What the guys know
As this year's crop of college graduates settle into their jobs, young men and women are struggling to adapt to their changed environment. College may no longer be an isolated refuge from the world, but it is still very different from the world of business. Now the NY Times has a report from a young woman who has recently entered the job market. She has learned what so many older women have slowly, painfully learned over the years. The feminine skills of stepping back and being modestly silent about your achievements doesn't work very well. The world is a tough place and the pinched economy has only made it more so. This article deserves to be distributed widely to young graduates entering the job market.
Can you read your ballot?
Most voters don't think about the design of the ballot on which they are casting their votes, but as we learned in 2000, it can have a crucial impact on who wins. Can we expect young voters and those who don't often go to the polls to be enthusiastic about getting out to vote if they are not sure their ballot will reflect their choices? There are designers working on this issue and their work is demonstrated in this N.Y. Times article. You may be surprised to see how much difference it makes to be confronted with a clear, well-designed ballot as compared to a muddled, text-filled one. The use of simple language, the separation of directions from the voting area, and enough space to let the choices stand out clearly--all are important in ballot design. Take a look at your ballot design as you vote this year and if you have to take time to figure out how to use it, complain to local officials so that future ballots can be better designed. It's a small, but crucial step to keep democracy working.
Who pays for the news stories?
A new way to give people the news stories they want to see is being tried by a group of journalists. The model, as described in a N.Y. Times news story today, is called Crowdfunding. It's a model pioneered by Howard Dean in collecting money for political campaigns. Anyone can suggest a story that ought to be covered, a group of editors choose the ones of greatest interest, and individuals are asked to contribute small amounts of money until enough is collected to fund an investigative journalist. As often happens, San Francisco is at the leading edge of this trend with a website called Spot.us started by 26-year-old web journalist, David Cohn. If this trend catches on, we may be able to read about a variety of local issues that have not been covered,or covered sufficiently, by local media. There are obvious dangers, especially the possibility that small groups of enthusiasts will encourage biased reporting on various issues, but if journalistic standards are maintained, it could offer great benefits. The idea is that with many small donations, big interests will not be able to influence reporting. Concerned citizens will want to keep an eye on this latest development in news reporting and see whether it fulfils the promises.
Government by regulation
The League of Women Voters has worked for more than 80 years to encourage people to vote. Only by voting do average citizens get the chance to decide on ballot measures that express the will of the people and choose individuals to run the government. Increasingly, however, leaders in Washington are formulating regulations that affect the way citizens in California can live their lives. One of the most dramatic examples of this is the recent ruling on the provision of contraception and abortion in all states. Californians have expressed their preference for making coverage of contraception mandatory for health insurance plans and ensuring that all hospitals and health care providers must offer a full range of services. Now a new federal regulation has decreed that no state can enforce such a law. If they try to do so, they will lose federal health care funds--an amount of almost $37 billion a year for California. Whatever your position on contraception and abortion, it is important to voice your concern about the highhanded way the federal government has gone about this. Ruling by regulation instead of by following the wishes of voters makes a mockery of our democratic principles. It's important to let our legislators know how we feel about this.
What happens to the children?
The budget crisis continues in Sacramento and according to the S.F. Chronicle, some of the victims of the delay are young children. Money to child care providers have been held up and have to struggle to feed and care for their preschool charges. Legislators can find excuses for their failure to come up with a solution, but sometimes it seems as though they need a no-nonsense teacher or parent to say, "No more excuses. Just get to work and do it!" That's what we tell our children and it's about time the adults in the legislature followed the same rules.
Just a little bit fast?
As many people know, San Francisco will host a Slow Food fair over the Labor Day weekend. This promises to offer useful suggestions for people to move to healthier living. Gowing food, cooking it, and sharing it with others can be an enriching experience, however, let's hope it doesn't take us back to the 1950s. Some of us remember holidays when we girls stood in the kitchen washing pots and pans and dishes while our brothers joined the men in the living room to talk (and learn) about politics and what was going on in the world. Girls were not expected to be interested in those things, learning how to make a good tomato sauce was enough for us. The advent of frozen food was a lifesaver for many busy women who preferred to spend their time interacting with their children, or the outside world instead of the kitchen sink. By all means let's buy and eat more vegetables, but let's not go overboard. We want to help the environment by buying local food, but someday scientists will measure the amount of water and energy wasted in endlessly churning dishwashers for all those pots and pans. Then we'll return to healthy pre-prepared foods and not get chained to the kitchen again.
Sunny Day for the Bay Area
Although many people are looking forward to the day when solar power supplies many of the energy needs of our cities. most large utility companies have not invested much in this technology. Now PG&E has announced it plans to buy 800 megawatts of solar power from two Bay Area companies. This should be enough power to supply 239,000 homes and would create the country's first utility-scale photovoltaic plants, according to the S.F. Chronicle. Energy experts are hopeful that this move will demonstrate that solar power can be affordable and efficient. The state has ordered power companies to supply 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2010, but the companies are nowhere close to that goal. This development from PG&E will do a lot to bring the company closer to compliance, if not by 2010 then at least by 2013. Many interested citizens will want to keep watching how quickly PG&E moves forward with this effort.
Pared-down news teams
The majority of Americans get most of their news from television, either from the traditional networks or their newer cable rivals like CNN and MSNBC. Most people have seen pictures of the busy newsrooms from which the stories are coming, but according to a report in today's N.Y. Times, the news bureaus in many cities here and abroad are shrinking rapidly. News bureaus that have been maintained with reporters, photographers, and editors are turning into one-person operations. A single (very busy) reporter gathers the news, takes whatever photos are needed, and sends stories back to headquarters. Is this just a way to save money, or will it give more flexible news coverage? That's what viewers will have to judge. Important stories in distant places like this week's news from Georgia may become even more difficult to cover. There are fewer reporters in Moscow or anywhere else in Russia, so people have to be flown in from other European cities. The learning curve must be dramatic. It is no wonder that bloggers who are on the scene and know the area thoroughly are more and more often taking over the role that reporters used to play. Journalism is in flux and anyone interested in keeping up with events will be watching to see how it develops and hoping it will continue to serve the public's need to know.
Let's get real!
California seems to have a budget crisis every year, but this year's debacle seems worse than ever. If nothing is worked out this week, two important ballot measures will be too late to make it onto the November ballot. The governor's proposal to borrow against future lottery sales to pay down the deficit and another measure aimed at reforming the budget process will both be postponed at least until the next election. California voters already have an overwhelming burden of decisions about governance to handle, the least we can expect is that the legislature will allow us to deal with them in a timely way. San Francisco voters are being asked to decide about 22 city ballot measures in November as well as at least 12 state measures. How many of us have the time to investigate each of the issues being discussed and make reasonable decisions? Yet many voters do make that time and face up to task. Why can't our legislators do the same? Time is growing short in Sacramento, let's move!
More voting machine problems
Californians have been worrying about the effectiveness and reliability of voting machines for several election cycles. Fortunately our problems are not as bad as those in Ohio, a pivotal state for the upcoming presidential race. There several counties have sued the company formerly known as Diebold claiming that the touch screen machines lost votes and therefore gave inaccurate totals. The suggestion of returning to paper ballots has been made again, although paper ballots are also subject to error and possible fraud. It looks as though alert citizens will have to keep an eye on the voting machines used in November in every state. Many races are likely to be very close, and when victory hangs on a handful of votes, we must be sure the count is right.
Not such big feet
We've all heard a lot recently about carbon footprints and how they can be redueced through careful monitoring of pollution sources. Now at last it seems that San Francisco is having some success in cutting down on the city's carbon footprint. San Francisco has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent from 1990 levels and is on track to meet its goal of a 20 percent reduction in four years Perhaps the city will even exceed that goal. This is good news for all of us. During recent weeks we've been seeing on the media the grim effects of pollution on the air quality of Beijing even as they clean up the city for the Olympics. San Francisco's pollution issues are far different from those in Beijing, but no place is immune to these problems. Let's celebrate the progress we have made during the last few years and continue to push forward. This is one battle that deserve everyone's support.
New voting machine
Finding a perfect voting machine is not easy. Many of us remember the controversy over the 2000 election. Each election since then has raised questions about the validity of results from one jurisdiction or another. Now an entirely new attempt has been made to present a voting machine that meets all the requirements voters want. It is simple to operate, preserves a permanent record available in print format, and is not easy to hack. This new machine will be unveiled at the Linux conference this week. A mock election will be held to demonstrate how the machine works. Undoubtedly reporters will tell us how the demonstration works and whether the machine seems to meet expectations. Even if you are not a technology buff, it will be worth watching what happens at theat Linux conference this week. This could be an important step forward for all of us.
