High-speed rail funding takes a big hit from Sacramento judge [Fresno Bee]
A
judge dealt a dual blow to plans for California's bullet train in a pair of
rulings handed down Monday in Sacramento. Sacramento County Superior Court
Judge Michael Kenny denied a request by the California High-Speed Rail
Authority to issue a blanket validation for the sale of more than $8 billion in
bonds from Proposition 1A, a high-speed rail measure approved by California
voters in 2008. In a separate but related case, the judge sided with Kings
County farmer John Tos, Hanford homeowner Aaron Fukuda and the Kings County
Board of Supervisors, who are suing the rail agency over its compliance with
Prop. 1A. Kenny agreed to issue a writ of mandate ordering the rail agency to
re-do its 2011 funding plan before spending any state bond money on
construction of the proposed high-speed rail system….Together, the two rulings
appear to hamstring the rail authority by severely limiting its available state
funds and by delaying its spending efforts. The effect is likely to further
stall efforts to start construction on the rail line in the central San Joaquin
Valley.
Editorial: Bullet-train
fiasco: Gov. Brown, heed the judge [San Diego Union-Tribune]
…These are immense obstacles.
Yet instead of acknowledging their seriousness, rail authority board Chairman
Dan Richard depicted them as predictable “challenges,” and a spokeswoman said
the authority would proceed with its plans to seize land for the project in the
Central Valley via eminent domain. This is in keeping with Richard's
full-speed-ahead bravado. But is also unconscionable — disrupting the lives and
livelihoods of Central Valley residents for a project that is now an extreme
long shot solely to create an apparition of progress. Before this happens, it’s
time for a “have you no shame?” intervention in Sacramento….A decade ago, when
he was attorney general, Treasurer Bill Lockyer ripped the “puke politics” of
Gov. Gray Davis. Taking away folks’ homes and farms for political theater is
politics at its pukiest. In coming days and weeks, we hope Lockyer, Lt. Gov.
Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein or some Democrat of stature has the decency
to make this point.
With
public approval at an all-time low, Barack Obama looks to rally support in
California [Sacramento Bee]
Beset
by criticism of the federal health care overhaul and with his public approval
rating at an all-time low, President Barack Obama arrived in California on
Monday seeking to shift attention to immigration and the economy, issues around
which he has traditionally managed to rally fellow Democrats….“It’s long past
time to fix our broken immigration system,” he said. “We need to make sure
Washington finishes what so many Americans just like you started. We’ve got to
finish the job.”…Obama may find a sympathetic audience in California. Not only
are Democrats supportive of immigration changes, but 15 GOP state lawmakers in
September urged Republican representatives to act on the Senate’s immigration
bill….In the audience Monday was state Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, who is
among Republicans pressing for action on the immigration bill.
Conservative
Leads Effort to Raise Minimum Wage in California [New York Times]
Ron
Unz, a Silicon Valley millionaire, rose to fame by promoting a ballot
initiative that essentially eliminated bilingual education in California. He
went on to become publisher of The American Conservative, a libertarian-leaning
magazine. But after decades in the conservative movement, Mr. Unz is pursuing a
goal that has stymied liberals: raising the minimum wage. He plans to pour his
own money into a ballot measure to increase the minimum wage in California to
$10 an hour in 2015 and $12 in 2016, which would make it by far the highest in
the nation….Using what he sees as conservative principles to advocate a policy
long championed by the left, Mr. Unz argues that significantly raising the
minimum wage would help curb government spending on social services, strengthen
the economy and make more jobs attractive to American-born workers….Mr. Unz
plans to submit the ballot language to the California secretary of state on
Tuesday, declaring his intention to gather enough signatures to place it on the
ballot in 2014.
Global
free trade talks collapse [Associated Press]
Negotiators
came tantalizingly close but failed to clinch a global free trade deal after
more than a decade of talks that could have boosted the world economy by $1
trillion, the head of the World Trade Organization said Tuesday. Roberto
Azevedo said diplomats from the WTO's 159 members tried hard but "cannot
cross the finish line here in Geneva" ahead of a summit where ministers
were to have signed the deal in Bali, Indonesia next week….The negotiations
sought to ease the rules of global commerce by cutting red tape to open markets
and help develop poorer economies. They also focused on tariff quotas,
government incentives for exports and agriculture issues such as subsidies for
grain stockpiling.
But
disputes between major economies such as the United States, the European Union,
China and India bogged down the discussions.
Emissions
of Methane in U.S. Exceed Estimates, Study Finds [New York Times]
Emissions
of the greenhouse gas methane due to human activity were roughly 1.5 times
greater in the United States in the middle of the last decade than prevailing
estimates, according to a new analysis by 15 climate scientists published
Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences….The E.P.A. has
stated that all emissions of methane, from both man-made and natural sources,
have been slowly but steadily declining since the mid-1990s….The new analysis
calls that reduction into question, saying that two sources of methane
emissions in particular — from oil and gas production and from cattle and other
livestock — appear to have been markedly larger than the E.P.A. estimated
during 2007 and 2008…The study concluded that livestock produced roughly twice
as much methane during the reporting period as the European database
estimated..
Ag
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