The Governor and Assembly Speaker have emerged from negotiations with a healthcare plan that needs to be sent back for major reconstructive surgery. The plan has some very good elements – such as preventing insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, a long-overdue expansion of children’s healthcare coverage and, potentially, the creation of the largest purchasing pool in the health insurance market outside of the federal government. But the proposal has major flaws that must be fixed before it has a chance of final approval by California voters. Read the full story on Daily Kos. Read more »

By John Upton
San Francisco Examiner

San Franciscans will be able to purchase absolution for some of their environmental sins under a new city program that will use the funds to reduce climate changing emissions from government work and from local businesses and residents. Activities powered by fossil fuels or bio-fuels, such as driving, flying or building a bridge, change the Earth’s weather by increasing the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air — a phenomenon scientists call global warming. An array of new businesses have recently begun selling what’s known as carbon offsets, which reduce the effects of carbon dioxide emissions by paying for projects that fight global warming. Read more »

By Adam Tanner
Reuters

San Francisco will become the first U.S. city to offer a program to offset the impact of global warming by funding local green activities, the mayor said in an interview on Monday. Under the program to be announced on Tuesday, city officials would calculate the carbon cost of their travels and contribute to one of several city programs aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions -- or forego the travel altogether. "What we are trying to do by this is to set high standards to show carbon offset programs that work," Gavin Newsom told Reuters, adding he was wary of offsets with little accountability that promise action in distant lands. Read more »

By Robert Selna
San Francisco Chronicle

Mayor Gavin Newsom and city criminal justice officials announced on Thursday the location of a new court the mayor has been promising to more quickly judge low-level street crimes in the Tenderloin and steer offenders into community service and rehabilitative programs. At a press conference inside the new courtroom at Polk and Turk street - just north of Civic Center Plaza - Newsom said the newly-named Community Justice Center will open in July after a five-month trial run at the Hall of Justice, where the city's other criminal courts are housed.

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By David Smith
San Francisco Examiner

A new court in San Francisco’s Tenderloin that is being created to handle low-level criminal behavior in the downtown area has found a home just two blocks from the steps of City Hall. The City’s Criminal Justice Center — a special court that Mayor Gavin Newsom has said will direct offenders of such crimes as nonviolent drug use, theft, prostitution and aggressive panhandling to appropriate social services rather than jail or fines — will be housed at 575 and 555 Polk Street. Modeled partially after New York City’s Midtown Community Court, which requires most defendants to perform community service or attend a group meeting within 24 hours of arraignment, the San Francisco’s new court will take cases from the Civic Center, Tenderloin, Union Square and South of Market neighborhoods. Read more »