The Brown administration released the first part of its long-awaited plan to move more northern California water to the south through the Delta, but at the heart of the proposal is a mystery: Just how much water are we talking about?
From News10s John Myers: "After all, the water tunnels are the mechanism by which supporters can claim the plan will work. And yet, that plan won't answer one of the biggest questions: how much water will the tunnels transport from north to south?"
"This plan does not include any guarantees for water supply deliveries," said Mark Cowin, director of the state Department of Water Resources, at the Thursday unveiling of the first portion of the long awaited Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP)..."
"Which gets us back to the question about how much water the BDCP will allow to be transported to the south."
Even before the huge public works project gets under way, there are all but certain to be lawsuits and other hurdles waiting in the wings.
From the Mercury News' Paul Rogers: "Environmental groups and fishing groups who oppose the plan are almost certain to file a lawsuit when the project's environmental impact report comes out this summer. Such lawsuits can drag on for years."
"The project needs state lawmakers to place a water bond on the November 2014 ballot to help generate funding. The $11 billion water bond the Legislature approved in 2009 -- painstakingly cobbled together after long negotiations between Republicans and Democrats -- was pulled from the state ballot in 2010 and 2012 by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then Brown over concerns voters would defeat it because it was widely perceived as being full of pork projects. Legislators are trying to find a two-thirds majority for a smaller water bond, but so far have not."
"Critics already are discussing placing a ballot measure on the 2016 statewide ballot to try to kill the project if it gets that far. A ballot measure in 1982 defeated a similar project proposed by Brown during his second term as governor. Dubbed the Peripheral Canal, the proposed project became the center of a fierce north-south battle over water."
The Schwarzenegger administration's move to furlough state workers as a cost-saving device is going to wind up costing the state a lot of money. according to the LAO.
From the LAT's Chris Megerian: "The decision to furlough state employees over the last five years may have saved money in the short term but will leave bigger bills for California down the road, according to a new report."
"State employees took fewer and fewer vacation days because furloughs were already forcing them to take time off from work. Now California will have to pay them $3 billion for unused time off when they retire, an increase of more than $1 billion since the furloughs began."
"When payouts for other types of compensation are included, the total bill rises to $3.9 billion, the report said. About one-third of the money is owed to corrections officers."
Meanwhile, a social media editor at Reuters has been accused of conspiring with the hackers' group Anonymous to hack into the Tribune Co.'s computers.
From the AP's Paul Elias and Garance Burke: "Matthew Keys is charged with supplying hackers in December 2010 with the login credentials to the computer network of Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, the FBI said. Keys had been fired from a Tribune-owned television station in Sacramento two months earlier during the company's bankruptcy. He was not working for Reuters when he allegedly conspired with Anonymous."
"According to the federal grand jury indictment handed down in Sacramento, a hacker altered a Times news story posted Dec. 14 and 15, 2010, to read "Pressure builds in House to elect CHIPPY 1337," a reference to another hacking group."
"The indictment alleges that Keys, 26, and another hacker failed in another attempt to access the Tribune computer system after the Times hack. Keys acquired the login information while serving as the web producer for the Sacramento-based FOX station KTXL, which is owned by Tribune Co."
Speaking of Tribune Co., Eli Broad, the billionaire real estate mogul and philanthropist, and former Deputy L.A. Mayor Austin Beutner, reportedly are teaming up to buy the Los Angeles Times, which is owned by TribCo.
From the Hollywood Reporter's Paul Bond: "Broad, whose estimated worth is north of $6 billion, is teaming with Beutner, an investment banker. The pair are primarily interested in the Times, though they would consider purchasing the block of Tribune Co. newspapers -- including the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, and the Hartford Courant -- and then sell off the excess titles, sources say."
"Beutner and Broad would like to reconfigure the Times into a nonprofit, which Beutner would run while Broad joins its board of governors, sources tell THR."
"Mr. Broad has always believed in local ownership of the Timesand would be interested in joining with others to buy the paper," Broad spokeswoman Karen Denne tells THR.
