.The Flawed Water Deal

The compromise between the governor and legislative leaders not only paves the way for a huge canal, but represents a giveaway to California agribusiness.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Legislative leaders reached
a historic deal last week on California water policy and the fragile
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. But the compromise, mostly hammered
out during a series of closed-door meetings, contains some major flaws
and inequities that prompted most Bay Area lawmakers to oppose the
legislation.

Local legislators are concerned about the accompanying $11.1 billion
bond package that must be approved by voters next November. The
cash-strapped state will be forced to come up with at least $600
million a year to pay off the bonds, and those payments will siphon
funds from education, state parks, and health care. In addition, some
environmental groups are vowing to fight the deal because it paves the
way for a peripheral canal that they say could decimate the collapsing
delta fisheries. East Bay MUD officials, meanwhile, oppose the
compromise because they fear it could force the agency to give away
some of its treasured Mokelumne River water, which feeds into the
delta.

But perhaps the biggest concern about the legislation is that it
represents a huge giveaway to California agriculture, in particular, to
agribusinesses that grow water-intensive crops in the dry southern and
southwestern San Joaquin Valley. The deal contains no
water-conservation requirements for agriculture — even though it
consumes 80 percent of California’s water. Instead, the legislation
forces state residents to conserve up to 20 percent more water —
even in cities like Berkeley and Oakland where people use relatively
little water. The giant giveaway to agriculture is particularly
troubling considering the state’s unfortunate history of subsidizing
water-intensive crops despite their lack of importance to California’s
overall economy. Forcing agriculture to conserve water, or at least pay
the true cost of using it, also would eliminate the need to build the
costly dams included in the legislative package.

The bonds do include one important provision — fixing fragile
delta levies. The levies have been crumbling for years and will likely
collapse in a major earthquake. However, strong opposition to the water
deal could doom the levy repair. In an editorial last week, the San
Jose Mercury News
suggested that the fix is important enough to put
before voters on its own.

Los Angeles or San Diego

The question of whether ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle will ever be
convicted of murdering Oscar Grant may come down to whether the case is
moved to Los Angeles or San Diego counties. According to the Oakland
Tribune
, state officials have recommended those two locales to
Alameda County Judge Morris Jacobson, who is expected to make his
decision on where to move the trial on November 19. Jacobson had
previously ruled that Mehserle can’t get a fair trial in the East Bay
because of extensive media coverage.

Of the two counties, LA more closely resembles Alameda County, both
in terms of demographics and attitudes toward police. By contrast, San
Diego County is far more conservative and thus more likely to be
sympathetic to Mehserle. Not surprisingly, Grant’s family wants the
case to be in Los Angeles, while it’s a safe bet that Mehserle’s
defense team will lobby hard for San Diego.

The stakes are high because the makeup of the jury will likely have
a significant impact on the outcome of the case. This is not some
whodunit. The fatal shooting was captured on videotape and so the
question of whether Mehserle mistakenly killed Grant, as he contends,
or murdered him in a fit of rage will likely come down to the jurors’
attitudes toward cops and black suspects.

Pot Arrests Pile Up

As some states move toward marijuana legalization, law enforcement
authorities have been cracking down heavily on pot and targeting
African Americans. According to a new report by Virginia researcher Jon
Gettman, marijuana arrests have doubled nationwide since 1991 even
though pot use has remained about the same. In addition, the report
states that blacks are 270 percent more likely to be arrested on pot
charges than whites, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Overall marijuana arrests also have increased at a faster rate in
California than they have nationwide, despite generally liberal views
on cannabis in the Golden State.

Three-Dot Roundup

A big-rig driver was killed early Monday after his truck overturned
and plunged off the Bay Bridge while negotiating the hazardous S-curve
on the upper deck. It was the 42nd accident since the S-curve was
installed over Labor Day weekend. … The nation’s true jobless rate,
which also includes part-time workers and those who have stopped
looking for work, reached 17.5 percent last month. … GOP Senate
hopeful Carly Fiorina is being opposed by some national conservatives
because she’s too moderate. … A Yelp review turned violent when an
aggrieved San Francisco business owner confronted her online critic.
… Jaycee Dugard showed signs of Stockholm syndrome when she strongly
defended her captor, Philip Craig Garrido, when authorities first
questioned her. Garrido of Antioch had kidnapped her eighteen years ago
and kept her in his backyard. … Schwarzenegger will appoint a new
lieutenant governor now that John Garamendi is the East Bay’s newest
congressman. … The City of Berkeley hired new police Chief Michael
Meehan, a longtime captain in the Seattle Police Department. … The
Oakland City Council is now facing a new $19 million budget shortfall
due primarily to shrinking tax revenues from the recession. …
Developer SunCal’s controversial housing project will go before Alameda
voters in February. … And Chevron deserves credit for donating 1.6
miles of land along the Richmond waterfront for the Bay Trail.

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