California Issues ...

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member


Newsom convened a special session immediately after President-elect Donald Trump handily beat Vice President Kamala Harris in the November election, saying another Trump presidency would require the legislature to “provide additional funding to the California Department of Justice (CADOJ) and other agencies” to prepare for legal battles.

“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we won’t sit idle,” Newsom said on November 7 as he announced his plan. “California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond. We are prepared, and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to thrive.”

The governor has now reached a deal with state lawmakers to earmark $25 million for the CADOJ to use to push back against the incoming administration, and another $25 million “proposed by state Senate leaders to defend immigrants against deportation, detention and wage theft,” Politico reported Monday.

The deal is reportedly going to be voted on this week before Trump’s inauguration takes place next Monday, but California Republicans are bashing Newsom for focusing on the new president while Los Angeles faces devastating fires.

Firefighters are still working to contain three active fires that have already burned “an area bigger than San Francisco” and killed at least 24 people, the Washington Post reported Monday.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Brutal Article Rips Apart Karen Bass, Saying She Put on a Clinic on What Not to Do During LA Fires


Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ political career is likely over after these fires in the county are contained and extinguished. She has zero chance of being re-elected if she’s not recalled first. Peter Hamby of Puck News, a Los Angeles resident, penned a damning story that took shots at everyone, from the social media folks who he claims are spreading misinformation to Elon Musk for trying to bait firefighters into saying there was no water available. Hamby contends there was enough water, though the blaze's size made combating it ineffective. We’ll leave you to debate that in the comments section below.


After saying that the Los Angeles area population would like the social media brigade to STFU, peppered with nice anecdotes about how Angelenos are coming together and helping one another through this disaster, he turned his fire toward Karen Bass, who everyone hates. It’s not as if the mayor’s office has a lot of executive authority. It’s mostly a ceremonial office, but even that, she’s failed to execute well, with some being quoted as Bass putting on a clinic on what not to do. Even those who supported her in the mayoral campaign can’t defend her trip to Ghana, which looks like a dereliction of duty. She boarded that plane knowing full well the fire conditions were perilous for the area (via Puck News):

The bigger issue—the main issue—is that Bass lost the public trust in spectacular fashion. The National Weather Service warned of dangerous fire conditions on Friday, January 3. Bass knew about it, because we all did. If you live in L.A., you got the weather alert, on the news or on your phone. The mayor’s office certainly did. Despite that, Bass boarded a plane the following day for Ghana as part of a delegation attending the inauguration of the country’s president. And as The New York Times reported over the weekend, Bass had promised during her mayoral campaign never to leave the country. It got worse on the return trip—a long way home—when a Sky News reporter happened upon Bass and an aide at the airport. The reporter asked Bass, repeatedly, to deliver a message to the city. Bass ignored him, on camera, for 90 painful seconds, in stone-faced silence. The clip is devastating, a campaign ad ready-made, the moment for which she will always be remembered. “If it is true that she left the country on a Saturday after the warning came out, that is a dereliction of duty,” Endeavor C.E.O. Ari Emanuel, who donated to Bass’s 2022 campaign, told me.
 

Kyle

Beloved Misanthrope
PREMO Member
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GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

If California Can Suspend Permitting Rules After Wildfires, It Can Abolish Them



That's encouraging from a governor who usually loves to regulate, but the decision raises obvious questions. If building regulations are an impediment during an emergency, aren't they also an impediment during normal times? Since removing these permit and review processes will help communities "recover faster and stronger," won't their permanent removal help California deal with, say, its housing shortages and make the supply recovery "faster and stronger"?

Newsom hasn't suddenly gotten the free-market religion, of course. In a subsequent post, he added, "We are also extending key price gouging protections to help make rebuilding more affordable." "Price-gouging" – i.e., allowing prices to rise to reflect their scarcity – actually speeds up the rebuilding process as contractors rush to the scene in the hopes of securing lucrative work. The rush of new contractors creates competition and brings prices back to Earth.

Maybe that level of market thinking is too out there for Newsom, but we'll take progress wherever we can get it. CEQA (signed by Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970) remains an enormous hindrance to building anything in California, as it allows any "stakeholder" to file a lawsuit challenging the project. It requires voluminous Environmental Impact Reports. Often, project opponents are labor unions seeking higher wages (boost wages and we'll drop the lawsuit) or neighbors who don't want extra traffic.

CEQA lawsuits add costs, reduce the size of projects, or even stop new developments. This is widely acknowledged even by the Legislature, yet lawmakers have been loath to take on environmental interests and reform CEQA except on an ad hoc basis.

For instance, in 2013 then-Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, passed a CEQA exemption to help the NBA's Kings build a downtown arena. "The bill is similar to other exemptions…lawmakers have granted in years past to facilitate the construction of the San Francisco 49ers' new stadium in Santa Clara and those offered to a proposed NFL arena in downtown Los Angeles," the Los Angeles Times reported.
 

BOP

Well-Known Member

If California Can Suspend Permitting Rules After Wildfires, It Can Abolish Them



That's encouraging from a governor who usually loves to regulate, but the decision raises obvious questions. If building regulations are an impediment during an emergency, aren't they also an impediment during normal times? Since removing these permit and review processes will help communities "recover faster and stronger," won't their permanent removal help California deal with, say, its housing shortages and make the supply recovery "faster and stronger"?

Newsom hasn't suddenly gotten the free-market religion, of course. In a subsequent post, he added, "We are also extending key price gouging protections to help make rebuilding more affordable." "Price-gouging" – i.e., allowing prices to rise to reflect their scarcity – actually speeds up the rebuilding process as contractors rush to the scene in the hopes of securing lucrative work. The rush of new contractors creates competition and brings prices back to Earth.

Maybe that level of market thinking is too out there for Newsom, but we'll take progress wherever we can get it. CEQA (signed by Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970) remains an enormous hindrance to building anything in California, as it allows any "stakeholder" to file a lawsuit challenging the project. It requires voluminous Environmental Impact Reports. Often, project opponents are labor unions seeking higher wages (boost wages and we'll drop the lawsuit) or neighbors who don't want extra traffic.

CEQA lawsuits add costs, reduce the size of projects, or even stop new developments. This is widely acknowledged even by the Legislature, yet lawmakers have been loath to take on environmental interests and reform CEQA except on an ad hoc basis.

For instance, in 2013 then-Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, passed a CEQA exemption to help the NBA's Kings build a downtown arena. "The bill is similar to other exemptions…lawmakers have granted in years past to facilitate the construction of the San Francisco 49ers' new stadium in Santa Clara and those offered to a proposed NFL arena in downtown Los Angeles," the Los Angeles Times reported.
"The bill is similar to other exemptions…lawmakers have granted in years past to facilitate...the kickbacks from developers and prime contractors in California."

:fixt:
 
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