The Governor made today the Flood Control day I guess. He signed 6 bills dealing with flooding, which is a major threat in the Central Valley due to the levees' tenuous position these days. The bill of note here was AB 70, authored by Dave Jones.
In an effort to force local governments to consider flood risks in the planning process, one new law, Assembly Bill 70, will hold cities and counties potentially liable if they “unreasonably” approve new projects in previously undeveloped floodplains starting next year. (SacBee 10/10/07)
Why is this important? Well, developers have money. Money influences county supervisors to overlook the best interests of the land and their community in favor of a few bucks. Not that anybody would do that or anything…
Not a lot of California-related blogging going on today. Maybe it’s the weather. No teasers, no flip. It’s all right here.
Frank Russo of California Progress Report does a pretty good job making flood control interesting and explaining the politics of it. It’s boring until the flood hits. Then it better be boring, or you’re hosed. This kind of grunt work on infrastructure is most of what a government should be doing, and exactly what the Republican Party does not do.
Alliance for a Better California doesn’t like Dan Walters’ Generic Union Bashing Column any more than I did, but they go into much more detail.
Beep informs us that there’s a ballot proposition in Santa Barbara County to split the county in half. The history on this should be interesting, especially as the northern half of the county seems to want the split, but the southern half funds the county. This sounds vaguely familiar to me somehow…
Kingdaddy at Arms and Influence just doesn’t write about domestic politics much, and never about state politics. But he’s worth reading if you’re at all interested in military theory and history. Today he writes about the Diggers, Quakers, Levellers and a host of other sects that arose in England in the 17th Century and the our current theocrats. It’s just interesting.
News Roundup from the last couple days on the flip. Teasers? We don’t need no stinking teasers! Oh, alright then: Millionaires, Schwarzenegger, pay-to-play(?), more immigration, San Diego corruption, emissions, energy, salmon, water water everywhere, Prop 82, and earthquakes.
Special roundup of news coverage of the Univision debate up next and then much later today, a belated blog roundup
Pure Politics
The CC Times reminds us that only millionaires are running for Governor. This may be in part an unintended consequence of limiting contributions while allowing unlimited spending on a campaign from one’s own wealth. Of course, lifting the contribution limit will allow millionaires to buy their own candidates, so I fail to see where that would help. Sounds like public financing is the way to go.
Daniel Weintraub reports, mostly without injecting his personal biases, on a pending problem: a recent court ruling that initiative petitions need to be translated from English into the language(s) spoken by any large minority of the population of the relevant political unit.
Schwarzenegger’s approval ratings rising . . . some. This story is mostly notable for the Schwarzenegger spokesman pushing the “it’s a choice” message. Wouldn’t want Schwarzenegger to have to run on his record — no accountability for Republicans.
Steve Westly probably didn’t do anything really wrong when he suggested that CalPERS have a look at a VC fund that raised contributions for him (especially when one considers how little outside funding he really has. But still, it looks like pay-for-access. Public financing, people.
Environment
There’s a lot of coverage of the global warming pollution restrictions being discussed in the California State Government. The CC Times has a good summary of the larger picture. There’s a nifty quote from an oil company lobbyist, who admits that “climate change is real”. Wow. After all those millions (and probably billions) of dollars spent by the oil industry attacking the science and delaying any effort to deal with the problem, now global warming is real. Of course, the oil companies don’t want do do anything about it, so that hasn’t changed.
In other news, moderate Republicans who aren’t in the pocket of the extractive industries seem to be educable on the problem. Now if only they’d buck the Bush-Cheney-Oil wing of the party and do something about it.
The looming salmon fishery closing has effects beyond just the commercial fishing industry. There’s a big group of people who fish recreationally and a lot of merchants who serve them.
CA-50
CQ Politics has a great piece on how corruption in San Diego politics is driving the Republican side (sides?) of the race in CA-50.
Generic Dan Walters: There’s a problem with X. Politicians need to stop listening to special interests and fix X. Today, X = Water Policy.
Non-generic Dan Walters: Local governments shouldn’t be able to freeload on the state’s liability for flood damages by building in known danger areas.
Some federal money may be coming to strengthen the levees.
And from a professor who actually studies, y’know, ecosystems ‘n’ stuff, a flood control plan that doesn’t rely on building artificial canyons or lakes.
If the big one hits before we fix some (well, a lot) of stuff, the Bay Area is screwed. Oh, the Delta too: levees down, floods everywhere. And does anyone think that a Republican-controlled federal government will help us godless librul eleets, even if by some miracle, they’re competent to do it right?
