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SF’s City-Run Health Care a Model During National Debate

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – San Francisco isn’t waiting for Washington, and that’s got some lawmakers on Capitol Hill looking to the city as a model for national health care reform. Health San Francisco is the nation’s first city-run universal health care plan. While it’s not insurance and not valid outside the city, most uninsured adults are already reaping the benefits of the two-year-old program. It now covers more than two-thirds of those who previously had not insurance. It assigns patients to a health clinic, provides preventive exams and long-term care for chronic conditions such as diabetes. About $20 million of the $126 million cost comes from employers who are required to contribute to their workers’ health care. That aspect is the most controversial. The city’s restaurant association has sued the city over the mandate. But Mayor Gavin Newsom describes the program as pragmatic, saying it saves money by keeping people out of the emergency room.

UC Students Will Receive Higher Tuition Bills

LOS ANGELES (AP) – University of California students will get a much larger tuition bill next year. The Board of Regents on Thursday approved a 32 percent increase in undergraduate student fees, despite protests by hundreds of demonstrators outside the regents’ meeting at UCLA. By next fall, undergraduate fees will be boosted by $2,500, sending the average annual education cost at a UC campus to more than $10,000.

More Lake Tahoe-Area Ski Resorts Plan to Open

RENO, Nev. (AP) – Three more Lake Tahoe-area ski resorts plan to open for the season this week. Heavenly on Tahoe’s south shore will open Friday, while Squaw Valley USA and Northstar-at-Tahoe just north of Tahoe will open Saturday. Boreal atop Donner Summit kicked off the season Oct. 9, and Mt. Rose Ski-Tahoe southwest of Reno opened Oct. 30. The resorts will be open daily, but will offer limited operations until they receive more snow. A storm is expected to drop as much as 2 feet of snow beginning Friday. Also scheduled to open are Sugar Bowl atop Donner Summit on Wednesday, Alpine Meadows just north of Tahoe on Dec. 5 and Diamond Peak in Incline Village on Dec. 10.

Car Accident Damages Chico Building

No injuries reported after a man drove his car through a Chico office building Thursday morning. Police say 38 year old William Speer drove his car through a breezeway at a methadone clinic on Rio Lindo Avenue. An eyewitness reported it appeared Speer mistook the breezeway for a parking spot.  Speer’s car went through a large window and into an interior wall, causing damage to the building.

CARD Seeks More Funding for DeGarmo Park

Chico Park officials are looking to shore up funding to finish work on DeGarmo Park. Park District Superintendent Jake Preston says crews want to complete parking and some protection for soccer fields.

Click for Audio:  field safety

The request for more funds goes before the Directors of the Chico Area Park and Recreation District tonight. Preston says if the item is approved, the hope is to have the 2nd phase of park improvements done by the summer of 2010.

Man Arrested in Chico Home Invasion Robbery

A Chico man is arrested on suspicion of armed robbery after a home invasion robbery Wednesday morning. Police took 18 year old Demario Mason into custody and at last report are still looking for a second suspect after an attempted robbery in the 11 hundred block of West Seventh Street.  The robbery was the second home invasion incident in Chico this week.

Swine Flu Blamed for Two CA Prison Deaths

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Health officials are blaming swine flu for killing two California prison inmates, the state’s first prisoner deaths connected to the H1N1 virus. A federal court-appointed receiver who controls prison medical care says one inmate died Tuesday in a central California prison. The other died Friday in a Southern California prison. Receiver’s spokesman Luis Patino says privacy rules bar officials from naming the specific prisons. Preliminary tests found both inmates had Influenza A, which in previous testing has turned out to be the H1N1 virus 97 percent of the time. Final results are expected soon. Twenty-eight of California’s 167,000 inmates have been hospitalized for H1N1 flu this fall. Patino says flu cases in prisons are statistically similar to those in the general public.

Butte D.A. Sweeps County for Bad Check Writers

Local residents accused of writing bad checks get their annual holiday greeting from law enforcement. The Butte County District Attorney’s office Wednesday swept the county looking for people accused of knowingly passing bad checks. D.A. Mike Ramsey says the annual event is intended to send a message before the holiday shopping season.

Click for Audio:  bad check sweep 1

Ramsey says there were 41 convictions this past year as a result of the Bad Check Unit. He says bad check writers can avoid arrest if they pay back what they owe, and the administrative fee to support the unit which is not taxpayer funded. He says the program has returned more than 3-million dollars to merchants since 1993.

CA Could Face Massive Budget Shortfalls for Years to Come

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – A new forecast says that despite multiple attempts to balance California’s budget, the state can still expect to confront shortfalls approaching $20 billion during each of the next five years. The report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office Wednesday warned that the state will face huge fiscal challenges even as the national economic outlook begins to improve and the state’s economy heads toward a recovery in a year or two. Mac Taylor, the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget analyst, urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers to act swiftly on permanent solutions by making deeper reductions in all state programs and looking to raise revenue. The report is intended to help lawmakers craft the new budget for the fiscal year starting next July. It elicited partisan response from lawmakers that will likely set the stage for another round of a long budget fight.

Biden Calls Injured Officer After Accident

NEW YORK (AP) – Three unmarked police vehicles — lights and sirens on — were clearing the way for Vice President Joe Biden’s motorcade late Tuesday afternoon in New York City when a livery cab tried to go through an intersection at the same time. One of the police cars and the cab collided. The cab driver and two police officers were examined at a hospital briefly and then released. After appearing on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Biden was told about the accident and quickly called one of the injured officers. His spokeswoman says he was happy to hear their injuries were not serious. In another accident involving the vice president this week, a sheriff’s deputy was injured Monday in Albuquerque, N.M., when a woman drove around police vehicles blocking an intersection and collided with the deputy’s car.