January 26, 2012 | View Online
California Update: A Look Inside
Dear Friends, We hope your New Year is off to a great start. Below is a quick recap of recent CAP projects and events, as well as a preview of what we’ll be working on in 2012. We encourage you to visit our website regularly at www.americanprogress.org and our California page to stay engaged with our work. Best regards, The CAP California Team
	New leadership at CAP and CAP Action Read more about Neera here. On November 1 CAP named Neera Tanden as its new President. Tanden succeeded John Podesta, who remains at CAP in the new position of Chair of the Board and Counselor. Prior to becoming President, Tanden served as the Chief Operating Officer of CAP and was part of the founding team that created CAP in 2003. She has served in the administrations of President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton and is a graduate of UCLA and Yale Law School. Read more about Tom here. In December former Congressman Tom Perriello (D-VA) joined the Center for American Progress Action Fund as its President and CEO and also became Counselor for Policy at CAP. Tara McGuinness joined Perriello as Senior Vice President for CAP Action and Senior Vice President for Communications at CAP. Together they will ramp up CAP Action’s robust policy and communications efforts to define our country’s ongoing policy debate. John Podesta, Laura Tyson, and Nina Hachigian join Secretary Clinton’s Foreign Affairs Board Earlier this month, the Department of State announced the formation of a Foreign Affairs Policy Board to work with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to refine and implement the Department’s strategic priorities. We are thrilled to announce that the Board will include John Podesta, along with our very own CAP California Senior Fellows Nina Hachigian and Laura Tyson. In addition to this exciting news, CAP Senior Fellow Nina Hachigian was also named a “foreign policy and national security star to watch” in The Daily Beast’s December 3 article predicting the D.C. power brokers of 2012. Featured Events: Secretary of Commerce John Bryson Read more about Neera here. On January 6 Secretary Bryson gave a special presentation on Keeping the American Economy Competitive in the 21st Century. Here he unveiled the first-of-its-kind COMPETES Act Report that identifies the biggest challenges and opportunities our economy faces as we move into an increasingly competitive and innovation-driven global economy. Watch this event on our website. Read the exclusive interview with Director Chris Weitz and Oscar Nominated Actor Damien Bichir. Reel Progress screens “A Better Life” On December 7 director Chris Weitz and Oscar lead actor nominee Demian Bichir joined CAP for a screening and discussion of their highly acclaimed film “A Better Life.” This independent film about a Mexican day laborer living in Los Angeles illustrates the perils and tribulations that immigrants face everyday across the United States. Immediately after receiving his Oscar nomination, Bichir dedicated it to undocumented immigrants by saying, “I played a role that 11 million people play in real life.” Read more about Bichir’s Oscar nomination here and watch an exclusive ThinkProgress interview with Bichir and Weitz here.		A new look for Energy and Environment Check out CAP’s redesigned Energy and Environment website, now with an integrated energy hub. Find the latest on a variety of topics including the clean energy economy, climate impacts and adaptation, land use and oceans policy, and much more. Featured articles Climate Change, Migration, and Conflict 20 Ideas for Job Creation The Path to 270 Featured Cartoon The Benefits of Higher Education Stay engaged with American Progress Join us for upcoming events. All public events are also live streamed from the event’s page. Sign up to receive the latest from our policy teams. Take our Interactive Quiz: Which Is Greener? Take Two Follow us on Facebook and Twitter DREAMers and Freedom Riders at USC On December 1 CAP and Campus Progress co-sponsored “Freedom Riders,” an event at USC that focused on student activism and immigrant rights. The event featured a screening of the movie “Freedom Riders,” followed by a panel discussion with the original Freedom Riders from 1961 and CAP Senior Fellow Henry Fernandez. The panel discussion focused on the similarities between the struggles of the Freedom Riders and the current DREAM activists, and what can be learned from a 50-year-old student-led strategy.
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