Cap-and-trade bill finally gets approval, some borrowers may have their student loans forgiven, 20 percent more people are living in motor homes from 2016.
After failed Obamacare replacement, California insurance market faces uncertainty
The latest attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare has hit a brick wall. Senate Republicans failed to secure the 50 votes needed to pass its healthcare bill Monday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is signaling that, for now, he'll focus efforts on just repealing the Affordable Care Act.
It's a sentiment shared by President Trump, who tweeted his thoughts Monday: "Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate."
All this uncertainty is rocking the health insurance exchanges, including in California. Chad Terhune, a senior correspondent at California Healthline and Kaiser Health News, explains how Covered California might be affected.
What a repeal-only health care bill might look like
The Congressional Budget Office has looked at 'repeal-only' and they said it would be 32 million people more without insurance. In California, that could be 4 to 5 million people. Just for comparison, the Senate health bill was about 22 million losing coverage.
Quotes edited for clarity and brevity.
Why would a repeal-only bill seems like a good option
Some Republicans just want to have that vote to take back to their districts because remember this has been a 7-year-long campaign promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Some conservatives want to take that vote and send it to President Trump, but practically speaking you've seen many Republicans have no interest of repeal-only and setting this date of two years from now we'll come up with a replacement.
The risk of postponing an ACA replacement
Republicans can't agree on a replacement plan and that's putting a lot of risk of doing repeal and putting it down on the horizon. The insurance markets would start to get rattled even more with this two year date down the road. You could have more insurers exiting. You could have rates going up even more. You could have that dreaded death spiral that everyone talks about with health insurance rates. So I think Republicans, particularly in the Senate, are saying repeal-only is not a winning strategy.
The tug-of-war between insurance companies and state exchanges
I think what would calm the markets right now is up to the Trump administration. There are mandates, a requirement to have health care. The Trump administration has said they're not going to enforce that. Cost sharing subsidies help people with their co-pays and deductibles and Trump has said we're not going to keep paying these subsidies. That's what's making insurance companies and state exchanges really nervous.
What happens to Covered California
California has held up pretty well under during this whole uncertain legislative debate. We haven't had any big insurance companies exit so far. We are getting ready to see what rates will be in 2018. There could be big rate hikes here in California. It could be anything from 10 percent to 20 percent to 30 percent because of all this uncertainty.
Quotes edited for clarity and brevity.
California extends cap-and-trade program to 2030
It took quite a bit of wrangling but last night, republicans joined forces with democrats to extend the state's cap-and-trade program to 2030.
California's cap-and-trade program is the only one of its kind in the country and its continuation was key in Brown's plan to reach the state's environmental goals. Not to mention, maintaining California's place a pioneer in climate policy both nationally and abroad.
To help us understand what this means for our day-to-day in California and how this fits into the state's environmental goals, Take Two's A Martinez spoke with KPCC's environment reporter Emily Guerin.
There was a lot of back and forth between the governor and state lawmakers to get the bill through the legislature. Some democrats said the bill didn't go far enough while to reign in polluters. As Guerin explained, environmental justice organizations generally don't favor cap-and-trade as a solution because it "creates a market for pollution" instead of "reducing pollution at the source".
Guerin added that some republicans also voted in favor – 1 in the state senate and 7 in the assembly – brought on board through negotiations such as "tax breaks for agricultural constituents".
To hear the full interview – including how everyday Californians may be affected – click on the blue media player above.
Lost or messy paperwork means some borrowers see private student loans wiped away
For a lot of people, taking out loans to go to college is a way to get ahead. It's a chance to improve their career prospects and reach financial stability.
But the plan doesn't always work out that way. Sometimes a life crisis intervenes, or the job they get out of college doesn't pay enough. They fall behind on student loan payments. Eventually, the company that owns the debt takes them to court.
An investigation by The New York Times found that for tens of thousands of borrowers, this is the point when things could take an unusual turn.
In many private loan collections cases, the paperwork trail--the legal evidence of a borrower's debt--was lost or inaccurate. This has prompted judges in several states to entirely wipe away a borrower's debt.
Stacy Cowley is a consumer finance reporter with The New York Times. She wrote about this issue and joined A Martinez to discuss what's going on.
Q: This all started with people falling behind on their student loans...and creditors coming after them. What happened when these collections cases went to court?
A number of them have been going to court in recent years, and a pattern started to emerge. When the trusts were asked to present the chain of title paperwork showing that they owned the loans, quite often there were weaknesses in it.
It's really hard to spot. This paperwork's really complicated. But some lawyers and some judges started to notice that it wasn't what it should have been. And eventually the owner of the trust did an audit and found that quite a lot of paperwork had been lost.
. . . Some critical paperwork in the chain, showing who owned the debt at various moments in time, is missing. . . It's been challenging for the lawyers to prove over the years. The trusts do often submit some paperwork, but there are holes. And as lawyers have advanced more and more of these cases, they've become savvier about what to look for and how to point out to judges that certain papers are missing.
Please click on the blue media player above to listen to the full interview.
Deportation cases, once closed now reopened, up more than 60 percent in LA
Most tow companies are refusing to haul away homeless RVs
Almost 2,500 people live in motor homes across L.A., according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
That's a 20 percent increase from 2016. More people living in RVs means more residents are complaining—and demanding the campers be hauled away.
But there's a problem. L.A. tow companies are refusing. They say the RVs are too unsanitary. Elizabeth Chou has been writing about this. She's a reporter with the L.A. Daily News.
To listen to the segment, click the blue play button above.
Congressional support keeps tsunami warning system afloat
This time of year everyone’s heading to the beach, and probably the last thought on their minds is a Tsunami. But in Congress seismic safety funding was the subject of much debate last week.
Under the purposed Trump budget, the Tsunami early warning system could face cuts of up to 90 percent. The House of Representatives’ appropriations subcommittee voted Thursday to reject ending funding for the U.S. deep-ocean tsunami sensor network.
Earthquakes and the dangerous waves that often follow could affect many Californians living near the coasts. Take Two spoke with Rick Wilson, a senior engineering geologist with the California Geological Survey, about the status of funding for this early warning system and why it’s so important.
Please click on the blue media player above to hear the full interview.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Lizz Wright, Mr. Jukes and more
Every week we get a peek at new music that's sure to update any playlist. We call it Tuesday Reviewsday!
This week, music supervisor Morgan Rhodes stops by to talk about new music, and here are her suggestions.
Lizz Wright
album: Grace
"Seems I'm Never Tired of Loving You"
Lizz Wright's blend of folk, country, soul and gospel are on full masterful display in this cover of Nina Simone's original. This interpretation takes the tune from intimate love song to gospel hymn. It is full bodied, powerful and deeply moving.
Here's a video of her performing it live earlier this year in Greece.
Mr. Jukes
album: God First
"Grant Green" featuring Charles Bradley and "Magic"
Mr. Jukes is the nom de guerre of Jack Steadman, one of the members of Britain's indie pope band Bombay Bicycle Club who I will from now on call THE MAESTRO as he has managed to assemble some of the best and brightest indie soul talents on a project that in my opinion is deserving of heavy and steady rotation.
Grant Green by & on VEVO.
Kan Wakan
album: Phantasmagoria
song: Phantasmagoria ft. Elle Olsun
Kan Wakan's music is sound is dramatic and sexy and flows from pop to classical to cinematic. Phantasmagoria is the latest release from the forthcoming project released in three parts and it is good. Really really good.
Here's a video trailer for the project.
is an LA-based music supervisor.
Her work has been featured in Ava DuVernay’s critically acclaimed Sundance hit Middle of Nowhere, which led to her winning the African-American Film Critics Award for Best Music.
She has also collaborated for Miu Miu’s 2013 Spring campaign; Say Yes for Fashion Fair, the world’s largest black cosmetics company; and most recently as music supervisor for Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning Selma.