News Notes: Thousands of Bay Area children to lose health coverage

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to end the Healthy Families Program could leave more than 60,000 Bay Area children without health care coverage by June 30, 2010, according to the California Budget Project.
The same project reports, San Francisco alone stands to lose coverage for 12,190 children at a cost of $11,181,000. » Read more

Ideologies continue to divide same-sex marriage issue

As hundreds gathered in front of the Earl Warren Building on Tuesday waiting to hear the California Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld Proposition 8, a war of words erupted and some even turned into screaming battles that reinforced the deeply divided ideologies about same-sex marriage. » Read more

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News Notes: Budget cuts lead to UCSC hunger strike

By Hank Drew
The Public Press
Dozens of University of California, Santa Cruz, students and faculty are participating in a hunger strike to bring awareness to the effects of $13 million in budget cuts to the university.

KPIX reports that strikers are worried the cuts will negatively impact minority enrollment at the university. » Read more

Student records lost in Oakland

It’s the end of lunch at Media Academy in Oakland, and students are heading back to class. One of them is Ronald Johnson. He’s a good student and he’s involved in lots of extracurricular activities.
“I’m in leadership, head of sound crew, I’m editor-in-chief at the newspaper,” he said. » Read more

Turning another page in the news

The future of journalism is in Las Vegas — or at least that’s what Rob Curley, multimedia extraordinaire and tech consultant for The Las Vegas Sun, imbued into a large group of entrepreneurs and media folks at Stanford business school Tuesday night. “What if a newspaper could start over?” he began his presentation by asking. Ten minutes later, it appeared the audience believed the Sun had. The presentation was nothing less than Vegas pizzazz. The Sun’s new partner site, Las Vegas Weekly, is promoting the news in an engaging, er, pleasing way.

Propositions 1A and 1B

Of the six propositions on the May 19 Special Election ballot, Proposition 1A — the “rainy-day fund” — has garnered the most attention, and for good reason. The measure seeks to change how the state’s general fund would be balanced at a time when revenues are faltering and the need for public services is great. » Read more

Propositions 1C and 1D

The biggest change to existing lottery law if Proposition C passes is that it would no longer require lottery profits to be dedicated to educational institutions. Currently, these profits make up around 1 percent of the overall budget of California’s public education institutions. » Read more

Propositions 1E and 1F

Proposition 1E proposes to divert a portion of the funds from Prop. 63 to the state general fund.
Approved by voters in 2004, Prop. 63, also known as the Mental Health Services Act, is funded by an additional 1 percent income tax for Californians who earn more than $1 million. » Read more

‘Remind me why I was so afraid’

I was watching President Barack Obama’s 100-day press conference last week and the strangest thing happened. I didn’t think he was black.
It wasn’t that I thought he was white or some other ethnicity. He just seemed like the president. Smart, thoughtful and confident. » Read more