The $43 billion price tag of California's proposed bullet train is a high indeed, but other aspects of the project carry a different kind of price tag. A high school in Bakersfield, for example, that's been around since 1893. The LA Times' Ralph Vartabedian tells the tale.
"The train's proposed routes are taking aim at the campus, potentially putting a bulls-eye on the Industrial Arts Building, where future engineers, ceramic artists, auto mechanics, fabric designers and wood-workers take classes. Even though freight trains already lumber not far from the campus, these elevated trains could rocket by on a viaduct at up to 220 mph every five minutes, eye level with the school library and deafening the stately outdoor commons where students congregate between classes."
"Obviously we can't have a school with a high-speed rail going over the top of the building," said Principal David Reese. "What kind of distraction would that cause our students?"
"The California High Speed Rail Authority, the agency trying to build the bullet train, couldn't have found a more politically sensitive target. The school is where House Majority WhipKevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), one of the project's staunchest opponents in Congress, sends his children."
The hot topic for government these days is realignment, the shift of state resources and power to the counties in which the latter will take over critical pieces of state operations. One of those will be the incarceration of prison inmates in local lockups. It's a controversial, costly process as the locals line up for jail funds.
From Marisa Lagos in the Chronicle: "Sheriffs association lobbyist Nick Warner said 32 of the state's 58 counties are already under state or court-imposed population caps because of existing overcrowding, and jails currently used to house inmates for a maximum of one year are beginning to receive inmates who have 10- or even 20-year sentences."
"The notion isn't to build our way out of this," he said. "A lot of counties don't just need more beds, they need better beds, different beds. ... The people that will now be in local jails will be there dramatically longer."
"The $600 million is available under AB900, a 2007 law that authorized $7.4 billion in bonds to expand lockups, including about $1.2 billion for local jail beds."
Going through the college admissions process can be confusing enough as it is, but new changes at the University of California apparently are making the matter worse.
From the LA Times' Larry Gordon: "But the new rules have caused widespread confusion and anxiety among students about whether to take the supplemental tests known as SAT subject exams. To boost their chances of UC admission, thousands of high school seniors are taking the subject exams even though the university has dropped them as a requirement, starting with applications for next fall. UC still requires scores from the main SAT test or its rival, the ACT.
"Good subject test scores in any discipline will be a "plus factor" in a freshman application, similar to musical ability or club leadership, UC officials say. Not taking them or doing poorly won't eliminate anyone, they emphasize."
"Many high school students and counselors contend that is a bewilderingly mixed message. If taking the subject tests helps some students, they ask, won't not taking them potentially hurt others in the zero sum game of admissions? Adding to the uncertainty is that several UC engineering and science programs recommend subject tests in math and science."
Donald Bird's years-long crusade challenging the residency of Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, appears to be coming to an end: A judge has issued a restraining order against Bird, preventing him from going on Nielsen's property and barring Bird's attempt to perform a citizen arrest of the veteran lawmaker.
From Jim Sanders in the Bee: "Bird proudly admits to "hounding" Nielsen, but never violently. He does not dispute court documents saying he sent handwritten notes to the lawmaker and drove by his Gerber home 108 times during 2008-10."
"Hi, Jimmy, we are getting close," one of Bird's notes read, according to court documents. "We will get you sir. Jimmy, you will pay the price."
"Bird said that he drove by the home often to establish whether Nielsen truly lived there. He has carried signs, tried to have him arrested, and done whatever he could to press the issue – but never to harm the legislator, Bird said."
The question of public-employee pensions gets yet another look, this time in San Francisco, where rival ballot measures go before voters next month.
From CalPensions' Ed Mendel: "The measure does not raise the issue that the Little Hoover Commission and others say urgently needs a new look by the courts: whether the pensions of current workers not yet earned by time on the job can be cut."
"But Measure D by Jeff Adachi, the city public defender, does raise the annual payments employees must make toward their pensions without bargaining or providing an offsetting benefit."
“As written, D raises contribution rates on current employees, but fails to include offsetting reductions in good economic times when the city’s costs are reduced,” said a ballot pamphlet rebuttal written by Mayor Ed Lee and others. “D is not only unfair, legal experts say it’s unlawful and will be invalidated by the courts, leaving taxpayers with zero savings.”
