CalWatchdog Morning Read – November 1

• DMV meltdown latest IT issue in the state
• CA guard can’t find a bunch of soldiers
• Assembly candidate says climate change good to hurt Muslims
• Study: Warm temps, not dry conditions, prompted weak 2015 snowfall
• Villaraigosa preparing for 2018 run for governor

Good morning! One of the first thoughts we had this morning as we sat down to type this: We can’t believe it’s November already.

But November it is, which means the election will soon be behind us. You know what probably won’t be behind us? The state government’s IT issues, which are even more remarkable considering this is the home to Silicon Valley, and is widely considered the global leader in innovative technology.

On Friday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles reported things were close to normal after a chaotic week of mass computer failures, with just three DMV offices still offline. At one point early last week, more than 120 of the the DMV’s 188 offices statewide were unable to handle such basic tasks as processing requests for new licenses or vehicle registrations.

Both the DMV’s main computer and its primary backup computer suffered what officials called “meltdowns.” In post mortems on the problem, experts outside state government expressed disbelief that both the main and backup computer were directly connected and housed in the same room, making both susceptible to the same risks from overheating, hacking and other problems.

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• “The California National Guard can’t locate more than 4,000 of the 9,700 soldiers caught up in the military enlistment bonus scandal that has rocked one of the nation’s largest Guard organizations, according to its commander.” The Los Angeles Times has more.

• “Meet the unopposed Assembly candidate who says climate change is a good thing that hurts ‘enemies on the equator,'” writes the Los Angeles Times.

• “The western United States set records for low winter snowpack levels in 2015, and a new report blames high temperatures rather than low precipitation levels, according to a new study.” The San Jose Mercury News has more.

• “Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to turn to a San Francisco-based consultant and former confidant of rival Gavin Newsom to help guide his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, as he seeks to make inroads outside of Southern California,” reports Politico. 

Legislature:

• Gone till December. 

Gov. Brown:

• No public events announced.  

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