Listen Now - Health Insurance Town Hall

How will new federal and state laws affect the way we pay for medical care? 

Valley Public Radio hosted a Health Insurance town hall meeting in collaboration with The Great Valley Center. We invited a panel of guest experts to explain the changes. This two-hour event was recorded in front of an audience at College of the Sequoias in Visalia on Nov. 9, 2010.

 Listen to MP3 

Panelists include: Dr. Len Finocchio (Ph.D.), Senior Program Officer at the California HealthCare Foundation; Verla Oliver, Director of Consulting at Single-Point Outsourcing; Dr. John Capitman (Ph.D.), Professor of Public Health at California State University, Fresno; Norma Forbes, Executive Director at Fresno Healthy Community Access Partners; Greg Hund, CEO of CalViva Health; Dr. Michelle Quiogue (M.D.), President of California Academy of Family Physicians. 

Our debaters are investment broker Tom Fife and attorney Joe Altschule. 

Our correspondent Shellie Branco revisits a family with an autistic daughter and their changing insurance challenges.

Special funding for this program comes from the California Health Care Foundation

UC Merced and Great Valley Center to offer free help to local governments about greenhouse gas emissions

Sacramento Bee
Monday, November 8, 2010
By Staff Writers

Flickr/Creative Commons:
Ian Britton

UC Merced said a new program organized by its partner, the Great Valley Center, will offer free assistance to local governments in the San Joaquin Valley to help them develop an inventory of their greenhouse gas emissions.

Eventually, the program will offer recommendations on how each city can reduce the amount of energy used in its own operations.

The Green Communities Program, funded by PG&E and the California Public Utilities Commission and implemented with the help of ICLEI: Local Governments for Sustainability, will pay interns from UC Merced, University of the Pacific and CSU Stanislaus to work with staff members in participating cities, UC Merced said in a news release.

So far, cities that have signed on to participate in the Green Communities Program are Modesto, Turlock, Ceres, Patterson, Oakdale, Riverbank, Hughson, Waterford, Newman and Livingston. Stanislaus County and the cities of Los Banos and Sanger are also looking into the program.

The Great Valley Center interns will use meter information to assess energy use while also interviewing city staff members about solid waste management, sewage treatment, landfill emissions and even commuting practices. They will then offer customized recommendations based on the findings.

“The Green Communities Program works to equip local governments with information to make better decisions about reducing greenhouse gas emissions as they reduce energy consumption,” said Dejeune Shelton, interim executive director of the Great Valley Center, in the news release. “The cities that are a part of this program will be able to use the data to implement their greenhouse gas reduction goals effectively, which will have a positive effect on their community’s quality of life.”

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/07/3170333/uc-merced-and-great-valley-center.html#ixzz15SwisfL3

Valley Futures Forum: "Removing Roadblocks To Infill Development"

Removing Roadblocks To Infill Development with David Mogavero

Automobile use is the prime culprit in nearly every economic, social and environmental challenge facing California. Growing our communities with infill development is the only sustainable long-term solution to auto dependency, but the roadblocks are formidable especially in the Central Valley. David will discuss the reasons infill is important and what the primary barriers are to its implementation in California.

November 18, 2010
5:00 - 6:45 pm

Great Valley Center
Community Room
201 Needham St.
Modesto, CA

Fee for the Forum: $10 (payable at the door)

For more information, please visit our new website at www.valleyfuturesforum.org or email nuplanner@gmail.com

About David Mogavero:
David Mogavero is the Senior Principal of Mogavero Notestine Associates, a 17-person architecture, urban planning and development firm in Sacramento. His practice embraces the full range of community design, such as high density mixed use urban infill and holistic building systems.

Through his professional practice, writings, and lectures, and as board member of several advocacy organizations, he has promoted the widespread adoption of sustainable building and smart growth practices and policies.

About the Valley Futures Forum (VFF):
The VFF is a dynamic conversation on development issues in the San Joaquin Valley. The VFF is held on the third Thursday of each month at 5:00pm, from January through November.

The VFF is presented by:
American Planning Association, Central Section; Building Industry Association of Central California; Congress for the New Urbanism, NorCal Chapter; Great Valley Center; Local Government Commission; Modesto Chamber of Commerce.

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