California Senate approves health care for undocumented immigrants

A proposal to expand health care to Californians in the country illegally cleared the Senate on Tuesday, passing on a 28-11 vote and heading to the Assembly.

Senate Bill 4 would allow undocumented immigrants to purchase health insurance on the state exchange, pending a federal waiver, and enroll eligible children under the age of 19 in Medi-Cal, the state’s insurance program for the poor. A capped number of undocumented adults would also be allowed participate, if additional funding is appropriated in the state budget.

“We are talking about our friends, we are talking about our neighbors and our families who are denied basic health care in the richest state of this union,” said Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, the measure’s author. “Ensuring that every child in California grows up healthy and with an opportunity to thrive and succeed is simply the right thing to do.”
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SB 4 still faces a challenging road in the Assembly, and should it make to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, a signature is not guaranteed. Brown has expressed skepticism over the bill because of its high cost, estimated to be as much as $135 million annually.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article22904433.html#storylink=cpy

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I sure hope it passes and Brown signs it. This will save many lives, and not just the uninsured's. Right now our emergency rooms are clogged with uninsured undocumented immigrants who have no other access to healthcare. If they can get their primary care in doctor's offices, it will be much cheaper, and ease the strain on our emergency rooms. Plus, as Sen. Lara said, it's the right thing to do.

Yes, we can have wind energy without decapitating birds.

Roger Goodell Makes $35 Million Running A Non-Profit

Pope says chosing childlessness is "selfish."

Disneyland workers diagnosed with measles

Young Handcuffed 'Thug' Saves Arresting Officers Life

Women in India agitate for their right to pee

According to government figures, Mumbai has 3,536 public restrooms that women share with men, but not a single women’s-only facility — not even in some police stations and courts. Enter the Right To Pee movement, a coalition of NGOs fighting for more — and safer — toilets for women.

Deepa Pawar, an activist from a women’s rights organization called Vacha, has collected horror stories over the past three years about how the lack of toilets hurts women in Mumbai.

Some women get bladder and urinary tract infections from holding in their urine, while others simply don't drink water all day to avoid the bathroom. Many women are raped or assaulted each year when they leave their homes to find a toilet, and those who find toilets safely can face other risks — scorpions, rats, infections.

And there are the larger societal issues as well: “The number one reason that girls drop out of school is because there are no toilets," Pawar points out.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/women-in-india-agitate-for-their-right-to-pee/ar-BBfP1LG?ocid=HPCDHP

Is Orange County screwing with Dems' ballots to block a supermajority?

According to the LA Times, Dems' chance to retake the state house as a supermajority rests on two contested seats:: Solorio v. Nguyen in Orange County and Chavez v. Vidak in the Central Valley.

http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-state-senate-20141020-story.html#page=1

I've been voting by mail-in ballot for over 10 years in Orange County --always as a registered Democrat. My ballot has always come at least a month before the election. Here it is October 19 and I still don't have my ballot. This has never happened before. My husband, who is a registered Independent, got his ballot several weeks ago. I did receive the Sample Ballot booklet when my husband got his. Both booklets tell us we are registered as a mail-in ballot voter and we must vote using our mail-in ballot; we can't go to a voting booth.

So I call the Orange County Registrar of Voters on Friday and the clerk says a lot of people have been calling about late ballots. I point out my husband, who lives at the same address as me, has had his ballot for several weeks. She says yes, she's been hearing about a lot of those kind of situations. She tells me the best thing to do is just for her to re-register me for an absentee ballot so that she can send me out another ballot. And she says I called just in time because Monday October 20 is the deadline to request an absentee ballot. Then she tells me I will also receive a Declaration I must sign promising I won't vote both ballots if I end up getting both in the mail. But, she tells me the Declaration must be mailed back separately. Now I'm waiting for my replacement ballot and this Declaration to sign. This whole process sounds screwy.

Is anyone else here an OC Dem who still hasn't gotten their ballot? This delay seems really fishy to me. Or am I being paranoid?

Bolling apologizes for "boobs on the ground" insult, but Gutfeld doesn’t.

State Farm dumps Rob Schneider for anti-vaccination views

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State Farm Insurance has dropped an ad campaign featuring the "Deuce Bigalow" star in a reprisal of his "Richmeister" character -- a.k.a. the "making copies" guy -- from "Saturday Night Live." The decision stems not from an objection to rehashed humor from the mid-'90s, but to Schneider's outspoken stance against childhood vaccines. 
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Schneider has not taken the news lightly, posting a quote on Twitter attributed to George Washington implying that he'd been denied his 1st Amendment rights and thanking his supporters "who believe as I do that parents should decide what's in the best interests of their child, not Gov't mandates." 

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-rob-schneider-state-farm-antivaccine-views-20140925-story.html

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I'm glad these anti-vaccination idiots are becoming pariahs.