Oakland police stops blacks at higher rate

Frank Zimring quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle, March 24, 2014 (link inactive)

The data also comes out at time when the department is working to reduce crime and rebuild public trust in one of the most dangerous cities in America, said Frank Zimring…. “This is a real dilemma, because on one hand there’s no evidence that the police are using anything other than crime-controlled criteria to select the targets for their stops, but on the other hand, most of the people they stop are African-Americans,” Zimring said. “There is no clean ‘Everybody wins,’ solution to this.”

Re-entry programs & recidivism: the connection continued

Barry Krisberg quoted in Corrections, March 24, 2014

Barry Krisberg … noted that, “Everything we know from the most rigorous research suggests if you want to reduce recidivism rates, you have to address housing, security, availability of jobs, and social connections.”

 

It’s Worse than Paul Ryan: The right has a new ugly, racial dog whistle

Ian Haney-López writes for Salon, March 22, 2014

Race-baiting superficially aims at minorities and hits nonwhite communities hard, including the 24 percent of food stamp recipients who are black. But just as cuts to food aid also afflict the 38 percent of program participants who are white, dog-whistle politics savages Americans of every race. And it devastates every class, too, for this sort of racial politics doesn’t just slam the poor, it imperils all who are better off when government protects the broad middle rather than serves society’s sultans.

 

A better direction for California’s climate change policy

Mark Gergen and David Gamage write for The Sacramento Bee, March 22, 2014

The proposed carbon tax is a much better mechanism for making those who burn fossil fuels pay for the privilege of doing so. The carbon tax is more transparent, specifying the sums that must be paid for the privilege of emitting greenhouse gases. And unlike cap and trade’s auction proceeds, revenue from a carbon tax can be returned to Californians through direct tax relief.

With strike on horizon, public labor board issues complaint

David Rosenfeld cited in The Daily Californian, March 20, 2014

The issuance of a complaint … only means the board believes there is sufficient evidence to go forward with a hearing or settlement conference, not that the university is at fault, said David Rosenfeld, a lecturer specializing in labor relations at the UC Berkeley School of Law.

My dinner with Jan

Paul Schwartz noted in Privacy Perspectives, March 18, 2014

I suggested Jan for the keynote slot to conference organizer and Berkeley Law Prof. Paul Schwartz, thinking him to be a “long shot.”… Prof. Schwartz’ prominence, charm, power of persuasion and German language skills, as well as Berkeley’s prestige no doubt were compelling factors.

Michigan battery companies fall short of job claims

Jennifer Granholm quoted in Detroit Free Press, March 16, 2014

Granholm still doesn’t regard Michigan’s incentives for battery makers as wasted money. “Just because the jobs haven’t happened ‘yet,’ it doesn’t mean that cracking the code to vehicle batteries was the wrong strategy,” said Granholm, who is teaching at the University of California-Berkeley.

Is Paul Ryan racist?

Ian Haney-López writes for Politico, March 14, 2014

These instances of racial pandering typically have been treated as disconnected eruptions, when in fact the GOP has made a concerted effort to win support through racial appeals. This pattern is so entrenched—and so well known—that two different chairs of the Republican National Committee have acknowledged and apologized for this strategy.

Why for-profit prisons house more inmates of color

Barry Krisberg interviewed on KPCC, March 13, 2014

Barry Krisberg … says the findings surprised him. “I had assumed private prisons were taking a lot of low-risk inmates,” he says. “That if you went to a private prison, you’d find a lot of old, Anglo prisoners. That’s not the case.”