The battle over the right to dispense medicinal marijuana -- California approved it 15 years ago -- heads into the courtroom, as advocates in four federal jurisdictions seek to block the government's move to shut down dispensaries.
From Erik Eckholm in the New York Times: "Tensions between California and the federal government over medical marijuana have been building since the state became the first to authorize public sales, in 1996. Now, 15 other states and the District of Columbia also allow sales of marijuana to patients with a doctor’s prescription."
"A thriving industry of growers and storefront dispensaries has emerged in California that pays substantial sums in state and local taxes, but that federal drug officials see as largely illegal. The Internal Revenue Service has also started a crackdown, denying some sellers the right to deduct marijuana-related business expenses."
"Asked to comment on the suits, Benjamin B. Wagner, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of California, issued this statement: “Unless and until ordered otherwise, we will continue to do our duty in enforcing federal narcotics laws.”
Marijuana isn't the only thing on the high court's mind: The state's budget-balancing move to force redevelopment agencies to shut down or pay up goes to the court this week, with the agencies' contending that the state's action violated voter-approved protections in the constitution.
From the Mercury News' Howard Mintz and Tracy Seipel: "The state's high court will hear arguments Thursday in a lawsuit brought by redevelopment backers arguing the move to seize redevelopment money statewide violates a voter-approved ballot measure last year, which barred the state from taking away local government funding to pay its bills."
"The prospects for California's precarious budget and the future of the state's 398 active redevelopment agencies hang in the balance."
"If the justices agree this year's grab on redevelopment money by Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature is unconstitutional, it would blow a $1.7 billion hole in the state's budget and send lawmakers scrambling to find other ways to close the deficit, most likely resulting in further cuts to state services."
"On the other hand, if the Supreme Court refuses to tamper with the Legislature's budget maneuver, it could be the death knell for many redevelopment agencies. That's the outcome expected by most legal experts who consider the lawsuit a legal long shot."
As the debate goes on over the high-speed bullet train, another of California's transportation issues is getting a close once-over -- it's deteriorating road system. It turns out that the state, which once had the most vaunted road network in the nation, now has the second-worst road conditions of the 50 states,
From the Bee's Dan Walters: "The CTC report says that even if we have a bullet train, we need to spend three times that much over the next 10 years on transportation but can count on less than half from current revenue and capital sources, leaving a net gap that approaches $300 billion."
"California must meet the challenge of its decaying infrastructure with a large increase in capital investments by all levels of government, as well as resources from the private sector," says the CTC's report to the governor and the Legislature."
"Failing to adequately invest in the restoration will lead to further decay and a deterioration of service from which it may take many years to recover. Allowing this to happen obviously would make California a less attractive destination. The future of the state's economy and our quality of life depend on a transportation system that is safe and reliable, and which moves people and goods efficiently."
Voters go to the polls today to pick a new San Francisco mayor -- incumbent Ed Lee has 15 challengers -- and decide other issues in a campaign marked by numderous firsts. The Chronicle's Rachel Gordon tells the tale.
"This election marks the city's first competitive mayor's race to use public financing, which has provided seven candidates with more than $450,000 in taxpayer money apiece to bolster their campaigns."
"It also is the first time that the winner will be selected with ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to pick their top three choices so a winner can be declared even if he or she doesn't get a majority of first-place votes."
"While polls show Lee as the front-runner, the unpredictability of ranked-choice voting has thrown uncertainty into the outcome."
"Polls and predictions by political professionals tend toward the accurate, but sometimes you find out that Don Perata isn't the mayor of Oakland, as everyone predicted," said Alex Clemens, a political consultant and lobbyist, referring to last year's mayor's race that had Perata capturing the most first-place votes but losing to Jean Quan. "Election day happens for a reason: so we can pick a winner."
Federal nose counters have come up with a new way to count the poor, taking into account the high cost of housing in the San Francisco Bay Area.
From the Contra Costa Times' Matt O'Brien: "The new calculation means that another 2.5 million Americans are counted as poor, bringing that number up to 49.1 million, a sum that is likely to engender significant debate. The new measure finds 16 percent of Americans were poor last year, compared to 15.2 percent using the old measure."
"Perhaps more important than the numbers, however, are how different groups of people are affected. More elders, West Coasters and Latinos fall below the poverty line using the new calculation; fewer children, Midwesterners and African Americans count as poor."
"Those distinctions are likely to influence the debate over poverty and how the government targets its services for the poor in the future."
"Poverty is not an easy condition to quantify, but U.S. demographers say the new method is more nuanced than the one-size-fits-all federal poverty line that has guided social policy since the 1960s."
