Transit users caught in middle of California pension fight: Editorial

I'm telling you: don't accept Federal Block Grants.  This started out as the Nixon "Revenue Sharing" program throwing money at states and cities.  EVERYTHING comes with a string attached.  Whatever the Federal Government giveth, the Federal Government taketh away.

As our Steve Scauzillo reports, union complaints to the U.S. Department of Labor about the pension-reform laws have led the federal government to withhold more than $2.2 billion in grants to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Metro needs the money for bus and rail operation and maintenance, the Westside subway extension and a downtown connector tunnel. Those projects would create about 43,000 jobs, a Metro spokesman said.

Losing that money could lead Metro to make up for the lost money by cutting service or raising fares, inconveniencing some of the people who can least afford it.

Carlsbad Desalination Project to reduce energy costs using new technology

Pretty amazing technology.  

As part of the agreement, Energy Recovery will provide 144 of its PX Pressure Exchanger Q300 units to the seawater reverse-osmosis (SWRO) plant, aiding the estimated production output of 189,250 cubic meters of desalinated water per day (equivalent to 50 million gallons per day). The units are expected to ship by the end of the year, noted the release.

By choosing the PX technology, the vanguard project for California’s first large-scale plant will save an estimated 116 million kWh (kilowatt-hours) of energy per year, the equivalent of $12 million.

Here's a youtube video of their installations.

House members want California egg measure removed from farm bill

Good.   Let CA suffer the consequences of their actions.

Some 151 Democrats and 16 Republicans signed letters warning the measure could upset a wide range of state laws. GOP lawmakers said it also could jeopardize the entire farm bill.

The measure, which would prohibit states from imposing conditions on another state's production of agricultural goods, is included in the House-approved farm bill. There is no similar measure in the Senate version of the legislation. Formal House-Senate negotiations to reconcile differences in the farm bill are expected to begin in September.

U-Haul Index for August 2013 Fleeing San Francisco.

I almost forgot!

The price for renting a U-Haul truck from San Antonio to San Francisco has plummeted from $862 down to $616.  The price for renting a U-Haul Truck from San Antonio to Fresno went UP from $576 to $614.

Just to remind you, I am basing these numbers on the truck used for a two bedroom apartment.

So, it looks like the trucks are in high demand in the SF to SA route.  Even fewer are making the trip the other way.  Not a good sign.

Fresno to SA hasn't changed.  But it looks like there has been a slight demand for trucks to Fresno.  But the difference is small.

So here are the numbers for August:

August 6th, 2013
Fresno to San Antonio:  $1728 (no change from last month)
San Antonio to Fresno: $614 (up $38 from last month)

San Francisco to San Antonio: $1674 (Up $274 from last month)
San Antonio to San Francisco: $616 (down $246 from last month)

What really stands out is the Index number for each:  SA/Fesno route: 2.814   SF/SA route: 2.718

The SF/SA route took a huge jump in the index.  Last month was 1.618

So, I think we are looking at EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FLEEING.  Proportionally, SF and Fresno are now equal.  The pace has indeed picked up with people leaving SF.

Detroit’s Bankrupt. Is California Next?

Nothing will happen.  Nothing will change.  CA will implode.

In a promotional video, City Journal’s Joel Kotkin, Andrew Klavan, Heather Mac Donald, and Victor Davis Hanson all contribute their insights into the state’s many troubles. Out-of-control public-employee pensions are draining the state’s coffers, and the widespread and powerful unions want more. The green movement has hijacked the promise of the state’s abundant natural resources and made them inaccessible to investors and innovators; the untapped oil and gas in the Monterey Shale could spur a California energy renaissance — if Sacramento would allow it. 

California is not the "beauty queen". She WAS the beauty queen before she smoked too many cigarettes that ruined her beautiful singing voice, dried and wrinkled her face and now she has that damn cough that sounds like she's coughing up a lung.

That's who she is now. Will she stop before her cancer metastasizes and she becomes terminal?

I don't think so,

This is the most idiotic thing I have ever read.  Is this how free speech ends?

Government workers in the city of Seattle have been advised that the terms "citizen" and "brown bag" are potentially offensive and may no longer be used in official documents and discussions.

KOMO-TV reports that the city's Office of Civil Rights instructed city workers in a recent internal memo to avoid using the words because some may find them offensive.

"Luckily, we've got options," Elliott Bronstein of the Office for Civil Rights wrote in the memo obtained by the station. "For 'citizens,' how about 'residents?'"

In an interview with Seattle's KIRO Radio, Bronstein said the term "brown bag" has been used historically as a way to judge skin color.

Initiative won’t bring back dead kids

ahhh..... The Troy and Alana Pack Patient Safety Act of 2014.  A memorial to the needless death of two innocent children who died at the hands of a crazed, drunken doctor...

No...wait.  That's not what happened.  So why the HELL does the ballot initiative deal with DOCTORS???

Now, for voters who didn’t know any better, they might assume that the hit-and-run driver who killed tender-aged Troy and Alana was a substance-abusing doctor. But nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, the culprit was a 46-year-old nanny, Jimena Barreto, who was behind the wheel of her gold 1979 Mercedes when she careened across two lanes of a Danville street onto a sidewalk where she struck defenseless Troy and Alana.

Had the proposed ballot measure that bears their names been in place 11 years ago, it would have made no difference. It would not have prevented Barreto — convicted of second-degree murder and currently serving consecutive sentences of 15 years to life — from killing the Pack children.

What amazes me is that this ballot initiative was approved.  It should have been kicked back and the submitters told to stop trying to defraud people.

But, hey. It's CA.