The temperatures for the next three days in Davis are expected to push up to and then exceed 90 degrees, here in mid-October, before cooling down to more normal readings in the 70s with even a chance of showers next week.
But it has been another abnormal year. Sacramento broke a record in September when 26 of the 30 days met or exceeded 90 degrees. The previous record was 24 and it was set back in 1974.
By UC Davis News ServiceThe State’s third major assessment on climate change explores local and statewide vulnerabilities to climate change, highlighting opportunities for taking concrete actions to reduce climate-change impacts.
The third assessment, like its two predecessors, reflects a powerful collaborative process. Guided by a Steering Committee of senior technical staff from State agencies and outside scientific experts, 26 research teams from the University of California system and other research groups produced more than 30 peer-reviewed papers. They offer crucial new insights for the energy, water, agriculture, public health, coastal, transportation, and ecological resource sectors that are vital to California residents, businesses and government leaders.
While California may have some of strongest gun control laws in the country, gun manufacturers are getting around one of the state’s most important assault weapon laws, claims Senator Leland Yee, sponsor of SB 249.
By Senator Lois WolkYesterday, Governor Brown and Interior Secretary Salazar committed to the construction of a massive two tunnel project in the Delta, without any certain plan to protect and restore the dying Delta ecosystem. They ask us to “trust” that sometime over the next 15 years, an extraordinarily complex and scientifically valid plan will emerge, along with the billions of dollars to pay for it.
The revised Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) released last week remains as unaffordable, unworkable and scientifically unjustified as the previous plan that took six years of effort and $150 million to produce.
In a sweeping op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times, erstwhile climate-change skeptic Richard A. Muller writes, “Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct.”
Now Professor Muller, professor of physics at UC Berkeley, goes even further, arguing, “Humans are almost entirely the cause.”
Last week, a group of Northern California legislators representing the delta counties pushed to halt plans for a 15 billion dollar water conveyance project through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, until details are available on the state’s revised Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP).
“The state should not make premature commitments to a large-scale water export project before the project has been vetted and details of the BDCP are available for public review,” said State Senator Lois Wolk, a long-time advocate for the Delta and opponent of plans to build a peripheral canal.
The temperature this week will be pushing, if not passing, 100 degrees in Davis, but in reality we have no right to complain. While it has been warm at times this summer, we have nothing like the stifling and unrelenting heat wave of the Midwest.
I tend to watch St. Louis as a barometer. They were having day after day of 105, 107, 108 degree temperatures – record highs, virtually unheard of. Unheard of perhaps, but not completely unprecedented. St. Louis experienced ten straight days of 100 degree plus heat from June 28 until July 7, but that has been topped before in 1936 by 13 straight days. That was, interestingly enough, the year of the Dust Bowl.
Opponents of the plastic bag ban have treated this as though it were a novel idea perpetrated in weird Davis when in fact, if anything, Davis is behind a trend that will ultimately see the elimination of the use of plastic bags – it is really only a matter of time.
Tuesday this week marked what to many people was a welcomed respite from the summer heat, as a cool rain, more in place for February or March, blanketed the area for hours, dropping close to half an inch. By most measures, it would have been unremarkable, were it not for the fact that it occurred on June 28 – something that, as we know, just does not happen in California.
Long before I got a political science degree, before I became the blogger and founded the Vanguard, my passion was weather and in particular tornadoes. It is a well known quasi-joke in my family that I dream to go on a storm chase in the Midwest, going after serious twisters.
By Dan Oney – As part of the CRA’s Legislative update issued at the end of last week, they made the following statement about the future of Redevelopment. “CRA recognizes that the strong reforms in SB 286 represent significant changes and may not meet with favor by all our members… The reality is that redevelopment must operate differently in the future. (CRA’s Board of Directors) also believe that the reforms contained in SB 286 will achieve those objectives and actually strengthen redevelopment and increase its support.”
Proposition 18, one of the more contentious issues on the upcoming ballot, has been pushed back to 2012. Yesterday Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation that would delay the vote until 2012. The governor and other supporters of this measure fear that with the state’s economy struggling, the proposition would be defeated.
Opponents of the legislation were quick to seize the moment and complain that instead of delaying the legislation, they ought to dump it altogether.
A motion to approve AB 1594 by Assembly Member Alyson Huber died in committee for lack of a second. Senator Lois Wolk and Assemblymember Mariko Yamada joined a press conference Monday in support of Assemblymember Alyson Huber’s bill, AB 1594, that would prohibit construction of a peripheral canal through the Delta without a full fiscal analysis and vote of the state legislature.
AB 1594 prohibits the construction of a peripheral canal unless expressly authorized by the Legislature. It further requires the Legislative Analyst’s Office to complete an economic feasibility analysis prior to the enactment of a statute authorizing the construction of a peripheral canal.
Last fall when Democrats were crumbling in the face of water bill demands by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, one the Democrats who stood the strongest against potential destruction of the Delta was Senator Lois Wolk in her first term as Senator after spending six years in the Assembly.
Capitol Alert now reports that Senator Wolk has been punished for her leadership and vision in protecting the delta by having been stripped of key committee positions. She has just two of the seven committee assignments she previously held.
“Historic” Water Deal Puts Yolo and Other Delta Counties in a Bad Position – Said Governor Schwarzenegger:
by Shawn Smallwood – Those who transformed the San Joaquin Delta undoubtedly believed that their fete vastly improved conditions then and into the future for Californians. Their work supplied much of the water needed to fill the Los Angeles Basin with people and to irrigate millions of acres of the Central Valley. Their work also freed land for residential developments in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, brought shipping to Stockton and Sacramento, and fostered recreational boating and fishing. The transforming work done during the Great Depression also employed many and helped bring America out of the Depression. These benefits, however, come with great costs, most of which were unseen for decades but which are mounting as many interest groups draw battle lines to protect the specific benefits they realized from the Delta’s transformation.
Wolk’s action came in response to being notified by Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) that her legislation would be amended in a Conference Committee with provisions Senator Wolk and the five Delta counties opposed. Wolk has been replaced with Senators Steinberg and Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) as the authors of SB 458.
It is becoming more and more clear that the path has already been set out to increase water exports out of the Delta. The Water Conference Committee set up by Senator Darrell Steinberg last week excluded Senator Wolk, Assemblymember Mariko Yamada and the other legislators who represent districts in and around the Delta.
When Wolk became notified by Senate Pro Tem Steinberg that her legislation, SB 458, establish a Delta Conservancy would be amended in the Water Conference Committee with provisions that she and the other Delta counties opposed, she withdrew her authorship. She has been replaced with Senators Steinberg and Joe Simitian as the authors of SB 458.
The legislature returned this week from their August break by taking up what is undoubtedly the most contentious topic this side of the budget, and perhaps even including the budget, water and what to do about the Delta.
Facing the legislature are five bills, packaged together to address critical issues of facing California Water and the Delta. Tuesday was largely an informational that saw the issues laid forth.
On July 10, the Woodland Daily Democrat ran an editorial criticizing the efforts of local legislative leadership to address the dangers facing the Sacramento Delta. The editorial argued that while Delta protection might be important, the budget was the top priority, and clearly all 120 legislators must have been involved in the 24/7 pursuit of budget negotiations.
The Vanguard would argue that it is impractical for all legislators to spend their complete attention on a single issue–even an issue as important as the budget. Moreover, there are other issues facing the state. Discussion in Sacramento has suggested that once the budget issue was resolved–and it was for better or for worse last week–the most important issue was going to become the delta, water, and the peripheral canal. Our representatives in Sacramento need to take the lead on this issue as Yolo County is one of five Delta Counties. Senator Lois Wolk as well as Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada deserve credit rather than blame for working on this issue that is crucial to both the 5th Senate District, the 8th Assembly District, and indeed all of California.
