November 30, 2017

30Nov

TOP POLITICAL STORIES​​​​​​​

Local/Regional Politics:

As governor, Delaine Eastin would seek to improve education, housing, health care at Maddy Institute Event

Fresno Bee

As governor, Delaine Eastin,would focus on improving education, housing, health care and care of children of immigrants. Video.

State panel likes Riverview Drive access to San Joaquin River

Fresno Bee

With Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom holding the gavel in Fresno, the California State Lands Commission voted Wednesday to support public access to open space along the San Joaquin River via the controversial Riverview Drive route.

It’s controversial because neighbors who live in the area oppose the street being used as the access point to a planned parking lot near the river on grounds of too much traffic and neighborhood safety concerns.

See also:

Tulare Regional Medical Center seeking investors to reopen hospital, date still to be determined

abc30

The lights have been out at Tulare Regional Medical Center for over a month but families are far from discouraged.

Kaweah Delta to break ground for ER expansion

Visalia Times-Delta

Kaweah Delta Medical Center’s has a solution to its overcrowding and long emergency department wait times: More space, comfort, medical staff and more timely and efficient care. Just last week, Kaweah Delta pitched a tent serving as a temporary solution to its busy emergency department. In a few years, the tent could be long gone, health officials said.

Hundreds graduate from drug court

Visalia Times-Delta

Emotions were high Wednesday night as more than 200 people graduated from Tulare County Adult Drug Court. Confetti fell from the ceiling of the Visalia Convention Center as graduates walked to the stage. “Every day I’m in awe of what God has done for me,” said graduate Joseph Smith. “I can do everything without using.” Smith estimated he had the most restraining orders against him than anyone in the program, he said. His family refused to speak to him.

State’s largest solar energy project, coming to Kern in 2019, will fuel oil extraction, cut industrial emissions

bakersfield.com

In a move touted as a boon to air quality, Aera Energy and GlassPoint Solar officials announced plans Wednesday to build the state’s largest solar field. The project, which would assist Aera’s oil extraction operations, would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions throughout Kern County, the partners said.

City’s response to charges it violated open meeting law inadequate, complainants say

bakersfield.com

Two First Amendment rights groups say they are moving forward with litigation against the City of Bakersfield for allegedly violating open-meetings laws.

Californian Assemblyman Rudy Salas visits Bakersfield College

The Renegade Rip

The Bakersfield College Student Government Association hosted a Power Lunch with California State Assembly member, Rudy Salas, at 11 a.m. on Nov. 27 in the Fireside Room.

State Politics:

Former Senate candidate from Laguna Beach continues fight against state over 2016 voter guide

Los Angeles Times

Laguna Beach resident Paul Merritt, who ran for a U.S. Senate seat last year, is not through battling California Secretary of State Alex Padilla over language that state voters saw in their information guides for the June 2016 primary. Attorney Gautam Dutta filed a challenge Monday in U.S. federal court in Santa Ana to Padilla’s motion to dismiss Merritt’s third complaint related to a lawsuit originally filed in April 2016.

Happy holidays from Sen. Tony Mendoza – and other statements on sexual harassment allegations against him

Sacramento Bee

Sen. Tony Mendoza has penned a holiday letter to “neighbors, family and friends” following allegations that he engaged in inappropriate behavior with three women he has worked with over the years.

CA Assembly to establish sexual harassment reporting hotline

Sacramento Bee

As advocates and some lawmakers urge the California Legislature to overhaul its sexual harassment policies, the Assembly may soon establish a confidential hotline for reporting misconduct and begin tracking complaints. Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, who this week chaired an emotional hearing on sexual harassment at the Capitol, said in an interview Wednesday that she is pushing the Assembly administration to take immediate action on several issues identified by critics of the current system, while her committee brainstorms new procedures more broadly in the coming months.

Skelton: It’s time to unmask abusers in the Legislature and hit them where it hurts — their pocketbooks and careers

Los Angeles Times

How can powerful men be stopped from sexually harassing vulnerable young women? One way: Make the men vulnerable by making them pay. If enough male predators were forced to pay with their careers, their wallets and their reputations — really pay — there’d be more of them keeping their mouths shut and their hands off. At least they’d stop to think twice.

California Assembly setting up confidential hotline for sexual harassment complaints

Sacramento Bee

As advocates and some lawmakers urge the California Legislature to overhaul its sexual harassment policies, the Assembly may soon establish a confidential hotline for reporting misconduct and begin tracking complaints.

Why sexual predators endure in the political world

San Francisco Chronicle

The political world — from Washington to Sacramento — is wired to protect its own, conducting ethics investigations in private and shelling out tax dollars to make harassment complaints go away. It rides in its own private elevator.

California Law Doesn’t Require Employers to Keep Track of Sexual Harassment Complaints

Capital Public Radio

At Tuesday’s California Assembly hearing on sexual harassment prevention, chief administrator Debra Gravert stunned observers when she was asked how many victim complaints have come in during her three-and-a-half years on the job. “We do not track complaints. We only track investigations,” she responded.

California Law Doesn’t Require Employers to Keep Track of Sexual Harassment Complaints

capradio.org

Pelosi’s daughter: California lawmakers enable harassment

Washington Post

While U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi faced criticism for not being more strident in responding to sexual harassment allegations, back in her home state of California her daughter is throwing verbal hand grenades, alleging state lawmakers are protecting rapists at the Capitol. At a hearing Tuesday on the California Legislature’s sexual harassment policies, Christine Pelosi produced gasps when she said “everybody here knows we have rapists in this building” as well as “enablers.” While many others testified, sometimes angrily, about a dysfunctional system they say protects the powerful and encourages silence from victims, Christine Pelosi’s comments…

California’s emissions dip—but climate policies get less credit than the weather

CALmatters

As Gov. Jerry Brown was making his way through Europe last month, striking an evangelical tone about the global peril represented by climate change, California’s Air Resources Board released good news about emissions reported by companies covered under the state’s cap-and-trade system. Its report showed greenhouse gas emissions reduced by almost 5 percent in 2016, propelling the state toward meeting its ambitious goals. And for that we can thank Mother Nature. According to analyses from the air board and independent experts, last year’s emissions drops came about not because of technological breakthroughs or drastic pollution reductions from oil refineries or other industries, nor did the lauded cap-and-tradeprogram make a signifiant difference. It was the rain.

Podcast: The Atlantic Interview

The Atlantic

… Mayors are really good at dealing with things practically. … This is a very impractical White House right now. When it comes to public safety, I listen to police chiefs and cops, not to a cable news station. When it comes to the environment, we’re not like engaging in ideological conversation about the merits of climate change, we’re actually dealing with the impact.”

Gov. Brown tells environmentalists in SF to ‘live lean and lightly’

San Francisco Chronicle

Federal Politics:

It Started as a Tax Cut. Now It Could Change American Life

The New York Times

The tax plan has been marketed by President Trump and Republican leaders as a straightforward if enormous rebate for the masses, a $1.5 trillion package of cuts to spur hiring and economic growth.

See also:

What happens if Congress doesn’t fund the health insurance used by almost 2 million kids and pregnant women in California?

Los Angeles Times

Unless Congress comes to an agreement fast, federal funding for a program that provides health insurance to 2 million California children and pregnant women will run out around the end of the year. After that, California could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars because the state is required to offer the insurance even if the federal funds don’t show up.

See also:

Dianne Feinstein isn’t letting up on probe into Trump-Russia investigation

Sacramento Bee

As revelations over alleged sexual misconduct by powerful men dominate legislative discussions in Sacramento and Washington, Sen. Dianne Feinsteinisn’t letting up on another investigative bombshell – the congressional probe intoRussian meddling in last year’s presidential election.

Feinstein’s bump stocks ban move back into the spotlight

Sacramento Bee

A week ahead of a long awaited Senate hearing on bump stocks, the district attorney from Las Vegas issued a powerful call to ban the firearm accessory, which enabled a gunman to kill 58 people in just minutes at an Oct. 1 concert along the city’s famed Strip. The renewed spotlight on the issue provides some much needed momentum for California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s legislation to ban the device, which has languished in the Senate as Washington’s attention drifted on to other matters.

De León’s uphill journey toward a US Senate seat

Capitol Weekly

The contrast between Kevin de León and his political opponent Dianne Feinstein is stark. De León, the leader of the state Senate, grew up in the San Diego barrio of Logan Heights.  His mother cleaned houses and did odd jobs to support the family. Feinstein grew up in a wealthy family in a posh section of San Francisco, the daughter of a prominent surgeon and a beautiful mother.

Other:

Citizen engagement in 2017: Is this the start of something historic?

Brookings

The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) has been a leading researcher in citizen engagement with Congress for decades and in January, after Donald Trump’s inauguration, something rather extraordinary started to happen in the U.S. We chronicled a rare increase in in citizen-advocacy.

PolitiFact’s guide to fake news websites and what they peddle

PunditFact

At first look, BostonTribune.com certainly seems a trustworthy source. So does KMT11.com. And ABCNews.com.co. Even 24wpn.com has an official ring to it. But all of these websites peddle bogus stories, either by making up fake news or sharing it from other sources. And it’s not always apparent to readers that’s the case.

LA Weekly staff is slashed as Semanal Media finishes buying the publication

Los Angeles Times

LA Weekly’s staff was gutted Wednesday as Voice Media Group completed its sale of the alternative newsweekly to a newly created company, Semanal Media. Nine of the 13 members of the editorial staff lost their jobs, including all the top editors and all but one of the staff writers.

Topics in More Detail…

EDITORIALS

Why sexual harassment persists in the Capitol: They don’t ask and don’t want to be told

Fresno Bee

California Assembly delves into #MeToo allegations of sexual harassment by women who work in the Capitol. Reasons for failures start to become clear.

Time is running out on children’s health insurance program

Los Angeles Times

Every major federal health insurance program has become a political hot button in recent years, as Democrats and Republicans have tussled over the cost, reach and rationale of Obamacare, Medicaid and Medicare. Those fights, in turn, have insinuated themselves into many of the major policy battles…

Trump’s anti-Muslim bullying is trickling down to local schools

San Jose Mercury News

Kids bullying Muslim classmates, and now Muslim Alum Rock teacher, can be traced to Trump

Gov. Brown takes on serious pension reform

San Francisco Chronicle

Gov. Jerry Brown’s twin-tunnel water plan and a high-speed rail system are his showiest dreams for a lasting legacy. But as his fourth term winds down, he’s taking up another monumental issue

AGRICULTURE/FOOD

California’s marijuana industry may be in deep trouble

Business Insider

From growers to investors, the marijuana industry has most everyone seeing green. According to cannabis research firm ArcView, legal weed sales are expected to grow in North America by 26% a year through 2021, yielding a nearly $22 billion market. Of course, that could be touching the tip of the iceberg considering expansion opportunities in the U.S. and throughout the rest of the world.

Sessions hints at crackdown on recreational pot, affecting California, other states

Sacramento Bee

Attorney General Jeff Sessions hinted Wednesday that the Justice Department may take a tougher stance on recreational marijuana in the near future, a change in policy that would have a significant impact on the five states plus the District of Columbia that already allow the drug to be used for more than medicinal purposes. California is scheduled to join that group on Jan. 1.

LA Debates Restricting Cannabis Businesses Near Parks, Schools

KQED

With just over a month to go before recreational cannabis becomes legal in California, Los Angeles is preparing to establish new rules for regulating sellers, growers and users. Marijuana businesses could not be too close to schools or parks, and existing medical marijuana dispensaries would get priority for licensing, under a set of provisions debated by the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday.

Oakland Council vote allows adult sales of cannabis – East Bay Times

East Bay Times

As Oakland continues its march to legalize cannabis sales for adults in January when the new state law allowing them kicks in, the city council passed amendments Tuesday to keep the process on track.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE​ ​/​ ​FIRE​ ​/​ ​PUBLIC SAFETY

Crime:

Can You Go To Jail For Picking California’s State Flower?

KQED

Bay Curious listener Josh Brett grew up Oakland, and was told from a young age that it is illegal to pick California’s state flower — the golden poppy. “It was sort of just common knowledge as a kid growing up in the Bay Area in the 90s that it was illegal,” he says. “You might even go to jail for it!” Brett isn’t sure where he first heard this warning — maybe older siblings, parents, or teachers. But now that he’s all grown up, he wants to know — is it true?

Public Safety:

House committee set to pass bill to dramatically ease concealed gun laws

San Francisco Chronicle

In the first congressional action on guns since the nation’s worst ever mass shooting in Las Vegas last month, the House Judiciary Committee was prepared to approve legislation Wednesday that would allow nearly anyone to carry concealed weapons across state lines, even into states such as California that tightly restrict weapons concealment.

See also:

Fire:

California regulators to decide who pays SoCal wildfire costs

San Francisco Chronicle

California regulators on Thursday may finally decide whether an electric utility sued over wildfire damage can pass those costs on to its customers. But the long-running and closely watched case — which took on new relevance after October’s deadly Wine Country fires — may not set much of a precedent.

ECONOMY / JOBS

Economy:

First business opens at long-anticipated Stockdale Center

bakersfield.com

Hungry customers lined up Wednesday for the grand opening of Cafe Rio Mexican Grill, which was handing out  free meals to the first 300 people to reach the front counter.

2018’s new laws: California businesses brace for changes

Riverside Press Enterprise

A slew of new laws that address unpaid parental leave, new hiring restrictions and other workplace issues will have an impact on California businesses in the coming year.

California Today: Jerry Brown’s China Ace Card

New York Times

China’s push to become a major player in electric cars is already shaking up the global auto industry. California’s governor is hoping it will also give the state an advantage in its continuing showdown with Detroit over battery-powered vehicles. Gov. Jerry Brown said on Wednesday evening at an event in San Francisco that China’s electric-car effort would help California withstand demands from American automakers that the state ease back on its effort to put more clean-burning vehicles on the road. California mandates that manufacturers sell a small but growing percentage of electric cars or plug-in hybrid vehicles, which run on both gasoline and electricity.

EDUCATION 

K-12:

Teaching LGBT history complicated by historical figures who didn’t ‘out’ themselves

EdSource

California earlier this month became the first state in the country to adopttextbooks that highlight the contributions of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender to the development of the state and country.

New California law expands low-income parents’ access to subsidized child care

EdSource

The new law will make low-income parents who are are enrolled in English as a second language classes (ESL) or a program to earn a high school diploma or general education development certificate (GED) eligible to place their children in subsidized care.

Higher Ed:

Improving College Pathways in California

Public Policy Institute of California

Far too many California students are falling off the pathway to and through college. At current rates of high school and college completion, only about 30 percent of California 9th graders will earn a bachelor’s degree, a rate that is insufficient for an economy that increasingly demands more highly educated workers. In this study, we examine college pathways in high school, at California’s community colleges, and at California State University (CSU). We find that most students exit the pathway in the last two years of high school or the first two years of college. In addition, we find

Walters: UC’s Napolitano gets scolded, but keeps her job

CalMatters

Let’s say you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company that’s under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting irregularities.

After complaints, UC creates Title IX student advisory board

San Jose Mercury News

As colleges — along with Hollywood, politicians and corporations — struggle with how to address sexual harassment, the University of California is creating a Title IX student advisory board to give students a say in how the issue is handled across the system’s 10 campuses. Members, to be selected by other students and staffers in the UC Office of the President, will act as liaisons between students and the systemwide Title IX office, which handles sexual violence prevention and response efforts for UC.

UC Irvine student spearheads first student-funded scholarship for refugees and asylum seekers

Los Angeles Times

An encounter with Syrian refugees during a family trip to Turkey in 2014 inspired a UC Irvine senior to create the University of California’s first student-funded scholarship program for refugees and asylum seekers.

California sues for-profit Ashford University, accusing the online school of ripping off students

Los Angeles Times

As the Trump administration backs away from Obama-era efforts to crack down on for-profit colleges, California is taking a step into the regulatory void. On Monday, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra announced at a news conference in San Francisco that the state is suing for-profit Ashford University and its parent company, Bridgepoint Education. The state has accused the online-only school of misleading students about its tuition costs, burying them in student loan debt and offering little of value in return.

GOP tax plan rattles higher education

POLITICO

While most college leaders said they don’t believe they were targeted directly in tax reform legislation — and are rather collateral damage — they say the hit was startling, as higher education has long enjoyed bipartisan support. Higher education also is a powerful lobbying force on the Hill.

ENVIRONMENT/ ENERGY

Environment:

California’s emissions dip—but climate policies get less credit than the weather

CALmatters

As Gov. Jerry Brown was making his way through Europe last month, striking an evangelical tone about the global peril represented by climate change, California’s Air Resources Board released good news about emissions reported by companies covered under the state’s cap-and-trade system. Its report showed greenhouse gas emissions reduced by almost 5 percent in 2016, propelling the state toward meeting its ambitious goals. And for that we can thank Mother Nature. According to analyses from the air board and independent experts, last year’s emissions drops came about not because of technological breakthroughs or drastic pollution reductions from oil refineries or other industries, nor did the lauded cap-and-tradeprogram make a signifiant difference. It was the rain.

Climate Scientists Watch Their Words, Hoping To Stave Off Funding Cuts

capradio.org

An NPR analysis of grants awarded by the National Science Foundation found a steadily decreasing number with the phrase “climate change” in the title or summary, resulting in a sharp drop in the term’s use in 2017. At the same time, the use of alternative terms such as “extreme weather” appears to be rising slightly. The change in language appears to be driven in part by the Trump administration’s open hostility to the topic of climate change. Earlier this year, President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, and the President’s 2018 budget proposal singled out climate change research programs for elimination.

California Today: Jerry Brown’s China Ace Card

The New York Times

China’s push to become a major player in electric cars is already shaking up the global auto industry. California’s governor is hoping it will also give the state an advantage in its continuing showdown with Detroit over battery-powered vehicles

A First Among States, California Plugs the ‘Carbon Loophole’

Governing

In early 2006, the California Department of Transportation put out a bid for work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Several steel mills from around the West Coast threw their hats in. But ultimately, it was a mill 6,500 miles away in China that won. California’s steel mills were furious.

Energy:

State’s largest solar energy project, coming to Kern in 2019, will fuel oil extraction, cut industrial emissions

bakersfield.com

In a move touted as a boon to air quality, Aera Energy and GlassPoint Solar officials announced plans Wednesday to build the state’s largest solar field. The project, which would assist Aera’s oil extraction operations, would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions throughout Kern County, the partners said.

The Energy 202: Why the wind and solar lobby is terrified of the Senate tax plan

Washington Post

The version of the tax overhaul approved by House Republicans earlier this month contained a lot of red meat for redder members of Congress. In that chamber, many GOP lawmakers are opposed to the federal government lending a helping hand to renewable energy. The House tax proposal, which passed the chamber in the middle of November, would partially or completely roll back tax breaks meant to encourage wind and solar development nationwide.

HEALTH/HUMAN SERVICES

What happens if Congress doesn’t fund the health insurance used by almost 2 million kids and pregnant women in California?

Los Angeles Times

Unless Congress comes to an agreement fast, federal funding for a program that provides health insurance to 2 million California children and pregnant women will run out around the end of the year. After that, California could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars because the state is required to offer the insurance even if the federal funds don’t show up.

Pelosi’s problematic claim GOP tax plan ‘sabotages’ health care of 13 million Americans

PolitiFact

Many Democrats in Congress describe the GOP tax plan as a scheme to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. In recent weeks, their attacks have been expanded to say it would take away or damage health care for millions of Americans. That particular criticism started after Senate Republicans added a provision to their tax overhaul bill that would eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate — the requirement that Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty. GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has expressed concern over the inclusion of this provision in the tax bill, which needs approval from nearly all Republican senators to pass.

Wrecked And Retching: Obscure Vomiting Illness Linked To Long-Term Pot Use

California Healthline

For 17 years, Chalfonte LeNee Queen suffered periodic episodes of violent retching and abdominal pain that would knock her off her feet for days, sometimes leaving her writhing on the floor in pain. “I’ve screamed out for death,” said Queen, 48, who lives in San Diego. “I’ve cried out for my mom who’s been dead for 20 years, mentally not realizing she can’t come to me.” Queen lost a modeling job after being mistaken for an alcoholic. She racked up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills, and her nausea interrupted her sex life. Toward the end of her illness, Queen, who stands 5-foot-9, weighed in at a frail 109 pounds.

Come for a new hip, stay for the beach? San Diego bets on medical tourism

Stat News

SAN DIEGO — It’s got sun, sand, top-flight biomedical research, and highly rated hospitals. But can San Diego really become a hub for medical tourism? City leaders sure hope so. They recently launched a marketing initiative — funded mostly by a local philanthropist — that aims to attract patients from across  the country and around the world. The pitch: Get your hip replaced or your cancer treated by top specialists — and then take your family to Legoland or SeaWorld. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio are also bidding to become hot destinations for patient care — though they can’t promise any sparkling beaches. But experts say it takes a lot more than a slick marketing campaign to create a true medical tourism hub.

IMMIGRATION

Young DACA Immigrants Grapple With What’s Next as Hope of Federal Fix Dwindles

KQED

As Congress begins wrapping up its work for the year and hope fades for action to resolve the status of young unauthorized immigrants, the possibility is dawning for many of them that they could face deportation.

Immigrant complaints of East Bay jail conditions prompt call for U.S. probe

San Francisco Chronicle

Mark DeSaulnier had to see it for himself. The congressman from Concord walked through the West County Detention Facility in Richmond after female detainees told The Chronicle that they were being locked in their rooms for 23 hours a day with red biodegradable bags substituting for a toilet.

San Francisco: The best US city for immigrants?

San Francisco Examiner

Among 50 of the most populous cities in the United States, San Francisco was declared the friendliest city for immigrants, according to a recent report from international money transfer platform TransferWise and the New York Immigration Coalition, beating out Chicago and New York City for the top spot.

How a US citizen was mistakenly targeted for deportation

Los Angeles Times

Sergio Carrillo is a U.S. citizen, and his arrest in a Home Depot parking lot by an officer wearing a Homeland Security uniform was the start of a perplexing and frightening ordeal. Immigration officials scoffed at his claims of citizenship and instead opened a case to have him deported. It would take four days for government officials to concede their mistake and release him.

Broken Border or Broken Policy?

RAND

What does a secure land border look like? This is a key issue that Congress will be debating this fall, and one that has bedeviled policymakers since well before the devastation of 9/11. The government’s inability to definitively answer this question has left the United States trapped in a vicious cycle, where every decade the perception that the border with Mexico is not secure enough leads Congress to invest heavily in resources on the border—with mixed results.

LAND USE/HOUSING 

Study: Bakersfield has one of nation’s lowest home vacancy rates

Bakersfield Californian

Having trouble finding a house to buy in Bakersfield? You may not be the only one. Bakersfield has the eighth lowest house vacancy rate among the nation’s biggest cities, according to a study from Buffalo Business First.

For years State lawmakers stalled on the landmark deal on housing. Then these people were elected

San Francisco Magazine

For years, state lawmakers stalled on a landmark deal on housing. Then voters elected a trio of lawmakers who prevailed through a mixture of tenacity, pragmatism, arm-twisting, and sheer luck

PUBLIC FINANCES

For a articles on Federal Tax Reform, See, “Top Stories – Federal,” above

TRANSPORTATION

G.M. Unveils Its Driverless Cars, Aiming to Lead the Pack

The New York Times

For more than a year, General Motors has tantalized investors with plans to build its future around self-driving cars.

WATER

No place like home for ‘Moke’ salmon

Stockton Record

It could be a record year for salmon on the Mokelumne River, but not without some extraordinary human intervention. More than 15,200 adult salmon had returned to the fish hatchery below Camanche Dam as of last week. The record is just over 18,000 fish. “It’s gonna be close,” said Jose Setka, manager of fishery and wildlife with the East Bay Municipal Utility District. The district, which diverts Mokelumne water to the Bay Area, uses the 54-year-old hatchery to artificially spawn salmon since they lost much of their historic habitat above the dam.

The Unintended Consequences of Indoor Water Conservation

Public Policy Institute of California

High rates of water conservation helped California manage limited supplies during the 2012–16 drought. But conservation can have a downside. New research shows that indoor water conservation can reduce the quality and quantity of wastewater, making it harder for local agencies to use treated wastewater to augment their water supply.

The Colorado River: Living with Risk, Avoiding Curtailment

Water Education Foundation

There is a timelessness to the Colorado River as it makes its ancient run from the headwaters in the Upper Basin through the arid Lower Basin states and to the farm fields, wildlife habitat and urban environment that make up the Southwest. There also is a sense of urgency regarding how an overallocated river is managed for its many competing uses in the face of looming shortages and a grim climate change forecast that predicts much less river flow in the years to come.

“Xtra”

Valley Cultural Calendar Thursday, November 30, 2017

Valley Cultural Coalition

Great things are happening in the Valley. Here’s a list of VCC member offerings to keep you busy and entertained!

$65,000 donated to nonprofits supporting children in Tulare County

Visalia Times-Delta

The holiday season normally starts with the spirit of giving and this year several local organizations got an early Christmas gift.

‘Moon Over Buffalo’ rises at Tulare’s Encore Theatre

Visalia Times-Delta

A sword fight, a hard-of-hearing grandmother and a relationship on the verge of collapse are just a few layers of the comedy “Moon Over Buffalo.”

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks: 10 tips for your visit

Visalia Times-Delta

A land of giants can be found in central California, at Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. The two parks are side-by-side east of Fresno, and the giants referenced are the world’s largest trees, sequoias.

Sacramento one big step closer to Major League Soccer

Sacramento Bee

Major League Soccer has formally named Sacramento one of four finalists for expansion, and a contingent representing the city’s bid will make a final pitch to a committee of league owners next week in New York.