Health Care Costs In California -- A Random Update -- May 4, 2015

For the archives. 

Health care of undocumented Californians could cost state taxpayers almost $1 billion annually -- LA Times. But when you read the story, one gets the feeling that a) no one really knows; b) no one really cares -- after all, it's other people's money; and, c) it's the right thing to do.

I thought I had blogged about California's Proposition 65 some time ago, but I can't find the post, so maybe I have not blogged about that proposition. Out in California the proposition has become a joke: everyone now posts the label warning "this establishment" or "this product" contains a cancer-causing agent. Any product made for sale in California now carries that warning label (there may be some exceptions but they are few and far between). I was reminded of that proposition today when I went to have new brake pads placed on my bicycle. Mind you, the brake pads are all of two inches long and about one-half wide, appear to be solid "rubber" or some such thing and are about as likely to promote cancer as the broccoli in my refrigerator. Be that as it may, the Proposition 65 cancer-warning label was on the brake pads. LOL. If Texas legislators had any sense of humor they would pass a law forbidding California Proposition 65 cancer-warning labels to be placed on any product sold in Texas.

Meanwhile another day with no news out of Greece and barely any news out of the Mideast except for this from The Wall Street Journal:

 A surge in car bombings renewed security concerns in the Iraqi capital on Sunday, after Islamic State claimed seven attacks in the past week.

The bombers struck locations across Baghdad, including an open-air market Saturday night in the commercial district of Karrada, where some people had gathered to distribute sweets for a Shiite holy celebration.

At least 20 people were killed and 79 were injured in the string of bombings, according to a security official. Eleven died in Saturday night’s attack alone.

Car-bombings, which were a hallmark of life in Baghdad nearly a decade ago when Islamic State’s predecessor, al Qaeda in Iraq, was ascendant, had become more sporadic in recent years, even as Islamic State took power in parts of the country.

Intensified fighting last week in Ramadi, capital of Anbar Province to the west of Baghdad, led to the flight of 90,000 residents from the area. Officials said that at least 50,000 of those people had come to Baghdad.

Officials and Baghdad residents said they feared the influx of Sunnis fleeing the fighting in Anbar, the current front line in the fight against Islamic State, had provided cover to the bombers to slip past checkpoints.

For those who might have forgotten, ISIS is the JV team -- one we can take out any time we want, at least according to the president (of the United States).

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New Bedford

One of the places we enjoyed while visiting Boston over the past four years was New Bedford. At one time it was the whaling capital of the world. Whale oil was to New Bedford what light sweet crude oil is to Tioga. Down on the riverfront I always had the impression the city had seen much, much better days. From the linked article article:

In the opening chapters of Moby Dick, Herman Melville illustrates what was once the wealthiest city on earth. But the end of the whaling age, and later the city’s massive textile industry, brought depression to New Bedford. The city that lit the world now has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state.

Cape Wind might have changed that. WBUR.org is reporting:

New Bedford was supposed to stage the assembly of Cape Wind turbines, the country’s first large-scale offshore wind farm. To make it happen, the state built a marine commercial terminal in the city. But Cape Wind recently ended its lease contract with New Bedford, leaving the terminal without a tenant.

So far the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal has cost taxpayers $113 million. It doesn’t look like much yet, but the ground is fortified to support the heaviest components of a wind turbine.

The "worst" two words in the preceding paragraph: "so far." Does this mean they have spent $113 million just for foundation preparation and pylon formation? Does this mean they plan to continue to go forward with this terminal?

Even without Cape Wind, the terminal will bring new cargo capacity to the port of New Bedford. A study commissioned by the clean energy center estimates in each of its first three years, the terminal will take in a net $622,000 in non-wind revenue.

At that rate it would take nearly two centuries for the terminal to pay for itself. Still, officials in New Bedford insist that offshore wind is not a matter of if, but when.

Much, much more at the linked article.