Bullet train project scores possible victory in civil suit seeking to block bond money [Los Angeles Times]
The California bullet train appears to have fended off a civil suit attempting to stop the project, inching the high-speed rail line toward what could be another in a series of legal victories. A case brought by opponents seeking to stanch the flow of bond dollars to the project was dealt a blow in a tentative ruling Thursday by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Richard K. Sueyoshi, though arguments Friday put off a final ruling. A final decision could take three months. The case, brought by almond farmer John Tos, Kings County and other groups, asserts that legislation that clarified the 2008 $9-billion high-speed rail bond was an unconstitutional modification of a voter-approved act. Though only 12% of the project’s cost estimate, the bond provides the bulk of the money for current Central Valley construction. Without the bond funds, the future of the rail system would be uncertain at best.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-decision-20181031-story.html
Trump’s policies are hitting family farmers hard. Will they revolt on Election Day? [McClatchy News Service]
She’s a Democrat who hates President Trump’s tariffs. He’s a Republican who hates the tariffs, too, but believes Trump needs more time in office. Pat Peterson and Shannon Dowell are tied together by the 550 acres of the land they farm together in Central Missouri and their financial co-dependency on Trump’s ability to win an ugly trade war with China. Many of those feeling the greatest pain from tariffs the United States and China have put on $50 billion of goods are rural Trump voters who helped him win Missouri by nearly 20 points in 2016. Family farmers have lost billions in profits as a whole. They hate the tariffs, but supporters like Dowell don’t appear to be jumping ship. At least not yet.
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/midterms/article220826960.html
Commentary: Presidential water memo will bring welcome change for Valley ag interests [Visalia Times Delta]
Imagine walking into an AT&T or Verizon store to buy a new phone in 2018 and being offered your pick of the latest technology circa 2005. Would you like a Palm Pilot or a flip phone? Most likely, you’d react negatively. Surely, this isn’t the best they can do. The simple truth is that for many years federal and state regulatory actions that determine the availability of our water supply have been made based on outdated scientific information from the flip-phone era. Well-meaning, but ill-informed, decisions about water supply have for years been directing water away from our valley to be sent out the ocean in the name of protecting the environment. One thing we can all agree on is that it is not working. The environment has not gotten any better and irrigation in our valley has only gotten more difficult. A big part of the problem is that the science supporting these decisions is more than 10 years old and if we’ve learned one thing for certain during the last decade, it’s that sending increasing amounts of water to the ocean isn’t saving fish and is killing our farms and communities.
2018 North Coast grape harvest draws to a bountiful close [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
As she walked the Sallyvine Vineyard in Geyserville on Wednesday morning, winemaker Alison Crowe smiled as she talked about the 2018 North Coast grape harvest, which was all about the hang time. Mother Nature threw few curveballs their way this growing season, giving winemakers as much time as they needed to schedule their picks and allow the fruit to ripen to the optimal level before being trucked to the winery. “The entire 2018 growing season was mild and measured, not a lot of heat spikes, just enough rain to keep things growing to create healthy vines,” said Crowe, director of winemaking for Plata Wine Partners in Napa….Preliminary figures for this year’s regional harvest won’t be released until early in 2019. The crop last year was valued at $1.5 billion from vineyards in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/8898727-181/2018-north-coast-grape-harvest
Is Oroville Dam ready for the rainy season? Main spillway fixed, but work remains [Sacramento Bee]
State officials said Wednesday the damaged Oroville Dam flood-control spillway is ready for the rainy season, and will be able to fully blast water down its half-mile long concrete chute for the first time in nearly two years if lake levels rise. Work on the adjacent emergency spillway is ongoing. Both the main and emergency spillways that allow the dam to release water to prevent overflowing were severely damaged by heavy rains in February 2017. A massive crater erupted in the main flood-control spillway, and the never-before-used emergency spillway failed. The crisis at America’s tallest dam triggered the frantic evacuation of 188,000 Sacramento Valley residents as fear mounted that the structure could burst.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article220898645.html
Editorial: Who will really pay for Thomas Fire? [Ventura County Star]
On the surface, it may seem surprising for a utility to admit culpability in a case that could cost it millions, maybe even billions of dollars. Indeed, Ventura city officials expressed surprise to The Star over Southern California Edison’s confession Tuesday that its electrical equipment was involved in the start of last year’s devastating Thomas Fire. Except the people paying out most of those millions and billions are likely to be you and me, thanks to the public utility industry’s outsized influence in our state government. “I appreciate their candor in admitting their (Thomas Fire) involvement but there are great lawyers to make sure they (homeowners) recover their losses,” Ventura Councilman Matt LaVere told The Star. It’s too bad Edison ratepayers in Ventura don’t have an advocate like LaVere. You can partly blame Senate Bill 901, approved in the final hours of the last legislative session and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. This bailout allows utilities to bill customers for future legal settlements stemming from 2017 wildfires, even if company negligence or mismanagement is to blame. Utilities only need to make a case to one of their best friends — the state Public Utilities Commission — that their shareholders can’t absorb all the costs. One Moody’s credit rating analyst called SB 901 “extraordinary legislative intervention.”
