Need-to-Know News: May 17-21, 2010

Updates from Us

LAC’s video collaboration with the Organization for Visual Progression, “Your Rights, Your Future: Preparing for Reentry,” had a crowd-rousing premier at the Discharge Planning Collaboration’s bi-annual retreat, left, held May 19  in Manhattan. We’ve had an Internet revolution! You can now find us on Facebook and Twitter; and don’t forget about our RSS feed.) We’ve overhauled our homepage to help you find what you’re looking for. We’ve expanded and renamed our blog: “Of Substance and Justice,” will cover all our issues, in New York and nationally. We’ve started this newsletter, “Need-to-Know News,” to keep you in the loop. Note: If you’re getting this as an e-mail from our blog, please sign up again here, so you continue to receive our updates.

Headlines on Our Issues

State With the New York State budget  now more than 50 days late, legislators began to heed Gov. David A. Paterson’s call for conference committees. Meanwhile, overtime has been suspended for state employees and some parks have closed. Despite  Paterson’s predictions that anger over the budget would show at the polls, voters passed  roughly 92 percent of school budgets. The latest budget extender bill included raises of up to 7 percent for some state workers after a federal judge ruled that withholding them was illegal. National A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Monday ended the practice of sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for crimes short of homicide. The Washington Post reported on efforts by insurers and regulators to hammer out the details of health care reform, and The New York Times examined HRC changes likely to benefit middle-income Americans. Citing cost concerns, many employers to place new limits on coverage for mental health care, the Boston Globe reported, raising concerns that the rules may violate new federal parity regulations.

From Our Partners

The  Open Society Institute and Soros Foundations Network released its report “Mandatory Premarital HIV Testing: An Overview.” Behavioral Healthcare reported on the ways that providers’ expertise could fill the gap for corporate employers now that parity laws are in place.

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