Posts Tagged: project

News

After turmoil, Coastal Commission getting its groove

Little Corona Beach, Corona del Mar near Newport Beach, Orange County. (Photo: Jon Bilous.)

It was a classic Coastal Commission moment – cheers, jeers and white-hot media scrutiny. When the Commission denied a controversial development in Newport Beach last September, the crowd shrieked and clapped. A two decades-long fight to build 895 homes, a 75-room resort and 45,000 square feet of retail space was over – at least for the moment.

Opinion

Engaging Latino voters in California

A Latino political rally in Los Angeles. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)

OPINION: Starting later this year, a new law will begin to automatically register to vote millions of people who are getting (or renewing) a driver’s license in California, unless they opt out. Over time, this law is expected to dramatically increase the number registered voters in California and many political experts believe it will have huge implications for future political campaigns.

News

Delta tunnels: A steady trickle of progress

An aerial view of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. (Photo: Jeffrey T. Kreulen)

Gov. Jerry Brown’s massive Delta tunnels project is moving forward through a series of state and federal environmental reviews. But it still faces an array of major hurdles including public opposition, financing and approvals by state water contractors. The $15 billion project, known as California Water Fix, is on track to finish the environmental reviews by the end of the year.

News

Drought, oil price decline pummel Kern

Pumpjacks in a Kern County oil field, November 2013. (Photo: Christopher Halloran)

Oil and water don’t mix, but in Kern County they’ve joined to create a double-whammy. Already confronting a drought of historic proportions, Kern County — the nation’s No. 2 agricultural county — also faces a severe financial hit because of falling oil prices. The county is home to more than two-thirds of California’s oil production.

News

Brown: All aboard the bullet train

Gov. Jerry Brown at ceremonies in Fresno launching construction of California's bullet train. (Photo: Associated Press)

FRESNO — Amid the debris and grit of a downtown Fresno site, Gov. Brown formally launched construction of California’s $68 billion bullet train, a project that — maybe — will link San Francisco with Los Angeles through the state’s farm belt within two decades.

News

Weed backers target 2016 ballot

The Marijuana Policy Project, a national group that seeks to legalize recreational marijuana use, says it intends to put the issue before California voters on the 2016 general election ballot. The group’s decision to file a committee with California Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Wednesday means it may start raising funds to help finance signature gathering and qualify the measure in California.

News

Dan Richard, bullet train conductor

An artist's rendering of the California bullet train. (Photo: HSR)

Dan Richard, the chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority, is a man in the middle. The middle of court fights, the middle of political fights, the middle of a fight over California’s future. “The rest of the developed world has moved energetically to adopt high-speed rail. We will too,” Richard says. He may be right.

News

Brown makes urgent plea for delta tunnels

Gov. Jerry Brown at a Capitol briefing last year on his revised state budget. Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP

Gov. Jerry Brown delivered an impassioned defense of his ambitious plan to drill huge tunnels through the delta east of San Francisco to move more northern water south, saying California’s economic well-being depended on it.

Opinion

Budget: Time to restore cuts to pre-crisis levels

OPINION: With this proposal, the Governor, who has shown recent leadership in stabilizing revenues and beginning to restore programs cut during the recession, is calling for a restructuring of the state’s existing rainy day fund, known as the Budget Stabilization Account (BSA). (An alternative proposal approved by the Legislature in 2010 is scheduled to appear on the statewide ballot in November.)

News

GOP lawmakers want bullet train derailed

Assembly Republicans

California 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)

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