typically makes a 27 percent profit. By the time salaries and other administrative costs are accounted for, only half the money the company collects in premiums from that person goes for medical care.Those figures may help explain why Blue Cross - the insurance provider for roughly one in four people in the state who have health coverage, and with political heft… more

ALBANY, N.Y. - The federal Education Department official who oversees lenders owned about $100,000 worth of stock in a student-loan company now under investigation in an expanding nationwide probe of the $85 billion student-loan industry.A September 2003 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows Matteo Fontana held at least 10,500 shares of Education Lending Group, the former parent company of Student Loan Xpress. The shares were valued about $9.50 each at the time, according to New York… more

WASHINGTON - President Bush has called Iraq a crucial battleground in a decades-long struggle against Islamic terrorism."It's important for our fellow citizens to understand that failure in Iraq would be a disaster for our future," he told soldiers at Fort Benning, Ga., last week. "It's a different kind of war in which failure in one part of the world could lead to disaster here at home ... That is why we must, and we will, succeed in Iraq." more

SACRAMENTO - As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger puts the final touches on his proposal to revamp the state's ailing health care system, a new statewide poll suggests that only a bare majority of California voters are satisfied with the current system, and a large majority worry about what the future might bring...Schwarzenegger has dubbed 2007 "the year of health care" and plans to unveil his closely guarded reform ideas Monday, sparking what he hopes will become a collaborative, bipartisan… more

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is signaling that he will push strongly for redistricting reform next year to change California's gerrymandered election process, relying on the same bipartisan course he steered successfully this year.

Voters rejected the governor's redistricting ballot initiative in last year's special election. Legislative leaders were unable to work out a deal in time for this November's vote, but there appears to be renewed interest from both parties to fix a flawed system...

Doolittle rejected any approach that would… more