A damaged highway in a rural area of California. (Photo: Tupungato, via Shutterstock)What might President Biden’s colossal proposal to address the nation’s crumbling infrastructure mean to California? Admittedly, the $2 trillion fix is a long way from becoming reality. It’s still in the House, and Senate passage as the bill is written is a big “if.”
A California power plant at sunset. (Photo: David Crockett, via Shutterstock)OPINION: President Biden campaigned on a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But this goal will not be achievable without deploying technologies and practices that can pull greenhouse gases from the atmosphere – or from smokestacks of industrial facilities that have few viable alternatives – and securely store it underground or use it in long-lived products like concrete.
An artist's rendering of a proposed major league soccer stadium in the Railyards section of Sacramento. (Image: Sacramento Republic FC)As the race to fill the nation’s remaining Major League Soccer spots heats up, Sacramento is going all in to get the ball rolling on a multi-million dollar stadium. Sacramento’s soccer team, the Sacramento Republic FC – known locally as Sac Republic — just broke ground on a $250 million stadium located between 8th and 10th Streets in the historical plot of ground known as the Railyards just north of downtown.
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a candidate for governor, attends a 2017 nurses union gathering in support of singe payer. (Photo: Chris Allan)It goes by various names: Universal Healthcare Access; National Healthcare; Medicare for All; government-run health care; Socialized Medicine. Most news reports call it Single Payer. It threatens to tear asunder California’s Democratic Party.
A photo illustration of court finances. (Rusian Grumble, Shutterstock)California’s courts impose hundreds of millions of dollars of “excessive and disproportionate” fines each year for common infractions, then use much of the money to support their own operations. A blue-ribbon panel examining the system said the fines should be collected by the executive branch — not the courts themselves — to avoid conflicts.
State Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, discusses health care issues. (Photo: Scott Duncan/Capitol Weekly)Experts in California health care agree: The present system is unsustainable. It needs more money and flexibility. But that’s where agreement ends. There are conflicting ideas about where the money should come from and where it should go.
Assembly RepublicansCalifornia Republicans, long opposed to the $68 billion high-speed rail plan backed by Gov. Brown, say it’s time to dump the bullet train and spend money instead on critical transportation infrastructure. “I think people are tired of the train and tired of waiting for the train,” Assembly GOP Leader Connie Conway of Tulare, accompanied by Republican lawmakers, told reporters. “They’re standing at the train stop and the train is not coming.” (Photo: Staff, Assemblymember Eric Linder)
With Gov. Brown leading the charge, California’s 400 redevelopment agencies were abolished, but in the Capitol the locals’ quest for money to pay for critical projects goes on – and on.
For the second time in as many years, major legislation to boost the authority and reach of entities called infrastructure Financing Districts, or