August 7, 2017
Orange County
Voice of OC: Contract dispute could have left some CalOptima patients without mental health care
The state’s Department of Managed Health Care wrote in a settlement it brokered with Magellan that “CalOptima received notice regarding providers refusing mental health services to CalOptima Medi-Cal enrollees,” although it doesn’t say how many providers were refusing services.
Voice of OC: Laguna Niguel City Council to decide if Jerry Slusiewicz remains mayor
Laguna Niguel, like many Orange County cities, is a council-manager form of local government. That means the mayor is appointed by the council, steers the council meetings and can place items on the agenda.
OC Register: Should politicians block people on social media?
As elected leaders use social media for public outreach, questions arise when they block accounts. In June, a group of Twitter users blocked by the President sued, arguing that Twitter is a public forum and the Administration is infringing on freedom of speech by blocking users whose opinions it dislikes.
OC Register: The ‘forever’ home: Why more people in Southern California aren’t selling their homes
Southern Californians selling their homes this past spring had owned them for an average of 9.4 years, according to Attom Data Solutions, an Irvine-based housing research firm. By comparison, the average ownership tenure in the spring of 2008 was 4.6 years, or half as long.
Labor
Huffington Post: Nissan Launches Anti-Union Blitz Ahead Of Pivotal UAW Election
At the Nissan plant, supervisors have worn “vote no” t-shirts to work in recent days, and in some cases held one-on-one talks with employees to discourage them from joining the UAW, according to workers.
California
KPCC: By 2100, SoCal could see average summer temps in triple digits
A new study in the journal Nature Climate Change published this week says keeping that increase below 2 degrees is a long shot. Rather, it says there's a 90 percent chance that the Earth will warm beyond that threshold by the end of the century.
National
Washington Post: The U.S. could be free of gerrymandering. Here’s how other countries do redistricting.
Most democracies outside the English-speaking world elect more than one representative per district. You simply add a seat to a district that has grown, and subtract that seat from the ones that shrink. That vastly reduces the possibility of reshaping outcomes by manipulating boundaries.
Publication Date: August 7, 2017