By Robert Cruickshank
The high range of cost estimates to build high speed rail between San Francisco and Anaheim is $98 billion over the next 22 years. There’s no doubt that $98 billion is a pretty big number.
But so is $1.9 trillion.
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Archive of posts filed under the California category.
High Speed Rail: Two Tenths of One Percent
Republicans: Against It Before They Were For It
By Leo Gerard United Steelworkers
First, Republicans opposed extending the payroll tax cut that put an extra $20 a week in the pockets of 160 million working Americans.
Next, they supported it. If the cost were offset the way they wanted. Even though R…
The 99% Plan: The Privatization Trap
By Mike KonczalRoosevelt Institute
Privatizing the government is one of the most active projects of the early 21st century.
Everything we once expected the government to do – from education to regulatory rule-writing to military operations to healthcar…
The State Helps Teenagers Get Free Condoms
Some California teenagers can receive a packet of 10 condoms and “personal lubricant” from a program co-sponsored by the state Department of Public Health and the California Family Health Council.
Launched on Valentine’s Day during “National Condom Week,” the Condom Access Project – CAP for short – is aimed at reducing the transmission of sexual diseases among 15-year-olds to 19-year-olds “by ensuring that California youth have access to free condoms year round,” the council says in a press release on its website.
The program, whose slogan is “Put a Cap on It,” drew an angry reaction from Karen England, executive director of [....]
Yet Another Legislative Attempt to Increase Disclosure in Florist Advertising
For the fifth time in 13 years, California lawmakers are trying to outlaw “absentee florists.”
The almost perennial measure – this year’s version carried by Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski — would prevent a florist from misrepresenting the location of their business.
The problem the Fremont Democrat bill aims to solve is that consumers can call a florist using their city or neighborhood in its name, which is actually a call center, located hundreds or thousands of miles away.
Under Wieckowski’s bill, AB 1581, florists using a local phone number or a local name must include their address – both in print, electronic and [....]
A Subscriber Wonders What Exactly Constitutes a “Dumb” Utility?
PG&E HONORED AS ONE OF THE NATION’S SMARTEST UTILITIES
UtiliQ Ranking Focuses on Use of Technology and Innovation to Better Serve Customers
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has just been named one of the nation’s most “intelligent utilities” in the third annual “UtiliQ” ranking by Intelligent Utilitymagazine, which focuses on the smart grid and information-enabled energy, and IDC Energy Insights, a worldwide research and consulting firm. PG&E was second in the 2011 ranking, behind San Diego Gas & Electric, and up from third place in 2010.
The magazine defines an [....]
BP Exits California
By Ngoc Nguyen New America Media
As political maneuvering continues over the fate of the controversial proposed Keystone XL pipeline, one of the world’s largest energy companies — BP — is already signaling the direction it plans to take: it’s positio…
