Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) had his chance on Thursday (Nov. 29) to confront high-speed rail leadership over a state audit, which blames high costs and delays on mismanagement of the project. HSR board vice chair Tom Richards, also from Fresno, defended the decision to begin building tracks in the Central...
Push to End Bullet Train in 2020 Could Signal GOP Strategy
SACRAMENTO — Worried they would lack big-name candidates at the top of the ticket this November, California Republicans turned to a ballot measure that would eliminate a recent gas tax increase in hopes of exciting conservatives and ensuring they show up to support lower-profile legislative and congressional candidates. A potential...
California Ballot Initiative Seeks to End High-Speed Rail
SACRAMENTO — Opponents of the California gas tax increase passed by state legislators last year on Tuesday proposed a new ballot measure for 2020 to provide money for road repairs and eliminate the state's $77 billion high-speed rail project. The backers of the 2020 measure are also behind Proposition 6,...
High-Speed Rail CEO: People Will Ask How They Lived Without It
High-speed rail will reduce travel times between major California cities. That is the belief of the bullet-train authority’s CEO Brian P. Kelly, who spoke in Fresno on Friday (Sept. 7). He said when the rail is built, for example, it will cut the time from San Francisco to Los Angeles...
Bullet Train Sets Speed Record . . . For Burning Through Cash
Long before it's done, California's bullet train project is setting speed records. Not land speed records, mind you. Spending records. Ralph Vartabedian, the high-speed rail watchdog for the Los Angeles Times, reports that the project has cost state taxpayers an average $3.1 million a day over the last year. Spending...
Cox Runs Over DMV During Fresno Campaign Stop
The modest wait times of DMV customers seemed to catch John Cox off-guard. The Republican candidate for governor visited Fresno on Friday afternoon, talking to motorists at the office on north Blackstone Avenue. This was not the first time Cox had visited a DMV office to observe the wait lines in...
Welcome to the Bay Area, Fresno and Merced!
Welcome to the Bay Area, Merced! Welcome as well to Modesto, Sacramento, and Yuba City. Looking south, you’re invited, too, Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Salinas. And while you’re almost in another state, don’t worry, Tahoe City! Bay waters are warm. This expanded notion of the Bay Area’s reach isn’t a...
Groundhog Day for Gov. Brown. Legacy Projects Again Face Uncertainty
As Jerry Brown enters the final months of his second go-around as Governor, the status of his two legacy projects — the twin tunnels and high-speed rail — is reminiscent of when he left office the first time. CALmatters columnist Dan Walters looks back to 1982, when Brown's original second-term wound...
Who Runs California? A Baker's Dozen of Movers, Shakers & Blockers
One vote can make all the difference, we are told. But in California there are people and forces that wield a thousand — if not a billion — times the power of the voter. That influence flows from talent, persistence and, most of all, money. In the last election cycle,...
Vidak: Brown Disrespects Valley Again With Dam Funding
Many of my Central Valley legislative colleagues are furious that the staff at Gov. Jerry Brown's Water Commission have rigged the system so the recently announced proposed funding for Temperance Flat Reservoir is just that — flat. It's not surprising that environmentally-oriented staff at the California Water Commission (and other...