A highway sign in California points to the heart of the Valley. (Photo: Filip Bjorkman)It should come as no surprise that a representative from the Central Valley’s largest city heads California’s New Democratic lawmakers. And with Perea at the helm, inland Democrats were vocal in staking out their turf in the year’s prominent battles.
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.
A drought-stricken farm in Central California. (Photo: Johnny Habell)As California suffers through its third-driest year on record, the effects of the drought are hitting home in some of the nation’s richest farmland. The state’s $37.5 billion-a-year agricultural yield represents about 12 percent of the nation’s total. Agriculture uses about about 80 percent of the state’s water.
Birds take flight in the Pacific Flyway near Sacramento. (Photo: Department of Fish and Game) OPINION: Summer is a relatively quiet time for birds in California’s Central Valley, as most of the ducks and geese are breeding in the north. But this year is more quiet than usual. According to a recent survey conducted by the Department of Fish Wildlife, the number of breeding ducks remaining in California this season is 23 percent below the long-term average. The decline speaks to the significant degradation of habitat in the Central Valley due to lack of precipitation.
A computer-generated image of the proposed California bullet train. (Photo: High Speed Rail Authority)Hundreds of millions of dollars from California’s auctions of carbon emission credits are being tapped to help finance the $68 billion bullet train project. In subsequent years, a fourth of the auction money will go to the train. The budget requires the governor’s signature to take effect.
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.
OPINION: The six-states plan would newly create two of the poorest states in the country, “Jefferson” at our state’s northern border and “Central California” encompassing a huge swath of out Central Valley including the cities of Stockton, Fresno, and Bakersfield. In both states, one of every five people would be living below the poverty line.
Photo: Andy DeanThe new state of North California, population 3.8 million, would be a band running west to east bounded by the northern edges of Sonoma, Napa, Yolo, Sutter, Yuba and Sierra counties and the southern borders of Marin, Solano, Sacramento, Amador and El Dorado counties along with Nevada and Placer counties.
California bullet train. (Illustration: High Speed Rail Authority)The latest actions are far from conclusive but they may force delays in the project, which is scheduled to be completed by 2028 to link San Francisco and Los Angeles through the Central Valley. High-speed rail has long been popular in Europe and Asia, but earlier efforts in the U.S. to develop high-speed rail have failed in Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. (Photo: High Speed Rail Authority).