[courtesy of California Progress Report]

• Impacts mobile home parks
• 1 million households impacted by rent control
• Registration deadline is May 19 for the June 3 primary election

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Governor Will Release Budget Changes on May 14th
Advocates Fear More Cuts Likely - Pressure Rises to Increase Revenues

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Marty D. Omoto
Director/Organizer
California Disability Community Action Network

Policymakers often like to use words that make the world - as they hope we'll see it - better.

That is human nature and to some extent we all do that to mask or somehow hide unpleasant or bad news (like responding to a friend in need of exercise who asks how their brand new spandex exercise shorts look on them, though I suppose it depends on the friend).

It's like the proverbial story of a parent telling a child that the old family dog was taken to a farm out in the country so he can roam free and live (rather than being told unfortunately that he was "put down" or less delicately, put in a cardboard box and "killed" at the local vet's office. Either way, its hard to make that sound good).

One believes masking the truth of course, makes it easier on the child, though it is also done to make it easier on the person who is giving the news so that it doesn't sound so bad.

Likewise, use of different words can create an artificial reality that allow policymakers during a budget crisis to speak of unpleasant proposals, bad and even horrific ideas that one would normally dare not speak in public (never mind in church).

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Hillary Clinton has called on Congress to provide $30 billion to help alleviate the mortgage crisis. Clinton has also said that shewill introduce legislation to protect mortgage servicers fromlitigation.

A law that requires California drivers to use hands-free accessories when talking on their cell phones might not make for saferdriving. "There’s a common misperception that hands-free phones aresafer when the research clearly suggests that they they’re both equallyrisky," said Arthur Goodwin, a University of North Carolina HighwaySafety Research Center researcher.

Legislators killed a proposal yesterday that would have allowed pregnant women to qualify for disabled parking. "Pregnancy is not itself a disability and, secondly, we are creating anissue for the disability community without offering a solution," saidCharlotte Newhart of California NOW.

There's more...

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