Governor Brown and legislative leaders of both parties yesterday announced a $1 billion emergency drought package. Is it merely a drop in the bucket?
John Myers, KQED: “’There’s more to do,’ said Gov. Jerry Brown at a news conference with legislative leaders from both parties, a sentiment each of them echoed in discussing the proposal.
“Language of the legislative proposal wasn’t unveiled on Thursday, and may not be complete until next week.”
And, despite that headline you saw shared all over Facebook and Twitter last week, no, California won’t run out of water in a year.
“Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a professor at UC Irvine, wrote about the state's dwindling water resources in a March 12 column, citing satellite data that have shown sharp declines since 2011 in the total amount of water in snow, rivers, reservoirs, soil and groundwater in California.
“In an interview Thursday, Famiglietti said he never claimed that California has only a year of total water supply left.
“He explained that the state's reservoirs have only about a one-year supply of water remaining. Reservoirs provide only a portion of the water used in California and are designed to store only a few years' supply.”
Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters looks at the role Dem party factions play in a state largely under one-party rule, with a lookahead to the intra-party battle brewing in SD-7.
It’s been relatively quiet in the senate race to succeed Barbara Boxer since Assemblyman Rocky Chavez (R-Oceanside) stepped in, and the two highest-profile Dem contenders stepped aside, so Thursday’s announcement that Emily’s List has endorsed Kamala Harris for the gig counts as big news. It also counts as bad news for the house members still considering a run for the seat. Michael Finnegan and Noah Bierman look at their careful calculus for the Los Angeles Times:
“After 14 years in Congress, Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank is finally getting the kind of coverage that ambitious politicians crave: CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, MSNBC and NPR have all come calling in recent weeks.
“Schiff's newly acquired media platform — he was named ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee in January — could serve him well if he runs for the U.S. Senate seat that fellow Democrat Barbara Boxer plans to vacate.
“But Schiff's high profile on foreign affairs, if not his whole career in elective office, is exactly what he would be forced to relinquish if he runs for the Senate and loses. He's trying to decide whether it's worth it.
“Two other Democrats, Reps. Xavier Becerra of Los Angeles and Loretta Sanchez of Garden Grove, are making similar calculations as they weigh whether to enter the race for a rare open Senate post in California. House members cannot seek reelection and run for another office at the same time.”
In light of the questions raised by the investigation into alleged improprieties by former California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey the chairman of the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce has asked state regulators to reopen the legal settlement that apportioned costs of closing the San Onofre nuclear power plant. From Marc Lifsher at the LA Times:
"’I believe it is imperative to investigate and scrutinize the entire settlement process ... to assure that the settlement process was legitimate and uncorrupted,’ Assemblyman Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) wrote in a letter Thursday to PUC President Michael Picker.”
A proposed ballot measure would mandate the use of condoms in all porn produced in California. Condoms are already required in porn produced in Los Angeles, as per the constraints of Measure B, passed in 2012.
And, it’s Friday, the day we look at the candidates for worst week in California politics and let you know who is Singin’ the Golden State Blues.
Tuesday’s special election brought great news for Sharon Runner and John Moorlach, good news for Steve Glazer and Susan Bonilla, and crappy news for Joan Buchanan and Don Wagner.
Buchanan, an early favorite to make the top two, suffered when last minute incursions of cash boosted Bonilla’s candidacy. Buchanan ended up out of the race in SD-7, losing second place to Bonilla by 2250 votes.
Assemblyman Don Wagner had a big lead in fundraising in the race for SD-37, pulling in $494,000 - more than double the dough raised by John Moorlach, his nearest competitor. It wasn’t even enough to get him out of the primary; on Tuesday Moorlach won outright with 50.3% of the vote.
It’s a hard call, but given that Wagner is termed out of the Assembly next year, we’re guessing he took a worse hit than Buchanan, so we’re naming him our California Blues Singer of the week.