Calpensions: Backers of a Ventura County pension reform initiative, which was removed from the November ballot recently by a judge last week, are not appealing the ruling. But they may meet with other reformers after the elections this fall to discuss a statewide pension reform initiative.
A computer keyboard flanked by the elements of traditional poker. (Photo: Pedro Sala)An attempt to establish internet poker in California foundered this week in Sacramento, with rival interests – including tribes, horse racing, card rooms and others – unable to reach agreement on legislation during the final weeks of the legislative session.
Bankrupt San Bernardino announced an agreement with CalPERS last week to pay off an unprecedented pension debt owed for skipping payments to the pension fund for a year — $13.5 million, plus several million more in penalties and interest. Details of the agreement reached in closed mediation were not released. But the city said in a court filing the CalPERS agreement “will help form the basis” for a debt-cutting plan needed to exit bankruptcy.
Gov. Jerry Brown at a Capitol briefing last year on his revised state budget. Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/APGov. 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.
An old wind-driven pump that tapped groundwater on a California ranch. Photo: Steven Frame)As the warm temperatures melt California’s meager snowpack, turning rivers into streams and streams into mere trickles, communities and farmers across the state will be increasingly turning to groundwater to meet customer demand and to keep crops and livestock alive. But there’s a problem: Many will be drawing from aquifers already depleted and long under stress as groundwater levels in many basins across the state are reportedly at historic lows.
A major public pension reform initiative got a mixed cost analysis last week from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. The measure would give state and local governments the option of cutting retirement benefits current workers earn in the future, while preserving benefits already earned through past service.
Following the city charter, a reluctant San Bernardino city council last week approved a police pay raise costing about $1 million, the second $1 million police salary increase since the city filed for bankruptcy last year. The four council members who voted for the 3 percent pay hike all criticized a city charter provision linking San Bernardino to the average police pay in 10 other cities, most much wealthier with higher per-capita income.
Giant crane handles a ship's cargo at the Port of Long Beach. (Photo:From Humboldt Bay in the north to San Diego in the south, California’s 11 ports generate more than $40 billion in annual economic activity. The Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles provide most of it — together, they represent the nation’s largest cargo container port and the world’s sixth busiest harbor. But new pressures, including a revamped Panama Canal, are clouding California’s picture. (Photo: Port of Long Beach)
Like the city, Fletcher was once seen as a conservative, serving most of his four years in the Legislature as a Republican. But last year, in the same mayoral race where San Diegans deserted their right-leaning tendencies — and so did Fletcher. Republicans weren’t pleased and they have spent heavily against him, distrusting him since he changed his party.
Speculation by Capitol insiders that Bob Hertzberg, one time Assembly Speaker, now running for a San Fernando Valley state senate seat, is already in the mix to be the next president pro tem of the senate, may intensify given recent political moves.
Hertzberg’s endorsement list is beginning to look like a small telephone book