Brown, Newsom send State Water Board letter requesting to delay Wednesday’s vote [Modesto Bee]
Those who depend on the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers for agriculture and drinking water may have received a reprieve Tuesday night. The State Water Resources Control Board was set to adopt a proposal to double the amount of water allowed to flow unimpeded down the rivers and out to the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta on Wednesday. Instead, the board received a written request from Gov. Jerry Brown’s office and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom to postpone the vote until Dec. 12. Assuming they grant that request, that 35-day delay will give the five irrigation districts that hold century-old rights to use the water for growing food additional time to work out a settlement to improve conditions for salmon without harming farmers.
https://www.modbee.com/news/article221264045.html
Editorial: San Francisco’s Trump water strike [Wall Street Journal]
Some progressives will do anything to oppose Donald Trump, and in the resistance capital known as San Francisco this obsession now includes a willingness even to reduce the city’s water supply….The supervisors are themselves defying science, and they’re spurning an innovative solution developed by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and agricultural irrigation districts that would curb predatory species, restore salmon habitat and time water releases into the Tuolumne River to match migrating fish. Mr. Trump’s sin, in the eyes of the San Francisco board, is that he recently issued an executive order to make more water that flows into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta available for human consumption. The progressives who govern San Francisco loathe Donald Trump so much that they will limit water to their own constituents to spite him. Is a city-wide hunger strike next?
Opinion: Trump is weaponizing California’s water issues [Los Angeles Times]
…By politicizing water at the federal level, Trump is actually undercutting the ability of states, regions and the country at large to address our growing water woes. Finding solutions to the nation’s water disputes will require trust. The president’s factually challenged attacks risk destroying what little trust exists between the West’s many thirsty water users. In some ways more perplexing, Trump’s weaponizing of water issues could also undermine his administration’s own — and largely sound — water policy.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-moore-trump-weaponizes-water-wars-20181107-story.html
$9 billion California water bond trailing in early returns [Associated Press]
Californians were leaning against borrowing $9 billion for water projects Tuesday in a state where water scarcity often pits city dwellers, farmers, anglers and environmentalists against one another. About 53 percent of voters opposed Proposition 3 with about 3.6 million votes counted….Proposition 3 was the largest water bond proposal since California’s nonpartisan legislative analyst began keeping track in 1970.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/8923237-181/9-billion-california-water-bond
California makes cage-free hens a state law [Associated Press]
California voters overwhelmingly approved a measure Tuesday requiring that all eggs sold in the state come from cage-free hens by 2022. Proposition 12 also bans the sale of pork and veal in California from farm animals raised in cages that don’t meet the new minimum size requirements. That means the Golden State’s new rules will apply to farmers nationwide whose eggs, veal and pork are sold in California.
https://www.thestate.com/news/business/national-business/article221193020.html
Democratic House threatens Trump’s business agenda [Wall Street Journal]
The Democratic Party’s success in capturing the House of Representatives is expected to complicate President Trump’s push to negotiate new trade deals and cut regulation for industries such as autos and energy, policy analysts and market strategists say….One of the most pressing policy issues affecting business is a new trade deal struck by the Trump administration in October with Canada and Mexico to replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement….Congress must ratify the agreement for it to become law, and that is unlikely to take place until a newly elected House is seated early next year. House Democrats could throw up new roadblocks to the trade deal, pushing for provisions more favorable to labor unions, such as better wage protection for U.S. workers, political analysts say.
