SACRAMENTO — California sold $600 million in bonds Tuesday to help pay for building high-speed rail even as lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledge challenges to completing the project. The bond money is a key source of funding for the troubled rail system, which has been beset by cost overruns...
Walters: Is San Joaquin Valley California's Poor Stepchild?
Technically, California’s San Joaquin Valley – the drainage plain of the San Joaquin River – begins a few miles south of Sacramento and ends a few miles south of Fresno. However, in political and economic terms, it stretches even further south to the Tehachapi Mountains, south of Bakersfield. The 300-mile-long...
Walters: The High Price We Pay for Low-Rent Housing
Cascade Village sounds like a mountain hamlet, but it’s the name of a somewhat shabby block of 74 low-rent apartments in the southern edge of Sacramento. A few days ago, Sacramento city officials announced that they will float a $25 million bond and loan the proceeds to the 55-year-old complex’s...
California Rookie Officer Fatally Shot Responding to Crash
DAVIS — A 22-year-old police officer on the job only a few weeks was shot and killed by a suspect who opened fire as she was investigating a three-car crash, authorities in Northern California said. The suspect, who has not been identified, was later found dead inside a home with...
Watch the Newsom Inauguration Live Here
To watch the inauguration of Gavin Newsom as California governor in Sacramento, just click on the picture in the tweet below. https://t.co/zw3XuVEPYQ — Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 7, 2019
Walters: Brown's Symbiotic Relationship With the Media
During his half-century-long career in California politics, Jerry Brown has had a complex relationship with journalists, particularly those who covered him on a day-to-day basis. He once referred to “the journalistic weather” – sometimes sunny and helpful to his career, sometimes dark and critical. That said, he was fairly open...
Gettin' Busy in Sacramento: Over 200 Legislative Items in Just Three Days.
After only three days in session, members of the California Legislature have already proposed 204 items for consideration. Maybe that shouldn’t be so surprising. After all, 5,617 pieces were introduced in the 2017-18 session. Here's a small sampling of the solutions state legislators are offering as a way to fix...
State Says Seniors Abandoned in California Wildfire
SACRAMENTO — Staff at two senior care centers abandoned residents during an evacuation as wildfires swept through Northern California last October, state officials said Thursday as they moved to revoke licenses from the Santa Rosa facilities and their top administrators. Nobody in either facility died. A Department of Social Services...
Vidak Urges Passage of Revised Drinking Water Bill
State legislation to fix outdated drinking water systems in California has gotten a boost from a key change in the way the program would be funded. Under an updated bill in Sacramento, a voluntary fee on all public water system users in the state would be used to create a...
Bill to End Bail in California Heads to Gov. Brown
SACRAMENTO — A bill approved Tuesday by the California Senate to end bail and replace it with a risk-assessment system is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has indicated he supports it. Senators approved the bill 26-12. It would make California the first state to completely end bail for suspects...