Investigation-InfrastructureWater Wars Flood L.A. Central BasinSunday, January 29th, 2012 JAN. 30, 2012 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Remember “Chinatown,” the murky 1974 movie about the water wars in the Los Angeles Basin in the 1930s, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway? A January 18 California appeals court water rights case is reminiscent of the multilayered plots and subplots ... Bureaucratic Octopus Grabs Bay AreaMonday, January 16th, 2012 JAN. 16, 2012 By DAVE ROBERTS Like a giant octopus grabbing helpless humans in a horror movie, a new bureaucracy is squeezing the Bay Area. One Bay Area is a plan to push Bay Area residents out of their cars and jam them into pack-and-stack high rises in the coming decades. The goal: cut gr... Protests, Economy Rain on Rose ParadeMonday, December 26th, 2011 DEC. 26, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Like Disneyland, Hollywood and Silicon Valley, the Tournament of Roses Parade is a symbol of California’s sun-blessed creativity. It crests with the crowning of the Rose Queen and her Royal Court, a bit of monarchism even die-hard democracy lovers won't obje... Punch Hits CA Water Softening IndustryWednesday, November 16th, 2011 NOV. 16, 2011 By DAVE ROBERTS The hammering fist of government has the nuance and delicacy of someone playing the piano while wearing boxing gloves. California’s $500 million water softening industry has been a punching bag for state politicians for several years, and it’s trying to fight ... Obama EPA Killing CA Energy JobsMonday, November 7th, 2011 NOV. 7, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Over the past three years, the approval rate of new permits for oil and gas “fracking” wells in California has fallen by 90 percent -- from 71 to 7 out of every 100 permit applications. “Fracking” involves the high-power injection of water, sand and proprieta... Wind Turbines Suck Power Like VampiresTuesday, November 1st, 2011 Nov. 1, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Having just passed Halloween, our minds think of ghosts, ghouls and goblins. One such goblin that will undoubtedly be overlooked is that wind power turbines gobble up energy from the electric grid even when they are not spinning. During the winter months, th... Windmill-Gate Scandal Storms Into CAThursday, October 13th, 2011 OCT. 13, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Electricity: the peril the wind sings to in the wires on a gray day. -- novelist Janet Frame Windmill-Gate is blowing across the trendy new resource of wind-generated electricity. New new studies look at “cycling”: the ramping up and down of gas power plants... Hard Battle Over Water SoftenersFriday, October 7th, 2011 OCT. 7, 2011 By DAVE ROBERTS The battle over water softeners is boiling over in California. On the one side is the water-softener industry. It's joined by homeowners and businesses whose municipal water suppliers deliver them "hard" water -- which has high concentrations of corrosive minerals... Judge Backs Humans Over Fish in DeltaMonday, September 19th, 2011 SEPT. 19, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI On Sept. 16, U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger threw the Delta smelt minnow back into the waters of the Sacramento Delta. He ruled the federal government’s case was too small to grant a stay -- a court-ordered continuation -- of the man-made “X2’... Stadium Dreams and Sacramento KingsWednesday, August 3rd, 2011 AUGUST 3, 2011 By PATRICK MELARKEY and RICHARD TRAINOR For the past couple years we have watched our home town struggle to keep the Sacramento Kings basketball team in Sacramento. We have also observed the proposed attempt to build a new $400 million stadium for the team in downtown Sacramento... |