News
PA: Last hearing on privatizing State Stores highlights sticking points. With the end of Tuesday’s third and final hearing on privatizing the state-run wine and spirits stores – as well as changing the way beer is sold – Gov. Corbett and the legislature now have to figure out whether they can agree on a plan. The clock is ticking. Both sides want to seal a deal before the July 1 deadline for a new state budget. Philly.com
CA: Privatizing UC Instruction. If a controversial, and groundbreaking, bill passes the state legislature this summer, many students at UC Berkeley and other University of California campuses won’t be doing some of their basic coursework on campus anymore. As of next year, they also may be enrolled in classes that aren’t taught by UC faculty. Instead, they will be taking classes online, produced by for-profit companies — and getting full college credit for them….. But opponents of SB 520, including multiple faculty organizations, argue that it will allow for-profit educational companies to gain access to public colleges and universities that they would not otherwise have, and thereby undermine the quality of higher education in California. East Bay Express
CA: Anti-National Park Interests Misled Sonoma City Council. Supporters of the Interior Department’s decision to protect the Point Reyes National Seashore’s ecological heart, Drakes Estero, as the West Coast’s first marine wilderness area today charged that opponents of the Obama Administration’s decision presented “inaccurate and misleading” information to the Sonoma City Council to win approval of a resolution riddled with factual inaccuracies that run counter to established state and federal law. California Majority Report
CA: Fresno trash-privatization vote too close to call. The vote to privatize trash collection in Fresno, Calif., was in a near dead heat late Tuesday night. The results of voting on Measure G, which would outsource the city’s residential waste collection, were too close to call hours after the polls closed. Waste & Recycling News
IN: Opinion: See those Toll Road lane markers? My husband and I drove from Chicago to South Bend in a rainstorm the other night. It was nerve-wracking mostly because the paint on the Indiana Toll Road was very pale and frequently nonexistent. In the state where I came from, this would bring shame on public officials. But how does that work when a public good is in private hands? South Bend Tribune
LA: Hospital ER goes as part of privatization deal. The Louisiana Legislature has agreed to close the inpatient beds and emergency room at LSU’s hospital in Lake Charles, turning it into an outpatient clinic as part of a planned privatization deal. San Francisco Chronicle
OH: Plan to Privatize Food Services at State Facilities. More than 500 people employed by the state of Ohio are holding their breaths right now, to find out if they’ll have a job come Friday. WKRC
Republicans Decide Socialism Is Awesome After Obama Proposes Privatizing TVA. In fact, the company generates hundreds of millions of dollars of tax-equivalent revenue each year! So obviously our right-wing President Barack Obama has proposed selling off the TVA to the private sector in his 2014 budget proposal, and the socialist Republicans in Congress are hell-bent on stopping him! Wonkette (satire)