Northern California leaders frame their position on water bond

Cynical observers of California politicssometimes assume the real reason for a new statewide water bond is to pay for projects that take water from the north and ship it south. But on Monday, a number of Northern Californialeaders made it clear they are prepared to support a water bond for the November ballot – under certain conditions.

About three dozen politicians and water managers representing the North State Water Alliance convened on the Capitol steps Monday to outline for lawmakers five general principles they believe must guide a water bond. They were joined by several collaborators from environmental and business groups.

The five principles: Existing water rights’ priorities and laws must be maintained; a bond should contribute to sustainable groundwater management; it should strongly emphasize water conservation and recycling; it should include projects to restore critical migratory corridors for salmon and waterfowl; and any money dedicated to new reservoirs should pay for dedicated environmental benefits and enhanced flexibility of the California water system as a whole.

“We have issues related to water that can only be fixed with a water bond, and we need to fix it with this Legislature,” said Bryce Lundberg, chairman of the alliance and owner of Lundberg Family Farms, a major rice-growing enterprise in Butte County. “We’re asking you for your strong leadership and rapid resolve that will move these criteria forward.”

There are currently seven different bond measures proposed in the Legislature that propose varying amounts of public spending on new dams, water conservation and habitat restoration projects. All are intended to replace an $11 billion bond measure approved for the ballot in 2009, but which was twice delayed because lawmakers feared it was too large and too packed with pork-barrel spending.

The Legislature faces a June 26 deadline to place a bond on the November ballot, although it could tweak the rules to delay into late August. A two-thirds vote by lawmakers is required, which means the bond will need bipartisan support.

Given the severe drought gripping California, it would seem an ideal time to offer voters a major water infrastructure bond. But the subject is always controversial because it involves big public debt for divisive projects like new dams.

“What brings us together today is a recognition that negotiations over a state water bond are coming to a head,” said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, also a member of the alliance. “We want to show our strength in Northern California on this very important issue. This coalition stands ready to be a part of a solution.”

Partners in the North State Water Alliance include the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, Sacramento Regional Water Authority, Sacramento Area Council of Governments, Mountain Counties Water Resources Association and the Northern California Water Association.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/06/10/6470386/norcal-leaders-frame-their-position.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics#storylink=cpy

California trio introduces gun bill

WASHINGTON -- Nearly two weeks after a mass shooting left seven people dead in Isla Vista, a trio of California’s Democratic lawmakers introduced federal legislation intended to keep guns out of the hands of people who poses a risk of committing violence.

The Pause for Safety Act, sponsored by Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein with Rep. Lois Capps of Santa Barbara, would enable family members and others to seek a court order to stop a dangerous person from purchasing or possessing a firearm.

“We must do everything in our power to keep firearms out of the hands of those who pose a serious risk of harm to themselves or to others,” Feinstein said.

On May 23, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people, then himself, in a rampage near theUniversity of California at Santa Barbara. Rodger was undergoing treatment for mental illness and family members worried he might hurt himself or others. But law enforcement officers didn’t see any red flags when they interviewed him before the shooting spree.

“It is haunting to me that the family of the gunman was desperate to prevent an act of violence and alerted police, but they were still unable to stop this tragedy,” Boxer said.

Feinstein knows the issue personally. In November 1978, former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White shot and killed both Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk at City Hall. Feinstein, then president of the Board of Supervisors, found her colleagues’ bodies, and it fell to her to deliver the shocking news to the media.

Though a series of mass shootings in recent years in Virginia, Arizona, Colorado and Connecticut drove a new push for stricter gun laws, gun-rights groups have pushed back. A bipartisan bill to broaden background checks for gun purchases failed in the U.S. Senate last year, as did an effort by Feinstein to renew a ban on military-style assault rifles.

The latest bill comes as members of Congress are preoccupied with midterm elections. TheNational Rifle Association has typically opposed any legislation, state or federal, that seeks to limit firearms possession, and has funded efforts to defeat lawmakers who support such measures.

“Unfortunately this is another tragedy that was not prevented by gun control and there’s not ... another gun control law that could have been passed that would have prevented this awful situation from happening,” NRA spokesman Chris Cox said on a radio program this week, referring to the Isla Vista shootings.

via: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/06/05/6462105/california-trio-introduces-gun.html

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/06/05/6462105/california-trio-introduces-gun.html#storylink=cpy

CSU plans to hire 600 to 700 new faculty by fall

The California State University plans to hire 600 to 700 full-time positions by this fall as both the CSU and UC systems struggle to hire more tenure-track faculty in light of recent budget cuts.

California State University San Bernardino College of Education

An allotment of $125 million from the state last year to the CSU system helped fund 470 new faculty positions. The proposed allocation for this year’s budget is $142.2 million each for the CSU and UC systems, although they are requesting an additional $95 million and $124.9 million, respectively. Steven Filling, chair of the CSU Academic Senate, stressed that with the net loss of 59 CSU faculty members last year, more funds are needed to support faculty positions.

“Ideally, we’d get new money for additional faculty and therefore better services for students. Then we wouldn’t have to turn away students who are qualified,” Filling said. “Increase in teachers, increase in classes offered.”

CSU students can expect to see new tenure-track professors in the classroom by fall. But the net hiring impact at the end of the academic year may only be about 250 with retirements and resignations factored in, according to C. Judson King, director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education. Additionally, temporary or part-time positions may be taken over by new tenure-track faculty.

Meanwhile, the UC system wants to use $21.8 million of the extra $124.9 million they are requesting to fund hiring new faculty, buying new equipment and enrolling 2,100 more students, according to UC spokesperson Dianne Klein.

Gov. Jerry Brown previously pushed UC and CSU schools to reduce costs themselves through online courses and flexible curriculum.

“Right now, the state legislature is in negotiations, so we’re hopeful,” Klein said. “(The $124.9 million) is not a wish list, per se. It’s our very best effort, and we’re looking under every rock.”

Caitlin Quinn, 2014-2015 ASUC external affairs vice president, said she hopes the UC system will follow the CSU system’s lead and acquire more funding to prevent departments like Gender and Women’s Studies and Ethnic Studies from shrinking.

“I think it’s good to see a big influx of faculty for the students, and as UC students, we should be in solidarity with the CSU students and advocate for more faculty and funding here,” Quinn said.

The CSU has about 23,000 faculty, including tenure-track, full-time, part-time and temporary positions. According to Filling, the CSU system falls far below meeting the 75 percent tenure-track recommendation of a resolution passed by the state legislature in 2001.

“In the intervening years, we’ve taken more students and the classes get bigger,” Filling said. “When they do, we start to not do as much of the thing that makes that successful, which is develop relationships directly with students.”

via: http://www.dailycal.org/2014/06/03/csu-plans-hire-600-700-new-faculty-fall/

California 2014 primary election complete results

This page will update through the night with the latest results from today's California primary. In contests for statewide office, Congress and the Legislature, candidates who finish first and second—regardless of party—will compete against one another in November. This “top two” system, modeled on nonpartisan local elections, was approved four years ago by voters. Local contests in which no candidate captures a majority of votes may also lead to fall runoffs.

http://graphics.latimes.com/calif-primary-election-results-2014/

Get Out Your Vote Today!

After months of campaigning, tens of millions of dollars in outside spending and plenty of hand-wringing over whether turnout would reach a new low, California's 2014 primary election is finally upon us. 

Across the state today, voters (though probably not very many of them) will be selecting the top two candidates for eight statewide offices, 100 legislative seats and 53 congressional races, as well deciding the fates of two propositions and countless local initiatives, county supervisor positions and judgeships.

Capitol Alert will be bringing you results, analysis and video all night long on sacbee.com. Check back for complete coverage after the polls close at 8 p.m.

via: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/06/am-alert-voters-head-to-polls-for-primary-election.html

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/06/am-alert-voters-head-to-polls-for-primary-election.html#storylink=cpy

Senate Dems push for spending on mentally ill criminals

As budget negotiations reach their final weeks in the state Capitol, state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg is pressing for more spending to treat mental illness among inmates and people being released from prison, arguing that the proposals will reduce prison crowding and promote public safety.

The proposals by Senate Democrats to spend $132 million on reducing recidivism among mentally ill offenders are based on suggestions by professors at Stanford Law School, who studied the proliferation of mental illness within California’s prison population. Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed $91 million in spending.

The Senate Democrats’ package comes as lawmakers respond to Friday’s rampage near UC Santa Barbara in which a disturbed student killed six people and injured 13 in a spree of stabbing and shooting.

“These proposals finalized earlier this month are now cast under a different light than any of us had originally planned,” Steinberg said during a news conference Wednesday. “It’s a cruel and of course sad coincidence that the significance of one proposal – to improve training among front line law enforcement to recognize the warning signs of mental illness – was illustrated by a gun rampage in Santa Barbara County.”

The proposals from Senate Democrats include:

• $12 million to train law enforcement officers and $24 million to train prison employees in dealing with people who are mentally ill

• $25 million to expand re-entry programs for mentally ill offenders

• $20 million to help parolees by providing case managers to make sure they get treatment for mental health issues and substance abuse

• $20 million to expand so-called mental health courts that manage offenders who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs

• $50 million to re-establish a grant program for counties offering substance abuse treatment, job training or other programs to help mentally ill offenders after they’re released from prison.

via: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/28/6440139/senate-dems-push-for-spending.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/28/6440139/senate-dems-push-for-spending.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics#storylink=cpy

California Senate passes bill to ban sterilizing prison inmates

California jails and prisons would be forbidden from sterilizing inmates for the purpose of birth control under a bill the state Senate passed Tuesday.

Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, wrote Senate Bill 1135 after theCenter for Investigative Reporting found that over a five-year period, doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 female inmates without required state approvals. Former inmates and their advocates said that prison officials coerced women into consenting to the procedures if the officials thought they were likely to return to prison.

"This measure is absolutely necessary to make sure sterilizations are not performed in a coercive prison environment," Jackson told senators Tuesday.

The bill spells out limited circumstances in which prisons would be allowed to sterilize an inmate, such as if it is necessary to save her life. It passed the Senate with unanimous support and now heads to the Assembly for consideration.

PHOTO: Former Valley State Prison for Women inmate Kimberly Jeffrey with her son Noel, 3, shown in June 2013. During her imprisonment in 2010, Jeffrey says a doctor pressured her to agree to be sterilized, but she refused. Noah Berger/ For The Center for Investigative Reporting

via: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/05/27/3947170/capitol-alert-california-senate.html

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/05/27/3947170/capitol-alert-california-senate.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/05/27/3947170/capitol-alert-california-senate.html#storylink=cpinmate, such as if it is necessary to save her life. It passed the Senate with unanimous support and now heads to the Assembly for consideration.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/05/27/3947170/capitol-alert-california-senate.html#story

y

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/05/27/3947170/capitol-alert-california-senate.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/05/27/3947170/capitol-alert-california-senate.html#storylink=cpy