In a remarkable case of the handling of public money, California's fire-fighting agency hid some $3.6 million from the state's strapped budget, rather than turning it over as required. Instead, the agency put the money into a non-profit's account.
From the LA Times' Jeff Gottlieb: "For seven years, Cal Fire placed the money with the nonprofit California District Attorneys Assn., paying the group to hold it. The department used the cash for equipment purchases and training."
"The practice ended last year amid questions about whether the fund was legal."
"The money came from legal settlements. Cal Fire's own regulations state that the proceeds of such settlements go to the state's general fund. After questions from The Times last week, Cal Fire director, Ken Pimlott, notified the state Natural Resources Agency and state Department of Finance about the fund. The Department of Finance is planning an investigation."
Before Gov. Brown's "Little Engine that Could" can make the grade, it needs to be running on its own track. But California's bullet-train project hasn't yet purchased the land for the rails, even though construction is set to begin in a few months.
From the LA Times' Ralph Vartabedian: "Construction of California's high-speed rail network is supposed to start in just six months, but the state hasn't acquired a single acre along the route and faces what officials are calling a challenging schedule to assemble hundreds of parcels needed in the Central Valley."
"The complexity of getting federal, state and local regulatory approvals for the massive $68-billion project has already pushed back the start of construction to July from late last year. Even with that additional time, however, the state is facing a risk of not having the property to start major construction work near Fresno as now planned."
"It hopes to begin making purchase offers for land in the next several weeks. But that's only the first step in a convoluted legal process that will give farmers, businesses and homeowners leverage to delay the project by weeks, if not months, and drive up sales prices, legal experts say."
Sen. Michael Rubio, a Bakersfield Democrat, is carving out a legislative niche by leading the charge against the California Environmrental Quality Act.
From the Bee's Torey Van Oot: "Now, just more than two years into his Senate term representing a large swath of the southern Central Valley, he is taking on fellow Democrats on the issue, moving to rewrite the California Environmental Quality Act, one of the most complicated and controversial policy issues under the dome."
"Making changes to "modernize" the law, a process he compares to updating an outdated iPhone app, is in Rubio's view "the most important issue facing California today."
"He is quick to praise the law, signed in 1970 by Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan, for bringing "tremendous good" to the environment and the state. But he said he was "shocked" to see projects that could improve the environment and public health "delayed significantly by misuses and abuses of a wonderful statute."
From the Chronicle's Jaxon Van Derbeken: "The state commission that polices bar pilots who navigate ships through San Francisco Bay has gone nearly a year without acting on an extraordinary complaint against a captain lodged after his loaded oil tanker nearly ran aground off Richmond -- an incident that could have caused an environmental disaster."
"The California Board of Pilot Commissioners' handling of the allegation against Capt. David Chapman - made by the then-head of the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association - has come under scrutiny because of the contrasting treatment for another pilot in an accident that attracted far more publicity, an empty tanker's sideswiping of a Bay Bridge tower Jan. 7."
"The pilot in that accident, Capt. Guy Kleess, was promptly put on paid administrative leave by the bar pilots association and remains on dry land. Chapman, on the other hand, is still piloting ships, and the state commission has yet to decide what it should do about the complaint against him."
The case of Chandra Levy, the young government intern whose murder resulted in the scandal that drove former Congressman Gary Condit from office, is the subject of secret court heearings in Washington, D.C.
From the AP's Eric Tucker: "The meetings, held sporadically behind closed doors at the courthouse over the last several weeks, raise questions about what comes next in a criminal case that appeared resolved by the 2010 conviction of Ingmar Guandique. The illegal immigrant from El Salvador is now serving a 60-year prison sentence in Levy's death, but the hearings could signal a problem with the prosecution of the case."
"Authorities acknowledged they had no DNA evidence or witnesses linking Guandique to the crime, building their prosecution instead around a jailhouse informant who said Guandique had confessed behind bars that he was responsible for Levy's death. They also said the attack on Levy fit a pattern of assaults by Guandique on other female joggers in the same location where she went missing and during the same timeframe."
"Guandique, who was already imprisoned for those attacks when he was accused in Levy's death in 2009, professed innocence at his sentencing hearing. His lawyers said police and prosecutors made him a scapegoat for a botched investigation."
