TOP POLITICAL STORIES
Local/Regional:
Governor Brown declares state of emergency in Madera, Mariposa, and Tulare County
abc30
Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency for Madera, Mariposa, and Tulare County due to the Railroad Fire, Pier Fire, Mission Fire, and Peak Fire.
See also:
· Governor Brown Declares State of Emergency in Madera, Mariposa and Tulare Counties Due to Fires Governor’s Office
North County Corridor vision prompts both applause and fear
Modesto Bee
The prospect of a new expressway stretching across much of northern Stanislaus County brought a mixed bag of comments from some of the hundreds of people attending Thursday’s open house meeting, ranging from excitement at the thought of less traffic to despair over losing homes, churches and businesses.
Mounce’s term as head of League of California Cities comes to an end
Lodi News-Sentinel
Lodi City Councilwoman JoAnne Mounce is going into her final days as president of the League of California Cities. Next week at the conclusion of the league’s annual conference Mounce will pass the torch to South San Francisco Councilman Rich Garbarino and assume her new role as past president.
DNC chairman blasts Fresno GOP for fundraising with former Sheriff Joe Arpaio
LA Times
It is shameful that the Fresno County Republican Party is fundraising off one of the nation’s most notorious agents of racism and bigotry,’ said DNC chairman Tom Perez, who oversaw federal prosecution of Arpaio when he led the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division.”
The Riggs Report: The DACA decision’s fallout in California
KCRA
The Trump administration’s decision…guarantees an epic campaign fight next year in California in which a handful of Republican-held congressional seats will be squarely in the bull’s eye.
Put the Local Races on the Top of the Ballot
Fox and Hounds Daily
Anthony Portantino, the state senator from the western San Gabriel Valley, is advancing a smart idea that deserves immediate attention: putting local races at the top of the ballot.
State:
Jerry Brown: Q&A on California’s Future and Donald Trump
Time
As Brown nears the end of an unprecedented fourth term as governor, many are looking to California to push back against a Republican agenda. And it is. Cities, counties and the state itself have filed lawsuits over everything from sanctuary city funding to energy-efficiency standards. After President Donald Trump decided to leave the Paris climate agreement, Brown happily jumped into the task of serving as America’s global climate change crusader – a position that would not have been so available had Hillary Clinton won the election.
Los Angeles Times
Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer ventured to the Inland Empire on Thursday to show his support for a powerful public employee union’s three-day strike against Riverside County — just like three of the top Democratic candidates for governor have done this week.
Essential California: The ‘Dreamers’ loophole that helped 40000 of them get green cards
Los Angeles Times
Last month, California college student Miriam Juan stepped off a plane in Guadalajara, Mexico, and hugged her grandparents for the first time in 17 years. She had no words at first, just smiles and tears. An immigrant brought to the U.S. from Mexico at age 4, Juan was able to make the trip thanks to a little known perk of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-era initiative that shielded 800,000 “Dreamers” from deportation.
LA Times
Joe Sanberg, a wealthy Westwood investor who pushed the state to create income tax credits for the working poor, will launch a statewide digital ad buy on Thursday about the program and plans to form a federal political action committee to support candidates who support his goals.
New primary challenger to Feinstein emerges
Politico
Add another name to the list of progressive Democrats seriously considering a primary challenge to California’s senior Senator Dianne Feinstein: wealthy financial entrepreneur Joseph N. Sanberg.
Will the Center Hold? Look to Feinstein
Fox&Hounds
Whether the center of California’s political scale has shifted dramatically will be measured by what happens if Senator Dianne Feinstein faces a challenge if she stands for re-election.
LA Times
“As we gather to focus on electing Republicans in a blue state, these speakers will remind us that Republican values are California values — entrepreneurship, belief in a better future for our state and our country, and freedom,” California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte said in a statement Thursday. The other speakers scheduled to appear include: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield); anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist; Fox News star Judge Jeanine Pirro and conservative economist Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation. By tapping the conservative crew of speakers, the California GOP will try to energize the Republican faithful as the party tries to claw its way back to political relevance in left-leaning California.
The Republican Party in California continues its long, slow slide
The Economist
Fewer than 26% of Californian voters are registered with the Grand Old Party.
The California GOP’s last gasp
CNN Politics
It’s easy to forget today that California was once a Republican state that sent Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to the White House. Their legacy remains in parts of Orange County, the Inland Empire and even pockets of suburban Los Angeles County that still send Republicans to Congress.
California lawmakers vote to slim down bulky statewide ballot guides
LA Times
California lawmakers voted Thursday to allow elections officials to print only summaries of ballot measures in statewide voter guides, concluding that the bulky paper documents could easily be replaced with more information posted online.
Study: Some California voters don’t trust Post Office to mail ballots
89.3 KPCC
As California moves closer to the rollout of a major voting overhaul law, new research from UC Davis suggests that some racial and ethnic groups could be left behind under the new system.
California Senate leader Kevin de León proudly displays his ‘legislative unicorn’
Los Angeles Times
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) called state officials’ major deal to extend California’s cap-and-trade program to fight climate change a “legislative unicorn” because diverse interests supported it. On Thursday, he brought a gift he received afterward to the Senate chambers, and explained why.
National:
Is bipartisan health reform possible?
The Sacramento Bee
I believe that before the political maneuvering begins again, we have a real chance for bipartisan health care reform. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 20 million more Americans now have health insurance and people with pre-existing conditions are no longer denied coverage.
Other:
Are Americans sacrificing food and clothing to pay their taxes?
The Economist
America taxes its citizens less than almost any other rich country.
Judge Opens Door for Lawsuit Over Girl Declared Brain Dead
NYTimes.com
A California judge ruled that a teen girl who was declared brain dead more than three years ago after a tonsillectomy may technically still be alive, allowing a malpractice lawsuit against the hospital to move forward and possibly setting up the family to have her care paid for if they succeed.
EDITORIALS
In Legislature’s final days, here are some special interest bills that ought to die
Fresno Bee
In a Capitol controlled by Democrats, pressure is intense to side with their labor backers. But legislators should leave public health issues to experts, not organized labor.
Good move by Trump administration slams brakes on reverse mortgages
Fresno Bee / Washington Post
Seniors have been driven into foreclosure by terms of reverse mortgages and FHA’s reserves for young borrowers are drained by elders.
Hurricane Donald’s unpredictable path
Chronicle Editorial Board
President Trump and San Francisco Democrats are having a moment. Last week, Dianne Feinstein hoped he could become a good president. This week, Nancy Pelosi is carrying his legislative agenda and managing his social-media presence.
Our View: Hits & Misses / Learn how to prepare for disaster
Bakersfield Californian
HIT: September is Disaster Month. First, Hurricane Harvey battered the Texas Gulf Coast. Now, Hurricane Irma is pounding Florida and most likely moving north into the Carolinas. Coming up next is Hurricane Jose, which is likely to hit some of the Caribbean islands already damaged by Irma.
Other Views: A handshake – and a way around a cliff
Bakersfield Californian
When the best that can be said is that the nation can “breathe a sigh of relief,” as Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., put it Wednesday, that’s better than a dive over the cliff.
Dreamers, cops, workers – in Trump era, all but hard criminals deserve ‘sanctuary’ state
Sacramento Bee
As President Trump plays politics with the children of immigrants who came here illegally, California lawmakers must approve Senate Bill 54, legislation that would create what has come to be known as a sanctuary state.
If California doesn’t stand up to drug companies, who will?
Sacramento Bee
Senate Bill 17 is the second attempt in as many years to bring some sanity to the insanely high cost of prescription drugs.
Don’t bend California’s environmental rules for billionaire sports owners or the Olympics
Los Angeles Times
California lawmakers are — again — considering a last-minute bill that would let deep-pocketed developers and favored projects cut corners
on
the state’s landmark environmental law.
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AGRICULTURE/FOOD
Hundreds face layoffs as Dole closes Watsonville operations
The largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, Dole Food Co., is shuttering its operations in Watsonville and laying off more than 400 employees as the company faces a pending public offering and more than $1 billion in debt.
LA Times
Ten bills aimed at regulating marijuana were shelved Friday by state lawmakers, giving California’s new Bureau of Cannabis Control time to finish its own rules before lawmakers pile on with additional restrictions. The bills held by the Senate Appropriations Committee without comment would have further regulated where pot can be used, how marijuana is marketed, the trademarking of products and would have required the state to produce a consumer guide.
California Won’t Ban Cannabis Ads, for Now
Leafly
California lawmakers have backed away from a plan to impose significant restrictions on cannabis advertising, agreeing to kill a bill that would have banned cannabis-industry ads on clothing and other merchandise.
Banned Pesticides From Illegal Pot Farms Seep Into California Water
U.S. News
Toxic chemicals from illegal marijuana farms hidden deep in California’s forests are showing up in rivers and streams that feed the state’s water supply, prompting fears that humans and animals may be at risk, data reviewed by Reuters show. The presence of potentially deadly pollutants in eight Northern and Central California watersheds is the latest sign of damage to the environment from thousands of illegal cannabis plantations, many of them run by drug cartels serving customers in other states, according to law enforcement.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/PUBLIC SAFETY
Crime:
Governor Wants More Reforms For California’s Prison System
KPBS
California Gov. Jerry Brown took the stage just after the state prison industry authority made a pitch to a room full of employers to hire trained ex-convicts. Those prisoner advocates argue a job is key to keeping inmates from going back to prison. Keeping people from reoffending is key to keeping prison populations low.
California Probation in the Era of Reform
PPIC
Reforms have significantly affected county probation departments—shifting caseloads toward more serious offenders.
How a bad law inspired by Ferguson became a good compromise on police reform
Sacramento Bee
Two years ago, with much fanfare, Senate Bill 227 became law, banning the use of grand juries in officer-involved shooting cases. This misguided legislation was passed in part due to the widely disseminated narrative that Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Mo., by a police officer while trying to surrender and shouting, “Hands up don’t shoot.”
Attorney General’s Office not opposed to unsealing records in CPUC criminal probe
San Diego Union-Tribune
The state Attorney General’s Office, which is investigating backchannel dealings of the California Public Utilities Commission and the companies it oversees, is not opposing a request to unseal court records related to the probe.
Fire:
Governor Brown Declares State of Emergency in Madera, Mariposa and Tulare Counties Due to Fires Governor’s Office
See also:
· Governor Brown declares state of emergency in Madera, Mariposa, and Tulare County abc30
ECONOMY / JOBS
Economy:
Center for Jobs and the Economy
Highlights from the recently released trade data from the US Census Bureau and US Bureau of Economic Analysis. To view additional data and analysis related to the California economy.
Los Angeles Times
Equifax, one of the nation’s three major credit reporting firms, announced Thursday that its computer systems had been breached, leading to the unauthorized accessing of Social Security numbers and birth dates of up to 143 million U.S. consumers.
Jobs:
Bill Would Bar Employers From Considering Criminal History In Hiring
Capital Public Radio News
The California state Senate is poised to vote on how and when employers consider the criminal records of job applicants. The bill is meant to reduce recidivism, but some business groups worry it could complicate the hiring process.
Previous salary? Soon, the question might be illegal
OCRegister
You apply for a new job, and a prospective employer asks for your previous salary. Intrusive? Harmless? No matter — the question soon could be illegal in California.
Do immigrants “steal” jobs from American workers?
Brookings Institution
Throughout his campaign and into his presidency, President Trump has promised to implement new immigration policies that will help improve the U.S. economy and job market.
Local job-training program lands $1.1M grant
The Business Journal
In an effort to support pre-apprenticeship training in the Valley, the U.S. Department of Labor awarded the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission a grant of $1.1 million to further the work it does with at-risk youth.
Borenstein: Here’s who gets hurt by costly union bill
The Mercury News
Abode, which receives funding from four Bay Area counties, is one of thousands of private and non-profit firms across the state threatened by a sweeping labor bill that would hamstring the ability of county governments to contract for services.
Hundreds face layoffs as Dole closes Watsonville operations
The largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, Dole Food Co., is shuttering its operations in Watsonville and laying off more than 400 employees as the company faces a pending public offering and more than $1 billion in debt.
Brookings Institution
The increase in opioid prescriptions from 1999 to 2015 could account for about 20 percent of the observed decline in men’s labor force participation (LFP) during that same period.
EDUCATION
K-12:
Local districts finally reap benefits of $9 billion construction bond
Local school districts are beginning to see the results of a hard-fought campaign last year to pass Proposition 51, a $9 billion state construction bond. The State of California sold its first round of bonds, totaling $433 million, and allocated funds this week. It gave priority funding to school projects that have long been completed, but never received promised matching dollars from the state. Among the released funds was more than $25 million in projects completed by the Bakersfield City School District and $5 million for the Sierra Sands Unified School District in Ridgecrest. Funding should be available within 90 days, according to a press release issued by the State Allocation Board.
‘Friendly critic’ of California’s school district reforms issues warning
EdSource
The assumption underlying the Local Control Funding Formula, the state’s 4-year-old school funding and accountability law, is that local control — giving districts more autonomy and resources — would be the catalyst for greater student achievement.
Enrollment of Catholic school students in an online public school raises questions
Los Angeles Times
Enrollment had been declining in the Lennox School District for over a decade by the time the district decided to open the virtual academy in 2016 as part of a concerted effort to attract more students. By then, the student population had fallen to 5,055, nearly 25% below what it had been in 2006. Lennox employees were being encouraged to recruit children of friends and family, said Supt. Kent Taylor, and officials were eager to welcome students from elsewhere who might want to transfer in.
Talking sense into the California Board of Education: Mission Impossible
Orange County Register
California’s new history and social science framework, passed by the state Board of Education last year, recommends against the longtime tradition of building miniature replicas of the state’s Spanish colonial missions, calling it “insensitive.” In place of the mission project, the guidelines recommend that educators spend time teaching students about the impacts of the missions on the state’s people and its natural environment. In other words, who cares about how California’s forefathers planted the seeds for the dynamic society we live in today, let’s focus only on the negative, and while we’re at it, let’s criticize their carbon emissions and ding them for the fact that most of their missions weren’t wheelchair accessible!
Higher Ed:
Community college enrollment drops by double digits on some campuses; some call it a “crisis”
KPCC
About half of California’s 114 community colleges are seeing enrollment drops this year, state education officials say – prompting calls for new recruitment tactics from some faculty and reassurances from administrators.
Concerns over campus safety led Fresno State to buy personal alarms for students
abc30
Campus Housing Director Erin Boele has been handing out e-alarms to students to give them an extra layer of security
Los Angeles Times
California educational leaders vowed Thursday to press on with aggressive action against campus sexual assault despite any future rollback of the federal guidelines that have prompted universities to crack down on the problem.
Vocational Ed:
Local job-training program lands $1.1M grant
The Business Journal
In an effort to support pre-apprenticeship training in the Valley, the U.S. Department of Labor awarded the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission a grant of $1.1 million to further the work it does with at-risk youth.
ENVIRONMENT/ ENERGY
Environment:
Fires bring hazardous smoke to Oakhurst
The Fresno Bee
Forest fires burning near Fish Camp, North Fork and Mariposa are spewing smoke filled with small particles of soot, ash and other pollutants over the mountain city, creating a toxic mixture that is forcing people to hunker down inside their homes.
With climate change, here’s where to live in California
The Sacramento Bee
There’s no place to hide from global warming, by definition. And until recently climate change wasn’t supposed to be a given.
Building better defenses against rising floods and storms
Brookings Institution
Emergency relief and recovery is unquestionably the immediate priority. But as climate change intensifies these hydro-meteorological events, the only lasting response is to step up risk management, which includes mitigation and prevention, prediction, and early warning.
Scientists say decline in monarch butterflies brings risk of extinction
San Francisco Chronicle
Western monarch butterflies, which crowd trees along the California coast every winter and flush them with color, have declined so dramatically since the 1980s that the species will likely go extinct in the next few decades if nothing is done, scientists said Thursday in a population study of the treasured creatures.
Sierra Sun Times
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Advanced Hunter Education Program is offering a waterfowl hunting clinic on Saturday, Sept. 9 at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge in Los Banos. The clinic will be taught by CDFW Warden Chris Giertych. Giertych is a lifelong waterfowl hunter with years of experience hunting in the Grasslands area around Los Banos.
Energy:
California energy data for August 2017
Center for Jobs and the Economy
August 2017 fuel price data (US Energy Information Agency and GasBuddy.com) and electricity and natural gas price data (US Energy Information Agency).
Fong: Let’s not take Kern energy production for granted
The Bakersfield Californian
It is easy to take certain things for granted in our daily lives — it’s human nature. The oil and gas industry in California is not only taken for granted, it is often demonized even though the very people who are most critical rely on it each and every day.
Proposal for 100% clean energy faces new political challenges as it nears the finish line
Los Angeles Times
With the clock ticking until the end of the legislative session, there’s new and potentially damaging opposition to a high-profile clean energy proposal.
Wind energy in California: The good news and bad news
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Which way is the wind blowing in California?
HEALTH/HUMAN SERVICES
Armenian Home plans big reveal
Sanger Herald
It’s the much anticipated expansion to the California Armenian Home and will add multiple buildings to the scenic 41-acre campus, serving needs for older central San Joaquin Valley residents.
CASA makes a house a home in Porterville
Court Appointed Special Advocates are community volunteers who speak out to help abused and neglected children. Nationwide, there are more than 1,900 children who are abused or neglected, daily, officials said. The center will be used to train volunteers who are supported by CASA staff, including Maldonado.
Covered California for Small Business Announces Rates and Plans for 2018
Sierra Sun Times
Covered California for Small Business (CCSB) unveiled the health plan choices and rates for small-business employers and their employees for the upcoming 2018 plan year. The statewide weighted average rate change will be 5.6 percent for employers and their employees, which is down from the 5.9 percent change in 2017.
Do You Know How Much Your Drugs Cost? Transparency Bill Pulled From Vote, But Will Return
Capital Public Radio
A bill aimed at regulating drug price negotiations in California is done for the year at the state Capitol. Democratic Assemblyman Jim Wood says he will return next year with his measure to create transparency around pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs.
California opioid use shows regional differences
The Sacramento Bee
Trinity County is the state’s fourth-smallest, and ended last year with an estimated population of 13,628 people. Its residents also filled prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone and other opioids 18,439 times, the highest per capita rate in California.
Fires bring hazardous smoke to Oakhurst
The Fresno Bee
Forest fires burning near Fish Camp, North Fork and Mariposa are spewing smoke filled with small particles of soot, ash and other pollutants over the mountain city, creating a toxic mixture that is forcing people to hunker down inside their homes.
Fresno hospital now offering patients’ world’s smallest pacemaker, giant improvement in cardiac care
abc30
Walking into the sterile, catheterization lab at Saint Agnes Medical Center in Northeast Fresno is like stepping into a war room in the battle against a potentially deadly heart condition with the best weapon now available.
California weighs controversial drug centers…
The Mercury News
Now a bill working its way through the Legislature would make California the first state in the country to open centers where intravenous drug users could shoot up without fear of being arrested, and receive referrals to drug-treatment services. AB 186 has passed the state Assembly, cleared two Senate committees and now awaits a vote on the Senate floor.
Study: Medical exemptions up for California vaccinations
San Francisco Chronicle
More parents sought medical exemptions for immunizations for incoming kindergartners in the year since California eliminated the personal-belief exemption — but overall, fewer people are opting out, according to a new study.
Some parents may have found a loophole in California’s vaccine law
KPCC
Pointing to a sharp increase in the number of children with medical vaccine exemptions, a research letter in JAMA suggests some vaccine-wary parents might have found a legal loophole in the state’s new immunization law.
Average American’s Risk of Needing Nursing Home Care Is Higher Than Previously Estimated
RAND
The average American’s lifetime risk of using a nursing home is substantially greater than previous research has suggested, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Among persons age 57 to 61, 56 percent will stay in a nursing home at least one night during their lifetime, according findings published online by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Previous studies have generally corroborated the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ estimate that only 35 percent of older Americans are likely to use a nursing home in their later years.
IMMIGRATION
Will Jerry Brown water down California’s ‘sanctuary state’ bill?
Sacramento Bee
Immigrants suffered a life-altering blow earlier this week when President Donald Trump announced his decision to end a program that allowed young undocumented people to apply to live and work in the country without the fear of deportation.
PPIC
The DACA program has been particularly significant in California—home to 70,000 “Dreamers” and other undocumented immigrants who attend public colleges.
The Riggs Report: The DACA decision’s fallout in California
KCRA
The Trump administration’s decision…guarantees an epic campaign fight next year in California in which a handful of Republican-held congressional seats will be squarely in the bull’s eye.
The mind-boggling cost of DACA repeal
Brookings Institution
Dreamers of working age are employed (over 90 percent) and are paying taxes, while remaining ineligible for some of the same government benefits to which citizens are entitled (such as food stamps and Medicaid). Deportation of Dreamers will mean reduced productivity and reduced tax revenue at the federal, state and local levels. According to a 2017 study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Dreamers pay as much as $2 billion annually in taxes.
Homeland Security Cancels Massive Roundups of Undocumented Immigrants
NBC News
President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security had planned nationwide raids to target 8,400 undocumented immigrants later this month, according to three law enforcement officials and an internal document that described the plan as “the largest operation of its kind in the history of ICE,” an acronym for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Do immigrants “steal” jobs from American workers?
Brookings Institution
Throughout his campaign and into his presidency, President Trump has promised to implement new immigration policies that will help improve the U.S. economy and job market.
Pelosi urged Trump tweet on DACA, says president willing to sign Dream Act
LA Times
President Trump indicated that he was willing to sign the long-stalled Dream Act into law if it passes Congress, House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi said Thursday, another sign that Trump may be uneasy about his decision to phase out DACA
Don’t deport. Give California its own residency program
The Sacramento Bee
Residency is not ideal; it still leaves a sub-class who have full rights only in California. But it’s the best that can be done until the day when a federal administration fully legalizes undocumented people. And residency is principled: Californians should decide who lives and works in our state – not a faraway federal administration that routinely slanders us.
LAND USE/HOUSING
Land Use:
Fresno State offers new city and regional planning degree
Fresno State News
Fresno State students can now earn a degree in city and regional planning. The Bachelor of Science degree program, effective in the fall 2017 semester, is the only such planning program in the Central Valley.
Facebook, real estate developer want California lawmakers’ help for their big projects
Los Angeles Times
Major developers are asking the Legislature for last-minute help in getting their projects built. Facebook and a New York-based developer, Millennium Partners, are supporting new legislation that would give a boost to their proposed large, mixed-use projects in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, respectively.
Housing:
California’s homelessness crisis moves to the country
San Francisco Chronicle
California housing costs are spiraling so high that they are pushing the state’s homelessness crisis into places it’s never been before — sparsely populated rural counties.
PUBLIC FINANCES
CalPERS in talks with BlackRock to outsource buyout business: source
Reuters
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) is in talks to outsource its private equity business to BlackRock Inc (BLK.N), according to a person familiar with the matter.
TRANSPORTATION
Skeptics may lecture, but California high-speed rail is already proving them wrong
Sacramento Bee
All one needs to do is drive State Route 99 through the Central Valley to know that Shawn Steel’s editorial indicating that California’s high-speed rail project has “broken more promises than ground” is wrong. The nation’s first high-speed rail program has more than 119 miles under construction, and more than $3 billion invested in California’s economy.
Plan to revive rail between Kings and Tulare counties, public workshop Sept. 13
The Foothills Sun-Gazette
Imagine being able to travel from Porterville to Los Angeles without having to drive a car. Or what about going from Exeter to San Francisco without ever boarding a bus. Those scenarios may become realities in the not-too-distant future as the Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG) continues its development of the Cross Valley Corridor Plan to build a passenger rail system connecting cities from I-5 to Highway 65.
“Roadkill” collisions cost California $276 million in 2016: scientists
Reuters
The number of deer and other large animals killed or injured by California motorists jumped 20 percent in 2016 in accidents that killed five people, led drivers to put themselves in harm’s way trying to save the animals, and cost society about $276 million, a new study shows.
WATER
Bakersfield City Council gives unanimous approval to water rate …
Bakersfield Now
The Bakersfield City Council unanimously voted Wednesday night to pass the 41 percent increase in water rates over the next two years.
Farmers, Environmental Leaders Urge Legislature To Support Safe Drinking Water Bill
Valley Public Radio
California farmers and environmental justice leaders are joining forces to support a bill that would help fund a clean drinking water program. The coalition, which includes the Community Water Center, is urging California Assembly leaders to bring SB623, the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund to a vote, instead of tabling it until the next legislative session. If passed, the law would fund long-term operations and maintenance of water systems for the 300 plus California communities dealing with water contamination.
Banned pesticides from illegal pot farms seep into California water
Reuters
Toxic chemicals from illegal marijuana farms hidden deep in California’s forests are showing up in rivers and streams that feed the state’s water supply, prompting fears that humans and animals may be at risk, data reviewed by Reuters show.
‘Can’t confirm. Dark’: Officials couldn’t see danger at dam
AP
For years, federal regulators urged state officials in charge of the Oroville Dam to consider installing cameras, lights and more sensors and monitors to help alert managers to potential structural problems and, in a crisis, ensure there would be time to evacuate towns downstream. But on Feb. 12, as murky floodwaters washed away the second of two failing spillways, nightfall left officials struggling to figure out what was happening.
“Xtra”
State Archives Launches Digital Exhibit on California Missions
Sierra Sun Times
The California State Archives has launched its latest online exhibit: “California’s Missions: Decline and Revival.” This exhibit is part of a newly launched collection by Google Arts and Culture tracing the history of Latino cultures.