XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics
XPost: alt.california
On 13 Mar 2025,
bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) posted some news:vquq3t$rmd$
1@panix3.panix.com:
|
| As Markets Whipsaw
Talk all the shit about Trump that you can, Bradley. The base facts are
his houses are in much better order than yours. You have Nancy and Gavin
to thank for that.
* * * *
California roads are some of the worst in the nation, according to an
analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A new
study by Munley Law looked at Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2011 to
2020 listing the miles of “acceptable” quality roads in each U.S. state.
The personal injury law firm then determined which states had the highest average rate of acceptable road quality. Although Idaho had the best road quality in the nation, according to the study, nearby states California
and Washington had some of the poorest road conditions. Both ranked in the bottom 10, coming in at No. 46 and No. 44, respectively.* * * *
California unemployment fund 'insolvent' due to $55B fraud, businesses to
pay
(The Center Square) - California’s unemployment insurance fund is
“structurally insolvent” due to $55 billion in fraud and overpayment
during COVID-19 crisis, leading to a growing $21 billion unemployment
benefits loan from the federal government the state is unable to pay down.
While the state seeks loan forgiveness from the Acting United States
Secretary of Labor, who was California’s Secretary of Labor during the
COVID-19 era and oversaw the state’s fraudulent payments — including
nearly $1 billion to felons in prison filling out fraudulent paperwork — California Democrats have proposed quintupling unemployment insurance
taxes and nearly doubling unemployment benefits.
* * * *
July 19, 2024 7:56 AM PT
Tijuana River sewage flows into San Diego County last year broke all
records since 2000
SAN DIEGO — The amount of contaminated water laced with raw sewage that is flowing across the U.S.-Mexico border into San Diego County exceeded 44
billion gallons in 2023, the most on record in the last quarter-century, according to a new report.
And this year’s volumes could surpass all records should the region get
more damaging rainstorms.
As of June, the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, or IBWC,
has recorded 33.55 billion gallons of polluted water flows in the Tijuana River, which makes its way into the river valley and the Pacific Ocean.
That’s enough water to fill more than 50,000 Olympic swimming pools.
* * * *
Despite some progress, state’s high-speed rail is $100 billion short and
many years from reality
A rendering of California’s high-speed rail. (California High-Speed Rail Authority)
By Colleen Shalby
Staff Writer
March 21, 2024 3 AM PT
Share
California’s high-speed rail train could feature an indoor play area for children and seating options that would allow people to meet as a group or cocoon in a reading nook. Recently released drawings of the imagined
interior, station platforms and a video walk-through of a model train car offered a glimpse into the future of the transit system and its promise to transform the state.
But how — and if — it will ever live up to that promise to connect Los
Angeles to San Francisco by train in less than three hours still remains unknown. While some progress has been made in the last 15 years, the
timeline for completion has moved back by more than a decade and cost
estimates have grown by the billions.
Transit experts and state policy advisers have continued to question how
the lofty project will be paid for as the proposed cost has increased
without guaranteed funding sources. Projected ridership has also dipped
since the pandemic.
“Schedules are stretching out, demand estimates have fallen and financing
is inadequate and unstable,” said high-speed rail peer-review group chair
Louis Thompson at a recent state legislative hearing. The state-appointed
panel advises the California High-Speed Rail Authority.
Rail Authority Chief Executive Brian Kelly, who plans to step down this
year, and other rail officials have also acknowledged the questionable
funding of a rail system with less than a quarter of its length under construction three years after the the first phase was supposed to be completed.
Here’s where things stand:
When will the train start running and where will it go?
Voters first approved a high-speed rail proposal in 2008 that would
connect Los Angeles to San Francisco by 2020. That end date has changed considerably over time.
There is no set timeline for when anyone will be able to ride the entire 494-stretch from Anaheim to San Francisco.
The current focus centers on the Central Valley, where officials estimate
the 171-mile line from Merced to Bakersfield will be finished between 2030
and 2033.
Hanford, CA, Tuesday, January 29, 2024 - Work continues on the California
High Speed Rail, Hanford Viaduct. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) California
High-speed rail is coming to the Central Valley. Residents see a new life
in the fast lane
Feb. 8, 2024
There are currently 119 miles under construction stretching from Madera to Shafter. An environmental review cleared the expansion to Merced and Bakersfield, but the authority has not yet fully secured funding to do so.
While construction has been a boon for the area that was hard-hit by the
Great Recession when the rail system was passed, bringing in more than
12,000 jobs to the Central Valley, the train has been out of sight for
much of the state.
“We’re starting in the most underpopulated portion of the route,” said
Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at UC Berkeley Law’s Center
for Law, Energy and the Environment. “The voters and the taxpayers in the [more] populated areas see no benefit from the system.”
There’s economic and social advantages for connecting areas in the Central Valley to “thriving coastal economies because we have a very unequal
society in California,” Elkind said. But no one knows when that will definitively happen.
Officials expect that the 463-mile stretch between Los Angeles and San Francisco will be environmentally cleared by May, pending approval of a
key section between Palmdale and Burbank. Funding for that additional construction has not been locked down.
The high-speed rail peer-review group has recommended the Legislature commission an “independent review of the economic and financial
justification for the project” before “recommitting” to the first phase.
How much will the project cost?
Officials estimate it could cost about $35 billion to finish the first
line from Bakersfield to Merced and roughly $100 billion more to complete
the route from Los Angeles to San Francisco — about $100 billion more than
what was originally proposed years ago. And the source of most funds is unclear.
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