The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and three agricultural water agencies are negotiating to buy five islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Some environmentalists and Delta activists characterize the deal as a water grab. Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow have the story at the Sacramento Bee:
“Critics have said Metropolitan and its partners want to use the lands to somehow pull more water out of the Delta. [MWD general manager Jeff Kightlinger] and Stephen Arakawa, Metropolitan’s director of Bay-Delta initiatives, acknowledged that more water is Metropolitan’s goal, but not in the way the agency’s opponents think. Instead, Metropolitan’s plan is to restore wildlife habitats on the islands, on the theory that any project that enhances the Delta’s ecosystems would smooth the way for improved water deliveries. Over the years, water deliveries to Southern California farms and cities have been vastly curtailed at times to protect endangered fish species.
“’Our interest is reliable (water) supply, and a healthy environment in the Delta is a key part of that,’ Arakawa said. ‘You can’t have a reliable supply without a healthy environment.’
Environmental groups remain skeptical. ‘Can you say the words ‘Owens Valley’ and ‘Chinatown’? It certainly has that odor,’ said Ron Stork, policy director for Friends of the River. ‘One way to deal with the opposition of folks in the Delta is to buy the Delta.’”
Several prominent feminists, including Gloria Steinem, have posted an open letter to presumed gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly, decrying his defense of an associate who had beaten his girlfriend, and calling him unfit for public office. Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times:
“Possible California gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly was warned Tuesday not to run for the office again by some women’s rights activists, including Gloria Steinem and Eve Ensler, who alleged he sought leniency for a colleague accused of domestic violence.
“Steinem, the feminist co-founder of Ms. Magazine, and Ensler, the Tony-award winning playwright of ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ were joined in an open letter to Westly by Beverly Upton, executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium...
"’Let us be perfectly clear -- your work defending this violent abuser in order to personally profit disqualifies you from any public office,’ they added. ‘Your actions are unforgivable and we will not sit idly by while you campaign as a Democrat. If you choose to run, we will make sure voters know the facts. We ask that you reconsider your plans to run for governor.’”
As fantasy sports betting comes under fire in New York, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/sports/football/draftkings-fanduel-new-york-attorney-general-tells-fantasy-sites-to-stop-taking-bets-in-new-york.html
The C.E.O. of DraftKings, one of the largest fantasy sports platforms in the country, was in California this week, meeting with legislators who are considering regulation of the booming industry. Carla Marinucci, Politico:
“’California is a huge state for us, a very important state — tech-savvy and interested in the new disruptive technologies,’ Jason Robins, CEO and co-founder of Boston-based DraftKings, one of the nation’s leading fantasy sports game platforms, told POLITICO Monday. ‘And the people, and the culture, are very oriented around being interested in new technologies. ... California’s people have really adopted what we’re doing, in a big way.’
“Robin traveled to California this week to meet lawmakers and investors, just weeks after Assemblyman Mark Gray, a Democrat who chairs the state legislature’s Governmental Operations Committee, introduced a bill, AB 1437, which would establish a first-ever regulatory plan for the industry in the nation’s most populous state.”
Some good news for Governor Jerry Brown: the state’s budget surplus is nearly $1 billion, and – not unrelated - he was named one of Governing Magazine’s Public Officials of the Year for 2015.
“Not that long ago, people were questioning whether California could be governed. The state faced multibillion-dollar shortfalls every year, leading to questions about whether California would go broke before Greece. In terms of dysfunction, Sacramento appeared to have beaten even Washington.
“Then Jerry Brown returned as governor. When he took office in 2011, the state was $26 billion short. This year, lawmakers were fighting about what to do with a surplus. Much of that had to do with the state’s rising economy, but Brown had helped put the state back on a sustainable course.
“In 2012, he convinced voters to raise sales and income taxes. Since then, he has managed to curb the impulse legislators have to spend money as fast or faster than it’s coming in, using his veto power freely and instead diverting the money to the state’s rainy day fund. ‘His ability to follow through on his promise to voters that he was going to stabilize the financial situation, which every year had been a problem, has made all the difference in the world,’ says Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California.”
And finally, a remembrance that today is Veteran’s Day. The holiday began nearly a century ago as Armistice Day, a celebration of the official end of World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In honor of the holiday, we thought we’d share a link to a collection of Retronaut’s compelling images from that first Armistice Day, November 11, 1918. And if you are a veteran – thank you.
