State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) today announced the availability of applications for the 2012-2013 California Senate Fellows program. The program provides college graduates an opportunity to become full-time Senate staff at the state Capitol in Sacramento for 11 months beginning in October 2012.
State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) will hold an “Education Update” meeting on Saturday, January 28th, in Palo Alto to discuss this year’s proposed legislation and the budget challenges facing our public schools.
The Power Association of Northern California (PANC), a nonprofit energy and utility association, has chosen State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) as their “Person of the Year.” Simitian is being recognized for his work authoring SB 2X, a bill which made California a national leader in its commitment to renewable energy. Simitian will be presented with the award on Thursday in San Francisco.
CreaTV San Jose, a nonprofit community media center, will present State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) with its “Community Media Champion” award on Saturday at the historic California Theatre in downtown San Jose.
California's preschool and kindergarten set are targeted to take some of the biggest hits to funding in the state budget proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The governor should withdraw his plan before it undercuts the critical years of education for some of California's most vulnerable children.
Almost one-fifth of the $4 billion in state program cuts Brown has proposed would come from early childhood education -- child care, preschool and the new transitional kindergarten scheduled to start in the fall. These programs should be among the state's highest priorities. Children are our most precious resource, and their success paves the way for California's economy to grow and prosper.
The financial exploitation of seniors can take many forms. Some scams involve persuading people to put up good faith money, or a spurious transaction fee to claim a lottery prize. Others are more menacing, where a perpetrator coerces an elder into signing over investments, real estate or other assets through the use of manipulation, intimidation or threats.
Often, these scams raise the suspicions of bank employees who -- when given proper guidance and training -- are effective guards against financial abuse of elders. Since the passage in 2005 of the Financial Elder Abuse Reporting Act, authored by State Sen. Joe Simitian D-Palo Alto, bank employees have been required to notify authorities of incidents where elder financial abuse is suspected.
Before lawmakers approved the 2010 bill, a major concern was what would happen to children who no longer qualify for kindergarten, particularly those from low-income families that could not easily afford private pre-kindergarten programs. State leaders compromised by providing money for school districts to run the transitional program for those students, said Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto.
"The governor is talking about depriving 125,000 kids a year an opportunity to go to school," Simitian said. "I think it's a non-starter."
The panel includes private-sector financial experts, a University of California dean of engineering, a former Caltrans director and a local government representative. Their warnings are likely to weigh heavily on lawmakers as they consider the project in coming months, said Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), a longtime supporter of high-speed rail who has grown increasingly concerned about the project. Simitian has raised the possibility of putting the entire project on hold for a year to reevaluate the current plan.
"We can't simply dismiss the legitimate concerns by a group of this caliber," Simitian said. "Denial is not going to move the project forward."
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