After hopeful signs in early discussions, Governor Brown’s push for a major transportation fix appears to be stalled, with legislative Republicans putting the brakes on any new taxes to repair the state’s aging infrastructure. Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times:
“’If there's no vote before January,’ said DeAnn Baker, legislative director for the California State Assn. of Counties, ‘we're into an election year, and that could make it all the more difficult.’
“Brown could wind up in a circumstance like that of 2011, when he failed to win Republican votes on taxes to patch a budget deficit.”
And, speaking of Governor Brown and transportation projects… while some question if California’s High Speed Rail will ever be built, Siemens, the massive German rail company, is already planning to make Sacramento a manufacturing hub for its American high speed rail projects. Tony Bizjak at the Sacramento Bee:
“After six years of prep work at its sprawling French Road plant in south Sacramento, the German company soon may get its chance to try.
“State high-speed rail officials confirmed last week they plan to call for bids from high-speed rail companies in mid-2016 to build the sleek aluminum trains that will run at 200-plus mph between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The state is expected to need about $3.2 billion worth of train ‘rolling stock’ to serve the new system.”
The University of California has come under fire in recent years for tuition increases, a topheavy bureaucracy, student-faculty ratios, a focus on luring out of state students and other concerns. A plan hammered out this spring between UC President Janet Napolitano and Jerry Brown staved off a fresh tuition hike but tensions continue to brew over the institution’s $29 billion annual budget. The LA Times’ Kim Christiansen digs deep into the economics of UC. Great read.
“Only about a quarter of the UC system's budget is made up of ‘core fund’ spending on the educational mission, they point out. The remainder encompasses everything else, including five medical centers that are more than self-supporting and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which helps bring in the billions of dollars in government grants and contracts that UC researchers attract each year.
“Indeed, UC's budget — larger than those of some 25 states — is so big and so complex that it can be puzzling even for experts.
"’The challenge is to sort of get your arms around everything that they're doing and all of their funding sources and how they spend their money,’ Paul Golaszewski, principal fiscal and policy analyst with the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, told an Assembly panel examining UC spending earlier this year.”
The Westlands Water District invoked the California Environmental Quality Act and Endangered Species Act to oppose allowing Modesto farmers to use recycled water from nearby towns on their crops. Dan Morain, Sacramento Bee:
“Westlands asserted that anything that curtails flow into that river diminishes its ability to divert water from the San Joaquin. Thus, Modesto’s plan to reuse wastewater rather than dump it into the river would affect Westlands farmers.
“Invoking the California Environmental Quality Act and Endangered Species Act, Westlands said the project ‘likely would have adverse environmental impacts in the form of effects to fish and wildlife, due to decreased flows in the San Joaquin River, and outflow through to the ocean.’ Westlands, an advocate for the environment, is an interesting notion.”
As the House GOP struggles to govern itself following the resignation of Speaker John Boehner, some Republicans are quietly – begrudgingly - acknowledging the successes of former Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Carolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle:
“’You have got to give Pelosi full credit,’ said a former House aide who still works closely with the Republican caucus and could not speak freely for fear of losing his access. ‘She is an incredibly tough adversary and she knows how to use power, and she doesn't lose very often in her conference.’”
And a Public Service Announcement for our SoCal readers: if you see a Yellow-bellied Sea Snake (and, no we’re not talking about Donald Trump’s nickname for Nancy Pelosi) – stay away. One of the incredibly venomous tropical serpents washed up on an Oxnard shore recently, probably carried along by El Niño. (with pictures)
“The reptile typically lives in warmer tropical waters, and its appearance is probably a harbinger of El Niño, the cyclical weather phenomenon connected to warmer sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, according to Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay…
"’The Yellow-bellied Sea Snake has some of the most poisonous venom in the world, and is a descendant from Asian cobras and Australian tiger snakes,’ stated [a] post by Heal the Bay’s senior coastal policy manager, Dana Murray.
“It’s the first time since the early 1980s that the black-and-yellow snake has been seen in California, according to Heal the Bay. The last yellow-bellied sea snake sighted was also during an El Niño phase.”