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More money, problems for CA high-speed rail

Proponents of California’s much-ballyhooed high-speed rail got a big boost in the state’s new budget. But in every other area where the struggle for its fate is playing out, the project is facing an array of daunting roadblocks. Thanks to Gov. Jerry Brown’s

CA Legislature boosts budget up to $156 billion

James Poulos June 18, 2014

Convinced that California’s fiscal crisis is effectively over, state Democrats led the state Legislature to pass a $156 billion budget. They did so after a round of negotiations that left Sacramento just six hours away from missing the state’s constitutional deadline for

CA added just 5 dams since 1959

Wayne Lusvardi June 17, 2014

Has California built any dams in the past 55 years as its population has more than doubled – and as a drought rages? Yes – but not by the state. Peter Gleick of the Pacific Water Institute recently stirred the

Chart shows Brown budget follows Gann Limit

John Seiler June 16, 2014

Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislators are congratulating themselves on passing a budget by the June 15 deadline and keeping a lid on spending. They insist they’re avoiding the excess spending that got the state into trouble when past recessions

Water conservation success backfires on policy-makers

Wayne Lusvardi June 16, 2014

A longstanding truism when it comes to needed goods such as water systems, flood control or catastrophic earthquake insurance is that the public wants them but does not want to pay for them. This was confirmed anew by a

In CA, Smarter Balanced testing shapes fate of Common Core

James Poulos June 13, 2014

It’s crunch time for California supporters of the new Common Core educational standards. On several fronts, key business, education and political interests have heightened their push for the changes. Although opposition remains strong, pro-Common Core groups sense that a tipping point may be

State budget: Governor, lawmakers expected to finalize deal

John June 13, 2014

State lawmakers reached a tentative agreement on the state budget Thursday, after Gov. Jerry Brown caved to Democratic lawmakers’ demands over more funding for in-home support services for elderly and disabled Californians. “We are at this point prepared to bring

How Obama energy rules hurt, help CA

Wayne Lusvardi June 13, 2014

On June 2, President Barack Obama announced his new rules to mothball “dirty” coal power plants so as to reduce carbon-dioxide power plant emissions by 30 percent from their 2005 level. He also set voluntary targets for the percentage of

$CA oil industry celebrates defeat of fracking moratorium$

CA oil industry celebrates defeat of fracking moratorium

Dave Roberts June 12, 2014

California’s oil industry is celebrating the defeat of a bill that would have placed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing — but warned that the fracking war is far from over. Senate Bill 1132 by Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles,

Sweeping new legal challenge to bullet train

Kathy Hamilton June 11, 2014

A massive California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit was filed June 4 in Sacramento Superior Court over the newly certified environmental impact report (EIR) for the bullet-train project segment linking Fresno to Bakersfield. This EIR is supposed to have far more