Los Angeles

California is an extraordinarily expensive place to live. But what does one actually need to earn to afford to live here? A new study has the answers, and the results are stunning. There is absolutely no way a minimum-wage job comes close to meeting basic needs. LAT:

A person working full-time for the state's minimum wage of $7.50 an hour earns $15,600 annually. But a single adult in Los Angeles needs to make $28,126 a year to live modestly, while a single parent needs $62,393, according to the California Budget Project, the policy group behind the report being released today.

The numbers are even worse in Los Angeles.

A two-parent family in Los Angeles with one working member needs $51,035, while a two-working-parent family needs $74,044, the report calculated.

We are not talking about living high on the hog here, jut the absolute basics.

The group estimated the cost of housing, food, transportation, child care, healthcare, taxes and miscellaneous items in regions across the state.

The results also are indicative of the huge need to ensure there is affordable health care for folks earning at or below these amounts. The calculations assume that these individuals do not receive health care through their employers.

One thing is clear. Using the federal poverty line to determine who needs assistance is not useful here in California. It severely underestimates what people can afford.

The report is intended to help policymakers assess where families need the most aid, Ross said. It presents its calculations as alternatives to the federal poverty line, which is often used to measure how families are faring economically.

But the poverty line, the report says, "is an obsolete measure that fails to take into account the reality of modern families." The federal poverty line for a family of four was $20,650 in 2007, less than a third of what this report estimates they need.

Housing and health insurance are two of the most expensive items in a family's budget, Ross said, which highlights the need for programs to help families pay for them.

The report "really points out the need for healthcare reform," said Annelle Grajeda, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 721. "That part of our everyday life should be taken care of."

The California Air Board is back to making regulations, a welcome sign after quite a bit of controversy. They ruled yesterday that construction equipment that belches pollution be replaced with ones that emit less emissions. This ruling has been eagerly awaited for three years. LAT:

California's diesel-powered bulldozers, scrapers and other heavy construction equipment must be retrofitted or replaced over the next 13 years to reduce the air pollution that sickens tens of thousands of residents every year, state regulators decided Thursday.

Under tough new rules adopted by the Air Resources Board, California is the first state to make construction companies fix existing diesel-powered machines. Heavy equipment can last 30 years or more, so without the new mandate, it would take decades for fleets to upgrade to cleaner equipment.

Although the fumes are most often associated with big trucks and buses, 20% of California's diesel pollution comes from the construction industry. Building, mining and airport vehicles are responsible for an estimated 1,100 premature deaths statewide every year and more than 1,000 hospitalizations for heart and lung disease, along with tens of thousands of asthma attacks, scientists say.

This ruling gives the company enough time to become compliant, and by 2010 we should be breathing in cleaner air. The CARB also passed a provision that lets particularly polluted regions like Los Angeles and the Central Valley to "accelerate the diesel equipment schedule in their districts". The board has also moved to clean up garbage trucks, ships and buses. Heavy duty trucks are next on the docket.

"It's a good day for clean air," said Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Wallerstein said the region must achieve twice the amount of construction pollution cuts as the overall state goal in order to meet federal standards. The region, one of the dirtiest in the country, is under a strict mandate to improve its air by 2015. The AQMD will offer construction companies $120 million in incentives to purchase particulate filters or buy new machines.