Infrastructure
Back to homepageBudget ‘transparency’ murky in Senate
June 14, 2013 By Katy Grimes SACRAMENTO — I watched in dismay as Senate Democrats voted yesterday to bypass proper procedure in order to play politics with the budget. They withdrew several of their budget bills from the Rules Committee,
Read MoreNorth/South CA intensify water war
June 13, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi A North/South California water war has been waging since William Mulholland took a civilian militia of shotgun-wielding soldiers to Owens Valley in 1927 to guard the Los Angeles Aqueduct from further bombings by local
Read MoreNew bill would short-circuit Hoover call for green power ‘timeout’
June 11, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi State Assemblyman V. Manuel Perez, D-Coachella, has proposed an ambitious new bill that would increase the mandate for green power in California from 33 percent to 51 percent by the end of 2030. This
Read MoreReinflating debate about suburbia
June 10, 2013 By Steven Greenhut SACRAMENTO — After the housing bubble burst a few years ago, sending real estate prices through the floor in many places, some influential academics and urban planners celebrated the supposed demise of something they
Read MoreTop officials live up (down?) to bullet train tradition
June 10, 2013 By Chris Reed When the Los Angeles Times broke the story in April that the California High-Speed Rail Authority had quietly changed the rules to de-emphasize the importance of technical competence among bidders for the first segment
Read MorePolitical energy crisis in the making
June 9, 2013 By Katy Grimes With industrial electricity rates 88 percent higher in California than in Texas last year, the news that the San Onofre nuclear plant in is not going to be restarted is just more evidence of
Read MoreGov. Jerry Brown’s father complex
June 5, 2013 By John Seiler Calling Dr. Freud. Gov. Jerry Brown’s relationship with his later father, Gov. Pat Brown, is complex. It’s so complex it’s a father complex. Our colleague Steven Greenhut writes about it on Bloomberg, “Who Will
Read MoreWould another Burns-Porter Act resolve the Delta revuelta?
June 4, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi Mark Twain wrote, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” California is replaying its original political power struggle for passage of the State Water Project that had to be resolved by the Burns-Porter
Read MoreSpecial problems for high-speed rail
May 31, 2013 By John Seiler The Mercury-News reported today: “SACRAMENTO — High-speed rail officials acknowledged Thursday that they almost certainly won’t break ground on the $69 billion project as planned in July after hitting some last-minute bumps in the
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