SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom has restarted a project to build a giant, underground tunnel that would pump billions of gallons of water from the San Joaquin Delta to the southern part of the state. Newsom's administration on Wednesday issued a Notice of Preparation for the project, which is the...
Walters: It's Time to Derail the Bullet Train
A decade ago, shortly after California voters narrowly approved a $9.95 billion bond issue to finance a statewide high-speed rail train system, an official involved in early planning for the project confided a dirty little secret. While a 200-mph bullet train was the sizzle sold to voters, he told me,...
California: Trump Plan to Take Back Rail Money ‘Disastrous’
SACRAMENTO — Leaders of California's high-speed rail project told the Trump administration Monday its plans to withhold or claw back $3.5 billion in federal money for the project was "legally indefensible" and "disastrous policy." Terminating the money "would cause massive disruption, dislocation, and waste, damaging the region and endangering the...
Walters: It's Time to Derail the Train to Nowhere
Gov. Gavin Newsom came close this month to abandoning the state’s misbegotten bullet train project that’s already cost many billions of dollars and demonstrates no signs of becoming viable. “Let’s be real,” Newsom told legislators in his first State of the State address. “The project as currently planned would cost...
Trump to California: Send High-Speed Rail Billions Back to DC
First, President Donald Trump tweeted criticism Tuesday of both California's high-speed rail project and the state's participation in a multistate lawsuit challenging his emergency declaration to pay for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Then, later in the day, the Trump Administration notified the California High-Speed Rail Authority via letter that it would terminate...
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...