The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District is engaged in a comprehensive Vision Planning process and seeks your involvement in four upcoming meetings.
Continue reading “Open Space Visioning for Rancho San Antonio”
League News
LWV Forum in Palo Alto – Affordable Care Act in California
Kudos to LWVLAMV members Sue Graham, Cathy Lazarus, Ginny Lear and the LWVSCC President’s Council for an outstanding talk last night on the Affordable Care Act in Palo Alto. Speaker Bob Bernstein, Director of Policy and Research at Working USA, did an excellent job of organizing and summarizing key points, giving us a few, broad brush criteria for a health care system and linking what ACA will provide to those criteria. He definitely kept the audience out of the weeds, which was a good thing in explaining a complex law.
Browstein said the key planks of the ACA legislation in California are 1) the exchanges or marketplaces which cannot refuse people with pre-existing conditions, 2) the mandate which prods healthy people to buy insurance, avoiding adverse selection and 3) creating efficiencies in medical care delivery that will bend and flatten the long-term cost curve. He took numerous questions from the audience including how to help the homeless apply and how the act affects various Medicare supplemental plans.
Bold New Members Pass Motion to Study UC, CSU and CC Systems
[UPDATE March 19, 2014. Are you interested in learning more about higher education in our state? Are you great as part of a team? Are you looking for a top-notch professional experience doing good? Apply to serve on our Higher Education Study Committee: http://bit.ly/1l43b68 Yes, the little study proposal that started right here in our own LWMV chapter January 2013 is now a real, official LWV of California study. The scope is not quite the same as was proposed last May, but the “founders” — Lucas Ramirez, Max Beckman-Harned and Ellen Wheeler — are please that the state league will actually develop a position of the State and UC systems. Right now the state league only has positions on k-12 and community colleges – a gap in coverage. So do a good deed and apply to extend League positions to our State and UC systems.]
At the LWVC State Convention May 16-19 in San Jose, the State Board and staff urged delegates to “Be Bold” just like our forbears when they fought for suffrage. New members Lucas Ramirez and Max Beckman-Harned heeded this call to action, boldly proposing and passing a new State League study on California higher education.
Lucas and Max were joined by numerous key supporters who advised on the strategy and tactics for jumping through all the right parliamentary hoops at the convention. It’s no easy feat to get a “not recommended by State Board ” motion approved by delegates. In pictures and words, you will see what was passed and how they beat the odds. Be Bold!
Bold New Members Pass Motion To Study
Continue reading “Bold New Members Pass Motion to Study UC, CSU and CC Systems”
Ribbon-Cutting at both MVLA High Schools
On Thursday, August 14, the Mountain View Los Altos (MVLA) High School District held two ribbon-cutting ceremonies to officially open new classroom buildings at both campuses. Board President Judy Hannemann and Superintendent Barry Groves presided over the festivities. The early morning events at 8am and 9am drew light crowds of visitors, project participants and students. Mountain View mayor John Inks attended the Mountain View campus ceremony.
LWVLAMV Annual Meeting 2013 Highlights
The 43 members at the June 1st League of Women Voters Los Altos Mountain View annual business meeting elected a new board, approved a conditional change in tax status to 501c(3) –tax exempt donations– and heard Joe Simitian, two-term state Senator and our current Santa Clara County Board Supervisor, talk about Civility in Politics.
Our League of Women Voters Los Altos Mountain View chapter recommended the following for education and advocacy at the state level. (No studies were recommended.)
1. Continue working on core issues such as health care, redistricting, initiative and referendum (all)
2. Promote school safety using LWVC’s position on gun control (Dorothea Grimes-Farrow, Steve Chessin)
3. Explore public funding for early childhood education (Ellen Wheeler)
September Letter from the President
As I step into the Presidency, many thanks to Past-President Sue Graham for her extraordinary leadership, vision and commitment to make our League of Women Voters Los Altos Mountain View a respected voice on topical issues in our community. By way of introduction, I am “almost” a California native, having graduated from Gunn High School and Stanford University. I had a rewarding career in public administration with Santa Clara County and the City of Mountain View, until I retired in 2009. We are 30-year residents of Los Altos.
Plan Bay Area Approved
So What is Plan Bay Area?
Plan Bay Area charts a course for the Bay Area’s Sustainable Communities Strategy out to the year 2040. The Plan will accommodate needed growth within our nine counties while at the same time decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. Clustering housing in cities and reducing travel needs is intended to help California achieve GHG reduction under AB 32, the state’s landmark climate change legislation. —Sue Graham, VP Programs LWVLAMV
September Message from the President
As I step into the Presidency, many thanks to Past-President Sue Graham for her extraordinary leadership, vision and commitment to make our League of Women Voters Los Altos Mountain View a respected voice on topical issues in our community. By way of introduction, I am “almost” a California native, having graduated from Gunn High School and Stanford University. I had a rewarding career in public administration with Santa Clara County and the City of Mountain View, until I retired in 2009. We are 30-year residents of Los Altos.
LWVUSA Website Highlights – Fracking, Money in Politics
The League is concerned that two sites were left out of EPA Progress Report.
On May 7, 2013 the League — namely the LWVUS and 18 different state Leagues — offered comments to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board on the study of the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources. [Citizens and residents] are highly dependent on the reliability of this EPA Study.
The League of Women Voters [is] . . . concerned
Continue reading “LWVUSA Website Highlights – Fracking, Money in Politics”
Disclose Act California working its way through State Senate
The Clean Money Campaign reports that SB 52, the Disclose Act, cleared the first of seven hurdles, passing out of the state Senate Elections Committee and on to the Senate Appropriations Committee and then to the full Senate in late May.
Authored by Senators Mark Leno (SD 12) and Jerry Hill (SD 13) and sponsored by the California Clean Money Campaign, SB 52 would require political ads to show their top three funders clearly and prominently so voters know who is paying for the ads.
Continue reading “Disclose Act California working its way through State Senate”