Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/310107
ByJimKuhnhenn TheAssociatedPress MOUNTAIN VIEW Flanked by bargain-priced displays of women's wear and patio lighting, President Barack Obama came to a Wal-Mart store in Silicon Valley on Fri- day to praise new steps by businesses and communities to deploy solar energy, show- casing efforts to combat cli- mate change that don't rely on a disinclined Congress. Obama said more than 300 companies and state and local governments have pledged to use solar tech- nology, and he unveiled his own executive actions aimed at increasing energy effi- ciency with a goal of reduc- ing U.S. reliance on carbon fuels. The two tracks under- scored Obama's strategy of sidestepping Congress to ad- vance his own agenda, but they also illustrated the lim- its of his reach in a bitterly divided government. "The commitments we're announcing today prove that there are cost-effec- tive ways to tackle climate change and create jobs at the same time," Obama said at a sprawling Wal-Mart store in Mountain View. The solar effort will power the equivalent of 130,000 homes, the White House said, while Obama's admin- istrative actions could re- duce carbon pollution in an amount equal to taking 80 million cars off the road for one year. The White House also announced that long-de- layed energy efficiency stan- dards for walk-in coolers and freezers have finally been completed. Ticking off a list of eco- nomic and environmental benefits he attributed to so- lar technology, Obama cast the commitments as part of a broader campaign to reduce American energy depen- dence, create jobs in renew- able energy and lower heat- trapping emissions blamed for global warming. "This is what you call a win-win-win," Obama told about 250 store employees as he wrapped up a three- day swing through Califor- nia focused heavily on rais- ing money for Democrats in advance of November's mid- term elections. Tweaking the mostly Re- publican opponents of his energy policies in Congress, Obama lamented that law- makers have "not always been as visionary on these issues as we would like." That's why he's seizing op- portunities this year to act unilaterally to advance those goals, Obama said. "Unfortunately, inside of Washington, we still have some climate deniers who shout loud," Obama said. "But they're wasting peo- ple's time on a settled de- bate." It's Obama who is wast- ing time, responded Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mc- Connell, R-Ky., who argued that if Obama really wanted to promote energy indepen- dence, he would approve the Keystone XL pipeline and reverse course on poli- cies cracking down on coal. "There's a way to get Amer- ica going with regard to en- ergy, but it's not doing any of the things that he's been do- ing," McConnell said. His policies unable to gen- erate momentum in Con- gress, Obama has increas- ingly gone outside the fed- eral government to press his agenda. He has won com- mitments from colleges and universities to expand ac- cess to more students; he has created innovation hubs that link businesses and ed- ucation institutions; and he has drawn attention to com- panies and state and local governments that have in- creased pay for workers. Still, that choice of tactics has severely limited what Obama may be able to ac- complish, a reality the presi- dent acknowledged the night before as he spoke to donors at a fundraiser in La Jolla benefiting House Democrats. "Regardless of how hard I push, regardless of how many administrative actions I take, we're not going to be able to go where we need to go, and can go, and should go unless I've got a Congress that's willing to work with me," Obama said. The White House said it chose Wal-Mart because the company has committed to doubling the number of solar energy projects at its stores, Sam's Clubs and distribu- tion centers. But in choos- ing the giant retailer as the backdrop for his announce- ment, Obama also triggered a backlash from labor unions and pay equity advocates who say low wages paid by Wal-Mart fly in the face of Obama's vaunted push on pay equity. "What numbskull in the White House arranged this?" former Labor Sec- retary Robert Reich, who served in the Bill Clinton ad- ministration, said on Face- book. The Wal-Mart location he visited gets about 15 percent of its power from solar pan- els. Wal-Mart's president, Bill Simon, said. Obama is the first president to visit one of the chain's warehouse stores. BUSINESS AND ENERGY At Wal-Mart, Obama praises steps on solar power JEFFCHIU—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS President Barack Obama speaks at a Wal-Mart store in Mountain View on Friday. By Don Thompson The Associated Press FOLSOM "Hi, baby," Cath- erine La France cooed as she swept granddaughter Arianna into her arms and danced around the prison yard with the 3-year-old. She pulled her two daugh- ters into a bear hug, and the girls burst into tears. La France hadn't seen Arian- na's mother, 18-year-old Sa- mantha La France, in six months, and she last saw Summer La France, 14, nearly three years ago. They soon dropped into easy banter as barbed con- certina wire high above them glinted in the sun and guards armed with pepper spray discreetly patrolled nearby. "This is my birthday present and Mother's Day at the same time," Cathe- rine La France said at the stark, concrete-block-walled prison for low-risk offend- ers where she's been locked up for nearly two years. La France turned 39 two days earlier and won't be released for three more years, when she completes a sentence for petty theft. Precioushours Three generations of La France women got 4 ½ pre- cious hours together at Fol- som Women's Facility east of Sacramento more than a week before Mother's Day, which is Sunday. It hap- pened through a free, non- profit program called Get on the Bus that arranges for children to visit their incar- cerated parents in California prisons around Mother's and Father's days. Get on the Bus appears to be unique in providing free transportation to children around the two holidays and in offering counseling and other support, said Ann Adalist-Estrin, director of the National Resource Cen- ter on Children and Families of the Incarcerated at Rut- gers University, Camden. A handful of programs in other states, including Florida and New York, provide transpor- tation to kids as part of a larger mission to help pris- oners and their families. "We have kids every year that are meeting their moms or dads for the first time," California program organizer Hilary Carson said, while others have not seen their parent in years. The organization's survey of participants, who aver- age 8 years old, shows that more than half wouldn't oth- erwise be able to see their imprisoned parent without the program. On Saturday, 40 minors and four young-adult chil- dren of inmates made the trip to Folsom Women's Fa- cility. Tears of joy streamed down mothers' smiling faces as their kids arrived, and lin- gering, emotional embraces came before the bus pulled away. The trip began before dawn in San Jose, and the bus made stops to pick up children along the way. It's the second Mother's Day the bus chartered by the nonprofit Center for Re- storative Justice Works vis- ited the prison designed to house 400 low-risk women. But this year there were about half as many children, Carson said. Not enough participants from South- ern California signed up to justify chartering a second bus. Similar buses fan out to 10 of the state's 34 adult prisons each year. On Fri- day, more than 250 children plan to visit two prisons in central California. At Folsom Women's Facil- ity, Erica Carmona, 21, tire- lessly chased her 3-year-old son the entire visit, grinning as he kicked a soccer ball around the yard or tugged her along with a jump rope. Other children played ping- pong on two concrete tables, had their faces painted and played pickup games with footballs and basketballs. "I was worried he would forget who I was," said Car- mona, who is serving a sen- tence for assault with a deadly weapon. When the youngsters boarded the bus for the ride home, they each received a teddy bear and a letter writ- ten by Mom. MOTHER'S DAY Some kids get to reunite with locked-up moms RICH PEDRONCELLI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Inmate Tiffany Dugan, le , greets her daughter, Arianne Skelton, 13, with a big hug at the Folsom Women's Facility in Folsom on May 3. By Amy Taxin The Associated Press SANTA ANA California on Friday proposed rules for what documents immi- grants in the country ille- gally will need to present to get a driver's license. The state's Department of Motor Vehicles pro- posed using foreign gov- ernment-issued identifi- cation like passports or consular cards or to have immigrants go through an interview process and use marriage, divorce or other documents to prove their identity. The move would make the state the first to offer a secondary review process for immigrants, the Depart- ment of Motor Vehicles said in a statement. Two public hearings on the proposed rules will be held in June. California will start issu- ing the new licenses by Jan- uary 2015. The state, which is one of nearly a dozen to approve driver's licenses for immigrants in the coun- try illegally, expects to is- sue about 1.4 million of the licenses in the first three years. 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