SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom's budget proposal likely won't have a meaningful impact on the nation's largest homeless population, according to a new analysis from the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Newsom's proposal “falls short of articulating a clear strategy for curbing homelessness in California" by shifting decision-making authority away...
Gov. Gavin Newsom Wants to Grill PG&E About Financing Plan
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric's plan to emerge from bankruptcy faced another threat from California Gov. Gavin Newsom during a Tuesday court hearing that set the stage for a potentially dramatic showdown later this month. Newsom's lawyers told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali they want to grill PG&E...
What Happens If California Takes Over PG&E?
Calling the bankruptcy of California’s largest investor-owned utility a “godsend,” Gov. Gavin Newsom has threatened a public takeover of Pacific Gas & Electric unless it can transform into a provider of affordable, reliable, clean and — above all — safe energy. That means no more ferocious wildfires sparked by PG&E...
Walters: Housing Construction Drops Are Wake-up Call
Gavin Newsom came into the governorship a year ago having made many promises to accomplish great things, or as he put it, “big hairy, audacious goals.” Perhaps the most audacious was to solve California’s ever-growing shortage of housing by building 3.5 million more units by 2025. Specifically, he pledged in...
Walters: Has Newsom Settled the Water Wars?
The beating heart of California’s massive system of capturing, storing and distributing water is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Water flows into the West’s largest estuary from the Sacramento, San Joaquin and several lesser rivers that drain the state’s mountain chains on its northern and eastern edges. While most of the...
The Warm California Sun Needs to Shine in The Dark Corners of Government Operations
Gov. Gavin Newsom promised greater transparency in California government. Jerry Brown was elected secretary of state 50 years ago on a transparency platform. While serving one of his terms in what nearly turned out to be a “governor-for-life” political career, Brown said he was “committed to keeping state government open...
Victims: PG&E Still Has Rickety Power Line Near Paradise
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric is still operating a rickety power line near the one that ignited a 2018 wildfire that wiped out the Northern California city of Paradise and killed 85 people, according to an expert inspection conducted as part of a legal claim. In an inspection...
Gov. Newsom Proposes New Plan for Managing Water
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom revealed a plan on Tuesday that would keep more water in the fragile San Joaquin River Delta while restoring 60,000 acres of habitat for endangered species and generating more than $5 billion in new funding for environmental improvements. The framework announced Tuesday by Gov. Newsom...
Walters: Is PG&E Seizure a Real Threat or a Bluff?
Scott Wiener must be a glutton for punishment. Just last week, the Democratic state senator from San Francisco failed, after repeated attempts and many revisions, to win Senate approval of his ambitious bill to force local communities to accept more multi-family housing. Four days later, Wiener took on another, equally...
Bill Seeks State Takeover of PG&E
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric company, the nation's largest utility, would be transformed into a publicly owned company under a bill unveiled in Sacramento Monday. State Sen. Scott Wiener said the bill would involve a takeover the utility and its sprawling network of power lines that have been...