It's California's version of the West Bank -- sort of -- as a group of Indian tribes and various private landowners square off over turf along the Colorado River. Capitol Weekly's Malcolm Maclachlan tells the tale.
"Last month, Jim Foley got evicted from the land where he’s had a home since 1979 — land that he cleared himself, with 120 feet of shoreline on the Colorado River. He and his wife had lived there full time since retiring in 2000. It had a mobile home and a garage on it, along with other improvements he left in place."
"But he went without a fight. After all, he hadn’t paid rent in 21 years."
“I decided not to pay them,” Foley said. “They did not belong there in the first place. I’m not going to pay somebody for something that doesn’t belong to them.”
“Them” is the Colorado River Indian Tribes, a collection of Chemehuevi, Hopi, Mohave and Navajo Indians collective known as “CRIT.” They’re based across the river in Arizona, and have been involved in a decades-long dispute with leaseholders along a 25-mile section of the California side of the river."
One outcome of the topsy-turvy redistricting process may be to send two rock-ribbed conservative politicians, Congressmen Dan Lungren and Tom McClintock, against each other in a fight for a Sacramento-area district.
From the Bee's Dan Morain: "Most insiders have assumed that Lungren would run next door, in the 7th Congressional District, which encompasses eastern Sacramento County. That makes sense. His Gold River home is in the 7th District, as is McClintock's home in Elk Grove."
"Lungren still might stay put. However, there is increasing talk that Lungren is seriously thinking about stepping onto McClintock's turf. Neither he nor McClintock would discuss the potential showdown."
"That's an interesting thought. He does live closer to the district than Tom," Lungren campaign manager Rob Stutzman told me, jabbing at McClintock, while hardly offering a denial.
Stutzman would not discuss the matter further, declining to say whether he is polling voters, contacting leaders in the district about endorsements, or talking to donors."
He may not have known it at the time, but when Gov. Brown eliminated the California Postsecondary Education Commission, he sent hundreds of millions of computer records into an uncertain gray area. It's the latest twist in a burgeoning dispute over education databases.
From Capitol Weekly's John Howard: "What we don’t want to happen is to have the data wiped and erased and lost,” noted Ashley Ceric of the state Department of Education. “Someone should be the caretaker of that data.”
"One option: Set up a body called a Joint Powers Authority that would be responsible for the sensitive data. JPAs are not unusual at the local level, but they are rare among state agencies. Last month, educators, state officials and others gathered to discuss the issue. Capitol Weekly reviewed a detailed memorandum of the meeting."
"By abolishing CPEC, Brown also eliminated the state’s sole office that coordinates higher education policy – a move that some experts believe may be more significant than the stranded data and may come back to bite the state."
California cash is helping Texas Gov. Rick Perry meet his political goals, according to an examination of his campaign donations. The Republican Perry, who is expected to announce he's running for president this weekend, has collected some $547,000 from California donors.
From Chase Davis in California Watch: "Since he was elected governor in 2000, Perry – who is known as a prolific fundraiser – has brought in more than $457,000 from California donors – many of them political committees and interest groups with a stake in business causes."
"Oil and gas giant Chevron, aerospace manufacturer Northrop Grumman, the engineering company Fluor, and computing powerhouse Hewlett-Packard each gave more than $10,000 to Perry’s campaigns."
"Some of the largest individual donations he received – at $25,000 each – came from the wife of billionaire banker Roland Arnall and Tustin developer Richard Hall. Billionaire Alex Spanos, a major Republican benefactor and owner of the San Diego Chargers, also contributed $15,000 in 2008."
One indicator of the depth of Sacramennto's wounded economy can been in construction wages, which dropped by $2 billion in the fiscal downturn. The Bee's Phillip Reese has the story.
"At the height of the housing boom in 2006, Sacramento's construction workers earned $6.3 billion. By 2010, that figure had fallen by $2.3 billion, according to new figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. To put that loss in perspective, $2.3 billion is enough to pay the wages of every worker living in the city of Folsom, census data show."
"The wage losses are the result of local housing construction hitting a historical low. Along with the region's state and local government earnings - down $531 million during the last two years - and manufacturing earnings - down $1 billion during the last five years - the lost wages largely explain why the region's economy is stuck."
"All that said, several other large metro areas have seen even larger construction declines. Las Vegas, for instance, watched construction wages drop by 50 percent during the last five years. This chart shows the 20 metro areas with the largest nominal drops in construction wages from 2006 to 2010."
