Choosing Democracy (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
A major water bill has been passed by the California Legislature, led by local leader Darrell Steinberg. It includes a 10.1 Billion water bond. We will vote on this bond proposal in 2010. Bonds are sold, and then they must be repaid. That is, in a future year, we will be paying billion for the bonds, plus interest. This will come out of the budget before we pay for schools, health care, etc. I see...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/08/2009
In a state as large and fractured as California, it is always cause for celebration when lawmakers can reach some form of agreement on an issue as divisive as water. Water isn't just a precious resource here. It is a theology. Over the decades, various belief systems have formed around subjects such as dams, water exports, conservation and subsidies. Adherents of these theologies have fought so many...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/08/2009
On Wednesday, The Bee's Jim Sanders and Steve Wiegand broke news that the state's proposed water bond package included $10 million for a nonprofit tolerance center in Sacramento – a favored project of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. The story was posted online just after midnight and circulated quickly, through various channels, at the all-night legislative session. Within hours,...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Sen. Darrell Steinberg had a busy week along with his colleagues in the state Legislature. What do you recall from this week's news? Feuding neighbors, problems for the Kings, legislators trying to earn their pay -- there's a lot to remember. Try our new quiz and see what you know.
Indybay newswire (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Make no mistake about it - Governor Arnold Schwarznegger's MLPA and peripheral canal boondoggles are effectively one and the same process. Photo: Arnold Schwarzenegger leaned on the Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg to ramrod a peripheral canal/bonds package through the Legislature early Wednesday morning that will likely result in the destruction of collapsing Central Valley salmon and Delta...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
The Legislature's top administrators have asked Attorney General Jerry Brown to decide whether pending 18 percent cuts to lawmakers' pay and benefits were legally approved by the California Citizens Compensation Commission. Jon Waldie, chief administrative officer of the Assembly, and Greg Schmidt, chief executive officer of the Senate, suggest that the reductions were beyond the jurisdiction of the...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
A batch of amendments to a massive water bond bill was submitted to the state Senate's clerical desk Monday, and one, as it turned out, had nothing to do with water. Later that evening, as the bond bill was being debated, Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, asked about the opaquely worded new provision and was given a misleading answer about its effect. But two reporters for The Bee continued to pursue the...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Steinberg diagnosed by reader Re "Water plan has local goodie" (Page A1, Nov. 4): That Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg would even earmark $10 million for a tolerance center to be constructed during today's economic crisis shows the depth of his Congenital Spending Syndrome, and his divorce from reality. It's nice that Steinberg wants to help his fellow human beings get along,...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Assembly GOP leader Sam Blakeslee, center front, introduces Democratic Assemblywoman Anna Caballero on Wednesday at a Capitol news conference celebrating passage of a package of water bills. Behind them is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sen. Darrell Steinberg, right. It took long months of delicate negotiations - and the last-minute deletion of a project dear to the heart of the state's most powerful...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Chief of staff will assume state duties as Garamendi takes seat in U.S. House Lt. Gov. John Garamendi will be sworn in today as the new congressman from the 10th Congressional District after winning Tuesday's special election to replace Rep. Ellen Tauscher. Garamendi defeated Republican David Harmer 53 percent to 42.7 percent in a district that stretches from the East Bay to Isleton and Walnut Grove...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Two things seem clear about the historic water measure that was jammed through the Legislature early Wednesday morning. First, with no committee hearings on the final package, and with some lawmakers admitting they passed the bills without reading them, the Legislature has made a massive leap of faith. Second, there remains a lot of uncertainty about exactly what legislators passed, especially in...
The Rancho Cordova Post (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Assembly Member Alyson Huber (D-El Dorado Hills) said in statements released Nov. 3 and 4 that she disagrees with both the California legislature’s decision to support the water package introduced by Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, as well as their lack of support for her own water bill. Huber’s bill would have required assembly approval before a canal [...]
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
Lawmakers approved a momentous overhaul of California's ailing water system early this morning, but approval came only after Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg agreed to strip a $10 million earmark for a Sacramento project he personally has championed. The five-bill package, including an $11 billion bond measure, ended months of tense negotiations involving scores of interest groups over how...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, left, bumps fists Tuesday with Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, before a water bill was passed with Maldonado's help. Meanwhile, Steinberg was criticized by Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District officials, who said he had reneged on promises to spare them new equipment charges. A nonprofit tolerance center in midtown Sacramento,...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
Winston Churchill paid tribute to the young fighter pilots who staved off Nazi Germany's aerial assault on England during the Battle of Britain with characteristic eloquence: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." California politicians' machinations over water, still under way in the Capitol late Tuesday with a conclusion uncertain, inspires a parody...
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